Still Waters Family Camp: 2019
Table of Contents
Gathered Themselves to Hear
Address—Steve Sacksteder
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Like to read the first few verses of the 8th chapter of Nehemiah?
EMI 8 verse one.
And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the Watergate. They spoke them to Ezra the scribe. Bring the book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel.
The priest brought along before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the 7th month.
And he lived there and before the street that was before the water gate, from the morning until midday, before the men and the women and those that could understand, and the ears of all the people who were attentive unto the book of the Lord.
Prayer.
Following God, our gracious Father, we thank Thee that we can have open before us in our last.
The word of the living God. We think of the claims that thou dost have upon us as thy people, Thy sheep. Those for whom doubted spare not thine own Son, but delivered him up.
We thank our Lord Jesus Christ of what we owe to Thee, and we just would look to Thee now and would pray for Thy blessing on Thy word as we'd read it together. Help us to understand it, that it might cause our hearts to rejoice and that we might receive instruction. We commit this to Thee now and give Thee our thanks. We thank Thee too for the.
The exercise and the love that has called us to be together in this place.
And that we look to the and pray for thy blessing on those efforts and the time that's before us this week, as we have it before us. We thank Thee to realize that could be at any moment, Lord Jesus, that Thou just come to call us out of this world. And we thank Thee that in the meanwhile, thou hast given to us opportunities like this to be with loved ones and to have thy word open.
And so we just would look to the thank thee for the work that has been done and just look to thee for thy blessing as we ask these things. Our Father in Jesus name, Amen.
What we have read in Nehemiah chapter 8.
Is really something quite beautiful and I would like to continue there, but first to point out that it was not 100 years before.
The verses that we've just read.
That we have this recorded in the last chapter of Second Chronicles.
Just to point out that it was not always so that the people of God were attentive to the Word of God.
And Second Chronicles 36.
We get a recount. We get recounted to us the.
The wickedness of King Zedekiah.
Verse 11 Zedekiah was one and 20 years old when he began to reign, and reigned 11 years in Jerusalem, and he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord.
And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God, but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning onto Jehovah God of Israel.
Moreover, all the chief of the priests and the people transgressed, be it remembered as king. So the people, all the chief of the priests and the people transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen, and polluted the House of Jehovah, which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. These next two verses you can hear the anguish of God.
Crying out to you and I.
Don't go this way. Don't go this way.
And the Lord God of their Father sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes and sending, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. We know what happens in history after this.
00:05:26
We had read the words at Zedekiah had revolted against Nebuchadnezzar.
This same king, Nebuchadnezzar took away captives out of Judah and Jerusalem.
Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was was destroyed, and we can read about it if you were to continue where we were just looking there in Second Chronicles.
The Lord was true and faithful to His word. He had told them before they even entered the land that He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob exactly what was going to happen. He would not have them to go that way. He would not have them to learn their lesson in that way.
It wasn't necessary.
But in that they went that way.
It seemed that there was number other way for them to learn and so he allowed it.
Well, back to Nehemiah chapter 8 please.
Again, I say we have this beautiful.
Picture and with the words that we started in these first.
1St 3 verses.
The people gathering themselves together as one man into the street or the open place that was before the Watergate, and they're there and they're asking to have the word of God brought before them. They can't go wrong here.
How different than what we read earlier in Chronicles. But before we get in, before we get into this chapter.
To kind of get an idea, a little bit of the layout where this chapter falls in this book of Nehemiah, we realize, I suppose it'd be good to recount that Nehemiah.
Comes right after Ezra, and in the days of Ezra we we found that.
The Lord fulfilled his promise that he had given through Isaiah the prophet he had called some 200 years before it ever happened. A man by the name of Cyrus called him by name, called him mine anointed, and said that he would be the one that would send the people of Israel back.
To Jerusalem that had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.
And we we have we know that in the prophet Jeremiah.
The duration of that captivity was given as 70 years. They would Israel would be in servitude or would be in in ******* in Babylon for 70 years. We know that about five years, maybe a little more before the end of that 70 years. Daniel the prophet, he was reading in the prophet Jeremiah, he was studying the word of God and he realized.
That this was going to that, that that this time was just about at an end, that it was going to be 70 years.
And of course, he had been there for the duration of that as a young man. He had been carried away and he saw kings change, he saw times change, and he was faithful the Lord had given him to live throughout that time.
And preserved him.
And gave him to be a mouthpiece of God, of the God of heaven, among those Gentiles to whom the people of Israel had been.
In in *******.
What a privilege for for the prophet Daniel to.
To live through this time, how difficult, how sad, how many were his tears.
But he lived to see the Lord fulfill His word. How heartening it must have been for him.
And then in the first year of Cyrus the King, we get in the book of Ezra.
There were those who were sent back under the rubber belt, a remnant that went with him back to Jerusalem.
And there they reinstituted the worship of the Lord.
00:10:05
And the sacrifices that were.
Given under the Law of Moses.
Were again brought back into play there in the city, in the beloved city, in Jerusalem, that the Lord hath chosen to place his name there.
And some 12 or so years later.
I'm sorry, it was sometime later that in Ezra Chapter 7, the man Ezra who is a ready scribe in the law of his God, and it was of the priestly line in the 7th chapter of Ezra where we get his qualifications.
And we get how it was that the Lord had raised him up to be a help to the people of God in this time, to give them to understand the Word of God and so on, and to reinstitute the worship.
The one true God, the worship of Jehovah there in Jerusalem. It was a wonderful time.
Before the chapter that we've opened up to here, Nehemiah chapter eight, it was 12 years since Ezra had come on the scene in Ezra Chapter 7.
And the last view we get of him in the book of Ezra.
Is not quite as happy.
There had been some who had come and told him that the people of Israel had again had again turned away from the Lord, and they had taken to themselves.
We'll read in Ezra Chapter 9 verse one. Now when these things were done, the Princess came to me saying the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands doing according to their abominations.
Even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken of their daughters, for themselves, and for their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands.
And so the last view we get of Ezra.
Chapter 10 verse one. He prayed, he confessed, he wept, he cast himself down before the House of God.
It was sorrow in the face of declension. The Lord had done a great work. He had fulfilled his promise to bring them back to the land. And what had happened? They had turned away from him again.
And not until Nehemiah chapter 8, again, I say about 12 years later, do you hear about Ezra. He re enters the scene here. He in the first seven chapters of Nehemiah, you don't hear about him, but it's significant.
In Nehemiah chapter 6 the wall was completed and and in Chapter 7 provision was made for the the security of the city. Remember that Nehemiah he appointed his brother Hanani, a faithful man, to to take charge there in Jerusalem. Nehemiah at the beginning of the book he had obtained leave of the king that he would go be sent by the king to go and and to.
To see how his brethren did, and to help them, and to build the wall, and so on. And so the time was coming when he was going to leave, so he commits the care of it to his brother.
Who was a faithful man? Faithful above many, it says.
And to him he he gives charge about how to keep the city secure, that they would not open the gates until the sun was fully risen and so on, that they would watch over it.
And that's in Chapter 7. Here in chapter 8, what seems to be the the most.
Prominent thing is the authority of the Word of God, the establishment re establishment of the authority of the Word of God. And I think that order is instructive.
The gates might be built, the people might be back in the city, and the genealogy is given there in chapter.
7.
And the people are back in their place. They're in their cities or in and around Jerusalem. But what was going to preserve them in that place was obedience to the Word of God and that alone.
And that seems to be what is at the forefront here in this chapter. Nehemiah, chapter 8.
00:15:02
And there were certain things that characterized the people in the 1St 8 verses. Here. We've read a few of them.
1St is that there was energy among them. They gathered themselves. They there was impetus on their side. They wanted to be where the word of God was being read and given out.
They wanted to know.
What the Lord had to say to them?
And and so they gathered themselves together as one man, a singleness of purpose, into the street or the open place that was before the Watergate. If you were to turn back to the third chapter of Nehemiah, you would read about 10 different gates for the city.
And because others have already done so and I'm not as qualified as they, I would recommend that you look up.
You look up on recorded ministry.com the Gates of Nehemiah. Brother Jim Highland has has spoken very ably on that and given some very helpful.
Some very some good help as to the significance of those gates, what each one, what each one means. But it's not my purpose to pursue that. But there is this one mentioned here.
That and I'll mention too that a little bit further down.
Here in this chapter as well as in chapter 12, you'll get the Gate Ephraim.
In verse 16 it shows up in 12 along with one other gate, so that there are 12 gates around the city of Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah, and each one has its own significance. This one here is the Watergate.
It is the place, if we turn back to read a few verses and and chapter 3.
About it, verse 26.
And it's going around, it's making a circuit around the wall and, and talking about this section of wall and this gate and so on was worked on by this individual. It's really something as you read through Ezra and Nehemiah, all the names that are mentioned.
And how the Lord takes note of those individuals and their work on the wall, their work in in seeking in one measure or another to be of assistance to the people of God and to serve them. But in verse 26, moreover, the Netherlands dwelt in Opal under the place over against the Watergate toward the east and the tower that lieth out.
And that you may remember who the Nephenims.
Were they were those who were appointed as servants and their service was to draw water and was to.
Was to Hugh Wood.
And we know that in Scripture water very often is a picture in its in its standing state and and contained in vessels is a picture of the word of God.
And there are many places we can point to that would that would speak of that.
And.
You know among them would be the Lord when he was at the marriage in Cana of Galilee, the pots were filled with water and he turned that water to wine. He took the word of God and administering it, it became joy to the hearers and and many other places.
The.
And then it's and it's moving state when it's running water. It's a picture of the Spirit of God and his activities. But here.
We're this is, this is the Watergate. It's the place, the the place where the activity of the nephenims were to draw water and to give it to the people and.
And it's significant in that sense that that it brings forward the importance of the word of God.
And they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. Again, I say he had been kind of in the background for some 12 years or so. What a wonderful thing for for a man who is a servant of the Lord. He had been raised up of the Lord and and uniquely qualified.
To be a help.
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And yet, during times of declension that closed the book of Ezra, you don't hear anything from him.
But the moment he's needed, he's ready, and he steps forward by the grace of God willing and happy to be of service to the people who so needed his his help. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women and all that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the 7th month.
And so here we are.
This is a This is a special date in the calendar of Israel. Perhaps there's a young person here who knows what happens in Israel on the first day of the 7th month of the year.
It is one of the feasts, not the Passover.
Maybe someone a little older can help.
It is a feast, one of the feasts of Jehovah. It is the feast of the blowing of trumpets. Again a significant.
And wonderful thing.
In Leviticus chapter 23 is where you get those feasts the Lord calls my feasts. There were times that He had set up, and each one has its significance. Again, I don't have the time. It's not my object to go through those at this point, but the feast of trumpets it typifies for us.
The time when Israel is regathered to their land according to the promise of the Lord in picture exactly what is happening here.
With these people, they had been brought back to where they could enjoy the presence of the Lord in His city, His beloved city, Zion Place, where He had sought to where He chose to place His name.
Place that he loved and the feast of the idea of trumpets does carry other thoughts with it. In Numbers chapter 10, it seems to be more the idea of prayer calling out to the Lord the blowing of those silver trumpets.
But in the feast of Trumpets, it was a call to action, a call, a time to move. Even during the building of the wall, Nehemiah had one by him who held a trumpet. And so that when those who were opposing that work, if they were to attack, then a sound could be made from that trumpet to let everyone know. You remember, as they worked on the wall, they had a trowel on one hand and they had a weapon in the other because.
They were not only working, but they had to be ready for warfare.
Because the enemy might attack at any moment. So it is for us. In our Christian lives. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty to pulling down the strongholds. And we have we have a battle before us. The enemy is constantly seeking to stop us from doing any kind of work.
For the Lord.
And it takes real energy to follow him and to do his will, especially in a day like this where there's weakness. And there was a good deal of weakness here, but they were his people.
Savior, we belong to the poor and feeble though we be.
Verse three he read therein before the open place that was before the Watergate from the morning until midday.
Before the men and the women and those that could understand, and the ears of all the people were attentive under the book of the law. There's another characteristic of them. They were listening for whatever it is that the Lord had to say to them, and they were prepared to do. It reminds us of the man Cornelius when he called for Simon Peter. And Peter came and he said, here we are all before thee, ready to hear whatsoever the Lord commands you to say unto us.
And you could tell he was ready to do it, too.
And that seems to be the case with these people because knowing the Word of God is not enough. We need to walk in what we know.
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There is a misquote that happens sometimes. I've heard people say the truth will not keep you.
Be it known we need the truth. We can't do without doctrine.
However, the truth alone will not keep you.
You must be prepared to act on it. The Word of God was meant to be lived, not merely read and studied and and known intellectually in our minds. We need that first, but there needs to be the obedience along with it right from the start. Just like as a child, you're taught to come when you're told. It could even be a matter of life and death.
So obedience is absolutely necessary in the Christian warfare and and here these these people. If you go back to chapter the previous chapter, verse 66, it says the whole congregation together after giving all these names which were not all of the names there, but the whole congregation together was 40 and 2303 score 360.
42360 That's a lot of people. I don't know that all of them were here in the open place before the Watergate, because it does specify. We've read it twice, the men and the women and all that could hear with understanding. We don't know how many of those 42,000.
Were those who could not discern their left hand from their right, If we borrow the language from the prophet Jonah, In other words, who were so young that perhaps.
They would not be able to understand what was being read, but it must have been at least 10s of thousands of people there in this court.
And Ezra described verse 4, stood upon a pulpit of wood which they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Matathia and Shima and Anaya and Urijah, and Hilkiah and Maya. Sia, on his right hand six men, and on his left hand Padaya and Michelle and Malkaya, and Hashem and Hashbadana, Zechariah and Meshullum 7 men.
We'll find a little bit further down that these thirteen men were instrumental in helping him in explaining the Word of God and giving the sense of it.
And Ezra opened the book and the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and when he opened it, all the people stood up.
Well, first we have him standing up. Maybe you've noticed in the reading meetings that the brother who reads the passage.
Stands up.
There are at least two reasons for that.
And I think the first and foremost is out of reverence.
Let us never forget when we open this book that.
We are listening to the words of God. He is speaking to us through the word of God and hence its authority.
And the second reason, I suppose that he stands up as a similar thing here to why Ezra stood upon a pulpit of wood.
That he might be up above the people so that they could hear him. 10s of thousands of people altogether. If he's standing there surrounded, probably the first several rows of people could hear him if he's yelling, but probably not everyone.
And so there's a practical reason as well.
And it's really something when he opened the book, all the people stood up. There was reverence there among them as well. If there weren't, you might not expect the kind of result that that happens later on in this chapter.
There was reverence for the Word of God.
You know, the first time that the words came to Israel, they first heard them as a nation was on the mount. That is the book of the law.
And they trembled and quaked, and they asked Moses.
To not read anymore. They were so afraid.
00:30:01
They trembled at the word of God.
And so to hear these ones had a sense of that, They had a sense of the realization that God himself had something to say to them. They wanted to hear it, and they wanted to be made right by it.
And as we're blessed the Lord, he thanked the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered Amen, Amen with lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
There was prayer, the expression of dependence.
And there was gratitude. There was thankfulness.
More characteristics of the people.
And worship the Lord with their faces to the ground, it seems. It seems that the.
Even their bodily movements. They stood up when the word of God was opened, but not for very long. Next thing you know, they're on their faces before the Lord.
And.
I believe that's a model for us. We could learn from even these small details of reading this.
The the attitude and the character that benefits us when we take up with the Word of God.
And so in verse seven we have the verse I referred to Joshua and Baina and Sherebaya, Jamin, Akub, Shabafi, Hodija, Maya, Siya, Kelita, Azariah, Jazabad, Hainan, Pelaya and the Levites cause the people to understand the law, and the people stood in their place.
So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave this sense and caused them to understand the reading.
And Nehemiah, remember they read from morning verse 3 until midday.
This is hours of reading.
Talk about energy. These people wanted to know what God had to say to them.
And what must it have spoken to their hearts as they listened?
To the law of Moses read in their ears.
Think of Moses addressing the people of Israel as, for instance, in the book of Deuteronomy, just before they entered into the land that the Lord had promised to their fathers. And he says, you're going to go into this land, you're going to dwell in houses that you didn't build, you're going to drink from vineyards that you did not plant.
And he says take care, take care.
That you don't become complacent.
And lose the attitude of dependence upon Jehovah your God.
Take care that you're not lifted up.
In Pride, take care that you don't join yourselves to the people of the land and begin to do the things that they do and speak the way that they speak and worship the false gods that they worship.
They read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. And Nehemiah, which is the Tershava, that is the governor, and Ezra the priest, the scribe.
And the Levites that taught the people said unto all the people, this day is holy under the Lord your God, more not nor weak for all the people.
Wept when they heard the word of the law.
Can you imagine what it must have meant to them as they?
Had read to them and explained to them.
What their life might have been.
Remember the promises in Deuteronomy, he says. You follow me, and your enemies will be subject to you. I will bless you in every possible way.
But if you don't follow me.
There are curses, there's judgment in store for you, and as this was read to them and unfolded to them.
They must have thought to themselves, what could it have been?
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How? What glory could have been ours? And yet we find now we find ourselves just now coming out of captivity.
What mixture of thoughts Must there have been joy that the Lord was delivering them?
But sorrow upon sorrow about the way that they had gone.
There's a poem that I've enjoyed often and I hope you don't mind if I quote it.
When before Christ's judgment seat, I stand and He shows me His plan for me, the plan of my life as it might have been had He had His way. And I see how I blocked him here and I checked him there, and I would not yield my will. Will there be grief in my Savior's eyes? Grief though He loves me still? He would have me rich, but I stand there poor, robbed of all but His grace, while my memory runs like a haunted thing down the path.
That I cannot retrace.
But thank the Lord here at this time.
He was bringing them back.
The Word of God was being opened up in their ears. I.
And it was not a time for sorrow and weeping.
These ones who understood the Word of God, and were and were bringing before them the mind and will of God for them for the very moment in which they were living.
Reassured them this day is wholly unto our Lord. Neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
So the Levites verse 11 stilled all the people saying hold your peace but the day is holy.
Neither be grieved.
So that poem ends this way. O Lord, of the years that are left to me, I give them to thy hand.
Take me.
Break me, mold me to the pattern that thou hast planned.
When Peter writes the apostle Peter, he divides your life up into two separate sections. The time pass of our life that sufficed us to live under the will of the gentiles doing.
Fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, and on the other hand, the time that remains to us.
Friends, you and I have time. That remains to us.
Where we can.
We can take the Word of God in our hands, we can bow to it, we can obey it, and we can prove the blessing of the Lord in our lives. It's never too late to turn back to the Lord. I speak to you as Christians, I suppose I should say.
If you've not accepted Christ as your Savior, these things are of little or no value to you at all.
Other than the fact that you are hearing the word of God now, in the entrance of thy word giveth light.
Give life and understanding to the simple.
And it's by the word of God that we were born again.
And so as you're here and you have the Word of God opened up and read to you, read it yourself.
We trust that the Lord Jesus Christ, in his beauty and his glory, will be opened up in the meetings that are before us. We had read to us this morning in the prayer meeting that simple statement. Sir, we would see Jesus.
And we know that that is the desire here in this place, that our Lord Jesus Christ would be well spoken of, His word held forth, and that the Spirit of God would have liberty to take the Word of God, bring it home to our hearts and minds and to our consciences, and give us joy. For, as it says, the joy of the Lord is your strength.
There was something else here.
Their hearts were filled with sorrow and grief, and rightly so, as we have said.
But there here is an occasion, the blowing of the trumpets, the feasts of Jehovah that were being opened up to their understanding.
That gave them to realize that there was something that took a higher priority and that is my feasts. The Lord had claims and and he wanted them to enter into his thoughts about his people because this feast of trumpets points forward to the fact.
00:40:19
They had the word of God to tell them that regardless of all the path that they've traveled and they could look back on and grieve over, regardless of all of that, the Lord was not going to fail in his promise. He was going to bring them back to that land and he was going to restore them. He's going to restore that nation. Still has yet to be done. You know, in Jehovah's feasts in Leviticus 23, some of them have a fulfillment, an anti type.
The Passover, it has its anti type in the death of Christ. We see him there as a Lamb of God whose blood was shed, and that all those who take his blood and apply it in their own circumstances accept him as their Savior. And so on the the judgment that is coming upon this world, they have been delivered from it.
The.
The feast of Pentecost had its fulfillment and the shedding forth of the Spirit of God. But this one, the Feast of Trumpets, it's not had its fulfillment yet. It's still yet to be.
It could be in a matter of seven or so years if the Lord were to come and to receive his church home tonight.
It would be perhaps in just a little over that.
Seven years, he's going to work with that people. He's going to bring them through deep waters. There's going to be great sorrow and repentance, and it's going to be very similar to what you read in the following chapter, Nehemiah, Chapter 9.
Well, as we go on.
The people did enter in to the thoughts of God. Verse 12. All the people went their way to eat and to drink and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because because they'd understood the words that were declared unto them.
So there was joy. There was an exercise about others. There was a desire to invite others into their joy. They sent portions to others.
And I suppose you could say that their hearts were.
Were, you know, these are ones who were in Judah and Jerusalem, but their hearts were opened up to all of Israel.
Because in the mind of God, His people are always one. No matter what the outward display, whatever the outward testimony looks like, in the mind of God, His people are one.
And then there's something that happens here on.
In verse 13, in the second day, we're gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people and priests and the Levites unto Ezra the scribe even to understand the words of the law. So here it's the next day they come back. They want to know more. They want to know, they want to know more about what the Lord had in mind for them on this for this feast. And, and they and they go on to find and, and I imagine that they're reading here in Leviticus 23 about the feasts of Jehovah.
They find something else that happens.
There that comes before them in Leviticus 23.
They found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the 7th month.
And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, go forth under the mount, and fetch all of branches, and pine branches, and Myrtle branches, and palm branches and branches of thick trees.
To make booths as it is written.
So the people went forth and brought them, and made themselves booths, everyone upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the House of God, and in the street of the Watergate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim.
And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity, 22,000 made booths and sat under the booths. And in this remarkable statement. For since the days of Joshua the son of nun, unto that day, had not the children of Israel done so? And there was very great gladness. Now they had kept the Feast of Tabernacles. Now this is another feast. If you go back to Leviticus 23, you find that it's the last.
00:45:22
Of the feasts, and it points to the millennial day, the points to the fulfillment of all the Lord's promises to Israel in a day to come and again promises to them. What the Lord has said he was going to do is going to happen. He's going to bring it to pass.
But and they had kept it back in Ezra chapter 3, they had kept the.
The Feast of Tabernacles.
There the emphasis was more on the sacrifices and the worship of the Lord being reestablished.
Here they go back and they search even more and they find that we're supposed to make booths. And because of the energy that was there, because of because of the desire to know and follow the word of God, they did something. They went out and they collected the materials, these branches and so on. They went up into the mountains and the place of the place of communion, typically speaking, where they could, they could get the materials, bring them back.
And make these booths and the significance of them is mentioned. Maybe we'll turn back to Leviticus 23.
And starting at verse 37.
These are the set feasts of the Lord, which He shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering and a meal offering, a sacrifice and a drink and drink offerings, everything upon his day beside the Sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts and beside all your vows and beside all your free will offerings which ye give unto the Lord. Notice all the the emphasis on these on on the gifts and sacrifices also in the 15th day of the 7th month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land.
You shall keep a feast under the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath. And you shall take to you on the first day the bowels of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees and willows of the brook. And ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days, and you shall keep it a feast under the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
Ye shall dwell in booths seven days. All that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths. That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
He's pointing back this this one aspect of of making booths and dwelling in them during this feast of Tabernacles. It was something to remind them from generation, from one generation to the next of what the Lord did when he brought them out of Egypt. It points back to a time in their history of the prophets, often point back to when there was great freshness of affection, when there was on the side of his people a willing heart.
And and love for him because of what he had done, appreciation for his work in delivering them out of Israel and scattering Pharaoh and his armies upon the seashore and then bringing them.
Through the wilderness, and so on, or prior to the wilderness. But how the Lord took care of them, and how He gave them comfort in the wilderness.
How it says in in in the book of Numbers, he bare them on eagle's wings.
All through the wilderness journey their shoes didn't wax old, their clothes didn't didn't fall off of them. The Lord provided for them at every step. His care over them was unceasing. So we often sing Air New or beating heart to move by tender mercies still pursued.
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The Lord has looked over you from day one unto this, and He will, dear Christian, bring you safely home.
Just as the time is coming when Israel will be brought back into their land and we'll worship him, their hearts being.
The Stony heart being taken, taken out of them in a heart of flesh given to them. Israel is a nation born again and enabled to worship Him in the way that is according to his mind and heart. And we see all that in a picture here.
Or in a small in a small way in this chapter.
When they had heard the word of the law.
It did cause them grief, as we've noticed, and the time would come that that that grief would come out rightly in the following chapter and they would pour out their hearts to him.
And I would recommend to you with as soon as you get a chance.
In private, open up Nehemiah Chapter 9 and read it.
You know it's it's.
It's the goodness of God that leads you to repentance.
It's also godly sorrow that leads to repentance, not to be repented of.
And it's a it's a right and a proper thing to look back over the whole course of your life.
For two different reasons.
Given to us in the 8th chapter of Deuteronomy says I've LED thee through the wilderness to show thee what's in your heart and to show you what's in my heart. You'll see that very clearly in the 9th chapter if you'll take the time to read it. It's a very healthy and right thing.
For you and I.
A good exercise for us to look through to to see his faithfulness through everything.
How He loved and has cared for and provided for us every step of the way. And though it's humiliating, though it's humbling to see how we've treated him, it will bring a freshness of affection to your heart, a thankfulness to him for all that he is and all that he's done.
A loving God and our gracious Father, We do give thanks now once again for this opportunity to open Thy word. We thank Thee for any reminder of Thy love to us.
Of Thy faithfulness, and we thank Thee that we know the time is coming. If we remember the pathway above remembrance no sadness shall raise. It will bring but fresh thoughts of Thy love, fresh themes. For our wonder and praise. We do thank the Lord Jesus Christ, that though we have not seen the, yet do we love Thee. We believe in Thee, and though not having seen Thy face, we can rejoice.
And hope of joy, of the joy and the unspeakable glory of knowing that soon we will be in thy presence. All thy promises to thy, thy Church fulfilled. And we thank thee that we can look forward to this. And in the meanwhile, we do pray for continued encouragement and help along the way. Again giving thanks for this time that we can be together. We would just look to thee now and and pray too for loved ones who.
Who are suffering, Father, we pray that they might to themselves have a sense of Thy care, that underneath them are those everlasting arms, and we look to Thee to to keep them and give them the sense of Thy presence. So we just would ask these things and give Thee our thanks, our Father and Jesus precious name, Amen.
Evil Circumstances
Sing Talk—Keith Sacksteder
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I'm going to start by reading 2 verses in the New Testament.
The first one in first John. Two well known verses.
First John in the first chapter.
First strong chapter one, verse 7.
Really thinking about the last.
I'm sorry, wrote down the wrong verse.
Verse five. This then is the message which we have heard of him. And declare unto you that God is light and in him.
There's no darkness at all. And then in James the 1St chapter.
In the 13th verse.
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.
Let's pray.
Our God and our Father.
The one true God. We are so thankful for who you are.
For what you were doing in our lives, what you were doing in this world, today, yesterday and tomorrow.
We consider the fragile web of life, the myriad elements of life that all have to be perfectly imbalanced for life to even be possible.
Yeah.
How wondrous are your ways?
And yet we consider.
What selfish desire and rebellion has done, sin has entered, and the inevitable result of sin, death.
We give thanks that in a world where the chief characteristic.
Is death that you are working your sovereign will and that we have opportunity to be part of that?
Part of that plan for the ages, through Jesus Christ. In his name we do give thanks, Amen.
So what I have on my mind?
Talk about this evening.
Admit I'm a little bit hesitant to take up with it. There are probably others that are.
Much better equipped, but I take it from the Lord. There was a question that was brought up a few months ago at it and actually not an all day meetings a young man.
About 20 years of age probably, give or take. I don't know how old he is.
It was after the meetings were done for the day and we were sitting in the dining area.
And he asked a question, and he read a verse.
I'm sure I'll hardly scratch scratch the surface tonight of what this is that's on my mind, but it's important.
To at least.
As honest, as honestly as we can to take up with what's on my mind this evening. It's a topic that so this was mentioned as a young people's meeting. It's a topic that is relevant from the youngest child that can understand right up to the oldest individual in this room.
Relevant to everyone of us, I may not be able to.
Make it as plain as my life. But with the Lord's help, I will.
So without going any further, I suppose I should put the question out there.
Consider those first 2 verses that I read.
As you consider this question, so we're going to read from the passage that this young man read from. It's in Isaiah chapter 45.
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Well known verses.
But we'll read just two verses here, Isaiah chapter 45, verses 6:00 and 7:00.
I'm going to start halfway through that sixth verse.
I am the Lord and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.
The question that he asked was.
Does God really create evil?
Does God create evil? You know, as we sat there in that group, there were young men, there were older men, there were some ladies there too.
And the answers were given.
And quite often when that question comes up, I don't know if it comes up too often.
But I've heard that question asked a few times, and the answer tends to go along the lines of God does not create evil. We read those verses in the New Testament. God is light and in him is no darkness at all. And God does not tempt men, and he cannot be tempted with evil himself.
But here it states quite explicitly, I make peace and I create evil.
And often the answer is along the lines of it sounds kind of like a defense of God.
And I don't say that it's a wrong answer, because it is probably spot on to say this, but he does create evil circumstances.
In there to bring about his ends.
I want to go into that just a little bit because.
I don't need to defend God, He stands on his own merits. But.
I think it's very relevant to us today. It was relevant in the day that the Prophet wrote this down.
And it's relevant today.
I want to amplify on these just a little bit because it's a positive concept and I think it's vital to understanding the God of the Scriptures.
God's Word stands firm, stands on its own foundation, and I want to talk about these things. I'm going to pull out just a few examples from the Old Testament, and I might be a bit constrained on time.
But we'll try to go briefly over just a couple of examples. And I would say by the way, you can see this.
Concept in probably just about every page of the scriptures and just about every story that is in the scriptures that God creates evil in the sense that he creates circumstances that are meant to draw out a response and to bring the individuals or maybe nations.
Entities, but very often individuals back into.
Communion with himself, as it were. So I'm going to.
I'm going to pick from 2 examples this evening. We're just going to read a few verses again for the sake of time and talk about this, and then we'll go back to this 45th chapter to talk a little bit about context, because context is very important, and then maybe an application to our own life. Let's look at 2 examples.
Where we might see God creating evil.
This first one I admit I'm hesitant to take up with this one, but it's a well known story. It's the story of David.
Bathsheba and we're just going to read a few verses and then comment because I want to draw some.
Principles out.
So in second Samuel, in the 12Th chapter, we're going to read a number of verses and then we'll.
Just pick a few thoughts out of there. So Second Samuel, chapter 12.
And we'll read starting at verse seven. And Nathan said to David, he'd just given him a little parable. He said to David.
Thou art the man thus set the Lord God of Israel. I anointed the king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. I gave thee thy masters house, thy masters wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the House of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in His sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and has taken his wife to be thy wife, and has to slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
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Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house, because thou hast despised me, and has taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus set the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house. I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this son. Thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel before the sun. David said unto Nathan.
I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die, Howbeit, because by this deed thou has given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord, to blasphemy. The child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. Nathan departed into his own house, and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bear unto David, and it was very sick. David therefore besought God for the child. David fasted and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.
The elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the earth, but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. And it came to pass on the 7th day that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice. How will he then vex himself if we tell him that the child is dead? But when David saw that, his servants whispered.
David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.
Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the House of the Lord, and worshipped. Then he came to his own house, and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.
And the servant said unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was alive, but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live? But now he is dead, Wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
Stop there.
And this story is a very sad story.
Very difficult story. It's difficult to read, it's difficult to talk about.
But I wanted to touch on this one just for a few principles, one of them.
Is found in verse nine. He despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight.
You know what the Lord did was not what would be characteristic of God.
He does not desire.
That any should die.
We'll touch on that a little bit later maybe.
But.
Here was one David who had despised what God had.
Very clearly laid out in his law.
He despised it. God is very clear to us. It's written into our very conscience. What things are right and wrong. We can harden our conscience, but it is written into our conscience. David sinned against God first and foremost. You know when we see his repentance in that 51St chapter of Psalms, what does he say? He says against thee, and the only have I sinned. He acknowledged the very root.
In verses 11 and 12 Says that David did it secretly.
The judgment of God, He said. This I will do before all Israel and before the Son. God requires that which is past.
And we had that in the meeting a little bit earlier.
About the just judgments of God, you know, it ought to make us shake instead of those men that were gathered in the street there that her brother Steve read about, that they shook because of the words it says, because of the words and because of the rain. But what they were listening to caused them to fear.
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We ought to fear too. We know a little bit about our own hearts.
And so.
God does require that which is passed. We have it throughout the scriptures. That reminds us of those verses in Galatians the 6th chapter.
You better read them so I don't misquote them.
Just as an aside, this inflexible justice of God.
When you've come to the end of yourself is also the great cause for hope and joy, because as God is inflexibly righteous and holy, so he is full of love. And to the repentant Sinner you are secure because the same God that judges sin.
Has spread out His grace.
Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.
And here we have it in this eighth verse. He that soweth to his flesh shall reap.
Shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. So there is hope in it too. It's not just all bad. God's government, His justice.
Is equally righteous, whether it is to the man that sows to the flesh or the man that sows to the Spirit.
You know, David prayed and he fasted, seeking for God's mercy.
In this instance.
God would not alter what he had said.
That child died, and if you read the history of David going down, you'll find that everything that God had said would happen, happened.
At David's life, there was much grief that came from this incident. There was much joy too.
Find that the promised seed came through David and his wife Bathsheba. That's for another time. Let's touch on one more passage in the Old Testament. One more example. Another well known example. Let's read in Jonah. We're going to read in two different passages.
Jonah was sent to the Ninevites.
And we know the story, but I do want to read just a few of the verses in that first chapter.
Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amity. I saying, Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. We know the story. Jonah turned and went the other way.
But God was going to have those Ninevites spoken to because of their wickedness. And so let's go to the third chapter then the word of the Lord and the word of the Lord.
Came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise going to Nineveh that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey. Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey. And he cried and said, Yet 40 days in Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Nineveh was an exceedingly wicked city.
If any of you know the history, and I know just a little bit, but enough to say that it was the capital city of I believe it was the Assyrian Empire.
And that city.
Was a extremely the governing powers were extremely violent.
And they subjugated the peoples that were under their control by extreme violence. And we're going to read just a few verses in Nahum. Nahum. He's not dated, but I think we learned from profane history that he was probably, I don't know, a hundred, 120 years after Jonah when he prophesied and.
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We'll touch on just a few of those verses, but he prophesied too that Nineveh was to be overthrown for their wickedness, and he gives some very graphic.
Illustrations of what characterized that people and that governing authority. They were extremely wicked and violent, but that city was to be destroyed while Jonah was given a message of eight words. Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Nothing about mercy in that message at all. God was going to, as it were, create evil and He had a purpose in it. But first and foremost they were to be judged for their wickedness. But there would be a testimony first.
Jonah went and he preached that message and what happened? We read it in that third chapter from the king down to the simplest man, and even the beasts were caused to clothe themselves in sackcloth and ashes.
And to cry mightily into God. They repented. And you know what says of God that he turned him.
And he did not judge the people that city, as he said.
Says in the last verse of that third chapter, God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them. He did it not.
It's amazing, but it is the ways of God and sovereignty to righteously judge.
Or to repent of that judgment. Now that city was to be judged and it was I think Jonah, so my margin here reads that he was in the mid 8 hundreds BC.
Not much more than 200 years later, that city was judged, but it was not judged in this time because of that repentance.
However.
God is not mocked, and in roughly 612 BC that city was destroyed.
Those that were governing were destroyed. It's kind of interesting they were destroyed by.
A king by the name of naval. Sorry if I can't pronounce it exactly right. Naboo Palazzo. He was the father of Nebuchadnezzar, and it was the beginning of the Chaldean Empire that Steve mentioned in his talk this evening. That would cause for the children of Judah to be taken into captivity for 70 years. But here we see that.
God and His sovereignty.
And in his own righteous acts would spare that city because they repented. And so let's go back to Isaiah, that 45th chapter. We're going to read just a few more verses there. I did not read the verses in Nahum. That's OK Save them for another time, maybe.
But in that 45th chapter of Isaiah.
We'll read just a few more verses.
So context is important.
We see here in those two stories that have been mentioned in the one that He created evil and brought a great judgment upon David for what he had done, and the effects of that sin reached out much further than just David, just David and Bathsheba. It reached out to a great extent, but God in righteousness enacted that judgment. And then we see that in the case of the city of Nineveh that it was spared.
A promised judgment because they repented. God made peace in the one case and created evil in the other case. And He was righteous in both cases to act as He acted. Let's read just a few more verses there in that 45th chapter.
Verse eight. Drop down ye heavens from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord have created, created it. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker. Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him, that fashioneth it? What maketh thou or thy work? He hath no hands. Woe unto him that saith unto his Father, What begettest thou?
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Or to the woman, what hast thou brought forth? Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker. Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands. Command ye me. I have made the earth and created man upon it. I even my hands have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded. And it goes on. You know Isaiah was writing.
Well before Jerusalem was destroyed.
We went back a few chapters to get the full context of what he's taking up with. Here. We find that he tells the people of Judah that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed, that their children were going to be taken into captivity, and so on and so forth. And as was mentioned by Steve, he mentioned a man, a king by name. It's actually in this chapter that we're reading here in the 45th chapter. I'll just read the verse just to.
Bring the point out Thus saith Jehovah verse one to his anointed to Cyrus.
Whose right hand I have Holden to subdue nations before him, and so on. This man Cyrus was a king of the Persians.
We know that as Iran today, but he was a king of the Persians and he was going to be used of God to bring a remnant back to that.
To that land of Judah, to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, to re establish the temple that was going to be destroyed righteously. But we find here that hundreds of years before these events came that God by the prophet.
Brings out who will do it, but if we were to go back.
We'll just go back to I'm not going to read it here tonight, but from the 39th chapter on, we'll find that God had promised this destruction was coming and the reason for it was because of idolatry and rebellion against God.
Now these two examples are, you might say, extreme examples.
How does that fit with my life? You know, there's some in this room that have suffered very much and maybe some in this room that have not suffered much.
Maybe golden days, but don't worry if we're left here for any length of time, you can be assured that the Lord will bring you into circumstances that will test. But they're meant for a purpose. You know, again, these examples that we read were examples really of rebellion and sin against God and then.
He responds to how the people responded, but righteously so.
But in our lives, you know, there's going to be trials, there's going to be those things that come up. And when they come up, what is going to be your foundation?
What are you going to fall back on? You can't fall back on friends. You can't fall back it because I always misquote when I don't read name in the first chapter.
There's a phrase that stuck in my mind.
Let's read the 1St 3 verses. The burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the Alka *****. God is jealous and the Lord revenge. The Lord revenge and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. It's this verse that I was thinking about. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power. You will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm.
And this phrase here in the clouds or the dust of his feet, very often the judgments of God are clouded.
We don't know the reasons that God allows all the things that He allows some of you have undoubtedly experienced.
Circumstances.
That you question why God are you allowing this? If you're a God of love, why are you allowing these things to happen? You know, quite often they're clouded. I think that phrase in itself.
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Take up a very easily a whole address. I would suggest reading a chapter like Job chapter 26 and considering that he talks about the clouds of God's judgment in that chapter.
Maybe someday we'll take that up, but you know, we often are not given the reasons that God allows the things that He allows.
The question is, is how do we take them? You know, there are things that some of us are dealing with.
Again, you don't have to be very old to experience adverse circumstances. Very young children that understand might be experiencing very tough circumstances that they do not understand. It doesn't matter how old you are. God in His way deals with each one of us. And there's no guarantee as to how long our life is or what the pathway is. But what there is a guarantee of is that the God of the Scriptures is there as a comfort.
I want to share a little bit of a story from a brother that I was talking to this evening. Seems like every time I talk to him, he shares something with me that I just have to incorporate in and I trust he'll bear with me if I don't get it exactly right but he was talking about.
This camp.
Two different things that I want to touch on. He had talked to a brother that is going through a great trial right now.
Maybe that his time on this earth is very short. The man that we love, many of us in this room love full of vitality and energy.
But the Lord may be taking him home soon. We don't know. And he this brother talking to me, he brought up a verse. It's in Psalms 116. This is the first precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints. And he mentioned that the hard verse for him to understand, but he I won't phrase this exactly right, but he said it came clear to him this today. He said as he was.
Setting up for this camp.
And different brothers were coming in and he was able to greet these different individuals. And what a joy it was to his heart. And you know, brother Steve, you know, brother Keith going down the list of all the different ones that were coming in. And he was able to enjoy that greeting, that meeting these brothers that that he loves Precious in the light in the in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints.
You know, our perspective is that death is often a difficult thing, but here He brought it out this way. The Lord is bringing one home.
And what a joy it is, that first meeting. We know that there is phases to it, but still precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints. It's really a meeting. It's a matter of perspective. And so even as we come to this camp and we enjoy seeing faces and individuals that we love in the Lord and that maybe we don't see too often, it is just a little picture of foretaste of that glory.
It's a perspective and I so appreciated what that brother shared with me, the beautiful thought, let's close the God and our Father. We just give thanks that in a world that is tinged by sin.
We feel the effects of it all around us.
Very often in our own lives, it touches us in ways that we don't know how to deal with it, but we know that we can turn to the God of the Scriptures that we can find.
An inflexible force.
That for the Saint, a bulwark, a stronghold, a place of safety, we do give thanks. For that. We're thankful, Father, that.
In the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, every contingency has been met that we have that strong place of refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ and in that cross. We do give thanks for that. We know that in itself.
Can fill volumes speaking about the righteousness of God.
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And His Holiness and his love. Father, we are so thankful for this. We're thankful that we can always turn to the Scriptures and to the God of the Scriptures in every circumstance. Pray that it might.
Have its imprint on our lives. Have its imprint on us. This week, as we enjoy more of what the Lord has for us, we do give thanks for all these things in Jesus worthy and precious name, Amen.
Philippians 1:1-11
Moral Lessons From Solomon
Address—Josh Costron
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Just ask the Lord's help by loving God and Father. We're so thankful today for thy many mercies to us. We thank Thee for providing so much for us and our enjoyment, temporal needs, and for the spiritual refreshment that we've received this day. We thank Thee for the Lord Jesus, our loving Savior, my beloved Son, who loved us and gave Himself for us.
We pray that what we have sung tonight, this hymn prayer might search our hearts and that we might ask ourselves these questions and that we would walk before the in a way that is pleasing to Thee, having the Lord Jesus as our object. We look to Thee now as we consider Thy word for a few moments this evening, asking me for clearness of mind and a simple message for all to take it in and understand and gain some practical.
Instruction by it, the speaker included, And we look to Thee for Thy help and direction. So we ask all of this in Thy most worthy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
I'd like to turn to a couple introductory verses, the first one being in Romans chapter 15.
Romans chapter 15 and verse 4.
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. And over to 1St Corinthians chapter 10.
First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 11.
Now all these things happened unto them for in samples or types.
And they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.
I read these two verses to show.
To us, clearly from the Word of God, that what we have in the Old Testament is not simply just a historical narrative to give us a lot of details and to tickle our interest.
No, God has not only give us a historical account of things that have actually happened, yes, but God has a deeper purpose behind it.
And that is that he wants to teach us moral and spiritual lessons through the lives of those who have gone on before, through incidents in history, through the lives of his earthly people, Israel, and so on. And so for us as Christians to ignore the Old Testament Scriptures, we will become very unbalanced in our understanding of the ways of God and His truth in general.
And so we need all the scriptures and we're thankful for the Old Testament. The Old Testament is.
Definitely a picture book, isn't it? And without the light and instruction and what we have in the New Testament, many of what we understand in the pictures that we see in the old would not be made clear to us. And so we are thankful for the entire Canon of Scripture that God has preserved to us and given to us for our learning.
I would like to look into the Old Testament tonight, and I would like to speak primarily of one individual. His name is Solomon, and we all know who that is. And what I would like to take up tonight is Solomon from the standpoint of moral instructions.
And Solomon, as we are, many of us know, furnishes to us a most wonderful type of Christ in his millennial glory. And we get a lot of prophetic truth in that regard. And we see wonderful pictures throughout Solomon's reign of the millennial Kingdom under the reign of Christ. But I don't want to take things up from that perspective tonight. We also get in the Book of Kings, wonderful administrative lessons that we can get.
As how to apply these things in the assembly administration and all that kind of stuff, I don't want to look at it from that perspective either.
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The Word of God is amazing, isn't it? It's exceeding broad, but what I want to look at is it's moral application.
I think it would be helpful to perhaps define what we mean by moral. And there's a good number of kids here and young people, and sometimes your brethren will speak of moral principles. Or for example, how often have you heard it that Luke is written from a moral perspective? And you probably scratch your head and wonder what does that mean? So I'm hopeful that I can maybe clear the, the air a little bit, make it a little more simple to understand what we mean by way of moral.
Default to a definition that a brother back home would recite quite often, and he had gotten this from Mr. Clarence Lundeen. And he says what moral means is that it's excellence in spirit and in practice with your conduct right and proper. I'll repeat that. Excellence in spirit and in practice.
With your conduct right and proper. So when we talk about moral things, moral principles, moral teaching, moral applications in the Word of God, what we are saying is that it touches on how you and I conduct ourselves, how we carry ourselves, and if it's acceptable to God or not. Whether our spirit is right before the Lord and acceptable in His sight.
That's what we mean by moral. And looking at Solomon, I tell you it's been quite exercising for me.
I was thinking of not only Solomon, but for the sake of time tonight, I don't think I could get beyond just him alone. And there's enough there that I think we can get something for our souls. But primarily what God? My thoughts going down this road with the Lord's help was being real exercised about starting well.
And ending well.
You know.
It's extremely important. The world has a saying out there and they say it's not how you start, but it's how you finish.
Well, it sounds good, but for the Christian I would like to suggest that it matters how you start and it matters how you finish.
And each one of us, as believers, we don't want to end this life.
Whether it be through the article of death or what, we all look for the coming of the Lord Jesus to take us home. We don't want to leave this world.
In failure, we want an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom, and we want to enter in doing the Lord's will and finishing our course with joy. And how often, brethren?
We've seen.
We've seen far too many.
Of those whom we love, who start so well and end poorly.
And you know, to think in our hearts that while that could never happen to me.
And to come at it from the standpoint that that I would never do such a thing or I would never go down such a course is not to have learned our hearts well.
It's not to have learned our hearts well.
And so I believe we see in Solomon.
Some principles that we can draw from, and I want to focus tonight on how he started and granted the things, the thoughts I'm pulling out here. We're going to go from chapter 3 to Chapter 11, Lord willing.
Are is not probably a complete list, but these are just some things that stand out to me that I'd like to bring out. I'm sure there's probably another brother who could stand up here and, and, and bring out more, but I'd like to look at a few things and I want to focus in on how he started and some moral principles that we can get from that and some practical instruction and then focus on what his downfall was.
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And then, if the Lord will, I'd like to suggest a remedy as to how to avoid an ending of failure and being maybe, as the New Testament puts it, making shipwreck of the faith.
So let's turn to 1St Kings Chapter 3.
First Kings chapter 3, we'll start at verse three. We'll just read a part of this verse and Solomon love the Lord walking in the statutes of David his father. Verse five in Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.
And Solomon said, Thou hast showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy.
According as He walked before the in truth and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with Thee, and Thou has kept for Him this great kindness.
That thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.
The first thing that I'd like to bring out here is that Solomon.
Had an appreciation for the goodness of God.
You know, brethren, our God is so good, isn't he? He's so good, Brother Tim and I were talking prior to this meeting.
And.
You know, we've made, we're commenting on that quote that we often hear that every failure and Sinner and St. stems from unbelief in the goodness of the heart of God. And if you and I doubt the goodness that is in the heart of God, we are starting off on the wrong footing.
Our God is so good. He's merciful, He's kind, he's gracious. And brethren, where would we be without God's goodness in our life? And Solomon looks at the past with his father, and he says, Thou has shown my father great mercy.
You know we are the objects of His mercy, we are the objects of His grace, and you know the more we get into His presence.
And the more we really sit down under the conscious sense of what he is, in his greatness and goodness, mercy and grace, it's incredibly humbling.
It's often been said that and I've appreciated the definition of mercy, and it is this, that mercy is great in the greatness of the need.
Grace is great in the greatness of the giver.
So mercy focuses on our need and grace focuses on God the giver.
And God has poured out all His goodness upon us, brethren. He's given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. We lack nothing. He has not left us here to fend for ourselves, but He has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. And bless His precious name.
He is so good.
He's so good.
And so he says in.
Verse seven. And now, oh Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father, and I am but a little child. I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in thee, in the midst of thy people which thou has chosen, a great people that cannot be numbered, nor counted for multitude.
This is another thing, and that is he had an understanding, or at least a feeling of his own nothingness.
Do you realize that you and I are nothing?
That we are not sufficient of ourselves. That without him.
We not only have nothing, but we can do nothing.
The Lord Jesus said that without me you can do nothing.
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And when you contemplate that and you think about that a little bit.
It makes one feel quite small.
But in a good way. It's good to have a sense, brethren, of of the fact that that we are nothing and He is everything, that we are completely and utterly dependent upon Him.
We get ourselves into too much trouble when we lose that humility, and Solomon had a sense of this. When we have a sense of our own nothingness, we have a it brings us into that, that humility that God can then work with.
That is the proper Christian place, you might say, in this world is one of humility.
He said to I think often he says to his disciples that accept ye be as a little child.
Shall I know wise enter the Kingdom?
Little kid, Little child is one who is totally dependent, one who believes his parents what they say.
That's the truth. That's the way it is. There's no preconceived notions typically. And it's it's a place of ultimate humility. And the Lord Jesus says you need to be like this little child.
Are we seeking our own greatness in this life?
Because if we're seeking greatness, the Lord Jesus says that that is not greatness.
A true greatness comes from a place of humility.
We all need it. How often we would be spared from all the heartache and problems amongst us. If brethren, I speak my own heart, if just you and I would take a low place. The Lord Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest and your souls.
He was the greatest.
He was the greatest and yet he became nothing. And I speak with all reverence, but he put himself into a position whereby he would wash his own disciples feet, He would he would gird himself with an apron and he would get low and he would clean that defilement.
Office servant, office disciples feet. He got into a place, a position of loneliness.
And he taught his disciples what true service is, and it emanates from humility, lowliness of mind, meekness.
All seen in our blessed Master.
Blessed Lord Jesus.
And then he says in verse 9, Give therefore thy servant and understanding heart to judge thy people.
That I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge this Thy so great a people.
He asked the Lord for discernment.
He looked at his responsibility as king and realized that he was not sufficient for this in his own strength and power.
He needed discernment. He needed to know what the Lord's mind was. He needed understanding. He needed an understanding heart.
The place where our affections lie.
And that is the place from which true understanding and knowledge is acquired.
The Lord Jesus is knowledge and wisdom embodied personify.
And has he grabbed our affections, brethren? Is he everything to us? And you know, when I go through these few first few verses, what I see.
Is fertile soil for proper spiritual growth.
We have one Who?
Has an appreciation for the goodness of God. We have one who has a sense of his own nothingness and humility, and he has one. Here's one who realizes that he cannot make a decision, a right decision, without him.
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He is completely cast upon God in all facets, and here is good ground and dear young people and children.
Let me mention this while I'm thinking of it.
It's my understanding, and I believe it was Mr. Faraday who commented and said that Solomon at this time was hardly out of his teens.
He was a young man.
And he started well.
How are you going to start your life?
I want to ask your heart and mind.
How are you starting?
It's important that we see these things, these principles, because if you want to start off on a good footing, I can't stress enough the need for humility, loneliness, a sense of our own nothingness.
That is what God can work with. That is good soil, that is the clay that he can mold and fashion into something that is useful for him. And let me tell you this, that God wants to use you. He wants to use you, and you're not insignificant. And if you belong to the Lord Jesus, he's given you a gift.
And he's given you something to do.
And are you using it? Are you doing what the Lord has put into your hands to do today?
And so in verse 10, it says in the speech, please the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And so again, this pleases God, this disposition, this this, this standpoint from which we can be fruitful and and be used of God. This is pleasing to the Lord.
This is very pleasing to the Lord.
And God said unto him, verse 11 Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment be.
The Divine Conductor
Sing Talk—Alejandro Zacarias
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.
Now I got to play a beautiful song for you guys.
Let me see first.
How you use this?
Oh no, it's not like that, right? It goes like that, like that, okay.
And I will explain.
Lisbury.
Are good and loving Father.
We thank you for these times. Thank you for all these kids, all these young people. Thank you for your love, your mercy, Thank you for your son.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And we ask you for help.
So you can help us to speak simply.
And clear, Clearly so.
These young kids, young people.
They can understand what we try to communicate.
We need your help and we thank you in the name of our Lord our Savior Jesus Christ. In his precious name we pray, Amen.
I was sitting over there in the back and I was seeing all these kids playing guitars and playing my sampling the violin and.
I completely changed the subject of the what I want to speak and I speak about this many, many years ago in a camp that you guys.
And I speak about the violin, and it's the reason I tried to play something I don't know nothing about music.
To play nothing. I don't play any instrument.
So I want to speak a little bit about that and I got to repeat that what I say many years ago, but at that time many of you guys was so little that maybe you guys don't remember what I say at that time. It's so nice to see many of you guys, how you guys growing and I always say.
Not only in statue, I see many of you guys. I I knew many of you guys when you was a little babies when your parents used to bring you here in strollers or I see many of you guys when your parents. I remember Uncle Tim being behind many of his kids in the bicycle, pushing them and and guiding them and helping them to learn how to ride in the bicycle.
And now look all these handsome boys and beautiful girls over here. It's so nice to see that you guys know only grown in a statue and but also in our Lord, our serve you Jesus Christ. And we can see it. We parents, we can see it. And it's so encouraging to see you guys growing. And at that time I was telling them.
Uh, remember when my son, he wasn't too great?
And he was nine years old, nine, nine years old. He was in 3rd grade around there.
He was, he's 19 now, he's going to college and.
Growing. Our kids grow so fast. I see many kids on our assembly. Many.
Excited times because they many of the our guys in our assembly they start driving and many has licensed many has even buy a car.
The first car they buy and I see them sometimes coming to meeting and they drive. I don't even knew that they start driving already and I get to the meeting and I park and there comes cars behind us.
Because it's the time for meeting and I see some of these, the kids, some of the girls driving and the parents like help us. But it's exciting, exciting times, exciting times and very exciting for us parents to see you driving too. So make us pray more. You guys make us pray more. So I remember when my kid was in 3rd grade.
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And he started picking up the violin. He started training on learning to to play the violin. So they was teaching him in a school to play the violin.
And I remember that my wife told me that it got to be a concert at one of the schools around us and it will be 450 kids from different schools to go to come and all.
Got to have a violin and everybody got to play the violin and one of the kids was my son. So my wife say we we going to be in this school and we going over there with him. So we all the family went there to hear my son with another four, 449 kids to play the violin. When we get there, it was in the.
How you call it the the place where you?
That you did not see them. And it was sits around and many chairs all around Big, big school. And I remember seeing all these kids sitting in the middle, the parents sitting in the back and everybody excited and everybody having cameras and before the concert starts.
The only thing you hear is everybody playing his own tune. They was tuning, so you hear.
You don't hear a song, you don't hear nothing nice. Everybody was tuning.
But at what moment? One moment somebody come over there.
And when in the middle and stand in the middle of everybody and everybody get quiet, all the kids he was doing and everything, they start looking at that person in the middle.
And when this person went like that, everybody was putting attention.
And he went.
And you start hearing a nice, so nice tune, Very nice tune. And I was thinking at that moment when I was there, oh man, when we play in our own song alone.
And when we're doing all by ourselves and we don't have somebody who direct us, we don't make sense. We're just doing something, making noises. But when we let our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ come in the middle and stand there and we put attention on him, and we see him, and we seek his beauty.
And he says, now go, I directed you, you can walk, you can do, you can say you can stand because I directed you.
Is a beautiful song.
Is a beautiful.
Thing to see.
It was so nice to see my son there.
Plain and learning.
But it was so nice to release that. We need, we need our Lord Jesus Christ to direct us. We need Him to telling us where to go, when to move, what to do, what to say.
And when we do it with his direction.
It's beautiful.
We are.
Performing for him.
Allow him to use us.
Because we all instruments.
And if we let him use these instruments?
That alone can don't do anything. The Bible tells us that without our Lord Jesus Christ we can do, do, don't do anything.
Let me ask this violin to start playing.
Please violin, can you play a song for us today?
What a man. He probably is warming up. He will stay in a minute.
Come on, go ahead.
Can he alone do something nice?
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But in the hands of a master musician?
He can produce this violin, this instrument, it can produce a nice song. Can you please just a little bit something, Jonathan, just I tried, I can just sorry to put you in the we don't prepare nothing this, but yes, just something.
When he takes the instrument in his hands.
When he take you.
And me in his hands.
Is a beautiful song.
You know, it's too much ugliness in this world.
Nothing makes sense.
Is brokenness, is pain, is sin.
People is.
It's looking around to see beauty.
And let me tell you something, the only beauty.
That you and me can produce so this world can see it is in the hands of the master musician who can use you and me.
And maybe you can say well, but I'm not prepared. I don't, I don't know what to say.
Let him use you. We was hearing our brother and the message he gave.
Prepare yourself.
And the preparation starts in our knees in the mornings.
They're asking him Father.
Our God. Our Savior.
If you let me live one more day in this life, it's because you have a purpose.
I know if he don't have a purpose for me in this life, probably I don't wake up tomorrow. Maybe he don't have nothing else for me to do in this life, maybe he takes me home. But if he let me wake up today, it's because he has a poor purpose for you and for me to be here today.
And that purpose is to show His love, His light His way to this world that need to see the beauty of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let him use you.
Allow him to use you.
And he will ask him to use you and he will. Sometimes you can say, well, but I'm too small. I'm.
Just a little child. I'm just a little girl.
You know, it's very encouraging. You see all these little kids.
When we eating over there in the room.
And they going around.
And they looking for place to pick up from the tables serving they serving.
Is encouraging because you're being an instrument in the hands of the Lord and you playing a nice song for him, letting him use you.
And he will.
He will. I completely changed what I was to say, but I feel like this is what the Lord wants me to say.
Pretty short.
But let us, the Lord Jesus, use us, direct us.
And we will be a beautiful son in this world.
This world full of darkness.
LED us to be his beauty.
Showing His beauty to this world that need to see the beauty of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Her God loving Father, we asking you for your help.
Every day we need you.
We cannot do anything without you. Direct us, use us.
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To be that instruments that you want to have.
Helper.
Sons, our daughters.
Help us.
To show.
The light of the Gospel, the light of the love.
The light of our Lord Jesus Christ in this world.
And we pray in the name of our Lord our Savior, Jesus Christ, His precious name, holy name, Amen.
Philippians 1:12-26
God's Thoughts of His Son
Address—Caleb James
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 God and our Father, we thank Thee for inviting us to look unto thy Son.
And we know, Father, that the Lord Jesus is far greater than anything that we could ever say here on this earth. But we do give thanks for the holy written word of God that would tell us of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this time ahead of us, Lord, we pray that that would be well spoken of. And so we just would ask for the help and liberty of the Spirit to take of those things of Christ, show them to us, make them precious to our souls.
Pray this in the precious worthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, Amen.
Turn, if you would please, to Psalm 36.
Psalm 36.
Psalm 36 and verse 7.
How excellent is thy loving kindness, oh God. Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. These verses would tell us about the God that we have. He's a God who is full of goodness, as the Brother shared with us last night. And that's a precious, precious thing. But you know, there's so many.
On this earth, who view God very differently, they see God as an unhappy God, as an angry God. He's a tyrant who's eager to condemn and eager to judge. But that is not the God of the Bible. That's not the true God. And these verses that we just read would tell us that he's a God of love. He's a God of kindness. He's a God of generosity. He's a God of pleasure. Thou shalt make them drink.
Of the river of thy pleasures, the God we have as a God of joy. And we were enjoying this morning and the reading meeting, how that a believer can have genuine joy in their souls regardless of what circumstances they might be going through. And ultimately, why is that? Is it not because the God we have as a God of joy, He is the source of all, and he is not an unhappy God, but he has pleasures.
And the apostle Paul would call him the blessed God because blessed implies joy, implies peace. In fact, he has a whole river of pleasures, and he invites us to drink from that river as well and share those same things that he enjoys.
Now some of the young people might ask, well, just what is it in particular that God finds his pleasure in? And we can look to Scripture for some answers. We read in the early part of our Bibles that God created the heavens and the earth, and after he assembled that beautiful creation, He saw that it was good.
All things were created by him for His pleasure. They are and were created, and we've certainly been finding pleasure in this beautiful creation as well, especially while we're here at camp. It declares the glory of God. But there's more. He finds pleasure in people. His delights were with the sons of men. What is man that thou art mindful of him? He also would find pleasure in His church, the Bride of Christ, through which he's going to display.
The exceeding riches of his grace, His manifold wisdom, so forth. But there's another source of pleasure that God has, and that's perhaps the highest of all, that's his Son, Jesus Christ. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 3 to get that. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 3.
Very well known verses here at the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 3 and verse 16.
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have found my delight. God would publicly declare the Lord Jesus to be the Son of his delight. That's precious, isn't it? You know, the Lord Jesus is the man whom the King delights to honor, and God has honored him with a name that's above every name.
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He's the nail in the short place a Scripture tells us, and it's around him that God's purpose would revolve totally and completely. And so for you and I, we've been translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son, the Son of his love. And it's in that sphere that we can enjoy the Lord Jesus and find the light in him as well. What is He to us? Well, Peter tells us that he's precious.
He's altogether lovely. He's our our savior, he's our shepherd. He's our friend, our priest, our advocate.
And we're to have them as our object, as we were discussing in these meetings, we're to have him as our object, not just because he's food for our souls, not just because he's he's the.
The one who started and finished well, who were to have him as the object of our souls, because God himself is occupied, Lord Jesus Christ.
And so in this message, I'd like to consider some of the thoughts that God has of his Son, God's thoughts of his Son. And I know we have young people here, and I want to be sensitive to that.
And as young people, you might ask the question and ask it, well, what does that have to do with the daily round of life? What is the practical purpose in considering God's thoughts of his Son? Well, I believe it would be this to expand our thoughts on the Lord Jesus Christ, to enlarge our thoughts on him. You know, there's a hymn that we sing sometimes in Little Flock hymn book. It says Our Lord and large.
Our scanty thought.
To know the wonders thou hast wrought.
I have to confess for myself that oftentimes my thoughts on the Lord Jesus are very small and they're very few. And as a result of that, I have little to give to Him and worship. I have little energy to do His work and to be quite pointed. It's a drag to make it out to Wednesday night meeting.
Fixating on the thoughts that God has of His Son would enlarge our thoughts, and I very much feel the need for that. And I might say that it's our thoughts of the Lord Jesus that are really going to direct the course of our lives. I believe it's correct in saying that. So we need to have greater thoughts of the Lord Jesus, and the thoughts of God are higher than our thoughts.
So let's take a few moments here to consider the thoughts that God has of his beloved Son. And with the Lord's help, I'd like to consider that kind of in three different ways. First of all, in eternity, and then in time and then in resurrection, God's thoughts of his Son. Let's turn to Proverbs chapter 8. There's some well known verses.
Proverbs 8.
Proverbs 8 and verse 22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting from the beginning. Wherever the earth was, when there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were settled before the hills, was I brought forth. Well as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
When he prepared the heavens, I was there when he set a compass upon the face of the depth.
When He established the clouds above, when He strengthened the fountains of the deep, when He gave to the sea His decree that the water should not pass his commandment, when He appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by Him as one brought up with him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth. And mighty lights were with the sons of men. This would bring us all the way back to the beginning.
The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way. That is the beginning. Before anything that ever had a beginning. In the beginning was the Word.
You know the Lord Jesus is not a created person.
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The Lord Jesus is an eternal person, and the Word of God says that he has neither beginning of days nor end of life. No beginning, no end. He's the great I am. In other words, He just is. And as finite creatures with limited minds, we have a hard time understanding eternity.
We measure everything on this earth according to time and space and so forth, but eternity is a another dimension altogether outside of anything that we know on this earth. And it's an eternity that God dwells, that God thinks, and here in eternity before the world was created.
We have the father delighting in his son, the father and son relationship before it was formally revealed.
And these verses give various features of the creation, and I didn't have it in mind to fixate on any of those in particular. But notice one thing in verse 30. That's precious. Verse 30, Then I was by Him as one brought up with Him. There's another translation. It goes like this. Then I was by Him as His master Workman.
Think about that. The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, was a master Workman in the creation. And we could look at other verses in the Word of God that show us that all three persons of the Godhead had a role in creating this creation. But it's been said that the Lord Jesus was the active agent in the creation, and I believe the New Testament Scriptures would agree with that as well. By him the world's were made, the universe was made, John says without him.
Was not anything made that was made. He was the active agent in the creation. Then I was by Him as His master Workman, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing. All was before Him. The Lord Jesus the Son, was the eternal object of the Father's heart. And here is a setting of just perfect joy. Perfect.
Love, that's what the Father had with his Son in eternity. And you know, it's been said that God is, is self existing and he's self-sufficient. In other words, he doesn't need anything outside of himself. He doesn't depend on anything outside of himself like you and I do know God has everything he needs in himself, but it's his grace that would choose to include us in his plan to glorify his Son, the Lord Jesus. And so it says.
In verse 31, mighty lights were with the sons of men we read in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. But the Lord Jesus was rich. He was rich in this eternity with his Father. He had honor, glory, and abundance. For your sakes, He became poor.
And the Lord Jesus by his grace, would include us in that plan. And just by considering the setting makes it so much more magnificent to think that he would leave that place with his Father and that the Father would send him into this earth. And think for a minute, maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. But think for a minute about all the glories that the Lord Jesus would not have acquired if he would have stayed there with his Father.
Lamb of God, Redeemer, Priest, Savior, Captain of our salvation, head of the Church, The Lord Jesus would not have acquired those glories had he stayed in heaven and not come to this earth and died. Well, we read in the Word of God that when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. And so let's read about that in Luke chapter one.
Consider the Son of God coming into time now.
Luke, chapter one.
And verse 30.
And the Angel said unto her.
Luke 1 verse 30 Fear not Mary, for thou hast found favor with God, and behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give him the throne of his Father. David verse 35 And the Angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over shadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing.
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Which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God, Son of God. Here is the entrance of the Son of God into time, into creation. This is the incarnation when God would take on a body of flesh. You know, it's quite an incredible thought that God would come in the form of a human being, but is it an even more incredible to think that he would come as a little infant?
A little infant. Think about about that for a moment. God manifest in the flesh, you know, we read, I think it's Colossians, that in him all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell bodily. What is a little infant in size? Maybe seven, 8 lbs. But the God who inhabits eternity, as Isaiah tells us, would condense himself.
To the body of an infant? Isn't that mind boggling?
We're told in Isaiah that unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called the everlasting God. This was no.
Ordinary baby This little baby in Bethlehem's Manger had the attributes of God.
God and man and one person. That's a mystery we don't understand. But everything depends on that mystery. A holy person, that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. Think of what a shocking thing it was for the Lord Jesus.
The Son of God to come into a world of sin. It didn't shock you and I because we have sin in us. We're born in sin and shape and in iniquity. But this one, the Son of God was holy. In him was no sin. He did no sin. He knew no sin, perfectly holy. And his very presence in this swamp of sin was an occasion for his suffering. He was a holy man.
You know, it's been said that the more holy the person, the more exquisite their sufferings are in the presence of sin.
And think about that the Lord Jesus lived a life of suffering. But think about how exquisite, how rare, how special those sufferings were, God his Father.
Let's move on to Luke chapter 2.
We know that the Sacred Scriptures are largely silent on the life of the Lord Jesus from the time he was an infant till the time he was about 30 years old and began his public ministry. But there is one exception here in Luke chapter 2.
So this is when the Lord Jesus was 12 years old and he would go to Jerusalem with his parents. He would get separated from them.
And and let's pick up with verse 48, Luke 2, verse 48.
And when they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father, and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How was it that you sought me? Wist ye not knew ye not that I must be about my father's business?
And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them. But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart, And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. Here in this little glimpse of the Lord Jesus's life, we see what His purpose was on this earth, and that was to do his Father's will.
Wisty, not that I must be about my father's business, you know, in the gospel meaning sometimes we'll say.
That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and that's right, it's scripture. Say the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. And that's right, it's Scripture, it's the word of God. What could we say? There was even a higher motive that the Lord Jesus had the Son of God had in coming into this world. That was to do his Father's will. He said, lo, I come to do thy will, O God.
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And we read through the Gospels, especially John's Gospel, where he's presented as the Son of God, and we see many, many references that he makes to doing his Father's will.
He said I came not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And when the disciples expressed concern that he had not eaten in a while, what did he say? My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
When he overthrew the tables of the money changers there in the temple.
The disciples remembered that it was said of him, The zeal thine house hath beaten me up. He was totally consumed with zeal for his Father's will, and, you know, for the Lord Jesus.
Obedience was not an occasional act for him like it might be for you and I. It was the story of his life.
We still not that I must be about my Father's business and he would prefer the will of God over his own comfort. Christ please, not himself. He would prefer the will of God over his own safety, and so he would become obedient unto death even.
The death of the Cross.
The Lord Jesus was not only devoted to his Father's will, but he was. He was perfectly intelligent as to that will. He could say my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
Though he were son yet learned he obedience through the things which he suffered. He didn't have to learn how to be obedient. He was a perfect person, but he did learn the cost of being obedient.
Let's go to John's Gospel.
Chapter One.
To read a little more about this person, what a person this is that we're talking about. This is the Son of God. This is the very one that God would find his delight in. John chapter one. Excuse me.
John one verse 14 very well known, and for good reason. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bear witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for He was before me, and of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
No man has seen God at anytime. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
The Son of God was a person of glory, and that's a beautiful subject to consider in and of itself. The glory of the Son of God, the glory of Christ is a man and.
Glory for the purpose of these verses would mean excellence and display display of excellence for the Lord Jesus Christ. And I heard a distinction made once that was very helpful to me and I'll share it. Hopefully someone else will find it helpful.
And that is the difference between the Lord Jesus positional glory and His personal glory, the positional and the personal glory of the Son of God. In Proverbs 8 we read about his His positional glory. There with the Father, He had indescribable honor, the object of angelic worship.
He had glory there. That was His positional glory, and He left behind the display of that when He came to this earth. But did anything change as far as His person goes? No. He was the Son of God. Whether he was in heaven or whether he was on this earth. He was and is the eternal Son of God, and nothing changed about that. Nothing changed about that.
That glory that he had, that original personal glory as the Son of God.
Was mostly veiled when he was on this earth. He was a humble man, wasn't he? But every once in a while the might say the veil was pulled back a little bit and there would be a little gleam of that glory that would reach the eye of faith. And so John could say we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
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What a perfect, perfect man.
And this was the man in whom God was delighting. From eternity into time. God was finding the light. And he says here, John says, he hath declared him the Father, every step, every word, every work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Harmony and agreement with His Father. He that has seen me has seen the Father, and it would be nice to go through the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because there's so many treasures that can be gleaned of his moral beauties and moral glories where he's he's, he's displaying that full truth and grace that was in him.
But let's move on to the end of the Lord's pathway and turn to Luke chapter 22.
As perfect as his life was, and it was perfect.
It did nothing to answer the question of sin, but it did give character to his death. His perfect life gave character to his death. And let's move along to look at that.
Luke 22 and verse 39.
And he came out and went as he was want to the Mount of Olives, And his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stones cast, and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done. And there appeared an Angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him, and being in an agony.
Prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Nevertheless, not my will a thine be done. The will of God would include the Manger. The will of God would include His rejection by a whole nation of people. Think of what that meant. He came into his own, and His own received him. Not yet, he says. Even so, Father, or so it seemeth good, a nice sight. The will of God would include ridicule, reproach, horrible accusations.
The will of God would include being forsaken by his closest friends.
And here the will of God would include Gethsemane, the will of God would include the cross, and here that cross was before the Lord Jesus.
And it's horror. The Lord Jesus always had the shadow, the cross looming over him, and he would make references to the cross of Calvary that was before him. He saw the place afar off, as it says in the Old Testament. But now it was not the shadow of the cross, it was the reality that had come.
Luke, chapter 23.
Luke, chapter 23.
In verse 33.
And when they were come?
To the place which is called Calvary, There they crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, father forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Hear the Lord Jesus is offering himself without spot to God. You know, in Genesis 22, Isaac would ask a question to his father. He would say, Father, where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And that question was kind of echoed throughout the Old Testament. Many, many lambs were offered up, but there was never the lamb until we turned to John's gospel and he says, behold the lamb.
Of God.
Abraham would say, My son, God will provide for himself, the lamb for the burnt offering, and here it is, the lamb for the burnt offering. Perfect sacrifice offered without spot to God. Someone has said that the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, was the only person in the universe who met the qualifications of Savior. The only person in the universe who met the qualifications of Savior.
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I scratch my head when I heard that.
But it was explained like this. The Savior would have to be a man so that he could die for other men. There had to be that that equal exchange, man for man.
An Angel couldn't die for man. The Savior would have to be sinless. How could he die for the sins of the people if he had sins himself that needed to be dealt with? The Savior would have to be infinite in order to bear an infinite number of well, pay the price for an infinite number of sins at the cross of Calvary. But the Savior would also have to be willing. Willing. Was the Lord Jesus willing?
Here am I.
Send me.
He was willing.
Verse 44.
Excuse me, Verse 44 Luke 2344 and it was about the 6th hour.
And there was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour.
And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
We sing sometimes about the closing scene of anguish.
In all God's waves and billows for him. And here it is. You know, it says that they went, both of them together, the Father and the Son. There was perfect communion between the Son and his Father as they went up that hill.
But here, in these hours of darkness, we know that those accumulated sins were placed on the Lord.
Please.
And that perfect communion that he had a sever.
And so he wouldn't say my Father, he would say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken since there that the Lord Jesus had never known.
As he was on the cross in these three hours, wounded, bruised for sins. Am I missing something?
Wounded and bruised for sin.
Is that better?
Sin is an offense to God. It's an outrage to Him, and he would take his rage out on the sinless one, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he would take the punishment. Those sins were placed on the Lord Jesus. He was made chargeable as though they were His own. He took the punishment for it.
Deep calleth in the deep. The noise of thy water spouts all thy waves, and thy billows are gone over me. God would do this to His Son. God would do this to his Son. What a thought you know in these three hours of darkness.
We really don't know exactly what happened.
God would, you might say, honor his Son by covering that scene in darkness.
Protect him, you might say, but we really don't know what happened. We know that a sinless man was suffering for sins that were not his own. But we can rest in this thought that God knows what he did at the cross of Calvary. God knows what he did at the cross of Calvary, and he can say it is finished. It is finished.
Verse 46.
And when Jesus had cried, with a loud voice he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
And having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Here in this verse is the wonder of eternity, the biggest irony in the history of this earth, that the immortal God would die.
The Lord of life and glory would lay down his life on that cross.
Can't take it in very well, can we? You know, when we come together and remember the Lord Jesus and his death on Lord's Day morning privilege, that is special privilege. But we sit there around the Lord Jesus Christ, him in the midst, and we consider him. We consider his love, we consider his sufferings perhaps, but it seems like what in a way we're really trying to do in that hour is face the fact that we have been died for by God.
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The Son.
We sing about it, don't we?
Forbid it, Lord, that we should both save in the death of Christ our God, when the Incarnate Maker died for man.
His creature Sin.
The Lord Jesus the Son could commend his life to God his Father.
And that's totally in keeping with the tenor of his life.
He could say, therefore, doth my Father love me because I lay down my life? Let's turn over to Isaiah 53.
To get God's estimation of this.
Thrice holy work.
Isaiah 53.
And verse 10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travel of his soul, and shall be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. God was pleased with what the Lord Jesus did on that cross.
There was now a sacrifice that brought ultimate pleasure to the heart of God, unlike all those animal sacrifices in which God had no ultimate pleasure.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. We read in the word of God that the Lord Jesus the Son offered himself.
As a sacrifice and a sweet smelling savored to God in those three hours of darkness in the cross of Calvary, there was a fragrance that went up from Calvary to heaven and it pleased God, did it not? It pleased God. He was that burnt offering. We read about that burnt offering in the beginning of Leviticus. It was the offering that was all for God. And so the Lord Jesus Christ, he died for us. That's true.
He died for us first and foremost. He died for God.
He died for God on that cross.
God is pleased known as something in verse nine of Isaiah 53.
Verse 9, the beginning of the verse, and we'll read it in the new translation to get the wording.
And men appointed his grave with the wicked, but he was with the rich in his death. That's a special thought. God would put a limit on what man could do to his Son. He would allow man to take him with wicked hands and crucify him, beat him.
Put a crown of thorns on him. He would allow man to give the Lord Jesus a criminal's death, but he would not allow man to give him a criminal's burial.
Men appointed his grave with the wicked. They wanted to bury the Lord Jesus in that field of blood with the other criminals. But God would not let that happen. He would honor that life of moral beauty, moral perfection, and see to it that His Son got a proper burial, the tomb of a rich man, in which no man had ever laid.
So the Lord Jesus died and he was raised by the glory of the Father, and later he was received up in the glory we read. He was saluted by God and now in resurrection, what does God think of him? Let's turn over to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3.
Romans 3 and verse 24.
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time his righteousness, that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. In resurrection, God would set His Son forth to be a propitiation.
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You know, I've kind of struggled with that thought of propitiation.
But I've heard someone say that propitiation basically means satisfaction. Maybe that's a bit of an oversimplification, but it gets the point across. God is satisfied with what his Son the Lord Jesus did at that cross of Calvary because a full payment has been made for sin.
I heard an illustration of propitiation, and again, I'm sure it's incomplete, but it gets the thought across. And that is of a city. Suppose there's a large city and there's a food shortage there, a famine, but there's a food bank in that city that has enough food to feed every single person in that city. Just because there's enough food doesn't mean that everyone's fed, but it means that the resources are there. The provision has been made to feed every single person in that city.
Much the same with propitiation. We're told that the Lord Jesus made propitiation not just for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. That is the strength of His sacrifice. That is what God sees in His sacrifice, enough to declare Him to be the propitiation for sins. Now, just because provision has been made doesn't mean that everyone sins are forgiven. No man has a responsibility to come to come to him.
In.
Repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
So it's the blood that saves, but it's also the blood that makes a savable, because the blood is that which has made a righteous foundation on which God can forgive sins and be perfectly just in doing so. So mercy and truth have met together beautifully there at the cross of Calvary. God's love, God's holiness, both been satisfied.
Through what the Lord Jesus did, God knows what he did at that cross, and God is so satisfied with the Lord Jesus that he's raised him from the dead, exalted him, giving him a name above every name. And in the meantime he's blessing a few sinners. But it's all about him. It's not about us. We're out of the picture when it comes to propitiation, except for, I suppose, the contribution of our sins. That was a work between Christ, between the Son.
And his God.
I'll just closing here. Let's go over to 1St John.
First John, chapter one.
We've considered the Lord Jesus and God's thoughts towards him, his Son, on an incomplete way, but in a partial way. And just to kind of bring this home, tie it together a little bit, let's read in first John chapter one.
First John chapter one. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon in our hands, have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it. And bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us, that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.
And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things rightly unto you, that your joy may be full.
Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. In other words, we have fellowship with God the Father concerning his Son, Jesus Christ. That's where we meet God the Father. That's the common ground. That's the common delight and joy, his Son Jesus Christ. And when we do this, it's communion. We commune with divine persons, and that's a special, special privilege that's been given to us as believers with the help of the Holy Ghost.
Enjoying Communion?
Fellowship with the Father and the Son and I.
I trust that the young people here will discover the treasure that it is to have this communion. It is special and it is a privilege. You know, there's something captivating about the Lord Jesus, isn't there? Something almost, you might say, charming about him and as a relatively younger person, it.
Amazes me that a young person can come to the Lord Jesus and simple trusting faith and proceed to follow him for the rest of their lives. Fifty, 60-70 years following the Savior. That's a proof of the beauty of Christ. The reality of one's faith communion is so fundamental, isn't it in our lives? We've been discussing that a little bit in the meetings and it's good. We need to hear it so fundamental and we oftentimes hear it said that there are no.
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Substitutes for communion, and I wonder if we could take it a step farther and say there are no shortcuts to communion. It takes time.
You know, we live in a day when we're always trying to find better and faster and more efficient ways to do things. But if we could say it this way with communion, we need to do it the old fashioned way and spend time with the Lord Jesus Christ. Young people, I hope you're cultivating.
That relationship with him and the enjoyment of it. Our fellowship was with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, and this enjoyment of the Lord Jesus Communion.
Is the food for worship in our lives? And worship is so important. It's been said that the Lord Jesus is not hiring a servant, He's wooing a bride. He wants our affections. He wants our worship. And that's what sounds so sweetly to the ear of the Father.
You know, Joseph said to his brethren, Tell my father of all my glory in Egypt. And that's a privilege that we can do and worship when we take the excellencies of Christ, the beauties of Christ, and we just present them to God the Father. Beautiful, isn't it?
Just in closing, there's a poem that I'd like to read.
I've enjoyed it's, it's a hymn. We don't have it in our little flock hymn book, but it is a beautiful hymn. Goes like this. Gather to thy name, Lord Jesus, losing sight of all but Thee. Oh what joy Thy presence gives us. Calling up our hearts to Thee, loved with love which knows no measure save the Father's love to Thee. Blessed Lord, our hearts would treasure all the Father's thoughts.
Of thee all his joy, His rest, His pleasure, all his deep delight in thee, Lord, Thy heart alone can measure what thy Father found in thee. How he said is love upon thee called thee His beloved Son. Yet for us He did not spare thee. By Thy death our life was 10. The joy, the wondrous singing, when we see Thee as our art, Thy blessed name, Lord Jesus, bringing sweetest music.
To God's heart, notes of gladness, songs unceasing, hymns of everlasting praise, psalms of glory, joy increasing through God's endless day of days. Let's pray.
Gracious Father, we give thee thanks for sharing.
My thoughts of thy Son, the Lord Jesus. We give thanks that we could enjoy a few of these together. And we just pray, gracious Father, that our thoughts on the Lord Jesus Christ would be increased, would be expanded and be enlarged so that there would be more for Him in our lives. May He be the object of our hearts. We know He's the object of thy heart, blessed God, and so we just would ask for Thy help. We give thanks again for this time we have to come together.
And speak about that one, the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks for the safety we've enjoyed, As for continued blessing and the precious praiseworthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Slippery Slopes
Sing Talk—Nathan Herford
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Let's ask the Lords help before we start.
Our loving God and Father, we give thanks for the opportunity to be here together, to fellowship and to encourage one another and to sing praise to the the worthy one. And we're thankful that we can.
Encourage one another in the precious truth that's been entrusted to us. Help us tonight to to share a few thoughts to to build one another up in our in our most holy faith. We just ask for help. We give thanks in Jesus name, Amen.
I I wasn't sure.
Umm, you know, there's always this, there's always this tendency to be kind of self deprecating and you want to say other people are better at, at doing this and there's more qualified people and all that. And that's not very helpful because the Lord gives us each a little thing to do and, and the first thing is to be willing to do it. So I'm happy to be here. And I was just thinking about summer and, and all of our activities.
And and Steve mentioned.
The slip and slide? Who like Who likes the slip and slide?
Oh yeah, I love this. The best life and what I'm going to. Is this too loud?
I'm going to, I'm going to actually refer to the slip and slide in a little bit of a negative way. I'd like to think of it as trouble. So as we, as we think about the slip and slide today, tonight, think about our tendency to fall and to slip and to slide in a downward way and away from the Lord. I want to just start with a, a verse in.
Isaiah chapter 28. Maybe somebody could read well, maybe I'll read it because I'm.
So loud.
Isaiah chapter 28.
And.
Verse three and this this might be a or no, I'm sorry, verse 10.
This might be a memory verse. Maybe it should be a memory verse.
Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line. Here a little, in there a little.
So.
The Lord gives us his word in little bits, line upon line, line upon line. And I was just, I was thinking about this because it's how we change. It's how we learn and I, I fail little.
Upon little. I might just refer to that verse as we're talking as as little upon little, just so we're all kind of on the same page. But we, we make mistakes little bit at a time. We don't usually make a big mistake right off the bat. I don't know if anybody here has as I have.
Ever had the experience where you had to say, I can't believe I did that? Has anybody had that experience? And I don't mean in the humorous way that we might think. I mean, wow, I really messed up. I did the wrong thing. I can't believe I did that. In other words, I'm a Christian and I just did a very unchristian thing. And I've had that experience. And I'm ashamed to say that I remember and I'll, I'll tell myself a little bit. And it's interesting. We talk about being qualified to do something like this and.
And I'm supremely qualified to talk about failure and, and I'm not happy to do it, but I'm willing to do it if it's an encouragement to, to everybody because we, we need to face the fact that we, we need to help each other and accountability is the best way we can do that. And to pretend that we don't make mistakes is, is setting ourselves up for failure. So I'm going to talk about that a little bit.
But we make mistakes little by little, and if you stand on the top of a slippery, slippery slide.
Slip and slide, slippery slope. That was what started this. I thought about slippery slope. You know what that means? It's like one thing you say might imply other things. You know, you allow one thing and that kind of implies that you have to allow a whole bunch of other things and it makes a big mess. That's kind of a slippery slope idea. Did I say that right, more or less? Well, a slip and slide is kind of like that, but you start out on the top. But how do you get to the start of a slippery slipping slide?
And what's what's, what's difficult about standing at the top of the slip and slide? You know when Uncle Steve's putting the soap on and, and Uncle Tim's spraying the water on, it's slippery, right? Obviously you're standing on the grass. What happens if you fall down? You stand back up. But if you're standing on the top of the slippery slice, then slide, I'm going to do it 12 more times just to make it good point. If you stand on top of the slip and slide and you fall, what happens?
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You slip and slide, you slip and then you slide and it's hard to stop, right? Especially if it's soapy and wet. And you know, that's how scent is. We just, we make a little mistake and I want to turn to another verse.
Because how does it start? How do we start to fall away? You know, you hear all these cliches, all these things in Christianity that remind us that it's little. It's by small degrees that we get away. It's the thin edge of the wedge. Satan uses the thin edge of the wedge. Or if we're.
Walking on the path. We just start walking slowly off the path and by the time you realize it, you're way off the path and then it's hard to find your way back. Now let's turn to 2nd Corinthians.
Chapter 10.
2nd Corinthians chapter 10 because I think it starts with this.
And I hope this is relevant, maybe some of this.
Doesn't apply to you maybe yet or in a big way. And that's great. That's wonderful.
But all of these things will apply to all of us at some point. We all, we all. Well, here, let's read this. I'll say less. Read more.
2nd Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 3.
And I'll read through verse 5, and that's kind of where I'm thinking verse five, mostly. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.
But mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, What if, if we can think of the analogy of the slip and slide?
And we all have thoughts that aren't right. We all. We can't help what we see, we can't help what we hear, But we can't help what we entertain, and we can't help what we imagine.
Imagine and our imagination can bring us right to the brink and then you know.
It says.
Bringing into captivity, into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, every thought. Do we consider what difference our thoughts make? Because it's kind of a secret, right? We don't, you know, thankful you can't see my thoughts or I'm thankful that you can't see my failures. I'm thankful that that you guys don't know all the mistakes that I've made. And I'm not going to tell you because you don't need to know, but I've made plenty.
But how does it begin? It begins in just small degrees.
Little upon little, you know, if you build a structure, build a brick building, you'd put brick upon brick upon brick, right? And if you tear it down by hand, we actually had a house. Well, our house had a chimney. And the chimney was all the way from the dirt, as it turned out, not the concrete. It was on from the dirt all the way up through the roof. And we had to take this, this thing apart, and it's a old, it was 100 years old. And we took it one literally brick at a time and handed it down.
Person to person, we took it apart 1 brick at a time and finally that whole thing was dismantled. And you know, we fail one step at a time and we but we also grow one step at a time. And so I.
I was thinking about telling you a story.
It's kind of personal and I, and I don't know if it's entirely appropriate, but maybe I will and I'll, I'll ponder as I go. So my father passed away a couple years ago and as far as I know, my dad was not a Christian when he died. I'm sad to say, but he grew up in a kind of a rough home in some ways. And, and.
He made some choices when he was very young and he chose to start smoking and drinking alcohol when he was thirteen years old. Who's 13 here or younger? Yeah, there's lots of you. Lots, right? Imagine 13 years old, you start doing stuff like that. Can't imagine it, right? It's not something you wouldn't, you wouldn't just wake up tomorrow and do such a thing and then stand there and say, I can't believe I did that, but I'm sure he just had one cigarette.
00:10:06
I'm sure he just had one drink. And I'm not saying this actually, this story is not to encourage you not to drink or smoke. That's not what this is about at all. So don't don't misunderstand what I'm saying. But my dad was a pretty smart guy and he had a lot going for him. But he ended up accomplishing just about nothing in life. And I'm going to make a spiritual application of this as we go on. But I read after he passed away, I was given a memoir.
Memoir is it's kind of a, a recollection of an experience or your life or something like that. And it kind of tells the story of your life from your own perspective. And, and I'll try not to bore you too much, but anyway, I read this memoir and I learned some things about my dad I never knew and some of the older ones. Ever heard of Hal Lindsey? You ever heard of Hal Lindsey? He wrote a book called The Late Great Planet Earth and he taught a lot about prophecy primarily, I think. And I haven't read the book and I haven't studied him a lot, but.
Hal Lindsey was a really accomplished guy and he was really well respected. My dad knew him pretty well and they used to have coffee together in Cannon Beach because Mr. Lindsey would come to Cannon Beach to the Conference Center. Am I speaking too fast?
OK, And my dad had a little Barber shop and it was a failing Barber shop and he had a little house and he had a couldn't pay the rent and it was all beat up. And my dad and and I don't say this to pick on my father, but he couldn't accomplish anything. He couldn't finish anything. And do you think you know why? Who knows why in a, in a material, in a, in a worldly way, you know, finances and money and all that stuff. Why couldn't my dad accomplish anything?
And again, we'll talk about this in a spiritual way later, but why do you think you couldn't?
I mentioned it earlier, He had some really bad habits, some terrible habits. And there were other habits that I won't talk about, but they were so disabling to my dad that he was incapable of finishing anything. So they sat across the table from each other having coffee, and my dad came to the realization, and this is what I was going to share with you. He, he realized that he was the same as Hal Lindsey. There was no difference. But Mr. Lindsey was an author. He was an accomplished.
Speaker and well respected and had a lot of demand for him and he was a really successful person.
My dad was not, so how could my dad say they were the same? What do you think?
They had the same.
P starts with AP.
Potential. They have the same potential. That's what he meant. They had the same potential. He could sit there and he realized he's not smarter than me. He's not.
I, you know, doesn't speak better. Yeah, there's, there's nothing about him that is better in the sense of potential. But they had absolutely, no, they were completely different when it came to accomplishment. And, you know, I was thinking about this in terms of, of, of our spiritual growth. You guys, every single one of you have the same potential. I have the same potential.
Except what's the what's the difference because they were the same age? This is what I was referring to.
I'm a lot older, right? I don't have the same potential as you guys. I'm a lot older. I have very many fewer years than most of you here, and that's a big deal. I don't know if anybody older here. Aunt Bev, would you say that time matters when it comes to learning and growing?
Absolutely, yeah. So time matters and you guys hear this all the time, and I know you've heard plenty of times that you got to read your Bible and pray every day. You got to read your Bible and pray every day.
It's really true. You've got to read your Bible and pray every day and Grandma may oh, you remember Grandma Mayo if you were in Gresham or.
I'm sure you met her, some of you. She always used to like that little song and she'd remind us to read your Bible, pray every day. If you don't read your Bible and don't pray every day, you'll shrink, shrink, shrink. That was the other line that she added in well, editing by Grandma Mail. But but it's true. It's true if we're not growing.
We're shrinking because you can't do both. You can't stand at the top of the slip and slide.
Metaphorically speaking and hope to grow. You can't fill your mind with garbage and hope to learn the truth. You can't do it. So here my father and Mr. Lindsey sat beside each other and my dad could say that they were the same. And he was absolutely depressed and and you know, he's he had he was on his third marriage and couldn't hold a job and couldn't get a house and there's nothing going right. But but he had any realized potential.
00:15:20
No accomplishment. And you know, we think in terms of of learning scriptural truths, learning about the Lord. It's not going to happen by magic. Just like you don't fail at a 90°, you don't leave the path at 90° accidentally, you don't learn.
All at once, it's not going to happen. And some of us kind of try to cheat and we we try to cram for a test, right? You don't study, you don't study and then you try to cram for a test and hope you're gonna pass and it doesn't work. You don't learn all at once. So I would just encourage you.
To think about that, there was a another verse I was going to read.
Here, you know, we well, I'll just refer to this, but Paul encouraged Timothy to continue, continue in the things that he learned. And Peter encourages us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. And again, it's lying upon literal line, line upon line. It's not, it's not by accident that we're given the word of God.
To read like it is, we can only read one word at a time. And, and so it takes a lot of discipline, it takes a lot of perseverance. I was talking to a friend recently and he admitted, he admitted that he had never read the whole Bible. And I, he was kind of ashamed. I said, Oh well.
I haven't either, I just made a confession so I haven't read the whole Bible like this.
Cover the cover. I've never done that. I think as I've considered it. I think I've read all of it, most of it.
I think we kind of Passover things and excuse ourselves, but I would encourage you and who has, I'm not trying to embarrass anybody, but who has read the entire Bible cover to cover. It's great. A lot of young people and older people. I just raised my hand, but I was just trying to encourage you to raise your hand. I haven't done it, but I will do it. I will do it. I mean, I, I think it's not necessary, right? It's not absolutely necessary to be a Christian, but I think it's necessary to, to really grow and to really know.
To know our Savior more perfectly.
So, yeah, the other thing I was going to talk about as far as so I do want to focus on the, the, the fact that we we should.
We should be well, we should be growing.
But you know one of the thing about the slip and slide, once you start down that slip and slide, how easy is it stop?
It's really hard, especially if they've lubed it up, it's really hard to stop. And that's how sin is. And Satan knows that he loves to just stumble you a little bit. And then we, we start to slide slowly, but we gain and we gain it at some point. It's really hard to stop. That's what my dad found out, sadly. So I just, and again, I'm not trying to say this to encourage you because I'm scared you're going to do some terrible thing in life and, and pick up some terrible habits, but that's, that's how it works. Starts with a thought, right? And the thought turns into a what?
Turns into an action. And if we do something, we act on something enough, what does it become? Becomes a habit. And then we have a habit and it kind of encourages it makes it easier to do something a little bit bigger. And then if we do that little bigger thing for long enough, then it becomes a bigger habit and then it grows and grows and grows. That's the slip. That's the slip and slide, so.
Let's just pray.
Sure, sure.
OK, Father, we give thanks now for this time together. We thank you for that precious word and thank you for the encouragement in it. I.
To learn, to grow, to continue to seek.
The truth to buy, the truth to desire those things that are good. To think on those things that are that are good.
And we just asked for help to recognize our enemy and.
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Help to to bring our thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Help us Lord, to encourage one another in these things and and not be afraid to to be a help to one another. We're thankful for that love to us, most especially for the Lord Jesus for our Savior. Thankful for the food that's been prepared for providing for us in such a a wonderful way every day.
We're grateful for thy love and we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
Philippians 1:27-2:5
The Will of God
Address—Ron Klassen
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Last night Brother Caleb spoke on God's thoughts of his son, and he spoke quite at length of the will of God, and that's what's on my heart to speak of tonight. So you'll forgive me if I recover a little ground that he did. We'll just call it refresher course.
Or an underlining Let's ask the Lord for his help.
Our God and Father.
We thank thee for that day.
That's just before us.
Well, what an important day.
When I beloved son.
Will be exalted.
Both in heaven and earth that day, Lord Jesus, when those of us that know thee will see the face to face the day we're waiting for.
Nor God as we tread this wilderness path and we are so thankful for this Oasis in it.
This fellowship we do praise Thee and thank thee for Thy goodness to us, but we do pray as we open thy precious word, that.
We would hear that from myself. That would be a help to us in regard to our pathway here. Help us to take heed to it. Father, we pray, We ask Thy health and Speaking of it and clearness, we pray that it might be of practical help even to the young.
But we seek thy undertaking, our God and Father, and thank you that we can, for we ask it in the precious name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Just out of interest here, you know, when I was you guys his age on the front row, we, I'm not sure where it came from, but we were passed around a little cassette tape. You probably don't know what those things are, but we listen to that thing until we wore it completely out and that cassette tape was, I don't know what you call it.
Anyway, it was a lady who.
Read or really abridged the story of Man's Soul? Have you ever seen that book Man's Soul? Have you?
Could you raise your hand? I'd be interested to see how many.
Now I see a lot of the older ones, maybe not so many young ones. I know Uncle Steve a few years ago got a bunch of copies and he might still have them.
You know, I never read the book, but that tape was maybe, I guess we listened to it for its entertaining value, but we realized it's an allegory like Little Pilgrim's Progress. You can learn some things about it. You can learn about what goes on inside here and why.
Well, you know in in that.
Talent of man's soul. It said that the whole town kowtowed to the winds.
Of will and mind.
The whole town.
You know when you think of that.
That's quite a thought.
Each one of us here tonight has a will.
I found that out especially, you know, when I had my first born.
About six months into our time together, boy, one night.
It was really a struggle. Here's this little guy and he can't crawl or walk or talk or anything, but wow. I mean, there was something that was well developed and that was his will. And I realized I came against something that though he was little, this thing was big and I wasn't able for that.
Because he's here tonight, I'm going to, I'll add that that's changed. And well, it's, it's been, it's come under the Lord's control and he's a delight.
But each one of us have that will, and to think that that will controls our mind, our thoughts. Have you ever heard this expression? The key to the opening, the the, the breaking of the will of our wills is the key to the opening of our understanding.
Because our will is controlling our thoughts.
You know, there's things that we we don't want to know because our wills doesn't want to know them. And so it it doesn't accept it and doesn't see it honestly doesn't see it because will and mind are in control as we come into this world naturally. So I said I wanted to speak about the will of God. But let's first look at a verse that that talks about this very truth in Ephesians chapter 2. I'm going to read it in Mr. Darby's translation because it brings it out in regard to the will.
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Ephesians chapter 2.
And verse one and you was talking about us being dead in your offenses and sins in which he once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air. That's Satan the Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we also all once had our conversation in the lusts of our flesh, doing what the flesh.
And the thoughts willed to do. And we're children by nature of wrath, even as the rest.
This verse tells us that all of us, even those of us who by grace know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we once were, controlled by what our will and our lusts wanted to do in our mind. And you know, that's just where Satan wanted us.
He is very happy for us to do just what we want to do. Have you ever heard this statement?
Liberty of the Will.
Is slavery to the devil?
Remember that statement? If I could just do what I wanted, that would be sure that I would be a slave to Satan. He's very happy if I'm pursuing my own will.
But let's look at a better will.
Go to the back up to the first chapter of Ephesians.
Ephesians One, and verse 9. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will. This is talking about God the Father, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself. What is it that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one, or head up all things in Christ which are in heaven?
And which are on earth even in him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.
Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh. Now notice this, who worketh all things after the Council of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory.
You know, in the Old Testament.
Men and women didn't really know what the will of God was. I mean, they didn't know what his purpose was.
But in his goodness, he's revealed it to us in the New Testament. And he says, my purpose is that I'm going to exalt my beloved son, who we heard about last night such a wonderful way, and I'm going to put everything under his rule and dominion, and that's going to be a blessing.
And I'm working everything to that end.
Now that's quite a problem, isn't it? Because we come into this world and we want to do our will. And you know, our will is as we heard this morning, it centers around self.
The reason why I want to do what I want to do is because of how it affects me. So here we have how many billion people in this world? And all these wills? And then there's just this one will, this perfect will.
That's God.
As God and he's working everything to this end.
Now you might say, sure doesn't look like it.
This world is getting darker and going farther and farther away from God. There are things that your children are having to contend with School we never dreamed about. And you say that's God working all things after the counsel of his will. He is it's it takes faith, but God is working all things to that end.
00:10:15
Now.
We know that he's revealed it to us. How much does it affect our lives?
You know, you say it's only sensible that if you know that everything is going to meet here and you're going over here, you're wasting your time, right?
More than wasting your time, you're going to end up defeated and in sorrow.
But, you know, just because we know about something, many of us know things, but they don't necessarily govern our life, do they? And in that same tape of man's soul, there was a character called Unbelief. And, you know, they said Unbelief gave him an opportunity to, to surrender to, to.
You remember who it was, but to the Lord and he said, I don't remember the exact words, but to give myself unreservedly to a power that's beyond my control. Never. Never.
And that's what our will says, doesn't it? You mean to just give the reins, to just say, I, Lord, I want to do thy will if that's what you purpose, I want to work to that end.
Oh, there's a struggle inside that says, but what if? What if he doesn't do what I want him to do? Or what if he does something that I don't want him to do?
You know that's where coming to know our God.
Comes in if you knew, if you really were convinced in your soul that his will.
Let's go to the next next verse in Romans chapter 12.
Again, you might say that's scary because if God as God is working everything towards his end.
What's that like? Because that's going to affect me. Indeed it is. Well, let's see what it's like.
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 be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You see, there's the mind changed, that you may prove. What is that Notice good and acceptable and perfect.
Will of God.
The apostle Paul here is saying after these first 11 Chapters of Romans, when you learn the heart of God, His love that's unbounded, when you learn his grace.
His mercy, His goodness.
I beseech you, by that yield this, this body you know, because it does what the will wants it to do. Yield that to the Lord Jesus as a living sacrifice.
Because I want you to know. I want you to know. I want you to prove in your life the blessedness of that will. How that.
It's what, three things? It's good.
You have it.
And accept.
Acceptable. What'd you say?
Nice it is, and perfect.
There's a verse that tells us that all things work together for.
Good, Very good.
All things work together for good to them that love God. And so we can say by faith, I know that what the Lord is allowing in my life, it's for my good.
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There's also a verse that says, As for God, his way is.
Perfect.
Very good. And so I can say again, well, faith would tell me God, I can take God's word and it says that God's way is perfect. But there's a word in there that's you might think, why is that in there acceptable?
You know, I know there are some in here that have gone through.
Some deep sorrows.
And I may say that I know.
That the way the Lord is taking with me is good because he said so. And I know it's perfect and someday I'll see that, but right now I'm having a hard time accepting it.
Well, you know, he says to us, it's acceptable.
It is acceptable. You don't have to struggle with that.
Just let your will go in mind and someday you'll see. You'll be so glad.
That I chose your pathway for you.
So what an encouragement to our hearts, what an incentive that this will that's going to be carried out. It's good and it's acceptable and it's perfect. And you can you and I can say, Lord, take my body. I want it to be yours. I want my life to count. I want it to be a blessing to others and I want it to be a joy to you.
Let's turn to Matthew chapter 6.
Well, here.
The Lord Jesus is telling his disciples how to pray. Verse 7. But when you pray and then he says.
Verse 9 After this manner, therefore pray ye our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come. Now notice this, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
He told the disciples.
Pray.
That the will of God will be done on earth like it is in heaven.
You know I have a son.
In heaven.
And because of that, I'd like to learn all that I can.
About heaven and this is one of the things that it tells us that the will of God.
Is done in heaven.
Isn't that wonderful?
We know it's not being done on earth. Think of the disparity between heaven and earth and what the Lord Jesus feels as he looks down on this earth where every man's doing his own will, which ends in such sorrow because in heaven it's that we sing. Sometimes all the mind in heaven is, is one because it's the will of God's being done. And so when we, he gives us a little glimpses into heaven, it's, it's all orderly. It's all.
Unity.
There's Harper's harping on their harp and so on. You know, I, I recently.
Read these statements, actually one of them, and heard the other one on a tape from Regina.
And I'll just pass this on to you. Who is this?
That paradise.
Like you know where the Lord said to the thief, today you're going to be with me in paradise? And Paul said he was caught up into paradise and he heard indescribable things that he can't pass on because they were too wonderful. The statement is paradise is not a place.
You know, that kind of woke me up.
It's the description of a place.
I love them.
That's the description of the place.
In other words.
It's just exactly what the heart, the renewed heart, desires and wants.
Sometimes we say, well, this is a paradise, you know, we can look outside and see the beauty today. Shalt thou be with me in paradise? It's the description of a place. Glory is not a place.
00:20:13
It's a state or a condition.
Glory.
That's heaven.
That's where the will of God is done.
It's it's makes it paradise. It makes it glory.
Well, we might say, you know, that's wonderful, but.
I feel the struggles in doing the will of God. I wish I had an example before me that that I could see well.
We have that example before us last night, didn't we? The Lord Jesus says in Psalms.
I'm going to read it whether Caleb was quoted it last night so well, but I'm going to read in Psalms chapter 40.
This is prophetic of the Lord Jesus.
And he says.
#7 then said I lo, I come in the volume of the book, it is written of me.
Now this isn't what was written, he says in the volume of the book. It is written of me. And then he doesn't tell us what's written. It's just that book. He can look at that book and say.
The will of God.
Concerns me doing this, this and this and if we can say he he reviews that you say it reverently and what is his response? His response is I delight to do thy will. Oh my God, yay, thy law is within.
My heart.
We heard about what that will.
Was last night.
It took the Lord Jesus to Gethsemane.
And there was strong cries and tears. He poured out his heart to his father.
And the anticipation of it, because he knew what lie ahead of him, caused him to sweat.
But it wasn't sweat like we sweat today. It was great. Drops of blood coming out like sweat. I've never heard of any other man sweating like that.
Maybe it's happened.
But he was in such agony.
But that's what he swept with blood, not water. And he said, my father, if it be possible.
Let this cup pass from me.
Nevertheless, nevertheless not my will.
But thine be done.
You know the Lord Jesus had a will that was perfect.
Had he done his will? It was perfect, but it wasn't the Father's will.
And when when the writer of Hebrews recounts this verse in Psalms 40, it just simply says, I come to do thy will. Lord Jesus was delighted. Delighted. Did he know what lie ahead of him? Yes, he did. Then how could he say delighted in it? Because you know, he knew God. He was with him in the past eternity. He knew all his blessedness. He was God himself and he could say that will.
Know what that will is? It's blessed. I'm delighted to do that. But of course, when he came down, when he thought of being made sin, when he thought of being forsaken of God, when he thought of going into death, that awful place.
He shrunk back.
But then he said I, I did. I came to do the Father's will.
Think of him last night, brother Caleb said. Condensed. They confined.
Confined to a body of a baby. And I know we have to speak carefully here because he was God and he could say as a man here, even the Son of man who is in heaven, He's omnipresent, but still.
00:25:09
Confined to time and sense and weakness, what did he do for 30 years?
Confined, He was the Son of God from a past eternity, and here he is.
That's part of the divine will. Why would he do that? Why would he delight in it all? Because he knew it's blessed.
Hebrews 12 Says Who? For the joy that was set before him? What was that?
To do the will of God. It was the will of God being accomplished.
He endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down on the right hand of God. You might say to me, well, that's the Lord Jesus. He's perfect. I'm not. I need someone. I need someone like me.
That could be an example. Well, you know, he gives us some. Let's turn to Acts chapter 13.
Verse 21.
And afterward they desired a king, and God gave unto them Saul, the son of Sis.
A man of the tribe of Benjamin by the space of 40 years. And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king.
To whom also he gave testimony and said, I've found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my will and then go down to.
Verse 36.
For David, after he had.
I'm going to quote this out of Mr. Darby's translation.
For David.
In his own generation, ministered to the will of God.
Though David, You say? David wasn't a perfect person. No, he wasn't. In fact, he fell into some very grievous sins. Why was he a man after God's own heart?
Why does suggest that? Because he had the will of God before him. God said he's going to do all my will. He's a man after my own heart.
I enjoy Mr. Garry's translation and apparently it's more accurate and it changes the the focus. It's not serving his own generation, rather he was ministering to the will of God in his own generation.
You know, when David lived, Saul was king.
And he was a man after the flesh, and in spite of all that David did for him by playing, by conquering the the Goliath who saw was powerless against.
In spite of all that David did for Saul, Saul hated him and wanted to kill him.
David in that time?
In his own generation he ministered to the will of God.
You know that to me is is a tremendous statement.
Imagine you and I as creatures being able privileged to minister, serve the will of God, to be used of God to actually carry out this will. This divine that's going to come about is going to be on display for the praise and honor and glory of our God for all eternity. You and I born in right now on this generation. I think brother Alejandro said, Jonathan's said this is the the me generation.
And so you young people are right now, you say, you know, to bring up the Lord's things and certainly to speak of, of resigning, not resigning, of handing over all to the Lord, of wanting his will. That's absurd in this generation. That's.
00:30:14
It doesn't.
You'd be laughed out of town.
But you know you have the privilege.
Of ministering to the will of God.
In your generation.
I want to say to something about David, you know, there was a time when David said, Hey, I want to build a house to the Lord and his friend and prophet Nathan said excellent idea. Let's do it. Go ahead, do it. But you know, the Lord came to to Nathan that night and said, no, David isn't going to do that. His son will, but David can't. You know, part of the will of God and surrendering to it is.
There may be something that I want to do that is right, is good, and actually is for the Lord. Maybe you've experienced this. I have.
And the Lord says.
And that's hard.
It's difficult.
But you know what David did?
He submitted to that because he wanted the will of God. He was going to do all the will of God. And so he just prepared for it. And Solomon, his son built it. And so as we go on and we surrender our will to the Lord's will, you will prove, You'll prove that that could be improved upon. And I don't think we have to just wait until that coming day. There's many things that now, if I'm willing to submit my will to the Lord, I will see.
Even here, the beauty, the blessedness, the value of that will.
The Apostle Paul, he was another one.
You know, he says, follow me as I follow Christ.
But we know that in his unconverted days he thought he was doing the will of God.
And he was carrying out with a mighty hand, and the Lord arrested him.
And when the Lord arrested him on the road to Damascus, the first thing he said is, Who art thou, Lord?
And then what's the next thing? He said.
I am Jesus, who thou persecute us. Very good. That's how the Lord answered him. And then what did Paul say after that?
Lord, what will?
You said it.
What? Yeah. What wilt thou have me to do?
I know Mr. Darby says it's not there and the best manuscripts in the 9th chapter, but you can go to the 22nd chapter and he says Lord, what shall I do?
You know, that's the again, the, the, the will, Paul's will had blinded his mind and he actually thought he was doing the will of God, but he wasn't. He was going absolutely contrary to the will of God. And so when all of a sudden he realizes he's persecuting the very one that he thought he was serving.
He said, Lord, what are you doing?
You know our wills don't only end in sorrow and defeat when we try to live out our will.
They actually can be awful.
Paul's will resulted in Saints being locked in prison and slain. And he said, I don't want to do my will anymore. I don't. I want to do thy will. And so we're what a blessing we're reading together in Philippians.
And we read of a man who God is wrought with, a man who turned everything over to the Lord. It was just living for the will of God and all the the the precious things. We learn his heart for the Saints, his selflessness, his love for the Lord.
His willingness to die daily.
That came.
That was formed in him.
Because he had one thing before him, and that was the will of God.
Well, you might say.
You know, my schedule is such, my life is such. I have a bunch of obligations. I mean, things I have to do. So it's a nice thought. But I know what I've got to do tomorrow and the next day. Especially when you get to school, right? It's a nice break. The school's coming up.
00:35:16
You might say my life is pretty well planned as far as me being concerned about doing the will of God. That may be more theory. Let's look at Ephesians chapter 6.
He's in chapter 6 and verse 5. Servants. Well, he's talking about slaves. Remember reading about slaves?
Could slaves do what they wanted to Ben?
Oh, why?
Who owned them, right?
Somebody owned them, now here's their instruction to them.
Slaves be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart is unto Christ, not with I service as men's pleasers, but as the servants of Christ. Notice doing the will of God from the heart. From the heart you know in Titus 2.
Paul writes and he says the servants, the slaves, you can adorn the doctrine.
I can endure in the doctrine. I can't even do what I want to do. I have to do what that man who owns me tells me what to do, he says.
You can still do the will of God and you can adorn the doctrine, because if somebody sees you who can't do their will and you're happy and you're rejoicing, and you're carrying out not your will, but somebody else's will cheerfully, all they say there's something here this I don't understand. They could adorn a doctor. And so none of us, you know, you may have a schedule.
That you have to do, but remember.
Even as you get up, pray.
Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Because you may do the same thing that you did yesterday, but you'll do it in such a way that it's a delight to His heart and a joy to your own.
All of us.
Can do the will of God in our lives.
What you might say.
But you know, I have a hard time knowing what that will is.
Let's turn to John Chapter 7.
Verse 16.
Jesus answered them and said my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
If any man will to do his will, that's the will of God. He shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.
Mr. Darby says if any man will, to practice his will.
You know, all of us know what it's like to come to a crossroad in our life and we really don't have a will which way to go. We just don't know where which way to go. And we don't want to make a mistake. And so we can from our hearts say, Lord, what is thy will?
Well, this is talking about practice. This is talking about every day.
You know, some of those crossroads we wouldn't even come to if it was our habit and our purpose and our desire to do the will of God. And it's an encouragement, isn't it, that the Lord Jesus said, if you will to practice it, not to know it, but if you want to practice the will of God, you will know.
I remember Gordon Hayhoe saying you will never.
When you get to glory, be able to look at the Lord Jesus and say, you know, I really wanted to know your will so that I could do it. You wouldn't show it to me.
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He said that won't happen.
If it's my desire to practice his will to do it.
Regardless of what it is.
He'll make it clear to me.
But you know, he says about the doctrine here, he says you'll know whether the doctrine that you're hearing is of God or whether I'm just speaking for myself.
Few years ago I ran into a sister.
Who used to be gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus?
We loved her, still do.
And she didn't bring this up. I mean, I didn't bring this up. She did at some point in our conversation, she said, you know?
I'm not there anymore.
I don't know how that happened.
And she didn't say that just once. She said it a couple times.
Really, I don't know how that happened.
And I could feel the sorrow in her, her voice and the bewilderment.
Just this last week, a dear brother who I haven't seen for 25 years.
Came to my doorstep.
Again, he brought up.
The subject I didn't.
And he said the same thing. He said I.
I don't know how it happened.
It was, it was like.
He was thinking back, he said I.
How it happened?
I thought maybe he would say, you know, well, we just came to a point where we saw that that those gathered held doctrine that we couldn't go along with. And so we had, we didn't save them.
He didn't even say, you know, we were so offended by this thing we'll never forget. It was just too much. He didn't even say that. He said, I don't know why.
And you know what made me tremble?
Here they find themselves in the systems of men.
They don't know how they got there.
You know to to desire the will of God is a safeguard.
Because again, my will can cloud my understanding of my thoughts and I can find myself someplace that years later, I don't know how I got there.
Not scary.
But it doesn't have to be.
And if our Savior showed us that the will of God is worth living for.
Whatever.
Suffering, it requires. And you know, Peter says twice. If you suffer.
How does he put it?
If any man suffer according to the will of God, he says that twice.
The will of God very likely will bring us into suffering.
But all it's worth it.
To decide that I don't want to suffer, to decide that either something that I want. And it doesn't seem to be the will of God that I have it. And so I'm going to determine I'm going to go after it. I'll wish that I had.
In fact, let's turn to Revelation Chapter 4.
Revelation chapter 4 and verse 9.
And when the living creatures shall give glory and honor and Thanksgiving to him that sits upon the throne, who lives to the ages of ages. The 24 elders that represent you and I, that know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, as well as the Old Testament Saints, the 24 elders shall fall before him that sits upon the throne and do homage to Him that lives to the ages of ages.
And shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying.
Thou art worthy.
Oh, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy will they were, and they have been created.
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Isn't this blessed that God shows us the end of the pathway?
Lest there is any doubt in our mind that to do His blessed will was a lesser path, would be something that I would wish I hadn't done down the road, that I would miss out on something, He takes us to the end of the path. He shows us what's ahead.
He says.
You're gonna fall before me. You're gonna be fall before the Lord Jesus.
And you're going to set your crown. You're going to place it. No, you're going to cast it.
At his feet.
And say thou art worthy.
Because I was created all things.
For thy will.
Then we're going to see with such clarity.
The perfection, the beauty, the delight, the glory of the will of God.
And it will still strike our hearts that will be prostrated before Him and thank Him and praise Him that everything that was created, that you and I was created for His will.
I trust.
Our trust that our hearts have been strengthened.
To see the preciousness of the will of God.
That we'd really desire to do that, That we would pray.
That it might be so in our lives.
But we would seek grace from Him to ever surrender our will to His, with the confidence it will be delighted that we did, that we can have the privilege of ministering to the will of God.
Pray.
Lord, God and Father.
We thank the fresh tonight for the blessedness of Thy will. We thank Thee that Thou hast disclosed it to us.
And our God, we pray that by faith.
We would as we've sung in this song.
We would is yield to Thee that dollar. Thy Spirit would perfect in US every grace to do Thy blessed will. We thank the our God and Father for the anticipation of that day when we will see the perfection, the beauty, the glory, the wonder of that will. We ask for faith and grace to seek it and to walk in it now We ask it, Father, and give Thee thanks.
Seeking Thy blessing on Thy word and his worthy and precious name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Words of Comfort
Sing Talk—Jadon Nicoara
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Start with the word of prayer.
God and Father, we thank you for this time. We can have this evening singing to Thee and.
Thank you for all that was done. And just think of each one of this room and all the different needs and the different place in life that ones are at. And we just think especially the young people and the hard times that we live in and the different struggles we have and trials that we go through and just ask for the open strength tonight. Then the message would be clear. And pray for this in the name of Jesus, Amen.
So.
I want to read a few verses.
Of comfort for any here who may be fearful or fainting under hardships in life.
Satan wants to destroy. He would love to destroy anybody in here, especially the young people. They have a long life ahead of them that they could live for the Lord and I feel like he's doing it by casting doubts, making us fearful, and wearing us down through the trials of life. Different things.
So let's turn to Isaiah 4, chapter 40.
And if you don't have your Bible, that's fine because soon be turning to quite a few verses so.
Isaiah chapter 40 start in verse 28.
Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not? Neither is weary. There is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increase its strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as Eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
So the first thing I want to realize from these verses is that even as young people.
We, we have a lot of energy and a lot of vigor, but that's not enough to get us through the storms of life when things come the only way. There's different ones here that spiritual battles. There's lots of ones here with health problems and things like that. And if it weren't for the help of the Lord, we'd be crushed under them. And secondly.
In the last verse who read, we find this only in waiting upon the Lord that will have the strength.
Our strength renewed to keep going forward in life. So I want to read some verses.
Of the promises of God when we go through different struggles, so can turn to Isaiah chapter 43.
And start halfway down through verse one.
Fear not, for I've redeemed thee. I've called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. When thou passes through the waters, I'll be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flames, the flame kindle upon thee, For I am the Lord thy God.
So these verses show us that were His and He is with us in every situation in life.
I want to turn to Hebrews chapter 4 now.
Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 15.
For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, buzz, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
These verses show us that he feels exactly what we feel in the trial. He doesn't just look at it, He actually feels it with us and feels it deeply too, because he was a man. He walked on the earth and he had feelings too. And Isaiah 41, verse 10, Fear thou not, for I'm with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yeah, I will help thee. Yeah, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. So he's the one that holds this up. He's the one that strengthens us. We can't do it on our own.
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And Hebrews chapter 12, verse 3.
For considering that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest he be weird and faint in your minds. In Second Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16. For which 'cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. So these verses show us that however long and deep the trouble we find ourselves in.
It's just a moment compared to eternity. It's it's just nothing. It's just a snapshot and through through every sorrow and disappointment of life, the Lord is working in us to make us. What do you want? More like himself?
And the Lord is coming soon, so our suffering time is short. Soon it's going to be gone. He's going to wipe away our tears every trial, every heartache.
And we'll be with him and like him forever. So hopefully those verses can encourage you to encourage everybody here. If there's somebody going particularly that's going through some hard times or some trials, those are some verses of comfort. So maybe we could close.
Godfather, just thank you for all those done. Thank you for thy suffering and we can look back to that and find comfort in it and we can look at thy life that else walk here and see how it's feel the same things we feel. And we just thank you to our high priest now interceding for us and praying for us in heaven every day to the Father. And we just thank you for this and pray to for blessing the rest of the camp and pray for safety and encouraging time.
Just ask this in the name Lord Jesus, Amen.
Philippians 2:5-9
His Desire
Address—Mark Rogers
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Well, I'd like to talk about his sweet name tonight, so let's ask.
Father our God, for the help that we need tonight, our Father our God, we now lift up.
Thy Son, the Lord Jesus, and we're thankful that we can sing about his name. And now we ask for help our Father and our God for the time here that we have before us to take up the scriptures. Thou has given us thy holy word in our in our laps here, and we just ask that the Holy Spirit also help us as we take up.
Our blessed Lord Jesus.
And Lord Jesus, we're thankful too for the lovely time we've had here at camp and the measure of safety and health and the encouragement. We have so much to be thankful for during this week. But most importantly, Lord Jesus, for that name that we can take up and thy precious name we pray. Amen.
Well, I.
Had some thoughts happening in the last SO eight weeks or so in light of some questions that.
You probably have heard as well.
From time to time from various ones and at their fair questions.
And the question has to do. The questions may say something along these lines. Is this the place for me to gather? Or another question maybe is there more than one place?
And my intention is not to answer that question directly tonight. I believe that we start with the Word of God and we stick to the Word of God and let your conscience and the Holy Spirit guide and direct you on the matter. But I believe it's important to see.
What the Scriptures say about this matter, we're going to look at what his heart is like.
We're going to look at what his principles are.
His Holiness.
And his desire for me, and his desire for you.
So let's start in the very beginning of the book, shall we? In the book of Genesis.
We're going to look at as we go through for the time that we have here, we're going to concentrate on his desire.
And as we go along, we're going to find out that there's something else that comes along and may contradict his desire. Sometimes it's called my desire.
And every one of us will have a struggle. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.
When we have to recognize, am I in tune with his desire? Do I have my own desire going on?
And so as we go through the scriptures here, we're going to find out clearly what his desire is. And then in some instances, we're going to see where I'm going to use the word my desire because I will identify I'm no better than those that we're going to read about in the scriptures that failed and took up their own desire.
Because our hearts are the same today.
So we all know the story. Even the youngest in this in the room know the story about.
Let me ask the question why did God create man? And may give me an answer younger ones anyone Why did God create man?
What's that?
Be a companion for himself, Absolutely. He had the angels, He had the angels, they're all lined up. We know that there's myriads of angels. He had all the angels, but he created a man in a garden for a purpose to be a companion and to have communion with him. So we see here in verse one of chapter one, verse 26, it says, and God said, let us make man in our image and our likeness.
And then we can jump down over to the second chapter for the 20.
20.
Where it says.
He breathed air into his nostrils. So he tenderly created man. But what was the problem with just Adam living? Anybody else like. Yeah, well.
He got lonely, absolutely. He got lonely. And so God says in chapter 2 verse 18, and the Lord God said it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him. So now God created man to have communion with him and then he finds out. He sees, he didn't have to find out. He sees that Adam is lonely and he creates Eve. It's a beautiful thing. So now they have communion with one another.
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And we also see here too.
That in chapter 3.
Verse 8 very lovely verse here 8 verse chapter 3, verse eight and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves in the present Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. So Adam and Eve are created and God is now enjoying the company of these two in the garden that he just created. It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing because apparently.
What I take from it is that he cannot disclose all of his purposes and all of his counsels to an Angel.
And so we have God Elohim, walking in the cool of the garden, communing with a man and a woman.
But this is our first example where a man and a woman's desire over and I don't want to use the world override. I'm coming trying to come up with a word with it, but it contradicts his desire. His desire says you shall need of the tree of the garden right now you this tree. And obviously their desire was the opposite. And so now they find themselves as he's walking through the garden.
They're hiding themselves. Their desire overrode or circumvented his desire to have communion that evening, and he finds them hiding in the bushes.
He wanted to have communion that evening with him and he finds him hiding in the bushes.
Can we not take that away to where sometimes my desire?
Overrides his desire for communion and he misses out on the communion that evening.
So we have a way verse chapter 3, verse 21 unto Adam also and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. He came with a remedy. He says, I would still like to have communion with you and he creates coats of skin. He had to kill some sheep or kill some goats and create clothes for them. And now they can have communion. But the problem is, is now their communion is going to be severed to some degree because they're cast out of the garden. Can you think of God Almighty creating this world, creating all the, I mean, you sit out here and just we, I think there's a fair amount of us that are admiring the natural beauty all around us down to the increase. If we brought a microscope in here, we could see the details.
Of just what we're seeing right out here in front of us. He does all this, but he also creates man for communion.
And man decides to stop that commune that evening by eating the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And he has that nakedness. He's conscience is on board and it's a sad thing to see. God, Adam, where art thou?
They're afraid the communion is dropped, but he establishes the communion. And so his desire to have communion is well exemplified here in the early parts of Genesis. So let's continue on to the next book to see what his desire is. And we're not going to. There's just too many scriptures to go through, and I don't have all the scriptures anyway. We could turn over to that. Let's just put our fingers on the 25th chapter of Exodus right now. We're all caught. We're all.
We all remember the Scripture well, that now there is a earthly people. What's the earthly people, young people again, What's the earthly people that that that came out of Egypt, whether they what are they called earthly people? Israelites. Yeah, Israelites, children of Israel. And So what does he do in Egypt? He purchases them away. He put, we have the the blood is laid on the doorpost. The Passover is given. He purchases a lamb has to be killed that night.
He takes them out of Egypt, purchase them, buys them back out of Egypt, and then out there on the sea of the Red Sea, he also protects them.
And he saves them from the enemy, right? The enemy was falling up behind them, right? And they had the ocean in front of him and they had the enemy behind them. And he saves them as he opens up the the floods and they walk right through on dry ground.
So he redeems them out of Egypt, saves them from Egypt, and now he's out in the wilderness. And there's a particular desire that he has now. And we see this in the 25th chapter. It's all over, but I we don't have all the time. It says in verse 22, now he makes the ark of the Covenant and he's telling Moses.
He says in Exodus 2522. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat and from between the two cherubims, which are above the ark of the testimony of all things, which I will give thee in commandment under the children of Israel. And then we can turn over to the 30th chapter, chapter 30, Exodus 30, and then verse.
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Six and he's talking about the staves of Shittimwood, so he's going into the art, the altar of incense there, but in chapter.
30 verse 6 And thou shalt put it before the veil, that is by the ark of the testimony, so you can put that incense altar right there, but before the veil, before the mercy thee that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee. It's very clear that back in that backroom, the holy of Holies, he wants to Jehovah wants to meet with Moses.
So now we have him wanting to meet, not just the communion, but he wants to meet with them and then we have here too.
Look over here on the 29th back to the 29th chapter here verse.
43 verse 43 is the prior chapter. And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the Tabernacle should be sanctified by my glory. And I will sanctify the alt, the Tabernacle of the congregation and the altar. I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons to minister me and the priest office. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and I will be their God and they.
Shall know that I am the Lord their God. And brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. Now he has another desire. The desire is not only to meet and talk with Moses. We find him talking directly with Moses, but he wants to dwell with them. His desire is to dwell with a people. Consider it. Put your eye on a telescope. Look out into the vastness and to think.
He created all this and yet He wants to dwell amongst this earthly people called Israelites out in the wilderness. And we find out where was the position of the Tabernacle relative to the whole big company of 600, seven, 100,000 people out there. Where was that Tabernacle? Is it in? Was it at the 12:00 position or the 6:00 position or you know, where do you know where that was?
You know what a bull's eye is.
Anybody know how to shoot out a target?
Right in the Max smack in the center that was to be where the Tabernacle was. And that's where he wanted to dwell with the people that precious. And so they could be looking back. The big massive company. They can look back. Then we know later on there's a there's a Shekinah glory that comes in and fills it and there's a funnel that goes on up that that that shows. And that funnel would would, would direct them out as to where they go. But you could wake up in the morning. You can look out over the tents. You can see out there. There was the funnel. That's where.
Jehovah was dwelling in the midst. That's his desire, right? We don't have him dwelling with them before this time, but now he wants to dwell with the people.
Let's turn over the 40th chapter.
For one more, here the very, very last verses of the Book of Exodus.
Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the Tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud were not taken up, then they that journeyed not till the day that it was taken out. For the cloud of the Lord Jehovah was upon the Tabernacle by day, and a fire was on it by night.
In the sight of the House of Israel throughout all their journeys. Is that beautiful or what to see a company of his earthly people out there in the desert not how does not have all this beauty that we have and there he is abiding with them. Now this very same portion we can see a likeness too. I'm not going to read it tonight. Later on when they get in the land, Solomon builds a temple and the same cloud comes in and just fills the temple to the maximum. They couldn't see. They couldn't work because God put his.
Blessing upon being able to dwell in the midst of this people.
That's his desire.
For these people is to dwell in the midst of them, but they did not understand and they did not appreciate the fact that he was wanting to dwell because we see the failure that sets in. One of the things we're not going to take it up as well. We, we took up, we touched it in Aberdeen a little bit as well. But we have and we took up numbers 19 for those that weren't there. But it's very, very clear when we read the book of Numbers, book of Leviticus.
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Defilement could not be in the camp. Chapter after chapter after chapter is written about defilement in in his earthly people and what to do about it. In fact, there is a time when the when it was so defiled in the camp that the Tabernacle had to be moved outside the camp.
And so there are principles associated with God when he wants to dwell or meet with the people. Is there has to be holiness involved?
And if the holiness fails, there's a remedy to regain holiness before him. And that's the Pentateuch, right? It's a beautiful thing.
And so this is what's being overlooked today in all of Christendom is the fact of holiness.
When, when, when meeting with God in a collective manner, not to mention in a personal manner as well. But my primary, my primary burden is the thought of God and His desire to meet with us.
In a collective manner which obviously has to be laid out from what what the personal manner is throughout the week.
Well, now we get so we have the desire to be in communion with man. We have the desire to dwell with a people. And then there is also another desire and that is he wanted to be recognized to be when he gets in, when they get into Jerusalem, into the in the land that he appoints Jerusalem to be the center. And there's many portions for that. But let's just turn over to Zachariah. Just we don't have so much time, but let's just look at Zachariah, one of the prophets.
They're at the end of the Old Testament.
Zachariah Chapter.
8.
And again, this is just a prophet speaking, repeating what the Lord tells him, and it says in verse one Zechariah 81 Again the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, Thus said the Lord of hosts, I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy. Zions, as I understand it, is Jerusalem there. And I was jealous for her with great fury. Thus saith the Lord, I am returned unto Zion. I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of the hosts.
The Holy Mountain and now we have not this now and Zacharias Day. It happened before this. God is showing His desire that Jerusalem is now going to be the center of the earth and he wants to dwell there. And today is it not? Is not Jerusalem in the surrounding areas the hottest bed of the world? It is the most amazing thing to see a little strip of land being so hotly contested for so many thousands of years.
And more importantly, even right now, you know, if these people that don't believe in God or any kind of spiritual movements of anything, they, they must, they must have to consider why is a piece of land, which I understand doesn't even have oil on it is so hotly contested. It's a divine thing. It's a spiritual warfare going on. And here we have in Zechariah the the thought that he would like to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.
And then one more here. Let's turn over the book of Joel.
Yeah.
Little tiny book here. I'm having a hard time finding it. There it is.
Didn't even have a bookmark. Hosea, Joel Joel Chapter 3. This is one of these.
3 sixteens in the Scripture that says in chapter 3 verse 16, the Lord also shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake, but the Lord Jehovah will be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel. And then the 17th verse. So shall you know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her anymore.
Again, another small example of Jehovah putting his stamp on Jerusalem, that his desire is to be in the center in Jerusalem, the center of the world. Isn't it nice to look at the desires of God over the course of time and they don't change.
00:20:09
They don't change, these desires are still the same may not apply to me as we can move into a new dispensation because an earthly people sitting here and God would like to dwell and be the center of his earthly people, which is a coming day, but nonetheless, can I not rejoice in these things?
Will do these things give me guidance as to how to Live Today. We're going to find this out as we move along here.
But before we go too far, let's look at it. The most amazing thing, I think when we see man's desire usurps his desire has let me know. Let's turn back to first Kings. First Kings. This, this section, this this portion to me, First Kings Chapter 12.
This is the most it's just some for me is most astounding.
Thing and the children of the history Israel we have here first Kings 12 and verse 25. I'm going to read from the 25th verse down to the end of the chapter. Now we have the the just the premises for for everyone is that we have the king Solomon has died and now we have his son Rehoboam and we can read before the chapter before Rehoboam is not being the nicest man. He doesn't necessarily have the mind of God on things. Jeroboam is a is a is a.
Is a competitor and he decides to split the Kingdom and here's the methods of what she does and 1St kings 1225. Then Jeroboam built Shechem and Mount Eve Freeman dwelt there in and went out from thence and built Penuel and jeroboam setting in his heart.
Now shall the Kingdom return to the House of David. If this people go up to sacrifice in the House of Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of the people turn again in the Lord, even under Rehoboam, king of Judah. And they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And he set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one even unto Dan. And he made a house to of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the 15th day of the month, likened the feast that is in Judah. And he offered upon the altar. So did he and Bethel, sacrificing under the calves that he had made.
And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the 15th day of the 8th month, even the month which he had devised of his own heart, and ordained a feast in the children of Israel. And he offered upon the altar and burnt incense. Well, you can see here that in the heart of man his desire to say, I can't have him going to one place, so let's make it convenient, and let's have a place in Dan, which is the very, very top of the land.
And let's make it in Bethel, which is further down, all the way down at the bottom almost. Let's make two other places to go and you can choose which one you want to go to. And oh, by the way, and you can read through here, he made that. He made a feast that's similar. He made sacrifices that's similar. He set up a priesthood that's similar. He put so much stuff that's so similar there because he had his own prerogative. His own desire was to create his own worship places.
For a specific reason. The reason was I don't need him going to Jerusalem.
Well.
Now we've got two places. God says come to Jerusalem and man says no, I got two other places for you.
And not only does he do all that, but he introduces idolatry into the mix.
And so obviously, as we know the story of Israel, what actually drove? Another question for the young people, what drove?
The people of Israel out of their land. God was fed up with something. What was it?
What was God fed up with? With Israel and with Judah? And they both got carried away.
Idolatry. Do we have idolatry today?
Yeah, idolatry is alive and well.
00:25:03
Idolatry is alive and well.
Satan keeps throwing the same tool at you. He might pull a little electricity on it, but he's got the same tool for the people every age. He's got the idolatry that's sitting there, and it's solemn to see that. Now not only does this Jeroboam build a complete two centers of worship, and it has all the likeness of Judaism that was given, but he introduces idolatry into it as well. That's man's desire.
Well.
Now sorry, we're skipping ahead, but we can't take too much up here. Let's just turn over to the first. Actually, I'm going to aim to take the next 6 verses of the following chapter here. Chapter 13. Behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord, and to Bethel, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burning. Since burning incense, he's doing exactly what the priests were ordained to do. He's doing the same thing. And he cried against the altar and the word of the Lord, saying, oh altar, altar. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, a child shall be born in the House of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee shall he offer the priests.
Of the high places, and burn incense under thee, and men's bones shall be burned upon. He and he gave a sign the same day. This prophet is really coming out at him, saying, This is the sign which the Lord has spoken. Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.
And it came to pass, when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried upon the altar of Bethel, They put forth his hand upon the altar, lay hold on him, and his hand, which was put forth upon him against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it again to him.
The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign of the man of God had given by the word of God. And the king answered and said into the man of God, And treat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the Lord, and the King's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before. So the judgment of God comes down and overrides for this little situation here.
The the idolatry was was so much that God had to work with Jeroboam in such a manner but.
What's solemn about this we now have, We now have Israel, 10 tribes in Judah and Benjamin, 2 tribes. We have now two separate locations, 2 separate nations, and we now have multiple centers of worship going on. Let's turn over to the 18th chapter.
The 18th chapter that sin that went on here in and one thing I'm and I'd be I'd be happy to hear this from others as well. Just a little notice and meditating upon these things is the sin that we just had of Jeroboam creating these two these two places of worship. We don't have a record in the book of the Chronicles.
Thought that was interesting. You read the book of Chronicles and you see a lot of things.
Are duplicated more or less there's a reason for that because there's actually several reasons for it man we're seeing the depravity of man but you might see it in chronicles from the heart of God type of thing and so and so it's just interesting to see unless I missing it that this account of Jeroboams situation not mentioned in the chronicles because God sees these things he's got to be hurt to see such a man creating two places now dividing his people but we turn over to the to the 18th chapter here and I'm just going to read one verse I'm going to give the preface for this.
This is where in verse I'm gonna read 2 verses verse 21 and a light. Let's see here. This is verse 20. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and he gathered the prophet together unto Mount Carmel and and Elijah sending all the people and said how long halt you between two opinions. If the Lord be God, follow him, but if Baal then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
Now we have Mount Carmel, all the people are coming to Mount Carmel and we got 400 prophets of Baal sitting up there. We have Elijah sitting up there and that's a tremendous scene as they go head to head to altars. But the one thing I wanted to focus in on is on the 31St verse and Elijah took 12 Stones.
According to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name.
And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. It's precious. That's a divided Kingdom. And God says I still see one, and I want 12 Stones on that altar.
And today, he still sees the church as one. Yes, we are divided, but he still sees the church as one. That's why we have one loaf. We don't have a bunch of crackers out here. We have one loaf.
00:30:14
Because the church is one and Israel is divided, they're in a problem. Problematic thing here. And the 12 Stones are put together to make this altar.
And we can read earlier too, when God ordained as the children of Israel came up into the land of Egypt and they bore the ark on their shoulders and they went through the Jordan River and they come up out of the other side. And they took 12 Stones out of the out of the out of the river, put it up there, put 12 Stones from the out there, put it inside the Jordan River as a testimony that there are 12, just like today, there's a testimony of one body.
Well, so this is this is a beautiful snippet here about the 12 Stones. Now let's turn over to a consequence of all of the sin of man overriding God. If you could say that God's got his purposes in it, but he's overwriting his desire. Let's turn over to the book of Ezekiel.
And this is another solemn, solemn little picture here Ezekiel chapter.
10.
Ezekiel is writing and he's in the he's in Babylon. Why were they carried away into Babylon? Because they were idolatrous, right? They didn't bow to God. God puts them overnight into Babylon. Ezekiel is writing, and this is the solemn little vision picture here that is just really unbelievable.
That says here in verse.
Oh, I'm going to read verse 18 for brevity sake. Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house. His He's seen a vision here and stood over the cherubims, and the cherubims lift up their wings and mounted up from the earth and the site, and they went out. The wheels also were beside them, and everyone stood the door of the Eastgate of the Lord's house, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them. Above this is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar, and I knew that they were the cherubims.
And then come on down to the next chapter, Chapter 11, verse 22. Then did the cherubims lift up their wings and the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city. Afterwards the Spirit took me up and brought me in a vision to the Spirit of God, into Chaldea. To whom? To them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from the ME. Then I spake into them in the captivity of all the things the Lord had showed me.
He just saw a complete vision of the Shekinah glory lifting up from the temple in Jerusalem.
Waiting.
And then departing.
God's desire was to be amongst his people.
But the wickedness had continued so long that finally that's what Ezekiel sees. He sees the glory of the Lord depart. Even after we saw the portion there. That was the very end of Exodus. We saw Moses, how the Shekinah glory come in and fill the Tabernacle. We didn't read it, but we've talked about it where Solomon builds the temple and the Shekinah glory. God wants to dwell with His earthly people, and then the Shekinah glory left.
Well, good news is, is that he's going to dwell with his earthly people again someday, and that's a whole another topic.
But he still is going to dwell with his people in the Millennium.
So God will still have his desire.
Man may have his own desire and try to railroad things, but God still has a desire. So that's a wonderful thing to look at in the Millennium. Well, now let's turn over to where? Where do you and I fit in terms of gathering with Him? And I just want to pull out. We know these portions. Well, let's turn out where we're going to be if the rapture happens tonight. How's this going to work with me being with Him? Let's turn over to the last book, Revelation.
Revelation and verse chapter 4, verse one. And after this I looked, and behold, the door was open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was as were a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up, hit her, and I will show thee things which must be thereafter. And I immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven. One sat on the throne, and he that sat was to look upon like a Jasper and a sardine stone, and there was a rainbow round about the throne.
00:35:08
In slight, like an emerald.
And round about the throne were four and 20 seats, and upon the seats I saw 4 and 20 elders sitting clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And then we have in the first verse, the next chapter. And I saw on the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within on the backside, sealed with seven seals. Verse 6. And I beheld, and low in the midst of the throne of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb has been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
John gets the look up through a little door here, verse one of chapter four. He looks up and he sees this immense scene there. And we have all this massive company centered around someone. And we see here in chapter 5, the picture is a line of the tribe of Jude in verse five, but it's in the midst of the throne. And one thing if you want to, and I've enjoyed this, I've shared this before and I've picked it up from others, is see where you see in Revelation where it says the midst of the throne versus before the throne.
Midst of the throne means everyone is gathered around him.
That's where you and I get to be right if we're taken.
Will be face to face with the man in the glory that sits there right now. Sits there right now.
You know, he was standing in Stevens Day as they were throwing rocks at him. Brand, the first martyr that we read about, and he's standing ready to His desire was to come back to Israel and to take care of himself. Oh, Jerusalem. Jerusalem wasn't like a hand gathers her chicks, right? That's his desire for his earthly people and they still stone Stephen. Now he's sitting on the throne. We see this now.
And we see him now in revelation, in the midst of the throne. That's where he wants to be. That's his desire.
Well, and then one more portion here in the 19th chapter, jump over to the 19th chapter of Revelation.
You want to know what his desire is. He's looking and anticipating this anxiously. Revelation 19, verse seven. Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honor to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife hath made herself ready, and to her was granted that she should be a raid in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of Saints. And he said unto me, Right blessed are they which are called under the marriage supper of the Lamb, and he set them to me. These are the true sayings of God.
Do we get the sense of his appreciation and his?
His his anticipation of this marriage supper of the lamb. Does it grab ahold of your heart?
Anybody that's been married or will be getting married understands what the sense of that anticipation of the marriage and the marriage supper of the lamb or marriage in a natural sense, the anticipation of it is incredible. And here He is right now waiting for us for the right time for the father to give him the signal to come and get us.
And there he is, sitting in the center.
Well, let's just let's continue on here.
How about his desire when he was on Earth?
Well, let's turn it back to 2nd Corinthians. So now let's jump back to when He was walking this earth, because we need to walk to. We need to walk up to where. What does this mean for you and I today? Second Corinthians chapter 8. What was his desire?
2nd Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. His desire was to lay it all aside in glory and come down and die for us. We appreciate this.
But that's his desire.
That's his desire to become poor for me and then we have that portion in Philippians 2, right? Let this mind be in you that which was also in Christ using that he may have formed God thought not robbery to be equal with God, correct center. He took the steps downward. He takes the steps over. That was his desire for you and I is to come out of heaven and come down and become the lowest of the lowest as given in that portion. That's his desire.
And then now let's look at another desire that he had that he gave us in John chapter 10.
00:40:02
Oh, this is beautiful. We're not doing any justice for the time here to understand what His desire is. John 10 and he's talking to his disciples here in verse I.
Umm 16 Another sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice. And there shall be one flock and one shepherd. His desire is to be. I'm going to be leaving the sheepfold, going out the pasture, and there'll be those that gather unto me. There's going to be 1 flock and one shepherd. That's his desire.
But old man wants to create mini flocks.
And many shepherds.
Let's turn over now to Luke 22.
Let's look at another desire. And I've just enjoyed this desire.
He's anticipating that night before he goes to the cross.
Verse 14, Luke 2214 And when the hour was come, he sat down the 12 apostles with him. He said to them with desire, I desire to eat this Passover with you before you suffer. So with his disciples, He's anticipated the time to have the Passover. The Passover was happening all over Jerusalem and He had a specific spot versus disciples and He was there.
And he was passionate about that fervency to be there. I have desired eat this Passover before I suffer. He was looking forward to it and he did it. Now let's turn over to, well, we kind of get it here.
Let's for clarity sake, let's turn back to Matthew 26 because it's a little bit more clear as to what he also does here to Matthew 2626.
Annie's as they were eating, so they're either Passover. Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to his disciples, said take, eat. This is my body. And he took the cup and gave things and give them saying, drink ye all of it. For this is the blood of my new test of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink of it new with you in my Father's Kingdom.
So while they're having Passover supper, it says verse 26 and as they were eating, he now takes what's on the table and institutes a brand new feast. We can read in first Corinthians 11 where apostle Paul got to have a very good glimpse or the the Lord himself showed him the scene and he says this I received from the Lord, 1St Corinthians 11, right? This I received from the Lord and it says this do in remembrance of me.
Desire or what he's got a desire this do in remembrance of me.
A new feast.
And the privilege it is to partake of that feast on a weekly basis on the first day of the week.
Well, we've had a lot of desires, right? We've had the desire of communion in the Garden of Eden. We had the desire to dwell with the people in Exodus. We had the desire to be the center of the earth in, in Israel and Jerusalem particularly. We have his desire. We're going to see him someday. It could be very soon in, in the heavens with him in the midst. This is where he should be.
Let's look at now.
What his desire for me could be. Let's turn over. Just going a few items here and there's many more. 1St Corinthians 10, First Corinthians 10.
A little snippet here of a desire. It's taken up elsewhere.
I.
But one verse, First Corinthians 10, verse 21, Apostle Paul is going through the the dissertation here of the Lord's table. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of Lords Table and the cup of devils. Well, he's instituting now this one term called the Lords table. And he's introducing the fact that you can't be sitting here, coming off this table over here and coming over to this table here. It's called contamination.
You know, in the medical world.
Contamination is a big deal.
So much so that they've now got a discipline where now they have special people trained specially to come into a surgery room to get the thing absolutely clean. And then they, and then they after the room, they tear down the room and sterilize it again. Contamination is a big day. The Seattle Children's hospitals, the surgery rooms have been shut down here for a couple weeks. It's probably up now. Mold was in there. And so they've lost some children in the past because of mold and contamination in the surgery rooms.
00:45:13
Contamination is a big thing. And here, in this portion, here we've Apostle Paul is exhorting the Corinthians. Contamination is a big thing. Holiness is paramount.
So his desire for me is to be holy, right? First Peter, be holy, for I am holy, right? Peter brings that out. Oh, struggle with it though, but that's his desire.
His desire. He's got the highest desire for me and he's got the highest desire for you, and sometimes my desire circumvents that.
And then of course, the next chapter here, we've mentioned it already, first Chapter 11 very into verse 24. This do in remembrance of me.
As often as you drink it in remembrance of me, can you can consider the fact that the Lord Jesus going to the cross and he's telling his disciples and Paul gets a glimpse of it here and he's recounting this because it says in verse 23 for I received the Lord, that's what I deliver unto you. He's recounting this, that the Lord Jesus going to the cross. He says this in remembrance of me. That's his desire.
Well, let's look at another desire that he has for us back in the Gospel of John. Again, tremendous little thing here in the 14th. It's in. It's in a couple other spots here, but let's just look at the 14th chapter.
And.
14th chapter.
And verse 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that He may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Isn't that beautiful? The Lord is leaving, and He's like, I'm not going to leave you an orphan.
I'm going to send you a comforter. The world's not going to be able to see him, but it's going to be in you. And we see that in the in the second chapter of Acts, right? The Holy Spirit comes down and indwells the whole company now called the Church. That's his desire. His desire was to tie all the beliefs together with the Holy Spirit with him still in the head in the heaven, waiting for us. Get a hold of his desire.
And then?
Then over here, as you wind down here, Revelation 3, all this, this desire.
Revelation 3 We use this verse in the gospel, but you know, this is actually meant for those that are professors and believers and all alike. Revelation 3 Behold verse 20 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. You know, we've all had, we've all enjoyed the the opportunity to have company over to the house, haven't we?
In fact, it's even beautiful if you give us a heads up because now we can prepare the house, but we can also anticipate you coming, right?
Beautiful thing to anticipate company coming to the house. It's nice to have drop bys as well, but I don't get the ability to enjoy the anticipation of so and so coming, right? And here he is. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. And so he's knocking at the door and it's got to be you that opens him up and brings him and Sup with him. We're coming. If you're coming over, you're going to have a meal, right? That's typically what happens is when someone's coming over, we're going to share a meal together. That's his desires to come in and Sup with you.
And you with him, that's his desire.
And then we have back here in First Thessalonians 4. We have also a desire well known for Sessions 4.
Bursa.
Verse 14 for if you believe that Jesus died and rose again, Even so them which sleep and Jesus will God bring with him so he has a desire to bring the company of Saints that's in the glory right now. We all have loved ones in the glory right? He's going to bring them back for this we sand you by the word of the Lord that we Paul saying we and if we can say we today that we which are alive and remain under the common Lord shall not prevent them which were asleep for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God.
And the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which were alive and remain, shall be cobbed together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord the air, and so shall we ever with the Lord.
00:50:05
There's the anticipation of uniting the Saints that are in glory, bringing the Saints up out of the graves, reuniting the bodies and the souls together. You and I are not going to prevent them. We're not going before them. Or for if he's coming while we're living.
We're going to be caught up to meet with him. One big reunion. That's his desire.
This has been lost largely in the body of Christ, in the world today. We've gone to sleep on this matter, the anticipation of his coming back to ****** us away.
And then also now we have Matthew 18 verse 20. You know, when I the assembly I grew up in, this was read very, very frequently. And I can say that needs to be read more. Matthew 1820. In fact, we had a text on the wall there.
For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them. You know we've taken on his name, have we not? Right. Every bride takes on the name of the husband. We've taken on his name. He says, You're gathered unto my name, you're going to have the premise of being unto my name.
I will be in the midst.
Now, this comes down to a very solemn subject, because oftentimes it says that if I gather into his name that he's going to be there. Let me give an example. In the world of fast food, there's a franchise called McDonald's. McDonald's is a very, very efficient franchise. In fact, if you want to buy a franchise, as I understand it, you have to go back to the Hamburger University, as they call it, and you have to learn everything that McDonald's does.
And he's put down a pretty penny for a franchise. They give the OK, you've got to learn all the techniques. That's why today when you go into a fast food burger joint, right, you typically find that McDonald's kind of moves you faster than some of the other guys. My observation, right?
Very efficient on what they do it's because they have an entire process sitting there to be followed and you can it's apparent when I go into other franchises of other of other hamburger places, the process is falling apart they don't have the same process and I wait longer for my food now I say all this because.
If I decide to open up a burger joint and let's just put it down here in the grand for a moment, I open up a burger joint and I call mine McDonald's.
But the McDonald's truck that brings the hamburgers doesn't come to my place.
I'm pulling the hamburgers from somewhere else. I color it yellow inside.
I try to do what I can do to make the burgers happen. The process I don't have that. I didn't go to the hamburger university.
Can I technically call myself McDonald's?
No, I can't. I don't have the material in there to call McDonald's. I don't have the process of anything. And most importantly, I don't have the blessing of McDonald's to open a franchise and they will shut me down.
McDonald's is very, very protective of everything that they do, and that's for a reason, because there's a standard that they set to such a degree when it comes to hamburgers. What if I have my little franchise down here and I decided to open up and I decided to offer Chinese food inside there?
It doesn't work. It's not one of McDonald's offers in the United States. They may offer that in other countries, but in the United States, we don't offer Chinese food inside of McDonald's.
And yet today the analogy I believe will launch out is that we'd like to set up a table or some institution somewhere for a place of worship. And all of what we've talked about tonight of all of his desires of have communion, to have him be in the midst, to have holiness, to have his name on there gathered unto his name, everything there and yet it's not there. How could it be?
It's a solemn thing to think I cannot order have McDonald's a franchise or a burger joint and call it McDonald's. I can't unless I go through and look at everything very closely and be approved by McDonald's to open a franchise.
And so it's a solemn thing to do. Jeroboam did the exact same thing. He opens up two places, has the likeness of it all, of all the priesthood, everything we've talked about.
00:55:04
In God and we find out that the 10 tribes were the first to be carried off.
In fact, the solemn thing about this too, one of them is set up in the right one of his locations up in the in Dan, right. And the solemn thing about it is when you read Revelation with all the list of 144,000 Dan's not there, it's a solemn thing.
God sees Dan and says because of adultery, you're not going to be in that list.
And so idolatry is alive and well today as well, but yet his desire was is so precious. And so the question is.
Do I see that His desire of His communion with me? Do I see that He wants to dwell with me? Behold, I stand the door and knock. Do I see that He wants to be the center?
Do I see that he wants me to be associated with his name?
That he I can take his provision if I sin, I can take his provision to to come back into fellowship with him with the means that he's given me. First John chapter one and other places the feet washing. We talked about that at at Aberdeen conference about numbers 19. He has given provisions that I can come back into fellowship with him again because I will sin.
Do I see his desire to have that fellowship with me?
And so as we wrap up right there on the hour.
The question is asked, is this the only place? Is there more than one place? Well, look at his desire. Start with his desire and start from one end of the scripture. Go to the let in the scripture and you're going to see there's a common theme throughout.
And I trust.
That I see the Lord in the midst.
And appreciate him for who he is, but also that I walk circumspectly to so that I can see him in the midst and apply what was given to us, numbers 19 in first John, et cetera. That I comply. The washing in the water of the wood, we can wash each others feet too. Is that beautiful? I love it. I love it when someone else can come and wash my feet because I need feet washing too, right?
Some are faithful to come and wash my feet.
And I appreciate that, but he has a tremendous desire and he wants to be with you and me and to dwell with us face to face. Maybe tonight shall we commend ourselves.
Our Father, our God, we've opened up the scriptures and we've went cover to cover here and now we see the Lord Jesus, the anticipation to see the face to face, and we have the privilege to remember the Lord Jesus.
And we also have a responsibility.
And so we ask that we may be pricked in our heart, that we may see these things and realize that our wills may mold with thy will, Lord Jesus.
That we may be one with Thee in our actions. And so we wait for the Lord Jesus. Tonight we would even cry even. So come Lord Jesus, and take Thy waiting people home. So we ask all this as we seek Thy blessing and Thy guidance in our walk here on this earth. And Thy name we pray, Lord Jesus, Amen.
Anxiety
Philippians 2:9-12
Practical Lessons From James
Address—Marc Debu
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Let's look to the Lord for His help.
Her loving God and Father, we thank you that we have another opportunity to open Thy precious Word.
We thank You for Thy goodness to us, first of all, and the gift of Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And.
We just thank you for what he did.
And we think two of the group of people here together and how it's all because of the Lord Jesus Christ And Lord Jesus we we pray that we would follow more into thy footsteps and help us as we open thy word and there might be something for each of each one of us to apply in our lives. We pray this and thy worthy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
Now tonight I would like to take up a very practical subject.
And that is some.
Aspects of our life, things that we do, things that we say that would show that there has been a change in our life because we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. And for that I'm going to mainly turn to the book of James. And I think the book of James is a very interesting book, and I'll start by reading the first verse.
And maybe give a little setting because I think it's a book that has often been misunderstood and because of that, probably been misapplied.
But it says in James chapter one and verse one James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. Greeting.
So that will tell us right away who James was writing to, and it's not.
Christian, Gentiles, a Gentile Christians, it was to the 12 tribes that were scattered. And I understand that this book is the first epistle of the Old Testament that was written. It was written very early in the churches history before any of Paul's epistles were written. And I think that's important to keep that in mind. So he was writing to people that believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The most part, if you read through the book, you'll see that there's many warnings to put against those that professed to be Christians but that were not real. But that's not really going to be our focus tonight. But these were Christians that had very little of the Christian truth that we enjoy. Now we know that God chose the Apostle Paul to bring out, we might say, the highest truth that we have.
You know, he was the one that talks to, tells us about us having our new position as being in Christ. He was the one that God chose to reveal the mystery of the church and a whole.
Number of quite a number of things that we learn from Pauls epistles. And so when you think about it, the Epistle of James is an extremely practical book. There's really no doctrinal development what James wanted to do.
Or encourage these Saints to do was to walk in a way that showed that there was real faith in their lives. And so throughout the book he takes up different circumstances or aspects or acts in a in a persons life that would prove that there's real faith there.
And you know, sad to say today we live in a day where a lot of the truth that Paul.
UMM revealed to us has been given up.
And what I was thinking too is because of that, it's very applicable to the day we live in. But there's an audience here with a lot of people that are quite a bit younger. And a lot of young people here might say, well, I don't understand very much about the doctrines that the older people talk about in reading meetings. And that's OK. But the question might be, if that's the case, if I don't understand all these truths, can I walk in a way that's pleasing to the Lord practically?
And the answer, of course, is yes, you can do that. These Saints didn't know many of those truths either. Maybe some of these truths were kind of starting to be talked about.
But a lot of it seems to have just been brought out through the apostle Paul. And so these Saints didn't have many of these truths either that we enjoy very much today. And yet if they followed what was in this epistle, we'll see that they could lead practical lives that were pleasing to the Lord and that were a testimony to men around them.
00:05:16
Let's turn to chapter 2 for a verse, and I think this is the verse that might have caused this epistle to be misunderstood, and it's verse 21.
James chapter 2 and verse 21.
Was not Abraham or a father justified by works?
Justified by works.
Now, probably most of you will say, now wait a second, We always talk about justification by faith here. It talks about justified by words. Which one is it? And this is, I think, really the key to understanding this epistle. And so I said, I want it to be very practical, but I do want to take a minute to explain what justification is. And for that, let's turn to Romans.
We have a beautiful verse there. Romans chapter 5.
And verse one.
It says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So here it's justified by faith. Now go back to chapter 4 and verse 2.
For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the Scriptures? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
So in James we just read that Abraham was justified by works. Here it says that if he were justified by works.
He had were off to glory, but not before God, and the knot before God is the key to understanding this.
Both justification by works and justification by faith are doctrines that we have in the Word of God.
But we need to understand what the difference is to understand the book of James.
Justification by faith, the one we usually speak of and immediately think of when we hear the word justification has to do before God as it said in this verse. And what does it mean? Well, it means that a person who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ because we had that in chapter 5 verse one.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, when a person puts his trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, he has been cleared of all sins.
But not just that, he's now seen in a new position in Christ before God.
And in a condition where he can never be associated with sin anymore. So when God looks at a person who has put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, all his sins are cleared, But not just that, he looks at that person as somebody who has nothing to do with sin anymore. That's how God looks at us. And so that justification is wonderful and something to meditate on. That we were lost sinners can now be seen by a holy God.
That's totally separate from sin or sins being washed away by the blood of Christ and in a new position in Christ and in a new condition that is not connected with sin anymore whatsoever. That's wonderful, isn't it? So what does it mean then to be justified by works?
How could Abraham not be justified by works before God? And now here in James it speaks that he was justified by works.
Who he was justified by works, but not before God, but before men. What it means to be justified by works is that we act in a way, go through life in a way that our works prove before man that there is real faith. And so we'll talk about that a little bit when we later when we get to to chapter 2. But so we have to understand when we pick up the epistle to of James, the book of James.
That it's not talking about being justified before God. Everything has to do with our testimony before man. And by the way we act, we prove if our professional faith is real or not real. Now it is true. And when we mentioned that too, that there might be Christians that are real believers, but that live in such a way that men can't tell that they're believers, but they would not be justified by works. They would not be justified before men. And so that's that's very important that we understand that so.
00:10:08
Abraham was justified by works, but not before God. Before that happened, he had to be justified by faith.
Before God and it's the same with us. The justification by faith comes first. And as a little aside, this morning after our reading meeting, a brother said to me, and I think it's a very good comment. He said you guys were talking about practical salvation and collective salvation and.
He said. I suspect there's some people here, young people, that don't know what that means, and it runs a little bit parallel to justification.
You know again, we're saved by grace, not by works, lest any man should boast.
And most often when we think of salvation, that's what we think about. We think about the gospel being preached and a person being saved by faith. You know, you think of the Philippian jailer when he cried out, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they could answer believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thou shalt be saved, and that has to do. That aspect of salvation that we usually think about has to do with our eternal salvation before God, our sins being washed away by the precious blood of Christ.
But that's not the only aspect of salvation that we have, and in fact, most of the times that salvation is mentioned.
In the New Testament, it doesn't speak of that aspect of salvation. There are other aspects and.
So we have eternal salvation and then we have practical or present salvation. And we had a verse like that this morning. We talked about work out your salvation with fear and trembling. We said that it's collective salvation and maybe it helps if.
You think of salvation.
As being delivered from something in the Senate. When we speak about eternal salvation, we are delivered from the punishment of our sins because the Lord Jesus took that upon him. But when we speak of practical salvation, we are delivered from something in our pathway that would hinder us or stumble us. And So what these Philippians Saints needed to be saved or delivered from was the attacks of the enemy to cause a division in their midst.
And so that's a very practical thing. And if they would follow the Lord's example of lowliness, they would be able to do that.
But that really didn't affect their eternal salvation and had nothing to do with the penalty of their sins. And I'll read another verse that is in that aspect.
First Timothy, chapter 4.
First Timothy, chapter 4.
And verse 16, So Paul here is talking to Timothy, and he had left them at Ephesus because there were some problems there. Some people were starting to bring in bad teaching. And this is what he says to Timothy. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine or the teachings. Continue in them. For in doing this thou shalt save thyself and them not hear thee. Now obviously they couldn't talk about eternal salvation. Timothy had been saved many, many years before that.
He had spent many years laboring with the apostle Paul. But he says if you continue in the teachings, in the truth, you'll be saved or delivered from these bad doctrines that are being brought in, and those that listen to you will be saved too. And so again, that's a practical thing.
In Ephesians 6, we read about the helmet of salvation. That's a practical thing that's to keep our mind or thoughts from those wicked things that the enemy tries to insert and so will be delivered from that. And so you think about it, young people, you know, we all have a social circle. If you choose your social circle wisely and you choose your friends, the people you, let's call it, hang out with, if they are those.
That have a desire of the Lord to follow the Lord and to please them in their lives. That will be a great practical salvation. It will set you free or deliver you from all kinds of things that you don't want to deal with. If, on the other hand, you choose your friends to be those that have no desire to follow the Lord, you're setting yourself up for a lot of trouble. You're going to hear things you don't want to hear. You're going to be invited to activities where you shouldn't go. You're going to be invited to places where you shouldn't go.
But by making that wise choice and choosing the right companions, you, that's a salvation, That's a deliverance from temptation. And so it's good to keep those things apart. There is eternal salvation, and again, that comes first, but then there's a practical salvation too, and there's actually a third one, and that's a future salvation. And that is when the Lord will come and we'll have glorified bodies. We'll be delivered from these bodies of humiliation because now we're hindered by these bodies.
00:15:30
There's still an old nature there. They're decaying, we're getting older and so on. And that will be what completes really our salvation when the Lord comes and takes us up. And so just as an encouragement, as you read the word of God and you come to save or salvation, always try to look at the context. Is it Speaking of eternal salvation, salvation from the penalty of our sins? Or is it more to do with something practical? Because if you think that everything has to do with our eternal salvation.
Then you will be stumbled, the verse we had this morning to workout your salvation with fear and trembling. How does that fit? By being saved by grace. It doesn't, but it doesn't mean the same thing. And so it's good to see things in their context. Let's go back now to the book of James.
And.
Like I said, James goes over different circumstances in a person's life.
And shows that there's a way now that we are supposed to react or act that shows that there's real faith within us. And the first one we have in the first few verses, we'll start reading verse two of chapter one. My brethren counted all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have a perfect work that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that give it to all men liberally and abraded not, and it shall be given him, but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. And so here's the first thing, and that is trials that come upon us in our lives.
And I can say this one thing, the several things that we'll go over tonight, every single person in this room will have to deal with them. And a lot of times a lot of the things that we go over to will go over are things you have to deal with on a daily basis. So it's extremely practical and it's extremely applicable to all of us. And it doesn't start at a certain age. It is applicable to the youngest ones here. And so this is quite the way to start a letter to somebody counted all joy.
When you fall into diverse temptations or trials.
It speaks of things that come upon us from without its trials from it out, things that the Lord allows in our lives. How are we going to react? And is our reaction going to show to this world that we're not the same as men in this world? And that's a huge thing because all of us in our life will go through trials. They don't, they don't all have to be huge trials.
But we go through trials, How are we going to react? And so James tells them here how they should act and react to them. And the first thing that he says is to count it joy. And that seems a pretty hard one to take. And James is not telling you that if you get in a car accident to get really happy and excited about that. We know that. But what is he saying? He's talking to those among these, you know, 12 tribes that were scattered to real believers.
And what we need to know is that we have a God who is in full control of whatever happens. And on top of that, it's a God who's a loving father, and he deals with us always for our own good.
And if God is in full control, then any and every trial that comes upon us from without is allowed of God. And if we keep that in mind, then we can find joy in those trials because we know that they are allowed for a purpose. God never does something without a purpose. And so whatever trial it is that comes in our lives, we can realize right away God is doing a work in me.
And that's a good thing, because what God wants to do is form us as we go through this path down here on earth, more and more to the image of His Son. That's why we are here. God is working within us. And it's true, He's sometimes working through us. But God is working within us because He wants us to be more like His Son, wants us to be fit for that position that we now have. And it says that knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have a perfect work, that ye may be perfect.
00:20:16
An entire wanting nothing. And So what God has in view is perfection. But we know that perfection in Scripture means maturity. And so these trials, if we take them from the Lord, will help us to become more mature Christians. And we've all felt that in our lives. I think things have come upon us and we didn't know exactly.
Why and so on. And yet we learned lessons from it, lessons that may be to others that we're looking on. So more of the characters of Christ being formed in US. And it speaks of patience. And I think that's very interesting. You know, the first tendency when when there's a trial.
Is to pray to God that the trial might be over and sometimes trials are short, but we all know people that have gone through many and long.
Trials.
And we've seen the results of those trials when taken from God. There's there's something there.
That would not have been there if it weren't for that trial. And so we'd encourage each one of us, and especially myself, when we get into a difficult time, a trial in our life.
Realize that God has allowed it and it's for our own good, and it might not be very pleasant at that time, but if we go through it with Him, there will be fruit for Him, and that's what he says. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth.
To all men liberally and abraded not and it shall be given him. You know, I like to think of that, that, you know, most times when something happens to us, we don't know right away why.
That God wants us.
To not be anxious or desperate about it. It doesn't. I don't think this verse means that we pray and He's going to tell us exactly what He had in mind with that. It's something that we have to learn as we go through the process. Oftentimes at the start of a trial, you have no idea why this happened or why this happened now. But as we go through things and often even years after the trial may be over and you look back and you say that's why God allowed us in my life. He knew that.
Ten years down the road this situation would come up, and if it hadn't been for having gone through that trial, I would not have known how to deal with that or I would have reacted in a totally wrong way. But that trial helped me and so it's a good thing. And so that's why he can say, count it all joy. Let's go to verse 12 now. And it says, there, blessed is the man that endures temptation, for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord had promised to them.
That love him. What this verse tells us is that there is reward in trial. There is a crown of life and the future, but it also says blessed or happy is the man that endured temptation while we go through the trial. There is reward already today. There is reward already today. Now this supposes that we go to the trial and the way God intended us to go through it. We submit to it as coming from his hand.
And we learn from it that way because oftentimes a trial comes upon us and we rebel against it. We're mad at God, Why me, why this, why that? Or we get overwhelmed and we kind of get depressed because of it. Well, neither of those is really a good way to deal with it, but to realize that it comes from God. And then there will be reward. There will be growth. The next few verses.
Talk about little something else, and there it speaks of temptations from within. And that is because we still have a sinful nature within us, and if we allow it to act.
There will be consequences to these are not trials or temptations that come from God. God does not tempt with evil. He allows circumstances from without, but He does not tempt with evil. And I'll just read the end here because we need to move on.
It speaks of.
It's from our own lust, and it says in verse 15 when lust had conceived it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
So trials from without can bring blessing. Allowing the sin nature to act within us brings death.
00:25:04
And the death that it speaks of is moral separation and our communion with God.
If we don't judge the sin nature within us, there will be a break in our communion with the Lord, and if we let it grow, it will affect all aspects of our life and we'll be at a great distance from God. So that's the first one trials. The second one, let's start reading in verse 21.
And again, I would say that if we react to trial submit to them.
It will be a proof of the reality of our faith because it's not normal for a man who's not safe to have a trial come upon him and rejoice in it. You know, we've seen people, we saw somebody here Tuesday, and he's not the only one tremendous trial. It's not normal to the world the way he reacts to it. And so it's a proof of our faith. And again, that's what justification by works is. It's the proof of the reality of our faith before man.
God doesn't need proof. The moment we are saved, everything is settled on that account towards God.
But it's nice to be able to display or to give proof of the reality of the faith within us. Verse 21.
I'll start in the middle and receive with meekness being grafted work which is able to save your souls. Now here will be salvation in the sense of eternal salvation that we spoke of. The Word of God reveals God's plan of salvation and if we receive it, there's salvation there. But be doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. For if any man, be a hearer of the Word and not a doer.
He is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass, for he beholded himself and goeth his way and straightway forget it what manner of man he was. So here's another thing that we can prove the reality of our faith, and that is how we react to the Word of God. You know, anybody can pick up the Word of God and read it, but that doesn't prove that that person has real faith. What proves that we have real faith is that we submit to it and allow it to change us.
And tell you a little story, I think it was about 1214 years ago. Brother Stan Frazee was in Kirkland and he had the Sunday school and he asked for two volunteers to come up and two boys, I'm guessing about 12.
Somewhere around that stood up and I don't remember what he had. It might have been some chalk or a piece of charcoal and he made a big mark on the cheek of of the two boys.
And he said, run to the bathroom and look in the mirror. And they both did. And that's what the glass here is. It's a mirror.
And pretty soon one came running back and he was all smiling at a big charcoal mark on his cheek. And a little bit later the second one came back and he had washed it off.
And Brother Stan said that that's exactly what I was hoping what would happen. Because here we see the difference. Many people might read the word of God. It's like looking in the mirror and tells you, tells us a lot about ourselves, doesn't it, in the Word of God. But the first boy didn't affect him. They didn't do anything. He saw that there was a mark on his cheek that he didn't wash it and so on. And nothing had changed.
But a person with a real faith and desire to please the Lord would be like the second boy.
He washed it off. It had changed him. And so how do we read the word of God? Do we allow it to change us? Do we allow it to touch our conscience and say, yes, that's me. You know, it says let him that soul steal no more. Well, two of us here has not stolen something and might have been even stealing time at work by not doing the work you're supposed to do. When you read that, what are you going to do? Or you just continue doing that?
Are going to change and that's what the word of God should do to us. We read it. And if there's real faith there, there should be a desire to please the Lord and submit to his word and it should change us. It should change us as we go through through time. And so then the next verse, I think is really beautiful. It says, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work.
This man shall be blessed in his deed, and again blessed. She shall be happy.
It's kind of interesting to have law and liberty put together, the perfect law of liberty and Speaking of the word of God. Now, if you go back to the Old Testament, the Israelites had the law too. And I don't think any of them would have said this is a law of liberty. It was *******. They had to keep the commandments day after day. And if they failed, and they did, they had to bring a sacrifice over and over. It was *******. Uncle Steve here says curfew at 11, that means lights out.
00:30:23
To a lot of people, that's not liberty, is it? That's *******. But when it speaks of the word of God, it speaks of the law of liberty. How can that be?
It's because we have a nature that wants to do what's in the Word of God.
We have a new nature if there's real faith, if we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's all it wants to do.
It wants to please God and so it's liberty to that nature. You know, if after meeting I would say to the kids here I have a bowl of candy, you have to eat it.
Great, I might have a bowl of Brussels sprouts and say you have to eat and that would be a little harder. And so we have a nature that when it tells us these things to do to to remember the Lord or whatever it is, that nature grabs onto that and says, that's, that's what I wanted to do anyhow. But of course, if we allow the old nature to have the rule in our lives, then it becomes ******* too. So by the way, we react to the word of God submitting it, let it affect us. Let it.
Growers form us into the image of Christ again, it's a proof of the reality of the faith that we have. In verse 27 we have two more. It says pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this to visit the visit the fatherless and widows and their affliction and to keep himself and spot it from the world. So here we have kindness and it's to people that you usually wouldn't be kind to. You know, that's kind of interesting too. You know, the world knows a lot about being kind to your family and so on or your best friends.
It's a little bit different if it's the fatherless and the widows, that's a little harder. But again, it's a proof of real faith. And then it speaks of keeping ourselves separate from the world. And we'll probably talk about the world a little bit later too. But the definition for the world, the way it's used here, it's that system that man has set up in rebellion against God, and we need to stay separate from that. Have nothing to do with that.
All right, Chapter 2.
Sread umm.
I'll just have to read from the beginning. My brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord of glory with respect of persons, for they have come unto you your assembly, a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man and vile raiment, and ye have respect to him that weareth the gate clothing, and send to him. Sit down here in a good place, and say to the poor, Stand out therefore, or sit here under my footstool. Are you not them partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he had promised to them that love him?
OK, I'll stop there. So what this is Speaking of is that we should not be respecters of persons. That's another thing that's so natural to us. We judge people on outward appearance in all kinds of different ways. And that's not how the Lord walked in this life. You know, he, he, most of his time he spent with the people that were kind of the outcasts of society and so.
It's kind of a subtle thing. Oftentimes you don't realize it that we do it, but we prefer people that maybe be a little bit more like ourselves or whatever it is. You know, if I've read over, I read a little while ago of a study that was done a while ago and it had to do with people being hired and they said when a company has the opportunity to hire people in their interviewing and there's several people that have the same qualification.
Invariably, they're going to choose the best looking person if the qualifications are the same. Well, that's exactly what this is Speaking of. You know, it's a respecter of person and it's because of outward appearance. And we all do that. And when I was in college, I took one sales class. I had to take one sales class. And the professor that taught the class.
00:35:00
Was teaching full time at a big university in a in a big city and he was teaching students that.
We're going for a degree in sales and marketing, something like that. And he said at the end of their three or four years in school, they all had to do an internship that had to do with sales.
And I had this one student that did this internship at a car dealership, a showroom, and I believe it was Audi.
And as the students were doing that, the teacher would go in and check up on them and talk to their employer and see how they were doing. Now, this professor had a friend who was at that time going to buy a car, and he was looking to buy an Audi car. And a professor asked his friend, can you do me a favor? And he said, sure. He says, I have a student there.
And I want to see if he's applying the lessons that I've taught him. I said sure, what do you want me to do? He says. I want you to go in, but I want you to dress way down. Don't comb your hair.
Wear whatever, no tracks it or so on, and say you're interested in the car. And so he did that and the student was there, and as soon as he saw this man coming in, he kind of politely shoved them out of the door, kind of telling him this was not the place he should be at.
And then the professor told his friend, you know, go into more normally dressed and buy the car. And he did.
The student failed the class. He had to retake the class because one of the things that the teacher had taught them that you can't go by outward appearance. We all know that there's people.
You know that have plenty of money and they don't care about outward appearance. You would never know. And then there's a lot of people out there that it all looks great outwardly, but they're drowning in debt to keep up that lifestyle or that appearance. And so it's just a little example, but it's something that we all should spend some time thinking about because.
I think we're all guilty of this. We're all guilty of this. The moment you see a person for the first time, you form judgment, either good or bad, and that's being a respecter of persons. And we should not be like that. The world is completely like that. And so if the world would see us.
Treat every person the same way. That would be approved, that we're different. The Lord Jesus did that. He, he, some poor person would come and grab onto the hem of his garment.
He didn't tell him off. That's not how he was. He went way out of his way to talk to a very immoral person Who would have done that? The Lord Jesus did because he had a care for souls. And if we judge people on outward appearance, we're almost already setting up a hindrance from ever being a testimony to that person. And so that's another thing to be careful about.
Let's.
Go a little bit further down in the chapter here.
I'm going to have to shorten this a little bit if I want to get through it.
Let's read verse 18 and here it speaks of good works. Good works.
If a man say, thou hast faith, and I have worked, show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.
Now believe us that there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble.
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? And then we have that verse. Was not Abraham or father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? And so here's another thing that will prove the reality of our faith, and that is if we're characterized by good works, again, it's not works to get saved. It doesn't go that way because the the Bible clearly tells us that all our righteousness is our good works. The way man thinks about it, earth, filthy rags.
Man in his fallen state cannot produce good works before God. It's impossible. So what does it speak about here when it says?
In verse 18, I will show thee my faith by my works. The works that it speaks of here are works as a result of a person already having faith, and then it says that faith without works is dead. That's a pretty solemn statement.
If we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in no way.
I'm intending that anybody should.
And doubt their faith or anything like that. If we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are saved and that's, that's it, that's final. But isn't it? Wouldn't it be sad if we go through life and we have that faith? We think of all that the Lord Jesus had done for us and there's just no response in her life in doing things that please him. Because once we belong to him and our motives change and we do good works to please him, then it really those things become good works before God.
00:40:24
You know, people that are not saved do things that we might say are good, and they are in themselves. There's nothing wrong with them, people helping each other, but they're not good works before God because they're still in a sinful position. They're still on their way to a lost eternity. But when we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and we want to walk in a way that please them and do things that please him, God looks down and he's happy with that. Those are good works.
Before God and they prove what God has done within us. And so it's it's and then we have these these two examples and they're tremendous examples speaks of Abraham and think of could have been a greater thing that a person did that proved the reality of his faith in God. Now Abraham was about 75 years old when God promised that he would have a son and he had to wait till he was about 125 years before Isaac was born.
And finally, here's Isaac and he's been there for a number of years. Maybe he was, I don't know. Some people have said thought that he might have been a kind of a teenager when this happened. And God says, go and OfferUp your son Isaac. If there wasn't tremendous fate, there is no way that Isaac would have gotten up early the next morning. And when where God had pointed him to go, man would look at it and says, Abraham, what are you doing? You've been waiting for this son for I'm sure he was waiting for a son even before God promised it.
The son we've been waiting for decades.
And now you finally have him, you're gonna offer him up.
It's a proof of his faith in God. And then a little bit further, it speaks of Rahab, and we know the story. And what did she do? She committed an act that if she was found out, she would have been put to death. She was a traitor to her country.
Why did she do it? Because she hath faith in the God of the people of Israel.
And her faith was so great that she was willing to take a huge risk. And so those are good works, works that prove the reality of our faith. All right, let's go to chapter 3 and read from verse.
Two, for many things we offend all. If any man offend not in Word the same as a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
Behold, we put the bits bits in the horses mouth, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, with orsoever the governor listed.
Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasted great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindle Earth.
Now, this is a very obvious one, an extremely important one. The things that we say, you know, the tongue in itself, there's nothing wrong with it. The tongue is no worse than the hand or the foot or the knee. But why does it speak in this way of the tongue? It's because what comes of our out of our mouth reveals what's in our hearts, reveals what we've been thinking about.
And so this is important because it says, behold, how great a matter or how great I think it could be translated to a wood or a forest, a little fire kindling. You know, we've all heard stories of somebody being careless and not completely extinguishing a bonfire or something like that. And a gust of wind takes up an ember and before, you know, it's on the news and thousands of acres are ablaze and people lose their homes and people lose their lives.
Our words are extremely important. It has been said that because of some careless words spoken by people in authority, wars have been declared between countries and thousands of people have died. It started with a few careless words, and none of us are in a position of authority that our words are going to do that. But you know what? Our words can do something more. They can cause strife and division among the Lord's people.
That's solemn to think about, and it's not just us adults.
00:45:03
There's cases where kids have said careless words and it's caused division between families that we're happily going on together in a meeting and so we need to be very, very careful.
You know, to a certain degree we have some control and we have some restraint, but if we're thinking bad thoughts about people, at some point something's going to slip out. So be careful with that. It's not the tongue itself, but the tongue is the mouthpiece of what's within us, what we think about.
But we're occupied with and so there's, you know, it goes on. I'm running out of time, but it speaks quite a bit about the tongue and it speaks about does a fountain bring forth bitter and Sweetwater? How is that possible? How can we praise the Lord on Lords Day morning and the next day we speak mean words about somebody that doesn't make any sense. You know, an apple tree doesn't bring forth oranges, which nature is at work again. If we live in that new life that we have is going to be Sweetwater that it's bringing forth.
If we're occupied with the things of the Lord.
We're not all of a sudden say something mean about it about somebody else. That's not how it works. And so let's be careful, you know, in chapter 5 there's.
Speaks there of, of being treated unfairly. And I'm not going to go through it, but if you read the first half of chapter 5, it speaks of rich people that were treating their employees in an unjust way. And what the Lord says there or what James says is take it patiently. Know that the Lord in a future day, everything will be set right.
And so all of us here have been treated unfairly, and our first reaction is to stand upon our rights and say, hey, this was not right. That's not fair. How many times have we said that or heard that?
That's not how the Lord wants us to act. Take things patiently. Know that the Lord doesn't forget anything, and when He comes, He will set everything right. And I was thinking, I think it was yesterday in a reading meeting, we were going through Philippians 2. And the second thing there that it says of the Lord that he made himself of no reputation, but we said it could be better translated. He emptied himself. He laid aside willingly. He chose to lay aside his divine rights. Was he treated fairly?
Think about that. Was the Lord treated fairly in this life? No, not at all. What did He do? He took it patiently from the Father and He just kept on going. That's what the Lord wants for us. So I skip chapter 4 and I'm going to talk about that for the remaining few minutes.
So what we've had before us and it's not complete, there's other things that could be brought out, but what we had before us is would be if we are characterized by these things, be it reacting to trials, the things that we do, the things that we say.
The way we treat each other, if we do those things, the way that it's explained and laid out before us here.
That would be a practical life, pleasing to God and a tremendous testimony to men. But we need to realize that there's enemies that would like to prevent us from.
From living our lives in that way, and I think we have those in chapter 4 here in the first few verses. Let's turn chapter 4, verse one.
From wenscombe wars and fightings among you com they not hence even of your lusts.
That war in your members ye lust, and you have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war yet you have not because he asked, not he asked and received not because he asked amiss that he may consume it upon your lust or upon your pleasures.
What is that speaking about?
It's speaking about the flesh that's within us, and that's the first of the enemies that stands against us to live a life that's pleasing to God.
And we might ask the question, what is the flesh? It's one of those things we hear often in meeting What's that fallen nature that's within us and that will remain there until the Lord comes to take us home. And here's one thing that we need to know about the flesh.
It's completely corrupt and it cannot be improved. So when we get saved.
That flesh does not get one bit better and if we allow it to act, this is will be the result. These first three verses, it's not a pretty picture, is it? Now it's been said that the flesh or the fallen nature was so bad that even God could not improve it. But the new nature that we have is so good that even God cannot give us something better. So that's something to realize.
00:50:16
We have that old fallen nature.
In US and it's not gotten any better since we've gotten saved.
We need to look at it and keep it in the place that God sees it.
In God's eyes, to a person that is believed, that is put out of sight at the cross, that old nature was put out of sight. That's not who we are anymore before God. And so it talks to us in Romans about keeping it in a place of death.
But here we see that if we don't act on that, what happens? There's all kinds of trouble. And if these things come up in our lives, we're not proving to this world the reality of our faith. It's a hindrance in our practical.
Verse Four. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be the friend of the world, is the enemy of God.
So here's the second one. We've had the flesh, now we have the world.
The third one will be the enemy, the devil, and these three work together. They work together. Where will we turn to? If we allow the flesh to act? It will be to the world, because the world is set up as a system to satisfy our flesh or fallen nature. And so whatever man wants to do, the world has made.
An activity, a place, whatever you call it, to satisfy that lust of the flesh.
And it's no different for a believer, because our flesh, our fallen natures, is still exactly the same. And aren't these solemn, strong words that James uses here adulterers, Adulteresses. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. And I think every, every true believer would be horrified at the thought of being unfaithful to their spouse. And yet very few think of how bad it is to be unfaithful to God.
And that's what it's Speaking of. If we turn to the world, if we go on with this system that will set up an enmity against God, that's exactly what we're doing.
We're being unfaithful to the one who gave everything for us. And so let's keep that in mind too. There's a whole system out there and it's extremely accessible. It's been set up so it's very easy to, you know, if you want to call it, enjoy it or whatever it is, it's right there.
But if we go to those things that the world has set up and enmity against God, we're unfaithful to the one who went to the cross for us.
Verse 7.
The second-half of the verse, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. That's the third enemy. It's the devil. It's the source of all evil. He was the one that was in the Garden of Eden and deceived man so that he fell and sin came into the world.
But I like what it says here. It doesn't say that we need to flee from the devil. It says that he will flee from us. How is that possible? Well, we need verse eight. Don't we draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you If we live a life in communion with the Lord and you know, you think of it as God being right beside you, the devil is not going to come close to that. You know, maybe some of you younger ones in school have thought it would be really nice to have a big strong friend that is a few years old or so. If the bully shows up, he's not going to pick on you.
Because maybe you have a Big Brother that's a few years old and he's a lot bigger than the bully. I know that's a poor analogy, but if we live close to the Lord.
The enemy can't come close. Now think of, I was just recently thinking of that in John 13, you know, it's the betrayal of Judas. And the Lord says that who dipeth the SOP with me? And he gave it to Judas. He's the one that's going to betray me. You know, giving Judas that thought was the last appealing grace to Judah. But he was so far gone, you know, it was hopeless. But what does it say? As soon as he took the soap, Satan entered into him.
And you think of that, that means that forever little time there was Satan and the Lord were in the same room. But what's the next thing it says? Judas went out right away. Satan could not be in the presence of God. If we live in communion with the Lord, close to the Lord. Satan has very little that he can do to us if we draw nigh to God, and the Satan will flee from us. And what does it say of Peter that same night?
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Said he followed afar off and what happened? He fell. He fell because he was far off. He put himself in danger by not being close to the Lord. And sometimes we do that too. But we have a God who loves to restore. And you see him, I don't know would be what, 5053 days later, he's standing up in Acts 2 and he's preaching with power. In 3000, guests saved. He was in communion with the Lord just before that. He was in that room where the Holy Spirit will spore out.
If we are close to the Lord, the devil will flee for us, and we'll be able to live a life practically before men. That proves the reality of our faith. And it's important. Of course, we need to be justified before God, because otherwise none of this would matter what we said in this last hour. But it's important to us, to God, and to the world that we live a life that is practically pleasing to God. Let's thank him.
Our God and Father, we.
Thank you for these few thoughts and we all have to admit that these are things that we often fail in. And yet, Lord Jesus, we think too of how these are all things that are not hard to understand.
Help us, Lord Jesus.
To follow closer, when we look at night life, we see all these things brought out in perfection.
And we desire the same for us, Lord.
Help us with these things. Help us to think about these things, help us to apply them in our lives. Lord, we think of the many young ones here and we think of how we as older ones know that if if we follow the Lord Jesus closely, it will save us from so much sorrow in our lives. And it will be such a testimony to those around us, not just the world, but it will be encouragement to our fellow believers. So we pray for help for this Lord Jesus. And we thank you too, that many of these characteristics.
That we talked about, we've seen displayed in this past week here at Ken. Just pray, Lord, that it might be more and more, that we might be more and more like Thee, Lord Jesus, for the time that has left us here on this earth. Just thank you for thy love to us, for thy great goodness and thy worthy name. We pray, Lord Jesus, Amen.
Where Your Treasure Is
Sing Talk—Isaiah Sebo
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Well, before we get started, I-11 line of one of the songs that was sung stuck out to me. That was 144.
I'll quickly read that, and then I'll.
Ask the Lord for help.
1:44 Third verse Take my lips and let them be filled with messages for thee.
That is my prayer for this evening. Let's ask Lord for help.
Our God and our Father, we thank you for bringing us together.
Journey mercies on the roads here, the good food, the fellowship. Lord. We thank you, Lord, for all the blessings and provisions you made for us. We ask that you would give us a blessing here and help us to be able to meditate on it and truly think about it, Lord. Help us not to get sidetracked by other things, Lord.
We enjoy the fellowship, we enjoy the music, we enjoy the sports, Lord, but we ask that you would be at the center of our minds and our hearts already. Ask for help in speaking. I ask Lord, that you would bless this time and name your Son the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
So I was asked to speak and I had no idea what to speak on and.
Two things I'm scared of.
Speaking and heights, so I'm going to give this a shot.
What I feel the Lord has put on my mind and my heart is camp.
Cam this time where we gather together and we have that fellowship, that communion, we get that little taste of heaven, that little.
Mountaintop experience, if you will. And we get that in Scripture. We we see the disciples go with Jesus until the Mount of Transfiguration. They come down and I'm going to talk about that part where we come down from camp.
Where we we we get back to the daily grind to our lives. So since I have a bad Memory, I wrote some notes down, so I'll try to stay on track.
So the first thing that I had in mind was camping in and of itself. What is it for? Does anyone want to try to explain what? Why do we? Why do we have this camp?
Because I don't have a specific answer, but a general idea. So if you have Anthony.
Spiritual food, correct? That's right. Does anyone else have a thought?
Encouraging each other, encouraging each other up one more.
Sorry, take your time.
Fellowship.
That's right. A lot of this is about fellowship. A lot of it is about coming together.
Reuniting and strengthening. Holding fast what the Lord has given us. Coming together as Christians out of the out of the world. Separating, a time to be able to come together, refreshing our our spirit, so to speak, to be able to go back out and to live it.
Oftentimes you find that we enjoy camping. We feel really good afterwards and it's kind of like New Year's resolution, if you will. We we get home after you came from like, all right, I'm ready. And it kind of just a week goes by, a month and it kind of just dies out.
And sadly that's that's part of our nature. We have those two great opposing natures, the flesh, sinful nature and the new nature, the new man. So that's.
That's part of part of the curses we forget.
And that's why we have this, this camp. That's why Steve, Steve organized it with Beth and all the helpers.
10 as many more but gotta chug along so.
What can we do?
This, this little taste of heaven, we can take a blessing.
From it take a little something something from a meeting.
Yeah, it's going to, it's going to life is going to come. You're going to have those trials and it's going to seem like, man, this is rough. And I was looking at this verse and I was when I was singing.
And this is a a reminder. That's one of the reasons we're here at camp, to remind ourselves what we're doing.
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What our hope is, our hope is Christ. And it says when you go through deep waters, I will be there.
I haven't. Who's that? Who's speaking?
Lord Jesus, that's right.
So second point I have is searching your hearts. What are you doing here? Are you here for refreshment?
Are you here for fellowship? Are you here to learn more of Christ? Are you here because?
Your friends right here is volleyball. Volleyball is fun. I like volleyball, but that can be part of fellowship. But if that's the whole reason you're here, then.
We failed.
You need to search your hearts. Why are you here?
What is your goal here? What is your treasure, so to speak? It says in Matthew 619.
Turn there.
619 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where your moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves breakthrough and steal.
Don't do that. But then it doesn't stop there. It tells us what what we are to do.
It says, But lay it for yourselves, treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth craft, and where thieves do not breakthrough nor steal. For your treasure is there. Will your heart be also so if our treasure is on temporal things, things of this world.
That's all we got, and this, as we're told, is all going to burn.
But if we set our affections, we set our treasures in heaven, we have that eternal blessing. We can, we can pass through life through those hard times, but we can look ahead at that hope, Christ.
See.
I'm going to read some verses that I that I thought of somewhere for encouragement and some are reminders. The first one is in Romans 8/18.
My hope is that I don't say anything terribly new to any of you, but simply to remind you.
Some things we say, oh, I knew that. It's like when your mom tells you she loves you. Like I knew that, but sometimes you need a reminder.
So Romans.
Eight. What did I say?
18 Thank you.
8/18.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in US.
It's it's hard to go through.
A trial.
A situation when you don't have something to look forward to, when you don't have a hope, you don't have that light at the end of the tunnel.
It's, it's hard. And one thing I thought of the Rockwall, we're all, we're all climbing and timing ourselves and having fun. But it's, it's kind of like that. We have our goal set-top. We got it. We got to get to the top there and there's some upside on rocks and some hard spots, but we have a goal and we're not concerned with that. We have to overcome that.
Through Christ, not of our own strength.
Through Christ and I think we get our focus off and we think, man, how am I going to do this? This situation just came up and.
And I can fix it, but this time I can't. What am I going to do when I freak out?
But that's when we realize I'm relying on myself, my strength, my flesh.
And we have to turn back to Lord and say.
Lord, I need to have faith in You, trust You, be dependent on You.
And then, and only then, can we have true peace and joy.
Doesn't mean we'll be happy all the time we're laughing, but it does mean that we can have that blessed assurance that no matter what befalls us.
Our Savior CARES, and He will carry us all the way through.
And as a closing verse, I knew I wouldn't make it past 10 minutes, by the way. But as a closing verse, we'll turn to 1St Thessalonians 418.
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Four verse 18 says, Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
And that's a segment in the end of the chapter, but we can take it for this instance.
It's been an amazing to be able to spend time with fellow believers and to really soak in the Lord Jesus and what he's done for us. And we're going to remember him tomorrow, His death, his life and his resurrection.
That time is special to us because we're remembering the one who we serve, who we live for, who we're going to see.
Camp, the remembrance all of these are times to be able to.
Gather together, strengthen one another and to look toward our goal. Our goal is Christ and we get that in. I think it's Philippians. Is that right, Paul? I think I talked about it once with you Philippians. Christ is our goal.
He is our goal, He is our example, He is our strength. What's the 4th one? Life. Christ is our life, if you remember that.
And if we really understand it, we will be most joyful.
And I pray that we can take that home with us and pray it will be an encouragement to each and everyone of you.
That's all I have, so let's go some prayer.
Our God and our Father, we thank you once again for.
The freedom we have in the land to come and to gather under the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to remember Him, to come and have fellowship and play games Lord, and sing songs and hymns to you. Pray Lord that you would strengthen us and encourage us. Help Lord our our heart and our mind to be refreshed and renewed. Pray Lord that as we leave this building that we think on things of you Lord, and how precious the sacrifice of your Son was.
And how glorious the resurrection was as well. We ask now that you would bless the rest this evening and leave your Son the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
His Hands
Children—Jeff Lunden
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Let's pray and then we'll say the verse, the memory verse. In this week, you'll have a little talk.
Our loving God and our Father. We thank you for this opportunity to have the Word of God open before us and to look at a few simple little lessons from the word of God. And we thank you for the good news of the gospel that's going out. We thank you that we can say that everyone here in this room is heard the gospel, and we just pray that it's true as we're just saying that everyone can say Love lifted me.
We would pray for anyone who might be in this room tonight and today who has not taken the Lord Jesus as our Savior, but they would realize.
The place that they stand, the importance of knowing the Savior and the jeopardy in which they stand. So we pray for your blessing on the word of God as we speak from it today. We would make it good to our souls. That would be simple and clear. We look to you for help. I thank you for this time and we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
So.
How many of you learned the memory verse and how many of you were too busy with camp to get practice?
Nobody's raising your hand about either, so let's all say it together. I'll read it first and then we'll all just say it together. It's part of two verses, part of one verse, but part of it's missing. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, but His long-suffering to us. Word not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Let's all say it together.
The whole group. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, but his long-suffering with two muscles not willing, the nation cherish all.
Just so I know what my audience is, this is a Sunday school, so I'd like to see a show of hands of everybody who would be in school. If school is in session right now, that means homeschoolers. Public schoolers, college kids, high school kids. Let me see a show of hands. I need to know who I can ask questions to. No, put them down. OK, All right. That back here there are a lot of people not raising their hands. That should be. I know that.
OK. We'll ask the hard questions back there.
So I want to ask a question here.
What part of creation did the Lord make with his fingers?
Nobody knows.
No, not man.
Adam.
Ready. No.
I was hoping somebody would give an answer that would be not correct.
No naive.
In in Psalms it says about the heavens right.
Let's just read that verse. I want to make a point.
We're going to look at a few verses. There aren't exactly what they seem, Psalms, 19, says.
Psalms, I'm sorry, Psalms 8 says. We, I thought we probably had would talk to who would have talked about this. In fact, I know people did talk about their creation since we're out here in the in the woods and many people have mentioned about how the creation that we've enjoyed around here that God had made.
It says.
In verse 3 When I consider Thy heavens the work of Thy fingers.
But did God make the heavens with his fingers?
What do you read in Genesis? How did he make the world?
He spoke them into existence, didn't he? He just said, and they were.
Isn't that amazing? Isn't that something? Let's read a verse in Psalms 19.
I want to talk about hands and I want to start with this verse, verse one of Psalms 19. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Who knows what handiwork is somebody back there?
Some electrician back here.
What's handiwork? Skill. Yeah, it's the things we do with our hands, right? Sometimes people say, oh, that guy's handy. He can do stuff. Uncle Ernie's handy. He can make all kinds of stuff with his hands with almost nothing. Almost no tools, right?
00:05:13
So what does this mean? Did God make the world that says the firmament? That's the heavens.
Shows his handiwork in the word of God. Sometimes we use word pictures.
So we get the idea.
When he talks about the hands, about God's hands, what it really means is what he did. Remember that little song that says be careful, little hands, what you do right Handiwork is what God did. So we use the the idea of hands for what God did.
Now when we go to the New Testament, where the Lord Jesus is actually here, we can read about his hands and we can see what he did. And you know, when we see what people do with their hands, sometimes we can understand what they're like.
How skilled they are. He used the word skill. And you know, if if you saw me paint something and then you saw Mark Debue paint something, you could tell which one was the professional painter and which one wasn't, because one of them would be better paint job than the other.
So we can see and we can learn about.
What somebody does by how they do their work. So when we look at the handiwork of God, what do we learn about him? We learn that he's very, very wise and he's very, very powerful. Can you imagine somebody just saying and things happen, things become there was nothing And then God just said let there be light and there was. That's incredible power, isn't it, To be able to just say the, the, the Latin word is ex nihilo.
Out of nothing, he just said it and it was. That's incredible power. But not only was it there, but it all worked together the right way.
That's amazing. What wisdom to?
Let's turn to the New Testament, though, where we see the Lord Jesus working and we learn something else. Not just power and not just wisdom, but we see love too. We see love working. So let's turn.
To some places where the Lord Jesus is working with his hands.
Let's look in Mark.
Mark, Chapter 2.
I'm sorry, Mark, Chapter 10.
Since this is a Sunday school, I thought would be a good place to start.
You know this story. And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them. And his disciples rebuked them, those that brought them. And when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased. He said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not for such as the Kingdom of heaven of God.
Verily I say, Auntie, or whosoever shall not of God as little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, and he put his hands on them, and he blessed them.
These, I think was probably their parents brought these young children to the Lord Jesus. And I think what he wanted to, they wanted him to do was do this, put his hands on them and bless them. You know what that means.
You know what blessing is and somebody blesses you. They want something good for you, right? They want they want you. Maybe they wanted the Lord Jesus to pray for him and say that this boy would grow up to be a a wealthy man, or maybe a most likely a happy man. I think if we would could say that every parent who brings their children who has children wants them to be happy. In fact, I think that's why your parents bring you here.
Because they want you to grow up and to be happy most of all.
And so they bring you here to learn about the Lord Jesus, because they know that.
The most important thing that you need to know is to know the Lord Jesus to be happy.
And so these parents brought their children to the Lord Jesus. And I like to see what he did with his hands. Not only did he touch them, not only did he, He didn't just do this. He went far beyond what the parents wanted. He took them up in his arms. He put them right here, I think, right in the place of affection.
00:10:01
Because the Lord Jesus wanted to show that his love, these hands that he had wanted to display the love of God. So he picked the children up and he put them in his, put them in his arms and put them to his chest, I think. And he also blessed them as the parents requested. You know, children is OK, It's good. It's very good to come with your parents to meeting and to learn about the Lord Jesus. But it's especially good to be in a place of affection with the Lord Jesus, to know him as your savior.
And to realize his love for you personally, not just to listen to your parents tell you about it, but to know the love of God for yourself. And so I mean, I I'd like to use this also as an example for us, if we want to be the hands of the Lord Jesus.
We can reach out to others, you know, in this verse, in this little story, the stern disciples, what did they do with the children? They tried to send them away. He's too busy. He doesn't have time for children.
But there's no one that the Lord Jesus doesn't have time for. Maybe we think, maybe there's some people that you know that.
They need the Lord Jesus, but you don't have time for them. Maybe you should take the time to share the Lord Jesus with them too. And then you can be the hands of God in this world, showing love to those people who need the Lord Jesus. Let's turn over to Mark 10, Mark One.
And we'll read about another.
Person that the Lord Jesus touched with his hands.
Verse 40 of Mark One there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to touch to him. And he said, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
And Jesus moved with compassion, put forth and and touched him, and said, I will be thou clean. As soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed. You know what leprosy is? You've probably heard about leprosy. You've probably heard about it in meeting a sickness that makes people.
Soar all over and back. In the time of the Lord Jesus, the people who were lepers, they had to stay away from everybody else, had to stay outside of the city and live all by themselves. And nobody would touch them because they were afraid that if they touched them then they would get leprosy. Can you imagine never being touched? What if nobody ever hugged you or or touched you and showed any affection? Can you imagine that? And then when they went anywhere, they had to say unclean, unclean. Imagine how awful that would feel to be.
Not wanted by shunned by everybody. Not wanted by everybody. And have to say I'm unclean. That's a picture of sin in this world. That's the way you and I are. We're sinners before God. We're unclean.
You know, touch is an important thing.
We all need it. We all need to be touched. My my daughter volunteers at a hospital she works in. She volunteers where they have preemie babies. You want preemie babies are about the size of. I've seen some girls. Do you know what they are? What are they?
Not just born small. They're born too soon, right? Little tiny babies. Incredibly tiny babies. And so the hospitals have these special.
Incubators that are the right temperature and the right air and the right everything, and they check the babies all the time, make sure they have the right food and medicines, and they're somebody paying attention to them. Each one of them all the time, 'cause they're too little to go home. They can't go home with their moms and dads. They're just wee little babies. But one thing that they've figured out is that babies need to be touched. They need to be held by somebody, otherwise they don't grow very well. And so this hospital where my daughter volunteers.
They have people come in and they just hold babies. That's all they do. They sit in a rocking chair and they don't feed them. They don't. They just hold them and the babies grow much better because they have that touch, this poor man.
This poor leper would probably not touched by anybody, but it says, and he says he has faith. He says to the Lord Jesus, I know that you can make me better if you want to.
And so the Lord Jesus was moved with compassion. That means he cared about that man and he showed his love, that his love with his hands he reached out and he touched him. That's the first thing he did, is he touched him. People didn't touch lepers. The Lord Jesus, that man. And then he said, I will be thou clean. You know, there's no one too vile, too much of A Sinner for the Lord Jesus to save them. Maybe sometimes, You know, last night we heard.
00:15:04
Mark was talking about people who are respecters of persons. Maybe sometimes we think, oh, that guy, that guy at school, he he he misbehaves all the time. I don't think he could be a Christian. He he uses bad language or he doesn't obey the teacher or whatever. I I don't even think I should bother telling him about the Lord Jesus. I don't think he there's nobody that's too bad to be saved, is there? The Apostle Paul says that he was the chief of sinners.
And so.
You know, I don't think we should hang out with people who are misbehave all the time at school. But we can be kind to them and we can odd to them. And maybe we would have an opportunity sometime to tell them about the Lord Jesus. Then we could be the loving hands of the Savior too. Let's look at one more in Matthew 14.
The two we've talked about were people who you might say were outside. Here's one of his own, and this is about Peter when he walked on the water. You know that story.
Peter walked on the water. And what happened to him? Do you remember?
He started to sink. That's right, he started to sink. Let's read it a little bit.
Matthew 14.
Let's start with verse 25 and the 4th watch of the night. Jesus went unto them walking on the seed. This the disciples were in a boat. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were troubled and saying it's a spirit and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus speaking to them saying be of good cheer it is I be not afraid.
And Peter answered him, and saying, Lord, if it be, thou bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. When Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go. But when he saw the wind was boisterous, he was afraid, beginning to sink. He cried, and immediately stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said to him, Oh thou little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
This is the Lord the Lord Jesus reaching out his hands to preserve one of his own when their faith failed them, you know.
I think we could say if Peter, he had faith. The Lord Jesus says here that he had faith, but it doesn't look like very much faith because the Lord said it's me, I'm out here on the water. And Peter said if it's really you, that's that doesn't sound like very much faith. We might say Peter didn't have very much faith, but he says if it's thou bid me come unto thee. And you know the Lord Jesus says come, he'll take any little bit of action of faith on our part.
He encourages us. Maybe you are exercised about doing something for the Lord Jesus, but you're afraid you might fail.
You might like Peter get looking around and go, oh man, I'm going to sink in the water. The Lord Jesus said don't bother Peter, you're going to sink into the water. But he didn't, he said Come, he said come to me. He encouraged him to exercise his faith and I'd like to say.
For all of us here, if you're exercised about something, if if in fact in a meeting, you feel exercised to speak, to give out of him, to exercise your priestly.
Responsibility. Jesus has come. You should be exercised about that.
And you should act on your faith. You might fail, but the Lord Jesus was there immediately it says to help him. He reached out his hand to save him. Isn't that nice? He was there immediately.
So those are three examples of the Lord Jesus hands in action. Now I want to look at the Lord Jesus hands as a message to us.
Let's turn back to Isaiah 49.
Yeah.
Isaiah 49 and verse 16.
Behold, I have graven thee.
Upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before me. Where's the palms of your hands? Let me show me. Show me your palms.
Palms of your hands. This is the palms of I think we can say this is for the, for this example, this Sunday School, the palms of the Lord Jesus hands.
So it says I have graven thee who knows what graven means, and it has nothing to do with gravy. What does graven mean?
Let's take the UN off the end of it.
What's a grave?
Come on.
00:20:01
Your grandpa digs grave sometimes.
A thing where you put dead bodies. That's right, a hole in the ground, right? How do they make it? How's your grandpa? How did he make graves? What's he use? Shovel. And I think he uses a backhoe, actually, especially in the winter time when it's really frozen.
And they dig a hole in the ground where they put the casket, right with the body in it. So a grave is something that's dugout. Usually they're about this deep. I was in a grave. I'd have to jump up to see out when they put me in the grave. I won't be jumping in all that.
So something that's dug.
So this verse is kind of strange. It says I have.
Dug the into the palms of my hands.
Let me show you an example of what I think the writer was saying.
About 40 examples of this right here.
There's something graven.
This one's free. Who I think.
It's dug in.
Why would somebody dig a name in like that? Let me tell you a little example of why I think they would. Where I used to work, there was a guy named Greg, and he would come to me every morning and he'd tell me what he was going to do that day. He was responsible. I was responsible to tell him his jobs. He didn't come in and tell me what he's going to do. And then I'd have to remind him of, well, Greg, make sure you check the filter on this or check this or that. And at first, when he started working for me, he didn't carry a notepad with him, so he'd take a pen. He'd write on his hand filter.
Oil or whatever. Sometimes you'd have to come back to my office and go. What was that you reminding me about? I said, well, you wrote it on your hand. Yeah, but I washed my hands and the message went away.
This is put here so it's permanent.
So.
If you know the Lord Jesus, you're permanently engraved on his hands. Isn't that nice?
There's three things I'd like to say about this. One of them is the name is permanent. That means it never goes away.
If you know the Lord Jesus as your savior, you're permanently one of his. That means forever. You can't lose your salvation. You're forever His.
Now the next thing is it says I have graven thee. That's you personally. It doesn't mean just in general people. It means you personally, You know, a great preacher see it, Spurgeon said of this verse. He said. It doesn't mean just your name. It means everything about you, your hopes, your dreams, the things that you worry about, the things you're happy about, the things you're interested in. Everything about you is there in the palm of his hand.
Isn't that interesting? Everything he knows all about you and it's all there in the apartment of his hand and I think the third thing.
Is instantaneous. And I'm, I'm sorry to use this example, a modern day example for something so, so precious as this, but have you ever seen anybody who?
Was using Instagram and talking to their friends somewhere. Sometimes this happens at our in our meeting. I see people walk out and they're going like this and then they look like that, and then they look like that and they want to talk to somebody there. They're talking to somebody and they're answering back and forth and it's going back. Hello Walla Walla, you know? And then back and forth like that, you know?
Do they have it in their back pocket or in their coat pocket or they leave it in the it's right there all the time. You know the Lord Jesus when Peter was thinking what does it say when after Peter said Lord save me, what's the next verse immediately.
The Lord Jesus has you in front of him all the time. Immediately, he answered. Immediately He's interested. He pays attention to your life all of the time. Before they call, I will answer. And while they're yet speaking, I will hear. There's three things. Permanent, personal, and instantaneous. Isn't that nice? Now I have these for everybody here. I think that has.
That had their name on the list.
When I made them up. And if you're missing, I could make you one. And you're welcome to have, you're welcome to each take one. You can come up here after Sunday school's over and get yours. But I want to ask you a question first.
00:25:06
Is your name actually engraved in the Lord Jesus hand?
This is kind of like that first verse that we were talking about about making this heavens with his fingers. It's kind of poetic license. That's what they say. It was said one way so we could understand the idea. But what Mark is really in the Lord Jesus hands, Russell, what Mark is really in the Lord Jesus hands is your name written in his hand.
What is the actual mark that's in the Lord Jesus palm of his hand? A nail print? That's right.
I didn't put nail prints in these. I couldn't figure out how to do it. When you take this home you can nail it on the wall if you want. Then it would be more realistic if your mom or dad would let you do that. But if you're the Lords, then your name is associated with the nail prints in his hands.
Let's read about.
Thomas in John 20.
You know, believe that the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead.
And he said to the disciples.
Except I see the the Prince see in his hands the Prince of the nails, and put my finger into the Prince of the nails and thrust my hand into his side. I will not believe. And so when the Lord Jesus appeared, the Lord Jesus said, put your hands here, I'll show you the nails. I I'll show you where I was nailed on the cross and suffered for you. And what did Thomas say? I don't even know. And Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God.
You know.
If you would take one of these and you're not the Lord Jesus and it's just your name on a board.
But you should be exercised about you should think about the fact that you're engraved on his hands.
Because of the nail prints that are there, he took the nails for you and for me.
And so you when you look at this, you should think.
Do I believe that? Do I believe?
That he suffered for me. Do you believe that? Are you his because he took the nails in his hands and suffered on the cross for you.
I think that's a good thing to think about and I want that's why I made these so that you would think about that. And then if you are the Lords, you can appreciate the fact that you're his because he suffered for you.
Let's pray.
Loving God and our Father.
Our Savior, the Lord Jesus.
That he displayed the love of God in this world, especially when he went to Calvary's cross and gave his life for sinners. We ask your blessing on the children here today. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
So you can come up.
Philippians 2:13-30
Thus Minded
Talk—Jonathan Csanyi
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Verse three says, And though here on earth rejected tis but fellowship with thee, should we not with joy expect it here like thee our Lord to be? Before we pray, let's read a couple verses. Just an opening in Luke 23.
We were in Luke 23 several times this morning.
I want to read a little bit earlier, starting at verse 13.
And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me as one that perverted the people. And behold, I have examined him. Having examined him before, you have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him. No, nor yet, Herod, for I sent you to him. And lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore chastise him and release him.
For of necessity he must release 1 unto them at the feast. And they cried out all the more at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas, who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder was cast into prison.
Pilate therefore willing to release Jesus, speak again to them, But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. And he said unto them a third time, Why?
What evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him. I will therefore chastise him and let him go.
And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that He might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required. And He released unto them Him that for his sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired, but He had delivered Jesus to their will.
Let's pray.
Regarding our Father and our Lord Jesus, we thank you for this wonderful week we've had, and we thank you that we can again come together with Thy Word open.
Pray the loudest help us as we open Thy word to have a message for each one of us will help the speaker to clearly convey this message that thou hast.
And we just ask for Thy help as we open thy word. We pray this in Thy name, Amen.
We'll come back to the cross a little bit later. I just wanted to read that in opening. Keep it in your mind.
But I want to turn to Philippians chapter 3.
And before I get into Philippians chapter 3.
Like the sea lion in the Psalms, I want to just stop and consider this for a minute.
Brother Alejandro at the Thing.
Talked about the conductor.
All the different instruments and players.
Were orchestrated by the conductor to bring forth one beautiful.
Piece of music.
A couple weeks ago, Uncle Steve emailed me asking if I'd take this meeting, this address.
And I was thinking.
I was thinking of some thoughts to do with Philippians chapter 3.
Then we come here and we have Philippians in the reading readings. In fact, we get through most of the 1St 2 Chapters.
A bit scary. Have you ever had a talk planned and then a reading meeting is given out in the same passage? Or what could be the same passage if we go through the reading fast enough?
But it all worked out perfectly.
Those that have been here the whole week, we've seen this over and over as the various speakers come.
They can afford the message. Maybe they weren't even here. They're no longer here, most of them. But it was a consistent sound. It all fit together perfectly. Just stop and consider that for a minute before we get into what I had in Philippians Chapter 3.
We'll start by reading a couple verses towards the end of the chapter.
It's been a.
A long week. I know you guys are tired. I don't intend to go through this verse by verse. I don't intend to do an exposition, detailed exposition on the chapter. I want to pick out a couple key points that I think would be very useful to us.
00:05:11
That capture the essence of the chapter and the essence of whatever Josh mentioned earlier in the week when he said this is the answer, the solution to the problems he has been showing in the life of Solomon.
Let's start verse 15. Let us therefore as many as be perfect. Be thus minded.
And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followeth together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example.
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working, whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.
There's three groups of people.
In this passage, and everyone of us falls into one of these three groups, verse 15. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. So there's those that are thus minded.
Same verse a little bit later. Those that are otherwise minded.
Then a little bit further down.
Verse 19.
Who mind earthly things? Those that are earthly minded.
And I want to look a little bit at what what it means by these three terms. You know, often our inclination is to well, because we know that Philippians is talking about the unity of the spirit. We know that in Chapter 4, it's talking about the two sisters that had a problem.
Our inclination is to think that thus minded is talking about agreeing with each other, and if we don't agree with each other, God will work that out. God will reveal it to us. I think I have no problem with that. It's a valid application. But I think if we look closely, it's not the actual in the context of this chapter. It's not what's being said.
So let's look back a little bit earlier in the chapter and see what he means by thus minded.
Chapter 3.
I love how everything just kind of fits. My brother Ernie, just in the last reading, gave a summary of the four chapters.
Chapter one was the character of devotion. Chapter 2 The example of devotion. Chapter 3 the power of devotion. Chapter 4 the path of devotion.
So chapter 3 is the power of devotion. I was going to describe it as the energy and motivation.
That allows us to put these things into practice, these expectations that are in the other chapters, the 1St 2 Chapters, and then chapter 4, which is very practical. A lot of exportations. In fact, it's a parentheses. If you look at a more critical translation, it's indicated as a parentheses.
If you look at the end of Chapter 2, the subject there is continued in the beginning of chapter 4.
And in the meantime, he's taking this break.
To tell us about what we need to have the energy to actually do these things that he's exhorting us to do.
So in this chapter, it's personal, it's individual. It's not talking about preserving the unity of the Spirit, it's talking about myself, the state that I need to be in to be able to fulfill the rest of the book.
Let's go back to start at verse 4.
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath thereof, whereof he might trust in the flesh I more.
Circumcised the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law. A Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the Church, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless.
00:10:02
But what things were gained to me? Those I counted loss for Christ, yay, doubtless. And I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ.
So Paul's giving himself as an example here.
He's referring to himself and his life. You all know the story. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was in good conscience persecuting the Christians. He thought he was doing God's will.
Concerning zeal persecuting the Church.
But these things that are listed here.
Are things that he used to glory in.
They were things that he used to value.
And he's showing how he no longer values them. His entire viewpoint changed on the road to Damascus.
When he encountered the Lord.
If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more.
And, you know, a lot of these things have to do with pride. A lot of these things are not things that we would consider to be bad or wrong. That what might be referred to as the egg, egg of the flesh. That's going to need a bit of explanation. I know. Remember the story of Agag?
King Saul was told to destroy the Amalekites. Actually, let's turn back there just for a couple of verses. It's in First Samuel.
Chapter 15.
So Saul was told.
To destroy them utterly. See that in verse 3, go on slight Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not. But he didn't.
See in verse seven, Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until the chemist is sure that is over against Egypt, and he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Paul and the people spared a gag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings and the lambs of all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them.
But everything that was vile and refuse that they destroyed utterly.
I'm not going to go further in the story of Agag. You know the Amalekites are a type of the flesh.
And they had no trouble destroying that which was vile of the flesh.
But the best parts of it?
The parts that looked pretty good, he preserved them.
And Samuel comes to Saul with a message that basically says you're done being king because he could not obey it. Was that serious?
One of the writers, I don't remember which writer it is, but there's a quote that I found really interesting.
Before I was saved, I wanted to be a great man in the world.
After I was saved, I wanted to be a great man among brethren, and I had to learn that both were wrong, he said.
And sometimes pride is very deceitful, the flesh is very deceitful, and there are these things in our life.
That, like Paul, we need to count them as loss, or even as dung or filth.
Now Paul's giving himself as an example here.
So he talks about the things that were in his life. Each one of us may have different things.
I was born into a Christian family and raised in the assembly. Graduated from university with honors. Career is on a great start, no limit to my potential.
That's basically the same as what Paul is talking about here.
00:15:01
Our personal goals, attitudes, possessions, careers.
All these things.
Are valued by the flesh.
Things that.
Not.
Not bad in themselves, but their distraction.
And if we value them and are distracted by them, then it becomes bad and it becomes as Paul says.
Paul basically has. I've heard the words paradigm shift used in this context.
Is turned around completely and it wasn't something that happened over years and years. This was very quickly on the road to Damascus.
He was going 100% one way.
And he met Christ.
And he threw away all these things that he had valued before.
And you know, we've heard the saying that.
There's never a vacuum.
There's always something to replace it. And if we're going to keep reading here and see what Paul's new values were, what did he value now? What was he occupied with now instead of these things so occupied him before that catered to the flesh. The good side of the flesh, maybe, but catered to the flesh.
So let's keep reading. Let's go from verse 9.
And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do.
Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
So he's occupied with Christ, that he would know Christ.
My brother Caleb stood up here and talked about.
How we do that? By having thoughts of Christ. And we looked at God's thoughts of Christ.
Paul was.
I'm not going to go through the whole list. There was, I think you could break out seven things here that he was occupied with. I think there's actually seven things that he gave up and then seven things that he was newly occupied with.
But just to point out a couple of them.
You want to know Christ?
He wanted to suffer.
For Christ.
Verse 10. And the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Fellowship with his sufferings.
Even possibly going so far as to die for him. We talked back in chapter one.
About suffering for Christ, and the distinction was made.
Between suffering for Christ and suffering with Christ.
Chapter One unto you It is verse 29. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.
He wanted to know and become like Christ, to suffer for him.
Risk 12 Middle of the verse, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Bit of a tongue twister, a bit of a play on words almost and it's the word apprehend here is used almost in two different ways and it's the same word in the original that has the same.
00:20:09
Almost two meanings that are related but not quite the same.
You could use the phrase to lay hold of instead of to apprehend. It might help explain it.
Apprehend can mean to understand or to lay hold of a concept to understand something, but it can also mean to lay hold of to arrest somebody or to to restrain somebody.
If that I may understand that for which also I am arrested of Christ Jesus.
He wanted to know the reason, the purpose. He wanted to understand the purpose why God had arrested him in his path.
This epistle.
Was written from Rome I believe, very late in the apostles life.
And yet he still.
Felt that he didn't fully understand what God had for him.
It's something he was striving towards. It's something he was.
Continually.
Asking the Lord about.
Sometimes we.
We may have.
A work that we feel we've been given to do.
And maybe we get comfortable in that and it becomes a habit and we're no longer exercised about it.
That's not what happened here with the Apostle Paul.
One of his goals, one of his values, one of his objects of his life was to continually understand what God had for him to do.
What the Lord had for him to do, Why he was here.
Verse 13 is a bit of a summary.
Forgetting those things which are behind the first couple of verses I read the things that he had left behind, turned away from.
And reaching forth unto those things that are before his new object, his new goals.
You know he was considered.
A zealot, he was extreme.
Was it?
Agrippa or Festus maybe?
Much learning to make thee mad.
And yet.
This is the example Paul lays out.
As many as be perfect, be thus minded.
Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded this extreme.
Put aside, he says. Put aside.
Those things that cater to the flesh, those things we're proud of naturally and be wholly, completely occupied with Christ and His things. So much so that the world calls you mad.
You know, in many areas of the world.
Religion is OK.
In moderation.
The man of the world will.
Allow, even encourage sometimes. If it works for you, a little bit's OK, Just don't take it too far.
Both saying.
There's no such thing as too far. Take it as far as you can.
Don't worry about what the world says if the world calls you mad.
Let us therefore as many as be perfect or full grown. That is not babes or children.
You know, many of us may think I'm not perfect, so it doesn't apply to me.
But that's not what it's talking about. It's a full growth adults.
Grown-ups in the faith.
And as I lookout here.
I see a lot.
Of people that could be considered grown up in the faith, adult.
Be thus minded, and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
00:25:07
You know, if you were to ask each one of us.
I suspect.
Everyone of us.
Knows they're things where we are not fully following like the Apostle Paul.
I'm not. I know I'm not.
But God is working with me, He's working with each one of us to bring things before us, to reveal them unto me. Ways in which we are not thus minded, ways in which we are deviating from this pattern that is being set before us. God's revealing them to us.
And as we address them and are willing to deal with them.
You'll reveal more.
Until we are thus minded.
This wasn't an Apostolic experience. This was something.
That's available to every Christian. It's not just the apostle Paul, because he was an apostle, that he could be such an extreme zealot for Christ.
You know, if we really believe.
The things we say, we believe.
If we believe that the Lord is coming any day.
Why are we so occupied with things down here?
Earthly things.
Why are we so often otherwise minded?
But I said there were three groups of people, and we've talked about two.
Look at the last one.
Verse 18 for many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping.
That they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things, those that are earthly minded. Now, I believe the people being described here whose end is destruction, they're obviously not Christians. They're not believers.
But that doesn't mean we can't be affected by the same attitude as them. Nepal opens the chapter. I didn't read it but he opens the chapter with a warning.
Against evil workers and basically those that would bring in teachings that would point their eyes to the earth.
Bring in aspects of Judaism, bring in other things that would make them earthly minded.
And the part I find really interesting about this is that they're called enemies of the cross of Christ.
And this is where we come back to the passage I read at the beginning in Luke. The cross of Christ was this world's.
Final response to the Lord Their verdict?
This was what the world awarded him.
The cross of Christ.
Why do we want anything to do with this world?
How could we even consider compromising with them when this is what they did, this is how they think. They hide it. They encourage us to blend in with them.
And it's talking about these here, those that are earthly minded.
Mind earthly things. They were enemies of the cross of Christ.
The separation that comes from understanding the cross of Christ. They're enemies of that.
They don't want that separation.
World's not so bad.
In moderation.
Let's make some compromises here and some compromises there. Some people in the world are basically good.
Think of the cross of Christ. This was their response.
And they would do it again.
It wasn't a one time thing.
Galatians.
I'm going to read a verse in Galatians chapter 6.
00:30:12
Verse 14.
But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world, we understand the cross of Christ.
The world is crucified to us. It has no attraction to us.
Turn a couple verses in Mark, the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10.
Mark chapter 10 and verse 17.
And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, saying, Good, Master, what shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one that is God. Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not honor thy father and mother. He answered and said unto him, Master, all these things that I observed from my youth.
Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lockest.
Go thy way so whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. And come, take up the cross, and follow me.
This man was told to come take up the cross and follow him. Taking up the cross wasn't giving away his earthly possessions.
If you reread verse 21 There it comes after.
We are called to identify with the cross of Christ ourselves. Take up our cross.
This man was sad and went away grieved.
And.
But if we identify ourselves with this rejected Christ.
It's not an easy path, the world.
The world awarded him the cross.
And they'll treat us the same way.
But how can we not?
Identify ourselves.
With him, with his cross, with the rejection that he suffered.
When the alternative is to join with the world.
That sent him to that cross.
So those that mind earthly things in Philippians.
Might be those that not only are they not thus minded, they're not following the example of the apostle Paul. They're not just otherwise minded, They're not just a couple things that Lord is bringing before them. They're not willing to look at these things, but they are actively occupied with things down here, earthly minded.
Enemies of the Cross of Christ at solemn, really.
And it goes beyond. I don't want to give you the impression that.
Being earthly minded and enemies of the cross of Christ is just about how we spend our free time and how.
Engage with the world we are.
You know, there's a lot of people.
A lot more people, I should say, that could be called enemies of the cross of Christ.
Than there are that could be called enemies of Christians or Christendom.
With believers that are enemies of the cross of Christ, they don't want that separation personally, collectively, ecclesiastically, all of these things.
The cross of Christ brings in a separation.
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That.
We deny.
Across the.
So I lost my train of thought.
The cross of Christ is a statement by the world.
And we can't just Passover it.
And reach around the cross has been said to shake hands with the world.
So.
About all I had.
Just want to exhort you to reread this chapter on your own time. Look at these things that characterize the Apostle Paul, the things he gave up and the things that he valued.
And maybe those verses where we are exhorted to be thus minded and to be receptive.
If we are otherwise minded to be receptive when the Lord brings these things before us.
Where we have not fully given ourselves to following him.
We say we believe lots of things.
Do we act like we believe these things? Do we Do the decisions we make reflect these things?
Let's pray.
Our gardener Father and our Lord Jesus, we thank me for this chance we've had to be over Thy word. We pray for each one here.
For help in identifying these areas where we were otherwise minded, it'll help each one here.
To become more like this example that's given, and to have Thee as the object for our souls, we pray this now in Thy name, Amen.
A Relationship With God
Gospel—Dave Knowles
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All right, let's just pray and ask the Lord for help.
Our gracious God and our loving Father, we look up and we are so thankful. So thankful for this past week. The time of refreshment away from our normal cares and responsibilities of life. Time up in the mountains to reflect on Thy glory and to have the word before us and to have that enjoyment and the privilege of enjoying happy fellowship with other believers. Father, we give thanks for it. We give thanks to for those that have labored to make it possible.
And we just pray for thy blessing on them. And tonight, as we're gathered here for the purpose of the gospel, we just pray, Lord, that it might be.
Told forth in his freshness and that it would be beautiful and precious to each one of us. And that if there's any here that have not yet bowed the knee, blessed Lord, we pray that they would be convicted and that there would be repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. So we just pray and ask for help. Lord, we pray for clarity of thought and we pray too that it would be put forth in its simplicity. So we just asked this giving thanks in Jesus name, Amen.
Well, you guys are troopers. I know it's been a long week and on top of a long week, it's been a long day. So thank you guys very much for that. Appreciate you being here and and.
Being willing to listen.
So tonight, as we take up the gospel message, I'm not going to take a long time. I promise I'll keep it short, but I'd love to have your attention. And for those of you that have already made Christ your own, Hallelujah. Rejoice in the beauty and the preciousness of that. And for any that have not, I trust and pray that their heart would be opened to the message.
You know, tonight I was thinking about it, in particular the invitation of the gospel in regards to relationship.
We stopped and we've enjoyed a wonderful week and that beauty of God's creation and think about the fact that the God who is Jeff Lindeen reminded us this morning spoke the world's into existence. It's that God, it's the only God, the one true God who desires a relationship with you and I creatures such as we it's it's amazing. It's it's incredible, but it's true. And so as we think of that in light of the invitation that he's given us to enter into relationships.
I wanted to be clear that we're not born into this world with a relationship with him. Mark mentioned that on Thursday as he talked about the fallen in Genesis 3, where sin came into the world and sin ultimately separates us from God because God is holy.
And from Adam on down, we were of the same seed. We were born into this world, sinners. And so there's need for a restoration. There's need for repentance and transformation. And tonight I hope to cover that in just a little bit of detail. I don't know how many of you guys have had the privilege and the opportunity of interacting with other individuals, but every once in a while, I'm sure there's actually more opportunities than I take advantage of. But there are some opportunities that I've taken advantage of to share the gospel.
And one response that I've gotten that it's common, particular when you're particularly when you're speaking to somebody who's been either familiar or is in the Catholic faith, if you ask them the way of salvation. The response that I've got more commonly than not is, you know, what do you need to have eternal life? What do you need to have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ?
And more often than not, the responses be a good person.
And as we start out the gospel message, I'd like to just address it from that angle to be a good person. You know, my first response, naturally speaking over the years is I've, I've, you know, you kind of recoil and then you jump right in and you said, no, it's not by being, being good. But what I've, what I've struggled is as soon as I cut off their ear, they don't usually want to listen to the rest of the dialogue. And so a while back I was listening to a, a meeting by Michael Ramsden and he he shared he'd often gotten the same response.
And he said, he said, you know what, I would encourage you to do this. He said, the next time you get that response, I agree with him. So you're absolutely right. You can actually have eternal life by being good. And he said, and then I would ask them another question to follow up because by asking them questions, you force them to open up within their own assumptions that they've made. If you're quick to the draw and cut off the year, they don't even listen to what's coming in. But if you agree with them and you're on the same playing field, on the same page, and then ask them.
By definition. OK, so let me ask you, what does it mean when you say you can be good?
Until him and ha and beat around the Bush a little bit and scratch and and usually they'll come up with.
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An interpretation that sounds something like this and it really depends on who you're talking to and what they've what their life history has been. OK, because I've gotten the opportunity and the privilege to preach the gospel in the jail and I've gotten the opportunity and the privilege to just share the gospel with men out on the street. And I get two different responses. But it's always unique and interesting because multiple responses more than two but but these categories are stark contrast one to another because when you're talking to a man on the street who hasn't had a problem maybe per Southeast with infractions against.
Everyday moral laws, they haven't been locked up in jail. Well, for them, the definition of good is by obeying the laws and not getting put in jail and doing the best you can. And they, him and Han beat around the Bush. But that's ultimately what they say. It's characteristic of the response you'll get of any individual who takes up that platform where they can be good. They'll share with you the basis of their foundation of being good is basically essentially how they can describe their own life and everybody that falls up above that. Now you go into the jail and you share the gospel and you get some of the same responses. Well, ultimately by being good. And you ask them, well, just tell me just just how good have you been? What, what is good enough?
And they'll get pretty defensive because they're sitting there in a jail suit and they probably assume that we're looking at them just a little bit judgmental. And they'll say, well, you know, I'm not like so and so and I haven't, I haven't done this and I haven't done that and I haven't, I've been a pretty good guy. I mean, I broke a few rules, but ultimately everybody that you talk to that wants to come to the Lord Jesus Christ wants to come to enter into relationship with God on a platform of being good. They always use a sliding scale. They grade on a curve.
And tonight, I just want to share with you a few verses that Michael Ramsden shared. There's many more, and I hope I don't want to take too long, but we'll get the opportunity to touch in on a few of them if you just turn with me over to Matthew chapter 19.
And I know there's a lot of things that we can draw from, from this little passage, but I hope that you'll allow me just to just to focus on this particular phrase that I'm looking for in relation that's relevant to what we're speaking to tonight. Matthew 19 and verse 16. It says, and behold, one came to him and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why call us thou me good? There is none good.
But one.
That is God.
But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. There is none good but one. Now, there's a lot that's being said here. The Lord Jesus is no doubt giving the man the opportunity to give confession to who he is, who he's asking, that he has God himself. But by definition, the Lord Jesus Christ clarifies that there is none good but God.
So when you dialogue with them and you ask them about their standard of good, and then you open the word of God and you say, yeah, but at the end of the day, who's the one that's going to decide the destiny of your eternal soul? Is it you or is it God?
Well, if they're honest, all of us have to admit it's God, isn't it? And what's God's valuation of mankind? There's none good but God, none. That means you and Oi. If we've sent in our application and if we've done the best we can to make it look as pretty as we can, and we've come on the basis of our works and our good efforts, it's been rejected. God says that won't work. And you know, it's very sad because many men.
Reject the simplicity of the Gospel message.
Because they want to do it on their own terms. Michael Ramsey gives us illustration and I find it to be very helpful. But in relation to the gospel message, if you look at this here and you take it in, in view of let's just say a bookshelf, okay, a tiered bookshelf, up at the top, you have good moral people, okay, good moral people. Down here you got maybe white lies, maybe they're guilty of some, some guile. Down here you got thieves and then maybe kidnappers, murderers, and many other things we could classify.
But ultimately, man by nature.
We tend to tear sin.
Now, if you live a good moral life, at best you've still failed because pride is sin, arrogance is sin, independence from God whatsoever is not a faith is sin. So nobody's missing out on the qualifications of God's judgment. But the beautiful thing about the gospel message is it doesn't matter which one of these categories you come from.
The message of the Gospel is for you.
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That's the beautiful thing. That's why I love going into the jail or love getting the opportunity to share in the streets because it doesn't matter their backdrop of their lifestyle or where they've come from. The message of the gospel brings hope because it's not a message for good moral people who think they can earn their way to salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he came down into this world, what did he say? He said they that are holding me not a physician, but they that are sick. Isn't that the beauty of the gospel message? It's for it's for you and I all we have to do to qualify to be brought into the relationship with the creator of the universe.
Is to acknowledge that we're sinners and to repent and by faith receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our own personal Lord and Savior. That's how simple it is. You know, there's many verses we could go to and maybe just that that further this point, maybe forsake of time, we'll just turn over to Romans chapter 3. There's a few here in Romans chapter 3.
Romans chapter 3 and we'll just start with.
Verse nine I think it is.
Romans chapter 3 and verse 9 says.
What then are we better than they? No, and no wise. For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that all are under sin.
As it is written, there is none. Righteous, No, not one. And then if we jump down to verse 23, a well known verse.
We read there that for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And if we could, we could go to many others. There's I made a list of a few other references, but first John 18 and eight and 10 lead us to the same conclusion. Galatians 322 Ecclesiastes 720 first Kings 8. Then there's another there's there's several more, but the Scriptures are really clear about the condition of mankind. All have sinned and come short of the of the glory of God.
What do we do then? That's our condition before a holy God.
You know the remedy.
Starts off with repentance. As I mentioned, there's a verse in Acts chapter 17 and maybe we can just read it briefly.
Acts 17 and verse.
Verse 30 and it's the last half of the verse it says, but now.
Let's see at times and at the times of this ignorance, God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. That's the beginning, That's that, that's that's where it all starts. Repentance. When we're willing to acknowledge what we are, we're willing repentance ultimately to turn from and turn to right. That's that's where we wreck it. We're willing to recognize what God's conclusion of mankind is, is true and accurate. And then if we turn over to Romans 10, we get there the gospel and simplicity. And there's a few other verses I want to turn to.
As well.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Don't you love it?
Is it complex?
You know how many times I remember there was a hairy Ironside, I think it was, was preaching the gospel down on the streets. And and he's as he's preaching the gospel, one man came up and was exasperated and threw up his arm, something to this degree and said, how in the world are we supposed to figure it out? There's thousands of religions out there. There's so many different options. How are we supposed to find the right way? And Harry Ironside said, really, there's thousands. He said, as far as I know, there's really only two.
You see, all the religions of the world can be classified into two categories. Those that say they can save themselves, they can earn their favor with God on their own terms, and those that need a savior. Is that simple?
And so it isn't complex. You don't have to have a degree in theology, you don't have to have a great understanding. You have to be willing to believe what God says. God says if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart, the God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And then let's just read a couple more verses in John 10.
John 10 I'm actually just going to read one verse here and then we'll turn over to Acts 16. John 10:00 and 9:00 I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture, and then turn with me to Acts chapter 16.
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Acts chapter 16 And I think we're familiar with this story, but this is the Philippian jailer as he has witnessed Paul and Silas. And then the earthquake happens and he fears for his life. He goes to take his own life with a sword and then he runs in. Well Paul tells him don't, don't harm myself, we're all here. And he runs in and he asks a simple question. He says he came in trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and said unto them, or brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thou shalt be saved in thy house.
You know, the preciousness about the gospel is that all of the men that I've spoken to in regards to good, the although they draw themselves at whatever level, whatever moral level they think is going to make it into heaven. If you really try to pin them down and ask them if they're sure of their salvation, not one of them is, and they can't be because they know better. Their conscience tells them better. But you and I, if we accept what God has said in his Word, it's not my words, it's not your words.
It's God's words himself. If we rest in that our soul rests and nothing less than Christ, a solid rock. That's the wonder of it. We don't have to be fearful. I think James when he was speaking to the young people.
And it wasn't here. I was taking care of some kids, if I remember right. But he, he correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he's talked about anxiety. Is that right? Talked a little bit about anxiety. Something about New York Times has written it up as an epidemic in this in this generation.
You know, I don't just in Walla Walla. I don't in my own lifetime.
2-3 years ago they finally legalized marijuana and within short period of time there was at least three stores that opened up that sell marijuana. But it's just indicative of the hurt of this culture they're grasping. Why would anybody in their right mind smoke a cigarette when they know it's destroying their health and it costs them a lot of money? They do it at a desperation right to try to find some peace. I don't, I don't know if you're familiar, but if you've been around a chain smoker and they get into a stressful situation and they haven't had a smoke in a while.
They get incredibly shaky really fast. They're living off of that And why? It's because of the unanswered questions in life.
And the beautiful thing about the gospel messages is it is it brings those home and it can give you an eyepiece peace that passes all understanding. It's not peace because we went down to the store and we spent some money and we got a high and it's kind of put us out of our misery for the time being. You know, the sad thing about those things is that it always takes a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more to reach the same effects. It's like a one way St. It's just dragging it down. God wants to deliver us from that. He wants to give us peace. He wants to give our souls rest and hope. And you know what the good news is for all of us that have believed.
On the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted in his own personal Savior by God's grace. It ought to reflect in our lives, in our countenances, and we ought to be like wells, springing up with joy and ready to give an answer if any man asks. The hope that lies within. That's the opportunity that we have as followers of Christ. And if you haven't come to Jesus Christ and made it your own, I trust and pray that you would. You know the gospel in a nutshell.
Is so I want to, when I was in Walla Walla here a couple nights back or a couple weeks ago, I referenced the story I didn't have, I didn't have the actual story in front of me, so I didn't do it in whole. And, and there's some from Walla Walla here and some not. So I trust you'll forgive me for repeating it, but I want to share it with you tonight because I think it, to me, it's a beautiful illustration of the gospel message. OK. So just bear with me as I read you the story and then we'll try to take away just a few applications and we'll bring it to a close.
As far as I know, it's a true story. It's a story of a young man by the name of John Blanchard. John Blanchard stood up on the bench and straightened in his Army uniform and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station. He looked for a girl whose heart he knew but whose face he didn't. The girl with the Rose. His interest in her had begun 13 months before in a Florida library. Taking a book off the shelf, he found himself intrigued, not with the words of the book, but with the notes penciled in the margin.
The soft hand writing reflected a thoughtful and insightful mind in the front of the book.
He discovered the previous owner's name, Miss Hollis Minnell. With time and effort, he located her address. She lived in New York City and he wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond the next day. He was shipped overseas for service in World War 2. During the next year and one month, the two grew to know each other through the mail. Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile heart.
A romance was budding. Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn't matter what she looked like. When the day finally came for him to return from from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting, 7:00 PM at Grand Central Station in New York. You'll recognize me, she wrote. By the red rose I'll be wearing on my lapel. So at seven, he was there in the station, looking for a girl whose heart he loved but whose face he'd never seen.
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A young woman who was coming towards him. Sorry, this is now told from his perspective. Actually, a young woman was coming towards me, her figure long and slim. Her blonde hair lay back and curls from her delicate ears. Her eyes were blue as flowers, her lips and chin had a gentle firmness, and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive. I started toward her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose. As I moved, a small provocative smile curved her lips.
Going my way, sailor, She murmured, almost uncontrollably. I made one step closer to her and then I saw Hollis Manil. She was standing almost directly behind the grill, a woman well past 40. She had grayed hair tucked under a worn hat. She was more than plump, her thick ankled feet thrust into low heeled shoes. The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away. I felt as though I was split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her.
And yet, so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned me and upheld my own. And there she stood. Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible. Her Gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle. I did not hesitate. My fingers gripped the small, worn blue leather copy of the book that was to identify me. To her. This would not be love, but it would be something precious. Something perhaps even better than love. A friendship for which.
I had been and must ever be grateful. I ^2 my shoulders and saluted. I ^2, my shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman.
Even though while I spoke I felt choked by the bitterness of my disappointment. I'm Lieutenant John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Minnell. I'm so glad you've come to meet me. May I take you to dinner? The woman's face broadened into a tolerant smile. I don't know what this is about, son, she answered. But the young lady in the green suit who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat, and she said if you were to ask me out to dent her out to dinner, I should go and tell you that she was waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street.
She said it was some kind of test.
It's not difficult to understand and admire Miss Minnelli's wisdom, the true nature.
Of the heart is seen in its response to the unattractive.
This was a quote by another man. He says tell, tell me whom you love and I will tell you who you are. Now out of this story, I hope to just draw a couple of illustrations, OK.
The first one is, is this man picked up this book and began to read these quotations and these notes in the book?
His heart began to yearn to find out more about this individual. Whatever they were it attracted to him. And you know, in the gospel message for you and I, it's given in its simplicity and its beauty.
First response can be wow.
Is wonderful.
I'd love to partake of it.
And then maybe like this young man as we sit there on the dock and we are, I want to just use the analogy as he's sitting there on the dock and he's waiting to meet her and he sees this 40 year old woman who's plump and definitely not what he imagined and his heart drops for a bit. What about you and I as we begin to enter into that relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ? Think about these verses as we read them, OK?
Isaiah 53 Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
For He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness when we shall see him. There is no beauty in him that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men and man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, and he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him.
And with his stripes we are healed. And then one more verse in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus said unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. You know our first response to the gospel can be that's wonderful. It's I trade in my sins and the punishment that's due me for the free gift of salvation and eternal life.
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But then as we begin to, maybe it's like this young man, as he actually see, as we begin to open up the scriptures and that relationship begins to build and form, we see what he says. He says, take up that cross and follow me.
And I want to challenge each one of our hearts. I want to entreat us.
To the fullness and the beauty of the gospel message. It can be at that point that we too can be in a crossroads like this young man.
Where there's a battle that rages inside to turn about and to go back.
To what we're, where we come from, what we're used to, what we want.
Or do we dig in and do we stick it out and do we find out who he really is? You know, I believe and I know for my own self, my own experience.
That relationship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is far more beautiful and far more precious than anything I could have imagined.
Because hear me, young people, when I say.
The storms of life are real, OK, They're real. And there's there's four main questions.
That every human being has. Where did we come from? And there's a lot more questions, don't get me wrong. But if you breakdown a lot of the questions that you hear, you can often fit them into these 4 categories.
Where did I come from? Why am I here? What's my purpose? Who determines what's right and wrong? Morality and my destiny? Where am I going?
Those four haunting questions plague every human being, even down to a child the age of four or five and six. You listen to the questions as they come to your parents, and I know the questions that I had as they begin to ponder, as they begin to think about life.
But you know what?
You lay hold of the preciousness of the gospel, you enter into the fullness of the relationship with Jesus Christ.
And you're gonna find he's provided those answers. He's provided the answers for those four questions.
It's amazing.
It's incredible, you know?
Ravi Zacharias makes a statement he says for the Christian.
Joy is central.
And pain is peripheral.
When you come to Christ, does that mean that your life is going to be made-up of a better roses? Now, who here hasn't enjoyed the past week? It's been an amazing, wonderful time, but is this all that life consists of?
Are you going to go back on Monday?
Get into the role routine on Tuesday. Maybe, I don't know. When you work schools study. Dirty laundry, dirty clothes, dirty floors, making another meal.
Maybe trials, maybe that's just routine activities. But then what about trials? What about when a loved one passes away? When there's an illness that you can't understand or you can't explain? See, Christianity is not immunity from trials and tribulations, but it's a relationship with arisen and a glorified savior. And when we embrace the relationship in its fullness, it brings us peace and it brings us. It brings us, I don't want to say answers in their detail, OK, Answers in the wholeness, because we can lay hold of the promises.
All things work together for good to them that that love God and are called according to His purpose. And there's many, many other scriptures that we could go to along that same line, but they ultimately answer those four questions that haunt the mind of every human being for the unbeliever.
Pain is central and joy is only peripheral. You know why?
They go away to something they enjoy, maybe it's a weekend trip like this, or a week long trip like this, and they get to do lots of fun things, running, playing, riding 4 Wheelers, enjoying the mountain, skiing, whatever, and it provides some element of happiness. But when they go back to their normal routine, in the quietness of their home and the quietness of their daily life, the longing of their soul, there's still no solid answers to the four fundamental questions of life.
I hope and pray that each one of us, by God's grace, will lay hold of and will enter into the fullness of the relationship that Jesus Christ has brought us into one with the Creator. Let's just bow our heads and thank Him. Our gracious God and our loving Father, we look up with thankful hearts.
We rejoice at the message of the Gospel, so simple, Lord Jesus, and yet so precious and so full. Father, we just pray that every heart in the room tonight.
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Would enter into the fullness and the beauty of that relationship that you've made available through that finished work on Calvary's cross, through the work of our blessed Redeemer as He hung there and bore our sins before a holy God.
Help us to rejoice, and Lord, if there's any here tonight that have not yet bowed the knee, we pray that they would, that they would be convicted, and that they would do so before it's forever too late. And for those of us that are thine own, Lord Jesus, we pray that you would fill us with the enjoyment of the fullness of that relationship, that we might be like wellsprings overflowing Lord, that our countenances would be lifted up, full of joy.
Praise and Thanksgiving, that we might have a ready answer for all those who had asked for the hope that lies within. Help us bless it, Lord. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Phillippians 1:1-11
Phillippians 1:12-28
Philippians 1:17-2:5
Phillippians 2:5-9
Ankiety
Philippians 2:9-12
Philippians 2:13-30