Address—Tim Ruga
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Good afternoon everyone. Do we start the meeting by singing hymn #236?
#236.
Oh, gracious Father.
God of love we all, my God.
To say.
What our boy words must be a good rose victorious.
For the grave.
In From the Dead, the Broads again.
When?
I.
Comfort.
Until.
Forehead.
May thy.
Spirit God in our souls.
And.
All that.
And I will.
The flow on the Lord. Lord, the Lord Thorn. Thorn the Lord.
We.
May rise.
And fall we.
Pray God.
Always.
Big thing.
Let's pray.
Our God and our Father, we just pray that that would help us to go on and to live our lives in a way that is suitable to be, that we would follow the leading of my spirit in them, that we would go on for the glory of our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, that one who came from heaven to earth and gave up all.
To do thy will and had such joy in doing it. And then to that joy that he had for us, that treasure in the field.
That he would sell all that he had to buy that field. Thank you so much for him.
And we pray that that would give us thoughts of Him and help each one of us as we consider Thy word and the subject before us this afternoon. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
So what is on my heart today?
Is the same thing but a different side from what I spoke on last year. And that, for those who are here, was the leading of the Spirit.
But last year, in connection with the leading of the Spirit, I took up the doctrine.
This year I'd like to take up the practice at least some thoughts as to it, but before we do, I just want to go over some of the.
Thoughts that we had on the doctrine, just very briefly. So if we could, let's turn to John chapter 6 or 14. John 14.
We'll just cover these points briefly because they are the background.
Verse 16 The Lord Jesus said just before he went back to heaven, or to the cross, and then to heaven, he says, 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.
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For He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. And So what we have here is the basic teaching of the leading of the Spirit, that the Lord Jesus was going to go back to heaven, receive the promise from the Father of the Holy Spirit and pour him out and baptizing believers into one body. And then the Holy Spirit of God would be here on earth with believers in two ways. And that we had at the end of verse 17 with you.
And in you. And so the Holy Spirit of God is with us.
Corporately, collectively and also he indwells each one of us individually and we consider it as well his ministry here on earth in that way, and that is introduce what we have at the beginning of verse or the, I'm sorry, the middle of verse 16 that he is a comforter. Comforter, of course, is the idea of.
A solicitor, Mr. Darby says, or one who takes care of all of our affairs. Comfort is part of that, and that is the Holy Spirit is here to take care of us in every way. Not just comfort, but.
To guide and direct and lead us in every part of our lives. He's a divine person here on earth. And that's implied in the word another here in verse 16. He shall give you another comforter. The Lord was the one who did that.
He went away to heaven. That divine person was here on earth for a time and he went away and then the Holy Spirit was sent and he is here presently fulfilling that office, that ministry of him being the one who who guides in all of our affairs. And then we went and we looked at that in three connections. I'll just mention them briefly. First of all, there's personally the leading of the Spirit and that you find in Romans.
Eight, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And so that's all of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That verse says very plainly that we're all led by the Holy Spirit of God. Whether or not we follow is another question, but it's His ministry to lead, and that's what he does.
The next thing we considered was the leading of the Spirit as to gift, and we're not going to take the time to turn to it now, but.
We considered, and you can go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 and you see there that the Corinthians before they were saved were led by dumb idols and then they turned to the Lord. And they as we were led by the Spirit of God and the leading of the Spirit of God for them was in all things spiritual, which of course would include the gifts, which is a great subject of First Corinthians chapters 12.
14 And then as concerns our worship, we looked at Philippians chapter 3 and verse 3 where we sat, we're told you have to read this in the JD translation, that we worship by the Spirit of God. And so the Spirit of God is here to lead and to guide each one of us as believers.
In these various ways and.
It's my intent to take up today the practical side of that. My burden last year was the thought that we know something about the leading of the Spirit. But.
I have found that with many and for myself that maybe I didn't know so much of the doctrine of it. And my fear has been that if we don't know the teaching and the Scriptures that we will turn the the practice into a form and we'll lose it eventually. We have to know the doctrine.
But the converse to that is that it's not good enough to just know the doctrine. We need to walk in it. There's a moral aspect with every truth of God, and not any less so when it comes to the leading of the Spirit. And so we need to take up with the leading of the Spirit and not only learn this and get it into our heads, but it needs to get down into our hearts and ultimately our feet.
And in that regard, I'd just like to turn to a verse back in Luke.
Luke chapter 8.
Luke 8 and verse 18 says Take heed therefore how ye here?
For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and whosoever hath not, to him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.
This is true of every truth.
We need to be very careful how we hear it. If we're going to take up the truth of God and just get into our heads and make it head knowledge, but we've got no interest in walking in it, then we are exactly the case that we have at the end of this verse where it says that which He seemeth to have. We don't have it. You don't have any truth of the Word of God unless you walk in it, Neither do I. It's very important that we not only see what God has said, but we put it into practice.
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And our lives. And so it says, that whosoever hath not.
From Him shall be taken away even that which He seemeth to have. And we looked last time, just briefly, at two negative aspects of the leading of the Spirit. The first was in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 30, and that was, we're told there, Grieve not the Spirit.
And so it's possible to grieve the Spirit. The other was First Thessalonians 5 verse 19. We were told to quench not the Spirit. And these are converse of the same thing. When we go ahead and do that which the Spirit of God doesn't want us to do, we grieve Him. And if He wants us to do something and we fail to do it, then we quench Him.
And so there is a negative side to this truth and it's really important that we are exercised about the truth of the leading of the Spirit and how it affects us in our lives.
And what I'd like to do in taking up this truth practically is I'd first like to talk about it as to our personal lives because I really appreciate a point of brother made that there's no point in really talking about how the Spirit of God might lead in the assembly. You know, how do I know if the Spirit of God is leading me to give out of him or read a passage or something like that in the assembly if.
I don't take the time to know the Spirit's leading in my own individual life.
That begins there. And so I want to take it out, starting with our individual lives. And in that regard, I would just say there's a very good principle laid out, a direct verse. Actually, Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18 tells us that we are to be filled with the Spirit.
That's each one of us in our individual lives. Leading of the Spirit begins there. We're not going to be led by the Spirit if we're not filled by the Spirit, and being filled by the Spirit implies that we're not filled with other things.
And that we do take that time to be occupied with that which will fill us with the Spirit of God. And so I really want to talk about how it is that we take up with the leading of the Spirit in our lives. And in connection with that, I found in my own life that there's two great hindrances that often come in right at the start.
And to look at those, I think they're both expressed very well in James chapter 4.
Just look there at James Four and I think it's.
Verse three? No, it's verse 2, the end of verse 2.
These verses have really exercised me as to the leading of the Lord, as to asking anything from the Lord.
Says in verse two. At the end of it, you have not because you ask not.
This is the importance of the doctrine, for one thing.
Many Christians don't even know that they're to look for the leading of the Spirit of God in their lives. They just think, well, I'm to get on the best I can with the word of God. But no, the Spirit of God has been sent here to fulfill a ministry and he does that ministry. And we are to be dependent on the Spirit of God for leading. We go and we pray to the Lord and we pray we seek the leading of God's Spirit.
And so that's the first thing is we don't even have because we don't even ask.
And oftentimes we get taken up to in our own strength and we forget to ask. That's the first error. The second error is in the next verse. He says you lost and you have not you kill you desire to have. I'm sorry, I'm reading beginning of verse 2.
But verse three is the same thing. You ask and receive, not because you ask a miss.
That you may consume it upon your lust. And so here's the second great thing. Oftentimes we ask the Lord to lead and to guide. But what are we looking for? Our own wills. I'll speak for myself anyway. And that always gets in the way. It doesn't work to go and look to God for leading by His Spirit if we're only going to do our own wills and only go on to do what?
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Pleases us, which is typically the world, and that's brought in in the very next verses because us adulterers and adulteresses, when we get caught up in that spirit of things which we're all too apartment to do, even as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, because that's who James is writing to.
But it's important first that we see that there are these negative things, these things that can take us away, and we need to understand who it is that leads us that it's the Spirit of God. In his name is the Holy Spirit of God.
He always leads in connection with the Word of God.
In John chapters 1415 and 16, he's called three times over.
The spirit of truth, because he's completely occupied with the truth, he does nothing except by the Word of God. Why? Because he is God. And as we're told in Timothy about God, that he cannot deny himself. God is always consistent with himself, and so the Spirit of God always.
Leads according to the truth of God important that we understand that we're not going to come.
And seek for leading from the Lord. If we're mixing it in with our own wills, it's going to come in connection with the truth of God. Now the next point I want to make about the leading of the Spirit is that it's Christ centered. It isn't something that we just take up. And well, this isn't wrong according to the Bible.
And then don't worry about anything else. And no, the Spirit of God is going to lead in connection with Christ.
And this applies to every aspect of our life. And I just want to establish these basic principles about the Spirit of God and his character of his ministry before we go into some of the practical details. And so if we come to look for guidance and it's the Spirit of God that's going to lead us in our lives, it's going to be leading us with Christ at the very center of whatever it is. If it's our bodies, the bodies, the body is the Lord.
If it's our business, well, we serve the Lord Christ. He's the center of everything. If it's the assembly, the assembly is Christ. If it's the word of God, it's the Lord Jesus. Said Scriptures speak of me. It's all about Christ. And the spirit of truth will guide us in a way that is centered around Christ himself.
Just to look and consider some verses in this regard, let's go to 2nd Corinthians.
Chapter 3.
And we'll read verse 3.
He says, For as much as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, what the epistle of Christ?
Epistles a letter. And if I say it's a letter of something, then the something is what's in the letter. Christ is in this letter. And who is the letter He says you are? You are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us. And who's writing the letter? Written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, Not in tables of stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart.
Just skip down to verse 17, the middle of the verse.
Says we're the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. So the Spirit of God is the one who is writing this letter. The letter is Christ is being written in you and me in the fleshy tables of our hearts and there's perfect liberty there. Why? Because it's the liberty of the Spirit and that liberty of the Spirit to me is perfect liberty because I have the life of Christ.
And that life wants to do only what is the will of God doesn't want to do the will of my flesh, who wants to seek after and follow after Him.
And so he goes on to say in verse 18, But we all with open face beholding.
As in a glass of glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. And so we're all being changed by the Spirit of God as He writes Christ in our hearts. And how's he doing that? He's taking our gaze away. He's focusing it on the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Isn't that what we had in the last meeting, looking unto Jesus?
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And that's the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
You want to know some of the first principles about the leading of the Spirit in your life is to direct your eyes to Christ.
The other things follow that These are important. I know there's a desire to find out more about the practical things, but we never get those right unless we get these basic principles correct.
But I will go on. I want to talk about the other because you might say, well, how do I know the leading of the Spirit? How do I know when the Spirit is speaking to me? I get it that, you know, I have to have a right spirit and attitude myself. I need to be filled with the Spirit. But still, how do I know that the Lord is telling me to do something?
And that's the hard part. You know, we've often had questions from our children. We've had to say, well, I can't tell you exactly. It's the things you have to go on and learn. And I really appreciate it again, to mention that a brother brought up the case of Samuel and First Samuel 3 and how he didn't know the voice of the Lord. He had to learn what it was. And so it is for us. These are experimental things. You go on, you walk with the Lord.
And you learn his voice, and you have to learn after a while what his voice is.
And how it works and you get used to it. It's not something that's right there immediately. As we walk with the Lord, we learn how to hear His voice. But I do believe Scripture gives several.
Clues. Several things that can guide us in this regard. There have been things that helped me and I'd like to just share a few of them. The first one is in First Kings chapter 19.
First Kings 19. This is with.
The Lord speaking to Elijah, and I'm not speaking about anything new here.
But maybe for some of the younger ones who are searching this out now, this could be a help for you.
We find here.
11.
That the Lord says to Elijah, go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord, and behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and break in pieces the rock before the Lord.
But the Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small voice. Now you think, well, it certainly seems appropriate that the Spirit of God should speak to me.
In a wind or an earthquake or a fire.
It seems suitable for God, but that isn't his normal way. And not to say he can't. He certainly can, and he has and he will.
But his normal way with us is what we have at the last year is still small voice.
Now how do you listen to the loud wind or the earthquake? Well, you have to be pretty much daft not to hear it, right? But how do you listen to the still small voice? You've got to be quiet and still in the presence of the Lord to hear it. To me that's a very important clue. With the busyness of things all around us, we're apartment to miss it. We need to spend that quiet time alone with the Lord.
Reading the Word and praying and listening to what He'll say to us. And it's in those times when there are still small voice comes. How does that come? I don't know, but it comes. And Elijah heard it that day and it says here it was so verse 13 when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood, and then he listened to the Lord.
He now knew this was the Lord speaking.
So I just want to encourage each one here to begin with that spend that time getting to know the voice of the Lord and do it in the quiet distill. Do it in a place where you don't have the distractions around where the Word of God is there and you can talk to the Lord.
And he has. He certainly can make himself heard. The God of this universe, in any way he chooses can speak to us. It's no difficulty on his side. The difficulty is we often get our ears blocked to hear when he so plainly does speak to us.
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Now we say, well, does that mean I should have no plans in my life? Is the voice of the Lord always going to be audible, or is it going to come in some other ways? Well, there again, the scripture only gives us examples and we have to trace them out, and we don't have time to trace them all, but we can look at a few.
Could for instance, go to Acts chapter 13 and see there that the disciples and Antioch we're praying and fasting before the Lord and the Spirit of God says separate unto me Paul and Barnabas unto the work where unto I have called them. He said that how he said it I don't know, but he said it. The words are recorded and it's the Spirit of God can speak like that.
But you go on a little bit in Acts chapter 16, you'll find that they were going along their way.
And it says that they were forbidden to go to one place and another place the Spirit suffered them not to go. And so we find that there is this guidance and we're not told how it came, but it did definitely come, no question about it. The Spirit of God made His will clear.
To Paul and to Barnabas as they went along in that way and justice. Look at another example in Romans chapter one.
I found this one very helpful because there's many plans that we want to make in our lives.
And the question is, what do we do? How do we do that?
I once knew of a brother who wouldn't do anything at all unless he had.
What he felt was a word from the Lord just telling to get up and do something, and the brother didn't seem to do a whole lot.
And now it's good not to do something unless we have a word from the Lord. But there is the the general carrying on of our life that we do have to go through. And I think we get guidance in the Scriptures to that. Look at Romans one verse nine. God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers.
Making requests, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey, by the will of God to come unto you, for I long to see you, that I may impart.
And to use some spiritual gift to the end, you may be established. Now you see, Paul had something on his heart. He had a desire, and he's praying about it to the Lord.
And then waiting on the Lord for further guidance and go on here.
Verse 12 He says, That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now I would not have you ignorant brethren, how that oftentimes I purpose to come unto you, but was let that means hindered hitherto, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.
So here we have.
The general way that the apostle was conducting his life.
He had a desire in his heart trust the Lord put that there. He wanted to see the Roman Saints and he laid that up before the Lord and then he was going on to even let his general plan be known to them as to what he intended to do often and you get to the end of this book of Romans. You find more about his general plan. His purpose was this is specifically what he was praying about that he was going to go.
To Rome and then go buy them and be encouraged by them on his way to Spain.
Did that happen? No, it didn't happen. Paul got to Rome, but he got there in chains. It was a completely different way. Now maybe that was the will of the Lord for him to go that way and Paul got out of the will of the Lord after this point. It certainly seems so when you read the book of Acts. But what we see is a laying up of a purpose before the Lord, then wedding on the Lord to show the way to guide and direct, and the Lord has ways of doing.
For each one of us. Now I want to go on and talk about the leading of the Spirit and a public setting. But first of all, just refer to Genesis chapter 24 because there's a very good example there. And you can go back and look and meditate on this yourself later on. But there you have the call, the bride. And first of all, you find that Abraham.
Takes his servant and I know we can look at the servant as the Holy Spirit.
He is a type of the Holy Spirit, but we also can look at the servant as one who just goes and one who is LED. And it's beautiful to consider him that way because the first thing you'll find with that servant is he's asked to go and find a bride for Isaac.
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So he has a specific direction from his master, from Abraham, but it isn't clear to him. So he goes and asks for further instruction as to what would happen, What if she won't follow me? And so on.
And he waits until the matter is clear. And when the matter is clear, then he swears to Abraham. That is, he's acting completely in the interest of his master. And how do we apply that? Well, you know, you may feel a burden on your heart. Perhaps there's something that we should do. We need to wait, lay it up before the Lord until it's clear what that is.
And the Lord can let us know what those things are and make it clear.
And then here comes that time when we're going to go, And when we go, it might be a challenge of our own hearts. Is this really me, or is it of the Lord? As to the very desire, maybe that should even be first.
That's often been a problem for me. I'm saying this because maybe I'm speaking on myself.
That there have been times and I felt very directly the Lord calling me to do one thing or another. And I haven't been sure if this was a desire of my heart or really something the Lord was asking me to do. And I think it's good to be honest with the Lord about that and say, Lord, I'm not sure this could come from my own desire and I could be interpreting it as as your voice.
And here's a way to let us know.
It says in Romans chapter 15 that we ought not to please ourselves, and that goes on to say even as Christ pleased, not Himself. The one thing we always need to distrust when it comes to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives is our own wills. We're so apartment to let them get in the way and even act as counterfeits for the will of God and what He's calling us to do and how He's leading us.
By his spirit. So it's good to go and be open with God about that and justice. Tell them how we feel. I'm not sure, Lord, is this me or is this you? And He'll make it clear. I can't tell you how, but I can tell you in my own experience. You wait on him and he will make it clear. So that servant goes and what does he do is he starts on his way.
He prays and he prays and asks the Lord for guidance and he's very specific in his prayer too, as to certain things that we're going to happen there.
And then what do you find? Well, it all happens. He is led and he speaks and he says, I being in the way, the Lord led me unto the House of my masters, brethren. He was in the way, and the Lord led him in that way. And where did he lead him? To the House of his master's brethren. That's another clue, I believe.
Not saying that the Lord won't lead us far away, somewhere where He wants us to do a work for himself.
But generally speaking, the Spirit of God will not lead us away from the Lord's people. And so he was led there. And what's the final thing we find with Him there? He worships.
Beautiful and resolved of the leading of the Spirit of God, it leads us into communion with the Lord.
And worship is that which will result from it, and justice mention that you can go back and consider it further.
But I do want to take up in the time that remains, just a few thoughts that I have as to the leading of the Spirit of God, as to the public minister in the assembly. And to go first, I would just say that in order to ever experience the leading of God in the assembly, we really need to start with the other.
It's like we said before, when you get used to hearing.
The leading of the Spirit and experiencing what that is in our own individual private lives.
Then it's not so hard to hear Him leading us in the assembly. It's really in the same way. He puts things in our hearts, He gives a desire, He makes it known to us that this is his will, that it should be expressed or withheld. And so we take up with the leading of the Spirit in the assembly in that same way. But the first thing I would like to say is to the assembly.
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Has to do with confidence.
And for myself, I know I put this first because I had a lot of difficulty with that, with confidence, If the Lord is going to use me, do I have confidence as to what's going to happen after all, if I have to be used in any kind of a public way, whether it's in front of several people or just talking to another person?
How do I know what to say? It's only me and I get so tangled up.
In my words and my thoughts, well, I do think the scriptures give us help on that. And let's just go back to John chapter 14.
There's a verse there that I've applied to this and I do think it addresses this issue. It's very encouraging.
John 14 and verse 26.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you now.
This is something that was given to the disciples at that time and they didn't have the spirit indwelling yet, but speaking about the time when the Spirit would come in and indwell them and no doubt some of this verses.
Fulfilled in the giving of the Scriptures themselves. But it's more than that. The Spirit of God came to the disciples afterwards, and he not only taught them about the truth of God, but he also brought to their remembrance whatever the Lord Jesus had said unto them.
Do you take up with the Word of God in your own private reading? Do you come together to the assembly with other believers and listen to the Word of God? You know when you do that, it goes in and you think about it and you enjoy it. And if you're anything like me, a whole lot of it tends to go out of your mind, but not completely. You've heard it, you know something of it, you've thought about it a little bit.
And you know, in the Spirit of God.
Has that right time when He wants to use it, He is well able to bring it back into your mind so that you can speak a word in season as he decides whether it's just with one person or several, whatever the occasion may be, the Spirit of God is able to do that. And so I just want to encourage you with that. Don't think that when you get used by the Lord in any public way that you won't have the leading of the Spirit.
He doesn't send anybody out just by themselves at their own charges. In every way, the Spirit of God is there. He's with us and He's helping us. And here it says that He'll bring to our remembrance those things that the Lord has said to us. And so we can have that confidence. We can, we can go and do what He's called us to do, knowing that if he called to do that thing, whatever it is, speak to somebody or speak to a group, that He's going to give the strength to do it.
It's not going to be us in our own strength.
And that's another part of the leading of the Spirit that I have found very difficult.
I tend to get hung up on myself. It's hard not to think of self. Self consciousness. What is that is self?
And yet, aren't we self-conscious?
I know this. This is the truth of God. It tells us these things that we're to forget self and look away from Him.
And yet my flesh goes right back and thinks about self and I get self-conscious and then I'm afraid, what am I going to do? I'll just stutter. I have nothing to say. It happens all the time. Well, the first thing is to be confident. He has said what we have here that He can lead, that He can bring to our memory those things that He wants us to say. Now go and look in Psalm chapter 32, another verse that I found helpful.
Card.
Psalm 32.
And.
Verse 8.
And it says, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Now certainly this verse can be taken and applied perhaps primarily to our individual lives. This is the leading of the spirit of each one of us individually. I know it's in the Old Testament, but it was true then for David.
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It's even more so true of us who have the Spirit of God indwelling with that promise that He'll lead and guide. And so this is.
A verse that's a promise from God as to how He does it and what does he say here? It's an instruction, it's a teaching, it's a guiding with His eye. It's a very intimate thing, the eye of the Lord guiding us as to where to go. And it really doesn't leave out much when the guidance is at that level. Now you might say, can I count on the Lord that way in public, that He's just going to guide me?
Well, I believe we can, but that's something that we have to take up by faith, because this subject, like all the other subjects of the Word of God, isn't just meant to be taken with the intellect says we walk by faith, not by sight. And so we can only present what the Scripture says, but each one of us, you and I, have to get over the thoughts of self which would deny these things.
And trust the Lord and walk by faith and try him and see if these things aren't so now you might say, well, if it's just like that, should I get up in front of a group then and not prepare anything?
Just let the Spirit of God.
Guide us to everything that's said. I don't believe so. If you read Ecclesiastes 12, verses 9 and 10, you'll find it says there that the preacher was very wise, and it says that he set in order Proverbs, and he arranged things, and that was so that what his words would be would be useful and profitable. Now there's no doubt.
That when we're considering what we should say.
That we should be before the Lord is to that He can guide us into our thoughts as to what it is that we should say.
And then he can guide us in our thoughts as to how it is that those things are to be brought out. All of this thing, all of this he can and he will do and we need to be in a way that we can listen to his guidance. Now you might say in in this chapter is saying here that he will I will guide thee with my eyes that really that I can count on the Lord that way. This is an objection I've had.
And say, well, you know, I've been such a failure in my life, is the Lord really going to lead me in that way? If you ever have that thought, I just encourage you to go back to the beginning of this chapter and consider the context of these words. I don't think anyone of us in this room has failed worse than the one who wrote these words and the occasion of this very Psalm. It's one who's very happy because it's been restored to the Lord and the Lord has been turned around.
And assured him of the most intimate guidance in his life.
Failure does not get in the way of this once we're restored and David was restored in his life and the Lord brought him back to this place where he could enjoy this full guidance from himself by the Spirit of God. Now just look at the next verses.
He says I will. He says verse, I'm sorry, verse 9 be not as the horse of the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Now these are two sides of something too, aren't they? The horse is the one that goes ahead, running far ahead, and the mule is the one that lags behind.
Both have to do very much with public ministry. There's a good example of this.
In Samuel, where it speaks about.
Absalom had been slain and there were two men who wanted to go and deliver a message. Who actually one of them doesn't say he did but one certainly did. His name was Ahimez and Joab didn't want to send a hymnias because Ahemias didn't have the whole message so he says no you stay here and you wait. The other one was Kushai and Joy of Saint Kushi with a message and Kushai took the message and he brought it to David.
But while he was taking the message Ahemi has bags and bags and said I want to go on a run and George says OK then go ahead and he ran and he outran Kushine. He got there first with a partial message. He didn't have the message and so he said what he knew which wasn't what needed to be said and he was told to sit aside and Kushai arrived and gave the message that was to be delivered.
It's easy to go ahead like that, like the horse.
And we need to be very sensitive that we don't do it, that we wait on the Lord. But the other side is true as well. And this one strikes perhaps closer to home for many of us as a mule. How many times has the Lord spoken to me to do something? And I've just said, Oh no, Lord, I can't do that. And so we lie back, we wait. Maybe we don't go at all.
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Are you shy?
Brother here, speaking publicly. Are you shy? I'm shy.
Perhaps most of the brothers here are shy. I don't know. It's a difficulty, isn't it? Speaking and going, doing what the Lord wants us to do is a great difficulty. And, and thinking about this, you know, it occurred to me this is exactly what happened with Moses. And let's just look at that. Go back to Exodus chapter 4.
It's not always a bad reason that causes us to be as a mule.
Sometimes it's just our limitations, but that can be false humility. If the Lord calls us to do something, we need to do it. We need to forget self and just go and do it. So Exodus chapter 4 and verse 19. And Moses said unto the Lord, Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither hitherto nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant.
But I am slow of speech and of slow tongue.
Have you felt like that? I certainly have. Was the Lord, say the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? For who maketh the dam, or death, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth.
And teach thee what thou shalt say.
That's a wonderful promise, isn't it? And the Lord went with Moses. Moses still resisted after this, and the Lord became a crotch. But you see, in the end Moses yields, and he was used mightily of the Lord. And if you have been a mule, as I so often have been in my life, it's OK. Don't keep failing in it. Listen to the Lord.
He'll give you the strength, He'll be with you. He'll give you those words.
To say, as it says here, I'll be with thy mouth. The Lord is well able to do that, to guide our hearts, our minds, our mouths, to express that which he wants us.
To express.
And so we need to get ourselves out of the way. There's a verse that's impressed me very much in this regard in Isaiah chapter one.
It says simply if you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land and that verse is convicted me so many times because I haven't been willing or obedient and it's really come to me that what the Lord is looking for today, he's not looking for great gift.
Say I don't have great gift. That's OK, the Lord's not looking for that.
He's looking for willingness and obedience. That's what he wants. That's what he wants from you and from me. He can use anything.
You know, Balaam's donkey didn't even know how to talk, and the Lord caused that donkey to talk.
How much less of a problem is it for him to cause your mouth and my mouth to express what he wants us to express? He's well able to do it well. I just want to take on a few further practical thoughts in the time that remains. The 1St is as to the remembrance meeting.
How do I know the Lord wants me to say something? And the remembrance meeting, and I do think there's even a little bit more guidance on that.
And we could, but for the sake of time, go and look at John chapter 4, because I think that's a wonderful chapter on this regard. And John chapter 4, you remember there was a woman at the well, and the Lord Jesus came there and he offered to her water. And he spoke of that water. And he said this, it will be in him a well of water springing up, He says unto eternal life. But you find in Chapter 7 that he was talking about the Spirit of God. And in chapter 4 is that well?
This springs up into life eternal.
And the Lord brought it out there in connection with worship, worship of the Father, which he goes on to explain in that wonderful chapter. And so I've often thought of it in this way, that the Spirit of God leads us out in worship. And what is he doing? He's leading our minds to think of Christ. And when he occupies us with Christ, he works within us in that way that's expressed a welling up.
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And that leads on to something that.
Just feels the need to be expressed. It comes from himself and yes, I can suppress it. The Spirit of the prophets even is subject to the prophet. The Spirit of God doesn't take over our mouths, but He certainly puts an urgency within us to speak something out to the Lord. Let's look at Psalm 45 to see another verse in this regard.
Suan enjoyed this to connect with John Chapter 4.
Psalm 45.
And.
Verse one my heart is indicting.
A good matter, if you go read that in the margin it says my margin says boil it or bubble it up. And Darby has welling forth with a good matter. That's the idea there. Something's welling up, it's coming up. And what is it? He says? I speak of things which I have made as touching the king. My tongue is a pen of a ready, ready writer. And what is that?
To be written. What's the next verse? Thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. Set not the essence of worship. And who is it to the Lord Jesus Christ. He should doubt that you can go compare verse 6 to Hebrews one verse 8 very directly speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
And so in this way, the Spirit of God works within us.
To occupy us with Christ and those beauties, touching his person and his work. And then that praise swells up, that worship wells up in our hearts until it wants to express itself.
And that's how I think of it. And you can still wait on the Lord and make sure you have his mind. But then you feel that you must express that thing He's laid on your heart. Well, if that's so for the brothers, what about the sisters?
Say only half of us can do that. It's true, the word of God says to sisters.
Are not to speak in the assembly, and yet these things well up in their hearts too, and they can give it out to God.
Is there any thought in scripture that the worship of a sister is somehow less than a brother because she can't speak it out audibly?
Absolutely not.
To whom did the Lord give that wonderful teaching in John chapter four? Was it not a woman at the well? And He tells her all about that worship to the Father. And with whom do we have the greatest perhaps examples in all of Scripture as to worship? Was it not that woman in Luke 7 who was a Sinner who came into the Lord?
And she anointed his feet with myrrh.
And wash them with her tears, and wipe them with her hair. And what about Mary of Bethany? Matthew 26? She anoints his head with that alabaster box appointment. John chapter 12. She anoints his feet. What words are recorded that she said? But who in that house did not know of that worship that went out?
The house was filled with the odor of that ointment, and the worship of the sisters is of all importance the leading of the Spirit of God.
Is just as important with the sisters as with the brothers. And it affects the meeting. It affects everything. It's not just the remembrance, it's all the meetings. The Spirit of God leads all of us. The brothers are to give expression to it audibly when called to do so. And the sisters wait on the Spirit of God, and they're in tune with this thought, and the Lord may use that thought as he will.
Even to reach another, but certainly it affects the whole spirit and attitude of a meeting.
Well, I had a few other things I was going to say, but I really would like to just end on this. Notice to the fact that the Spirit of God is there to lead us in everything, and He's going to lead out our hearts and when He does, He's going to lead them in praise and expression of what belongs to Christ. Maybe we could just end on that.
In John chapter.
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16.
Because it's beautiful how it's put there. It's all those things that have to do with our Lord Jesus. Verse 13 John 1613. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all.
The truth I think the other translation says, but all truth, for he shall not speak.
Of or from Himself. But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come, and He shall glorify me again. Just leave it with this note that the Spirit of God in His leading has characteristics. He is the Spirit of truth, and He's centered on Christ.
If the Spirit of God is that which I'm experiencing in my life, it's going to have Christ as its center, and He's going to speak of Him. He's going to glorify Him.
It doesn't matter what it is, whether it's in my personal life or whether it's in public life, it's something that I'm called to do for him. It's going to be the Spirit of God leading in such a way that it will bring glory to Christ. And he says here that he will speak of things to come. And so the Spirit of God has come, and he has taught us about Christ's glory and he has taught us about things to come.
And in meditating on that.
This one final thought, it's so beautiful to see that when you get to the end of the word of God.
That you find the Spirit of God seen as on earth, together with the church, the bride, and those wonderful verses in that wonderful verse in Revelation 22, verse 17, the Spirit and the Bride. Now the Spirit together with the Bride occupied with Christ coming. What do they say? Spirit and the Bride?
Say, come, that's his ministry. He leads us that whole time.
We're here. He never leaves us until that time when the Lord Jesus comes. And then of course, he won't leave us then either.
He'll go on forever, but he won't have to guide us as to things that we need to know in this life.
Then He's going to just go on and occupy us purely with Christ and His glory for all eternity. Until then, we can count on Him for anything He calls us to do. But let's just close with a word of prayer. Our God and our Father, we thank you for providing.