Toledo Conference: 1970
Table of Contents
Seed Time & Harvest
Address—C.E. Lunden
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Bring together hymn #328.
328.
Lord Jesus.
To tell.
Thy law.
Our souls shall Forrest.
And seek of thy glory.
So we pray together.
Shall we turn to the second chapter of the First Epistle of John?
You'll read from the 15th verse.
First Epistle of John, chapter 2 and verse 15.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh.
The lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father.
But is of the world.
And the world passes the way.
And the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth.
Forever.
I'd like to speak a little while this afternoon on those 3.
Things were mentioned.
In these verses, particularly the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
We know that.
In the early part of the Gospels.
We have the Lord Jesus.
In the wilderness, being tempted of the devil.
And this particular order is noticed in Luke's Gospel.
The order that we have here, the lust of the flesh, comes first.
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And we might think of this as the time of youth.
The lust of the eyes when one gets older.
And the pride of life, old age, possibly.
Although they all apply at all times, but there's a particular.
Aspect in which they apply in these various periods.
The lust of the flesh.
Dear young people, this life is the seed time of eternity.
The word of God says whatsoever you sow, you will reap.
How solemn this is.
We have here mentioned, first of all, the lust of the flesh.
There are forces at work, even with the Christian, to turn us aside.
The unsaved man is LED about by Satan at his will.
That the believer is often tempted.
We have a nature within us that we won't have in the glory.
Which often deceives us.
The word of God tells us.
That the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked who can know it?
I'm sure that everyone here desires to be happy.
In fact, I suppose most of the money that's spent in this world is, to that end, happiness.
Happiness doesn't come.
Merely through attainments here.
It's not found in circumstances.
Happiness is not found through a great deal of education.
Or even with one who may be gifted.
True happiness is only found.
Where Jesus is.
The only way that your heart and mind can be satisfied and that forever, is with a person, and that's the Lord Jesus.
And so we have the subject here of the affections love.
Not the world.
Affections.
Now, where are you going to place your affections?
That vessel of yours, if you're a Christian, this vessel.
Has to be emptied of the world if you're going to fill it with Christ.
It will not contain both at the same time for your joy.
And so.
As we said before that this life is the seed time of eternity.
And what are you, dear young people, planting now?
In view of eternity.
What are you building now?
Do you have a definite program?
The farmer does.
There's a day coming when there will be a reaping.
If you turn this May to Genesis 20.
26.
Verse 29 You know the story. Well, we just recall it.
And Jacob sawed Pottage, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, feed me, I pray thee with that same red pottage, for I'm faint. Therefore was his name called Edom.
Chapter 25.
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And verse 29. I'm sorry.
And Jacob said, Sell me this day, thy birthright.
And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die. In what prophet shall this birthright do to me?
Jacob said, Swear to me this day, And he swear unto him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink, and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Now here's a young man.
Who starts out by despising his birthright.
This was rather solemn, wasn't it?
Because his father had been made the depositary of the counsels of God.
Are there any young people here this afternoon that are despising their birthright?
Whose fathers have been made the depository of the Councils of God.
Do you value the truth that was given your father's?
Are you carrying it on?
Are you looking at things, dear young people, in the light of eternity?
There are some who choose the world rather than God.
They would rather give attention to their bodies than their souls.
They're more interested in time than eternity.
And how about you, dear one?
And so God would exercise us this afternoon.
How about the seed time of eternity?
Was this not a fatal mistake for Esau?
Yes, the day is coming and there was a book written about it, The Book of Obadiah.
How that he saw will be completely dispossessed of his inheritance.
When God apportions the land to Israel.
Now if you'll turn with me to a verse in Matthew's Gospel.
Or possibly Luke's Gospel the Second No. Mark's Gospel the second chapter, perhaps?
The 14th birds.
We find the Lord Jesus here.
Beginning his ministry.
Mark's Gospel, the second chapter and the 14th verse. And as he passed by he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus.
Sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.
It didn't take very much persuasion, did it?
For Levi to follow Jesus.
How much persuasion has it taken for you to follow Jesus? Or have you started following Jesus?
And this is the first step, dear ones.
In applying ourselves diligently in the light of eternity.
To follow Jesus.
Have you received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, the Lord says, Hath everlasting life, and shall not committed judgment, but is passed from death unto light. How important this step is. Dear young people, have you confessed Jesus Christ as your Savior?
Are You Washed in That Precious Blood?
And as Jesus passes by Levi, he's sitting at the receipt of custom.
He says Follow me.
He rose up and followed him.
Wouldn't that be the natural thing you would expect for one who had had privileges?
Like Levi had had in Israel.
Most of Israel rejected him.
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But now we will see another case in the 10th chapter of Mark.
Verse 17.
And when he was gone for it, into the way there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why call us 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? And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.
Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest go thy ways, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, take up the cross, and follow.
Me and he was sad at that, saying And where do we grieve for? He had great possessions.
Here we have a man who had many privileges in Israel more than Levi.
He was a ruler. He was a wealthy man.
And he was interested in living on, continuing to live. He didn't want to die.
And he knew that there was something Jesus had that he needed, but he wasn't willing to pay the price.
He made a decision.
And he went away grieved.
Unhappy. Sorrowful.
He had made his decision.
How about his sowing for eternity?
I saw them. This picture is.
Habits.
Environment.
Companions.
They all contribute to the downfall of the soul.
Unless there is purpose of heart to serve the Lord.
As far as we know, this young man never followed Jesus.
And although he may have had everything here, the little span of life is so short it's soon gone.
Well, that's the flash, the lust of the flesh.
Present things.
Lust simply means desire.
Desire for present things, anything, any pleasure.
Except Jesus.
But now the second point that we were going to consider.
Is the lust of the eye.
Now this may characterize a person.
When they get further along in life.
We find that.
When people get further along and established.
In present things.
They want to settle themselves in comfort.
Surround themselves with everything.
Of this world and follow the present things for their enjoyment. This is often the case.
In fact, it may have its effect on the Christian.
But you know, this wasn't the path of Abraham.
No, Abraham, he lived up on the top of the mountain with God in separation from the world.
Abraham lived where he could maintain those things.
That he enjoyed.
In connection with his calling and the promises of God.
He didn't want to forfeit these things. He didn't want to get into the companionship of those who didn't value them.
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So he remained alone with God.
Separation to God.
But we find Solomon.
There's a man who was surrounded by not only gift, but riches.
And.
He gave himself over to vanity. That was his pursuit.
How do we know there's vanity? Because he says so when he's through with it, he tried it.
You know, the world is quite interested in maps today. World maps.
There's activity in various nations, especially around Palestine.
Maps. But you know, Solomon gives us the moral map of the world.
The moral Mass?
He tried every joy.
He tried everything.
That might satisfy his heart.
He surrounded himself with great assemblies.
Men singers and women singers.
He set up everything that might contribute to his happiness here. And when he slowly writes over the whole thing, vanity why didn't satisfy his heart.
He gave himself over to vanity.
But what about his father?
His father says withdraw mine eyes from beholding vanity.
Solomon gave himself over to myrrh.
David to praise.
How about sowing seeds for eternity?
Wouldn't you like to have 150?
Songs of Praise to Your Account in That Day, David does 150 Psalms.
Thy word is forever settled in heaven.
Oh dear young people, how about it?
Are we applying ourselves in the light of eternity?
You know, in the light of these things.
The pursuit of anything that isn't heavenly is vanity.
The pursuit of anything that isn't heavenly is vanity.
Because you and I, if we're Christians, have a heavenly calling.
And you'll find because whether it's the present things of Earth.
Or whether it's heavenly things.
You're going to find, by the proving of it what it is.
You pursue heavenly things and you'll find.
Your soul enlarged.
And you'll find a crop in that day.
Yes you will.
The lust of the eye.
Oh, how Solomon pursued these things to the very extent there wasn't. He didn't withhold his heart from any joy, and now he's written it all down for us.
Detailed. And then at the close he became a preacher, and he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes.
And he told us what a fool he had been.
He told us what vanity it was all about.
And, you know, as he closes that book of Ecclesiastes.
He gives us a picture of an old man leaning on a cane.
What does that mean?
Ah, dear young people, it means that when you get old.
God wants you to have something substantial to lean on.
Do you?
Yes, he wants you to have something that will bear your weight.
So you won't fall in the end.
That's the story of Ecclesiastes.
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Why? Because God will bring every work into judgment.
And every secret thing.
Every secret thing.
No secrets in the sight of God.
Well, we have these cases that we've been noticing.
And.
We see how Solomon.
Although he was given a gift of wisdom, he didn't know how to apply it.
You know, just to have wisdom naturally isn't enough.
There is one thing that Solomon learned before he was through, and that is whatever gift God gives.
There's something has to go with it and that's dependence.
Dependence.
Abraham on the mountaintop had an altar.
Abraham walked before God not only.
In the.
Place of privilege.
But he knew what it was to take and humble himself before God.
We see, he saw.
Revolting against holy humbling truth.
We see young people today revolting against the truth of God.
How would it look in eternity when the crops come in?
How would it look, dear young people?
Dependence.
It doesn't matter whether there's gift.
Or whether there's the knowledge of the word of God, there must be dependence to go with it.
And how good it is for us to learn then, when we're young to have an altar.
A place where we can meet with God.
To get into his presence.
Because of these things that are always opposed to us.
The lust of the flesh.
The lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
Now we have in the last.
Part of that verse.
Second chapter of the First Epistle of John.
The world passes the wave, 17th verse, and the lust or desire thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
We learn also in First Corinthians, that the fashion of this world passeth away.
The desire of this world passeth away, and the fashion of it passeth away.
And so if we build on the fashion of this world, we're going to build on something that will pass away.
Be gone forever.
And saw the exhortation. Here is love, not the world.
Now he that doeth the will of God.
Abideth forever.
The will of God. It's plain in the scriptures.
Now you'll never be happy where you don't abide.
You'll only be happy where you'll abide forever.
And he that does the will of God abides forever.
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The pursuing of things that the natural heart seeks after.
Will never bring happiness. Solomon proved it, and he leaves the history of it.
The natural heart will never lead us anywhere but astray.
So God has given us His precious word as the guide to enable us to have a path through this world that's to His glory.
For all is in the world. 16th verse, The lust of the flesh, the desire of the flesh.
And the desire of the eyes.
And the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.
Now in the Lord Jesus.
Met these temptations in the wilderness.
We find that he used.
Two passages from Deuteronomy.
The first one he used from the 8th chapter of Deuteronomy.
And the last two were Satan challenged him.
He used.
The 6th chapter of Deuteronomy.
I suppose there's a reason for this.
It shows us that the one who is the youngest in the things of God.
He may only know a few little scriptures, but he's ready to meet Satan.
But you and I can't meet faith with our natural intelligence.
Or ability or gift?
He has had 6000 years of experience with man.
Yes, he knows how to trip us up. He tripped the first man up.
Take Saul, for instance.
Think of Saul as he started out his life.
He passed through the first stage very successfully, didn't he?
Yes, he was head and shoulders above everyone else. He was anointed king. He went on nicely.
Until the time when he refused to obey the word of God.
And so the Prophet comes to him and he says when you were young it was different.
When you were young.
And so everybody doesn't fall with the first temptation.
No, Saul failed with a second temptation.
Saul.
Acted with his own wisdom in the things of God.
Instead of acting on the word of God and he fell. And what was Saul's end? Seeking wisdom.
From a source that God had prohibited.
Yes, and even went to.
Says of him that.
He had no Urim, that is.
Urim and Thummim would be lights and perfections of God. The priest wore it.
And he sought it, but he got no answer from the Lord, from the Urim, the light, the light from God. He got no light from God.
So he went to a witch instead.
That was the end of Saul's course.
Oh, how solemn these things are.
And now we have the next.
Well, we haven't mentioned yet is the pride of life.
The pride of life.
If you'll turn this made to Genesis again.
Seems in Genesis we find so much instruction.
Genesis, the 13th chapter.
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The fifth verse of Genesis 13 and Lot also, which went with Abraham, had flocks and herds and tents, and the land was not able to bear them that they might dwell together, For their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle, and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite. And the Perazite dwelt then in the land. Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee between me.
And thee between my herdmen and thy herdmen. For we be brethren, Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee from me. If thou will take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or thou depart to the right hand, Then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
Even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto sower.
Then Lot chose him. All the plain of Jordan and Lot journeyed east.
And they separated themselves the one from the other, and Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan.
Here we have a man who at the height of success.
He makes a choice.
Instead of leaning upon God.
Instead of following his uncle Abraham, he makes his own choice.
And he makes us on the basis of nature.
He had been privileged to be with Abraham all these years.
And I'm sure it's like a great many who have had the privilege.
Of spiritual things for many years. The time of testing will come. It came here.
And now we find that that lot in Pride, he thinks that he can better himself.
You know we can't better ourselves over that. The circumstances that God has put us in, we can't do it. God knows what's best for us.
And Lot was in the place of all the blessings.
He finds it out afterwards, when it's too late.
Because you know old age is no place to improve your fortunes.
Youth is the time.
Not old age.
And Lot finds out in his old age what a mistake he had made.
Wisdom is with God in communion.
Not in our minds.
And as he goes down.
Into Sodom.
He finally leaves his tent.
As a Pilgrim he'd been a Pilgrim. He'd been a stranger.
It's a picture to us of what the Christian should be.
He left the promises of God.
To go down to Sodom.
He left the altar.
He left Mamrie the place of fatness.
He left Hebron the place of communion.
All this he sold.
For a place in Sodom.
A place where the wickedness was exceeding so much so that God was ready to destroy it.
That's what 4 lot sold.
For Sodom.
Oh, how?
How solemn this is, and what a lesson it is for us, especially dear young people.
For you.
That you and I dare not trust.
Ourselves.
God has given us.
His word. And he's given us a great high priest that we can go to to get seasonable help. We need the place of dependence continually.
Always.
That's the path of faith.
Yes, if someone has said lot, this is an example of one who threw himself down for angels to catch.
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And they finally had to deliver him out of Sodom.
He lost everything.
Except he himself was saved so as by fire.
And I'll turn with me to Hebrews 11.
We'll see another man who became great.
Verse 24 of Hebrews 11 By faith Moses.
When he was born, was hit no by faith Moses when he.
Was come to years. Now another translation reads.
When he had become great.
When he had become great.
By faith Moses, when he had become great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season or temporary pleasures.
Esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.
For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.
For he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
Now here is the man who had become great.
You might speak of His pathway as the Providence of God.
And God in his Providence has set various ones in various places.
But the time of testing will come in every life when we have to make a decision.
We noticed that with Saul, it wasn't the first temptation.
That slew him. It was the second one.
But here we notice that with lot it was the.
Pride of life.
But not with Moses.
No, Moses was now in a position where he was great and this was a hard time to make a decision, wasn't it?
Like this, I don't know what the greatness consisted of.
Josephus seems to suggest that he was commander in chief of the Egyptian armies. I don't know.
But it was great. Scripture says. Whatever it was, he was great.
Oh, how foolish he was, the world would say.
To step down from such a position.
But if he'd stayed there, he never would have been on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus.
No.
How about the end of the road? Are you and I looking at the end of the road?
He endured his seeing him who's invisible. That's faith.
He saw the end of the road.
And he acted on the truth of it.
And so he chose his companions. Who were they?
All the glory of the palace.
That was Solomon's choice, not Moses.
We don't read any marvelous end of Solomon's history like we do Moses.
We don't see Solomon as a champion for the things of God.
Like Moses.
Moses sits before us, the energy of faith.
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He made a decision.
At a certain time in his life when he had to decide one way or another.
And he made that decision to take his place with the people of God.
In their rejection.
And oh, what an end.
To Moses life.
Love not the world.
The fashion of it, the desire of it all, passes away.
But he that does, the will of God abideth forever.
Oh, May God make these things clear to us dear young people.
It may give us to realize that when we make these decisions, how important they are for eternity.
And we're faced with them day by day.
Decisions.
Yes, he chose rather. But there's one thing First of all, he refused. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
And so the Christian has to refuse certain things.
Because if he had continued in this position, he would have been denying what he was. He was not the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
He was the son of some rejected Israelites.
And now he's going to take his place where he really was.
And what are you this afternoon, dear young people? Are you of this world, or do you belong with that little rejected company of Christians?
Gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus, where do you belong?
Where is all this going to end?
You know, it's a sad thing to look back.
And to see.
A whole life is wasted.
To have nothing to remember except a wasted life.
You know Voltaire when he died.
He said he hated life, but he was afraid to die.
An infidel.
He hated life, but he was afraid to die.
Oh, how lovely the the ending of some of those who have known the Lord Jesus and their last words.
Before they're taken.
How they're actually living right in the heavens.
I remember a brother as he was about to die, they brought him some papers to sign. He pushed them away. I haven't had any time for those things.
He was already in the heavens as it were, an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom.
I'm going to read to you a few lines.
It was given to me some time ago.
I won't mention the names, although I have them here.
In 1923, a very important meeting was held at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago.
Attending this meeting were nine of the world's most successful financiers.
Those present were the president of the largest independent steel company, the president of the largest utility company.
The president of the largest gas company, The greatest wheat speculator.
The president of the New York Stock Exchange.
A member of the president's cabinet.
The great Baron Wall Street, head of the world's greatest monopoly. President of the Bank of International Settlements.
Certainly we must admit that here we're gathered a group of the world's most successful men, at least men who had found the secret of making money.
But now, 25 years later, what happened?
The president of the president of the largest independent steel company died a bankrupt and lived and borrowed money.
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For five years before his death.
The president of the greatest utility company.
Died a fugitive from justice and penniless in a foreign land.
The president of the largest gas company.
Insane.
The greatest wheat speculator.
Died abroad and solvent the president of the New York Stock Exchange.
Released recently from Sing Sing Prison.
The member of the president's cabinet was pardoned from prison so he could die at home.
And the greatest Baron Wall Street died a suicide.
There we have a little picture of.
Loving this world.
And that little note mentioned at the end of this because this was found in a restaurant on the wall.
And it says these men knew how to make money, but they didn't know how to live.
Oh dear young people, do you know how to live?
Do you know how to live?
What is your object in life?
I'm going to turn to one more scripture in the book of Jude.
The 12Th verse of the book of Jude.
I'm going to just read that paragraph in the middle which says or that verse in the middle which says.
Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
Now in the new translation it reads this way.
Autumnal trees without fruit.
That's the way the tree looks in autumn.
The time of fruit gathering.
Autumn.
Oh dear young people, remember now is the seed time of your life. But there's an autumn coming.
I remember one time in autumn I went out.
And I saw Persimmon tree.
And there wasn't a leaf on it, but it was just loaded with fruit.
Is that the way your life is going to end? Going to end, dear young people?
Loaded with fruit.
Or is it going to be like some trees you see in autumn when the leaves are gone, there's not a thing on them?
Don't pay any attention to the leaves. They're not important. It's the fruit that's important.
And it's the way the life ends.
Let not him that putteth on his armor boast as he that putteth it off.
Oh, there's a day coming when everything will pass and review for.
At the judgment seat of Christ for the believer and God is going to reward everything.
That's done unto Christ.
But there is a day coming when God is going to judge the secrets of man by Jesus Christ according to Paul's gospel.
God as a standard.
And he's going to adhere to that standard.
There's no partiality with God.
Are you going to look back at an empty life?
Nothing but self, nothing but the present.
Giving up God for the world.
Giving up your soul for your body.
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Giving up eternity for time. Oh May God help us then to be wise and I'm sure.
That.
God will exercise us in these things as a result of these scriptures.
That we may realize that our tenure here is short.
And we'll soon be called away.
Shall we sing that little hymn?
75.
See. Oh God, is the theme of my song.
The joy of my heart.
And the first of all.
To spring grace alone from.
The first to the last.
Unfaithfulness
Address—E. Smith
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May we sing together #275 two 75.
Our God is light, and though we go across a trackless wild After Jesus, footsteps ever showed the power for every Child 275.
God is light.
And gold.
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And we're efficient.
Shall we look to the Lord?
I would like to read from the Book of Kings.
Kings Chapter 13 First Kings 13.
Verse one.
First Kings 13 and verse one.
And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah, by the word of the Lord unto Bethel.
And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, And said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord, Behold, a child shall be born unto the House of David.
Josiah, by name, and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bone shall he shall be burnt upon thee.
And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord hath 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 had cried against the altar, and Bethel that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, lay hold on him.
And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. The altar also was rent, And the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.
And the king answered, and said unto the men of God.
Entreat 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. And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.
And the man of God said unto the king.
If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee.
Neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place, for so was it charged me by the word of the Lord saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.
So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel. Now they dealt an old prophet in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. The words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father. And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah.
And he said unto his Son, Saddle me the ***. So they saddled him the ***. And he rode thereon, and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. And he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that came from Judah? And he said, I am.
Then he said unto him, Come home with me and eat bread. And he said I may not return.
With thee nor go in vain, nor go in. With thee neither will I eat bread, nor drink water with thee in this place. For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, Thou shalt eat no bread, nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.
And he said, he said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art.
And an Angel speak unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee.
Into thine house that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him, So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water.
And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back.
00:10:04
And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judas, saying, Thus saith the Lord.
For as much as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee, but camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place of the which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water, Thy chakra shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.
And when he was gone, Well, we'll go on. Perhaps a little way by might finish the reading.
It's so important, And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the *** to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought back. And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him, And his carcass was cast in the way, and the *** stood by it. The lion also stood by the carcass. And behold, men passed by and saw the carcass casting the way in the lions standing by the carcass. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet.
Dwelt. And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, it is the man of God.
Who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him.
And slain him according to the word of the Lord, which he spake unto him, Well, we'll stay there just for a while.
It's seldom I've ever spoken from this portion of the word of God. I have in Spanish, of course, in other languages, but.
I do remember speaking on this portion dear ones, some years ago. I'm not sure whether it was in a private home or.
Anywhere. It was in Toledo and there was a gentleman in that meeting and some time after which he came to me and said, Brother Smith, that portion of the word of God has changed my place ecclesiastically.
He was LED out of the system with which he had been associated, and was happily gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. If that brother is present this afternoon, I can ask him later on whether he's satisfied with what he did, or whether he's not satisfied, I can assure you he will certainly say.
He praised the Lord for his goodness to him. Well, here we have a case that is very, very important to harken unto.
You might have noticed that in this in this chapter.
The words man of the man of God appear 14 times.
And the word of the Lord appeared 9 times.
There are three outstanding characters, of course, here.
Jeroboam, The King's one. And then we have the man of God.
And the old prophet. These are characters portrayed here in this portion you will remember that.
It was the Prophet Ahijah.
With whom Jeroboam had to do in the first instance.
How he rent the clothes that were on him and divided up into 10 sections give him to know that he was to be over the 10 tribes of the Israelites. And then there were certain promises made, of course, that if he would obey God's will. You find that in the in Chapter 11.
It says here, And it shall be if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and will walk in my ways and do that.
Is right in my sight to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did.
Then I will be with thee and build the assure house, as I built for David Anne will and will give Israel.
Unto thee and so on. But Jeroboam, we notice he was unfaithful.
In so much that he could even say in a previous previous chapter in chapter 12 Concerning the 2 golden calves that he made and set up, one in Dan and the other in Bethel and the other in Dan.
And for which God never forgave him for the removal of the divine center.
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We find that he could even say these be thy gods, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
So we find in Jeroboam the Prophet, an unfaithful king.
Now what an awful thing to say that in Bethel Beth, the 2nd letter of the Hebrew alphabet and L the House of God that this king would even dare.
Not merely to transgress the separating from that.
The divine testimony, the testimony itself. But he would also declare that these were the gods of Israel, these two golden calves that brought them up out of the land of Egypt. So it shows that he was out as far as concerning his kingship, and it's recorded for our learning, he says. Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin.
I believe that God never forgave him for.
For changing the divine center.
Now some may disagree with that, but I don't believe God ever forgave this man for changing the divine sector.
And because of the idolatry there.
God sends a man of God.
And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah, by the word of the Lord unto Bethel. And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against that altar in the name of the Lord.
The next portion of that verse we find it fulfilled 350 years afterwards.
Fulfilled in the case of Josiah the Good King, 350 years afterwards.
The word of God is fulfilled concerning that third verse, a second verse.
How solemn this is for you, dear young people.
We may feel that we have a peculiar license to do what we please with God's word.
Thus a growing weakness among us, and the letting slip, dear friend.
Of divine truth.
We cannot temper.
With God's work.
We cannot.
I repeat Tampa with God's word. I remember Mr. Walter Scott years ago when I was a young man listening to him, he would hold up the word of God. That's the author of the book of the Revelation, You know, he would hold it up before the people and say beloved.
We have in our hands the word of the living God.
And it will be forever in heaven.
My word shall not pass, My word shall not return unto me void.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.
We have in our hands the word of God.
It is to be obeyed at all costs.
Well, what happened?
Verse 4.
And it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God.
Which had cried against the altered Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying lay hold on him.
And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.
And we find there the government of God right there.
The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which the men of God had given by the word of the Lord.
And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Entreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me.
That my hand 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.
The mercy of God towards this king.
Now here we come to a very important decision.
The king said unto this man of God, Come home with me.
00:20:07
And refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.
We are having problems, beloved, in Bolivia concerning the ecumenical movement.
As you know, there's a large group of believers in Bolivia now gathered to the precious name of Christ. God has saved many souls for whom he shall have all the praise.
And the varied the various sects of that land seeing this large number of believers.
Have been making overtures continually to them to link up with this unholy system. Link up with them.
Well, some of these leading brothers wrote me and said dear brother Smith, what's this all about?
So I got out three articles for them and sent them out to Bolivia, with the result that they were interested enough in this matter. 150 of them came together for four days to study this matter of ecumenism.
And they certainly went through the book about it and they wrote me a very, very encouraging letter.
They said beloved brother, we have written one word over the whole business.
Separation.
Separation that brought great joy to the Lord's heart.
There they are in the midst of this.
And there are still overtures being made by the outsiders for them to come home with them now, you dear young people.
I know that it is real if you are students.
Because I've been one myself, I know how you must feel concerning the varied temptations that come your way as students.
That if you take a stand for truth.
You are going to be ostracized by the wrist.
I repeat that that if you take a stand for truth.
Shall I say, invariably you will be ostracized by your companions.
Now here is a case of the man of God where he is faithful and oh, it's wonderful to see a faithful soul.
A faithful soul, I remember telling the soldier boys of a lot of them went into that shackle war, and I followed them up with the gospel of Christ, I used to say to them boys.
Declare your genealogy when you get in there, before all the troops tell them that you belong to Christ.
And thank God they did, those dear boys.
Well, very few came back from that wall.
Not 6% came back. They're in glory. They declared their genealogy. That is to say, they declared that they belong to Christ. Now that's a good thing for you to do, You destitute, you dear young people.
Hold the banner aloft, just like in the days in the Book of Numbers.
They declared their genealogy there, and then they rallied to the banner.
Whose we are and whom we serve.
Well, this man of God, he was faithful.
We read here when the king asked him to come with him.
Into a false alliance, and that's what it is.
The king said unto the man of God, Come home with me and refresh thyself, and I will give the reward.
And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half, thine, half.
I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place.
For so was it charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, eat no bread nor drink water.
Now turn again by the same way that thou camest so he went another way, and returned not.
By the way that he came to Bethel.
That was faithfulness. If you give me half your Kingdom, I'll not go back with you.
00:25:02
There is a prevailing thought.
Rather practice that we notice among God's dear separated people.
One young person came to me and said Mr. Smith.
Those with whom I associate are Christians.
Therefore, I feel perfectly free to go there and fellowship with them. Is that wrong?
This brother said to me, is that wrong?
What am I going to say?
We have to learn as those who are gathered through the precious name of Christ.
Three things that the authority of Christ in our midst is paramount.
That the Word of God is supreme there.
And.
His presence is there in our midst.
Then he said, You don't love these people, do you? I said, yes, I do. I love them. Indeed I do. But I love them enough to tell them the truth about separation and the gathering center, the truth of the one body, these glorious truths that should characterize us. But I cannot walk with them.
Oh, he said. Is that it? No. I can love them. You can love those dear Christians, and you should love them, but you can't walk with them. If you do, you're going to be a lost dynamic for God.
I'm saying this beloved after 50-6 years of service for Christ by his grace, I've never found anyone yet.
Who maintained a real testimony for God if they parlayed, If they were loose in this matter, yes, we love them.
Tell you the laborer for God, the Lord Jesus in Bolivia says.
Brethren, we can love them, and we do, but may we love them enough to tell them the error that they're in and seek to get for them to obey the Word and come out happily to the person of Christ.
Be gathered unto his name.
Well, this man of God was faithful there.
I'll not eat bread nor drink water with you.
For thus the word of the Lord says.
This is important to your young people.
The Word of God, if the Word of God declares.
To come out from among them and be separate, that the Lord that is to be obeyed.
Separation is separation.
Have we distilled to learn that?
If any man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified meat for the master's use, and thoroughly, I believe you can put in thoroughly, we did in the translation of the Scripture, and thoroughly.
Prepared.
For him, if any man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel, and to honor sanctified meet for the master's use, and thoroughly prepared unto every good work.
Does that sound a little hard?
That's God's word.
We are also to flee youthful lusts.
And there is a pernicious.
Form of *********** around which surprises me.
A perverted, pernicious sense of sex that unfortunately comes into the very life, into the warp and wolf of the national, of nationality, of people, and the last among the dear Saints.
A looseness There we are to flee youthful lust and to follow righteousness, faith, love, and peace with them that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.
And we are to be.
Examples of the believer in Word, in conversational behavior, in love, in faith, in purity, in spirit, in purity, Yes, we are.
00:30:14
Well, this man of God was faithful there, but now we come to a very, very solemn manner.
There dwelt an old prophet in Bethel.
Yes, he was a prophet.
What's he got to say?
And his sons came and told him all the work that the man of God had done that day in Bethel.
The words which he had spoken unto the King. Then they told also to their father, verse 12 And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah.
And he said unto him, Saddle me the ***. So they saddled him the ***. And he rode thereon, and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak.
And he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that came from Judah? And he said, I am.
What was he doing under that oak tree? Was he not told to declare his message and pass on separate himself completely from it? There he was sitting under the oak.
And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under note.
Then he said unto him, Come home with me and eat bread. Here is one of the subtle things, beloved young people.
Our brother gave us an interesting talk, our brother Clarence Landing concerning you, middle age and old age.
We associate youth with the lust of the flesh. And then there's the the lust of the eye.
That middle-aged folk sometimes fail there.
By acquiring or seeking to acquire something that might not be good for them.
You remember the Indian who came back years ago with me, beloved Francisco?
He saw something in this land which turned him towards the desire of making money.
And acquiring goods.
And Francisco for years has been a lost dynamic to God. He was one of the first Indians to come to Christ.
Bore a wonderful testimony for God among his people.
I've sat under his ministry to his people with tears running down the cheek, to hear him tell them of Jesus and his love and the need of consecration to him, of separation, absolutely unto him of devotion, to have Christ as the object of their soul. And yet he got something here.
In this favored land, and it is a favored land. I've never been in a land like it.
For so many favors, he went back with the idea to make money, save up his money and come back to this country and live here and bring his boys to college.
Well, he got his eyes off Christ.
And God had to put Francisco for over three years on his back until he said, yes, Lord, yes, Lord. Well, we saw Francis this time. I note several. Dear Brother Clem Buchanan's here. He was there.
And we saw Francisco. He's not the same Francisco, but there's been a there's been a great deal of of of refreshing that's come to his soul but he's not quite the same. That doesn't mean that God cannot restore, don't misunderstand me. But there was a case where the acquiring of things getting his eyes off Christ.
On to things of this sea He became a lost dynamic for God.
Well, what about this old prophet?
Come home with me, he says.
Come home with me.
I suppose.
In old age, you see, there's the pride of life.
The pride of life. Do pray for we old folk.
Beloved, pray for us well on the way out, soon to be home with the Lord Jesus, pray for us. The pride of life is one of the things of old age. It need not necessarily be so, but it's very prevalent, very prevalent.
00:35:09
Come home with me. I suppose it was hard for this man of God to resist the invitation of a prophet, for he was a prophet. Yes, he was.
What was he doing there? Was he a faithful prophet? No, he wasn't.
And by accepting the invitation of this prophet, the man of God put himself into a false association.
False association. Be very careful of this in your Christian life. You young people, beware of these false associations.
That applies to your marriage.
Every other aspect of life and living.
Beware of these false associations.
Puts me in mind of one young man, a bright young man. He went through college. I had the joy of helping him through college.
And he came to me and he said, Brother Smith, I'm going to get married.
Go Well, I said. That's wonderful. I said, I suppose she's a Christian. Is she a believer? No, he says she's not. But she's very interested, very interested. And I'll win her. I'll win her. Well, it's a sad story to speak of, that dear man, most gifted, one of the arstocrats of Bolivia, of the nobility of the family. There are few left of the nobility of Bolivia still.
Here is Nestor marries this unsaved woman 15 years after, as I meant mentioned this before, I saw Nestor, a bent man with Gray hair. I said Nestor, did you win her?
No, he said. How many children have you? 5. Are they the Lords? Not one. They're all Roman Catholics. A lost dynamic.
Well.
Let us dwell a little more on this old prophet.
Yes, he was a prophet. Could it be that he was the cause of the failure in the part of this man of God? Oh, may the Lord spare us, dear brethren, may the Lord spare us from being stumbling blocks to the youth, to young men and women.
By our inconsistencies.
By our lack of devotion to God, By our unfaithfulness to the Word.
This was a prophet of the Lord.
He knew very well.
He knew very well.
That he shouldn't have asked this man of God there to come home with him.
But the man of God failed.
He said to him, he coaxed him, You see, he said unto you, I am a prophet also thou art and an Angel. Speak to me by the word of the Lord, saying, bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he was a liar. He lied to him, he didn't tell the truth. Isn't that a terrible position for?
Anyone to be in, dear friends.
That we by our unfaithfulness to Christ, our unfaithfulness to the Word of God beloved.
We might be a cause of stumbling to young Christians.
Oh, I just feel that in the depths of my soul this afternoon.
That we might ever remember.
To never become stumbling blocks by our life and living and our testimony to young Christians.
So he went back with him and he'd eat bread in his house and drank water.
And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back. And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying.
Thus saith the Lord, For as much as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord.
And has not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee, but camest back, and hath eaten bread and drunk water, in the place of the which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water. Thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy father. What a solemn statement.
And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him, They asked to wait for the Prophet.
00:40:03
Which he had brought back.
But what happened?
That verse 24 And when he was gone, a lion met him, by the way.
And slew him, And his carcass was cast in the way, and the *** stood by it.
The lion also stood by the carcass.
Two unclean animals obedient to God.
And the man of God disobedient. What a picture.
Two unclean animals dare not move because God told them to stay there.
But the man of God?
Failed to fulfill God's will. I think this is a very grave situation.
For us, those who profess to lead the Saints.
Into those piles of godliness and holiness.
For after all, holiness, dear friends, is just this that we, by the grace of God, exclude.
Everything from our lives that would be contrary to God's mind and to God's nature.
I repeat that.
Holiness is the exclusion of everything from our lives that would be contrary to God's mind and to God's nature.
A lion met this man, slew him.
You know, there's a word in the Hebrew. It's a simple word, NACASH Nakash, that means the shining one. And an old Hebrew taught me some of that language. Not much. But he said, you know, Mr. Smith, that word is a very important word.
When the animals went by Adam, he named them. But when a certain brilliant personage came by, he said Nakash and it.
Uplifted hands and hiding his eyes from the sight of him that was the serpent Satan.
That the shining one. The shining one.
Oh.
He's the shining one. You dear young people, beware of that. We have to resist the devil and he'll flee from it. Yes, he's the shining one if he can't get you. Exactly.
Turned aside.
From the path of duty or the obedience to the Word of God.
He'll give you other things to charm your heart, for he is indeed the Shining One. And so many young people get turned aside by the Nakash, the Shining One when I went to Bolivia.
Oh, it's 50 years ago now. He was a roaring lion. We knew something of what was to be stoned out, to be thrown into the dungeon. But he's no longer that. He's the shining one now.
He's the shining one.
And when I went there, did I want to be very honest with you all? I was the only missionary in that great section of Bolivia, the only white man.
Today, there are between 30 and 40 missions in that area.
All with.
Their spurious teachings, doctrines of men.
From Jehovah's Witness, right on to Spiritus, Mormons and all the rest. They're all there.
And one of the great problems that confront the young believers there I got a letter from dear Lino Bueno, the old servant of Christ, he said, Dear brother, pray for us. One of the subtleties that's on the way now is to coax the believers into false associations with them.
They they. They are under the power of the Shining One, The shining One. May the Lord deliver them and keep them.
So that the man of God was slain.
And the Prophet took up the carcass of the man of God, verse 29.
And laid it upon the *** and brought it back. And the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him. And he laid his carcass in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother, alas, my brother. Isn't this a sad picture? Alas, my brother.
00:45:20
Who is to blame? The old prophet.
There he was, a supposed prophet of God, but he was unfaithful where he was.
Why didn't he stand with Stan Jeroboam and his idolatrous practice? He was weak. He wasn't strong for God, and yet he could say, alas, my brother. Alas, my brother.
Is it possible that we are guilty of by our life and testimony of turning aside young men and women from the truth?
And it came to pass, after he had buried him, that he spake to his son, saying.
When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherewith wherein the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones, for the saying, which he cried by the word of the Lord.
Against the altar and Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places.
Which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.
Look over the second Kings 23 please now.
Verse 17.
Verse 16.
23rd chapter of Second Kings And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent and took the bones out of the sepulchre, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it according to the word of the Lord.
Which the man of God proclaimed, Who proclaimed these words? Then he said, what title is this? What title is that? That I see? And the men of the city told him, it is the sepulchre of the man of God which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel. And he said, let him alone, let no man move his bones, so they let his bones alone.
With the bones of the Prophet that came out of Samaria.
300 As I mentioned and 50 years afterwards, the word of God was fulfilled.
We cannot tamper with it now. There are a few little while left. I'd like to mention some of the there are a few lessons to be learned from this.
When we think of the testimony beloved.
Of God's dear people gathered to the precious name of Christ.
In the first instance, there was a wonderful recovery of truth.
Paul's doctrine was understood.
And by the way, I would recommend you young people to read if G Patterson on that. It's of interest to me because FG Patterson went to New Zealand, where I was born to the South of New Zealand. And he went at the time when Mr. JG Deck, the author of 40 odd hymns in our Little Flock hymn book, was Desires of Being Restored. Mr. Dhabi went about the same time, perhaps a few years later.
Went all the way from this country to New Zealand.
And found Dear Mr. ****.
Sad why?
He had been unfaithful.
During the latter part of his life there in New Zealand.
And so the work had been taken over by those who were sympathizers with the Bethesda Principle.
Mr. ****.
Saw his era confessed it to Mr. Patterson and Mr. Darby too.
But what about his children? None of them were ever gathered to the name of Christ.
Doctor Northcote, who began a work in separation from the testimony of brethren in the Solomon Islands, whom I knew all that family. You know, Doctor, he was an MD when I saw him in London, where the ones that I was there.
And spoke to him about his father's testimony. He just Pooh poohed it.
00:50:00
I said Doctor Northgate, did not your father confess his error by linking up?
With an independent group.
He had nothing to say, nothing to say to me.
Well, in that book of Mr. Patterson's, there's an article on the.
On Paul's doctor.
I do hope that you young people will get that little book and read it.
For there were some cardinal truths brought out on that occasion. When he wrote that he wrote it on his way to New Zealand and was published in Wellington, the capital.
What tools came out of the result of their teaching?
1.
The truth of the one body.
That's one of the predominant truths there, the truth of the one body.
For ye are all baptized into one body, for by 1 Spirit you are baptized into one body.
And made to drink of that same spirit sailed same spirit the next truth was brought out.
The Coming of Christ for the Bride, 1St Thessalonians 4.
A truth that had been ignored for centuries, that was brought out Paul's doctrine. And then the other was that the believer was absent from the morning present of the Lord.
Wonderful truth.
And justification by faith.
Separation.
These were the cardinal truths, beloved, that were brought out in those early years.
I was having a meeting in Los Angeles last time.
Quite a number of Saints were there, and I mentioned something of this, and there was a gentleman who came up to me after the meeting. You said that you were born there, where I said, yes Sir, he said I was born in the same place. And I asked him about that testimony.
There were five testimonies in New Zealand in happy fellowship with the Saints in England and I said, with whom are you? He said. I'm with the Grand Party.
And I said, how about that testimony where I was commanded to the work of the Lord in 1918? He says it doesn't exist.
Doesn't exist anymore. It's all gone.
You know, you young people is a great responsibility on your souls this afternoon.
Are these truths that characterize God separated people? Are they precious to your souls or not?
Are you willing to take rejection with Christ and champion these truths?
That are so precious to the soul, the one body truth.
The coming of Christ for the bride.
The table of the Lord, the supper of the Lord, these glorious truths that filled and thrilled the hearts and souls of the first believers.
Are you willing to go on in separation unto Christ and maintain those truths or not? I make that as a personal question this afternoon.
God can sustain the testimony if you young people will shoulder this.
As an obligation before the Lord himself to maintain this blessed these truths at all cost. We know these are days of small things, we know that. But there's a peculiar blessing resting on those dear Saints in Bolivia. And I mentioned this.
Because they have held firmly to these truths that were taught them in the first instance.
Is it any wonder below it that there is a strong testimony for God in that poor old dark Bolivian?
This is the reason why they know where they stand.
They appreciate the truth and they make it known to others.
They make no compromise with anyone. They hold fast, by His grace, to those principles that they enjoy and those principles that have made them free.
00:55:00
Oh, there's such a responsibility upon you, dear young people. Do you cherish these blessed truths? Are you the Lords? Do you belong to Christ? If you do, do you love his blessed truth? Are you willing to take rejection with that blessed one?
I've often thought with this I'll stop in the case of.
David.
He There were some that gathered around him in The Cave of a dullum, a miserable few, those in debt, distressed. But there's one glorious thing about it that when everything was shattered and broken in Israel, God championed through the men, through the man of his choice.
Championed his blessed cause through the man of his choice.
Well, much more could be said. May the Lord bless thee, stumbling remarks to our souls. Afternoon, may we sing a hymen conclusion.
I would like you to please sing with all your heart, number 256.
Praise the Savior. Ye who know Him, who can tell how much we owe Him gladly. Let us render to him all we have. And I don't know whether you can stand up, but if you could, we could sing this to the Lord.
Praise the Savior.
The Apostle Philip
Address—J. Brereton
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.
Might we open our meeting this afternoon?
By.
We have nothing to seek or to choose. We've no thought in the ways to abide. We've not to regret nor to lose. Tis the treasure we found in his love that has made us now pilgrims below and is there when we reach him above. As we are known, all his fullness will know #139. Someone would start it for us.
Ask the Lord's.
Our Blessed God and our Father.
We would look up to thee this afternoon and thank thee that once again we have the privilege of turning to thy precious word.
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For in.
I have it on my heart, dear friends, this afternoon.
To look for a little while at a few instances.
In the life of Philip.
Many of you will recall that in the New Testament we are have, I believe, at least three, Phillips mentioned.
We have Philip the Tetrarch, who was the brother of Herod.
And whose wife was the principal character that led.
To John the Baptist being martyred.
We also have an account.
I'll fill up the apostle one of the 12.
And then we also have Philip, the one who is the Deacon and who was also the evangelist.
The one I would like to look at this afternoon is the second one of the three that I mentioned, Philip the Apostle.
And the first time we come in contact with Philip is in the first chapter of John's Gospel.
John's Gospel, Chapter One.
And verse 43.
The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.
Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
Philip findeth Nathaniel, and saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law.
And the prophets did right Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
And Nathaniel said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?
Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.
Nathaniel saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered, and said unto him.
Before that Philip called thee. When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.
Nathaniel answered, and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the son of God.
Thou art the King of Israel.
You will recall that earlier in this chapter we have John the Baptist.
Saying, Behold, the Lamb of God.
And that simple pointing by John the Baptist to Christ, that expression that came from his heart, Behold the Lamb of God.
LED Andrew to follow Jesus.
LED eventually to the bringing of Simon Peter.
But when we come to the 43rd verse, we find.
That the Lord Jesus goes out to seek for Philip.
And so it says on the moral the day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee and find Philip and Seth.
Unto him Follow me, dear young people. I'm confident that there are many here this afternoon amongst the young people who belong to Christ. Many of you have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. But what an immense importance it is.
What a voice that has to the heart or should have to the heart of everyone of us that belonged to Christ, to realize that it was the Lord Jesus Christ seeking us that brought us to know him. A Savior that the Lord Jesus as we have here in connection with Philip, He sought out Philip. He started out.
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To find Philip.
And Philip heard the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to him.
Personally and saying follow me.
We've had before us in these meetings these last few days, particularly, at least for my own soul, the Lord Jesus presented to us as the object of our hearts affections. And so we find here, in the case of Philip, what simple, what beautiful words. Follow me, dear young people, if we get our eyes on anyone else.
If we find our eyes fixed upon anyone.
Of the brethren.
Anyone of those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ.
We are in danger of being LED into some path that would be not according to the mind of God, but the Lord. Jesus Christ can only lead us, only lead you, dear young people, in a pathway that pleases God and will bring peace and joy to yourself.
He cannot lead in any path but that which will satisfy the heart of God and at the same time satisfy your heart too. We find when we go on with the account that when Philip heard these words follow me, he went out to seek for Nathaniel. And so it says now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
Philip findeth Nathaniel, and saith unto him, We have found him.
Of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did right, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph he had come to find.
As it seemed to himself, he had found the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who fulfilled all that the prophets wrote.
Concerning God's eternal Son, the truth of the matter was dear young people, As we've already noticed, it was the Lord Jesus that had found him. It was the Lord Jesus that had gone seeking for him. But Philip speaks from his heart and he goes to someone else. He goes and seeks out Nathaniel that he might tell Nathaniel what he has found.
That he might speak to Nathaniel of the one who has become the object of his heart. Dear young people, the Scripture tells us, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And so this one Philip, now that he has, as he expresses it, now that he has found the one.
That fulfills all of the scriptures of sin now that he has found the One.
That can satisfy his heart. He goes in turn to seek Nathaniel and to bring Nathaniel to Christ. You notice how Nathaniel says, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Nathaniel had not yet met the Savior, but we noticed, Philip says. So simply come and see.
Come and see.
Philip had been in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had heard his voice speaking to him and saying, follow me. And he knew that if Nathaniel would come to Jesus, if Nathaniel would come to the one that Philip had met, that he too would find that this was the one that could satisfy his heart too.
Dear young people, you and I are given.
Have wonderful privilege. We belong to Christ. You are His. You have had it revealed to you that he has sought you out and claimed you as his own. The Lord Jesus speaks now to your heart and mind and says, follow me. The Lord Jesus has a pathway marked out for us. He has a pathway marked out for us dear young people here in the wilderness.
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And he goes before us in that path.
And his desire for us is that we might have our eyes on him.
Not on our brethren, but on Christ. And then we have the privilege because of that, because our hearts are fixed on Christ and occupied with Him, we have the privilege of being able to call others to come and see. You notice how it tells us in this portion? We've read that when Nathaniel came to the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus shows him that he had already been marked out, that the Lord Jesus had already seen him. But notice what the Lord Jesus says in that 48th verse. Jesus answered and said unto him. Before that Philip called thee, When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. The Lord Jesus had had his eye on Nathaniel.
But dear young people, Phillip had the privilege of calling the Nathaniel to Christ. Philip had the privilege of inviting the Nathaniel to come and find in Christ what Philip had found.
An object for his heart. Follow me, dear young people, for you and I. What 1 Covet for one's own heart and soul is that we might follow Christ, that we might take our instruction, our direction, from the one who sought us out, when there was nothing in us to love at all, when there was nothing in us to call out such love.
When there was nothing in us to stir up such affection, such love on his part, he was the one who sought for you, He sought for you. And now, dear young people, he covets, He covets your company. He longs to have you walk with him. He longs to have each one of us that belong to Christ here as we go through the wilderness.
To walk in the company.
Of the one who sought us out and made us his own dear young people, God has one, says it reverently. God has for all eternity found the Lord Jesus as the object of his heart. And now, through wondrous grace, God has chosen to share that object of his affections with you and I to give to us to find.
In Christ.
The same delight that he finds in his beloved son. Oh, dear young people, what a claim he has upon us. What a claim he has upon our affections. How this voice, his voice, should speak to us, should speak to me what he says, follow me, because he died, that we might be redeemed to himself. And then he sought us out and made us his own. Could we turn over now to the 10th chapter of Matthew for a few moments?
Matthew Chapter 10.
Beginning at verse one.
And when he had called unto him his 12 disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Now the names of the 12 apostles are these the first Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother Philip, and Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew the publican.
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James, the son of Alpheus and Libius, whose surname was Thaddeus.
Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. These 12 Jesus sent forth.
And the 16th verse. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. You notice how.
Then the first verse, it says, And when he had called unto him his 12 disciples.
Of whom we have noticed that Philip was one. It says he gave them power.
Against unclean spirits.
These disciples were going out, Philip among them, to proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom.
And as they went out thus to serve the Lord, as they went out as sheep amongst wolves, dear young people, they were outfitted of God. The Lord Jesus fitted them for this service. He gave them power that they might have, power over the unclean spirits, and the ability to heal.
The sick to raise the dead and so on. Dear young people, we don't have that kind of power today.
We don't have the power to raise the dead or to heal the sick, but you and I too, we belong to Christ. Through a wilderness scene, He calls upon us to follow Him and beloved young people. He has given us you and I that belong to Christ. He has given us the power to walk here to please Him. Never at any time can we say.
When we grieve his heart. When our footsteps turn aside after something down here.
Never are we able to say truthfully. I couldn't help it because dear young people, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
You have been given the power to walk down here to please God.
Even though you and I are indeed cheap among the wolves, we're in a world where everything is opposed to Christ. If you're going to walk to please God in school, you're not going to be popular, because the course of this world is in just the opposite direction. The things that this world seeks after are not the things that you seek after at all, if you're going to follow Christ.
The pathway that you walk leads in a completely different direction.
Than the pathway that this world follows. But dear young people, in spite of the fact that here in this world everything is opposed to the Christian everything is opposed to you. As a young child of God, you have the power given of God by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. To not only know the mind of God, to not only know what God would have you to do, but you have the power to.
Given of him.
By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to walk to please him.
To put his claims, the claims of the one who said follow me. To put his claims first, to put his commandments above all else. Dear young people, one covets this for ones own heart, one covets this for ones own light, that the Lord Jesus might be such an object from my heart that when he says follow me.
All other things fall into their rightful place.
As we were having in Philippians the other day, that we might know him.
Dear young people, when we know him, When to know Christ.
To have our hearts occupied with him when his claims come first, the claims of those around us fall into their rightful place. Well, we find here that these ones, like Philip Philip was one of them. He was going out into a world to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. He was going out to preach and his case, the gospel of the Kingdom, but he was outfitted.
By his Lord for that service he was given the power that he needed.
So that he could serve the Lord in a scene where that which he came in contact with.
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Would be opposed to his pathway as a child of God. Dear young people, you have to, and so have I. The Lord Jesus calls us you in your way, and I in mind to serve him in school or in the office in some way or other. Every one of us has been given as one of God's children that which we can do to serve the Lord. And we have been outfitted, we have been given the power.
To serve him in whatever the course is, in whatever the place is, in whatever the position is.
You say to me, perhaps you don't know what it's like in that school where I go.
You don't know what it's like amongst the children in our class or the young people in our class. Or perhaps someone else might say, in the office where I work, everything is so opposed. The people in my office don't seem to have any respect for the word of God at all. Dear young people that may be.
But the Lord Jesus, the one who has called you and I to follow him.
He never leads us into a pot to self-service to him.
Without giving us all that we need, all the power, all the grace that we need.
To serve him in that place, if that's what he's called us to.
And so, dear young people, may you and I, and for myself especially, may we seek from the one who has called us to follow him, may we turn to him, and own that without him we can do nothing.
But that the one who has overcome the world, the one who has.
Met all the opposition of the enemy of our souls and has overcome him. May we turn to him, the one who has said, follow me and beloved young people. We will find that all the grace and all the power that we need is there along the road to please him. Can we turn over now to the 12Th chapter of John's Gospel?
The.
John's Gospel, chapter 12.
And verse 20.
And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast.
The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee.
And desired him saying, Sir we would see Jesus.
Philip, Cometh and Telleth, Andrew and again Andrew and Philip.
Tell Jesus.
Dear young people, this is a portion of the word of God that has searched my heart and my conscience.
We find here that these Greeks had come up to the feast, and they desired.
To see Jesus.
And they turned to Philip. Their desire was to see Jesus.
And so they go to Philip.
So that Philip might be able to introduce them to the Lord of Glory.
To the Lord Jesus Christ, dear young people, the question I have asked myself.
And I would ask it of you and ask you to ask yourself.
If there was a boy in your class at school, that there was a young man or a young lady in your office tomorrow morning who desired to find Christ, whose conscience was exercised about their sins, who felt a need, and they desired to find Jesus.
Dear young people, would they turn to you?
What they feel that you could point them?
To the Lord Jesus Christ. All you know, dear young people, sometimes.
We can have a reputation for being able to tell the best jokes.
Perhaps we can have a reputation for being able to tell the best way to dress.
The best way to have the very latest in appearance. The best way to have to meet the world's styles in whatever way it is.
But dear young people, those that we live with, those that we work with, those that we go to school with, if they want Jesus.
Do they feel, do they know, do they have reason to see from your walk and mine that there is one who has been in the company of Jesus? There is one that we can go to, and he'll point us to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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All this is what we find with Philip. Here the Greeks sought for Jesus and they went to Philip.
And Philip turns to Andrew, and the two of them go to tell Jesus.
Philip had an immediate access. Andrew had an immediate access to the Lord Jesus Christ.
These Greeks sought for him beloved young people. May it exercise my heart much more than yours, but May God give us to be exercised one and all as young people that belong to Christ. We bear the name of Christ and all beloved young people.
Do we not desire for ourselves? Would we not seek to ask the Lord for grace for ourselves?
That those with whom we come in contact your best friends, the school, your best chums.
The ones that you go to school with every day that they realize.
But about you, about you and about me, there is something that's different, that we are identified with Christ, so that if they would seek for him, seek for Jesus.
They would turn to you, turn to you, and feel that from you.
They would get the truth, that they would be pointed in the right way to find Jesus beloved young people. May God grant to each one of us that it might be so of us, that it might be so of you and I. Just like Philip. They come to him and he tells Jesus all about it. Could we turn over now to the 14th chapter of John?
The sixth verse.
John 14 and verse 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If he had known me, he should have known my Father also.
And from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you? And yet hast thou not known me, Philip, he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father? And how sayest thou then show us the Father.
Now we come to another episode in the life of Philip.
We have come just about to the end of the Lord's pathway here.
Philip has been walking in the company of the one that called him to follow him for about 3 years and now the question comes up in the Lords conversation with his own on the night before he was betrayed. This is what we refer to dear young people as the upper room ministry, that which was given to us on the very eve of the Lord's death and we find the Lord Jesus speaking to them.
About the Father, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
And we find that Philip in spite of the fact that he has walked.
In the Lord's company for three years, yet there are still things that he does not know.
Still things that he has to learn and as we noticed in Philippians 3 the other day.
We find Paul saying that I might know him and the power of his resurrection.
Philip Paul's earnest desire was even though he had walked in the company of the Lord Jesus.
For, I suppose close to 25 years at that time.
But he still longed to know him more.
Well, we find here that Philip.
Has to say, when the Lord Jesus speaks of the Father, Philip finds that he has not seen.
He has not comprehended, He has not taken in for himself, that in all that the Lord Jesus did down here in every step of his pathway and every word that he spoke, it was a revelation of all that was in the Father's heart. And so it was that he could say, He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father. But what has searched my own heart, dear young people, is particularly the expression.
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Where the Lord Jesus says to Philip.
Have I been so long time with you and yet?
Hast thou not known me, Philip?
All beloved Saints of God, dear young people especially.
Some here have walked in the company of the Lord Jesus Christ for many, many years.
I have known the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior now.
For about 25 years. And yet, dear young people, this verse still searches my heart.
Troubles arise.
Troubles arise in our business life. Troubles arise in our family lives.
Troubles arise in our assembly life and dear young people sometimes.
Speaking for oneself, we find ourselves getting so distressed, getting so troubled, getting so upset. And this verse has come before my own soul. Have I been so long time with you? And yet hast thou not known me, Philip, Beloved brethren, we have seen the Lord's goodness, the Lord's care over his own. We have seen how he has delivered His gathered Saints.
From trial after trial after trial and yet when fresh trials come in.
When fresh questions arise, When things arise again that the Lord allows.
The danger is for us, saying The danger is for us to forget.
That the Lord has cared for us in the past. That we have proven His love time and time and time again.
Dear young people, there is nothing that is going to come up in your life.
In your family life, in your personal life, or in your assembly life?
But that the one who loves you, loves you very dearly has allowed it. Do you remember how the disciples were in the boat with the Lord Jesus when they were crossing the Sea of Galilee, and the Great Storm arose?
And the Lord Jesus was asleep on the pillow.
And his disciples went and woke him, and said, Carest thou not that we perish? Oh beloved young people, could we not, as it were here, the Lord Jesus? Could he not very well have said to them at that very time, Have I been so long time with you? And yet hast thou not known me? Hadn't they proven his love, and his care, and his goodness?
Hadn't they seen time and time again that he was able?
To provide for every obstacle along the way, for every storm.
For every difficulty. And yet dear young people, how prone one's own heart is to forget.
To become distressed and upset again. To find ourselves falling back upon our own resources. To think that we must in some way do something, do something, create something to help ourselves, Instead of turning to the one who has proven time and time again that he is faithful and that he is able and that his love.
For his people never changes. All one thinks of Philip here, of hearing the voice of the one who had called him to follow him, to hear him saying, to hear Philip as the word, to have Philip hear the voice of his own blessed Lord saying to him, Have I been so long time with you? And yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
Beloved young people, may we have the grace to trust him. We have proven him that our brethren here that could tell you how they have proven his goodness and proven his love and proven his care and proven that he is able for 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 years. Why is it? Why is it that my heart gets distressed again? Oh dear young people, it's because I forget.
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My heart, as it were, forgets, turns away.
And overlooks the fact that that same love that took him to the cross, that same love dear young people that led him to seek you out.
As he sought Philip, that same love has undertaken to take us all the way home to glory. The captain of our salvation has charged himself with delivering every scene of God safely home to glory. May we trust Him, may we prove Him, may we rest in his love and in His care, and not.
Question.
Not give place to the devil who would give us to question his love.
And his care. And dear young people. What 1 seeks for one's own soul is that the longer we go on, the longer we're left here. That we might walk in his company. That we might prove his love more and more, and that we might find ourselves coming to know him better, know his ways, know his purposes above all, know his love.
And thus to know himself.
Could we turn over to one last portion?
In the first chapter of Acts, Acts chapter one.
Acts chapter one and verse 12.
Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called all of that which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter and James, and John, and Andrew, Phillip and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon, Zelodes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.
With the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
And the second chapter and the first verse. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.
And it filled all the house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
And then in the.
42nd verse.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers.
You'll recall how at the beginning of our meeting we noticed that in our first introduction to Philip we have the voice of the Son of God speaking to him and saying follow me. We have seen how the Philip could walk in the company of the Lord Jesus for those three years.
We have seen how the Lord Jesus reminds him of his love and his care on the very eve before he is taken away.
And we had read the earlier part of this first chapter of Acts, we would find that the Lord Jesus has ascended to glory.
He's gone back to heaven and we find the 11. Now Judas Iscariot is gone.
But the 11 are together. They have heard from the Lord Jesus himself that they were to abide in Jerusalem until they were imbued with power from on high. And so we find these, 11 Philip among them, here together with one accord in one place. Oh dear young people, does this not follow? Does this not follow from those simple words follow me.
The Lord Jesus when he was here, when he was here in this scene.
He called upon his disciples. He called upon Philip to follow him here through this seed. And now he's gone back to glory. And where would we expect to find Philip? Where would we expect to find this one who had been called to follow Christ in the wilderness through this journey here? Dear young people, would we not expect to find him in God's center, in that center at Jerusalem?
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Waiting for the coming of the Spirit of God. Waiting for the fulfillment of the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the Spirit of God would come and baptize them by 1 Spirit into one body. Beloved young people, you belong to Christ. Mark this. You are a member of the body of Christ. Nothing can change that. There is no way.
Nothing that the devil can do, nothing that the enemy of our souls can do to change that you belong to Christ.
You have been connected livingly by the Spirit of God to the head of the body in heaven.
And here in this room this afternoon, if you have heard His voice saying, follow me, you belong to Christ. You've been called by him, then, dear young people, you are a member of his body. You have been brought into this company that was on the day of Pentecost, joined together by the Spirit of God into one body. Now we find that Philip here identified with this company, waiting there with the 11 in the upper room.
He sweats there for the Spirit of God to come. He is identified, connected up with by the Spirit of God, that one body that was formed on the day of Pentecost, and he continues on in the apostles doctrine and the apostles fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Beloved young people, you belong to Christ.
You know him as your savior.
You're given the privilege of bringing others to Christ, as Philip did with Nathanael.
You have been given the power to walk down here to please him.
You have the privilege of having a testimony in a world that has rejected Christ.
So that you, like Philip, are identified with Christ.
So that if there is those who would seek after Christ, they might turn to you because they know.
They take knowledge of the fact that you have been with Jesus.
We find that the Lord Jesus himself has reminded Philip of his love and His care. And now, dear young people, may I ask you, may I ask myself, do we earnestly desire to go on in the apostles doctrine and the apostles fellowship? Do we earnestly desire all beloved young people earnestly desire?
To be identified with one who has died and risen and ascended to glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we desire to be identified with Him here, here in a world where he has been rejected?
May God grant that we might each one earnestly desire that. You know, I heard a brother some time ago.
And this brother said something that struck my heart very much.
Another brother made a comment about something that had happened that distressed him very much and he he made a comment to the effect that.
That if if that was allowed, he might have to leave.
And this brother turned to him, and as I say, beloved young people, his expression struck me very much. He just quoted 6 words. He said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Lord, to whom shall we go? Where would we go? The Lord Jesus Christ, dear young people, has established a center.
He has set himself as the gathering Center for those that belong to him, and many of us here have been given the wondrous privilege of enjoying his company, of being gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ with much stumbling and much failure, and yet through grace supplied of Him, through the power that he supplies to be able to go on in the apostles doctrine.
And the apostles fellowship dear young people, we find Philip here. Is that where you are found? You know, I fear sometimes that the young people, some young people, may feel that there must, that they have to do something special, that in some way they must change something and change into something else before they can remember the Lord Jesus in his death or be identified with the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Beloved young people, if you belong to him, you are a member of his body, And if you are a member of his body, your place is there. Your place is there. This morning your place was there. Whether you were there or not, your place was there to be there in the company of the Lord Jesus Christ, remembering him in his death.
You're titled to be there was because you're a member of the body of Christ. Your title to be there, dear young people, is because you're identified with Christ. Were you there? Were you there when the Lord Jesus, as it were, looked over that company this morning? Did he see you there? Did he see you? Did he see your face? Did he hear your voice this morning? Did he realize that you have answered? Did he see?
That you have answered to his request.
To remember him and his death, To go on with those who were gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ going on in the apostles doctrine and the apostles fellowship. Dear young people, could I put it reverently by footing it this way? If Philip had been here this morning, he would have been there. He had heard the voice of the Son of God say, follow me. And that's where it would have led this morning.
Dear young people, May God grant to you and I that we might follow that same voice.
That we might listen to the voice of the same person. That we might find ourselves identified with one who has been rejected and cast out, but one who's coming for us, the one who has provided the power and the grace to walk to please Him and dear young people. If we do fail, and one only has to search one's own heart to find the failure there, May God give us the grace to just turn to the One who has called us to follow Him.
The one who sought us out in the first place and confess our failure to him.
And we will find that it is his delight to restore.
And to bless dear beloved Saints of God, may we, as it were, find from our own hearts, speaking to the Lord Jesus about this precious privilege of being gathered to His name and his name alone.
Beloved Saints of God, where else would we go?
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thank God, dear young people, I do thank God every day for those young people who desire to go on to please him. And May God grant that you and I, if He has spoken to us in these meetings, as he has indeed spoken to my heart, may it have the result of us again afresh.
Finding the Lord Jesus Christ as the object of our hearts that we might join with the Spirit of God in saying.
Even so, come Lord Jesus, could we close our meeting by singing hymn #17?
Hymn #17 if some brother would start it for us.
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In saying Even so come Lord Jesus.
Could we close our meeting by singing hymn #17?
And #17 if some brother would start it for us.
Four Suppers
Gospel—D. Andersen
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.
Shall we turn in our Little Flock hymn book to #66?
In the appendix.
#66
in the back of the book.
Come hear the gospel sound. Yet there is room. It tells to all around. Yet there is room, though guilty. Now draw near. Though vile you need not fear with joy you now may hear. Yet there is room number 66 in the back of the book.
Come hear the cross spell sound.
Yeah, very true.
It's alcohol.
Yes, and we're through.
Oh, you'll keep our.
All I knew did not fear.
We'll try you about making, yes.
God love in Christ. We see, yeah, everything.
I pray for talking.
Yeah, every room, everyone.
Needed.
To say, oh, I feel really, yes, every song. All these are ready now.
Everything.
Crying and breathing right now.
Yes, there is room.
Please before the Mercy Day.
All day you will be.
Yes, very strong.
Raw and fear.
The guest will be alive. Yes, very true.
You still celebrate your day?
Here you will find my way.
Let's pray for our will take.
Yeah.
I'd like to talk about four suppers tonight.
We read about one of the suppers in Luke's Gospel chapter 14.
Most everyone, I believe within the sound of my voice.
Is interested in supper.
It strikes a note with everyone of us, and especially when we're hungry, we're thinking about supper.
And I know there are many boys and girls here in this audience tonight, young people as well, and others.
Who know what it is to sit down to the table and eat supper. And no doubt you know something about what it is to be hungry and to really appreciate a good supper.
And we're going to read about some suppers tonight. We're going to talk a little bit about them.
And I hope that you boys and girls will pay attention tonight because you're going to hear something about a supper or suppers that are far more important than the supper that your mother puts on the table for you to eat. The supper that's put on the table is for your body that you might receive strength and nourishment. But these suppers that we're going to look at tonight are different kinds of suppers. We might think of them as.
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Spiritual suppers.
Something that concerns our soul. Now, the first three suppers, we might think of them as really good suppers. But there's one more supper wheel we hope to talk about. You, the Lord Terry. And that's a solemn thought. The Lord might come before this meeting is over, before I can even talk about that supper. But all that Last Supper, the 4th supper I'm thinking about, is an awful supper. And I'm sure you would not want to eat of that supper. You would not want to be present at that supper.
Oh, it's an awful place.
There's going to be judgment at that time when that supper is eaten. But let us look in Luke chapter 14 and read a few words about a great supper.
Verse 16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bad many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden. Come, for all things are now ready.
And they all, with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it. I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I've bought 5 yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them. I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I've married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came and showed his Lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hit her the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind.
And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.
Now it's the Lord Jesus Christ himself that speaking here, and he's talking about a man that made a great supper.
A great supper, a great feast.
I suppose at one time or another, sometime in your life, you have sat down to a table that you would consider a real feast a great supper.
Well, this supper that's been provided here that we read about.
It's a supper for the soul. It's a supper for the hungry soul.
You boys and girls.
You young people, you're looking for something to satisfy your soul.
Why? Because you have soul hunger.
You're hungry in your soul.
You know something, perhaps about your body being hungry, your stomach crying for food. But I believe that you know something about your soul crying for something to satisfy it. Have you found that? Have you found something to satisfy your soul? Have you found something that can give you rest and peace in your heart?
Perhaps you're still looking for it. Perhaps you think that something in this world will satisfy you.
Some pleasure, some treasure, some trinket, some toy, or if you only had that, then you would be satisfied. But I'm sure that if you got whatever you're looking for thinking about, then you would be looking for something else. Because those things cannot satisfy your heart. They cannot give you sole satisfaction, only the Lord Jesus Christ, which is.
The supper of God that God has prepared can give your heart peace and joy and satisfaction.
It's a great supper because there isn't anything greater than this. And I believe the supper is the supper of salvation that God has provided in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, it's a remarkable thing.
Not the Lord Jesus Christ himself, says in the first chapter of John's Gospel.
As many as received him to them he gave the power to become.
The children of God, even to them that believe on his name.
That verse speaks about receiving a person.
Receiving a person into your heart and as many as receive him.
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They get the power to become the children of God. What a marvelous thing.
That you could receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and become a child of God.
Now I'm thinking about another verse over in John's Gospel chapter 6 and that actually speaks about eating the Lord Jesus.
Now this is the portion of Scripture that's been misunderstood by a great many in Christendom, John's Gospel, chapter 6, verse 53. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you.
Except keep the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood. Ye have no life in you. Just think of that.
Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man.
And drink his blood. You have no life in you, I believe that tells us what is in that supper, that great supper of God?
It's the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
His flesh and his blood. Who would you say? And maybe you're saying the same thing as as these said. How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
But it's a spiritual thing. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he died on Calvary's cross, he gave his flesh, He gave his body to be crucified, to be nailed there on the cross. And he gave his precious blood to His precious blood was shed.
When the soldier pierced his side, and out came the blood and the water, so at Calvary's cross the Lord Jesus Christ gave his body and gave his life and his precious blood to show that his life was given.
Now the Lord Jesus Christ says, except you eat his flesh and drink his blood, you have no life in you unless you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, the one who died for sin.
The one who gave His precious blood to wash away sin unless you receive Him as your Savior.
You won't have life. You have no life in you. Do you want life in you? You will have to eat the right food. You will have to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, receive the one who died for you, receive the One who shed His precious blood for you to put away sin.
And he he that he was the just one that died for us, the unjust that he might bring us to God.
All you boys and girls.
The Lord Jesus Christ wants you to receive Him as your Savior.
Open your heart to him, Let him come in tonight, he says. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and Sup with him and he with me. Would you like to have the Lord Jesus Christ come into your heart?
So that you might Sup with him and he with you. You would have a happy time together, you would be shopping together, You would be having fellowship together.
You could go on through life the rest of your days together, and finally you would be caught up to be with him and be for all eternity with him.
But dear boys and girls.
If you fail to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, if you do not let him come into your heart and you die in your sins, look what you're going to miss.
Oh, God has provided a great supper for you. It's a great supper because God has provided it. It's a great supper because it's the salvation provided by God through the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And who is the Lord Jesus Christ? Why, he is the creator of this whole vast universe. And in this age of intelligence, we're finding out more about the universe, and we're certainly finding out how small we are.
Compared to God's great universe and those men who went up into space and landed on the moon.
I believe they were impressed with this fact. What a small part we are of God's universe.
And those who have looked into the heavens with their great telescopes, they can see millions, yay billions of stars, and they confess we only see a very small part of the universe.
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But my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, created it all, and He is the one whom God is presenting to us as the Savior, as this great supper. Will you have him tonight? Well, if you receive him as your Savior tonight.
You certainly will be partaking of a great supper. I hope you don't make excuses like these did that we read about.
The servant had gone out and said come for all things are now ready. Everything is ready. Perhaps there's some here tonight that would say, well, wait, I have to get ready for this. I have to make myself presentable. I can't go to this supper the way I am. Oh, how many there are that are like that? They think they have to get themselves into a presentable condition to meet God.
Where you cannot meet God at all unless you meet him in the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you do not have Christ as your Savior, you can never meet God. You will never be able to stand in God's presence unless you have the Lord Jesus Christ as your very own Savior.
It's not by works of righteousness which we do by grace. Are you saved through faith, and not not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works. Lest any man should boast, you cannot do one solitary little thing to prepare yourself for heaven, for the presence of God.
Let God do the work. Let the Lord Jesus Christ do the work. Believe the word of God and let that do its work in your heart. Let the Spirit of God do his work in your heart. Oh God is longing to save your soul. Tonight will you let him save you.
Well, one said, I bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it. He was occupied with a piece of ground, and this one would let just a mere piece of ground keep him from coming to partake of this great supper.
What an insult this must have been to the one who prepared the great Supper.
That there would be those who would offer these flimsy excuses, and certainly they were flimsy excuses, and these things were just very little, small things to be occupied with compared to that supper, compared to that invitation that was given.
And there are those. Tonight, perhaps in this very room, you're occupied with this thing or that thing and you say, well, wait a minute, I have to do this. I got to go see this.
And I must be occupied with another thing. Not yet. I'm still young. I have plenty of time.
But what will happen?
While you're being occupied with your piece of ground.
Or your little thing that interests you, the Lord Jesus Christ may come.
And like with the five foolish virgins.
They'll come and you'll find that the door is shut, the Lord Jesus Christ is coming. You're left behind all we're living right at the end of the age. We're living in the very days when the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come back again. He's going to come down on the cloud and the shout will be heard and the Lord's own will be caught up to meet him in the air.
And if the Lord Jesus Christ came right now?
And we were caught up to meet him in the air. How many would be left here on these chairs?
Ah, there would be some vacant chairs, I know.
But how many chairs would be occupied?
Oh, how solemn that would be for you to find yourself sitting there on a chair, and your father and your mother sitting by you, your friends sitting by you, all gone. And you're left sitting there, perhaps one here, one there, one there, and one the other place in this room. Oh, what a solemn thing to face the fact of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and face the fact of eternity.
Well, another one has an excuse. I bought 5 yoke of oxen and I go to prove them. Well, he was very much taken up with these five yoke of oxen, and I suppose they were important to him. He had already made the purchase, but evidently had he had not proven them, and this was really a foolish thing of him to do. He was not a very good buyer, not a very good trader. And here he bought these, these oxen before he really knew what they could do.
Well, you know, people who put it off, put off accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. These people who make excuses for not getting saved right now.
They look very foolish. They look very silly.
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Oh, how sad to see people putting off the matter of their soul salvation.
And they do such silly, foolish things just like this man did all. Don't be foolish tonight.
No, don't be foolish tonight. close in with God's offer of mercy. Accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Don't try to find more excuses for putting it off.
And then?
This next seems to be the most foolish of all, he says. I've married a wife.
And therefore I cannot come now. He wasn't even thinking of bringing his wife along. He wasn't thinking about himself, nor was he thinking about his wife.
And all, I hope that there is no one like that in this room tonight.
You're not thinking of your own soul, and you're not thinking of the soul of anyone else. You're not worried about this thing one bit. You're going on through this world, living day after day as though you were going to live here forever and the Lord was not going to come, and that there's no such a thing as hell.
Oh, how sad. May the Lord speak to your heart tonight and make you to understand that this invitation that's been given to you to come to the Great Supper.
It is a matter of life and death. If you receive the Supper, if you accept Christ as your Savior, you mean life. If you don't come, if you put it off, if you neglect so great salvation, how are you going to escape? How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
All friends, tonight, don't put it off. God wants to save your soul. Just think of it. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Went to Calvary's cross, and there he laid down his life.
For us He bore our sins in his own body on the tree.
He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He hadn't done any sins.
He hadn't committed any wrong, and yet he took a criminal's place.
I suppose he took the cross. He was put on the cross on which Barabbas was to have been crucified, actually. Really. He took a criminal's place and he took the sinner's place. And all of you would only see tonight by faith that he took your place. Yes, he died for you, but if you believe in him, you can say Christ died for my sins and I hope someone here in this room tonight.
Will come to that point where he will say yes.
Now I see it. I'm a poor lost Sinner and Jesus died for me. Christ died for my sins. This is the confession that God is waiting to hear from your lips. This is what we would like to hear from your lips. Oh, it makes me think of a girl over in Ghana. We were speaking in one of the schools there.
And we had spoken for about 1/2 an hour to those children.
They were about junior high age. They were old enough so they could understand English.
They had been going to English school, and they had learned enough English so that they could understand English. Most of the people there could not understand English, especially the little children and many of the women. They understand only the native dialect, but these could understand English, and so we spoke to them in the English language, giving them the simple gospel of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for sinners.
After that little meeting with them.
A girl came up to the front and there were tears in her eyes.
She says. I want to be saved.
You know it would make us happy here tonight.
If some boy or some girl would say that to someone.
Father, I'm troubled about my students. I want to be saved. Mother, I'm not happy. I'd like to be saved tonight. And perhaps say it to some friends, some brothers, some sister in Christ. Oh, can't you help me? I want to be saved tonight. You boys and girls, young people.
If you have, never definitely accept that the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
Tonight believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and receive him, and you will be saved.
Oh, I remember when I got saved. That verse of scripture in Acts 1631 meant so much to me.
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Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, not believe something else.
It shuts you up just to one It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Or we read something here that we can be thankful for.
It says in in verse 22, yet there is room. Yes, there's still room in the father's house.
There is still room at the supper table. There is still room at this great fish.
And you know, we've been talking about having the Lord Jesus Christ as our object today.
And we feast upon the Lord Jesus Christ when we have Him as our object.
He means everything to us. He's the one that satisfies us. He's the one that fills our hearts with peace and joy and gladness. The moment you begin to feast upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the feast will last forever. It will never end.
Have you ever had a very dear friend?
And there wasn't anything that you wanted more than to be in the company of that friend?
To be in the company of that friend was a sort of a feast to your heart.
Will magnify that 1000 times or more.
In connection with the Lord Jesus Christ.
When you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, your beginning of feast, because you have him as your savior, you have him as your companion then all the way through your life, all the way till He comes to take us to glory and for all eternity. And that's why it's going to be a joyous feast, because we'll be in the company of the one who loved us and gave himself for us. And I don't believe that we could think of anything better than that.
To be in the company of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who has loved us with an eternal love.
And when he once picks us up, he will never let us go, because he says, I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall pluck them out of my hand. My Father that gave them me is greater than I, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. Wonderful to have a Savior like that, who loves us and cares for us so much that when He picks us up and brings us to Himself, He keeps us forever. He wants us by himself. He wants us close to Himself. He wants us.
To be his his companions forever.
When you find a companion like that, surely you will want to be with that companion. You will want to be in His presence, and it will be a continual feast for you. Ah, yet there's room. There's still room at this kind of a feast. There's room for you tonight, dear friend.
But there's a solemn thing here that's brought before us.
There were those who do not answer the call. They don't answer the invitation.
They don't come when they're bidden to the Great Supper. And So what happens?
Well, the servant is sent out into the highways and hedges to compel.
Them to come in to compel them to come in.
That shows.
How intent God is on having souls with him in the glory.
He must have company. That's the heart of God. That's the way he is. He's a definite, real person.
And you watch company. The Lord Jesus Christ wants company, and that is why the servant is sent out to compel them to come in that his house might be filled.
God wants His house filled. Will you be one tonight that will help to fill God's house? Well, if you receive Christ as your Savior, you'll become a child of God, and you'll be one of those to fill the House of God. And you'll be one of those to make God happy, to make the Lord Jesus Christ happy, and to make all heaven happy.
We do read in the next chapter there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over 1 Sinner.
Repents joy in heaven over 1 Sinner. Or if we could only see one boy, one girl tonight except the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, we would know that there's joy up in heaven and I wonder who's having the most joy.
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The Lord Jesus Christ himself, God is having the joy.
And it makes all heaven rejoice.
How long?
Have you been keeping heaven from being happy over you? You can make heaven happy tonight by receiving Christ as Savior.
Well, we don't want to linger too long with this supper, but this is the important supper.
But if you do take the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, if you partake of this Supper the supper of salvation.
Then you will be ready for the next supper. The next supper we read about is over in one Corinthians.
Chapter 11.
One Corinthians Chapter 11.
And this is the supper of remembrance.
The Lord's Supper.
Verse 23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus.
The same night in which he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he breaketh and said, Take eat, this is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup when he had stopped saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This two years after he drink it in remembrance of Me. For as often as he eat this bread and drink this cup, he do show the Lord's death till he comes.
Now I read those scriptures over in John's Gospel chapter 6 about eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking his blood.
That is Speaking of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ giving himself in death.
And for you to eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood means that you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, believing that he is the one who died for your sins on Calvary's cross. It has to do with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the Lord Jesus Christ who has died on Calvary's cross that you must receive as your Savior.
It's not enough to look at the Lord Jesus Christ walking through this world as a perfect man.
He could have done that and gone right back to heaven without dying, but he would not be our Savior then. It would not be no good for you just to believe in him as a living, a son of God down here in this world, walking as a perfect man through this world, living a sinless life. Ah, yes, we believe that, and we thank God for a man like that. But if he had never died, what good it would it do us for him to be here and then go back into heaven?
It would mean that we would be left here to perish in our sins and he would never.
Have any company in heaven? But he was the corn of wheat, or the kernel of wheat that fell into the ground and died.
And it says, accept the kernel. If we fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. And the Blessed Lord Jesus did not want to be alone. He wanted to have company. So he came down into this world and not only walked through this world as a perfect man, but he went to Calvary's cross and there he died for sinners. He died for you and me.
He laid down his life. His precious blood was shed.
Ah, it's the death of the Lord Jesus Christ that's needed. He died for our sins according to the scripture. He was buried and he rose again the 3rd day. According to the scriptures, all of this grows together. His death, his burial, his resurrection. And God raised him from the dead to indicate that the Lord Jesus Christ had glorified him and now he raised him from the dead.
To glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
And he is now seated at God's right hand. And there is the proof that the work that he came to accomplish at Calvary's cross.
In dying for our sins, it is accepted with God, it is a perfect work and he has fully.
Satisfy God and honor God, and glorify God in connection with us in question in His death there on Calvary Cross.
The resurrection, the raising of Christ from among the dead, is the proof of this. Oh, how thankful we are for the death of Christ and his resurrection, and it's going back to glory, and we're thinking of his coming again. But the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is all important, for without the shedding of blood.
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Is no remission. If the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ had not been shed, there could be no forgiveness of sins for anybody.
But now, as we see in all the types in the Old Testament, we see it now in reality connection with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That the blood of Jesus Christ, godson, cleanses from all sin. And it's through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ when you believe that he died for you, that you're forgiven of all of your sins, in whom we have the forgiveness of sin.
Isn't it wonderful to have the forgiveness of sins? Do you know your sins forgiven tonight?
Well, I believe if you really know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior.
You will not be backward in responding to what the Lord Jesus Christ says in the Scripture. We've just read about this supper of remembrance, because the Lord says this do in remembrance of me.
And again drink it in remembrance of me.
The Lord Jesus Christ wants to be remembered, and he gave this out on the very eve of his betrayal.
And before he went to Calvary's cross and was crucified, he instituted this supper of remembrance.
And he asked his disciples to remember him. It was his dying request.
And I'm sure if you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you will have thanks and praise in your heart to him because he died for you. And you will want to remember him too. You will want to eat the supper of remembrance. You will want to answer to his dying request because you will say, well, that's the least I can do, and it's the best you can do because it's something he's asked you to do. And what better can you do?
Than to do what the Lord Jesus Christ himself asks you to do, and a very simple thing at that.
But a very solemn thing too.
As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup.
Ye do show the Lord's death till he comes well every first day of the week when we come together to remember the Lord Jesus Christ and to show his death in this way by partaking of the loaf and the cup. Every large day we come together to think of his death. It's another feast feasting upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Feasting upon his death, of course, not eating his literal flesh and drinking his literal blood, no.
That's only a material thing. That's the material side of it. This is a spiritual thing.
Feeding upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who died for our sins, feasting upon His death for us, that He died there on Calvary cross and suffered all that for us.
This is what is a feast for us, just to think about the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh how He must have loved me, why he loved me so much that he went to that cruel cross. And although he hadn't committed one sin worthy of being there yet, he went there for my sake and bore my sins in his own body on the tree.
Perhaps there are those here in the room tonight who have not yet partaken of this supper of remembrance, but who have received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Why are you waiting? Doesn't the Lord Jesus Christ mean anything to you?
Doesn't it mean anything to you that he died on Calvary's cross and suffered all that for you?
Doesn't it mean anything to you that he's asked you to do this in remembrance of him?
All those who have received the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
Who have partaken of the Great Supper. Those who have really believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, they have the title to be at this supper of remembrance.
Now there's another supper spoken of over Revelation chapter 19.
And again I say, if you have partaken of the great Supper of salvation.
You will be among those.
Of whom it speaks here that will be glad and rejoice.
And give honor to the Lord Jesus Christ.
For the marriage of the Lamb has come Revelation, chapter 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 arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness, or the righteousnesses, or righteous acts of Saints. And he says unto me, Right, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.
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And he said unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
The married supper of the Lamb.
What a what a supper that will be a supper of joy. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him. It will be a time when we give honor to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the marriage of the Lamb. Who is the Lamb? The Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb. And why doesn't it say the marriage of Christ, the marriage of Jesus? Nor is the marriage of the Lamb.
And you can't help but think about the words of John, who is writing this to.
But in John's Gospel he says, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Behold the Lamb of God.
Well, the Lord Jesus Christ was God's land, we hear Abraham saying to Isaac, God will provide himself a lamb. And who was that lamb? That lamb was the Lord Jesus Christ and he was sent into this world and he was God's lamb hung there upon calories crops.
And he was offered there for our sins. At Calvary his precious blood was shed, the Lamb of God. And so I believe that in this very word Lamb, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, is again brought before us.
You know we will never, we will never forget the death of the Lord Jesus Christ in eternity in glory.
When we're together around him, it's by his death, faith in his death.
Taking our place on Calvary's cross and dying for our sins. If by faith in that, that we're saved and this is what we're thinking about when we come together to remember him, to show his death.
In the supper of remembrance. And it would be so when we're up there in the glory with him, we'll be thinking about him as a lamb who went to Calvary's cross and died for our sins.
You see?
How the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is the center of it all.
Have you received the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who died on Calvary's cross? Have you believed that he died for your sins? Have you seen him hanging there, bearing your sin on the cross? All of you haven't be concerned about it tonight, because all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him.
The iniquity of us all all take your place as one of those lost straying sheep.
Confess to God. Yes, I am a poor, lost, strange sheep. Ah, then you will see God pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ, Islam saying, yes, I laid all your sins on him. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Confess to him that you're a poor lost Sinner, that you need him, and then you will know that God laid our iniquities upon him. Wouldn't you like to know that tonight that all of your sins are taken care of? All of your sins are gone?
All of your sins forgiven and forgotten by God, he says. I will remember them.
Against you no more, but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ tonight. Receive him as your Savior.
And then you will know this for sure that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanse us from all sin, and that by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ you have peace with God through faith in him. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, no other way to get peace but through the Lord Jesus Christ and faith in him. But being justified by faith means that we're right in God's sight.
The sin question is settled because we have believed in the one who settled us in question. You and I can never settle all their multitudes tonight going on their way, trying to settle the sin question. They're trying to get right with God. They're trying to do something to gain favor, favor with God. But they can't settle the sin question, even though from this day on they might live a perfect life and do many wonderful things. What about those sins in the past?
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What about all of that? They cannot write this in question. They cannot settle it.
It has to be taken care of, That's all that sinners. It shall die. The death must be meted out for sin.
And if you do not have a substitute, and that substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, you will have to meet God in your sins and suffer the penalty for those sins in your own person. But tonight we make it known to you that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins.
He took the penalty for sin on Calvary's cross. He took the punishment there on Calvary for you.
And if you will just take him tonight as your Savior, you will find that the sin question is settled.
And through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're right with God. You're justified before God.
And you have a standing before God, not in anything that you are you have done, but you have a standing in the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Because when you receive Christ as your Savior, He is the best robe of righteousness that you put on, and in him you can stand forever and for all eternity in the presence of God.
Well, here's this marriage supper of the last.
And it's a time of rejoicing and gladness and giving honor to the Lord Jesus Christ, because he is the one who died for our sin. Yes, all eyes will be upon him.
And even angels will be looking on. However, they will not appreciate as we will.
The death of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they can stand by and admire.
And they can honor him. And even now they are bowing down to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And angels and principalities.
Are subject to him even now.
Oh, what a scene that will be when all eyes are fixed upon that land. The Lamb of God that did this wonderful work.
We read about the righteousness of Saints, which is the fine linen symbolized by the fine linen were given to wear, but this is something else. This has to do with the work.
That a child of God does after he saved? Are there many that think they have to work to be saved?
But that's God's work created in Christ Jesus. Unto good work God saves your soul, and you haven't got one thing to do with that, but simply to accept Christ as your Savior and believe He died for you.
There were some that came to the Lord that said, what shall we do, that we might work the works of God? He says this is the work of God, that he believed in him whom he hath sent all the very believing in. Your own heart is the work of God. You're hearing the word of God.
God is speaking to you by His Spirit and God says believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Will you believe tonight? Will you believe tonight that God do the work for you, the work of saving your soul? But then, after God has done the work in your heart, you've been created anew, really born again. Then you can begin to work for God. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. You need to be born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And if you haven't been born again of the Spirit of God, you can't begin to do one thing to please God.
It's not until you're born again and have a new life that you can begin to please God.
And so it is that after you're saved, then you can work for God. And this is what this verse speaks about, the righteousness of Saints. And there's going to be a reward for that.
Salvation is a gift.
So that's different from this. Now it says, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the land. Are you going to be there?
Are you going to be there? Well, if you have accepted Christ as your savior, if you have partaken of the Great Supper.
And you have enjoyed the privilege of being at the supper of remembrance.
Ah, you're going to enjoy this too, of being together with the Lord Jesus Christ in glory and be at the marriage supper of the lamb. Now one more supper in this same chapter, the 19th chapter of Revelation.
Now the ones who partake of this supper are not human beings, but it brings before us the judgment of God that's coming.
And we read in verse 17, and I saw an Angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven.
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Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men.
And the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, And the flesh of all men both free and bond, both small and great. Look at that small and great. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, that is, to make war against the Lord Jesus Christ and against his army. We're part of that army, those of us who believed in the Lord Jesus. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that brought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast.
And them that worship this image, these both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
And the remnant or the rest were slain with the sword of him that sat on the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth. And all the fowls were filled with their flesh. Oh, what a judgment there's coming when these battles take place. At the end of the age, the Lord Jesus Christ first comes to take his own to be with himself, and then many will be left behind, and they will suffer the judgments that are coming afterward.
And after a period of about seven years, then the Lord Jesus Christ comes way back to earth, and it's then that these go out to meet the Lord Jesus Christ and they're all slaves.
And dear friends, what an awful, awful thing it will be for you to be left behind. Because if you're not slain during the seven years of the tribulation period.
Surely you will be slain here, because you will be among those.
Who are the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Ah, you say, but I don't want to be an enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you don't want to be an enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ, do something about it tonight, because the Lord has said he That's not for me, is against me. So if you're not for the Lord Jesus Christ tonight, you're against him, you say. Well, how can I be for him? Confess to him that you're a poor, lost, guilty Sinner.
And accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. Tell him I am a Sinner and I want you to save me. I believe you died for me. That's being for him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is being for him, receiving as him as your savior. Let him letting him come into your heart. That's being for him. Will you be for him tonight? Don't take middle ground. There is no middle ground.
Middle ground is being against the Lord Jesus Christ.
You're trying to straddle the fence. It's being against the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you be for him tonight? Definitely. Tell the Lord Jesus Yes. I know you went to the cross to die from my sins. I accept you as my savior. Don't make it difficult for yourself. Just simply bow to the Lord Jesus. Acknowledge to him that you're a lost sin and that you're the Sinner he died for, and tell him you accept him as your savior. Won't you do that tonight?
Or then you be spared from the judgment that's coming. And this isn't the Last of judgment, because this is only the first part of judgment which brings in physical death.
There is that which is spoken of in the Scripture as the second death.
Those who die under the judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ and die in their sins without Christ, they will be raised again and be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death.
Oh, you say, I don't want to go there. Of course you don't want to go there. But do something about it. Make a decision tonight. Receive Christ, as many as received Him. To them He gave the power to become the children of God. Even to them that believe on His name, them that believe on His name. As many as received Him. Will you be one of those? As many Will you be one of those, them that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, make your decision tonight.
Don't put it off because she says now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
Tomorrow may never come. We may all be gone to glory and you who don't know the Lord Jesus left behind.
And the gospel won't be preached anymore.
What a solemn thing it would be to be left behind and left for judgment, eternal judgment.
Let's sing that little song that we sing sometimes. Come to Jesus, Come to Jesus. Come to Jesus just now, just now. Come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. Come to Jesus just now.
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God now come to Jesus, come to Jesus.
Just now, he will save you. He will save you. He will save you.
Time just now, he will save you. He will save you.
Now he is willing.
He is willing.
His willingness now. Just now.
Is willing.
Is willing.
God now only trust Him only trust him only trust.
Let him come now.
Just now.
Only proud of him, only proud him, God now come to Jesus.
Come to Jesus.
Come to Jesus Christ.
Christ now.
Just now come to Jesus.
After Jesus.
Christ now.
Philippians 3:15-21
Reading
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To look beyond the long dark night, and pale the coming day, when thou to all thy Saints, in thy thy glories will display 106.
Call Robert Murray. I know it's very good.
It's all done.
In the director of life.
Philippians chapter 3, verse 13.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth into those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.
Anything you'd be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, where do we have already attained? Let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be following together of me, and mark them which walk. So would you have us for an example for many walk, of whom I've told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.
Who then the destruction was drawn as? Our belly.
It was Glory is in their shame to mind earthly things, for our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be a fashion like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.
I was wondering, brother, give us again what you said on the use of the word in the 12Th verse and the use of the word perfect in the 15th verse.
Telling me in the 12Th verse it says not as though I have already obtained the prize or I'm already perfected. That is when it speaks in Hebrews chapter 12 The Spirits of just Man made perfect or in Hebrews Chapter 11.
But they without us should not be made perfect. It refers to the time when we'll all be with and like Christ.
Paul hadn't yet come to that point. That would only be in glory when he would be perfect, but in the 15th verse where he speaks of it, it could be translated full grown. It's not the thought of being with and like Christ in glory, but the sign of full growth is that Christ is really the object before the soul, and that's very important. It isn't simply the obtaining of a great deal of knowledge.
That constitutes full growth, but it's having Christ before the soul. Perhaps if we could put it like this, the perfect Christian state is to have the Lord Jesus himself before us. And then if that is so, there will be a going on. Things that we may not at once see will be made clear to us because we have our eye upon Him.
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That's something like that we have in the Epistle of John, isn't it? Of the Fathers that known him from the beginning?
It doesn't, as you say, the knowledge that men speak up, or even the knowledge of of the letter of the word of God. But it's this kind of knowledge that we have in this chapter of the person himself, communion and fellowship.
One thing I do in the 27th Psalm, the psalmist says. One thing have I desired of the Lord.
That will I seek after.
There are the one.
Objects before the Apostle that he speaks of in this.
1St But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.
I don't take it that forgetting the things that are behind are his failures and the mistakes that he had made, the things that he might boast of, even as a Christian.
Their progress he had made in his Christian life and testimony, but that was something behind, and there was something more important before him. So again.
As we have mentioned in these readings that the picture we have before us here is of a man in a race and he's always pressing on and pushing forward.
With the price that is waiting for the one who wins the race at the end of the race track.
So he speaks of.
Reaching forth, you see one just straining every nerve to reach that goal.
What a goal it is.
I've heard a very good illustration of this in connection with not looking at what's behind in the sense that you spoke of Brother Barry, a person breaking a path across a field of snow. And of course, we all know that if you try to break a path and you don't have an object before you, it'll be a very crooked path, especially where the snow is deep.
Well, this man started out and he realized that he was making a very crooked path because he didn't have any object before him. So he set his eye upon a tree on the other side of the field and set out to make a path. And then after he'd been doing this for a little while, he decided he'd look back and see how he was getting along. And he looked back and he saw that crooked part where he didn't have any objects. And then he patted himself on the back how wonderfully he was getting along, making such a nice path.
When he had his eye on that tree on the other side of the field, well, then he realized that he got his eye off that object and so quickly he looked back and went on with that before him. But when he got to the other side of the field, he found there were two crooks. There was the crooked part before he got his eye on the object, but there was a crooked part where he was patting himself on the back, how well he was getting along. And I do believe there is a very great danger in this, just as our brothers brought before us.
We're not to look, sack and feel that we have done anything because we'll never, never be able to live in a way that's glorifying to the Lord and honoring to Him unless we keep our eyes upon Him. Let's never get occupied with the progress that we have made. The Lord has the record in heaven and is far better than for us to be occupied with our own records. It will be manifested in that day.
Mike just mentioned in that very connection that.
Some of us here know our brother John Bay, dear brother, just recently gone to be with the Lord. I had the privilege of visiting with our brother within 48 hours of the time that he went to be with Christ, and I'd like to read the verse that our brother quoted to me and I had to look it up afterwards. But it was quite striking to see what our brother was thinking about.
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Couldn't breathe, but this was the verse that he quoted to me in the book of Joshua.
13th chapter Book of Joshua, chapter 13.
Joshua 13 And the first verse. Now Joshua was old and stricken in years. And the Lord said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, And there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. And he emphasized those last words. There remaineth yet very much land.
To be possessed.
Well, our dear brother was not looking back over his life, but he was looking on still yet the language God had for his own soul, and seeking to encourage others to go on, not look back, but go on, there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.
I believe he was in his 91St year.
He gave me a very encouraging word over the phone before he died. You know what it was?
He said. Eric, I've just, I'm just ringing you up to tell you that I love you and put the and hung up the phone.
What a what a sweet memory of dear brother Beck just telling you that I love you.
I pressed towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
And Ephesians, one we get God's calling and we're told to walk worthy of the vocation or calling, wherewith we are called. There we get a high calling.
And you'll find the second Timothy one, where it speaks of a holy calling and you find in Hebrews 3.
A heavenly calling?
It's the way the calling is mentioned is in keeping with the subject of these passages or in Ephesians. It's God's purposes and counsels that are especially in view in the in the first chapter, and we're brought into those purposes and counselors.
And in two Timothy 2, where apostasy and departure had come in.
Still, Timothy is reminded at a time when he was weeping over.
The sad state of things that regardless of how man has failed and how badly he has failed, still the calling hasn't been affected. Even where corruption has come in, is still a holy calling. And in Hebrews 3, the book of Hebrews is turning the Hebrews away from their national promises here on earth.
And showing that now that their Messiah has been rejected.
That they have a better inheritance that is a heavenly. And so the calling there is a heavenly calling. But here in this epistle it's a high calling or calling on high, as I believe the other translation gives it when you think of of all the apostle has been bringing before us that goal that was in the race before him.
Thought was something very high, very far above this scene through which he was running.
A high calling.
We hear quite a bit amongst the this present generation, the use of an expression.
This person doing his thing, He's doing his thing. She's doing her thing.
But here the apostle Paul brings before us the one thing.
That he was concerned with.
He was pursuing this one thing.
And I'm sure.
That all of these who are talking about his thing or her thing, if they would have this thing before them, they would really be happy and at rest. Why is it that this one and that one is pursuing his thing all that he might have peace and rest and happiness and joy? Well, there's only one thing that will give real rest and peace and joy, and that is this one thing that's brought before us here.
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The calling on high the upward calling.
Pressing down to the gold for the upward calling Well, who's at the end of the road?
The Lord Jesus Christ, He's at the end of the road.
Oh, this is what we need to have before us.
The Apostle Paul surely must have been enraptured in his soul in thinking about the upward calling, that moment that he would be with the Lord Jesus Christ, and standing there in all perfection, perfected complete spirit, soul, and body.
Like the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Well, I'm sure that we failed greatly.
And really understanding what is being brought before us here.
I was thinking of it as in connection with what Paul said. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. We know that in those ancient Olympic Games the reward was just a crown of Garland leaves. That was given to the winner, I believe.
And it was a very corruptible thing. Well, I think it's very wonderful that God uses such a thing to bring before us. Why would a man run just to have a crown of Garland leaves? Well, it was the honor of the person who gave the crown, not the value of the crown. And it all passed away. Well, I believe this is lovely for us to think about. It's not the intrinsic value of the reward that's going to be given us in that day.
Paul wasn't thinking of whether it was a crown of pure gold or diamonds or that sort of thing, but I believe the thought in the verse is the person who is going to say well done, the person who is going to be pleased to have us there. And this was before the heart of the apostle, and I believe with our life too. We stand in Christ, and the pure motive for our souls is to have before us this wonderful thought that that blessed one who was fierce for us of Calvary.
That one who's done so much for us is the one that is taking notice of our little lives here. And when we get there, when we're called on high, just to think that there would be something in our lives that he could say well done, well, this is what makes it all worthwhile. If we have any thought of some kind of, shall I say, material thing that we're going to get, I think we've lost the point. The whole thing is the person who gives it and his smile, his approval.
That's what was before the apostle, I believe.
I was thinking of another illustration of one who was not looking back on the 49th of Genesis in connection with Issachar, it says in verse 14. This occurs a strong *** couching down between 2 burdens and he saw that rest was good and the land that he was pleasant and bowed his shoulder to the bear. He was one who was not looking back in anticipation of the rest and the pleasant land he was bearing his shoulder to bear.
To burdens, and can we not liken them to two burdens? We have in Galatians 6 Beige, 1 anothers burdens. And so fulfill the law of Christ. And then in the fifth verse every man shall bear his own burden. About his thinking of this wonderful, beautiful illustration. One is looking forward to the rest in the pleasant land, not looking back, but bowing his shoulder to bear, whatever the burden might be. He was pressing forward. He had the pleasant land and the rest before him. And we have a glorious scene before us, too. Not the pleasant land, but to be with Christ in the glory.
And should we not seek to press on beloved, in spite of all the trials and circumstances of the way, because we have that object brightness fair before us now, and that home to which we shall soon enter with Christ himself? That's the illustration you used, brother. Gladding is so lovely because it it connects with Issachar. And that was the great woman in second kings. She was of the tribe of Issachar.
And this was fulfilled literally in her life. And I believe that 4th chapter second kings from the 8th verses a little picture of Philippians, especially the 4th chapter, because in everything in her life she had peace because she was looking on, she was in the midst of idolatry. But she's called a great woman because she was looking on and she was bearing out that prophecy that our brother.
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Records of Jacob's children. She was carrying it out, literally. She was applying it in her life and so she speak spoken of as the great woman.
Considered that in the 15th verse, let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded.
That's perfect in this place.
Is having Christ and glory as the object before the soul.
And he that was the object the apostle had. And so he also says in the 4th chapter.
And the the ninth verse, those things which he hath both learned and received, and heard, and seen in me do, and the God of peace, shall be with you. That is what they had seen in the life, and in the minister, heard in the ministry of the apostles.
For the glorified Christ they had seen him live it out before them.
So he says that there are those who were following that pattern.
Why they would have the God of peace with them, not only the peace of God which passes all understanding.
Of of of Garrison your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. But they would have the companionship of the God of peace himself.
Reply to being thus minded.
It says let us therefore be thus minded. I just had a difficulty. I asked the question if being perfect is having crisis or object. What is being thus minded? Is it being thus minded? Heaven. Christ as our object? That isn't the perfect state in which he speaks true of all mature believers who know their acceptance in Christ.
Isn't Isn't that what it's meant? As many as being perfect, those who know their acceptance in Christ, they have Christ always before them as their options.
Mind is a right or wrong? Yes, I believe so because I believe all error is when Christ is not honored and glorified. That is, we speak of the doctrine of being saved and lost. But what is this but an attempt to give some glory to man? That he has done something to keep the salvation that God has given to him? If we set up a human organization instead of recognizing Christ as the center, are we not giving glory to man instead of the Lord Jesus who is the gathering center of his people?
And so that in every step in progress in our Christian life is having Christ as the one.
The object and the one who is to be glorified. I thought of that Scripture that says, And John he shall, he shall lead you into all truth, He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. One is sometimes made the comment that we can make a simple test of any doctrine presented by asking this Does it glorify Christ, or does it glorify man? And you always find that every bit of false doctrine brings some glory and credit to man.
So the great secret here in full growth.
Is that Christ alone is exalted and honored as soon as the eye gets off him.
Then there is not the maturity, because the eye is turned upon self instead of upon him. I've heard his commented too, that the Church was in its happiest state when it knew the least. That may sound strange, but on the day of Pentecost they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Well, why was it in such a happy state? Well, because the Spirit of God was so setting Christ before them. The one who had completed redemption and was in glory. They were all just rejoicing.
And when they got quarreling among themselves about the widows being neglected in the daily ministration.
It couldn't be said then. Maybe they had gained a little knowledge, but the eye was off Christ and other things that come in. And I believe that he's bringing this before us, that the whole secret of of growth in the Christian life is this. And we may not see everything all at once, but this is the secret of progress. Don't we have a similar thing in John's epistle First, John Chapter 2.
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Apostle John is writing to the children.
And then they're divided into little children, and young men and fathers. But notice what he writes to the fathers. Verse 13. I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him. That is from the beginning.
Then again, in verse 14 I've written unto you, fathers, because you've known him that is, from the beginning. Now it's the same thing in both places.
But in the case of the children and the young men, there's something added here. The second time they're they're mentioned. But here with the fathers, there doesn't seem to be anything beyond knowing him. That is, from the beginning, well.
When we think of that.
I wonder how many fathers there are today among us.
Oh, surely this ought to speak to our hearts, and we ought to be exercised about being, and not condition.
Of maturity.
Where we just know him. That is from the beginning.
We're satisfied with him. We find our joy in him. We find our All in all in him.
Well, certainly it's something that should exercise our hearts and we should have it before us, just like the apostle speaks of here, that I may know Him. It wasn't a matter of knowing him as his savior, but knowing Him in this way of maturity and full growth.
Well, certainly there's plenty in the word of God to exercise our heart.
And isn't it true to learn what the apostle says here?
And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. That is, the more the people of God have Christ as the object before the soul, the more they'll see alike.
And the less opportunity there is for the enemy to come in and divide and separate them.
So that we we think alike, we have the same desires before us. Well, we can see that practically carried out as we go on.
We see that, don't we? In the second chapter of Acts, where it says.
The second chapter of Acts at the end of the 1St and the 2nd chapter.
It says they were all with one accord. Neither said any man that ought that he possessed was his own. What made this oneness of accord? Well, the reason was that the Spirit of God was having his way to know how often these things are as a result of the Spirit of God not having his way himself. And other considerations come in. Christ is not really the object before the soul, and we're always learning we're changed into the same image from glory to glory, and each one of us, if we're honest before the Lord, have to confess how.
Little we know of him and of his love and of his truth, but the great thing is, are we seeking his honor and his glory and having himself before the soul? That, I believe, is the point.
Reference is made just now to Psalm 27. Our brother mentioned it.
And the fourth verse one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life.
Psalm 23 The last verse we read, Psalmist says I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever, but now he speaks of dwelling in the House of the Lord all the days of his life. Well, I suppose that's having Christ.
Before us constantly, isn't it? Living in the enjoyment of Christ, heavenly things day by day, all the days of my life. And he says one thing, have I desired of the Lord? Well, merely to desire is not sufficient, because in the 13th chapter of Proverbs.
It says the soul of the sluggish desireth and hath nothing, so he goes beyond that. He says that will I see God something to see Garter, to be occupied with Christ. Now, all the days of my life I can enjoy that heavenly atmosphere and companionship now, not merely when we get home. How precious it is that we can enjoy heavenly things now and be occupied with Christ all the days of our lives. Finish the verse, brother. It's so nice in connection with what we're Speaking of.
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The beauty of the Lord love our own beauty, or the beauty of others. But the beauty of the Lord, how precious that is, and the rest and and to inquire in His temple, That's a great thing, isn't it? We have himself before us and His truth as the guide by that will. That's the place of happiness, isn't it?
There's a quick result for that in the next Paris garden or in the time of trouble.
As a result of seeking after this, for in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion in the secret of his taxation.
On a rock, Tyson. Yeah, public. That's the same thought that I had. I was just going to ask your thoughts on it, and now we have it, the Lord said in connection with Mary in Luke 10 verse 42.
But one thing is needful.
One thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her. Well, what was she doing? It says, back in verse 39 Mary, which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word, two things. There she sat at Jesus feet. He was hearing his word.
We get close to the Lord.
We get into the presence of the Lord. We become occupied with the Lord. What do we get? His word. And I believe we get away from the truth in the measure. We get away from the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And if there's any departure from truth, I believe it's because there's a departure from the person of the Lord Himself, leaving devotedness to himself.
Oh, what a treasure.
Mary has what a season that must have been for her to sit there, the feet of Jesus, and hear his word. What an exposition, what a revelation to her heart. We don't. We're not told there what she was getting, but I suppose it's left that way so that we would seek to sit at his feet too, and then we would find out something of what Mary was finding out.
It's nice too, in this connection. In this next verse. Nevertheless, where two we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing. We can get occupied seeing the word perfect has the thought of full growth. We can get occupied with how far we've got along. Well, he said, let's not get occupied with that, but rather get occupied with himself. The rule for the Babe or the rule for the one who is older.
Has the same rule. It's the same thing.
That is, to have the person before us, and his truth is our guide. So instead of saying, well, I am further along the path, and another brother, I ought to know a little more, he says Nevertheless, don't think about that. Get Christ before us, get His word for the guide for our past, and then we will, as it's been said, have the spokes of a wheel. The closer they are to the center, the closer they are to one another.
Let us walk from the same rule. The only rule of the Christian life is Christ and glory.
You get in Galatians 6.
Where it says that neither circumcision is available, anything or uncircumcision but a new creation, and he says as many as walk according to this rule, peace beyond him and upon the Israel of God.
So we don't have a lot of rules and regulations like the Jews had under the law. Their system was full of rules. But the one rule is just what we have been occupied with, That is having Christ as the object before our souls. And if we're walking according to that rule.
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Well, then there's going to be peace in our lives.
Doesn't say we'll not have trials and have troubles and sorrows and disappointments in this scene, but still there'll be peace in our souls as we go on our way.
Paul as an apostle was set up as a as a sort of a pattern for those who after should live godly in Christ Jesus. So we have in the 17th verse Brethren be followers together of me. But another place he speaks of as he is of Christ, and I believe that's what he refers to, but here particularly in connection with setting aside all.
That was religious in his life before and having one object and pressing on to it. And so he sets himself up in that way simply as a guide for the Saints, not only his ministry but his his own life. And isn't that?
Isn't that proper that if there is to be ministry, there should be a life in keeping with it in some measure, and so we should be exercised about that each one?
If we do speak for the Lord, that there should be a consistency.
In our lives here the apostle, of course, as an apostle, was given a special grace to set forth this pattern for the Saints. But then he grieves. As he sees the other side, he sees that there are those who.
Are not occupied with.
Heavenly things. They might be among the Saints, but they are not occupied with heavenly things.
They don't have this object before their soul and so he can he can weep over such in this chapter.
Paul is the only one of the apostles that ever says follow me even as I follow Christ. We don't find Peter saying that or do we find John saying that. I believe that the reason why as you rightly say Brother Lundeen, that Paul was the pattern St. and could say to follow me.
Is because he had seen Christ in glory, the only one of the apostles that had seen Christ in glory, and the only man that ever lived that was caught up into the 3rd heaven and actually saw that very one who had lived down here in that glory where he'd taken his seat. And that had a tremendous effect on his whole life and ministry really was.
The What had caused him, as he says here, to count all things?
But lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, so here is one who can rightfully say to follow me, because here's the man that has seen Christ in glory, and that is surely a lesson for us. The one to follow is a man who has seen that one in the glory into which he has entered.
It was the effect, wasn't it, brother? And the effect of that heavenly glory that he had witnessed that made him willing.
To even go to die, he was willing to take all the shame and all the suffering goes along with the rejected Christ. It was the effect of that he'd been caught up into glory. Handy, He couldn't. He couldn't explain what he had seen. Words wouldn't suffice, but it was the effect of that glory, heavenly glory, that he had seen that caused him to talk like this. Otherwise, he couldn't have talked this way.
Peter was a witness of the sufferings of Christ and decide a desire to share in his the glory that should be revealed. But Paul was the witness of the glory of Christ and.
Desire to share in his sufferings down here.
So it's just reversed in the connection with these two apostles. Yes, thus they were partakers. One of the pita was a witness of the sufferings, as you say was in the partaker of the.
00:45:08
Glory. Yes, the opposite of Paul. He had witnessed the glory of Christ and was a part taker of the sufferings. It was the effect of that heavenly glory that he had seen that made it possible for him to honor his save in that way. And I believe that's a very practical thing. Beloved, in our own Christian life, it's only as we are occupied with Christ that we can be of any service at all to him.
Aye, Pardon.
I just wanted to say to Brother Lundeen that I think his thoughts that.
One that ministers his life and walk and behavior should be in full agreement with the ministry that he is giving out now Paul and away sets before us that which you speak of and it's very important. I just brought in the other because.
It certainly is a fact that Paul was the only one of the apostles.
So that they follow me in false ministry. I believe what you don't get in the ministry of the others, that is the detailed account of his life as that example. We get it in the act. We get it in Corinthians in connection with his ministry, in Second Corinthians particularly. And I believe it's very important to to see the progress of it, the history of it.
As he goes on until in Timothy at the end, Second Timothy, where he's about to lay down his life, as it were.
He commits everything to Timothy, and he speaks in that way of the solemnity of the trust that is now to be committed to Timothy, who would carry on after him. But I believe that he insists with Timothy.
To keep himself pure because of the ministry, I believe it's a very striking point in the ministry of the Apostle Paul.
What it says here in First Timothy chapter one and verse 16, albeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him.
To life everlasting, that he was raised up very specially to be a pattern. And that we might say, well, all this truth is very wonderful, but does this work? Does this truth work out practically in the life? And so God raised up a man who not only ministered the truth, but showed in his own life that it did work out practically because he was it was all of mercy and all of grace. A man picked up who was the enemy of Christ and of his people, and is the one who is completely transformed.
Naturally, as we remarked before, he was a covetous man, but Grace had taught him so that he could say I've coveted no man's gold or silver or apparel. Naturally, he was an overbearing, insolent man, but Grace had made him a nursing father. And so we might sit in these meetings and say, well, it's nice to talk about these things, that the things that we have to meet, it's not practical in our life to live this way.
Well, God picked up a man who was the very opposite of this, naturally, and showed what it could do. The power of the Spirit of God could completely transform this man's life and make him a pattern to those which should hereafter believe. And I believe indeed what has been said, it's most important, and as Paul exhorts Timothy in this line, that it should be so in our lives. I think it comes in in this very chapter that we're reading also, brethren.
That he brings the truth before us and the practical effect it had upon his life, and then the warning that it was quite possible to know all his truth and still not to have the practical effect of it in the life. There's often been a discussion as to whether he is referring in the end of the chapter to those who were unsaved. I I believe that sort of missing the point. I think the point is that we might know the truth and not walk in it in an our practical life.
The enemies of the cross of Christ, even although we know it, and I believe is gathered to the Lord's name.
It has a voice for us that we should not only know the truth and of our standing, and that Christ is in glory in these precious things, but we can each one be exercised as to whether, knowing all this, we're minding earthly things, we're going after that which robs us of the enjoyment of the truth that we're talking about this afternoon. And so I think he sets the two things before us that the grace of God enabled him to make Christ his object and to count all things but lost. But the danger on the other hand, which we all feel, especially in this day and age.
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Going on seeking those things that satisfy self and the flesh instead of Christ.
And the second official to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul gives us something that makes us understand that we're not to make a God out of him. He is not to be the object. That is, Paul is not to be the object. Because here in the 12Th chapter of Second Corinthians.
He gives us something of his experience.
And in verse seven he says, after he's had the experience of being caught up into the 3rd heaven, and seeing these wonderful things, that he couldn't even give expression to here. And lest I should be exalted, leave out the above measure through the abundance of the Revelation that was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to Buffett me, lest I should be exalted well, and he has this thorn in the flesh.
And.
He wants to get rid of it, and he says, For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. Well then the Lord says, my grace is sufficient for for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. And when the apostle Paul sees this, then he says most gladly. Therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, while this reminds us that he was still a man, he was a human being.
And it was possible for him to be exalted.
To get pumped up. And the Lord knew how to take care of that. And oh, it's it's wonderful to see how the Lord dealt with him and kept him sustained him. And how the grace of the Lord was ministered to him. Well, This is why he could be the pattern the Lord setting up set him up as such, but the Lord took care of it too, that he might go on as he ought to. And the Lord can do the same for us. The Lord can give us grace.
To be what we ought to be here in this scene, Paul said. By the grace of God, I am what I am, and that's our only hope, is the grace of God, which can enable us to be what we ought to be.
I agree with what has been said about the.
The theme here of having Christ in the object, and also the warnings of those who might.
Even as believers mind earthly things.
But we dare not set aside the solemn truth that there is such a thing as those who are enemies of the cross of Christ, and that their end is destruction, and they're characterized beloved by minding earthly things. I believe this is a special warning for the day in which we live, and this is what is taking over in this world.
This age will close.
With men being overcharged with the cares of this life, we get that in the gospel in the Gospel of Mark, 23rd chapter. I believe it's the character of the day in which we live.
Men who have outwardly professed Christianity, but perhaps brought up in a Christian home, but turn aside, become enemies of the cross of Christ, and the solemn warning to such is whose end is destruction.
This is the course and this is the end of the course, and all had even wept over these.
A man that he speaks of Godless, they were those that had that. He had hopes for that. At one time he really thought they were the Lords and were quite happy to think they might be used of the Lord. But we have to weep over them. Is starring to see that those very ones had turned away as and were going on.
00:55:06
Enemies of the Cross are endless destruction, so there is, as you say, a most pulmonary to any mere professor that may have.
Have a lot of knowledge of the truth and yet has never really accepted Christ from the heart of the personal Savior. In other words, has never taken His place before God of the lost and guilty Sinner.
Remember one time I was talking to a man?
And he started to give him the gospel, and he gave me the gospel as clearly as I could give it to him. Or he could explain how the Sinner could be saved. I said, are you saved? Well, he says I'm just as much saved as that man down the road. He says he swears before his family, and yet he says he's saved. I said, Harry, have you ever taken your place before God?
As a lost, guilty, hell deserving Sinner, no, he says. I never have. Well, I said that's that's where your your trouble is. He knew the gospel, but he'd never taken his place before God as a lost Sinner. And though he knew the gospel could explain it, yet it had never produced life in his soul.
The Apostle Paul speaks of demons. God forsaken me, having loved this present age.
Would he come in with this class? No, I don't think so. He would in the first application, that is to those who as believers may drop to the level of this world. But I believe we'll see Dimas in the glory. But I I believe Dimas failed for what his name stands for. Popularity.
But brethren, you know it's been said of Abraham that the symptoms of a Pilgrim.
Our simple appetite and simple dress, a tent and an altar, Well, that that speaks to our hearts.
A simple appetite, simple dress, not going after this world and all that it presents to us, but going through it as pilgrims and strangers. May the Lord keep us in this path, because unless we are, we're going to be turned aside. And although the Christian can never be lost, he can lose his joy.
As he goes through this world before us, the end of the path doesn't they? That's where the path ends. That ends in destruction. And so those who come under the judgment of God in the Revelation are called those that dwell on the earth or could be translated the earth dwellers, those who had really made this earth, their portion, and so they come under its judgment. But God will never allow one of his own to go to the end of the course. Lot went and lived in Sodom, but in Hardy was not of Sodom. It says that righteous man. That's where he dwelt though.
And he got right down to the level by being there. But he was a true child of God, wasn't he? And so I believe there is the warning for us here that that's where the path goes, and God, which is exercise anyone who's going on the path to where it ends.
We have a beautiful picture of the Pilgrims Path in numbers 20 and verse 17.
Numbers 2017.
Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country. We will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards. They may have looked very attractive, but we will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards. Neither would we drink of the water of the well could speak of the measures of sin. For season, the pleasures of this world we will go by the King's Hwy. That's an official path laid out.
By one authority you'll go by the King's pathway. We will not turn to the right hand, nor to the left until we have passed thy borders. Isn't that a beautiful picture of the pilgrims far through this world without encroaching on its right?
There's a special lesson in the call of Abraham concerning the Pilgrim he was He went out to a land that God showed him.
But we do notice that he did something that we sometimes forget.
He builded first of all an altar unto the Lord, and then he pitched his tent. Will the tent speaks of the Pilgrim, of course, but there was a secret there that he had his altar. Well, that's a good thing to remember, isn't it, To build the altar first as a Pilgrim, and then God takes care of the tent. I've often thought of that, that some of us make a great deal of effort to get the tent up.
01:00:30
And without the altar, consequently, the testimony is not a very good one. It's weak.
Hey, Brother Smith, that the order suggests faithfully in Abrahams life the place of worship rather than the place of sacrifice. I don't know if you read of Abraham offering sacrifices on the altar, but it was the place of worship, wasn't it? Yes, I suppose you would say too, would you, Bella Maria, the pledge of the presence of the Lord. Yes, that's beautiful.
Well, there's a contrast brought in at the.
20th verse better being among those whose end is destruction.
Who mind earthly things?
It says for our conversation is in heaven.
I believe I've worked conversation used to read it. Our citizenship or our Commonwealth is in heaven and whence also we look for the read that the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. It isn't the thought here of the Lord the Lord's saving our souls.
That took place when we accepted Christ as as a savior, But here it's the as the subject is of His saving these bodies.
Of humiliation and the saving us out of a world that's right for judgment.
The not word conversation there is the thought of association of light.
Our association of life is in heaven.
Not association with the world, not association with those who go on with the things of the world, who who are the earth dwellers. But our association of life is in heaven.
It's on a heavenly plate, and this is because our head is in heaven.
The Lord Jesus Christ, and we are united to him up there. We are the heavenly people.
It's not that we're trying to be a heavenly people, but we are a heavenly people. But because that positive truth is brought before us, that we have that position, then we're put into a place of responsibility to act according to it, to be what we are. And we find that in the word of God, that first of all the truth or the position is brought before us that we're in, and then the responsibilities brought before us to live.
According to the place into which we've been brought.
There's a special word from the apostle to Timothy in First Timothy 4:00 and 12:00.
Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in Word, in conversation. Well, there, it's more behavior, isn't it? The other place would be citizenship more, But the thought here in Word, in conversation, in charity or love, in spirit, in faith, in purity, that's a wonderful verse for young Christians to memorize.
And to walk in it, then further down, he says, Take heed unto thyself, and to the doctrine. Well, if we'd have written that, we'd have said, take heed unto the doctrine. But here's the great apostle speaking to Timothy his son. Take heed unto thyself.
And to the doctrine. So how important these things are? Will that word conversation just came to my mind there.
Was thinking too of how what is mentioned here in this 20th verse is in.
Perhaps contrast with the end of the 18th verse. Not the enemies of Christ, but the enemies of the cross of Christ. That's the difference. The cross is the what the world gave to the Lord Jesus. They gave him the most shameful death possible. They gave him a malefactor death. And so we often sing in the little hymn. Thy cross has severed ties which bound us here. The Lord Jesus presented himself to the nation as their king.
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They ought to have accepted him as their king, but instead they gave him a cross. And now when he's about to go away, he said, my Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight? But now that's the emphasis on the word now, now is my Kingdom not from hence. Now in a coming day we read in Revelation the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. He's going to come back.
His Kingdom is going to be in that day of this world for his earthly people. But it has been a change and the cross has separated us from this world. The one with whom were associated was given that death of a cross. And now to mine the things of earth. To profess that we're part of it, is to deny and practice that we actually belong to the heavenly scene, so that he says our conversation in contrast with what the cross represents. Our conversation is in heaven.
From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We look for him to take us up there. He's going to set up the Kingdom and Israel are going to be blessed when that is established. But that's not our hope. We don't belong to this scene or to the improvement of this scene.
The hope of the Christian, we should, we could say, is to be like Christ. Well, we've dealt with that. It's been a great blessing to our souls. I'm sure the the believer.
His standing is in Christ. The hope, the object of the believer is Christ, and the hope of the believer which we've come to now is to be like Christ.
Now are we the children of God, And it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him.
Oh Mr. Mr. Darby, when he wrote that wonderful hymn like Jesus in that place of light and love supreme once man of sorrows full of grace heavens.
Blessed and endless theme, that that dear man was walking through those courts of light by faith when he wrote that don't you think? Yes, heaven's blessed and endlessly so. The hope of the Christian is to be like Christ, and thus we have here.
The bodies, vile bodies. But we've translated that our bodies of humiliation. Is that right, Brent? Into the anchor tongue?
Of humiliation are going to be changed into bodies of glory fashioned like countries own body of glory. Oh what a blessed prospect, brethren going to be like Christ, like Jesus. In that place of light and love, supreme wants man of sorrows full of grace, heavens blessed and endless theme.
Endless thought that he remains a man forever. We have him brought before us in Luke's Gospel.
The end those 40 days, and he reveals himself to his disciples as he eats with them. And he says, the Spirit hath not flesh and bone, as you see me have, And so there He's with his own.
In resurrection.
Ready to depart to be with the Father. But He's there with His disciples, eating with them, and I believe it'll be.
Just as real.
And justice as simple, just as precious as it was for those disciples that day.
Only there will be the glory scene, but it will be a man in the glory.
Only three passages that take us into the eternal scene.
One is the 1St 8 verses of of Revelation 21 and there's a third chapter of Second Peter who speaks of the dissolution of all things.
And the coming of the day of God, which is the eternal scene. And then we get in the 15th chapter of First Corinthians and the 28th verse. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then tell the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be All in all. And I felt that that.
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Passage carries us farther into eternity than any other passage that we have. That is, the Lord is trying to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords during the Millennium, but he's going to deliver that Kingdom up after the 1000 years have run their course. And then it tells us that.
Then tell the Son himself with marvelous thought here.
The Son himself being subject unto him that put all things under him, That shows the Lord is a man, because in his Godhead position there was no occasion for him to be subject. He learned obedience by the things which he suffered, but which he suffered as man.
Hello, what is filled my heart with praise? Here's the things, beloved.
But in that eternal scene that's brought before us, we have that blessed One associated with us in the very in the very blessings which will be our eternal joy. For we have all proven, and often through mistakes, that the only path of real blessing is a path of obedience, heavenly subjection to the will of God. We see in the Lord a perfect man who was always subject to the Father's will.
Now that Blessed One is going to associate himself with.
His that redeemed company in that place of manhood, in subjection to the will of God, which will be our eternal portion too, and that for all eternity. And even the Spirit of God doesn't carry us any farther than that. It just the curtain falls. There we are in the eternal ages.
With the blessed Son who became a man forever associated with us in the very place that will be our eternal joy, of perfect obedience to God Himself in that eternal scene.
To think in this verse that you've called our attention to, of how it carries on to show that he delivers the Kingdom up to God, even the Father, that God may be All in all.
I just mentioned this because it's a part of that work of Christ that has brought in all that perfection that is we have been accepted in the Beloved Ephesians tells us.
We we've been, we've been given, as it were, three particular blessings mentioned in Ephesians. One first is adoption.
Then we've been joined with the Lord Jesus in the day when he takes his inheritance.
But also the body is mentioned ceiling. We've been brought into that position.
But we'll never lose the enjoyment of that position of adoption. Never were children before the Father. Now, in the Old Testament, I'm reciting truth. Perhaps most no, but I just want to recall it because it's so precious. And that is that in the Old Testament, if a man stole, not only if he were found out, not only was he to restore what he had stolen.
But he was to add the 5th part to it. Well, that's a type. It's a picture.
We could never restore what we had taken away, but the Lord Jesus restored that which he took not away.
And when he did so, he added the 5th part and so.
Have in Ephesians the third chapter. How that?
There are various families and they're named by the father.
Every family in heaven and earth, that is, those who are to be blessed. Not under the earth, of course. But there's a new relationship, there's a new position in which all created being, shall we say, are brought into blessings.
And that's in relation to the Father. Now, of course, the Church.
01:15:04
Has a very near place. I go unto my father and your father, he tells.
The disciples in the 20th of John the nations come, ye blessed of my Father.
But I was thinking of how this all connects with what our brother Gladding brought out before us in the beginning of the meeting of the Prodigal. Here we have it. The Prodigal is brought home to the Father's house and all the blessing that is poured out upon the Prodigal.
And the day when he's going to show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness starts us through Christ Jesus.
And we don't have a few minutes now for this wonderful clothing verse. Who shall change our vile bodies? Heather Smith has our body of humiliation.
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.
I've heard Brother Clifford Brown speak of this that where reason comes in, man says oh how can that be possible?
For these bodies of the Saints that have been devoured by sharks, where are those bodies? Bodies that have been burned in the dye and the ice is scattered to the four winds. How can those bodies ever be restored and brought back?
And he says there are just three words that answer the whole argument. And there are these In this verse. He is able, and that settles it, doesn't it? And when we think of the immense and mighty power of God, why should we ever question anything that God is not able and capable of accomplishing? Look into the heavens and figure out where myriads of stars.
That are his creation.
Think of how he keeps that whole universe in motion and in the traveling and their orbits in perfect time. And think of how he had took a man out of the dust at the beginning. Well, if God can do all of those wonders and amazing things, is it any stretch of imagination to think that God cannot bring back?
Again.
The bodies of his Saints, nor indeed the very beginning of the word of God, is very important, and that is in the beginning God give God His place, and then every other subject.
Of no difficulty to understand and to receive.
Rather to receive and to understand many things that we have difficulty understanding.
But we can't believe because if the word of God and if God who has spoken.
Let me sing 135.
This world is a wilderness wide. We have nothing to seek or to choose. We have no thought on the ways to abide. We have not to regret not to lose.
Open Mtg.
Open—A. Barry, G. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
OK, so.
Where is our plan available?
Wisdom and God.
Mary Lord.
Of the rings.
Play.
That perhaps the Spirit of God would give us instruction this afternoon.
From four of the Lord's own who were.
Instructed in his school, I had before me two brothers.
And two sisters.
That were greatly blessed. How come we read in the word in the school of God?
You know that the school of God.
Is quite different from the school of man.
For when you go to school, that man has set up.
Well, you get your diploma. You graduate.
And the earth through of that school. But if when, if we're in the school of God.
And if you're a child of God, you are in the school of God. You never graduate in that school.
You will be in that school as long as you're down here in the wilderness.
And the four that I had in mind to call attention to.
Were two brothers that were the Lord's disciples.
One was Simon Peter and the other was the beloved John.
And the two sisters I had in mind was Martha and Mary.
You see, sisters are just as much.
00:05:02
In the school of God.
As the brothers are in the school of God.
And they they, as much as we know, has been spoken about.
In connection with God's discipline and ways with Simon Peter.
Because Peter was a man that required.
Much discipline.
To fit him for the service that the Lord was going someday to entrust him with.
But perhaps we haven't considered so much.
How they they discipline or the training that was necessary for the beloved John. For John required discipline as well as Peter.
And my thoughts turn to the 9th chapter of Luke for a moment.
Where we get some of the training through which John was taken.
In the 46th verse. And there arose A reasoning among them, Which of them should be the greatest.
And Jesus, perceiving the thoughts of their hearts, took a little child, and set him by him, and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this little child in my name, receiveth me.
And whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me, for he that is least among you shall be the greatest. Now there was one of the first lessons.
That it was necessary for the beloved John to learn to belittle.
To be the least among the apostles, if the Lord could entrust him with a place and with a service of responsibility.
You see, as we're found that John was like the rest of our of God's failing children for earlier in this same chapter.
It tells us that.
That in the 43rd verse.
That they were all amazed at the mighty power of God. But while they wondered everyone at all the things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples.
Let these things sink down into your heart, for the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men. But they understood not this saying, It was hid from them, and they perceived it not, and they feared to ask him that question.
Well then tha tha that leads to.
This.
Reasoning As you know, if we get our eyes off of Christ, reason will surely take over.
They they had this wonderful experience of the mighty power of God that cast out the power of Satan, and they were carried away with that power because power, you know, is something very attractive.
To the natural man.
But the Lord says to let these things sink down into your hearts.
For the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men. Don't get occupied with power.
Remember that your Lord and master is one that's going to be delivered.
To the shameful death of Calvary. Well, they didn't ask the Lord the love of do we fail to ask the Lord when something is disturbing our minds and our hearts? You see, it will lead to the exaltation of self. If we fail in that way, all beloved, may we get low before the Lord when these questions arise.
00:10:00
Instead of being in haste and instead of.
Acting.
Without.
The certainty of the Lord's mind. May we get low before him, and get his mind, and that will be the deliverance from this state of soul that follows. When there there are this question arises among them, which of them should be the greatest? And then the next thing we read, and John answered, and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name.
And we provide him because he followed not with us, with us. You see, there's not only the danger of exalting self, but there's also the danger of exalting.
Those that are gathered to the Lord's name. It's a wonderful thing to be gathered to the Lord's name alone, but if we get this thought.
In our minds that we are something important, that we are becoming quite numerous.
And that we are more devoted and more consistent than other Christians.
Beloved, we're in serious danger. You remember another occasion when the Lord had to correct Peter?
And it was on occasion when.
I we remember that the disciples, Sir, those who had up to that time, followed the Lord. We're leaving him. And he said to the disciples, will you also go away, Or what a touching word, will ye also go? Will you lose? Leave me, oh beloved, let's consider that. And when questions and problems arise, there is a place where the Lord has put his name.
And sometimes just as our brother was mentioning about.
One considering because of some trouble of leaving.
Just that little word, Lord, to whom shall we go? Well, Peter beautifully replies. He says, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou ask the words of eternal life, and we believe in our shore that thou art the Christ.
But the Lord has to give a word of.
Caution, he says. Have not I chosen you? 12 And one of you hath the devil?
Be careful that you don't exhaust your little party, even yours, that company of the 12 apostles. There was a danger there. Well, we see that same danger with John here. Here was one that was casting out devils, but he wasn't following along with the 12. And the Lord has to correct John. He says that to John.
Forbid him not.
For he that is not against us is for us. In another place. I think we read that no man can.
Perform a miracle in my name and speak lightly of me. We have to remember beloved, even though we have the assurance we are gathered to the Lord's name alone.
That there are others that God is using and not despise them and.
Only long that they might be led on and get clearer light up from the words.
But let's not ever despise any that God is using. Although we couldn't associate it ourselves with them. The Lord didn't tell John. Now you go out and go with that man that's casting out devils. He did not. But he told him that he, he says, forbid him not, John would have said no, he looking here. You mustn't be casting out devils. You're not going along with the 12. Don't do that, the Lord says.
But he didn't tell John how you go along with that man, but he gives them a wise caution that was very needful for John, who was exalting the company of the disciples.
Well, I suppose we remember the time. I think that is also in and Luke's gospel when the I believe it's in the same chapter indeed.
And the 51St verse.
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And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.
And sent messengers before his face. And they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they received him not, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? And he turned and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit year of.
For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives.
But to save them.
When the Lord chose the 12 disciples, He called James and John bull and urges, which means sons of Thunder. And here was one time when John and James thundered, they would have acted in the spirit of Elijah and the days of the law, and called down fire from heaven on those Samaritans.
And the Lord rebuilt them.
Oh, it's necessary. We love it for the Lord to rebuke you and me.
John profited by as well as Peter, and how lovely the result we see in his life of one who was naturally in his.
And his natural temperament to be very severe, a son of Thunder. And yet who is so gentle and so mild, and so gracious in his ministry as the same John.
Beloved, we can all learn in the school of God and if we take the corrections that he surely gives to us.
He can correct those things that hinder are usefulness.
Indeed, may spoil our testimony and turn us out of the path.
Of true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Think of John leaning on the Lord's breast to supper. And yet it was at a very time when they were again quarreling among themselves who should be the greatest. But the Lord had voiced their feet in the chapter where we read of.
Of the John leaning on the Lord's breast, Peter had to turn to John to get.
The Lord's mind on that occasion, Well, a very interesting fact that we find is this, that those two men, Peter and John, that we were speaking about were so closely associated together in the Lord's service.
Because they naturally were very different dispositions and temperaments.
Peter, as you know, was an impulsive man.
Very quick, quick to speak up and speak up at the wrong time. John was mild and gentle and gracious. He learned his lessons from the Lord. And yet, isn't it beautiful, beloved, how these two servants of Christ could go on so happily and so usefully together?
And why was it? Why was the Why is it that one man so impulsive?
So ready to speak up at the wrong time, to go on with a mild, gentle, quiet man like a beloved John? Well, I believe it's this beloved. They both had Christ as their object, and below those different characteristics and dispositions and personalities that often clash.
Among the Saints.
Will correct themselves the more.
We have Christ as the object before our souls. Now it's a very different thing when a matter of that concerns the glory of Christ is in question. Or something that.
Is an attack upon his glorious.
And precious work. Then it's another matter, for we must stand for the glory of Christ.
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At all costs, but they are all different kinds of dispositions.
And personalities among God's children, and many things that are.
Necessary that we should bear with one another and not.
Get.
Unhappy or disturbed because one has an entirely different approach to his way of going on with the Lord.
Well, those lessons are very instructive I believe for us. I'll just mention briefly about Peter. We all know more about Peter's corrections, I believe, than John's corrections for we remember well how that.
How the Lord had to say to Peter Simon.
Simon, Satan hath desired to have thee, that he might sit thee as weak.
But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail. Not all the Lord corrected Peter about what was about to lead to his dismal fall in denying his Lord and master.
So he warns him, calls him so graciously by name, and he followed his work as an advocate until Peter he is truly and happily restored.
No. I've often thought, Beloved, when Peter had denied the Lord how the Lord turned and looked at Peter.
That one look.
Did more than a whole volume of words. Peter was there in company with the enemies of Christ sitting at their fire and warming himself. So what happened? He immediately went out.
That one look separated Peter from the enemies of the Lord. We never find him among the enemies of the Lord again. It broke his heart. It started a work of true self judgment that led to a full recovery and restoration. Now I had before me, as I said, also two sisters and how they went through the school of God.
And in the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Luke.
And the 38th verse.
And it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him at her house, and she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus feet.
And heard his word, But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bitter, therefore, that she helped me, Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha.
Thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part.
Which shall not be taken away from her.
Lord, I mentioned that I wanted to consider two sisters in the school of God, and I'm sure we have heard connected Mary at the feet of Jesus in the in the 10th of Luke, Mary at the feet of Jesus in the 11Th of John.
And Mary at the feet of Jesus in the 12Th of John, or she learned?
Most precious and valuable lessons in sitting at the feet of Jesus.
And hearing his word. But we need to remember that Martha was just as much in the school of God as Mary was in the school of God. They required different lessons, for Martha was something like Simon Peter, an impulsive person and getting out of her place indeed, whereas Mary was more.
Of a spiritual woman like the beloved John.
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But the Lord loves. It tells us that he loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. He equally loved these sisters who had been such a comfort to him.
In his lonely pathway there at Bethany.
So we find that Martha would have robbed her sister.
Of the greatest privilege that is granted any of the Lord's own here in this world. And what is, beloved, the greatest privilege we have here on earth. It's sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing His word.
Oh, how wonderful it is that we can enjoy that privilege any place in this world where we live being at the feet of Jesus.
And hearing his word, you know, there are three things that.
Are granted God's people.
That are very important. One is the the word of God, one is prayer, and the other is the assembling of ourselves together.
Now we may not always be privileged to assemble ourselves.
With those that gather in the Lord's name around the Blessed Lord but beloved, the other privileges will never be.
Those two wonderful privilege, sitting at the Lord's feet and hearing His word and engaging in prayer, telling him our needs, telling him about all the things that distress our hearts. We'll always have those. Even if we're laid aside in a bed of affliction, we still have those two blessed privileges.
Well, we find that Martha was ready to deny her sister.
So it's the privileges, the privilege that she was enjoying.
Because it tells us here that Martha.
Was cumbered, cumbered. She made it a burden about much serving, or she was just carried away with service.
And beloved service is very precious, and as I trust we may see farther on that in the end, Martha's service was accepted, but Martha had to learn the lesson about being cumbered, allowing these things to sow, absorb, and fill our time.
But we neglect prayer and the word of God, and remember that the service that Martha was engaged in.
Was a service for the Lord too, and we might be very active in service. That seems very important.
Because we're seeking to do gospel work, Oregon work among the children.
But if we allow that to have such an place that it crowds out the time we should spend in the Lord's presence.
With his word before us and looking to him for help and guidance.
What a lovely thing it is to sit at the feet of Jesus and to hear his word. I think it was dear Mr. Darby.
In that form of his where, doubtless he was just beginning to get the the recovery of the truth. He wrote this, He says, Lo, at thy feet. Lord Jesus, this is the place for me. There have I learned deep lessons, truths that have set me free. Well, it's one thing to read the word, you know, and just study it as we would any other study to.
Try to get the main thoughts and of course we don't condemn.
Getting an outline of the truth that is part of Timothy's instruction. Have an outline of sound doctrine. But whatever way we take up the word beloved, may it be in that loneliness.
In the sense of our own nothingness, sitting at his blessed feet and letting him through, the words speak to our inmost souls.
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You know, God speaks to us through His word, and that's the way we should read the word, not just read it as we would.
Some ministry. But remember that when we're reading the word that we're in the very presence of the Lord, and that the Lord is is present to speak to our souls and to it may be to instruct us, haven't you had the experience of sudden of a worse, suddenly coming as a as a strong correction?
Maverick.
I was about to make what would have been a very bad mistake one time and one verse delivered me for making the mistake, and it was a verse in Colossians. Set your minds on things above. I was getting too much taken up with earthly things, and that verse showed me that I was taking up too much with earthly things and.
Was the voice of the Lord. Oh, we all have had those experiences and how many times?
The Lord has used His word to correct us and to deliver us from a wrong path, but it's always when we're sitting lowly at His feet, taking the low place in His presence. For if we are filled with our own importance, or if we're allowing self will to to to control our thoughts and feelings, we all miss.
His mind. There is a danger, you know, brethren, of making up our minds as to what we're going to do and then searching the Word to find some scripture that would.
Would agree to what we are considering and then getting down and asking the Lord to bless it. What a danger that is, but oh, if we're like Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing his word.
We will get corrections that will spare us from many.
A mistake in failure? Well, I'm sure we're all familiar with the 11Th of John, and I'll not read the chapter, but just call attention to a few thoughts.
In that in that portion.
You remember how the?
Sister sent a message to Jesus. Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick.
Oh, the Lord was the tenderest man that ever walked this earth. But he was also a divine man, and if he had been moved just by human compassion, he surely would have hastened as quickly as possible to Bethany to those distressed sisters. But he waited until he had the mind of the Father. And then he went. And you remember how Martha met the Lord before he reached the city?
And.
In the.
21St verse Then said Martha unto Jesus. Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. I think I'll be able to call attention to what another brother mentioned. And that is that both these sisters said the same word to Jesus when they met him. But we could put, I believe, right by the emphasis on a different word.
Marcus said. And what Mary said, Martha said, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. She said it in a complaining way. Lord, we sent for you, and if you had responded to our request, our brother would be still alive. Well, Martha couldn't meet the Lord, and he fell out to her her insufficiency to meet the Lord. She wasn't in a state of soul, so she couldn't meet the Lord.
And so we read that.
In the.
28th verse And when she had so said, she went her way and called Mary her sister, secretly, saying the master is come and calleth for thee. I get this from our dear brother Bellis writings.
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That he didn't feel that the Lord told Mary in just so many words, Youth Martha in so many words, you'll go and call Mary.
Nor did Martha go with.
A false report, but it was a fact that Martha felt in her soul that she couldn't meet the Lord and knowing that her more spiritual sister could meet.
The heart of the Blessed Lord, she goes and whispers to her.
The master is come and call it for thee.
Well, as soon as.
Mary hears that message. It tells us that as soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to him.
We're speaking about both Martha and Peter being hasty in their ways. Haste may be very consistent.
When there is a definite call from the Lord and it was a call from the Lord.
She waited until she received a call from the Lord and then with all haste, she goes to meet the Lord, the Jew said.
The jewels which the 31St verse then which were with her when they saw her in the house, and comforted her when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out followed her, saying she goeth unto the grave to weep there.
Well, they didn't know the secret that instead of Mary going to the grave as they supposed there to weep out her sad heart that she was going to meet the Lord.
Yes, beloved, she was going to meet the Lord, and Mary did meet the Lord.
And when she comes and falls at the feet of Jesus and says the very same words that Martha said.
And the end of the 32nd verse, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. I believe that.
Mary emphasized it in this way. Lord, if thou has been here, my brother had not died.
While Martha said, Lord, if thou hast been here, he put the emphasis, I believe, on here.
And you notice this difference too. And it's very important that what Mary said at the feet of Jesus.
Martha did not say at the feet of Jesus. Mary had learned that precious lesson there, when her sister would have robbed her of her privilege of what it meant to sit at the feet of Jesus and to hear his word. And now at his blessed feet, she said, Lord, if thou has been here, well, Mary really meets the Lord's heart.
For he doesn't give any reply at all to what she says. But beloved and Mary, meeting the heart of Christ, drew forth what is more precious and more wonderful than all the words that were ever spoken here on earth. She drew forth the tears of the Son of God.
Yes, we have that word with just two. That verse was just two words.
Let's have spoken volumes to God's people through the ages. Jesus wept and he groaned in spirit. All the Lord traveled, as it were, through all the valley of the shadow of death, what death had brought into this sad world, although he was on his way to raise Lazarus, which he did with mighty power. And there's something to notice here, too, because we usually think, you know.
That Martha would be the sole winner because she was one so active in service. But just look at.
Had the 45th verse, then many of the Jews, which came not to Martha, but to Mary, and it seemed the things which Jesus did believed on him. For you see that on this occasion, instead of Martha being the soul winner, it was the one who was nearest to the Lord, in communion with the mind of the Lord, that was used so that many.
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Believed in Jesus, our beloved. What a lesson for us. As our dear brother Harry Hale used to say, there's no substitute for communion.
No amount of activity, no amount of knowledge will take the place.
Of that quiet, holy, sweet communion with our blessed Lord.
Well now this was the.
A time when most Martha and Mary were learning lessons.
In the School of God, Martha had to learn the lesson too. Again.
When she objected to the rolling away the stone, she didn't have faith in what the Lord had told her, that he was the resurrection of the life. And what the Lord said to Martha was said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou should see the glory of God, said I not unto thee or beloved, what words to penetrate into our souls.
Said I not unto thee.
Have you forgotten his words? Have you forgotten the message that has come from his heart to you? Said I not unto thee.
And related, that the order in which the truth is taught, he doesn't say if when you see, then you will believe, But he says, if thou shalt believe, thou shalt see the glory of God. Man says, prove to me, and then I believe.
The word of God is believed. And then you will see, I know, beloved, how we have seen.
The mighty blessings of God as we just quietly and simply.
Trusted and rested on his precious word. Well, now, the last lesson.
Maybe I shouldn't say lesson in the 12Th chapter. It's more a scene where the lessons are learned.
But we have to be careful. I believe even in saying that we have learned our lesson. Because if we were to dare to say, well, I've learned my lesson, I will never do that again, that is.
That we're we're likely to do the very thing again.
That if the lesson is this, beloved, that we have learned through our trials and maybe sad failures and maybe a fault, and the Lord in grace has come in. If we have learned our own utter weakness, so that we just say I'm a poor, helpless thing, Lord, I just have to depend on your health. I cannot go on without you if we've learned the lesson of our utter weakness and our absolute dependence on Him.
That's very precious, but we see the outcome in the 12Th chapter.
Of their lessons these two dear sisters had learned, because in the 12Th chapter it says in the second verse. There they made him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat a table with him, then took Mary a pound of ointment, A spygnard very costly, and anointed his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
Isn't that beautiful, Those three in that family at Bethany?
Each in a distinct place that was according to the Lord's mind. And here Martha's service is not condemned. Ah, she had learned not to put service before communion, and now the Lord could use and value her service without a rebuke or reproof. And Mary had learned through her experience at His blessed feet.
First learning from his word, and then at his feet in her sorrow, to take the alabaster box of ointment and pour it on those blessed feet that had trawled Earth's weary pathway on his way to the cross, and filled the whole house with a fragrance of the ointment. Oh, what a beautiful scene it is. And Lazarus, the one who had lain in death and whose body was corrupt.
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In corruption, now sitting at table with him Expression of communion, Martha.
House in service.
Mary seen as the expression of worship or that precious ointment that filled the house with its sweetness, just like the heart was filled with Christ.
Going up in worship and praise to our blessed Lord.
And then in Lazarus you see one sitting at table in communion where the blessed Lord. Well, what a sad thing that even on an occasion like this there was a Judas Iscariot who found fault with Mary spending so much on the precious body of the Lord Jesus. And, sad to say, we find in and we read the other Gospels. Maybe here. I just haven't read it lately.
That they all agreed with Judas Iscariot isn't that strange that Judas could become the leader of the other disciples? But the Lord doesn't have to reprove Martha on this occasion, does he?
Shows how truly Martha had learned her lessons. He doesn't complain about her sister spending this ointment on the feet of the Lord and wiping his feet with her hair.
Arnold Martha had learned her a lesson in the school of God was blessed and precious for her. Mary had learned the lesson of the preciousness of Christ himself and even the disciples, John included, sad to say, and Peter were not in communion at this occasion. But here too, dear sisters were in communion with a mind of Christ.
And the mind of God the Father on this occasion all beloved. What an important thing it is to consider that we're in the school of God, and may we let Him teach us the lessons, may we not.
Seek to avoid the reproofs, the corrections that we surely need in our pathway as we go on through the scene.
Wonder if we could follow on brethren with a few thoughts from the same line of things in connection with the life of Moses.
Could we turn to Acts Chapter 6?
Chapter 7. I should say Acts Chapter 7.
Verse 22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
And was mighty in words and deeds. And when he was full, 40 years old, and came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.
And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian. For he supposed that his brethren would have understood how, that the Lord by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strolled, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sir, ye are brethren, why do ye wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee?
A ruler and a judge over us. Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?
Then flared Moses at this, saying Anne was a stranger in the land of Median.
Where he begat two sons.
Well, our brother has just been bringing before us some beautiful thoughts.
In connection with the school of God in the lives of these different ones, Peter and John, and also with Martha and Mary, and I was thinking how we also have some similar lessons in the life of Moses. And what I was thinking especially to was in spite of the fact that Moses didn't always act in a way that was according to the mind of God, yet God's faithfulness in connection with his people.
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His desire to bless them. And I was thinking of these different instances that come in the life of Moses.
In this occasion and later in the wilderness.
But this one here we find that Moses had gone along in the first part of his life and learned to be.
A great man in Egypt says he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds.
We surely would have thought at this point in his life that he would have been most useful.
Because he was fully accomplished later on, as we know, and God was going to use them. He even said He couldn't speak. But at this time he had no such feeling in his heart He was very confident. He was mighty in words and deeds. He had, shall I say, ability to lead and guide. And he thought that God could use all this that He had naturally. And so it it all began with a good motive.
And I believe it shows us that we can do a right thing, at least desire to do a right thing, and not realize that there is much of the energy of the flesh in what we do. It tells us here in the 23rd verse, when he was full 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. Wasn't this a good thing, that he had a desire for the blessing of the people of God, a desire for their deliverance?
He saw them oppressed under the burdens in Egypt, and he wanted to be a help.
And so it tells us that when he saw one of them suffer wrong instead of.
Acting in the spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, we see him rashly taking and killing the Egyptian undertaking to deliver in a way that he thought was the best. But it wasn't ordered of God. And so it tells us that he flew the Egyptian in the desire to deliver his brethren, and it says he supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand, would deliver them.
But they understood not that how often this has been so in our lives too. Something has turned up, something that we saw a person suffer wrong, something that we saw another, and we thought we should act to help that person, to defend them. And perhaps we did the same thing as we find here with Moses. And we thought others would understand and see that it was a right desire, thought his brethren didn't understand.
Well, how is this that his brethren didn't understand? Well, no doubt God had lessons for Moses to learn. Then after he had done this, he tried a second time. He wasn't going to give up. He wasn't going to be easily frustrated, because he did love the people of God. He did love them and hate to see them oppressed wrongfully. And so he tried a second time. And this time he tried to set his brethren.
He saw them quarreling among themselves and he said notice what he said.
The next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sir, ye are brethren.
Why do we wrong one to another? Here he undertakes to try and settle a quarrel between the people of God. And he tried to do it, as I say, out of love for the people of God, but they still didn't understand and saw. He said as it were. It's no use. It's no use. And so it says he fled at that saying and he went to the backside of the desert. He, so to speak, gave up any desire to help the people of God. What was the use?
They didn't appreciate him. They didn't understand him. They didn't see that he wanted to be a help. They didn't look at his heart, but God did. Nevertheless. God had his eye upon Moses, and he had, as our brother has been bringing before us, lessons to learn in the school of God.
And, brethren, I believe these are lessons for us too, lessons that we sometimes might.
Have a right desire and go about it in the wrong way, and then because our efforts are unappreciated.
Just what Moses did, we run away. As our brother remarked, When the disciples saw some others going away, the Lord turned and said, will he also go away? Peter said, to whom shall we go? Well, this was a great thing in the life of Moses and he he went away. He spent 40 years. That was a long time, wasn't it? In the school of God and all brethren we are slow learners. Every one of us have to acknowledge that we learn so slowly.
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It takes so much to teach us our own nothingness, but also the wonderful fact that God is everything and that he does care for his people because Moses had forsaken them and gone to the backside of the desert and taken up the ordinary occupation of keeping sheep. Why had God forgotten his people? Was he without a resource because Moses had forsaken them? Oh no, the Lord loves his people.
And that lovely verse that our brother read to us this morning was really what brought some of these thoughts before me.
He read that verse. Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
And I was noticing that Mister Darby has a little footnote there, which our brother intimated when he read it.
That under the end doesn't have reference to time, but that he loves them through every circumstance.
Through everything that might come up. And oh, how wonderful this is. Yes, the Lord loves his people through every circumstance that may come up.
And so when this circumstance came up, did God give up his people because Moses forsook them and went to the backside of the desert? No, He had his eye upon them. And while the people were oppressed under these burdens and cried out to the Lord, the Lord heard their cry. He heard them, And later on, after Moses had learned something in the school of God. And perhaps there's a little thought, brethren here in the fact that it says.
He begat two sons, I believe. Perhaps the thought is God teaches us in our own families.
Certain lessons, lessons that he intends us to profit by, so that we would have a better understanding of his people. Because as we go through things, and as Moses went through things in his family life, this was part of the school of God teaching him and fitting him so that he would be useful later on. And so after the 40 years had passed by, and Moses had learned something of his own, nothingness, was emptied of himself.
Was not going to try and set things right in his own wisdom or strength. Was not going to slay an Egyptian or try and settle something that he couldn't settle. He comes back scent of God. But when the Lord appeared to him to send him back. It's lovely what he said, he said to Moses. Like this I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows and I am come down to deliver them.
To me, it's as if the Lord said to Moses Moses, you didn't think that I was paying any attention to what was happening under among my afflicted people. You thought that you were the only one that could set them right. But I have seen all about it. I know everything that's going on. And now when you have learned that I'm the only one who can come in and deliver now I can use you, Now I can send you. But my eye has been on my people all the time.
Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them under the end. And so Moses that one. It tells us that they thrust away saying, who made the ruler and a judge the Lord sent to be a ruler and a deliverer. Quite a difference. Isn't there a great difference between being a ruler and a judge and a ruler and a deliverer? It's very easy for us when a situation arises, to try and judge the situation, and we often judge it wrongly because.
But we only have human wisdom. The Lord always judges rightly. But it's another thing to be a deliverer, another thing to be so before the Lord and looking to him and conscious of His love and care for his people, that when a circumstance arises that he can use us.
When we can't speak. For when Moses was about to be used, he was so humbled by the experiences that he said I can't even speak. And the Lord had to say, who made man's mouth, and he said, I'll be with thee and teach thee what to say.
What a difference had taken place and how wonderfully God used this man. Moses the same person as a ruler and a deliverer. And he goes back and.
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Appears before Pharaoh and God uses him to deliver his people out of that land. And it's lovely to see what it tells us in the 11Th chapter of Hebrews that it comes down into personal thing to Moses when they leave Egypt and it says by faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood.
Lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them, Moses had to realize that he was no better than the rest of the people. He needed to be under the shelter of the blood, and his first born was only sheltered through that blood, just the same as the others. And brethren were all subjects of grace. We've all been saved by the same blessed Savior, and by the same blessed work that was accomplished at Calvary. Without that, we would never be in the family of God.
And without knowing Him as our savior, surely we could never be used at all. Well, perhaps in some measure.
Moses learned that lesson, that God was not going to use him in an energy of the flesh as one who would try to set things right, but as one who became conscious of the fact that the Lord knew everything and that the Lord could use him when he was thoroughly and completely emptied of himself.
Now I'd like to turn to another circumstance in the life of Moses, and that's in Exodus chapter 33.
32 I should say Exodus chapter 32.
And verse 31.
And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said.
All this people have sinned great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not blot me, I pray thee out of thy book, which thou hast written. And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now gold, lead the people unto the place which I have spoken unto thee.
Behold, mine Angel shall go before thee. Nevertheless in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And now in the next chapter, the 33rd chapter, and the 12Th verse. And Moses said unto the Lord, See that thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou will send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight.
Now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way.
That I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.
And now in the 34th chapter.
And the 29th verse. And it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, where the two tables of testimony in Moses hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wished not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold the skin of his face shone.
And they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them, And Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him, And Moses talked with them.
Well, here we find an entirely different attitude. Surely in the heart of Moses not now trying to set things right and looking so harshly upon the people. And know what a different attitude surely we can say Moses had profited much.
In the school of God, and isn't it lovely when the people had sinned? What do we find him doing in this case?
How do we find him telling them that they shouldn't quarrel? Do we find him here killing an Egyptian?
Now he says, I'll go up and I'll intercede for you with the Lord. What a lovely attitude we see here, how beautiful this very man. Surely we can see, as our brother brought before us, that John was once a son of Thunder, but the grace of God rod in his heart. And so Moses, now the very man who had acted so rashly before. Isn't this lovely? He said. I'll go up and I'll intercede for you. And he was went Even so far as to say to the Lord.
01:05:16
That the people were not only dear to the heart of the Lord, but they had become dear to his heart. And he said, Let me, I pray thee out of thy book, and take this people what a heart he had for the people of God.
What an intercession on their behalf. All brethren. This, I believe, is so touching to each one of us. And had the people changed? Had they improved? Were things better? Oh no. He went up because they had failed. He didn't look for a change among the people of God, but he looked to the one who changes, not he looks to the one who loves his own to the end. The one who could say in Jeremiah, Yeah, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee the one who could say in remnant days in Malachi the burden of the word of the Lord. By Malachi I have loved you sayeth the Lord. Yes, Moses now had the thoughts of God about his people, and he went up to intercede for them. But when the Lord said Moses, now you go and lead the people, and I'll send my Angel, Oh, Moses fell his own utter incompetence, say. And as our brother brought before us, we never can, never should come to the point.
Where we think we have learned our lessons, or that now we're capable of doing something because we have learned certain things. Moses here, in spite of all that he had learned, we find him quite sensible of the fact that he couldn't do anything of himself. And so he said to the Lord, he said, You have said that I have found grace in thy sight, and you told me to lead the people, and how can I do it?
You haven't told me how I'll be able to do it, and how lovely the Lord's answer.
My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
And then he said, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not a pence, he said. I can't do anything of myself. May we ever have the sense of this in our souls, brethren, we can't do anything of ourselves. There's no man of us. No matter whether we're learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians or not, no matter whether we've had 40 years in the school of God, we still can't do anything of ourselves. We still are utterly dependent for every step and every move upon the one who has promised this, my presence.
Shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And so we find Moses there. In the presence of God, he receives the 10 commandments. And this, I believe, is instructive to God hadn't changed his standard because he went on in grace with the people, And grace never overlooks sin. Grace never looks lightly upon sin. And the tables of stone the second time were at the very same words as were on the first tables that were broken.
God hadn't changed his standard, I say, but those tables are Stone were to be put inside the ark, and the mercy seat was on top of the ark. And so the eye of God could rest upon the blood that was sprinkled on the mercy seat and go on with an earring people. Oh, how lovely this was. And this is what made Moses face shine. This is why when he came down the first time with the tables of stone, his face wasn't shining.
No. The people were worshipping the golden calf, and he brought the tables of stone, but now he went up. He interceded for them. He received the promise that the Lord would go with him. He received the instructions in connection with the building of the Tabernacle and the mercy seat, and now he comes down with the same tables of stone. But they were placed in the ark, and there the Lord provided a place outside the camp, afar off from the camp.
Where he could meet with the people. And so Moses face shone and his face shone so much that the children of Israel asked him to put a veil over his face. Yes, and I believe if you and I are really in His presence, it'll make our face shine too. It'll make us conscious of the grace that is in his heart that can go on with his people. For I say again, he never changes his love to his people. He loves them through every circumstance.
Everything that's ever happened in your life or mine, or whether it's in the assembly where we are.
01:10:05
Or among God's assemblies, nothing changes his heart toward his people.
He loves them through it all, and if we're going to represent him, we need to have his heart.
Toward his people in order to go on in the place that he would have us. And so this is how Moses was being used of God.
Now let us turn over to numbers to the 10th chapter and we see a third circumstance in.
Moses life.
I'm sorry, it's the 20th of numbers, the 20th chapter of numbers.
And the sixth verse the people had been complaining against God, and it says in the sixth verse. And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces.
And the glory of the Lord appeared unto them, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou and thy ere and thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water. And thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rocks, so that thou shalt give the congregation and their beast thirst a drink. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him.
And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock.
And he said unto them, Here, now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?
And Moses lifted up his rod, and with his rod he smote the rock twice.
And the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, because he believed not me, not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, Therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. So here we find something. Also there is a sad note about this.
And yet there is also a very blessed side to it. Also here we find the children of Israel. Murmuring the wilderness was a worrisome thing to them. They had been 40 years intense. It was no doubt a difficult and hard journey all through the wilderness, and they were beginning to get tired of it. And perhaps, as we approached the time of the Lord's return, we feel increasing problems and difficulties.
We feel that as the end draws nearer, it's not going to be easier. It seems to get more difficult. And so it was here. So the people murmured, and the Moses and Aaron went in before the Lord and the Lord said, as it were, and there's provision for everything that takes place. I still love my people. And I might say that this rod, when he says take the rod, that was the priestly rod.
You remember God gave that rod that butted the figure of the priesthood that could carry the people through the wilderness. And Moses took this rod, and the Lord said, you take that rod in your hand and you go to the rock and you'll just have to speak to the rock and the water will come out. The Lord Jesus was smitten once of Calvary. He bore the wrath and judgment of God. He exhausted it. And the rock doesn't need to be smitten again.
He has borne the judgment, the way of blessing, has been thoroughly and fully and completely opened up through what Christ has done.
And he only needed to speak to the Rock and Brethren. We can go and speak to the Rock ourselves. We can talk to the one who died for us on Calvary. He's living for us. There's our great High priest and our advocate.
And so Moses and Aaron started out watching. All their spirits became a little bit stirred. And when they came to the rock, it tells us that Moses had another rod in his hand, not the rod that God said, God said, take thee rod. But Moses did something different. He took his ride. He took his rod. The rod I suppose, that he used to smite the river. He took that, And with that rod he smoked the rod twice.
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And he turned to the people, and he said, Must we fetch you water out of this rocky rebels?
He lost his patience with the people of God. They tried his spirit so much.
That it tells us he spake unadvisedly with his lips, and God was grieved. Why? Well, because he didn't sanctify him among the people. God's heart hadn't changed toward his people. All her murmurings and all are complaining, and all the things they did hadn't changed his heart. He had laid a basis by which he could bless them, and that basis was the work that Christ has done. And because of this, he had a way that in spite of all their failure, they could be blessed. Fully blessed.
But Moses is a servant here. He failed to get hold of this. And brethren, what an easy thing for us to do. Do, and I get stirred. Do we speak unadvisedly with our lips because someone has said or done something? Well, certainly the people were wrong here. And certainly you say, well, it was pretty hard for Moses not to lose his patience, and I'm sure it was. I would have probably done worse, but Moses lost his patience just once.
And God, said Moses, you can't lead the people into the land.
You can't. You just lost your patience once with the people. Because God doesn't lose his patience with his people. He loves them. He loves them through everything. He loves them under the end. But there's a lovely side to it that alone Moses did lose his patience and smite the rock twice and call the people rebels. It didn't change the heart of God and the water flowed out abundantly. God didn't say well Moses, because you failed.
Now you have spoiled it for all the people. Oh no, isn't this lovely, brethren? We fail. We fail as those who seek to perhaps help the people of God. But he never fails. There's a great high priest that's sitting there at God's right hand. There's an advocate to restore. There's one who threw everything. Loves his people. He has lessons to teach us. But he's the same yesterday and today and forever. And so, in the circumstances that arise, perhaps these three things.
Are lessons for us. First of all, we see trying to set a situation right in the flesh, and it failed. The second time we see one who went up and interceded for the people of God, willing to have his own name blotted out that those people might be blessed. And God used him to give all the instructions for the Tabernacle. God said that he would be the one to lead them through the wilderness, and he did, and he came down with a shining face.
In this occasion. But when these things troubled him and he lost his patience.
By the Lord said, You can't lead them into the land, Moses, you can't, because you haven't sanctified me.
But still, he brought his people in. He cared for them. He loved them.
And brethren, he'll bless his people through us if we keep looking to him.
And without us if we don't, He loves his people, I say, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
May these lessons that our brother brought before us, and these two from the life of Moses.
Have their practical effect with us. We can expect as the wilderness journey draws to a close, that things will not be easier. There will be things to try our patients. The whole world, moving at such a pace as it is, has sets our nerves on edge, as people say. And how can you help it? Yes, we can help it. We have a great high priest. We have an advocate. We have one who loves us and who loves each one of his own. They are hearts enter more and to his thoughts.
Toward his people, so that we may be given grace to continue in the path till he comes.
241.
Say you're through the desert.
Where are you feeling? Our heart falls.
Thou from Grill will take that breathing earth.
And I'll take your time to go.
The School of God
Address—A.M. Barry
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.
That perhaps the Spirit of God would give us instruction this afternoon.
From four of the Lord's own who were instructed in his school.
I have before me two brothers and two sisters.
That were greatly blessed.
I'll firmly read in the Word in the school of God.
And all that the school of God is quite different from the school of man.
For when you go to school that man has set up.
You get your diploma, you graduate and the you're through with that school.
But if one if we are in the school of God, and if you are a child of God, you are in the school of God.
You never graduate in that school.
You will be in that school as long as you're down here in the wilderness.
And the four that I had in mind to call attention to.
Were two brothers that were the Lord's disciples.
One was Simon Peter and the other was the beloved John.
And the two sisters I had in mind was Martha and Mary.
You see, his sisters were just as much in the school of God.
As the brothers are in the school of God.
And the the as much as we know has been spoken about.
In connection with God's discipline and ways with Simon Peter.
Because Peter was a man that required much discipline.
Now to fit him for the service that the Lord was going someday to entrust him with.
But perhaps we haven't considered so much.
How?
They they discipline or the training that was necessary for the beloved John, for John required discipline as well as Peter.
And my thoughts turn to the 9th chapter of Luke for a moment, where we get some of the training through which John was taken.
In the 46th verse. And there rose a reasoning among them, which of them should be the greatest.
And Jesus, perceiving the thoughts of their hearts, took a little child, and set him by him, and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this little child in my name, receiveth me.
And whosoever shall receive me received him that sent me, For he that is least among you shall be the greatest.
Now there was one of the first lessons that it was necessary for the beloved John to learn to belittle, to be the least among the apostles, if the Lord could entrust him with.
With a place and with a service of responsibility.
You see, as we are found, that John was like the rest of our of God's failing children.
Were earlier in this same chapter.
It tells us that.
That.
In the 43rd verse that they were all amazed at the mighty power of God, the while they wondered everyone at all the things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples.
Let these things sink down into your heart for the Son of Man.
Shall be delivered into the hands of men. But they understood not this thing, it was hid from them.
And they perceived it not, and they feared to ask him.
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For that question.
Well, that leads to this.
Reasoning As you know, if we get our eyes off of Christ, reason will surely take over.
They, they had this wonderful experience of the mighty power of God that cast out the power of Satan and they were carried away with that power because power, you know, is something very attractive to the natural man.
But the Lord says to let these things sink down into your hearts.
For the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men. Don't get occupied with power. Remember that your Lord and master is one that's going to be delivered up to the shameful death of Calvary.
They didn't ask the Lord the Lover. Do we fail to ask the Lord when something is disturbing our minds and our hearts?
You see, it will lead to the exaltation of self if we fail in that way. All beloved, may we get low before the Lord when these questions arise, instead of being in haste and instead of.
Of acting.
Without the certainty of the Lord's mind, may we get low before Him, and get His mind, and that will be the deliverance from this state of soul that follows. When there there are. This question arises among them, which of them should be the greatest?
And then the next thing we read, and John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name.
And we forbade him, because he followed not with us, with us.
You see, there's not only the danger of exhausting self, but there's also the danger of exalting.
Those that are gathered to the Lord's name. It's a wonderful thing to be gathered to the Lords name alone, but if we get this thought in our minds that we are something important.
That we are becoming quite numerous and that we are more devoted and more consistent than other Christians.
Beloved, we're in serious danger. You remember another occasion when the Lord had to correct Peter?
And it was on occasion when.
We remember that the disciples there are those who had up to that time followed the Lord. We're leaving him and he said.
To the disciples, will ye also go away? Oh, what a touching word. Will ye also go? Will you lose? Leave me. Oh beloved, let's consider that. And when questions and problems arise, there is a place where the Lord has put his name.
And sometimes just as our brother was mentioning about.
One considering because of some troubles of leaving just that little word, Lord, to whom shall we go?
Well, Peter beautifully replies, He says, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou ask the word of eternal life, and we believe in our shore that thou art the Christ.
But the Lord has to give a word of caution. He says, Have not I chosen you? 12 and one of you hath a devil?
Be careful that you don't exalt your little party, even yours. That company of the 12 apostles, there was a danger there. Well, we see that same danger with John here. There was one that was casting out devils, but he wasn't following along with the 12. And the Lord has to correct John.
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He says that to John.
Forbid him not, for he that is not against us.
Is for us in another place that I think we read that no man can.
Can perform a miracle in my name and speak lightly. We have to remember, beloved, even though we have the assurance we're gathered to the Lord's name alone.
That there are others that God is using and not despise them, and only long that they might be.
LED on and get clear lighted from the word but let's not ever despise any that God is using although we couldn't associate it ourselves with them. Lord didn't tell John how you go out and go with that man that's casting out devils. He did not but he told him that he.
He says forbid him not. John would have said no. He look here, you mustn't be casting out devils. You're not going along with the 12.
Don't do that, the Lord says. But he doesn't tell John how you go along with that man. But he gives them a wise caution that was very needful for John, who was exalting the company of the disciples.
Well, I suppose we remember the time I think that is also in and Luke's gospel when the I believe it's in the same chapter. Indeed.
And the 51St verse. And it came to pass. When the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face.
And they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. And they received him not, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elias did?
And he turned and rebuked them, and said, You know not what manner of spirit here of For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.
When the Lord chose the 12 disciples, he called James and John, Bowen urges, which means funds of Thunder.
And here was one time when John and James thundered.
They would have acted in the spirit of Elijah.
And the days of the long call down fire from heaven on those Samaritans, and the Lord rebuilt them. Oh, it's necessary. They love it for the Lord to rebuke you and me. John profited by it as well as Peter. And how lovely the result we see in his life.
Of one who was naturally and he has.
And he has a natural temperament.
To be very severe, a son of Thunder, and yet who is so gentle and so mild.
And so gracious in his ministry as the same John. Beloved, we can all learn in the school of God.
And if we take the corrections that he surely gives to us.
He can correct those things that hinder our usefulness, indeed may spoil our testimony and turn us out of the path of true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Think of John leaning on the Lord's breast to suffer. And yet it was at a very time when they were again quarreling among themselves who should be the greatest.
That the Lord had voiced their feet in the chapter where we read of.
Of the John leaning on the Lord's breast. Peter had to turn to John to get the Lord's mind on that occasion. Well, a very interesting fact that we find this this that those two men.
00:15:03
Peter and John we were speaking about.
Were so closely associated together in the Lords service.
Because they naturally were very different dispositions and temperaments. Peter, as you know, was an impulsive man.
Very quick, quick to speak up and speak up at the wrong time. John was mild and gentle and gracious to us. He learned his lessons from the Lord. And yet, isn't that beautiful, beloved? How these two servants of Christ could go on so happily and so usefully together.
And why was it? Why was the Why is it that one man so impulsive?
So ready to speak up at the wrong time, to go on with a mild, gentle, quiet man like the beloved John.
Well, I believe it's this, beloved. They both had Christ as their object. And, the letter goes, different characteristics and dispositions and personalities that often clash among the Saints.
Will correct themselves the more we have Christ as the object before our souls.
Now it's a very different thing when a matter of that concerns the glory of Christ is in question or something that.
Is an attack upon his glorious?
And precious work, then it's another matter, for we must stand for the glory of Christ at all costs. But they are all different kinds of dispositions.
And personalities among God's children. And many things that are.
Necessary that we should bear with one another and not.
Get.
Unhappy or disturbed because one has an entirely different approach to his way of going on with the Lord.
Well, those lessons are very instructive, I believe, for us.
I'll just mention briefly about Peter. We all know more about Peter's corrections, I believe, than John's corrections. For we remember well how that how that the Lord had to say to Peter, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desire to have thee, that he might sit thee as weak. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.
The Lord corrected Peter about what was about to lead to his dismal fall and denying his Lord and Master.
So he warns him, calls him so graciously by name, and he followed his work as an advocate until Peter he is truly.
And happily restored, though I've often thought, beloved, when Peter had denied the Lord, how the Lord turned and looked at Peter.
That one look.
More than.
A whole volume of words. Peter was there in company with the enemies of Christ, sitting at their fire and warming himself. So what happened?
He immediately went out. That one looked separated. Peter from the enemies of the Lord. We never find him among the enemies of the Lord again.
It broke his heart. It started a work of true self judgment that led to a full recovery and restoration. Now I had before me, as I said, also two sisters and how they went through the school of God and in the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Luke.
00:20:07
And the 38th verse.
And it came to pass as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received into her house, and she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving.
And came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bitter therefore that she helped me. Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha.
Lord careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken her.
Lord, I mentioned that I would consider two sisters in the school of golf.
And I'm sure we have.
Mary at the feet of Jesus.
In the In the intent of Luke Marriott, Jesus in the 11Th of John and Mary get the seed of Jesus in the 12Th of John.
Or she learned most precious and valuable lessons and sitting at the feet of Jesus.
And hearing his word. But we need to remember.
That Martha was just as much in the school of God as Mary was in the school of God.
They require different lessons, where Martha was something like Simon Peter, an impulsive person and getting out of her place indeed, whereas Mary was more of a spiritual woman like the beloved John.
But the Lord loves it tells us that he loved Martha and her sister Masters. He equally loved these sisters who had been such a comfort to him.
In his lonely pathway there at Bethany.
So we find that Martha would have robbed her sister.
Of the greatest privilege that is granted any of the Lord's own here in this world, and what is beloved, the greatest privilege we have here on earth, it's sitting at the feet of Jesus.
And hearing his word.
Oh, how wonderful it is that we can enjoy that privilege any place in this world where we live. Being at the feet of Jesus and hearing His Word. You know there are three things that are granted God's people.
That are very important.
One is the word of God, one is prayer, and the other is the assembling of ourselves together.
Now, we may not always be privileged to assemble ourselves where those that gather in the Lord's name around the blessed Lord of the other privileges will never be denied us.
Those two wonderful privilege sitting at the Lord's feet and hearing his word.
And engage in prayer, telling him our needs, telling him about all the things that.
Distress our hearts.
Will always have those. Even if we're laid aside in a bed of affliction, we still have those two blessed privileges.
Well, we find that Martha was ready to deny her sister those privileges, the privilege that she was enjoying.
Because it tells us here that Martha.
Was comfort cumbered? She made it a burden about much serving, or she was just carried away with service?
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And loving service is very precious, as I trust we may see farther on that. In the end, Martha's service was accepted, but Martha had to learn the lesson of that being cumbered, allowing these things to sow, absorb and fill our time.
That how we neglect a prayer and the work of God and remember that the service that Martha was engaged in was a service for the Lord too, and we might be very active in service. That seems very important because we're seeking to do gospel work or work among the children.
But we allow that to have such an.
Faith that it crowds out the time should spend in the Lord's presence.
Where he has worked before us and looking to him.
For health and guidance.
What a lovely thing it has the feet of Jesus and to hear his word.
I think it was dear Mr. Darby in that home of his, where doubtless he was just beginning to get the.
Recovery of the truth. He wrote this, he says, low at thy feet, Lord Jesus, this is the place for me. There have I learned deep lessons, truths that have set me free. Well, it's one thing to read the word, you know. Just study it as we would any other study to.
Try to get the main thoughts and of course we don't condemn.
Getting an outline for the.
Part of Timothy's instruction. Heaven outline of sound doctrine. But whatever way we we take up the word, beloved, may it be in that loneliness.
In the sense of our own nothingness, sitting at His blessed feet and letting Him through the Word speak to our inmost souls. You know God speaks to Him through His work. And that's the way we should read the Word, not just read it as we would.
Some ministry, but remember that when we're reading the Word that we're in the very presence of the Lord and that.
The Lord is present to speak to our souls and to our it may be, to instruct us.
Haven't you had the experience of sudden elbow worse suddenly coming as a as a strong correction?
Remember being.
I was about to make what would have been a very bad mistake one time, and one verse delivered me from making the mistake, and it was a verse in Colossians. Set your mind from things above. I was getting too much sticking up earthly things.
And that verse showed me that I was thinking up too much with earthly things and was the voice of the Lord. Or we all have had those experiences and how many times the Lord has used His word to correct us and to deliver us from a wrong path. But it's always when we're sitting.
Lowly at his feet, taking the low place in his presence.
Where if we are filled with our own importance or if we are allowing self will to.
To control our thoughts and feelings. We all miss his mind. There is a danger, you know, brethren, of making up our minds as to what we're going to do and then searching the Word to find some scripture that would.
Would.
Agree to what we are considering and then getting down and asking the Lord to bless it. What a danger that is.
00:30:00
But oh, if we're like Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing his words, we'll get corrections that will spare us from many from many A mistake and failure. Well, I'm sure we're all familiar with the 11Th of John.
And I'll not read the chapter, but just call attention to a few thoughts.
In that portion.
You remember how the sisters sent a message to Jesus? Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick.
Oh, the Lord was the tenderest.
Man that ever walked this earth. But he was also a divine man, and if he had been moved just by human compassion, he surely would have hastened as quickly as possible to Bethany, to those distressed sisters. But he waited until he had the mind of the Father, and then he went.
And you remember how Martha met the Lord before he reached the city.
And.
In the.
21St verse.
Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. I think I'll be able to call attention to what another brother mentioned, and that is that both these sisters said the same word to Jesus when they met him.
But we could put our believe right by the emphasis on a different word in what Martha said and what Mary said. Martha said, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. She said it in a complaining way. Lord, we sent for you. And if you had responded to our request.
Our brother would be still alive.
Well, Martha couldn't meet the Lord.
And she fell out to her.
Our insufficiency to meet the Lord. She wasn't in a state of soul, so she could meet the Lord.
And so we read that.
In the.
28 verse And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister, secretly saying.
The master is come, and calleth for thee.
I get this from our dear brother Billets writings.
That he didn't feel that the Lord told Mary in just so many words, youth, Martha, in so many words you go and call Mary.
Nor did Martha go with with a false report, but it was the fact that Martha felt in her soul that she couldn't meet the Lord and knowing that her more spiritual sister could meet.
The heart of the blessed Lord, she goes and whispers to her, The Master is come and call it for thee.
Well, as soon as Mary hears that message, it tells us that as soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to him.
We were speaking about both Martha and Peter being hasty in their ways. Haste may be very consistent when there is a definite call from the Lord, and it was a call from the Lord.
She waited until she received a call from the Lord, and then with all haste she goes to meet the Lord, the Jews said.
The Jews which the 31St verse then which were with her when they saw her in the house, and comforted her when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her saying.
He goes under the grave to weep there.
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Well, they didn't know the secret that instead of Mary going to the grave as they supposed.
Where to weep out her sad heart that she was going to meet the Lord?
Yes, beloved, she was going to meet the Lord, and Mary did meet the Lord.
And she comes and falls at the feet of Jesus and says the very same words that Martha said.
And the end of the 32nd verse. Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. I believe that.
Mary emphasized it in this way. Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died.
While Martha said, Lord, if thou hast been here, she put the emphasis I believe on heater and you notice this difference to and it's very important that what Mary said at the feet of Jesus. Martha did not say at the feet of Jesus. Mary had learned that precious lesson there when her sister would have robbed her of her privilege.
Of what it meant to sit at the feet of Jesus.
And to hear his word. And now at his blessed people, he says, Lord, if thou has been here.
Well, Mary really meets the Lord's heart, for he doesn't give any reply at all to what she says. But beloved, and Mary, meeting the heart of Christ, drew forth, what is more precious and more wonderful than all the words that were ever spoken here on earth, she drew forth.
The tears of the Son of God.
Yes, we have that word with just two. That verse was just two words.
Let's have spoken volumes to God's people through the ages. Jesus wept.
And he groaned in spirit. All the Lord traveled, as it were, through all the valley of the shadowed death, what death had brought into this sad world. Although he was on his way to raise Lazarus, which he did with mighty power. And there's something to notice here too, because we usually think, you know, that Martha would be the sole winner because she was one so active.
Service, but just look at.
Had the 45th verse. Then many of the Jews which came not to Martha, but to Mary, and it seemed the things which Jesus did to lead on him. For you see that on this occasion, instead of Martha being the soul winner, it was the one who was nearest to the Lord.
In communion with the mind of the Lord, that was used so that many.
Believed in Jesus.
Beloved, what a lesson for us. As our dear brother Harry Hale used to say, there is no substitute for communion.
No amount of activity, no matter of knowledge, will take the place.
Of that quiet, holy, sweet communion with our blessed Lord.
Well, now this was the time when most Martha and Mary were learning lessons in the school of God. Martha had to learn the lesson too, again when she objected to the rolling away the stone. He didn't have faith in what the Lord had told her, that He was the resurrection of the life.
And what the Lord said to Martha was.
Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou should see the glory of God.
Said I not unto thee or beloved, what words to penetrate into our souls.
Said I not unto thee. Have you forgotten his words? Have you forgotten the message that has come from his heart to you? Said I not unto thee.
And beloved, that the order in which the truth is taught, it doesn't say if when you see, then you will believe, but he says, if thou shalt believe, thou shalt see the glory of God. Man says, prove to me and then I believe the word of God is believed, and then you will see. I know that I love it how we have seen.
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The mighty blessings of God as we just quietly and simply trusted and rested.
On his precious word. Well, now the last lesson. Maybe I shouldn't say lesson in the 12Th chapter. It's more.
A scene where the lessons are learned.
But we have to be careful. I believe, even in saying that we have learned our lesson.
Because if we were to dare to say, well, I've learned my lesson, I will never do that again, that is.
We're likely to do the very thing again. But if the lesson is this, beloved, that we have learned through our trials and maybe sad fears and maybe a fault, and the Lord in grace has come in, if we have learned our own utter weakness so that we just say, I'm a poor helpless thing, Lord, I just have to depend.
On your help, I cannot go on without you if we've learned the lesson.
Of our utter weakness and our absolute dependence on him. That's very precious.
But we see the outcome in the 12Th chapter of the lessons these two dear sisters had learned, because in the 12Th chapter it says in the second verse. There they meet him a supper, and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of them that sat at a table with him, then took Mary a pound of ointment.
A spikenard, very costly and anointed his feet with her hair.
And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
And that beautiful, those three in that family at Bethany, each in a distinct place.
That was according to the Lord's mind, and here Martha's service is not condemned.
She had learned not to put service before Communion, and now the Lord could use and value her service.
Without a rebuke or reproof. And Mary had learned through.
Her experience at His blessed feet, first learning from His Word, and then at His feet in her sorrow to take the alabaster box.
And pour it on those blessed feet that had trod Earth's weary pathway on his way to the cross.
And fill the whole house with a fragrance.
Of the ointment. Oh, what a beautiful scene it is. And Lazarus, the one who had lain in death and whose body was corrupt.
In corruption.
Now sitting at table with him.
Expression of communion, Martha.
Was in service.
Mary seen as the expression of worship or that precious ointment that filled the house with its sweetness, just like the heart was filled with Christ growing up in worship and praise.
To our blessed Lord. And then in Lazarus you see one sitting at table.
In communion, where the blessed Lord? Well, what a sad thing that even on an occasion like this there was a Judas Iscariot.
Who found fault with Mary spending so much?
On the precious body of the Lord Jesus. And sad to say, we find in and we read the other gospels. Maybe here I just haven't read it lately, that they all agreed with Judas Iscariot. Isn't that strange that Judas could become the leader of the other disciples?
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But the Lord doesn't have to reprove Martha on this occasion, does he?
How truly Martha had learned her lesson. She doesn't complain about her sister spending this ointment on the feet of the Lord and wiping His feet with her hair.
Martha had learned her a lesson in the school of God was lesser than precious for her. Mary had learned the lesson of the preciousness of Christ himself and even the disciples, John included, sad to say.
And Peter were not in communion at this occasion, but here too, dear sisters.
Were in communion with the mind of Christ, the mind of God the Father.
On this occasion, oh beloved, what an important thing it is to consider that we are in the school of God, and may we let Him teach us the lessons, may we not?
Seek to avoid the reproofs, the corrections that we surely need in our pathway as we go on through the scene.
Moses and the School of God
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Could we turn to Acts chapter 6, Chapter 7? I should say Acts Chapter 7, verse 22. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds. And when he was full 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel, and seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him.
And avenged him that was oppressed and smoked the Egyptians.
For he supposed that his brethren would have understood how that the Lord by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. And the next day he showed himself under them as they strolled, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sir, ye are brethren, why do we wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who may be a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me as thou didst?
Yesterday then fled Moses at this thing and was a stranger in the land of Median.
Where he begat two sons.
Well, our brother has just been bringing before us some beautiful thought in connection with the school of God in the lives of these different ones, Peter and John, and also with Martha and Mary. And I was thinking how we also have some similar lessons in the life of Moses. And what I was thinking specially to was in spite of the fact that Moses didn't always act in a way that was.
According to the mind of God, yet God's faithfulness in connection with his people.
His desire to bless them. And I was thinking of these different instances that come in the life of Moses in this occasion and later in the wilderness, But this one. Here we find that Moses had gone along in the first part of his life and learned to be a great man in Egypt. Says he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.
We surely would have thought at this point in his life.
That he would have been most useful because he was fully accomplished later on, as we know, and God was going to use them. He even said he couldn't speak. But at this time he had no such feeling in his heart. He was very confident. He was mighty in words and deeds. He had, shall I say, the ability to lead and guide. And he thought that God could use all this that He had naturally.
And so it all began with a good motive, and I believe it shows us that we can do a right thing, at least desire to do a right thing, and not realize that there is much of the energy of the flesh in what we do.
It tells us here in the 23rd verse, when he was full 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. Wasn't this a good thing?
That he had a desire for the blessing of the people of God, a desire for their deliverance.
He saw them oppressed under the burdens in Egypt, and he wanted to be a help. And so it tells us that when he saw one of them suffer wrong, instead of acting in the Spirit of God, in the Spirit of Christ, we see him rashly taking and killing the Egyptians, undertaking to deliver in a way that he thought was the best, but it wasn't ordered of God.
And so it tells us that he flew the Egyptian in the desire to deliver his brethren. And it says he supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. And how often this has been so in our lives too. Something has turned up, something that we saw a person suffer wrong, something that we saw another, and we thought we should act to help.
That person to defend them. And perhaps we did the same thing as we find here with Moses.
And we thought others would understand and see that it was a right desire, but his brethren didn't understand. Well, how was this that his brethren didn't understand? Well, no doubt God had lessons for Moses to learn. Then after he had done this, he tried a second time. He wasn't going to give up. He wasn't going to be easily frustrated because he did love the people of God. He did love them and hate to see them oppressed.
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And so he tried a second time, and this time he he tried to set his brethren, he saw him quarreling among themselves, and he said, notice what he said.
The next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sir, ye are brethren.
Why do we wrong one to another? Here He undertakes to try and settle a quarrel between the people of God. And he tried to do it, as I say, out of love for the people of God, but they still didn't understand. And so he said, as it were, it's no use. It's no use. And so it says. He flared at that saying, and he went to the backside of the desert. He, so to speak, gave up any desire to help the people.
God, what was the use? They didn't appreciate Him, they didn't understand Him, They didn't see that He wanted to be a help. They didn't look at His heart, but God did. Nevertheless, God had His eye upon Moses and He had, as our brother has been bringing before us, lessons to learn in the school of God and brethren, I believe these are lessons for us too.
Lessons that we sometimes might have a right desire.
And go about it in the wrong way. And then because our efforts are unappreciated.
We do just what Moses did, we run away. As our brother remarked, when the disciples saw some others going away, the Lord turned and said, will he also go away? Peter said, to whom shall we go? Well, this was a great thing in the life of Moses and he he went away. He spent 40 years. That was a long time, wasn't it, in the school of God.
And all brethren, we are slow learners.
Everyone of us have to acknowledge that we learn so slowly. It takes so much to teach us our own nothingness, but also the wonderful fact that God is everything and that He does care for his people because Moses had forsaken them and gone to the backside of the desert and taken up the ordinary occupation of keeping sheep.
Why had God forgotten his people? Was he without a resource because Moses had forsaken them? Oh no.
The Lord loves his people. And that lovely verse that our brother read to us this morning was really what brought some of these thoughts before me. He read that verse having loved his own, which were in the world. He loved them under the end. And I was noticing that Mister Darby has a little footnote there which our brother intimated when he read it, that under the end doesn't have reference to time, but that he he loves them through every circumstance.
Through everything that might come up. And oh, how wonderful this is. Yes, the Lord loves his people through every circumstance that may come up. And so when this circumstance came up, did God give up his people because Moses forsook them and went to the backside of the desert? No, He had his eye upon them. And while the people were oppressed under these burdens and cried out to the Lord, the Lord heard their cry. He heard them.
And later on, after Moses had learned something in the school of God.
And perhaps there's a little thought, brethren, here in the fact that it says he begat two sons. I believe perhaps the thought is God teaches us in our own families certain lessons, lessons that he intends us to profit by so that we would have a better understanding of his people, because as we go through things and as Moses went through things.
In his family life, this was part of the school of God teaching him.
And fearing him so that he would be useful later on. And so after the 40 years had passed by and Moses had learned something of his own nothingness was emptied of himself was not going to try and set things right in his own wisdom or strength. Was not going to slay an Egyptian or try and settle something that he couldn't settle. He comes back and of God. But when the Lord appeared to him to send him back.
It's lovely what he said.
He said to Moses like this, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows and I am come down to deliver them to me. It's as if the Lord said to Moses, Moses, you didn't think that I was paying any attention to what was happening under.
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Among my afflicted people, you thought that you were the only one that could set them right. But I have seen all about it. I know everything that's going on.
And now, when you have learned that I am the only one who can come in and deliver, now I can use you. Now I can send you. But my eye has been on my people all the time. Having loved his own, which were in the world, He loved them under the end.
And so Moses that one, it tells us that they thrust away, saying, who made the ruler and a judge?
The Lord sent to be a ruler and a deliverer. Quite a difference. Isn't there a great difference between being a ruler and a judge and a ruler and a deliverer? It's very easy for us when a situation arises to try and judge the situation, and we often judge it wrongly because but we only have human wisdom. The Lord always judges rightly. But it's another thing to be a deliverer, another thing to be so before the Lord.
Looking to him and conscious of his love and care for his people, that when a circumstance arises that he can use us when we can't speak. For when Moses was about to be used, he was so humbled by the experiences that he said, I can't even speak. And the Lord had to say, Who made man's mouth? And he said, I'll be with thee and teach thee what to say.
What a difference had taken place.
And how wonderfully God used this man Moses, the same person as a ruler and a deliverer. And he goes back and.
Appears before Pharaoh and God uses them to deliver his people out of that land.
And it's lovely to see what it tells us in the 11Th chapter of Hebrews, that it comes down into personal thing to Moses when they leave Egypt. And it says by faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them. Moses had to realize that he was no better than the rest of the people. He needed to be under the shelter of the blood. And his first born was only sheltered through that blood, just the same as the others and.
Subjects of grace. We've all been saved by the same blessed Savior and by the same blessed work that was accomplished at Calvary. Without that, we would never be in the family of God, and without knowing Him as our Savior, surely we could never be used at all. Well, perhaps in some measure Moses learned of that lesson, that God was not going to use him in an energy of the flash as one who would try to set things right.
But as one who became conscious of the fact that the Lord knew everything, and that the Lord could use him when he was thoroughly and completely emptied of himself.
Now I'd like to turn to another circumstance in the life of Moses, and that's in Exodus chapter 3332. I should say Exodus chapter 32 and verse 31. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said.
All these people have been the great sin, and have made them gods of goals. Yet now if thou will forgive their sin, and if not blot me, I pray the out of thy book which thou hast written. And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now gold, lead the people onto the place which I have spoken unto thee. Behold mine Angel.
Before thee, nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And now in the next chapter, the 33rd chapter, and the 12Th verse. And Moses said unto the Lord, See that thou singest unto me, Bring up these people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou will send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight now.
I pray thee, if I have found grace in my sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in my sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hands.
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And now in the 34th chapter.
And the 29th verse. And it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai.
Where the two tables of testimony in Moses hand when he came down from the mount, that Moses wished not that the skin of his face shone.
While he talked with him, and when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone.
And they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him.
And Moses talked with them.
Well, here we find an entirely different attitude, surely in the heart of Moses not now trying to set things right and looking so harshly upon the people. And know what a different attitude. Surely we can say Moses had profited much in the school of God, and isn't it lovely when the people had sinned?
What do we find him doing in this case? How do we find him telling them that they shouldn't quarrel? Do we find him here killing an Egyptian? No, he says, I'll go up and I'll intercede for you with the Lord. What a lovely attitude we see here. How beautiful this very man. Surely we can see as our brother brought before us, that John was once a son of Thunder. But the grace of God rod in his heart and.
Calls us now the very man who had acted so rashly before. Isn't this lovely? He said, I'll go up and I'll intercede for you. And he was went Even so far as to say to the Lord that the people were not only dear to the heart of the Lord, but they had become dear to his heart. And he said, let me, I pray thee out of thy book and take this people. What a heart he had for the people of God.
What an intercession.
On their behalf, all brethren, this, I believe is so touching to each one of us. And had the people changed? Had they improved? Were things better? Oh no, He went up because they had failed. He didn't look for a change among the people of God that he looked to the one who changes not.
He looks to the one who loves his own to the end, the one who could say in Jeremiah, yeah, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. The one who could say in remnant days in Malachi the burden of the word of the Lord. By Malachi I have loved you, sayeth the Lord. Yes, Moses now had the thoughts of God about his people, and he went up to Interstate for them.
But when the Lord said Moses.
Now you go and lead the people, and I'll send my Angel.
All Moses fell his own utter incompetency, and as our brother brought before us, we never, can, never should come to the point where we think we have learned our lessons, or that now we're capable of doing something because we have learned certain things. Moses here, in spite of all that he had learned, we find him quite sensible of the fact that he couldn't do anything of himself.
And so he said to the Lord.
He said, You have said that I have found grace in thy sight, and you told me to lead the people, and how can I do it? You haven't told me how I'll be able to do it. And how lovely the Lord's answer. My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And then he said, if thy presence go not with me.
Carry us not a pen, he said. I can't do anything of myself. May we ever have the sense of this in our souls, brethren.
We can't do anything of ourselves. There's no man of us. No matter whether we're learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians or not, no matter whether we've had 40 years in the school of God, we still can't do anything of ourselves. We still are utterly dependent for every step and every move upon the one who has promised this. My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
Until we find Moses there in the presence of God.
He receives the 10 commandments and this I believe is instructive to God hadn't changed his standard because He went on and grace with the people and grace never overlooks and grace never looks lightly upon sin. And the tables of stone the second time were the very same words as were on the 1St tables that were broken. God hadn't changed his standard, I say.
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Not those tables of stone were to be put inside the Ark and the mercy seat was on top of the ark.
And so the eye of God could rest upon the blood that was sprinkled on the mercy seat and go on with an earring. People. Oh, how lovely this was. And this is what made Moses face shine. This is why when he came down the first time with the tables of stone, his face wasn't shining. No, the people were worshipping the golden calf. He broke the tables of stone, but now he went up. He interceded for them.
He received the promise that the Lord would go with him. He received the instructions in connection with the building of the Tabernacle and the mercy seat. And now he comes down with the same tables of stone, but they were placed in the ark, and there the Lord provided a place outside the camp, far off from the camp, where he could meet with the people.
And so Moses face shine, and his face shone so much that the children of Israel.
Asked him to put a veil over his face. Yes. And I believe if you and I are really in his presence, it'll make our face shine too. It'll make us conscious of the grace that is in his heart that can go on with his people. For I say again, he never changes his love to his people. He loves them through every circumstance, everything that's ever happened in your life or mine, or whether it's in the assembly where we are.
Among God's assemblies, nothing changes his heart toward his people. He loves them through it all. And if we're going to represent Him, we need to have his heart toward his people in order to go on in the place that he would have us. And so this is how Moses was being used of God. Now let us turn over to Numbers, to the 10th chapter, and we see a third circumstance in Moses.
I'm sorry, it's the 20th of Numbers, the 20th chapter of Numbers.
And the sixth verse.
The people had been complaining against God, and says in the sixth verse. And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly under the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation, And they fell upon their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou and thy bra ere and thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water.
And thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rocks, so that thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts thirst a drink. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock. And he said unto them, Here now, you rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his rod.
And with his rod he smote the rock twice, and the water came out abundantly.
And the congregation drank, and their beasts also, And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, because he believed not me, not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel. Therefore ye shall not bring his congregation into the land which I have given them. So here we find something also. There is a sad note about this.
And yet there is also a very blessed side to it also.
Here we find the children of Israel murmuring. The wilderness was a wearisome thing to them. They have been 40 years and 10. It was no doubt a difficult and hard journey all through the wilderness, and they were beginning to get tired of it. And perhaps as we approached the time of the Lord's return, we feel increasing problems and difficulties. We feel that as the end draws nearer, it's not.
Easier, it seems to get more difficult and so it was here. So the people murmured and the Moses and Aaron went in before the Lord, and the Lord said as it were, and there is provision for everything that takes place. I still love my people. And I might say that this rod, when he says take the rod, that was the priestly rod.
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You remember God gave that rod that budded.
Figure of the priesthood that could carry the people through the wilderness. And Moses took this rod and the Lord said, you take that rod in your hand and you go to the rock and you'll just have to speak to the rock and the water will come out. The Lord Jesus was smitten once at Calvary. He bore the wrath and judgment of God. He exhausted it and the rock doesn't need to be smitten again. He has borne the judgment.
And blessing has been thoroughly and fully and completely opened up through what Christ has done.
That he only needed to speak to the rock. And brethren, we can go and speak to the rock ourselves. We can talk to the one who died for us on Calvary. He's living for us. There's our great high priest and our advocate. And so Moses and Aaron started out watching. All their spirits became a little bit stirred. And when they came to the rock, it tells us that Moses had another rod in his hand. Not the rod.
God said, God said take thee rod. But Moses did something different. He took his rod, He took his rod. The rod I suppose that he used to smite the river. He took that and with that rod he smoked the rock twice and he turned to the people and he said, must we fetch you water out of this rocky rebels? He lost his patience with the people of God. They tried his spirit so much that it tells us he spake unadvisedly.
With his lips. And God was grieved. Why? Well, because He didn't sanctify him among the people. God's heart hadn't changed toward his people. All her murmurings and all are complaining, and all the things they did hadn't changed His heart. He had laid a basis by which he could bless them. And that basis was the work that Christ has done. And because of this, He had a way that in spite of all their failure, they could.
Blessed, fully blessed. But Moses is a servant here. He failed to get hold of this. And brethren, what an easy thing for us to do. Do you and I get stirred? Do we speak unadvisedly with our lips because someone has said or done something? Well, certainly the people were wrong here. And certainly you say, well, it was pretty hard for Moses not to lose his patience, and I'm sure it was. I would have probably done worse.
But Moses lost his patience just once. And God said Moses, you can't lead the people into the land. You can't. You just lost your patience once with the people because God doesn't lose his patience with his people. He loves them. He loves them through everything. He loves them under the end. But there's a lovely side to it, that alone Moses did lose his patience and smite the rock twice and call the people.
It didn't change the heart of God and the water flowed out abundantly.
God didn't say, well, Moses, because you failed. Now that you've spoiled it for all the people, Oh no, isn't this lovely? Brethren, we fail. We fail those who seek to perhaps help the people of God, but he never fails. There's a great high priest that's sitting there at God's right hand. There's an advocate to restore. There's one who threw everything, loves his people. He has lessons to teach us, but he's the same.
Yesterday and today and forever. And so in the circumstances that arise.
Perhaps these three things are lessons for us. First of all, we see trying to set a situation right in the flesh, and it failed the second time. We see one who went up and interceded for the people of God, willing to have his own name blotted out, that those people might be blessed, and God used him to give all the instructions for the Tabernacle. God said that He would be the one to lead them through the wilderness.
He did, and he came down with a shining face in this occasion. But when these things troubled him and he lost his patience by the Lord said you can't lead them into the land, Moses, you can, because you haven't sanctified me. But still he brought his people in, He cared for them, He loved them. And brethren, He'll bless his people through us if we keep looking to Him, and without us if we don't.
He loves his people, I say, having loved his own, which were in the world. He loved them under the end. May these lessons that our brother brought before us and these two from the life of Moses and their practical effect with us, we can expect, as the wilderness journey draws to a close, that things will not be easier. There will be things to try, our patients, the whole world moving at such a pace as it is.
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As that's our nerves on edge as people say.
And how can you help it? Yes, we can help. But we have a great high priest, we have an advocate, we have one who loves us and who loves each one of His own in our hearts and her more. And to his thoughts toward His people, so that we may be given grace to continue in the past till He comes.
Philippians 3:1
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
You might start reading from verse from verse 8 to get the connection.
They doubtless, and I count all things but lost 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, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
But I may know Him and the power of his resurrection.
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.
Not as though I had already attained either. We're 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.
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.
Where do we have already attained? Let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing.
Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them as walked, so as you have us for an example.
For many wars, of whom I've told you often, and I'll tell you even waiting, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.
Who then does destruction, whose God as their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, to mind earthly things?
Where our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our wild 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.
The first two expressions of this verse and the first verse that we've read.
Our most important for importance for us to notice and I think it would be helpful perhaps.
To those who are younger to have just a word or two on this subject of righteousness, but.
First of all, the expression can be found.
In him, I believe that's the character of this.
Particular chapter to be found in him. Everything else is set aside to be found in him. That's in Christ. But he's now on high, and we learn elsewhere that our life is hid with Christ in God.
I know this is a wilderness epistle, but still the truth remains. Our life is his.
With Christ in God.
The.
Evil.
The disease that had gotten into.
This assembly.
Was true probably of all assemblies and is true today throughout the profession of Christianity, and that is attaching importance to the flesh.
Attaching importance to man.
And I believe that.
Here it isn't exactly a question of sins, but it's a question of righteousness.
Are we found in Him and in Him alone? Now this is a good subject, I believe, to consider for our dear young people, because.
Sometimes it takes years for the soul to get free and to see that they're found in Christ alone.
We're so used to attaching importance to self and to what we can do, and we apply it in the things of God.
In the 10th chapter of Romans we have the two righteousnesses mentioned.
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It might be well to notice these for a moment.
5th verse.
For Moses described with the righteousness which is of the law.
That the man that doeth those things shall live by them.
Now the righteousness which is of the law depends upon man.
This is not to be found in Him. As it says, you can't mix the two. They don't mix. If it's a question of righteousness, it either has to be that righteousness which depends on man.
Righteousness.
Or it has to be a righteousness that God himself gives us, a free gift, one of the two. We can't mix the two.
And so the apostle is putting it very plainly in our chapter when he says.
And be found in Him, in him not having our own righteousness.
Now if you'll notice that the man here, that the man that does these things shall live in them or by them. And so as long as a man lives and walks in righteousness before God, he would live.
But have you ever found a man like this?
And so the apostle outwardly manifested this.
I suppose as well as anybody ever could he kept all the ordinances.
But there was still something hidden inside of him that condemned him, and he knew it.
And that was that. His heart lusted. Men couldn't see that.
But still his righteousness would not be complete.
Unless.
This was eliminated.
And here we see a nature that's contrary to God, and there isn't any righteousness that can come from the first man. But now if you'll read the next verse in Romans 10. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise.
Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above.
Or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring up Christ again from the dead?
But what saith it? The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the Word of Faith which we preach. Let us thou shalt confess with thy mouth. The Lord Jesus shall believe in thine heart, that God has 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.
What the Scripture says, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. So here we have then a righteousness in which we can be found in him. It's the righteousness of God.
It fits heaven, but we receive it through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, not through any works of the flesh.
Now in the 15th chapter of Genesis, you see Abraham, and God takes him out, as it were, on a starry night, and he tells him to look into the heavens.
And although Abraham had no child, God said to him as he looked at the stars. Can you count their number?
Well, of course he couldn't. So shall I seed be? It says he believed God and he counted it.
To him for righteousness.
Now we know later that he was tested in the 22nd chapter.
With the Son that God had given him, and he was told to offer him up.
And so he did.
That is he. He went about to do it.
And we have their substitution brought in. But still Abraham was willing to do what God said because he believed in the God of resurrection.
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And so he believed God, and that's the whole point here. We have here righteousness in which we can be found.
In Christ.
And it's entirely separate from any.
Human endeavor and we must never mix the two.
We might do well, beloved, to stress this word in a little farther.
The standing of the believer is in Christ now that cannot be touched.
For each one who belongs to Christ stands before God in all the perfection of his beloved Son.
There's not a stain there.
Nothing can be added to it nor taken from it that's outstanding.
Of course, our state varies according to chameleons and.
Keeping of short accounts before the law.
Well, this is a wonderful truth in him, found in him.
Our position.
And it's all based upon the work of another.
As we mentioned yesterday that the Lord Jesus has dealt, we might repeat that if you would permit it. The Lord Jesus has dealt definitely with the question of sin.
Definitely and eternally with the question of sin.
As its concerns, its root, and its principles belong, may we ever remember that it seems so very precious to my soul. But He has borne our sins in His own body on the tree.
And so the apostle goes on to speak of that.
That we being dead indeed unto sin.
Might live unto righteousness.
By whose stripes we've been healed.
And the apostle goes on, For we were indeed a sheep going astray.
But are now returned unto the shepherd and Bishop.
Of our souls, this is our portion, beloved.
In him.
Isn't that lovely? Kill that before he speaks of our being in Christ.
So beautifully that he says this about Christ, the one in whom we are found. He fell for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
May we just we that word excellencies.
What a volume that opens to our souls as we view that Blessed One from deathly owns Manger to the Cross.
And into the glory excellences of the knowledge of Christ.
That's what led the apostle to count all things in this thing. But lost. And now the amazing. The wonderful.
Blessed thing is that in that one in whom we see all those excellencies.
The one in whom God now sees us.
In his presence.
Not in the old man, not in the old standing at all. That's all the spoils of and gone. Think of God looking down upon 4 creatures like you and me and seeing us in his beloved Son. Excellencies of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. And he says.
Martin, Lord, My Lord.
Well, it's just what Brother Lambin bought before us in the 10th of Romans. Thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus is really Jesus as Lord.
All the apostle on that one as Lord, when he met him on the road to the masters, he said, Who art thou, Lord?
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But you know, he never ceased to own that one as his Lord.
Was not only in that way that he was saved, but throughout his whole life he was owning that one, the authority of that man in the glory. And that's really what keeps us along the way. What a wonderful thing it is to have one like the Lord Jesus Christ.
To our surrender, our whole lives and lives.
Our whole pathway down here.
Into his blessed hands Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. And such was the effect of that knowledge of that blessed one, that things down here in this world became very cheap in the history. And his estimation He counted them, but lost all for the excellencies of that blessed one.
And to think then of what a standing now he possesses before God, and that righteousness in which he will be found in that coming day, that is hastening on. How, if Paul could have attained the perfect human righteousness down here, and he came the nearest to attaining it all over, our brother mentioned he had a covetous heart.
Condemned him that, for they could have attained a perfect human righteousness when he compared that righteousness.
That.
That he if he had a thing, when compared to the righteousness which he possessed in Christ.
Why it was nothing? Why he just looks upon it as the most compensable things that could be possibly considered. Couldn't think of any more contemptible way to speak.
Of his human righteousness He counted it, but done that he might win Christ.
I suppose.
In The Prodigal Son we have something that illustrates this.
The sun went out into the far country.
And he went because there was that insubmissive spirit on his part. Shout Will. And it's very leaving home was an expression of what was in his heart.
And he goes into the far country, and he serves the lust of the flesh. He lives for himself, and he comes back home in rags.
Well, I suppose those rags represent.
What he had to stand in before the father when he came home.
Well, he couldn't go into the Father's house in those rags.
And I'm sure he realized that by this time too, because he says I'm no more worthy to be called thy son.
Absolutely unworthy.
He must have felt for this time that he had.
No claim on any place in the Father's house or before the Father. But what does the Father do? He asked the servant to bring out the best rule and put it on him. And he's not fit to go into the Father's house until he has the best robe on. Well, what is that best robe? It's Christ.
And so we find the prodigal son he's found in that best role.
And he sits for the Father's house and he goes in there. But what about the rags? Will they all have to be left behind? They have to be completely judged. There's no value in them at all. He cannot stand before the Father. He cannot stand in the Father's house, in those rags. He must have the best robe on.
And so everyone who expects to stand in the glory, and this is what the apostle Paul is looking forward to, the glory.
This is what he has before him, reaching down to the goal, pressing down to the goal for the prize in resurrection, when he will be with the Lord Jesus Christ and be like him and have that standing in Christ.
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Well, are we standing or trying to stand at anything else but in Christ and the righteousness that is ours in Him? Well, if we're trying to gain merit or favor, standing before God in anything else but in Christ.
We are seeking the wrong thing.
Yes, I believe the way it's brought before us in this portion is in an objective way, because he doesn't say that he has found Christ or that he has been found in him. But it's in an objective way, and the truth of it should lay hold of our souls and so that all practical Christian life flows from them. I believe the great error of the early church was to bring in that afterwards.
In Galatians, for instance, they made the law a rule of life.
Not the way of salvation, but a rule of life after salvation, which was a practical denial of the fact that they already had righteousness in Christ. And I believe this is the great thing for us, brethren, and the point of this chapter. It's an objective side of things. God would have us lay hold of this standing into which we have been brought, and that the whole of Christian life flows from this.
So that we do it as something that we enjoy in our souls, as Paul did.
And anything that he did to please the Lord was not in any way to gain a righteousness. He already had that he desired that he might do it out of the knowledge that he already possessed this and the continual enjoyment, shall I say in his soul that he that he was found in him, and this was a constant thing. I believe that Christendom.
In general, has.
Lost the sense of this, and I believe we too are in danger of losing the sense of it, so that we get occupied with external and outward things, as though this were going to produce something before God. I believe that if we lay hold of in our souls as wonderful as blessed truth, where we stand right now in Christ.
Not then the practical result will be as it was with Paul all he said, if I have been brought into this place.
Then my whole desire is that I might have him for my object, that I might have him for my gains, that I might be conformed to him because he had already enjoyed this and he desired it should be a continual thing in his soul. And unless we have the sense of this in our souls, and our Christian life is with the desire to please the Lord, it will just be even after we're saved.
Produce the righteousness of our own, and then we begin to perhaps even both before our brethren, like Joe, for instance. God said that Job was a perfect and an upright man. Well, why did the Lord deal with him? Because it was his own righteousness and he was proud of that. And he didn't realize how much there was himself, even though he was a man of faith.
And so with us, unless what we do flows from the knowledge of what the Lord has done for us.
Affection for him and having him as our object. It is only human righteousness and has no practical value before the Lord.
With further reference to the prodigal, if we may, it's interesting to notice the father did not tell the boys to take the filthy rags off.
No doubt he did. We wouldn't imagine the farmer putting the best Rover with a filthy rags, but he was not told to do that. There must be a reason for it, and I believe it's simply this, that the Father would not occupy an Oxford. Negative blessings, the things that we lose. But the positive blessings, the best room, the ring, the shoes and the flattered car. All the things we get when we come to Christ. Not the things we lose. The filthy rags, they're worthless. But what do we get?
Coming to him everything that the heart of God can give us.
Thinking too, brother Gladding that.
The The elder son had filthy rags too, but he didn't know it. That was the trouble. The prodigal had come to the realization that he had filthy rides, and when he did he was glad to receive the best rope. But the trouble with the elder son was that he had filthy rags and didn't know it, and thought he was perfectly acceptable in the father's house as he was, and he was hurt because his father had disturbed these robes upon the other.
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And yet he didn't feel his own need of it. And that was what Paul was before he was saved. He wasn't the prodigal, he was the elder son. But God brought him to the end of himself too. And he got the best role, didn't he? And the Chronicle had a little pride in his heart too. He says make me one of my hired servants, while he is no more fit to be a high servant than anything else. So he still had a little pride in his heart.
And that brings us to verse 10. But, brethren.
That I may know him.
What shall we say?
The Christians object is to know Christ.
The Christians object is to know Christ.
May I use a little illustration from Spanish history?
It's a simple one.
2 Kings Spanish kings went to war.
One of them had an only son.
The one who had the only son was defeated and the son was thrown into the dungeon.
And there he remained for two years.
His life Epping out, the victorious king suddenly thought upon him and ordered that he would be brought out.
And that he would come from the dungeon to his throne under one condition that he would carry through the streets of the city.
On a black tray, a glass of milk.
Is the object there was.
To arrive at the goal without spilling a drop of the milk behind him were his. As we say in Spanish, he's verdugos, those who would have executed him.
On both sides of him were the admiring throngs, and ahead of him the throne of the king, and to his great surprise.
He said how did you ever make it without spilling a drop? And then it was that, he said, Sire.
Behind me was death on both sides of me.
Distractions.
But ahead of Maine life, life there was the goal, beloved ahead of the poor man.
The distractions which must have been multiple on such an occasion as this.
Had no effect upon.
Neither the men behind him, with their swords drawn to chop him down if he'd spilled a drop of the mill. But before him, beloved, was life.
The object.
This is what we have.
The believers object is to know Christ. Be thou the object, bright and fair, to fill and satisfy the heart.
My hope to meet thee in the air, and never more from thee apart that I may undistracted be to follow.
Serve and wait for thee. Now there's one of the Greek philosophers gave a statement that the much used even today been handed down and it says know thyself.
Well, that is popular in the world. Know thyself.
That is, don't deceive, be deceived about yourself, know your weaknesses, know your abilities, and avoid your weaknesses and develop your abilities well. That's what the world takes for their standards and all thyself.
Love how very different in in the Christian life.
Instead of no thyself, as the apostle says, that I may know him to know Christ.
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That's our that's the way we learn our weaknesses instead of thinking we're something, the more we look into the ways of Christ.
The poor folks we have about ourselves. I'm thinking of a verse in the 15th chapter of First Corinthians.
Where the Apostle Paul is writing.
He says.
In the eighth verse, after Speaking of those who have seen the blessed Lord, this is First Corinthians 15.
He says. And last of all, he would have seen of me also as the one born out of due time.
I am least of the apostles.
That are not need to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God, but by the grace of God I am what I am and His grace was bestowed upon me was not in vain.
Of the more he discovered the wonders of the grace of God, the lower he went down in his own estimation. Here he speaks of himself as the least of the apostles.
Why and why he felt that he was left than the least of all things. So the more we ignore Christ.
The less we think of ourselves and the more our thoughts and hearts are filled with the delight and wonders of the blessed Person of God's beloved Son. What a word for us if that was the controlling.
Influence in the apostles life to know Christ. We couldn't raise a higher standard for ourselves, for what are we compared to a man with the gifts of the apostle Paul? And if that was his standard, surely we can take the same standard for ourselves.
To know him loyal to lovers, that requires self judgment, doesn't it?
Not allowing the things to go on in our lives that in their communion and and disturb our enjoyment of Christ and it requires diligence, the reading of the word that going over in these precious life of the Lord Jesus. Well, we go from the whole range of Scripture right from the Garden of Eden.
Till we have find the marriage of the Lamb, it's all Christ, isn't it? And not only reading his blessed life.
I believe that that is especially when manner for our souls, but all to discover in all those wonderful types in the Old Testament, those shadows, those wonderful height of our blessed Lord. May that be more and more the occupation of our lives.
And I was interested Brother Barry and reading as a young man a statement made by Mr. Darby.
He said it so impressed me, I memorized him. Men taught of God go forth to a place of service.
Knowing their own nothingness.
It was a comment here on this portion. I hope I've quoted it correctly. Men thought of God go forth to a place of service.
Knowing, realizing that's the word. Realizing their own nothing.
Well, that's what he says and he I think it's a hundred of the 332nd him that we are nothingness may know, and ever to thy glory be walking in faith while here below. That's one of the last hymns that Mister Darby wrote during the end of his journey.
I suppose someone might have asked the Apostle Paul the question.
You say that I might, I may know him.
Paul, I thought you knew the Lord Jesus Christ already.
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Well, of course you did, but that isn't the point here. The Lord Jesus Christ is before him as an object, and he wants to know him better.
Now I say this because sometimes when a soul is saved, he says, well now I know the Lord Jesus Christ is my Savior, and he stops right there and he sort of settles back on his oars, as it were.
And he sort of floats along.
He rests back and takes it easy.
As though knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior is always the ultimate.
No, the Apostle Paul has the Lord Jesus Christ before him here now.
As His object, He had him before himself all the time, and not only as before himself. Hear this scene, but he sees him up in the glory, and the Lord Jesus Christ is, as it were, ahead of him or before him continually, and he's reaching forth onto that state.
In resurrection, when he will be with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he's thinking about growth growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
He wants to know him better. I wonder if we're sufficiently exercised about this. We think, well, we're saved now and we look upon the Lord Jesus Christ as a sort of a fire escape from hell and judgment, and we're satisfied with that. The apostle Paul was not satisfied with that.
In that department, go ahead. It's nice to see that he doesn't say the truth of his resurrection, but the power of his resurrection. And that's what we need. We know a certain truth, but does it have its power over our lives? And so I was thinking of the three words in this verse, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, and conformable unto his death.
The power of His resurrection that I believe is laying hold of the fact that we have died with Christ.
Now the death of Christ is not merely the putting away of our sins, but at the end of all that we were before God.
And saw the power of his resurrection brings in a new life. We possess a new life. We're associated with the one who rose and Christ himself is our life. But then it says the fellowship of his sufferings and realizing that we have that new life now. What kind of a life did the Lord Jesus live here below?
Why He lived a life that fully glorified his Father as man. Here we possess that life.
As the truth of that lays hold of our souls, then, as we have here, there's the fellowship of his sufferings.
As seeking to walk in the power of that new life down here as He did, there is that happy communion. For communion and fellowship are the same word. And suffering to us then becomes a joy, because walking in His company we have that joy in which the Lord Jesus himself walked. And where did that path lead? Well, it led to death.
This world rejected that testimony, and Paul desired as the object of his soul.
And that he might lay hold of these three things, and I believe they are the great thing for our Christian life. And let me say them again, the the power of his resurrection, that we have died and risen with Christ and possess a new life in him. But then as we walk here in this world, we seek to walk in the path and he in which he walked. And then there is the fellowship, the communion, walking in his company.
Suffering as he did because he was rejected here and then, it may lead to death. It may lead to as as it did to Paul, suffering even to death for Christ sake. But that was only a joy to his soul, because he would be more like the one who was his object. And that was the whole desire of his heart. Pardon me, brother.
This is all very interesting that you and Brother Anderson have been bringing before us.
I was thinking in connection with it though, the remark of our brother Barry about.
The lovely pictures we have in the Old Testament.
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And how applicable they are?
Although types never fully set forth these things, yet they do give us clues when they help us.
Now in the second chapter of Second Kings, we won't take the time to look at it, but I'll just recall a few thoughts. We see Elijah, who is about to go up, who no doubt is a little picture to us there of the Lord Jesus. He goes with Elijah.
I believe it definitely states he goes with Elisha because it was the experience of Elisha that was.
Be seen there and they start from Gilgal. Now that's the Gilgal up in the plains and the mountains. They make their way down to Bethel and it says the two went together.
The two went together. There were others there, the sons of the prophets, but they don't seem to benefit by it. But the two went together and they go down to Jericho and then they go down to Jordan. Well, that's what we have here because the path is set before us if we're going to follow Christ.
Is going down to this point death? It's it's.
To be occupied with the Lord Jesus in the path that he took.
But it's lovely to see that once Elijah goes into the heavens.
That Elisha begins to follow this path in the reverse order, and that's the way we now discover these things. First of all, he starts at Jordan, and as he crosses Jordan, he crosses it in the power of his master.
That's the power of the new life and.
His pathway from then on as he passes on to Jericho.
To Bethel and then to Gilgal and the 6th chapter, I think it is the 4th chapter we find this pathway is strewn with blessing.
Yet no doubt the doubt is the type of Christ himself in a way, but still it's a picture of the believer who has this object before him. He said that marvelous vision, as it were, remaining with him of one who had gone up, and that's what the apostle has before him here. He had never seen Christ except as the glorified Christ.
And that remains with him, and this is what governs his pathway.
He's he has before him this object, and he wants to be so much like him, even conformed unto death, so that he'd be like his master.
Oh, there are two ways.
In connection with the sufferings that the apostle speaks of in his writings.
One is suffering for Christ and the other is suffering with Christ.
Now when the Lord took up Saul of Parsons, he told Ananias he.
He would give him to to see how much he could suffer for it. And so we find that the character, the sufferings of Christ were experienced by the apostle and his ministry, and his going out with the gospel. The Lord was scourge. What foe was scour was scourge and beaten if they took up stones to cast?
Paul was stoned and oh anyway, he suffered.
All the long course that he took in his pathway of service, he was suffering for Christ. But he does have another character of suffering that he speaks of and we can all share in that character of suffering. It's been the 8th of Romans, he says in the 17th verse.
Of Romans 8. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be, that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in earth.
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Oh, there is a character of suffering.
It isn't just the same as martyrdom or imprisonment and so on. That's very definitely suffering for Christ. But suffering with Christ is sharing the feelings, the compassions of the blessed Lord in the very scene through which he passed in such.
Devotion to his Father's will.
Well, we could think of it in many ways. On one occasion the apostles fell through and Speaking of all the persecution that he passed through, and he said as and also that which cometh upon me daily, the care for all the churches that was rather suffering with Christ, to have the feelings of Christ.
About that which he loved and gave himself for the churches.
Bribe. Well, if we have that, if we are going on with that character of sufferings, we feel the state of things amongst our dear people when we see them being robbed and cheated out of their hire of lifting. Does it paint our heart when we see God's children turn the side of the distress?
Us. And then when we think of this poor perishing world, do we get hardened in our thoughts as to the state of things in this lost world?
Or do our hearts go out in pity and longing for the perishing about us and even the inanimate creation? Do we? Do we feel the misery? What a world of suffering and and misery this poor world is in? Will God feel that?
Intensely. And if we are?
That suffering with Him we have the feelings of Christ and connection with all we pass through.
In this bad world that we're soon to leave and join our Blessed Lord and the glory He has gone before to prepare. Such has produced brethren some of our most notable hymns.
Suffering with Christ. I'd like to quote you one portion written by one who suffered most of her life. He knows the bitter, weary way, the endless strivings day by day, The heart that weeps, the soul that prays. He noted all He knows. Your heart so full of bliss.
That whilst on earth, our joys we miss, we still can bear it.
Feeling this, he noted all. There may be someone here passing through times of suffering.
Vicariously beloved, we never can do that. There's only one who's done this one, the Lord Jesus, but there is the suffering through with him. Some of us, some of we old missionaries have been through some of those trials. But after all, someone was mentioning to me, Brother Smith, you've been through quite a number of experiences.
Yes, and suffering, he said. Well, I said, brother, they're not worth mentioning. When you think of his love, they're not worth mentioning.
But there was a beautiful thought, wasn't it, from a poor suffering St. I believe we have in in David in his rejection and his mighty men that were associated with him in his rejection. Perhaps an illustration of this, of the suffering with Christ.
Now it's true that these people of Israel, these mighty men and others who went down to be with David in The Cave of a Taliban, companied with him all through the wilderness when he was fleeing from Saul.
They knew something about David. They knew about David killing Goliath and putting the army of the enemies to flight. They knew this. They knew David in a certain way, and perhaps they even knew in their hearts, in a secret way, that someday he would be king. Because even Jonathan knew that. He said, I know that you're going to be king.
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And then he speaks of himself as being next to him. But one thing about Jonathan, he never associated himself with David in his rejection. He went out to see him, but he went back to his home. He went back to his city.
Well, poor Jonathan, what happened to him? He never reigned with David. He never was associated with David in his Kingdom, because he was taken out of this sea before that time came. But these mighty men who went down to be associated with David and his rejection shared in that suffering.
David didn't forget them, He gave them a place in the Kingdom. They reigned with David, and some of them had special places.
Why? I've meant so much to David to have them associated with him in his suffering. He wasn't there alone and all. I don't believe we even begin to realize how much it means to the Lord Jesus Christ to have us associated with him in his suffering, to know something of the fellowship of his suffering.
Going forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
Lord has great value to the Lord Jesus Christ and I believe it's going to affect.
The place, the enjoyment we'll have in reigning with the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says to Timothy, If we suffer, we shall reign with him. Are we shunning the suffering, the fellowship of his suffering? Do we shun that?
We're going to miss out on the joy of reigning with him, not miss being with him, no.
Not miss being with him in the Kingdom, not miss being associated with him. But I believe we'll miss out on the full enjoyment of being associated with him then.
One has said that, the devil said to Paul, why, if you follow the court that you're following, why, why, they'll kill you.
Both of the apostle in reply, Well, just be that much more like Christ, for they flew him, they put him to ignominious death, and if he put me through an ignominious death, I'll just be that much more conformed.
To conform to Christ? So what? No matter what the devil suggested, or whatever he made to hinder the apostle, while they were all absolutely defeated by the fact that trait was the sole object that he might be like him and might have him.
For the goal at the end of the race, he was delivered unto death for Jesus sake, wasn't he?
That's connected with his ministry too, in the 4th chapter of the 2nd Corinthians. And so in Colossians there's a positive statement made of the believer, Ye are dead.
But the exercise in Romans is to reckon ourselves to be dead.
But then Paul could say also, I die daily, and that's an exercise for one who's serving Christ.
But it's as though God says to Paul, well, if you've taken this path now you can go all the way, and you're going to be delivered unto death for Jesus sake, so that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in your mortal body. Well, dear brethren.
What a wonderful place to be in that the apostle was in that Christ might be manifested in that in that mortal body.
A brother was telling me once of a certain kind of vessel that was made in China, the only place that was made of a certain kind of clay that was transparent and after the vessel was made.
They would put a light inside to see whether there were any dark places in it.
And then they would take in sandpaper the dark places, so that the light might be even all the way through that vessel. Well, I believe there's two ways to look at this. There is one side of it where the vessel is completely broken, but the other is that the life of Christ might be manifested in the vessel.
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And in all that evenness, now we know it isn't true with us. But I believe that the Spirit of God doesn't work with the believer.
That the dark places might be erased, that the light might shine evenly and clearly through the vessel, so that Christ himself might be magnified in these bodies of ours.
And the glorious it's nice to see what it says about the heavenly city, that when it comes down, says her life was like unto a Jasper stone, clear as crystal. There all the redeemed glorified with Christ. And there is nothing that hinders the outlaw of that light which illuminates the whole earth, and it flows out when he is glorified in His Saints.
Well, He's seeking to produce that now in our lives. It requires the breaking down of the vessel, because we have the old nature within us, and there's always something of the ways of God necessary with every one of us so that the light might shine out. But it will not be necessary up there, will it? Because then we'll be fully like Him and the hindrances will be removed.
Three occasions where he says I am ready.
1St chapter of Romans, he says I'm ready to preach the gospel, ready for service.
In the 21St chapter of the Acts, verse 13 he said, I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die of Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And in Second Timothy 4.
In verse six, he said, Brian now ready to be offered, ready for service, ready for suffering, ready for sacrifice in spite of all the opposition of Satan against him. In connection with what we were just saying here too, I believe that it's the thought in this 26th, in this 12Th verse of our chapter, not as though I had already attained either. We're already praying. The word used, I believe, is different from the word.
Used in the 15th verse. In the 15th verse it's the thought of full grown. But in the new translation here it's either we're already perfect. That is, when we get home to glory, we'll be perfected. The spirits of just man made perfect. When we get to glory, then we'll have bodies of glory. There'll be old, no old nature within them.
Paul said. I haven't come to that state yet, and none of us will ever come to that state. As long as we're down here, we'll always have that old nature within us.
But that is what is before us, so that's what we look forward to. But He hadn't come to that yet. But that was His desire. And that's the thing for each one of us to apply to our hearts in a practical way. We know when we get home, brethren, we're going to have bodies of glory like Him. And the best of it all is that the old nature will be gone forever.
They'll just be the new life and we'll have that full enjoyment of him.
But if we look forward to that time, do we desire that down here there might be the practical manifestation that this is our desire, so that anything that is of the flesh has it in truth would be put aside all that wasn't yet perfected, but this was His desire. So any of us might say, well, I'm not perfect, but is it our desire?
So that in our life, through this world, we would desire that when the flesh does appear.
That we would judge it, but if there's something that the hindrance that we haven't yet seen, that the Lord would reveal it to us. This is, I believe, what he develops as he goes on here, and it touches each one of our hearts as we look forward to that day. How much is it our present desire now, as Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 5, Wherefore we labor that whether present or absent, we may be agreeable to him.
Go ahead, brother. In the 11Th first he said that by any means I might attain under the resurrection of the dead, there's a great deal of.
Said in this day and age about obtaining to something to gain certain position, Christian honors which results in life.
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Well.
We wouldn't condemn one who is picking up studies for a certain job mechanic. You have to know who there is job well to succeed and to make a living in that way. Or if it's a student, if it's one who is a studying accounting, he has to apply himself to that. But when it comes to divine things and that's.
Really the what should be mostly for us the other is just passing and something to take up and to lay aside and just like one when his day's work is over and he can really enter into what is what the apostle speaks of and what is really like. Well, now what the apostles.
Speaks of desiring to attain to was the resurrection of the dead.
He doesn't say here the coming of the Lord in the air, but doubtless He had before him that great and marvelous event when the power of death would have it made this world with all its morals and with all its deep sorrows.
Followed up in victory.
And that mighty company that have lain in the dust of the earth for centuries rise. And that glorious moment when the Lord comes and gives a shout. Now He had that day, that time before Him was that had more importance than any other consideration.
That's why he says if by any means, no matter what it costs and what trials it's required, if he could obtain the last.
And have a reward. If that time that was before him, well, that's what he considered more important than anything else.
I believe that the thought of attainment here in this verse is not the thought of of doing something to merit that position. That wasn't it. But the thought was he was looking forward to that time when he would arrive at the resurrection and it might be translated.
That I might arrive at the resurrection, that one out from among the dead. Now this is a special resurrection. It's not Speaking of general resurrection.
But the resurrection of the Saints, the believers, they will be raised out from among the dead. Well, it was a special resurrection.
And to a person like the Apostle Paul, this of course was a new thing. The Jews generally.
Believe in a resurrection, a general resurrection of the last day, like Martha speaks of in connection with the death of Lazarus.
But the apostle Paul had learned by special revelation that there was to be a resurrection out from among the dead. And this is what he was looking forward to because he knew then that he would be with the Lord Jesus Christ, meaning knew he was going to be martyred. I suppose that was true, wasn't it? And but it wasn't only that that.
His thought was that he would be like his.
His Master in everything, and that was what filled his heart at the moment, that there was so much that grace had wrought in him that he would even go this far, that he would be like his master to rise out from among the dead. That brings us to the 12Th verse again. Our brother Hale was commenting on not as though I had already obtained.
Either were already perfect, but I follow after that I'm a.
Apprehend, I believe it's lay hold of that for which I am laid hold out of Christ Jesus. He hadn't gained the reach, the end of the way. He hadn't gained the goal yet.
Now in Ephesians, an entirely different line of things.
That caught us there, for the believer is viewed as already raised up with Christ and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. But all through the book of Philippians, it's the wilderness that's in view and one running the race.
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The the the fame and glory is is future.
That before him and what is gained at the end of the wave?
Don't you get a feeling as you read this and we're meditating upon it, that there's something there that we certainly have to stretch to reach it?
All we feel, how far short we come.
And in laying hold upon that for which the Lord Jesus Christ has laid hold upon us, and certainly ought to exercise our hearts.
And we ought to feel how much we need to judge ourselves.
And be in the Lord's presence, and go on in communion with him, that we might learn more of Christ.
Learn more of this that the Apostle Paul is Speaking of. I believe it's good for us to have these things before us in this way because.
In exercise of soul, it makes us feel like we want to reach out and know the Lord Jesus Christ better and the things concerning him. I trust that these meetings, these readings will have that effect upon our soul, have that effect on my soul, each one of us individually when Peter was in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
In the 5th chapter.
Of blue.
The result was.
Of being in that presence.
He said, depart from me, for I am a sinful man. O Lord, he was so overwhelmed.
With grace and the difference between his own life and the one whom he stood before that he was through with Peter. He saw that that he was a sinful man. It wasn't just that he had sinned, but the whole thing was bad.
I believe there was a tremendous lesson for Peter that he learned that time later he had to learn there was no confidence in the flesh. But but here he just learns that the whole thing is bad. And I believe that's.
What we need and we get from this chapter, the whole thing is bad. We were found in him and Peter was through with Peter on the basis of any righteousness there, and so now the Lord can use him in service. Isn't it lovely there, Brother Lundeen, that Wendy was staying depart from me? So I just can't remain here where a poor Sinner is in this boat.
And yet he was getting just as near as possible.
To the blessed Lord at the same time, because he fell at his feet, He was right there at the feet of Jesus, as near as he could come to him, and yet telling him to depart from Him and let us always the way grace works in the heart of the Sinner, isn't it? It makes him realize that he is a poor, unworthy, lost and guilty.
Sinner, and yet he cannot do without the blessed Lord.
Who has won his heart? The point I think there is, is what our brother Anderson was bringing out, that if we are in the presence of the Lord and we have been seeking to live in the good of the truth He's given us, our ways will be cleansed. We get that in the 13th chapter, John. There we have the heavenly family and the Lord is washing.
Their feet there.
Each one. And then he told them what you've seen me do you do this too and so.
In the case of Peter, the Lord did not leave Peter.
Because in the first chapter of John, the Gospel of John, we find Andrew bringing his brother Peter to Jesus and there Peter learned to know the Lamb of God.
But in Luke 5, Peter learned to know Peter in the presence of God. And that's so important. And you know, brethren, we never will rightly know our God unless we discover something, the wretchedness of self. And we do that in His presence, don't we?
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I enjoy the way the new translation gives that 12Th verse, that I may, instead of apprehend, lay hold of that which I am laid hold of Jesus Christ.
That is, the Lord had laid hold upon that guilty, wretched persecutor on the way to the masters. Oh, what wonderful.
Mercy and grace had been extended to him, a blessed one, from the glory that laid hold of him. I says I want to lay hold of that one that has laid hold of me.
I suppose we might.
Linked to this something of the 13th verse with the illustration that our brother Smith gave us before of the man carrying the glass of milk.
Blind it says there one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth onto those things which are before I press towards the mark for the gold. With not only that this man and he carried that glass of milk.
Was not so much thinking of the years before, but I'm sure that that man was not even thinking of the steps that he just had finished taking. His eye was on the goal and he was going on. He was forgetting the things that were behind. Perhaps sometimes there is a little danger in our own heart.
Of kind of looking back in our own Christian life and.
Perhaps finding something that we think we can rest in a little bit and God wants us to forget it all, leave it all, have that one go before and that is pressing on to Christ at the end of the pathway. And it's only as we have this before that we will not become occupied with ourselves.
And even what we might consider to be the good thing that we have done.
God wants us to bring in all of that too and justice, keep our eyes on Christ and continue on with him like that man with that one goal before him, not even looking at the steps he had just taken, just looking ahead. Well, that's what God wants of our hearts do is because our brother was saying too, that the reason why the Lord took possession of us, the reason he laid hold of us, What was what was his purpose in that?
Well, it was that we would be fully conformed to him.
The Lord saved everyone of us in this room so that we might be fully conformed to Him, with Him, and like Him forever. And that's the thing for us to get hold of in our souls. And if so, our brother said, we won't be thinking of how much we have attained, but we will have Himself before us, pressing on to that glorious time when we'll be with Him and His desire will be fulfilled on our part, that we'll be with Him and like Him.
And our hearts will be satisfied because we are there and this is what we need. One brother said about how much of the truth have we laid hold of? And another brother said, well, he was more concerned than how much the truth had laid hold of him. And I believe that's what we need, brethren. How much is it laid hold of us, if it has laid hold of us?
By then I believe it will become real. The apostle could say I believe.
And therefore have I spoken, How much has this been made good in our souls? If so, when we speak of it, there will be a practical power, because it's been made our own. It was perfectly so with the Lord Jesus when he talked to Nicodemus. He said we speak, but we do know.
And testify that we have seen that blessed One who came from the glory above and knew all that was in the Father's heart. What did He come down for? He come down to reveal it. He came down so we know it. And He could speak of that which is was the place where He ever dwelled from all eternity. And speak of it so that others might know it, as a little hymn says, and came to earth to make it known that we might share.
Joy. Now the apostle is saying, I desire that this would be real in my soul too, and that I would take possession of that for which I've been taking possession of by Christ Jesus. Well, a lot of that makes him feel that he has not fully attained, but that's his desire.
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I suppose that's why the apostle is the 8th of Romans says, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life, our brother Gladden was Speaking of those things, those three things being ready, I am ready. But he also says I am persuaded. I think it's nice to notice in connection with that first, and also the one that was already quoted in Romans 8.
There's quite an unusual thing there. It says in the I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in US. He changes from the singular to the plural, I reckon the glory that shall be revealed in US.
And then in the other that you just quoted, I am persuaded and then he goes on that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God. It's true of every child of God that he's going to be in that glory. It's true of every child of God that nothing can separate us from his love. But rather than how much are we reckoning on it individually, how much are we persuaded of it in our own souls individually? And so Paul says.
I reckon. But he says it's true of all believers. But I want it to be.
A personal, practical thing in my life. And he said nothing can separate any I've said to those who don't see the truth of the security of the believer. Well, thank God, whether you see it or not, it's true. But it's nice when you can say I'm persuaded of it. What a blessed thing.
I always sing that little hymn. Thine Jesus, thine no more. This heart of mine shall seek its joys apart from thee.
The world is crucified to me, and I am thine.
#76 in the back of the book.
Ye that Tremble at My Word
Rocks