Truro Conference: 2017
Table of Contents
Hebrews 12:1-4
Reading
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What in the I love possess me not?
Unchangeable migration number 166.
We're also seeing one 72172 will teach us more of Thy blessed ways, Thou holy Lamb of God and sick, and root us in Thy grace as those redeemed by blood.
Continue to bring into the UMM.
Rest of all of the salaries of the life of all of our home. I have to wait to see if I'm going to go home.
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Great.
Read a couple of verse.
Before We Pray and John's Gospel, chapter 21.
John's Gospel, chapter 21.
Starting with verse 15. Two verses together here.
So when they had dined, Jesus set unto Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas.
Lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yay, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lamb. He set unto him again a second time.
Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He said unto him, Ye Lord, thou knowest thy vote. Thee he set unto him, Feed my sheep. He set unto them the third kind. Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was greed, because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things.
Thou knowest that I love thee, Jesus said unto him, Feed my sheep just one other portion in first Peter chapter 5.
First Peter, chapter 5.
And verse one, the elders which are among you. I exhort to him also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among you. Take the over, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, Not for filthy looper, but a ready mind.
Neither is being Lords over God's heritage.
But being in samples to the flock, and when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory, that fadeth not awake till we ask the Lord for guidance.
Our God and our loving Father, we praise Thee and we thank Thee for giving us this opportunity to be together in this way.
Where there is the place that has given our God, we believe for the leading of the Spirit of God. With thy word, blessed God in our hands.
And we desire that we might be fed our God from this precious book, that any who take part may be channels of vine. So we seek direction, Father, for thou alone does know the needs, and we know that Christ is sufficient.
For thy people. And so our prayer is our God, that as we begin by first reading meeting that thou was direct as to the portion, the subject that should be before us, and that we may wait on thee for comments, Lord, in connection with the chapter that we have brought before us. Thus, Lord, we thank thee and praise thee for the for the privileges that are given in this way. And we ask thy blessing for thy name's sake, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Amen. Amen.
We sang in the first hand, Let us run and never tire and in the Bible readings that we had with my parents this week, we were Speaking of running the race. I was wondering about the possibility of taking up even chapter 12.
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People thought that was profitable.
I think that would be nice, Sean.
Happy to read that Hebrews chapter 12 and verse one.
Wherefore we're seeing we also are compass about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the rave that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and it sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest He be weary and faint. In your mind ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin.
And you have forgotten the expectation which speaketh unto you and unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, more faint when thou art rebuke of Him For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom his Father chasing? If not, but if he be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, Dino, ye ******** and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of Spirit, and live?
But they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His Holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. The letter rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up, trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Let there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected.
Where he found no place of resentment. So we sought it carefully with tears. For year not come unto the mouth that might be touched, and that burning with fire, and that burned with fire. Nor on the blackness and darkness and Tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice saves that heard and treated. That the word should not be spoken to them anymore. For they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with the dark. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.
But you are coming to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and unto an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God appearance of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that you refuse not him that speaketh, Or if they escape not, who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.
Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. In this word, yet once more signifying signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, and of those things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence. Godly fear for our God is a consuming fire.
Well, we know that the apostle Paul is likely the one that wrote this epistle to the Hebrews, but it was, let's just turn to second Peter chapter 3 or yeah, chapter 3, and just read one verse there. Not that we want to introduce anything that isn't found in Scripture, but it's interesting that Peter speaks of one who had written to the Hebrews.
And he identifies him as Paul. He says in Second Peter chapter 3.
Verse 15 Account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable, rest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction. And so Peter recognized that Paul was writing, and that what he had written was.
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Scriptures those inspired words of God himself and so he had written perhaps this book, this epistle to the Hebrews and is in all the epistles the doctrine begins 1St and he takes up the doctrine until the 10th chapter and to the end of verse 18 and then from chapter 10, verse 19 down to the end really he he gives practical instruction as to how our walk should really be in connection with the doctrine that he's given so he contrasts.
Christianity with Judaism in the Epistle to the Hebrews and says tells us how much better Christianity is, far better. And he goes over all of those things. And then here in this chapter 12, he really gives instruction as to how we might be preserved, not becoming discouraged or disheartening, disheartened in a difficult time. Remember this letter was written approximately 7 years before Jerusalem was going to be destroyed.
And, uh, the Jews, those that had turned to the Lord Jesus had accepted Christ as Savior and had professed the knowledge of the Lord Jesus as Savior. We're facing persecution and they face a fierce persecution and opposition from their brethren, the Jews. And so they, umm, needed encouragement as they passed through those, uh, uh, trials, those fiery trials. And he says in verse 4, just for example.
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. And so they did face martyrdom themselves. And so He gives this instruction and speaks of how the Lord deals with us as a Father as well and corrects us. And there may have been those things that needed to be corrected as well in their lives. They needed to drop off those things that had to do with Judaism, and they needed to cleave unto Christ for the purpose of heart. They needed to leave all of that Jewish religion behind.
Because it was soon to be judged. And so we find that that warning, the last warning, there's five warnings given to leave Judaism and to be careful not to apostatize, not to give up the knowledge of of the Savior, the Lord Jesus, and to go back into Judaism. And so the last warning that's given in the Epistle to the Hebrews is in our chapter from verse 25 down to verse 29. And so he gives us warning not to.
Uh, not to forsake Christ and to he really presents to them that there's a future Kingdom and it's going to be the Lord Jesus is going to be the king. He's going to have a rule over his earthly people and his Kingdom is not going to end. And so they needed to leave their earthly hopes and they needed to cleave unto the Lord himself. So This is why he begins in this chapter after the chapter of the book of the umm, delineation of all those that were characterized by faith.
He then says, Seeing that you have so great a company of a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin with us so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. And so he says, in view of all of those that walk by faith, he says, let's lay aside every weight, every weight, everything that would hinder us from walking in the path of faith. And the sin, the sin here, I believe, was particularly the sin of unbelief.
The sin of unbelief in the goodness of God. And so they were to trust the Lord wholeheartedly.
I think that the thought of chapter 12 really starts.
Verse 39 in the previous chapter.
You know, the man has put the chapters and so on in the book, but for a 39 says he's all having a pain and good report through faith receive not a promise with undespeakable. The promise that that we have through Christ Jesus of eternal life, blessing to his own people to come. And it was something that was foreseen by God. We know it now because God has revealed it to us.
But it really starts to take that up. I believe in, in the previous chapter in verse umm 39. All these having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise. God having provided or foreseen some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect. And it is God has purposed in his households that every believer in the coming day would be made perfect body, soul and spirit together.
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And the Old Testament Saints have been waiting a long time.
For that event to take place, and with some of her own, we know that it passed on and waiting for that event to take place. And we have the promise of it. And it's a certain thing for us. And the Old Testament Saints will not be made perfect until the Lord Jesus gives a shout at the rapture. And we're all going to be.
Beneficiaries of that event at the same time, and so it goes on then to.
Saying these things and saying what lies before us.
Uh, we should run the race without weights and things like that, you know, uh, pull us down, pull us back. So I really believe the whole thought of this 12 Chapter starts the 39th verse.
Want to, uh, be clear on the the whole subject of apostasy and backsliding because they are not the same.
And this, as our brother has mentioned here, the whole context of the book of Hebrews supposes that there is unreality.
Really.
Uh, touches on that subject that uh, if there was not fruit in the life, there was no reality.
Uh, an apostasy in the book of Hebrews apostasy at any time is without any hope of of our recovery. Apostasy is a a true believer can never apostatize.
Backsliding is entirely different. Any of us can backslide if we become careless in our in our Christian, uh, pathway. But in a?
Post apostate is one who has given up the truth and returned to a false system. And this was the danger here in the book of Hebrews of them returning to Judaism, embracing it again.
And this would indicate that they were not truly believers. And so this is the line of truth that the apostle is bringing before us throughout the book that, umm, there is that danger of unreality and yet having a place of profession, having a place of profession without reality.
But uh, coming to our, our fir, our first verse here, umm, the fossil, uh, gives these, uh, wonderful examples in the 11Th chapter, but there was failure in each one.
Uh, they demonstrated remarkably the pathway of faith amidst great afflictions, trials, sufferings.
Uh, which the, uh, Hebrew believers were going through, but there was failure in each one of them. And so he brings before us the perfect example of the Lord Jesus. Umm, I know it's often referred to in the sense that we look to him now in the glory.
And that is true, but I think the primary thought is awards pathway down here. He, uh, met all these, this persecution himself and uh, he started the path and he finished it perfectly to God's glory, the author, the beginner and the finisher of faith.
Very like beautiful.
Laying aside every weight and the thing was so easily entangles us.
Let us run within Europe for the race that lies before it, looking steadfastly on Jesus, the leader and completer of our favor.
And then gives, as John said, gives the example of his walk down here. That's primarily what he wants us to look upon. Not so much the Lord in glory, but the Lord and his, uh, and his walk down here.
So someone might ask, well, what's the difference between weight and sin? Well, there's some examples that we have. We know the Old Testament has little pictures. And so if we turn to Nehemiah chapter 4, we'll have a little bit of an expression that could be used to denote that which is just a waste, maybe not positively thin, but a weight. It says in Nehemiah chapter 4 and verse 10.
Judith said the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed and there is much rubbish so that we are not able to build the wall. So there's stuff, uh, there's rubbish. And then in Chapter 13.
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It's UMM and verse 8.
It says it grieved me sore. Therefore I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I commanded that they cleansed the chambers and thither brought I again the vessels of the House of God with the meat offering in the frankincense. And so you have in chapter 4 and verse 10, you have that much rubbish, the weight maybe not positive thin, but it's a weight in the path of faith. Maybe it's a hobby, maybe it's some activity that we're engaged with. Maybe it's a friend. It's just a weight. It's not really something that's going to help us in the path of faith. Chapter 13 though we have.
The sin, that which was positively defiling in the House of God and Tobiah, an unbeliever, a Gentile I believe, and he was really, he brought things into the temple that were defiling and into the very presence of God as sin. Both need to be dealt with. And so he presents this before we can run the race, we need to get rid of the weight and we need to get rid of the sin so that we might be able to be in a condition that would allow us to run the race.
With the the patients or endurance that is set before us and there are different times that erase as mentioned in Scripture, I think it's four or five times.
And every time the word is slightly different. This race is like an endurance race. This is a race you're going in a circuit and it's going to take some endurance. It's not a 500 yard dash. It's some endurance that's required. And so here the Lord Jesus endured. He endured unto death.
In an endurance race, you have to pace yourself. If you start out sprinting, you're probably not going to make UMM. And that's a good lesson for those who are new, new to the faith or new to any of the aspects of the truth. UMM is to be patient with yourself and understand it's a it's a long haul and there's a lot to learn and umm, it's like when the Lord brings you in, you can think of it as inheriting a vast.
Amount of land and it's gonna take you years to cover it. So be patient. And uh, some get, they just wanna be up there really fast. And I think that's fueled partly by pride. Umm, it's good to pace yourself and understand that obtaining knowledge of the truth is it's gonna be a long time. And then learning and buying it through your experience is gonna take a long time. It's gonna be years.
But it does say to run with patients, doesn't it? Doesn't say to sit in the chair and wait.
We're just on the concrete. That's taken into account in the phrase author and finisher or beginner and finisher. At some point it was authored, at some point it was finished. And what is the time frame that that takes in? I would suggest that the author from the internal counsel to glory, when the plan of salvation was put together to his incarnation with walk on earth, his death, resurrection returned to heaven. Is that the fine frame that's considered from authorship to finisher?
His whole life here was the beginner and the completer of the Lord's life here. Remember the words that are spoken in Loop 2. Wish ye not that I must be about my Father's business.
It shows us that from the time that the Lord as a man was young here in this world, that the object he had before him was the glory of God, doesn't it?
The words on the cross, it is finished. What was finished is work here for you and I. What an example that God has given us in His work. The object that is to be ours is His. The way He's left us. An example that we should follow His steps.
And we have the examples in Chapter 11, as I've been already mentioned of many that were Margaret for.
The Lord's glory and then we're told to look unto Jesus and in similar but far greater way, the Lord Jesus gave himself, He died on the cross. He gave himself for us. God gave his only begotten Son for us so that we have, as you say, brother, did the finisher when you said it is finished. Salvation's work completed on the cross. These ones mentioned in Chapter 11.
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Guide for the Lord died for what they believe, and for the Lord Jesus gave himself forth the finisher of our faith, the beginner and the finisher.
In the passage here, we don't have the atoning sufferings of Christ. Umm.
Through the cross, it was part of the work that he finished. But we don't have the atoning sufferings in this verse. Umm, that couldn't be an example for us because, uh, we have, can have no part in that. But if we're faithful to the Lord, uh, we're going to, uh, encounter shame in our pathway. Uh, the Lord despised the shame. We don't, we make a great deal of it and we try to avoid it. Uh, and we miss the blessing and we testify for Christ, We, uh, intuitively, if I can use the term.
Know that we're going to be unwelcome, uh.
But if we're faithful, there's going to be a shame connected with it. But, uh, the Lord despised the shame because as our brother said, he had the will of God before him. That was what was the primary object of the Lord to accomplish the work that the Father had given him to do.
Uh, which involved the cross, of course, and, uh.
And umm, the joy that was sent before him, I believe.
Was the joy of entering into His Father's presence where He had come from, having accomplished the will of God? Now, I know it's often referred to in connection with the joy of having us with Him, and I would not detract from that at all. But the primary thought is the accomplishment of the will of God in His pathway down here.
Even unto death.
In the last verse of the previous chapter that has been referred to.
Perhaps it's all right to bring out there, I think the thought and connection with God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
What does that mean? I think that the apostle is bringing before the Hebrews here that the ones in the previous chapter in Chapter 11, Jacob's, the Abrahams, the Moses, and the various faithful ones that are brought before us, and as such a example of faith in the Old Testament. But there is something peculiar that is going to be given to those that are part of this dispensation.
After the Lord died on the cross, went back to heaven, the Spirit of God was sent down. What was it that happened? He formed the church, and the church is still growing in this world until this day. And you and I, brethren, are part of the church that is going to enjoy a sense of nearness to the Lord that previous dispensations will not enjoy.
Does that make us any better than them? How could we ever say that we would be better than a Moses or a Joseph or these various ones in the Old Testament? But it brings before us the grace of God that stooped down to where we were, picked us up, and has made us part of the bride of Christ. The closest relationship that a man, that a man and a woman, I believe can enjoy in this world is that of husband and wife, and that is a picture to us.
Of Christ and the Church.
They, the, uh, the Old Testament worthies will enjoy heaven just as much. I'm sure you remember the verse over in Revelation 19 where the bride is brought in. And then what's it say, the others say? And I take it it's the Jews that say in that in the Old Testament, Saints, let us be glad and rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
So they step back, as it were, when the when the bride is brought in to the Lamb. Oh how beautiful. And brethren, anyone who is saved during this dispensation will be part of that bride of Christ. Is that thought right?
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So we could look at Philippians chapter 3 and we find out when we're going to be made perfect. We're all going to be made perfect at the same time, you might say. And so there are different families in heaven that we know if you've been bringing out and we are a part of the bride of Christ, we have the very best place in heaven, but we're all going to be made perfect at the same time. So it says in Philippians chapter 3, verse 20 for our conversation is in heaven, for our associations of life are in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who shall change our vile body, or our body of humiliation, that it may be fashioned like under His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto himself? And then if we turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 15 and umm, verse 51.
Paul teaches this, what it means to be made perfect. In the epistles we don't really have a lot what we might call Christian doctrine In Hebrews we have it referred to, but we don't really have it taught in the same way as in some of the other epistles. So First Corinthians 15, verse 51. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Well, that change is going to take place and it's going to take place at the resurrection, at the rapture. We know that the Lord Jesus is the first fruits of resurrection. We know that at the rapture there's going to be another resurrection, the 2nd installment, you might say the resurrection. And then the murdered Saints at the end of the tribulation period were going to be raised. That's Revelation chapter 20. But umm, the Saints, those Old Testament Saints are going to be made perfect. They're going to have their bodies, they're going to be raised and they're going to be glorified at the same time.
As your body and mind, those of us that are alive and remain are going to have, our bodies are going to be glorified.
And so those Old Testament Saints haven't seen the Lord yet, and the New Testament Saints that have died haven't seen the Lord yet. Their bodies are in the grave. You need your eyes to be able to see, but they're in the presence of the Lord. Scripture says absent from the body, present with the Lord. We're all going to have be perfected at the same time. And so that's what he's Speaking of. We might just refer to one other passage in, uh, Romans chapter 8 that Paul brings out in connection with this.
That, uh.
Verse 23.
Romans 8, verse 23, not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit. We ourselves, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to quit, the redemption of our body. And so Scripture teaches that our souls are redeemed, our spirits are redeemed, but our bodies aren't redeemed yet. Redemption has to do with the setting at liberty not only being bought back, but set at liberty. Our bodies still are under the ******* of sin, as it were. We're still perishing.
Our bodies are suffering and have the effects of age and sin, but in that day, at the time of the Lord's coming, we're going to, our bodies are going to be glorified and we're going to be just like Him. And so the Spirit of God brings us before us in connection with that last verse in Chapter 11. God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect.
It could not be made perfect until the one that would come that would make them perfect, that was the Lord Jesus Christ. But I believe in that. It's leading up to that, those truths that should encourage us to lay aside every weight and continue on to the Lord. Because there's mentioned that the Old Testament Saints mentioned that there they had all had failures in their lives. But it brings us up to chapter 12. We read about the Lord Jesus Christ being our examples, one that didn't have failure, one that was perfect.
And, uh, He is the one that both Jew and Gentile alike we're going to spend eternity with at the rapture. And so it should encourage our hearts to want to go on to the Lord. But this is used and we're all going to be made perfect body, soul and spirit in that coming day.
Eight, I think it brings the future right here to the present that we might enjoy it. And we've been speaking about what our hope is, and we live in hope. And, you know, faith looks on debt which is not seen, and that's so wonderful that we can hold in our hands the Word of God.
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That presents to us.
Avista, that's absolutely.
Powerful.
As to what our future portion is, it's out of this world. It's so wonderful. Now we just, I believe, touch on the surface of what God has for us to enjoy in the future, but we can enjoy it here and now. So it tells us, the pastor Paul, you know, we spoke about our affliction, heart illnesses and so on, our infirmities, but he said it's a light affliction. Why? Because it works for us far more exceeding.
And eternal weight of glory.
You know what we experienced in this life?
Often it seems very difficult, but if we look at it in view of the change that's going to take place, Apostle Paul, he said. It's life.
And he goes on to speak about how we don't look at the things that are seen.
Because the things that are seen are temporal, just for a little short time, but the things that are not seen are eternal.
And that's what we can enjoy.
Faith and faith is simply taking God at His word. God appreciates when we believe Him, we accept His word.
Any one of us here today?
We don't appreciate if we say something and somebody else questions what we said and maybe has to ask two or three other people as to whether we're telling the truth. We don't appreciate that.
I think the greatest favor we can do the Lord is to take Him at His word. And I think that's perhaps why here in Chapter 11 we have all these examples of faith, and even though they did have their failures.
It's been mentioned more than once here in this Chapter 11. We don't read about one failure. Is that true?
You have to look back into the Old Testament to see about this failure. Why is this? Could it be that God appreciates faith?
And when there's faith?
I believe God sees us in a different mind. He sees us in Christ and you know the results of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross, he said. Our sins are gone.
And in chapter.
10 Your sins and iniquities I will remember no more.
So I just think it's beautiful how that God, he doesn't see us in our failure now. He doesn't see us as sinners. He sees us as Saints. We are Saints.
We are incorrect and that's our standing and that's how God sees.
God appreciates faith.
In stock.
And you always reward space, so this is partly why you have here written.
At the end of verse two and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
So what race is it that the Lord ran?
What race is it that we're to imitate? It's not the 500 yard dash. It's a course of endurance, but it's the race from earth to heaven.
And the Lord was given a work to do in this world, in this world, in this earth, and it took endurance to accomplish that work. Everything was against Him. Everything the Roman government was against him. His own people, He came under his own. His own received him not, but as many as received him to them gave the power to become the sons of God. Everything was against them. And everything naturally speaking in this world is against the Christian.
So the heart of the natural man is at enmity with God, and that enmity with those that love God. And so that's why it takes endurance. And so we're to consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest he be wearied and faint in your mind. So there's two things here. One is wearied and the other is faint. And we faint as a result of becoming weary. And so we need to be refreshed with Christ. We need to be considering the person of Christ and the perfection of his work and consider where he's seated now.
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Because of his race and that it was his work was perfectly acceptable to his God and Father. And he is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. It says that four times when the Epistles of the Hebrews and I think in the first chapter as he set himself down after his work, he set himself down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Here he sat, sat down after running this race. And so it's this exhortation is given by the apostle.
By the Spirit of God, that we might not grow weary in a time of conflict and that we might not. The result might be that we wouldn't think that takes endurance. And if we do endure, we're going to sit in the same place as it were, not as those that are gone, but those that are in a relationship with the Lord Jesus. We're going to sit, as it were, where He sits. Let's look at that in Revelation chapter 4.
S.
Revelation chapter 4 and uh.
Let's just read uh, verse 10. The four and 20 elders fell down before him that sat on the throne and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne, saying thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things for thy pleasure. They are and were created. I was looking for the place where it says that yes, in verse four, chapter 4 of Revelation, verse 4.
Round about the throne were four and 20 seats, and upon the seats I saw 4 and 20 elders sitting clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
The Lord's work is finished. He's seated. He's glorified. There's a man seated on the right hand of the majesty on high. But you and I, when we enter into the presence of God, the sun, we're going to have the authority, as it were, to be seated. The angels we don't find are seated. They're servants, and they're going to be servants forever. But you and I are going to be an association with the Lord Jesus, and we're going to be able to be feeded in His presence.
In connection with the, uh, second verse where it has that expression, we've spoken a little bit of it. Who for the joy that was set before him? Who for the joy that was set before him?
I think that we see in the Word of God that right from the very beginning that God made man that he has to have an object.
Hmm. When God made Adam spirit, soul and body before sin came into the world, he gave him a job to do, and that job was when he placed him in the Garden of Eden. He said to dress it and to keep it. I remember Mr. Siebenmann saying many years ago he was God's gardener. That was the job that God gave him. And if God had communion with him.
As He came down during the day, but He had that particular work that changed winds after sin came in. By the sweat of thy brows thou shall eat bread. But God made man that he has to have an object. Now the Lord came down, and as a man He walked through this world, and He had an object before him. And here we have in this verse, who for the joy that was set before him, and He is given us here as an example, look unto Jesus.
How did he conduct his life when he went through this world? You know, I can remember as a teenager growing up in the in the 50s, date myself a little bit here. But during that time, why? And I remember when Kennedy became president and the enthusiasm that was in the United States and, and how the world was going to get better and all of all these things. And here we go. We're going to.
To, uh, high school and they wanted to get us enthusiastic about the future and create a, a, a, get a good, umm, uh, education and go on and be somebody and, and so on. That was the object that the world took and put before the student, the students. And so there's different objects that take place in various things. They change, uh, in this world, the objects change. Well, the Lord had one object.
00:50:10
And what has God-given you and me for our object? Christ has left us an example that we should follow his steps. And I feel very much that, uh, the young people growing up in this world, when they see the frustrations of the and, and the corruption and all of these things going on, it must be difficult to make choices. But has God changed? Is there an object for, for, umm, uh, the young today?
As there there was in, uh, 50 years ago. It hasn't changed. It's the same object. It's the same book. And so just as he was presented as a pattern for the Hebrew believers in those days, why he is the pattern to the end. He is to be our object and as he the joy that was set before him, yes, trials through his whole life.
He wept at the grave of Lazarus, but he went on because he knew where the pathway ended for him. Sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And everyone in this room who's a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, he has a pathway for us. It's wonderful to lay hold of it and to seek to go on. And I believe that's why these scriptures are brought before us. Am I right, John? Yeah. I was thinking, brother, that, umm, the Lord never allowed anything to hinder him in the past.
Uh, how easy it is for us to uh, get another object before us, umm, which is a hindrance. It may not be a positive sin, uh.
It may be something legitimate, but it becomes.
Almost an idol and it detracts us in in the pathway. I was thinking of First Corinthians Chapter 9.
Where the race is mentioned again.
Uh, verse 24, E Corinthians 9 knowing enough that they which run in a race run all but one receiver the prize. So run that you may obtain. Uh, and every man that striveth for the mastery is tempered in all things. Now they do it. To obtain a corruptible crown would be an incorruptible. I therefore so run not as uncertainly. So why die not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection.
Less.
That by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Well, I think the point is there that we are to keep the body in subjection. How often we are controlled by our bodies.
The Lord never allowed anything in his pathway to hinder him in, in obedience, devotedness to his father. But we have things that hinder us and we, we don't want to give them up. Uh, the Lord never needed self judgment in his life, but we certainly do because we have that old evil nature which is always clamoring for the preeminence and uh, uh, trying to, uh.
To to control us.
Uh, so.
We need to lay aside those things and self judgment in our lives is important. Every boy and girl knows that we're going to run a race here. They are ready to start, uh, starting line and, uh, there's some pretty, uh, uh.
Very good competitors in the race, they're not going to have a heavy coat on or heavy boots. Nothing wrong with that, but they know that that's going to be a hindrance to them. They want to win the race like we read there. So run that you may obtain. So they lay aside those things which would impede them in the race. And uh, so the apostle uses that same figure. He often uses the figure of Annabelle.
And, uh, he says, lay aside those things that, uh, you know, are going to, uh, impede you, hinder you, Uh, we, we are loath to do that. We argue that there's nothing wrong in it. And morally there may not be anything wrong in it, but it's something that, uh, occupies our hearts to the exclusion of Christ. And I was thinking also, brethren, that I have been studying, uh, privately in the book of Numbers.
00:55:07
Uh, and.
Received it I feel a lot of blessing from that book You know the manna was given to them. Uh, they got tired of the manna. Finally they began to load the manna with this light bread uh, but the manna is really a figure of Christ in his manhood pathway down here. They fed upon the manna until they got to the land of Canaan. You remember it was a wilderness food and that's what we need brethren, is to.
Look at Christ in his pathway down here, especially in the gospel.
Mr. Darby used to say, let us not get far away from the Gospels because there you have the perfect pathway of the Lord as the manna. Uh, he refers to himself in that character in John chapter 6. So we can feed upon Christ in his pathway. And in that way we have the example and we gain strength for our pathway down here. So for our, for our practical application of all of this, here we are in the world today, umm, and we wanna serve the Lord. Well, first we need to lay aside the weight and the sin.
That's gonna detract us from doing the will of God. And we see in Chapter 11, there's many people here we read of that. They were serving the Lord, they were doing the will of God, but they suffered for it and they died. Then we have the Lord Jesus in our chapter here.
As another example for us.
He was doing the will of God, but he suffered and he died.
Look in Acts chapter.
Acts Chapter 5.
We see here the apostles were out preaching in the name of Jesus.
In Acts chapter 5, verse 40.
Susan Wednesday had called the apostles and beaten them. They commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council. Rejoicing there is joy, there is joy there, Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple in every house. And they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. And so these ones, they were serving the Lord, they were doing the will of God.
And they suffered for it and they rejoiced. They had joy that they were suffering, not so much that they were suffering, but that they were doing the will of God. And I think that's what the joy of the Lord is in our chapter here, chapter 12, verse two. Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross. He despised the shame. And he has set down the right hand. He had the Lord Jesus had in doing the will of the Father. And so he was willing then to go to the cross and to endure that suffering and that shame. And so our example for this is.
We need to lay aside those weights so we can be sanctified and fit and for the masters use. And then when we're ready for the master's use, then he can use us. And it takes faith to go out and serve him. But you know, when you're doing the will of God, there's going to be a lot of opposition. Satan doesn't like it because anytime you are willing to devote your life to do the will of God, anytime you're going to bring glory to God, Satan doesn't like it. He's going to oppose it by the directly by him, through himself or through your friends or through the world.
Or through the flesh, there's many ways he uses to try to just to bring you down. And it may even be through persecution for being mocked by your friends. Or it's there's many ways that we are persecuted and opposed to do the will of God. But you need to expect that. That's why it says to go on in faith. You need to take that step of faith knowing there's going to be trials, knowing there's going to be struggles. And you take that step of faith and you and you do it for the joy of doing the will of the Father.
Not for the results that are going to happen. We don't know what the results are, We might never know the results till we get to heaven, but just have joy in doing the will of the Father.
You have the metaphor you're using started the chapter about running with endurance, and we've talked about it being a long distance race, not a short distance distance race. And then I thought of our brother Dave brought up the object that we're racing towards our savior, and I might tweak the metaphor a little bit.
We may wanna prepare ourselves for it to be a long distance for us. If you've watched racing, a long distance racer in a marathon can't see the finish line, but they're preparing themselves with endurance. They train to run a steady, disciplined race and you think of 100 meter dash.
And the runners on the blocks, they can see the object and how often do you see a false start, the runner wanting to get to that object. So I suggest that we should train ourselves and be prepared for a long distance race, but always keep that object in view and hope that the short distance race.
01:00:04
I think of the verses in Corinthians verse in Corinthians chapter 15.
Verse 52 in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye at the last trump to the last for the trump chill sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. So we prepare ourselves in the mindset that the pace will be one of endurance. But let's not lose the object that may be there in the very near future, I believe Paul.
And dies on Christ gave him victory over the enemy.
Call said it's not gonna be easy.
And I'm thinking it lists you. I believe it was.
Lystra Paul was stoned and they dragged him out of the city. They thought he was dead.
Now that's a hard knock.
To be stoned. But you know what? You got that cup.
And he goes into the city and the next thing he does is to continue on his mission to the next city with farmers.
So we see how.
Called do not allow himself to become overcome of evil and he continues to encourage the Saints he environments and he tells them it's through much tribulation that we must enter into the Kingdom of God much tribulation.
Paul kept right on going. In fact, I believe he went back to the very place that he was stoned.
So I think we got Paul for an example too.
He was one who had his eye on Christ and that's what we need. You know, there's 5 words that come to mind just now.
Look up.
Don't give up.
I think that's very important to brother Molly. I just want to summarize some of the things we've been saying. Umm, this cloud of witnesses we were looking at in the 11Th chapter, they endured a great deal of suffering and difficulties. And I just want to say that we're living in a difficult day. Uh, we find that assemblies are getting smaller and, umm, young people are, uh, drifting away from these various things. But over and over again, it seems that the.
Umm, emphasis here is on, in, in, in, on endurance. If you notice there in the first verse of chapter 12 again it says, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, verse two, who for the joy that was set before him endured with the cross. And in the third verse for consider him that endured. It seems that the word that the Spirit of God keeps bringing before us is endurance.
And how important it is. I think about verse two in Second Timothy.
That says, endure hardness or difficulty as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And so we need that encouragement today to not give up. And it's been said before that, umm, the Lord Jesus is our perfect example. And, uh, for the joy that was set before him, he endured. And so we need to keep that object before us of, uh, the Lord Jesus and the glory. I was thinking of the verse in Philippians that's often connected with the, the race too, that says.
I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We need to keep our eye on him, don't we? As you were saying earlier, Brother Wally, we're only here for a very short time and we're going to be in the glory for all eternity. Can we just keep our eye upon him and continue? I think of that verse 2. Hold fast not which thou hast that no man take thy crown.
Need faith only Yes, absolutely. Breathe up faith here and previous chapter we had all the ones that was commended for their faith and they endured things because of their faith. They believe God and what God had told them and they acted upon us. That's what we need to do too. As believers, we need to act upon what the Word of God teaches. God has given to us faith the moment He is quick in the soul. There's faith there to believe what God says.
We have faith, give it to us to believe for our salvation. But then we read in Romans where faith cometh by re, by reading, reading by the word, hear, hearing, hearing by the word of God. And so as we read God's word, we increase faith. And so we need to be under the word of God to increase our faith. It's going to help us to endure the things that we encounter along the aspect. If we're not coming out of the reading meeting, we're not coming out to the prayer meeting.
01:05:24
We're not reading a Bible at home. Don't expect to be able to endure what is going to come up against us in the pathway. The Lord is going to preserve us. He's going to present everyone spotless in the coming day because positionally God has placed us in Christ and that salvation that we have in Him can never be lost. Sir, this is the sun's going to come up in the morning and go down at night. Our salvation is just as certain, but we do have the practical pathway to walk in and the practical pathway that we walk in here.
We need faith and we get it from the Word of God and being in it. And so we need.
Fellowship, we need the meetings that that the Lord and celebrations can provide on this these last days, conferences that we can go to, but we need to stress, we need the importance of our reading meeting.
It's, uh, the absence is just. It's appalling.
I had a reading, so I, you know, I bring that up because it's so important that if we, if we're going to apply what it says here, we need, it says if we run a race that we're not proud unless we run the race lawfully, well, we can't take shortcuts. That means we're running a race. We want to run the race we want to win, but if we're going to run it lawfully, we can't take shortcuts. So we need to apply what God's word says.
To us, to our walk in our way. Uh, too many years ago there was a, a Boston Marathon and uh, this woman come in at a record time, won the race according to her estimation. But when they look back on the, they record all the, the whole race on camera. And when they look back, they found that she was missing in the race. And apparently she could just get out of the race and got a subway to another station further along the road and get off the subway station back up and pop back into the race again.
And so she got caught, she wasn't proud because she didn't run the race lawfully. And so it is with us. If we're going to receive a crown at the end of the day, we need to run the race according to the Word of God. And that is being in the Word of God and learning what God has to say for us.
I'm going to take some training for the race to be able to get to into a condition, to be able to run the race, we need some training. And so brother John brought out in First Corinthians Chapter 9.
That it takes self-discipline, self-control, it takes exercise spiritually to lay aside those weights and the sin of unbelief that so easily besets us. But then we have in our chapter from verse five really down to the end of verse 11, that we have one who is our Father, who views the race as so vital, so important to us, so important to him, to his heart, that he's willing to train us and he's willing to identify those things that are not.
Profitable for us as we run the race. And if you have accepted Christ as Savior, you've entered the race whether you like it or not, so to speak. You've entered the race and you may not be acting like you're running the race. You may have forgotten that you're running the race, but someone who has called you and called you that worthy vocation, He says, let me just read it in Ephesians. I don't misquote it.
He says. I think it's in chapter 4.
He says, umm, in verse one, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that he walked worthy of the vocation or the calling wherewith ye are called. So we're called in this sense to run this race. And so he brings in the training and the discipline of the Lord. We need both. A father trains his children, he trains them, he teaches them, he works alongside with them.
And he trains them in the right way. He, he gives them little pointers. And uh, so we have a father who delights to train us, and he uses his word to train us. He uses other things and we'll get into that a little bit. But he also uses discipline. And so he quotes here in the book of the Proverbs. You have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint.
01:10:11
When thou art rebuked of him, it's not always disciplined. When it speaks of chastening and the word of God, it's not always discipline. It is discipline sometimes, but it's training. And the Lord loves us enough to train us. And sometimes it hurts when he trains, but he desires to train us and he uses this little term. I think it's beautiful, my son. It has that note of dignity. And uh, in the book of the Proverbs, I think that the term is used something like 23 or 24 times, my son.
And it has there in that book, the, the connotation of, uh, carrying the family honor and the name and the reputation of the family. And so you and I are given the position, the privilege in this world to carry the family name, as it were, and to be identified as the sons of God, children of God. And he loves us enough to discipline us and to chasing us, to train us. And so we're not to despise.
The chasing of the Lord.
Not to despise it, to recognize it and to thank him for it and to just grow to recognize the training that he loves us to train us enough to be able to run that race with patients. Endurance. I appreciate our brother framing this, uh, term chastisement in the proper context.
Uh, some years ago in a conference, it went off on a tangent talking about our, you know, the Lord dealing with us and, uh, got it out of context with the context here.
Isn't that the they were doing anything wrong except?
Going with Judaism, I mean, they needed direction from that. That's really, as our brother John said, is the whole context of this book is be done with Judaism. You know, this is a new thing you go on and uh, and so the chase thing is to get them in the right path, as we say, umm, the term.
Need to get out of our minds the the idea of punishment here. That is not the context. It's not punishment, it is correction.
With a purpose, which the purpose is in, uh, in a verse 10. So that's the purpose. And uh, but the chasing here, I think the root of it, a brother looked, looked the term up after that meeting in that conference or after that conference. And he came back to me and he said, I look that up. And it actually, uh, the root of it has to do with teaching, teaching, not punishment. So we have to understand it in that context.
Child training, isn't it Child training, Uh, the Lord never needed chasing in his life or discipline, but we certainly do because we have an old nature. I was thinking of that word. Consider, uh, just a remark here. It, uh, it really means to inwardly meditate. And you have the word consider four times in the book of Hebrews, Umm, you go back to the third chapter, verse one. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.
Consider inwardly meditate upon the apostle. That's the Lord coming down from the glory as a, as a man here. And the high priest is his return to the glory to intercede for us. Inwardly meditate upon those facts and you get to, I'm not sure of the second one. It's, it's, uh, connection with the high priestly work of the Lord. Then you have a Hebrews 10.
Uh, consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.
Umm, that is a practical thought of the of our conduct to one toward the other. But you know, each case, it is to inwardly meditate upon, uh, these things, umm, and the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now our time is gone, but it's been a huge encouragement to me to consider that the Lord Jesus.
Live that life of faith.
If, if I may say so in part to, uh, experience what we would be called to go through. And we know we did it perfectly and he did it without sin.
I endured that contradiction of sinners against himself. He knew loneliness. He knew what it was to be misunderstood. He knew hunger. He knew sorrow. He knew pain.
01:15:06
And it can be a great help to us to realize, and as we go through this life of faith, that there's one who understands, one who has walked up that path of faith perfectly. And in Hebrews chapter 4.
Very well in 13 seeing them when we have a great high priest that is passed into the fast into the heavens. Jesus the Son of God, let his whole fact our profession.
So we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace. We may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We can get on our knees and speak to the One who understands the things that we sometimes experience in our pathway of faith, because He has furnished that example, and that can be a great source of encouragement.
It's both, uh, brother John's comments and Brother Sean's comments. I think what relate to them both is also chapter 5 of Hebrews and verses 8:00 and 9:00.
Says that he learned obedience through the things he suffered. Doesn't mean he learned to obey. He didn't need to learn that. But what it means is he experienced what it is to obey in order that part of perfecting him as being our high priest and our sufferer.
Let's say #80 #80.
All on earth. I saw me again.
By killing by someone, can you climb?
Everybody in Spanish.
Images.
OK.
Our gracious, loving God and our Father, we thank thee this morning for thy word that must be brought before us. We thank thee for the beautiful example we have here of the one who is indeed without sin, but yet pass through all the human experiences that we experience, our trials, etcetera. Of course, we'll send apart. We thank you for that blessed one. We praise his holy name. We pray, our Father, that what we have learned this morning we may take with us, uh, as we go forth and we commend ourselves to be thanking you for thy goodness and Jesus worthy and precious name. Amen.
Making Room
Address—Robert Boulard
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Good afternoon, Let's sing #200 and 94294. We'll sing this hymn, and I'd like to. Halfway through our time, Lord willing, I'll remember. But since we tend to nod off in the afternoon after a good lunch, I suggest we sing a hymn at 2:30. We'll all stand up and sing a hymn at 2:30. That way it'll be a little bit refreshing. But would someone be kind enough to start 294?
Oh, come out.
For us by all the wine in the world.
And praying. And he's heard of the volume in order to scream in the following clouds. That's why I'm gonna get anything.
All right, Well, all over the area.
Of love, love, water and the daylight.
Nsnoise.
And so.
I thought that again.
Wrath of the Wild.
Boar's forever in the past.
And so I can change land walls by the world.
'S life all of the time. We can give you my heart and ground.
Let's ask Lord blessing on our meeting.
Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee this afternoon that those of us that know the Lord Jesus as our Savior can address our God as our Father. We thank Thee for that love that sought and found us and now is desiring to conform us into the image of His own Son. And we thank Thee that Thou has given us a heart that is capable of enjoying and entering into the very things of God.
Enjoying the divine feast that is set before us as those that are believers to know the Lord Jesus and all that we have in Christ.
In the heavenlies, in Christ all, we thank Thee for such kindness to us. And now, as we open up thy precious word, we ask thee that there might be liberty in the Spirit.
00:05:02
And in the power of the Spirit, that thy word might be presented, and that there might be fruit for the a new beginning in the past of different ones in this room. Decisions made to live for Christ to follow the Lord, and the decisions too made to hold fast.
In a passive faith until others come, Blessed Savior, so we ask thee for thy blessing, for clear thoughts and direction as the passages of Scripture turn to and comments made, and that our hearts might be encouraged and strengthened. We ask that our God and our Father, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I have it on my heart to take up a little passage. 3 little passages in second Kings.
And I'd like to read them before we make any comments on them. Second Kings chapter 3.
We'll begin with, and umm, just an introductory comment, uh, a comment that I would make is that this really was at a time in the low point in Israel's history.
Right before Israel was to be carried away captive, really there wasn't a lot of time left. And you and I live in a very dark day. We live in a day of declension, a day of departure from the truth of God, a day of weakness. There's a reason for that weakness. We can all look and point to ourselves. There's a reason for the weakness. We need to be exercised about why things are in such a weak state. And yet we find.
Of God and the love of God, He's never changed. And His purpose is to bless and He desires to encourage us in our hearts. And so we find in this passage a little bit of encouragement, but we find instruction. We find perhaps we might say rebuke as well, but we need it all. And as a Father, as we had in our readings this morning, He seeks to train us.
To identify those things in US that are not really suitable to the walk of one who calls.
Who is called a Christian? One who is named a son of God, an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ. So let's read these three little passages and we'll make some comments on them. Second Kings, chapter 3, verse one. Now Jeroboam the son of Ahab or Jehoram the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel in Samaria, the 18th year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.
And reigned 12 years. And he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord.
But not like his father and like his mother, for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebath, which made Israel the sin. He departed not therefrom. And Misha king of Moab was a sheep master, and rendered unto the king of Israel, and 100,000 lambs and 100,000 Rams with the wool.
But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
And King Jehoram went out of Samaria at the same time, and numbered all Israel. And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Wilt thou go with me against Moab to battle? And he said, I will go up. I am as our my people as I people My horse is as thy horses.
And he said, which way shall we go up?
And the answer the way through the wilderness of Edom. So the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah and the king of Edom, and they fetched a compass of seven days journey, and there was no water for the host and the cattle that followed them. And the king of Israel said, alas, that the Lord has called these 3 kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.
But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not any pro and not here a prophet of the Lord?
That we may inquire of the Lord by him. And one of the king of Israel's servants answered, and said, Here is Elisha the son of Shaytan, which poured water on the hands of Elijah. And Jehoshaphat said, The word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. And Elijah said unto the king of Israel, What have I to do with thee?
Get thee to the prophets of thy Father, and to the prophets of thy mother.
And the King of Israel said unto him, Nay, for the Lord hath called these 3 kings together.
To deliver them into the hand of Moab. And Elisha said, As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand. Surely, if were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward the north seethe. But now bring me a minstrel came to pass. When the minstrel played that the hand of the Lord came upon him. And he said, Thus saith the Lord, Make this valley full of ditches. For thus saith the Lord.
00:10:22
Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain, yet that valid.
Shall be filled with water, that you may drink both ye and your cattle and your beasts.
And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord. He will deliver the Moabites also into your hand, and ye shall smite every fence city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all wells of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones. And it came to pass in the morning, when the meat offering was offered, that behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled.
With water and when the mall the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them. They gathered all that were able to put on armor and upward and stood in the border. And they rose up early in the morning and the sun shone upon the water and the Moabites saw the water and on the other side as red as blood. And they said this is blood. The kings are surely slain and they have smitten one another. Now therefore Moab to the spoil. Now let's just drop down to chapter 4, verse one.
Now they're cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets.
Unto Elijah saying, Thy servant, my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord, and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons, to be bonds men. And Elijah said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house.
Save a pot of oil.
Then he said, Go borrow the vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her, and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she poured out came.
When the vessels were full, that she sat under her sun, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God, And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.
And it fell on a on a day that Elisha passed to shun him, there where was a great woman for a wealthy woman.
And she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as off as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her husband, Behold now I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall, and let us set for him.
They are a bed and a table and a stool.
And a Candlestick. And it shall be when he cometh to us that he shall turn in thither. And it fell on a day that he came thither. And he turned into the chamber, and lay there. And he said to get his eye his servant, Call this Shunamite. And when he had called her, she stood before him. He said unto him, Now say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care, what is to be done for thee.
Wouldst thou be spoken to for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among my own people. And he said, What man is to be done for her? And de Hazel answered, Verily she hath no child, and her husband is old. And he said, said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door. He said, about this season. According to the time of life, Thou shalt embrace the sun. She said, Nay, my Lord.
Of God do not lie under thine handmaid, and the woman conceived, and bear a son at a that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life, while I read these three stories, because it was a day of weakness.
A day of a lacking of power in Israel and we have really 3 little stories that we read and it presents to us the thought in connection with the lack of water. There was a lack of water, There was death, and death was imminent, as it were, because of a lack of water. Water speaks of the word of God. We'll take it up that way here. And then there was umm.
00:15:28
Here in, in chapter 4, there was uh, umm, oil. There was uh, making room. She needed to make room. This, uh, woman for oil, it was a spirit of God. There was no power in Israel.
And then we find that there was barrenness in connection with this woman who was a great woman, a wealthy woman, but she didn't have any posterity. She had no children. She was without child. It was a reproach in Israel for a woman of that stature, of any woman really, to be childless. And so there was fruitlessness, so where there was a lack of water.
There was no power, there was no oil, and there was there was very little oil.
And then we have this little picture of Baroness. So when I just take up these things individually, these little stories in connection with our own responsibility, and we find here that there was a reason why there was no water. And these men had these 3 kings had got together and hatched a plan. We know that the king of Israel.
Had this man the king of Mohab?
Under his thumb, so to speak, he had conquered Moab and, uh, they were subservient to him and they rebelled. And now he wanted to come back and put them back under dominion. And he enlisted the help of Jehoshaphat, a godly king. And he enlisted the help of Edom, the king of Edom. And he was an ungodly king, so he might say, here we have Jehoshaphat. He was a godly man. We have the king of Israel, Jehoram, and he.
Perhaps a professing child of God and we have Edom, the king of Edom, a godless, wicked man, and they joined in this venture together. It was an unequal yoke and God did not bless that union and that endeavor, that energy that they expended. They hatched this plan to instead of just cross the border into mob.
And go head on with this enemy that they would take seven days journey and go out behind and in the wilderness and then come up from behind and attack from behind and by surprise and get the victory and it would be an easy victory.
But they got to where they should have struck and they should have exercised their authority, and it was just a lost 'cause there was no water. Well, you know, you might say, well, how did Jehoshaphat get roped into this? How is it possible that this godly man got into this unequal yoke? Let's just turn to Second Chronicles chapter 18.
Read verse one. I'm gonna read it to.
In Mr. Darby's translation, if you'll just permit it.
Second Second Chronicles chapter 18, verse one Jehoshaphat had riches.
And honor in abundance. And he allied himself with Ahab by marriage.
You know, if you read Second Chronicles chapter 17, it's a fabulous picture of God's blessing to this king Jehoshaphat. Probably one of the most interesting and the most satisfying chapters that you could read of any of the kings.
In the Chronicles, God presents a picture of fabulous picture. It says, you know, it was about 35 years old when he began to reign and it says in verse one that, uh, he strengthened himself against Israel. The very first thing that God records is that this man, Jehoshaphat, a godly man that walked in communion with the Lord, he decided that he was not going to join forces with Ahab or with his household.
And he was going to strengthen Israel. They were not going to turn idolatrous. He was going to walk in obedience to the word of God. Well, we don't have time. It's not my purpose here tonight to this afternoon to talk about chapter 17. But it's a fabulous chapter to read encouraging what made him give up that walk of separation and.
00:20:08
Is a very striking to me that he made an alliance by marriage.
With the household of Ahab, Ahab's daughter married Jehoshaphat's son. Now they were related. They were of the tribes of Israel, the 10 tribes of Israel. They have ruled over those 10 tribes. But you know, they had gone on in idolatry and they had gone on in wickedness. God paints a picture that Ahab's house was the most wicked that had lived and.
He had, he had not yet exercised complete judgment on the House that they have. Ahab was dead now, umm, but umm, we find that, uh, in the future, just a couple of chapters later, I think it's Chapter 9, even Jezebel is cut off and Jehu is raised up of God and the House of Ahab is dealt with. And so we find that umm, Jehoshaphat joins in this unequal yoke.
And he has no power, no strength.
He comes to the point in the back of the desert. They're just about to attack Moab. They have no strength. They have no water. They have no.
Word, they have no word from the Lord, and hear this king, this godless king professing king, perhaps he says in verse 10, second Kings 3, verse 10, the king of Israel said, Alas, the Lord hath called these 3 kings together to deliver them in the hand of Moab.
What a thing to say. If you and I dissipate the word of God, we join in an unequal yoke. Let's not blame the Lord for it. And let's not blame the Lord for the lack of fruit, the lack of success in the venture. And this was what this king was saying. And so the Lord will not bless if His word is set aside and the clear instructions of His word are not presented and obeyed.
That's what we find here, that they didn't have water and they was wasn't the king Jehoshaphat that sought the face of the prophet.
It was really the king of Israel and one of his servants that says, you know, Elisha, the son of Shaphat, he's here.
And so they called him, they came into his presence, those 3 Kings. And Elijah was agitated. He couldn't get a message from the Lord. He just didn't feel comfortable. And he says, bring me a minstrel and a minstrel. He says, just play me some soft music so that I can ease my, I'm just so agitated. I just need to wind down a little bit. I, I'm so upset.
And so they played this music, this minstrel played the music. Finally he calmed down a little bit and then the Lord could work with his spirit. And he says, I have a message from God, dig some ditches, dig lots of ditches. And there's going to be an intervention by God himself and the, and there's going to be an abundance of water and it's going to come not by natural sources.
It's not going to rain or anything like that. God's going to send it. So that's what happened in verse 20. It came to pass in the morning and when the meat offering was offered.
What's the meat offerings speak of? It speaks of the offering of the Lord Jesus and the perfection of his life morally to God. In this scene there was some little occupation with Christ, as it were. A little picture. These are symbolic stories. A little bit of occupation with Christ, The beauty of the person morally of the Lord Jesus as he walked in. Devotedness to his Father in this scene.
The Gospels, as we had brought out this morning, and.
Some occupation with that blessed one. And then the blessing came the water by the way of Eden, and the country was filled with water. Well, you know, what we find here is that there was an absence of water. There was as a picture of an absence of being in the Word of God, of reading the Word of God and having the Word of God before those souls.
They didn't have the word of God before them. They needed the water.
And what we need in the day that we live in is to have the Word of God before us. We need to be saturated with the Word of God. We need to read it. You heard me perhaps say this before, but I think of it often myself, even personally, for my own need. You know how long it takes to read the Old Testament? Approximately 37 hours, let's say 40 hours. So you could take a week off.
Work or a week off school, or if you're in school and you have summer break.
00:25:01
You could spend a week read 8 hours a day and without meditation time. I'm not recommending that you don't meditate on it, but you could read the whole of the Old Testament in eight hours, in 40 hours, 8 hours a day. Have you ever done it? Have you ever read the Word of God front to back? The New Testament takes approximately 17 hours to read from Matthew to Revelation. Not very long, is it? So you could say maybe.
And a half and you could read the whole word of God. Have you ever done it?
You know, we need to make room for the Word of God and we need to understand that it's the Lord that has given the Word and it's what gives us the strength, the nourishment, the refreshment in the wilderness path to be able to have strength to meet the enemy. We will not be able to meet the enemy. We will not be able to.
Overcome in this scene by the Wiles of the enemy that we have.
Except that we know the Word of God, we have the strength of the Word of God, we read it and we're just enjoying it ourselves. Well, it says that they had to dig. You know, there's a little verse of Scripture in Proverbs chapter 2, and I'm just going to read it here in verse 4.
Proverbs chapter 2 and verse four. If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her As for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
How do you search for hidden treasures you dig?
I'm not suggesting you just read the the scriptures and just read it and say, well, I read my chapter today and then I read my chapter tomorrow and I read another and then by the end of the month you've read 30 chapters, whatever.
Did meditate. It takes energy, you know, naturally speaking. Can I tell you this? You forgive me for telling your personal story, but when I was young, I used to like to read the book of Deuteronomy. So I would read the book of Deuteronomy, I'd lay down on the sofa in my father's house and I'd read the book of Deuteronomy. I just like Deuteronomy. And I'm saying it to myself yesterday when I was meditating about this passage. How is it that they could all of a sudden just.
Dig all these ditches. Did they all bring troubles with them?
Yeah, they did. It was part of the armor that they had. I think it's the 34th chapter of Deuteronomy. I didn't remember. No, it's the 24th, I think 24th or 23rd. And he says, umm, he speaks there of having, umm, a shovel. Deuteronomy TWE 23, verse 13, now the Spirit of God.
Will bring to remembrance things that you've read, even when you're a young person or a child.
And so in Deuteronomy, I remembered this from reading it when I was a teenager in verse 13, thou shalt have a paddle upon my weapon. Now, if you look at the new translation, it says shovel. You need to have a shovel with you when you go to warfare. So naturally speaking, they could dig these ditches. And it's going to take some hard work to read the word of God and to gain a little.
Portion for yourself.
And to be able to dig and dig and to be able to get a little portion to enjoy for yourself, to build yourself up, to refresh yourself. And those of us that are fathers and have responsibility in our homes and so on, we need to help and dig in the family Bible reading, perhaps in the morning, perhaps in the evening. And we dig and we dig and we help our kids to learn how to dig. And we they get to learn to be able to.
Study a line of truth.
Can I give you just one little other thought? You know, I, I like to search little lines of things as they go through the Scriptures. And I was thinking to myself one time, you know, John's Gospel is pretty simple and profound, probably the most profound book written in the New Testament.
What was the first thing that the Lord Jesus said in John's Gospel? I thought, well he says in chapter one they said that Master, where dwellest thou? He said, come and see.
And so they went, and they abode with him that night and the next day.
And then, umm, I said, well, what other little three line, three word expressions that the Lord used in John's Gospel?
00:30:01
He says feed my sheep.
What other? What other do you see? It says on the cross. He says it is finished.
What's the last thing the Lord pulled his disciples in John's Gospel?
Follow thou me. That's the last thing.
You can read from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The very last thing the Lord says to you or I says follow thou me.
Now there was a lack of water and there was a necessity of having water and refreshment. It meant life.
And you and I need the word of God. We need life. And there's not going to be blessing in your life or mine. And there's not going to be power in our lives. There's not going to be blessing in the assembly. There's not going to be blessing in the homes unless we have the Word of God before us. We study it, we dig, we use those shovels, we find those hid treasures. We meditate upon those things and we give ourselves holy to them. It's 2:30. We'll sing to Him.
Let's sing #5.
In the appendix.
Let's stand thing #5 in the appendix. Maybe someone can start it.
It's on danger and it's going to fall. And then pride and jealous blood.
Oh, dear friend, I always pray any time together forever remember that. And I think I'm going to be one of the strange things and everything is it. We'll go back to the flash radiation. We'll have a lot of light across that forever.
Umm.
So this first story is a little picture of making place, making room in our lives for the Word of God. We need to dig ditches.
And it may also speak of repentance. You know, it's in the valley, in a low place and in humility, dependence upon the Lord. We dig those ditches, dig and dig. Next story is in chapter 4. And we have this woman of the one of the lives of the sons of the prophets, and her husband is dead and so she has no sustenance. Her sons are about to be sold.
And she only has one little pot of oil.
In the house and oil, as we know in the Scriptures, is a picture of the Spirit of God. There is little power in the day that we live in, isn't there? Very little power, you know, I'm going to tell you.
A little story. There's a young brother, he's probably about 32 years old in Brazil, in Sao Paulo. I stayed in his home. His wife, Regina, you know, he's been at the Lord's Table for about a year, has a son.
00:35:08
Brought up in the Pentecostal church system and he said, you know, the, uh, in the Pentecostal church system, I was 14 years old and I said to the men that were there, he said, I'm saved. I know the Lord is savior. They said, no, you're not. He said, what do you mean? He says, well, they told me I had to speak in tongues or else I, I wasn't indwelled with the Spirit of God and I wasn't truly saved.
And he said I started to read the word of God.
Uh, let's turn to Ephesians chapter one. I'll tell you what he told me.
His name is Diego.
Brother Diego and he says, you know at 14 years old I read Ephesians chapter one and I believe what God said, he said this.
In umm.
Verse 13 In whom ye also trusted, he says I trusted, I trusted Christ.
After that ye heard the word of truth. I know that's true. I know the word of God is true.
In whom also after that you were believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, he says. I'm indwelt with the Spirit.
He said I soon laid hold on that scripture. I said I'm indwelled with the Spirit of God. I'm sealed by the Spirit, the work is finished. And he began to read the word of God. He said I wanted to find out what else they were telling me that wasn't right.
He came into the knowledge of the truth by looking on the Internet. He umm.
Stumble on a site that said, umm, God's answers. And then he said he stumbled on Mario Persona's, uh, umm, the Evangelio and Tres Minutos website Gospel in 3 minutes and you listen to a few of those and he got in contact with Mario and umm, he got into another website that is responding.
Questions that are answered on doctrinal issues.
And he looked at eternal security and he listened to these messages. He says it's possible to be saved and then know you're saved forever.
And he began to attend the meetings a little over a year ago in Sao Paulo. His wife thought he was crazy. Virginia, she wouldn't go with him.
And soon he took his place at the Lord's table. And then he saw a change at home. They began to read the word of God. Can you imagine a church system that says, don't read the word of God? It will confuse you.
He started to read the word of God in his home at the table.
His in laws live next door and they thought he'd gone crazy and then his wife started to come to the meetings.
You know, if you read the word of God, it's going to change your life. His wife started to come to the meetings and she's been at the Lord's table about five months now.
But her parents are distraught. They think that she's lost her salvation because she left the church and because she has the audacity to read the Word of God in her home with her husband and children.
The Word of God says that a believer is sealed with the Spirit of God. It's the sure, umm, you might say the security. Let's turn to 1St Corinthians, the 2nd Corinthians chapter one.
I just want to point these things out because this is a type the oil in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
But we need to recognize that the work of the Spirit is real, and the reason that we don't have the power in our lives and the power in the assembly partly is because we don't live in Pentecostal power days. The church has fallen into ruin. The testimony is in ruin, but the Spirit of God is unchanged. The power is still there.
And so if we read in Second Corinthians chapter one and just.
Read verse 21 Now he which establisheth us with you in Christ, hath anointed us, is God.
Who hath also sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. Well, it's not my intent to go through all of the things that the Spirit of God does. But when it speaks of the anointing of the Spirit, you can read it in first John, the epistle of first John. He speaks of the anointing or the unction and he gives us the power to discern the right the the difference between.
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True doctrine, false doctrine, and true doctrine. He gives us that power. We're anointed with the Spirit. We have that power.
The powers of discernment, if we walk into obedience to the Word of God and in separation, we have that little picture of separation here, We'll get into that. It's necessary. But He also seals us with the Spirit. And so the thought of being sealed is security. We're sealed by the Spirit.
We're forever secure for Christ himself. The work is finished. You have new life and you're going to finish the work. He's going to redeem your body. He's going to bring you to Himself. The work has finished its field. But then he says to hear that we have the earnest of the Spirit, and really the earnest is a picture of the down payment, that the work is going to be entirely complete. You're going to be. Your body is going to be.
He goes into that in Romans chapter 8. We don't have the time to go into all those types, but I want to say this that.
The Lord desires that you and I would go on in the power of the Spirit. There's two things that we do in connection with the Spirit. We can grieve the Spirit or we can quench the Spirit. So the quenching of the Spirit is spoken of in Ephesians chapter 4, and we have the grieving of the Spirit that's spoken of in, uh, First Thessalonians chapter 5. We grieve the Spirit by disobeying the word of God.
And getting into a bad state of soul.
Or we quench the spirit by by the Spirit of God urging us to do something and we will not do it. We don't want to do it, or we're not in the state that would allow us to do it. And so we have this picture in first in second Kings chapter 4. This woman, there's no power. Her son's, she's impoverished.
And, umm.
Man of God says he puts his finger on the problem. He says, umm, take this pot of oil, take it up into your house and shut the door.
And then get all these borrowed vessels and start filling them up.
And so you know what she did, She in verse four it says the instructions given, Thou shalt shut the door. And then in verse five she went from him and shut the door.
It speaks of separation. You know what the problem is? Oftentimes, as we have the door open to the world, it's like eudicus. We're sitting in the window watching what's going on in the world. One foot in the assembly, one foot out of the assembly, you might say. And we wonder why there isn't power in our own lives, why there isn't power in the assembly. Why do we come into the assembly at the breaking of bread? And it's so hard.
I just don't seem to have anything to give to the Lord.
There was nothing more precious to his heart, nothing of a higher consequence to him in his thoughts, than to leave heaven, the courts of glory where there's purity, where sin can never come. And to come into the filth of this scene, no higher priority but to leave that glorious scene and to come down here.
They're walking this scene in obedience to His Father's will.
And then in obedience he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, treated like a criminal outside the city days of Jerusalem to die for me, to die for you.
Oh, it was. One purpose was to please His Father. That's what we had before us this morning in Hebrews chapter 12. One purpose.
But you and I have our doors open, wide open to the world.
But there's not going to be power in our lives, and there's not going to be evident power. The Spirit of God, the ability to give God what is rightfully his, except we shut the door. We need to shut the door. The brother before this meeting asked us to shut our cell phones off.
I'm not a very good example. You'll forgive me. Please forgive me for giving a little personal example, but I try in the morning not to turn my cell phone on, not to look at it, not to look at the computer until I spend an hour with the Lord first. Because I know if I look at that cell phone that there's going to be an emergency that I have to deal with. But really it didn't make a whole lot of difference whether it was now or an hour later. But I think there is a reason why I have to go and do it now.
The enemy is going to try to distract you. Shut the door.
00:45:03
Are you shutting the door and allowing the Lord to do his work with you? You know, let's just look at this little picture.
She poured in the oil. She poured in the oil. She poured in the oil. It was exhaustless.
The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it. You know what I think in the new translation? It says the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and labor out of out of nothing to it. Your labor or mine will add nothing to it. And the Lord is willing to bless. He's willing to give us the energy to live a spiritual life.
My beloved brethren, I speak to myself as well. We need to close the door to this world.
We need to close the door to all of its overtures, its entertainments, and all of the things that it desires to have us distracted in this world. Well, she did, she obeyed, came to pass that the oil stayed in verse six. She went and she came and told the man of God. He said, go and sell the oil and pay thy debt and live thou my children of the rest.
So there's going to be more blessing than we can possibly use for ourselves. The blessing will overflow.
If you personally spend time in the Word of God and dig with your own shovel.
And you close the door to this world and seek to walk in obedience to the word of God, in fellowship with the Lord, in communion with the Lord.
There's going to be a blessing that flows in your life, in your family and in the assembly.
Make no mistake.
God is unlimited in His power. The power of the Spirit has not changed. We don't live in Pentecostal days. I'm not suggesting that, but I am suggesting this, that there is a reason for the weakness that we feel. We need to spend time in the presence of the Lord and allow Him to do His work by His Spirit. Now we have this story, the third one in connection with this little chamber. And so the first little story speaks of making room for the Word of God in our lives.
The second one, making room for the Spirit of God, giving place to the Spirit of God in our lives to do His work with us, allowing him the liberty to use us and being exercised about being used as a spirit to do the work that He has for us to do.
Now it's making room for the Son of God in our lives, making room for Him.
Is there room?
We have room and time for just about everything.
This world has room for everything except Christ, and this world is trying to make their priority your priority.
And I have to say that there are some places I go back.
I travel in a little RV, you know.
And sometimes I'll go back to my RV and I cry.
Because some of the young people went to work at McDonald's or something for minimum wage on the Lord's Day morning and they didn't come into the presence of the Lord that morning.
Or, like a brother Enoch Enos was saying, The reading meeting is so bare and so sparse.
I feel rich, richly fed in my souls oftentimes at a reading meeting.
But the young people, some young people aren't there. They didn't come into the presence of the Lord to read the scriptures.
They thought there was a higher priority somewhere else.
They didn't make that little room for the Lord. You know, Elijah is a type of Christ here. And this woman, she had a sense.
At observing Elisha, she said this is no ordinary man.
And you know, the world should look at you and say this is no ordinary boy, this is no ordinary girl, that this person is a little special.
Well, we know that Elijah spent time in the presence of the Lord.
And you and I should spend time in the presence of the Lord. But she used her resources. She identified that this man was one that she wanted to have communion with. And So what does it say here? It says that.
Elijah passed to shoot him in verse 8 where was a great woman and she constrained him to eat bread. She wanted fellowship with this man.
00:50:07
Do you want fellowship with the Son of God?
Do you want fellowship with the Son of God?
I think of it often, Brother, the one who created the universe created me. He only made one person just like me.
Only one person just like you. He wants to enjoy your fellowship. In the place of his rejection, he wants to enjoy your company.
We're gonna have to make room for it. We're gonna have to make time for it. She wanted the fellowship of the Son of God.
A little type in connection with Elisha and she constrained him to eat bread so it was as off as he passed by, he turned into her to eat bread. You know the Lord isn't going to force you.
To have fellowship with him.
He's not going to force you.
You know, he made it so he would have gone past in, uh, Luke's gospel chapter 24. You know, the Lord Jesus who wasn't gonna force himself on those two that were going on their way onto their, to their home in Emmaus. No, I wasn't gonna force them. He's not gonna force you to get down on your knees and pray in the morning. He's not gonna get force you to read your Bible and to spend some time and to dig with that shovel, to dig and to dig.
It's not gonna force you.
There's nothing more that he would love.
He says to the Ephesians, you know, he says that was left by first love. It should be really translated. I believe thou is left thy best love, the best part of life, the best love. Oh, he felt it. And the Lord feels that if we're cold towards him, he wants our fellowship. Well, this woman, she made some effort here. She seemed to have discernment where her husband didn't have discernment.
He wasn't too interested.
And, uh, it was so that as off as he passed by, he turned into her deep breath. She said to her husband, Behold, now I perceive that this is an holy man of God which passes by us continually. Let us.
Make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall or with walls. If you look at the new translation, it says with walls. What's the little chamber?
The little chamber is a little place right here in your heart.
Let's make a little place.
In our hearts for the Son of God.
The One who loved us and gave himself for us wants to have fellowship with us. Let's make a little place in our hearts to enjoy the Son of God. Well, it had to be with walls. We have this little picture of separation in these pictures. Jehoshaphat was in an unequal yoke. He wasn't in a separated place, and God couldn't bless him and this woman.
Of the wise, of the sons, of the prophets.
She had to shut the door, place a separation, she had to shut the world out and all those influences that she might be brought into the blessing of that oil. And now we have a little chamber with walls. Let us set for him there a bed. Can the Lord rest with you? This is a restful thing for you to spend a little time alone with the Lord. And does He rest in your presence? Does He refresh?
Oh, he ought to be refreshed. You know the Lord Jesus is going to be satisfied.
When He sees you in the glory, when he sees you in heaven, you're going to be satisfied. He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. But He longs for us to be satisfied with Him now.
In this scene, while we await his coming and so she set a bed there speaks of rest and refreshment. A table speaks of communion.
You tell the Lord.
What you think about them?
Do you? Do you tell the Lord how you appreciate what He did for you?
How often do you tell the Lord what you appreciate about Him? Do you ever read the Word of God and just put your Bible down and thank the Lord for what He just wrote to you? Do you ever do that?
I confess I don't do it often enough, but I do it by the grace of God. I just put my Bible down. I just thank the Lord for writing what He just wrote, and I just try to appreciate it and I tell him that I appreciate what He wrote.
Well, he's looking for that. He's looking for fellowship. And then the Candlestick that speaks really of umm.
00:55:02
Our testimony, there's going to be a testimony. You know, if we render the time, we give the little, make a little room, make a little time for the Lord, a little place in our hearts for him, there's going to be a testimony. And then it says a stool. Now what would you use a stool for?
You use a stool to sit like Mary at the feet of Jesus.
Sit as his feet as a learner.
All of us are learning and I'm not standing here tonight, this afternoon, because I know more than anybody else.
No, no, we're all learning, we're all learners, and we need to fit at the feet of the Lord Jesus as learners. And the Lord Jesus appreciates us to sit at his feet in humility and with a desire to refresh his heart and to learn from him. And so she said that when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither. And it fell on a day that he came thither, He turned into the chamber and lay there.
You know, if we make a little place for the Lord, a little chamber, a little room on the wall, a little time that's separated just for him, He's going to come and we're going to enjoy that sweet time with him. We're going to enjoy fellowship with the Son of God, and He'll come. He's not going to force himself, as I said, upon us, but there's going to be sweetness, there's going to be fellowship. And then we find that she had a child. Now we know that He tested her about that child.
Child died and was raised to gain.
But you know, she had this child.
She had fruitfulness. It's a picture to us that if we make room for Christ, the Son of God in our lives, we prepare for him that little room and we prepare that bed, that place of rest and refreshment. We enjoy Rest and refreshment is present. We sit at the stool to be as learners at His feet, true disciples.
And there's going to be fruitfulness in our lives.
Why is there such barrenness?
Why is there such fruitlessness?
Because he hasn't got the 1St place, that's why.
If he doesn't have the 1St place and he doesn't have your heart, he doesn't have what he wants. My son, give me thine heart. He says give me thine heart. He's not going to barter with you. He just asks you to give that little portion that belongs to him. Well, our time is gone. I just wanted to bring those little passages of Scripture for you. Three things. One is that we need to dig those ditches. We need to have the Word of God before us continually.
Need to memorize the word of God. We need to have it before us all the time.
Need to be a part of the fabric of our lives. We need to walk in the power of the Spirit, not to grieve the Spirit, not to quench the Spirit. And then we also need to make that room in our lives for the Son of God, that little chamber with walls, walls of separation from this world that we might live and enjoy the communion of the Son of God and sitteth learners at his feet without the distractions of this world. Let's commend ourselves.
Our loving God, our Father, we thank the for thy precious word, these, uh, little stories that I was put in the Old Testament to give us instruction. We thank thee that thy word has been given to us as a lamp on our feet and a light under our path. A lamp to give us light for one step at a time in the path of faith and a light that shows us the end of the path of faith. Help us not only to have begun in the path of faith, but to finish.
And to finish with joy, we ask Thee for Thy blessing. Commend ourselves to Thee for the remainder of these meetings in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Hebrews 12:5-14
Reading
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The fellow children's meeting has through the waste we roll the sweet to sing together. We are not far from home 231.
We're tail drums in the world.
'S mainly 10 one crying the whole.
They called and the lady and.
I am here.
In the beginning of the world when you explain your home.
All the time appreciate it all over the gods by ourselves from home and flesh and whisper and flour and flour and flour light flour in the sun. Our work and our praying come.
OK. And we're gonna follow up again. I'll call it a little bit. We're gonna have a lot of we don't have anything on.
We go, we don't get anything.
At 7:12.
And praying together. The normal pillow, the Grand Canyon.
Is so cold. So I'm getting very, very, very, very young. Remember the heart of God's heart. Yes, it's a long time ago. I'll go to the baby.
And yeah, you're having me.
Because I haven't been. I have a small, uh, heavenly today in.
Yo, pardon me brethren, but could we also sing uh, 233? Uh, this also speaks of that.
Place where we'll be with our brethren.
Someone please start.
Are the choirs always?
Standing in your heart.
You need anything for 100 bucks? Yeah for 595.
Thin tongue.
00:05:29
And, uh, what I mean.
By all the crazy things or yellow today.
Lord, may all have the heart and blood of the state people and the furniture of the land.
Our God and Father, we just come before Thee this afternoon, and we thank Thee for reminding us in this one little hymn that we are pilgrims and strangers, pilgrims on the way home and strangers away from home. And oh Lord, how much we need to be together to encourage one another. And we would just pray, Lord, that Thou would direct this afternoon in the readings. We pray, Lord, as I Spirit, might not be breathed or quenched, and that our meditations might be sweet. And Lord, that.
Our thoughts might be attractive to these. We thank you too for this little hymn that we have just sung. Now, that moment so near at hand, when we'll be in the glory the same night, praises through all eternity. We thank Thee for such a glorious future. And we pray to Lord for our dear brethren in Kirkland this weekend. We pray Thou bless their time together too. And we ask it all in the worthy and precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.
Along with the 12Th chapter or yes, I think it would be good to start at the fifth verse, verse five, and then we could go over some of these points in connection with the training that the Lord.
Is involved with in our lives.
You reached out to call and, uh, starting with verse 5.
You have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you is unto children. My son, decides not thou the chasing of the Lord, nor faint when thou ever Duke of him? For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. Encourage us every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement whereof all our partakers, then are ye ******** and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reference. Shall not, Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father's spirit, and live?
For a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His Holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Afterward it yielded the feasible fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the people need, and make straight paths for your feet, plus that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God.
Unless any root of bitterness bringing up trouble, you and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance.
Though he sought it carefully with tears. For ye are not come unto the mouth that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and Tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they have heard and treated, that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. For they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or trustory with the dark. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are coming to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the General Assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, into the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant. To the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
See that you refuse, not him that speaketh.
Birthday escape not who refused, and let's take on earth much more. Shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven? Whose voice then shook the earth? But now He had promised, saying. Yet once more, I take not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken as of things which are made, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.
00:10:08
OK.
It was mentioned this morning that the thought of chastening is really child training, and I've always enjoyed what our brother Eric Smith said years ago in connection with chastening. He said sometimes chastening is preventative. In other words, the Lord sees something coming up in our lives and He wants to prevent something happening as a result of it, so He allows chastening.
Other times, umm, we know that, uh.
A man that, uh, has apple trees, he needs to prune the trees suddenly so that the, the, uh, trees will bring forth more fruit. And so pruning is necessary. And so there are times in our lives that, uh, the Lord sees that, uh, there needs to be that pruning, uh, which I've enjoyed. And then there are other times when the Lord has something that he would have us to do. And, umm, he's preparing us, uh, for that work. And he passes this through, uh, various trials in view of what he wants us to do.
Then of course, umm, can you say that, umm, there's also, umm, the punitive aspect that we sometimes mentioned when the Lord has to come in and, uh, deal with it because of something that we allow in our lives. And uh, then finally, I mentioned the thought of preservative preserving us. Sometimes the Lord allows difficulty so that we might be preserved from falling into a, a, a serious situation. So I've enjoyed those various ways that the Lord deals with us in, uh, chastening.
Just one other comment I want to make and that is that in this fifth verse.
There's two dangers, I believe in connection with, uh, chastening. One, we're liable to despise it and, uh, we get upset when the Lord allows, umm, chase something in our life. The other, uh, aspect is that sometimes we think because of it, and these are dangers to either despise the chastening or things because of it. And so the Lord wants us to look up to him and recognize that, uh, even though he allows these things.
It's because we're his children and he deals with and deals with us as sons. So I think these things are important, aren't they?
It's really to deliver us from wasting our time, Washington, wasting our lives, uh, living in the flesh, isn't it? And he loves us and he's seeking to conform us into the image of his Son. And he's willing to take the time individually, umm, create a, an individual course line for every one of us that we might receive what we need in training individually. So we don't go into the school of God and we all go into the 12Th grade or whatever. Uh, we all have an individual curriculum. It's the wisdom of God. It's the love of God. He tells us why. And as you say in different passages of Scripture and John's Gospel chapter 15, he says it's necessary for pruning.
And one that has life, he's going to prune that one. One that doesn't have life, there's not the pruning. And so it's evidence that we have life because he seeks to deal with us and to train us in such a way. And as you say, the first warning before he gets into some of this detail, he says, really, you forgot the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. And he's quoting in the book of the Proverbs, isn't he? And he's quoting Solomon and the wisdom of Solomon, divine instruction given to be able to walk in a heavenly path. And this scene.
And he says, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint. So someone said it's like either behaving like a duck or behaving like a poppy. Some have been in Europe, you know, and you see the poppies growing in the sand at the edge of the road, even in, uh, Belgium and so on. And I've done it myself. I've got out of the car and gone over to these poppies that are blowing in the wind, brilliant red, beautiful. And, uh, I take my pocket knife out and just cut the stem and the thing immediately Wilts. It's literally like a piece of Jelly.
There's no strength at all. One second it was standing up, blowing in the wind, the next I cut the stem. It just whilst it's it's gone.
And the only thing you can do is take it and put in between 2 pages in a book and dry it off and you have some evidence that you were there and got a poppy. But his desire is to work with us and to train us that there might be a recognition of his love. I need to be on our part and a purpose of love on his part. And not to think that that, umm, rebuke, if there's a rebuke given and umm, so not to defise it, not to be like a duck and say, well, this happens to everybody. I mean, everybody has a car accident. Everybody, uh, it's just the way it is. Uh, everybody breaks their foot every now and then.
00:15:00
No, we're to just be very careful to take it from the Lord, take our circumstances from the Lord training us. And his brother Stan, you brought out there may be a purpose of preventing us from being in a place where we shouldn't be, being engaged in an activity that we shouldn't be engaged in, whatever it might be. That would dishonor him. And he sees in his wisdom he'll go to the effort to train us in this way.
Not to be despising the chasing, we're not to be fainting under it, but we are exercised by according to verse 11.
And as a result.
It felt this.
It's a beautiful result to being exercised by what does the Lord want me to learn in this and I'm not sure we always.
Understand exactly why this or that has happened to us, and I don't know that we really need to, but we are to be exercised by. That's what it's telling us here. I believe in verse 11. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Afterward it yields the feasible fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
To realize that the Lord allows things in our lives really to do us good.
And it's always.
Is love that allows us chasing? I think it's important to keep in mind that perfect law casts out fear too. To realize that I experience difficulty. It's not because the Lord is against me but wants to harm me. It's because He loves me.
And you know, that could be a comfort to our hearts.
We find in the uh case of the Apostle Paul.
He had a form of discipline in his life.
You have that first in the Second Corinthians, the, uh.
Lest I should be exalted because of the abundance of the revelations leave out above measure that shouldn't be there. We, the truth is we can't stand to be exalted at all. Uh, but there was that danger in the life of the apostle Paul and uh, the Lord in his wisdom, you might say in, in a preventative character.
He gave to the apostle Paul a thorn for the flesh. We don't know what the thorn was.
Scripture doesn't tell us, but it was something that was very difficult for him to bear. It was something that really humbled him. And he besought the Lord three times that the thorn might be removed because he, he reasoned, I can serve the Lord better if this, this problem has been removed from my life. But the Lord never removed that horn. And then we have those beautiful verses.
Uh, my strength is made perfect in weakness. And, uh, that thorn, whatever it was, it had the effect of humbling the great Apostle Paul. He had revelations that no one else had. And, uh, there was a danger of him getting puffed up. And God said, I'm going to, I'll send this disciplinary action, uh, as as part of my training in the life of the apostle Paul.
And he learned lessons, he learned dependence upon the Lord and, uh, we need to learn that too. No matter how successful we have been, quotation marks successful in our service for the Lord, we need to be humble. We need to be humble in his presence. It's all of his grace. And, uh, the apostles said he learned that in his weakness, he had power, you know.
In my experience, which has been very poor and failing, I often have feel no strength to give the gospel out.
And, uh, I feel as weak as water, but you know, it's that time that you're cast upon the Lord and he comes in in a wonderful way. If we just look to him in that spirit of independence, confidence, owning our weakness, marvelous, the way that he comes in to help us in that little service that, uh, he, uh, would give us. But in the connection with what Stan, Stan, uh, very clearly distinguished these, uh, forms of discipline that I guess you can say there's five PS there, right? Preparatory, uh.
Purgative or punitive? Uh, preventative, Uh, punitive.
Punitive, of course, is because there's been some failure in my life. I've allowed perhaps sin in my life. In fact, this was very evident in the assembly of Corinth. Uh, you remember many are weak and sickly among you and many, sweet God had to deal with them because of their careless, ungodly ways in the assembly and some were taken away in, in debt. Well, I think we have to be very careful about pronouncing.
00:20:19
The reason why a brother or sister is passing through a trial, be very careful there and not judge, but for the individual, we should be exercised. Why the Lord has allowed this in my life. Is there something that is dishonouring to him? It was in Corinth and the apostle said if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. Maybe we should turn to that verse, first Corinthians 11. It was a very solemn verse there. Uh, it's good for us to be reminded of that, this, uh.
This point, the first verse, uh.
While verse 27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. And that's what some of them were doing in quarantine. The Letterman examined himself. And so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup for this cost. 30 Many are weak. And well, if we're 29 that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. In other words, if I practice self judgment in my life before I come to the Lord's Table, then I I will not have to undergo this chastening that that was being brought among the brethren here in Corinth. When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. This is definitely punitive here. And remember reading Mr. Darby or hearing what Mr. Darby said. He said, I believe that many of the sicknesses among the Lord's people.
Is because of lack of self judgment in their lives. But we have to be careful, as I said, about pronouncing on those things. We should, uh, we cannot, uh, always say the reason why a trial has come into a person's life, uh.
But we should be exercised ourselves about the, uh, the reason why the Lord has allowed that to come in. Sometimes it's a correction of spirit with Job, His spirit was wrong, His attitude was wrong. There wasn't a sin in his life outwardly, but his attitude and his spirit is wrong. And so the Lord allowed a purge into discipline in the life of Joel to correct him. And, uh, it was very beneficial to him as we see at the end of the book.
So it is an ex, it should be an exercise that, uh, we, we, uh, take these things from the war. Nothing happens by chance in our lives. Uh, as our brother Robert said, God has a purpose of love, uh, and needs to be on our part for the purpose of love on his part. And, umm, you have to be careful that we have the shield of faith because in these times of trial, Satan is very active. And if we don't have the shield of faith.
He's going to shoot one of his fiery darts.
Which is doubting the goodness that is in the heart of God, breaking down our confidence in the Lord. Why is this trial come in my life? I've tried to please the Lord and yet hear this difficulty and I don't know what to do and but umm, we need to remember that the Lord has a purpose of blessing and he gives it allows us to come in love and for our for our blessing in the end to do us good at our latter.
Just to sum up what you've said, Brother John, is that the Lord when he deals with us in our individual?
Training course in the school of God, He's training us in connection with our spirits and he's training us in connection with our actions. So he's training us and desiring to give us the desire to walk in obedience and faithless to his word. And he's also wanting us to do what we're doing with the right attitude. Now I'll just point out the last words of the apostles, the apostle Paul, his last words written that we know of in second Timothy chapter four, he says, the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit.
And so in a day of ruin, Timothy might get an attitude that he would perhaps superior to his brethren and he might have an attitude that wasn't consistent with what it was to walk and commune with the Lord, with the people of God in a day of ruin. Now Peter, he speaks in the same a similar fashion. And really in second Peter, it was a giving up of, you know, practical walk of righteousness. And he has a word of exhortation in second Peter. He says in verse 18 of the second Peter 3.
Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. So he says grow in grace.
00:25:00
We need grace, we need to have in our spirits that grace. And then John, he says, he speaks and he says the last, uh, page of our Bibles in Revelation, he says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. So our spirits need to be, uh, characterized by a spirit of grace and the Lord was and in the perfect example, wasn't he? He prayed for those that were crucifying him. The Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Stephen in the character of Christ himself.
Prayed in the same way, he says lay not to sin to their charge. What was the result of that prayer? His spirit was right. And God saved the apostle Paul approximately a year later. And so he deals with our spirits, He trains us in connection with our spirits, and then he also trains us in connection with our actions.
Thank you instructive that chasing.
Follows this contradiction of sinners. You know, sometimes when we face the opposition of the world, we may not have the right spirit. We may want to retaliate. That's not great. And the apostle Paul writing Timothy.
The second official he says be strong in the grace, which is in Christ Jesus, because there's a day of opposition.
And Timothy had to stand alone.
And the tendency, you know, in that circumstance might be to, uh, give *** for tat, but be strong, which is in Christ Jesus, a need for correction in our spirit. So we got chasing coming right after this contradiction of sinners. One time I think I mentioned this before I passed the track to it young fellow. And he said, fuzz off.
Well, at first it didn't set too well, but then I realized a wrong spirit. I just need to go on my way.
And pray for that individual and feel sorry for that.
I see there was no need for chasing here too, I think on my part.
So that's enduring, isn't it? In verse 7, if you endure chase news. So there's three responses that are given to us here. One is despising, one is fainting, and the other is enduring. So that's the proper umm response. So if he endure, it's practical submission to what the Lord is doing in our lives, whatever the circumstances might be. God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chaseth not? So I don't go into your home and start to train your children. That's not my work.
That's your work. You're the father in the home and you need to be exercised as a father as to how to train your child.
Train them in obedience, train them to, uh, umm, do what they're told to follow instructions, all those things. The Lord trains us to follow instructions. But how will a child know how to follow the instructions of the word of God if a father in a practical sense doesn't train that child to follow instructions in the home? He'll get to be older and he'll get to be a teenager and he won't be able to follow instructions. He won't want to follow instructions. Maybe there are no consequences if he doesn't follow instructions. And so that's why he brings in this thought that.
Umm, the Lord was, uh, he corrects us, and our fathers did as our fathers did in verse 9. Furthermore, we've had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? So what a responsibility is to bring children into this world, to have them come into our homes. And now I, I have not been a father of any.
Particular example at all. That would be commendable.
I have to say, I look back on those years as a young man and I say I could have done things so much better if I'd only taken seriously those instructions that are given in the Word of God in the book of the Proverbs and some of the other books, some of the other examples in Scripture. I could have been a better father. I could have trained my children a little better. Well, there's none of that failure with God. He sees you. He loves you individually. He paid the price to redeem you and to himself. And He's got that course set out and he's looking for the submission, the enduring of the chastening, and He's going to deal with you as a son.
And he's going to correct you as a son, He's going to train you as a son. And then there's going to be fruit for himself.
And so it requires subjection unto the Father of spirits. So May God give us the grace not to point the fingers has already been said and say, brother, so and so just had an accident. And I know the Lord is dealing with him about something. We need to be very careful. It's only the Lord that knows how he's dealing with us governmentally, individually. And we ought to pray for one another and be sympathetic to one another. But at the judgment seat of Christ, he's going to tell us why he did what he did and every one of us.
00:30:15
It says the little him says that 77 in the appendix will bless the heart, the plan, the hands that guide it when thrown in glory in Emmanuel's land. Every one of us will bless his heart and thank Him for all He used his hand in our lives. But now we have the privilege of submitting to that his, uh, ways with us in training, sometimes in his governmental ways with us as is necessary, but it's always, he's always dealing with us as sons.
And, uh, with regards to judging others or trying to presume, you know why they're going through things, this does not have to do with facing at all, but sometimes people suffer things for the benefit of others got nothing to do with them at all. And the best example I can think of in Scripture is Lazarus when he died, I didn't say anything about Lazarus doing anything or, but it was very clear what happened to him was for one purpose and that was.
For the Lord's Lord, the Lord was gonna show his disciples his power. And this was all under the direction of the Father, of course. But it's just an example. Sometimes people go through things. Maybe the Lord's speaking to you.
To say to that the Lord may be speaking to the assembly, the Lord may be allowing a trial in the assembly. And collectively we go through the trial together because the Lord knew he needed to draw our souls together. We were apart, we were growing cold towards one another. We wouldn't support one another, we wouldn't express our love practically to one another. And the Lord touches us, He touches us that we might grow in our sympathies, we might draw near to one another, and we might use our resources to strengthen the testimony locally. And so.
We need to be very careful about pointing the finger and saying that we know why, but the Lord is gracious. And the whole point here that the writer gives to us is to these dear, dear Saints of God who are going through this persecution. Some of them were being martyred, some of them were losing their homes. We could read in chapter 8 of Acts, uh, there's all kinds of things that were going on and uh, instead of pointing the finger, they needed to just submit to what the Lord was allowing. So all from getting saved because the gospel was being preached other places and the truth of God as to the heavenly calling of the church was being made known all over the known world.
Because somebody had to leave their house. I'll just give you an example if you turn to Acts chapter, uh, eighteen, I think it is.
Yeah, Acts chapter 18 verse one.
After these things Fall departed from Athens and came to Corinth, and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla. Because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them, and because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought provide their occupation. They were Tentacres.
So here the apostle Paul comes to court and he stays in this home. He's given lodging, food. He's, uh, able to write his first epistle to the Thessalonians, perhaps right there in the home with, uh, equivalent Priscilla. It was a provision of God. But then if you turn back to Romans chapter 16, you read again about Aquila and Priscilla.
UH-3 great Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks, under whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles, likewise Greek, the church that is in their house. So now you find them in Rome. They're living in Rome.
Claudius Caesar had told all the Jews to leave Rome. Now they're back in Rome. Why? Whether or not Jews anymore, they're Christians. There's an assembly in their house, and there is fruit for God. And so you may lose your job. I may have difficulties. Every one of us. God has a higher purpose. And what does he desire? That we would trust his heart of love. That we would trust what he's doing. And as he disperses us from one place to another, loosens our pegs, that we use it for his glory and for his honor.
So I think this is really the point that the Spirit of God is bringing before us not only that he has wisdom and connection with training, but that umm in verse 10 that they barely for a few days chasing us after their own pleasure, but he for our prophets that we might be partakers of His Holiness Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward.
It yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. So he draws the conclusion to all of these events, all of these circumstances, all of this training.
00:35:04
Fruit for him. Could we have it any better? Is there a better plan? There's no better plan.
Things that we're correcting them. A lot of times it's because it's unprofitable mentioned in that first he corrects us for profit. That is that we might be more beneficial to the Lord in our service. So things some things we kindly have things in our lives that are on on the unprofitable and the Lord may reveal that to us. It may take some sort of a trial to get our attention, but it's all done in love and in the end the per exercise thereby it does.
Yield. If you say more fruit for him, the pruner that prunes the tree knows exactly what branches are cut off, and they know just exactly how to prune that tree so that it'll yield more fruit next year. And read one time that when a pruner is pruning the tree, of course the picture of the Lord, the Lord is closer to us at the time of that pruning. Perhaps in any other time, he's the one that's perfecting.
That tree to bring forth fruit. So he goes through every trial with us. So the Lord is supposed to at those times than any other time.
And as your invention is.
A real skill and as far as the cruder of that tree correctly, and I was thinking the same thing.
As well that it's pruning isn't done then the energy of that tree wasted on on a show of branches and leaves. My supposed that would be a picture of wasting your time doing things in flesh.
For for a shower, that's right. For a show, Yeah, yeah.
The Lord desires reality, doesn't it?
And then following the line, I just got some thoughts about the pattern that we have.
From, uh, Matthew 13, we have seeds, different seeds sown and it all springs up as we know when they're really going. But there's, but there's good ground there and there's good sea. We'll bring forth fruit. And I was thinking about the UMM in Matthew 3.
In Matthew three we have this.
And John appears and that's the Kingdom of heaven is beginning is introducing verse 2.
We thank you for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand and in chapter 4 the Lord takes up the same thing verse 17 repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. In chapter 10 when the 1204 is exactly the same thing. Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand and they were to receive it and so multitudes were talking about Judea and the regions all around about and came they joined this this proclamation to repent of the disconnect yourself with the guilt of Israel, the guilty nation and come.
So now we turn to John chapter 6. And so many many come in and follow. Of course they partake of the for loaves and the fishes and these things and they go on and on. But when it comes to the 6th of John.
We have some persecution. Something comes in and he identifies himself in 535455 about mice eating my flesh, drinking my blood. So now the persecution is sort of come in connected with that. And why do you get in verse 66?
From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with them. They were followers to disciples, but they there was a separation now, so they go more no more with them. And then Jesus says to the 12 we ye also go away, no.
There's a separation and so we find that as the story goes on, of course, the they reject their king and they crucify him. And so it brings a close the Kingdom of heaven is not being set up. So if you look at the very end of Matthew's Gospel and also the end of of Mark's Gospel, but in Matthew it says the Lord says to the disciples, go forth into all the world, teach, teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father Son, the Holy Ghost.
Darby says go forth and make disciples. In other words, just as the nation of Israel had to come out from their guilt of the nation before, now they have to come out from the guilt of crucifying the Lord of glory. So it's going to make disciples of all nations. So they come. And so in early Acts we see all these thousands and thousands come in, and they're coming in all sorts, but they're not all real. They're not all real so much. So there has to be the separation and what comes the separation? Go to Hebrews 6, for example, We get a little.
In this group that Paul writes to, there's many, many Jews.
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Many, many disciples, but they're not all real. And so we look at, uh, opening chapter verse 6. There's therefore it says, let's leave the principles abduction of Christ. Let's go on to the on to perfection, not lay again the foundation of repentance for dead works or from dead works of faith toward God or an adoption of baptism and so on. And Eagles a little further says we leave all that alone for it is impossible for those who are once enlightened and have tasted up to heavenly gift and were made particulars of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the and the powers of the world of Connor, they shall fall away.
To renew them again and to repentance, there is a separation. There are real ones in there. So the trials that came in identified with these were, and they went away just because the other ones before went away. And so now he says now that there's separation, he brings in the same principle to his own at yoga verse nine that says, but beloved, this is 6 and nine. We are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. So what's he gonna do now? He's gonna put them as it were, through the same kind of difficulties and trials we've been just talking about.
Giving an example of those who passed petition might say in Ebro's 11 and now in Hebrews 12, the very same things that we have the the the trial that they too can respond to, they can faint. We can get the stories, but it really is to say, I have better things for you're going to pass through these things and there's going to be fruit, there's going to be growth, but it's a proof of reality. It's a proof of reality to go on. That's the test to us right now. And these things come in. It's a test of me, my reality. Am I going to go on?
If I don't have that spirit, I'm done. I'm not going to go on. I'm going to leave this place. But really as a test. So and he means that that'll bring forth more fruit. That's what I see in that it it may be that you have a desire to devote your life to the Lord and serve him in some way and but you're he seems to be going through a lot of difficult times right now and you just can't seem to get over that home and to be free to serve the Lord and.
Difficult difficulties come into your life and how are you going to respond to those difficulties? And in verse nine it talks here about further in chapter 12. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and gave us, we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and live and so the father of spirits. I might suggest that that might be the father, the spirit, that might be the attitude that we have when we go through our difficult times. How do we react to the and respond to the to the.
Chastening in the in the instruction that the Lord is giving to us at this time. Are we going to be subject to it or are we going to have an attitude and and be defensive and then in verse 11.
There's no chastening, for the present seems to be joyous but grievous nevertheless. Afterwards it gives the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. OK, so you're devote, you want to devote your life to the Lord, but you're going through a lot of troubles and difficulties.
Well, what, what is it the Lord has for you in this he maybe we've talked about punitive and, and other sorts, but there's preparatory also. There's preparatory, umm, guidance and instruction from the Lord. And so those instructions may be sometimes difficult for us to take the chastening And so, but if we're exercised by it and we understand that it will result in the peaceable fruits of righteousness. There's another verse in first Timothy chapter 4 I'd like to look at.
First Timothy 4 and verse first 1040. Verse 9 as well. First Timothy 49. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.
For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God. Who are we going to trust in our trouble, in our trials, in our instructions? Trust in the living God, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and all your ways. Acknowledge him and he will direct your past. And then we go down to verse 12 of our chapter. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and repeat your knees. I've heard people say this has been mentioned. Oh, you're, you're going through a difficult trial. It must be the judgment of the Lord on you.
Well.
It's not a real good reaction on our part when someone is experiencing difficult times. We've been, we've been seeing of grace today. We've been, uh, Speaking of grace. And now it says lift up the hands which hang down. We need to encourage our brethren who are going through difficult times, lift them up, strengthen them. Umm, and as has already been mentioned, the trial might be because the trial for that one person is speaking to the assembly. And so we need to encourage one another. I believe that's why the Lord gave us the, the fruit of the spirit. There's love.
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Joy, peace, lung, suffering, gentleness, goodness, and so on. There's we. We need these in order to get along as an assembly together. We don't turn on somebody just because there's been problems in their life. We need to be gracious with one another and encourage one another and help one another along in the Christian pathway.
A trial or a sickness being for the benefit of others or for an assembly, it doesn't necessarily benefit others from the sense of waking them up to some sin they're like. It also could be an encouragement to see somebody going through a trial and yet.
Maybe a sickness, illness. And still we're faithfully coming out to the assembly meetings. They're still trying to encourage their brethren despite their own weaknesses. And I think of a, a story in Acts where two of the apostles suffered some things and yet they, uh, were encouraged by what they went through. I'm thinking of the story in Acts 5 of Peter and John. They were in the city of Jerusalem and they were in the temple teaching.
And the chief priests and and Sadducees.
Umm, we're upset by this. So in verse 18 of act five, it says that the chief recent statuses, they, they laid hands on the apostles and put them in the common prisons. The Angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, go stand and speak in the temple of the words, sorry in the temple to the people, all the words of this life. So they get captured. They put in prison to get miraculously delivered. They're right back to where they were preaching again. And the next day they find that they're missing. So they go and they get them again. And this time if you go down to verse 40 or in front of the council.
And it says Emilio Umm says some things in current counsel. And then they said that they called the apostles, they beat them, and they commanded that they should go speak in the name, that they should not speak the name of Jesus, and let them go. And what appeared and John do, they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were kind of worthy to suffer shame for his name. And this is encouraging to think that despite the troubles they went through, they saw it as being worthy, that they were worthy to suffer the name of Christ and that.
Obviously, umm, those going through second season trials and, and yet they're, they, they go a bit with a smile on their face rejoicing in the Lord and it's an encouragement to the soul to see the response and others to those kinds of things. I think we have that, umm, map in the very thought in second Corinthians, uh, second Corinthians, uh, one, uh, the apostle says they're.
Speaking of the encouragement.
Umm, or six, whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. Whether we be comforted is for your consolation and salvation. So, uh, where they were comforted in all their tribulation. Verse four, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. I thought you might say that was a preparatory, uh, suffering there. Uh.
It was a disciplinary training.
In fact, uh, the Lord reverently speaking, he passed through that character of suffering because as a man down here, he endured everything that a righteous man could suffer, that that was a training in the Lord's life that he might be unmerciful and faithful high priest. As we said this morning, there was no chastening in the Lord because of any, any tendency toward sin or anything. He was apart from sin entirely, but.
There was a training there that he might now on high in the glory.
Intercede for us. Our brother Sean brought it out this morning very nicely, that he was passed through all these trials, uh, as a righteous man. Of course, the Lord doesn't have sympathy with our sin, and we shouldn't look for that either. We should judge it unsparingly. But with our infirmities, when we're rejected by the world, it's not easy to take. The Lord understands that. Loneliness, love in thy lonely life of sorrow here below. No one understood the Lord.
In his pathway down here, he was a lonely man, but now he can sympathize with us as our great high priest. Great. Being a high priest is not in connection with sin. That's advocacy, but it's in connection with our weakness and our our trials, our infirmities. Another thing I was thinking of is that verse in Hebrews, UH-10, Hebrews 10.
Verse 35 The apostle says here to the uh, Hebrews, who are passing through these awful times of affliction, the spoiling of their goods.
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Umm, here they were gazing stock by reproaches and afflictions and so on. They were really in the furnace of affliction. But what does the apostle say in 35 cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which have great recompense of reward. You know at the judgment seat of Christ, Even that confidence that we have in the Lord at these times of trial instead of getting bitter or what a what a danger that is bitterness coming into the soul and we're all.
Umm, amenable to that, we can all get that bitter spirit. And it's, uh, when our confidence in the Lord is broken down and, uh, we cast it away in those doubts coming to our souls. Uh, there's gonna be reward even for the confidence and faith that we have in the Lord in those times of trial.
Another aspect rather than that, to umm, the Lord putting someone through a trial for your benefit, maybe to provide for you an opportunity to experience some of the things. That is where it talks about says week with those who weep. You ever had the expansion of weeping with someone who wept? If they weren't put through a time of weeping, you would not have that opportunity. That's just a small example, but sometimes we see people suffering. We should ask ourselves why. Why is the Lord allowing me to witness this?
Is this an opportunity for me to minister, to weep with them, to pray for them? You know, there's, there's all kinds of reasons why we go through the things we go through.
I think it's good to read the, the portion that John mentioned in Second Corinthians chapter one, but to read it with the wording that Mister Darby translates and, umm, just at verse four, we could take, uh, who encourages us in all our tribulation that we may be able to encourage them which are in any trouble by the encouragement wherewith we ourselves are encouraged of God. And so some of these sufferings that the Lord allows us to go through are preparatory to be able to comfort others and encourage others because he encouraged us as we went through those trials and so.
You think of the apostle Paul in verse 8 of this chapter, first two Corinthians, one verse eight. We would not rather have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia that we were pressed out of measure above strength and so much that we despair even of life. Can you imagine the apostle Paul despairing of life? He just, you know, the trial was so severe. He just, uh, he didn't know if he could live through it, but uh, in the mercy of God when he met brethren that were suffering the affliction of persecution.
He said, I know exactly how you feel. I know exactly how you feel. I've been exactly there. I was stoned too. Uh, I've been beaten with rods. Uh, I've suffered shipwreck. I know exactly how you feel. And so the Lord, those two points I think we need to take from that passage is in the preparatory work that the Lord does with us in training us. He encourages us as we go through the training. Isn't that lovely? And then we have the ability to encourage others that go through the same trial. And so This is why he goes, uh, in verse 12, he begins another paragraph and he says, wherefore?
He says, now here's the conclusion. It's like a salesman, so to speak. I don't wanna bring it down to, uh, a common level, but the Apostle Paul was always asking for the sale. He was always asking, now because of this, don't you think you should do this? And he would encourage the Saints in the right way because of what he had just spoken of. And so he speaks of the feet or the hands here. And the hands are connected in tight with our service. And our service might flag because of the trials that we go through. And the Lord is training us and we may.
Get disheartened and just not do the service that the Lord has given us to do.
And then we might, uh, he speaks here too of the feeble knees. We might say, well, it's no use praying about this anymore, but I just can't bear it anymore. I, I just too tough. No, he says, endure and uh, don't let the knees get people. Continue to pray, continue to be independent upon the Lord. Then he speaks of, uh, making straight paths for your feet. So there is a course of obedience, of course, of faithfulness, a chorus as one is mentioned here, the stranger in the Pilgrim in this scene.
A class of faith, and we need to.
Continue on in that path of faith through those trials. But there's a purpose less that which is lain be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed so you and I have an effect upon one another when we go through a trial.
We're either going to turn others aside by how we reacted, or we're gonna strengthen them. We're gonna strengthen our brother. None of us live unto himself, and no man dies unto himself. And every one of us as we walk through this scene and endure what we have to endure, whether it's a health issue or an incident that the Lord allows in our lives, or an incident that the Lord is allowing in the assembly, He is expecting us to continue in our service, to continue in our dependence upon Him, and to walk in a straight path, not to turn aside.
00:55:07
To compromise the path of truth because of it, but to walk in a straight path so that the assembly itself, the family, might go on.
Those that are watching you will go on in a straight course.
Probably 1 of.
Uh, and even the young people may get discouraged here, uh, with the, uh, weakness of the assembly. And, uh, Satan is, uh, is often spoken of Satan as being the roaring lion. And it's referred to as, uh, in the persecution. But usually when the Saints of God were persecuted, they were happy. But, uh, Satan can get a St. a child of God discouraged. That's his, uh, that's his victory. If he can get you discouraged, your hands will hang down. And that's what I believe is this character is a roaring lion.
Is to bring in discouragement among the people of God.
It can happen at any stage of our our lives, but the apostle says here.
Umm, let let lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees, uh.
The Lord was never discouraged. Discouragement is a result of unbelief and we are all guilty of it, aren't we? How can we encourage someone who's hand hanged down and the people knees are weak? I was thinking of First Timothy chapter 2 and verse eight. It says I will therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands. So one way to get out of the Slough of despond, I suppose you could say is to.
Look up afraid, and look to the Lord Jesus. Why? Well, if you take a look at Isaiah chapter 40 in those wonderful words it says there in the 29th verse, He gives power to the Saints, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be wearing, and the young men shall utterly fall. Fail. But they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as Eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not think so if we look to the Lord.
And he gives the strength to carry on, doesn't he? Two of the back in, uh, second Corinthians chapter one might look back there again, but, uh.
Enjoy what you've been said there, brother. Uh, Stan?
Two comforts that come out of that trial in First Corinthians 1, Sam mentioned those comforts or two of them mentioned there and uh, you read back in the first chapter the effect that they had. It says, uh.
We had that in verse nine, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raises the dead. And so this is a comfort they received from God through that trial. They trusted God through the more on dependence on him, Dean upon him and to trust him for the circumstances that they were in. The other comfort was mentioned.
In verse 11.
Yeah, they're the ones that suffered through the trial. With them ye also helping together by prayer for us.
How important that is. And so there's the comfort of having the Lord with them, casting their dependence upon him. And then the comfort they had from the other Saints praying for them spurred them on in their service. And so those two countries I mentioned here, the nice that is, no, we've made a lot of, there's been a lot of, umm, comments on the chastening and with regard to service. But I just got a question at the end of verse 10.
Very specific purpose for the chasing was to be partakers of His Holiness.
And my question is, is this not, uh, for the purpose of communion with him?
That's not a small thing to be a partaker of what you might say is an aspect of God's nature.
It's only.
And if we are partakers of that, that's a very, uh, that's a very narrow ground. You might say that that's very special place to be a partaker of God's willingness, is it not, to enable us to be in communion?
Into the and to discern the Lord's mind. You get that I think, don't you, Ted? In the 14th verse, follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. I think seeing the Lord is Speaking of knowing the Lord's mind. If I, if I seek to walk close to the Lord, if I'm exercising about something, umm, I get close to him and umm.
01:00:11
He opens up his mind, the wonderful thing the child of God has.
Got a problem?
Who do you go to? You asked the brethren. I'll go to the Lord. I don't want to despise the president by saying that, but you know what I mean.
Connection with lifting up the hands. How do you remember about Abraham? It says I'll just read the verse back in. Uh, in Genesis it says that.
Uh, Abraham said. Under the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand, under the Lord, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from.
Uh, take from a thread even to a shoe latch and that I will not take anything that is thine lest thou should say I have made Abram rich. He says I have lift up my hand unto the Lord. I think the thought what I've enjoyed in connection with with lifting up the hand is that it's expecting a blessing from the Lord. You remember how Moses hands why they they held his hands up.
Umm, and that was to expect a blessing. So here in our chapter that don't you think there's a there's discouragement that can come in with the people of God when there's difficulties that the Lord allows for whatever reason in the life in in our lives. So it says there in that 12Th verse, wherefore lift up the hands which hang down the people knees, go to the Lord in prayer and expect an answer from you.
Yeah, that'd be pain down ahead and forgetting the goodness of the Lord and as you mentioned.
Lifting them up, it's looking to the lower expecting lesson. And we follow holiness not in order to obtain it, but because we have a holy nature that hates sin. And the thought here, I think, is that practical sanctification in our lives. I should be more sanctified this year than I was last year from the world and from, uh, those, uh, fleshly attractions.
So I follow holiness because I have a divine new nature that loves holiness. If you are here at this meeting and you don't enjoy being over the word of God as we are today, then you don't have a divine life. You have no, you have no evidence of a divine life. And so we follow holiness and how important that is because we live in that and increasingly unholy atmosphere in the world and immoral and we can be easily affected by what we pass through.
And encounter every day.
So let us, uh, feed the.
The the, the, the new, the new nature by the word of God and communion with the Lord. Uh, as our brother Ted mentioned here, partakers of His Holiness in connection with what you said about communion. I was just thinking of a verse in Matthew chapter 5, verse eight. I just read it. Blessed are the pure in heart where they shall see God. In other words, God is holy and he cannot have communion with sin, can he? So we need to be.
Clean we need to have purity of heart before we can be in communion with him. I was thinking that verse two in first Peter chapter one be he holy as I am holy.
We have two natures. We speak about it a lot. You know, we've got the flesh and we have spirit and we have the old nature and the new nature and right, and we have natural life, we have spiritual life. But can we always tell which one we're going by at any given time? And I think the chastening trains us as to which is which.
So yes, if we uh, if we put into practice, I believe verse three there meditating senator hadn't endured such contradiction of sinners against himself as she'd be weary in faint in your mind. Meditate upon the Lord keep the Lord before us.
If we don't mention terrible painting in her mind, what happens if if we faint in our minds, our our knees get feeble, don't they? And it goes right through our knees and we're not able to serve the Lord the way that we should. People needs. And so we need to keep those, our minds occupied.
With the Lord and we have that in verse 3 and meditating upon what we have with him will keep us as we journey through the pathway. That's what we get our mind off the Lord, your eyes off him and onto other things that God sees this and seeks to correct those things put us back on the on the track again.
01:05:12
I couldn't help but just connect I I know we've moved past it, but just to notice that the the second part of verse 11 an expression.
Feasible fruit of the righteousness with the.
Isaiah chapter 32 we are very familiar with. This verse is often read in the breaking of bread.
Maybe read verse 15 because it also brings in the fruit. Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field accounted for a forest, then judgments shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
Work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever to the work of righteousness. What's its effect?
Another application of that might be the scripture that says if a man's weight please the Lord, even as makes, even as enemies, to be at peace with him.
Could you say that again, brother? There's a person that says a man's ways please the Lord. He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. So there might be another application of this peaceable fruit of righteousness.
That's in the Romans chapter 12. There it's uh.
As much as in you is follow peace with all men here what it takes it's here, it's following following piece. We should always follow the path of peace, but it's not all all the time possible live peaceably with all men.
Some men are very unreasonable. Doesn't mean to say that on our part. We shouldn't be attempting to do that here, to follow that, but it may not be as possible, but it shouldn't be to fall with us.
We shouldn't be the ones that fall if if there's a problem, if there's a problem that we can't live peaceably with somebody, it shouldn't be because of us. But it's not only possible.
There's two failures here that are mentioned, aren't there? So you have a failure really in connection with holiness. So there would be someone that perhaps would get discouraged and fail in that path of holiness. Be therefore wholly even as I am holy. And holiness is to have a hatred of sin and to remain aloof from it. God is holy and cannot have sin in His presence. But then we might fail from the grace of God, of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. So there could be failure in connection with holiness, but there could be failure in connection with Greece as well.
And both are needed. So we need the grace to continue on in a gracious spirit and to remember the how the Lord conducted himself under those very trying circumstances all throughout his pathway. They they could say, umm, speak of his gracious words. No, never man spake like this man.
The root of bitterness may travel a long way. You know, some plants, they can travel by roots a long distance and you never see them and all of a sudden they spring up. And so it's a very practical exhortation because how easily a root of bitterness can can arise in our souls toward a brother.
And even though it may not be expressed, uh, it's not careful, it's going to spring up and, uh, it can ruin and assemble as it says here, thereby many to be defiled. We've had examples of this, haven't we?
That's not unlike First Corinthians 5-6, right? 1111 is the whole month.
Bitterness is like that.
Very destructive and it's hidden beneath the surface of the way, isn't it? It's a root and you don't see it and it may, there may be a tree comes up, there may be a plant above the ground and you don't know really anything about the root structure. But the fruit isn't good. And so I think James brings that out the so the the proof we need to be very, very careful of the root of bitterness and it needs to be judged in the presence of God and.
Held for what it is, it's wickedness, it's sin. The Lord never held one ounce of bitterness against those that crucified him. It's hard to to grasp that, brethren, but he never had one ounce of bitterness. He came into his own, His own received him not. It didn't matter. He delivered his message anyway and he always spoke with gracious words. He went and it says in a couple of different places in the Gospels that says that, uh, that many were gathered unto him and he healed them all.
01:10:08
It's not just some all. And then you find all of the blessing that's poured forth, flowed forth from the cross. And so instead of bitterness, someone has said that we can have two reactions. One is the trials and difficulties will make us better or they'll make us better. And for the believer, there should never be any bitterness. It should be sweetness.
You find that the life of the apostrophe just make the statement in connection with Philippians. Have you ever read in a sweeter epistle of the apostle here? He, he, he laid the groundwork for this assembly in a prison at midnight, bleeding, having been beaten with, uh, Silas and, uh, the sweetest epistle. He didn't have an ounce of bitterness for anything. And so it brought forth the sweetness of Christ in his life and the sweetness of Christ in his word. May it be the same thing in our lives.
What's the business please?
The filament filament I think 2IN Ephesians chapter 4 is.
Verse 31 Says, let all bitterness, raw anger, clamor and evil speaking put away from you with all malice. Perhaps it's uh, bitterness doesn't go away. It uh, leads to these other things as mentioned here. None of them are any good, but rather have what it says in verse 32. Would you be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ sake hath forgiven you?
Might mention here however in verse 14 just to have a balance here that.
Certainly we should not be the cause of the disturbance, but sometimes, uh, it's necessary to deal with evil. And, uh, there are some that would say, just forget about it, just cover it up. Uh, it might be, uh, an assembly, uh, uh.
An assembly matter that has to be dealt with. It's not peace at any cost. Uh, however, umm.
Uh, love cover is a multitude of sins, but sometimes it's necessary to deal with evil in the assembly because of the holiness of God's nature and the fact that he is in the midst of his people and he cannot tolerate evil. So it's not to cover it up then, but as the apostle says in other passages that we are familiar with that Corinth, they, they have to deal with that matter and it, umm, it might be necessary in any assembly.
Uh, to act that way.
Between 181.
Wednesday.
OK, but I don't know what I don't know, so that's just fine. I'm scared of trouble.
All the Lord will throw up.
01:15:05
We give you our thanks for loving God and Father and thy care and thy teething helping, helping us through this wilderness scene down here. We we thank you that thou thus provide for us every need as we journey through this wilderness scene. And we do thank you for thy interceding for us there on high to give to us that which is needed for our pathway here. We know that thou does not put on upon us more than we're able to bear with the trial. Others make a way of escape that we might be able to bear it and we thank you for.
Those things that others do for us in order that we might be more profitable. So we thank you for this. We thank you for the ministry this afternoon, uh, in the address and also in our reading meeting. And, uh, we thank you for each one that's able to be here. We pray for blessing upon each one of every age. And, uh, we just spoke to Dave for continued blessing this day as the gospel would go forth here in this hall and sing to follow and also fellowship in the hospitality afterwards. And so we, we looked at a for the remainder of the day.
Those that would be traveling, we ask dirty mercies, we give deep thanks to these things, and thy worthy, thy precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
Isaiah 55
Gospel—Derek Mollon
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#14 Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood flow?
MMM, something to Jesus.
Why did you call me?
In the world and let's go and I can take the dog alive.
How is your garden of look like a wine? And that's no harder to understand. While I'm just going to blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
All right.
President singing I I can involve in the blah blah blah.
Are you all in the world, in the soul, when they fly across the land?
There's a lot of questions in that little ham, isn't there? Repeat questions. Good questions. I think maybe one answer could satisfy all of them. Yes, I'd like to hear. Yes, yes I am. Let's ask the Lord's help in prayer. Our God, our Father, how good it is for us to be here.
What a privilege it is.
Bother just to be under the sound of thy word, to come apart a while to sit to be have food for our bodies and food for our souls. And Father, we do think too without of grace and love it that would have not won perish. Not one would answer no to these questions. And we've been just singing. Everyone in the room would say yes, I'm washed in the blood of the lamb. I belong to thee. My garments are made white.
In His most priceless blood, Father, we help ask Thy health this evening by Thy Spirit to direct our path into the portion as to what's being said, that above all, Thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ might be glorified and I will be pleased Lord Jesus and soul would turn to Thee in faith. We ask this giving thanks and the precious name for Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Well, I talk kind of slow, so I gotta get going. Really. That's bad.
Uh, my text for tonight.
Uh, is Isaiah 55?
He was there. I always mentioned this quickly. I said thanks to my brother Cecil. He had given me a sum of money, a dollar bill.
Sometime before, some months before, he went home and I had stuck it into my Bible study, Bible at home. And the morning after Jonathan called me, I opened my Bible and there was a favorite chapter of Cecil's. Oh, I heard him speak on it a number of times. And they're not going to try to emulate policies again. But I'm going to use this as my text today. So let's just read. It's a short chapter. Let's read it.
And we'll try to see where we go with it. It's this whole everyone that thirsted.
Coming into the waters, and neither that no money. Come ye buy and eat. Yay. Come buy wine and money, wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that would satisfyeth not. Hearken diligently unto me and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come on to me.
00:05:03
Here, and your soul shall live, and I will make you.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you. Even the short mercies of David the old I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call the nation that thou knowest not, and nations that know not thee shall run unto thee, because the Lord thy God, because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near him. Let.
Wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him unto our God, and he will abundantly pardon. From My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts, and your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and make it the 4th.
For but, uh, making it bring forth in bud, then it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, and but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto ascend it. For he shall go out with joy, and be LED forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall bring forth. Break forth before you into singing, and all the trees.
Field shall clap their hands, instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the Myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
We may not get back to all of those verses, but that's the background I like to speak from.
And, uh, what it brings before us is the, the situation of this day in which Isaiah's faith is really no different from the day which we live. There are things going on of a difficult nature. It wasn't an easy time. And so when Isaiah speaks and says whole here, he's seeking to draw attention to something. And so.
What we find in this chapter, we find something that the Lord, I think, is 800 years into the future.
When speaking to a multitude during the plane, I believe he tells him the same thing about you know, if they're concerned about buying and selling, you know why you spend all your money on and that was not bread and why you labor for that was doesn't satisfy and the Lord picked up and said.
As they say it, don't worry, I'll put it this way. What you shall eat, what you shall drink, what you shall put on. Don't worry about these things, but.
As you say, shaky first, the Kingdom of God.
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God. In other words, in that day, as it is in the Lord's day and as it is in our day, our activity is primarily taken up with those things, those material things, temporal things. And then they may be important, and they are important, but they ought not to be first. Seek thee first the Kingdom of God. The Newfoundland coat of arms, that is. It's on there. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.
And thus Isaiah, I believe, was really saying the same thing. So I'm going to set the scene there a little bit.
And sort of go back and like, I'm gonna paint a picture. I don't think it's a strange picture when Isaiah is speaking here.
It's he normally was set up in the gate. There's a walled city and the gates are open in the daytime and in from outside with all the all kinds of people that could come into the city and people in inside the city would go out to the marketplace and generally the marketplace was in the gate of the city. In some cases there were streets.
Hello, father and Jeremiah. Jeremiah, that says there's Baker Street, for example. And there were streets that were set up for these things, but they generally were found together. So when a camel caravan, for example, came into town, that was a big event. People from other places came in. There was the silversmiths and the coppersmiths and all their things that they have made. There was the, you know, the the foods, the spices and they had their tables. There was a fabrics of all sorts you could purchase. So, you know, that was bizarre.
And so this is the setting that we see here with Isaiah also there, the picture in there, what he's got, it's a kiosk that got nothing in it.
Nothing to attract, nothing that's going to cause people to stop and say what are you selling?
00:10:01
But he's there much like this little thing, and all he has is singing out. Oh, won't we hear that? You know, that's that means stop, right? I mean, someone is trying to get our attention. Stop. I want to speak to you for a moment, but most of these people are so busy. They got things to do with purchase and get back home. There's meals to be done, there's children. It's the same as the day and they have no time.
So he says, oh, you are thirsty, stop. Come here.
I thought that if there's only one one thing that is that is a key area. Sorry, Isaiah might have had there was this.
If there's one thing that he added, this kiosk would be this.
A stone pot filled with water, Oh yeah, that thirst. As the Lord later says, anyone gives a cup of cold water will lose a reward. These people are coming in from a long way sometimes. And I wouldn't be past past Isaiah that he had a cool pot and there are some pots he put in the shade. Keeps the water cool for a long period of time and a couple of cold water to someone say, oh.
Step aside, you are thirsty.
Come you to the waters, you'd have no money. Come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money, without price. Well, there was an empty kiosk. Or not. This is the message going forward.
And I want to imagine for a minute now, who's coming in?
OK, by this time it's the land of milk and onions. Cease to be a land of milk and onion. It was a promise that something has gone wrong. One of the kings just before this is erupted. Of course I know you'll have you have a schism in the family. You have 10 tribes on one side, 2 on the other. And and the tennis attacked the two and carried away 100,000 people. And then the Lord says I'll bring them back, let them go and go. Golly goes and sets them free.
So there's not, there's not a happy time. The politics are not right. The leaders are not right. But city comes someone and here's this old man saying, oh, come you to the waters.
Come here, you buy a meat.
Why spend your money on that which is not bread, your labor for that which doesn't satisfy and can't give you some of them? Don't you recognize me?
I'm a faster. I'm Dan. I'm Nathalie.
We're already chilling off Israel. We're already children of God. We don't. We don't need what you have. We don't need it. We're already in.
This 55th chapter is late in the story because he didn't start there. I'll read your verse in the first chapter of Isaiah that tells where, why the nation is not in a land of milk and honey. This is the situation here. He says in verse four of chapter one. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity.
A seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters. They have forsaken the Lord.
They have provoked the Holy One of Israel into anger, and they have gone away backward.
Verse six from the sole of the foot, even under the head, there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, for they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified enlightenment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land strangers devour in your presence, and it is desolate and overthrown by strangers. That's the real situation. And So what does he say to him?
Verse 18 to the nation, Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord.
So your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as wool, though they be red like Crimson, they shall be as wool. Purse of snow they wool. This was the cry that began it.
He prophesied in the time of four kings, Isaiah, Jotham, Hayaz, and Hezekiah.
And as in the year and Hezekiah and Uziah dies since the last year of his reign and Ozaiah reigned long matter of fact the second longest region. I believe in the whole king of 52 years and you study him as a time of blessing. He started out serving the Lord and everything he taught you might say was a king Midas touch. The whole lamb was blossoming.
He had a a a military.
That was 300 and five 307,000 strong 500.
He had wall cities, he had inventors in Israel. They had invented, uh, uh, these inventions that could throw stones and arrows great distances. He's a very first one that practiced long term warfare or long range warfare. The enemies couldn't come close to that place when he was defending it. The, the rocks and the arrows were rained down from beyond slated scenes.
00:15:16
And he loved husbandry. He turned a place into an Eden. It was beautiful.
And then he went in to the temple and sacrificed and the Lord Smotam with leprosy.
So the rest of his life he lived in a separate house. He's a picture of the nation. There's a little help. I thought we wanted to enjoy you Bereans. I've enjoyed.
Uzziah Jotham.
Hey, as first three, Hezekiah, Heyman, Manasseh, next three and Josiah those seven.
Declare speak to us clearly of the nation of Israel from its inception 1948 to when the Lord comes. These seven is beautiful.
And so with, with uh, Uziah Israel as the nation has, has prospered. He was, he watched the Scud missiles about the attacks. You know what happened in 6748. They couldn't touch him. The Lord was there. But what has happened, they left the Lord out of it. And so leprosy is what characterizes it. And so this man was leprosy. So Isaiah comes in and Isaiah of his death, the earth is death. This is what he proclaims has what's the king? So are you.
So for those in that next chapter are passing by and saying, oh, I'm off Israel, I'm off day and I'm off.
You're saying come aside?
During their judgment.
You're under judgment. Are you thirsty? Are you looking for something else? Why are you talking to us? Because you're the very ones I need to speak to. Recess. They're the very ones.
I'm gonna switch a little bit.
Because this hole is for everyone in this room too, this speech.
If if I were having this gospel meeting tonight in some Muslim country, chances are I would be speaking about.
The lip of God himself, the person of God who he was, who made the world. Because they don't believe that God did so right. They have a different one if I were having this gospel meeting tonight in the land of Israel.
I may not be Speaking of the might of God, but the power of the Lord Jesus and His resurrection that He was the One. That's my message, that they reject the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah. So I had to start there and speak about convince them about Jesus being the One.
I don't have to speak that here.
Why? Because I'm speaking, I truly believe, to a room full of Christians.
Don't walk here. Yeah, I'm speaking to our room full of Christians.
Which means you, we could say.
WH why me? If I draw my attention, if I'll give you an example, one of my first excursions with Bethany's father seats up to New Orleans Gospel 10. I was going around passing in invitations. I went to one of the stores and the lady at the store and I gave her a gospel track and I told her about the meeting tonight and she came back with or it, it came back.
Why don't you bring this to be even? We're all Christians here.
Stumble a little bit of that.
Yeah.
Yeah, both of Israel could say, look, there's an Ethiopian over here and this man of Egypt call in there. They're the ones you got to call. We got, we got the oracles of God. We are the chosen people of God. You see how they are in and so it is here.
So I asked. Now the words being spoken to all of us, that would be fast. You put your hand up. But I bet you almost everybody in the room, probably everybody would say I'm already baptized.
Does baptism save you?
Absolutely.
It does. And that's the mistake. You see when in Luke 12 you have the Gentiles guilty of crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ. You go to an Acts, it's the Jews crucified Lord Jesus Christ. You go to Romans where Paul picks up the Jew and a Gentile. He says that they all might become guilty. And so it was. All men are guilty of the crucifixion of God, of thinking God's Son and crucifying him.
And so he tells his disciples.
00:20:00
Begin at Jerusalem, go into all the world to the nations and begin there, and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Ghost. Make disciples of them, bring them in, bring them under the banner.
Of Christianity under the banner of Christ. And so they did. That's why in Acts we have so many. 4005 thousand, 6000. And now Simon Magus could come in and all the others were in because some weren't real, but they all came in.
Like those who went out of Egypt, when all is right is the lights, there's a mixed month or two. So there's a mixed multitude. It's the great house. I was one of those. I came in the system. My parents were Christians.
They brought me as a child, I was baptized when I was just an infant, I was christened, given my Christian name, Christian name. Wish they hadn't didn't like it, but anyway they gave it to me and held it good to appreciate it and when I.
Passed my 12 years, joined with other 12 and 15 year olds. Big day. We're in the catechism, learned the 10 commandments, brought before the priest, knelt down before the priest. That is answered on my head and I was confirmed into the church. I was confirmed.
And then I could first day I could have all the communion.
And I did expecting something.
Expecting something special and that will convenient. That's gonna change me.
I like that was a bitter taste.
What happened?
What happened?
Didn't understand them what Peter was saying. Peter was saying we're by baptism, thus save us.
First Corinthians, First Peter 3 baptism does save us, but in brackets. Let's read that in brackets, not the putting away of the fulfill the flesh. Because I found out that after that, from age 12 when I was baptized, confirmed to the church, until I was 14 years later, he's 26, I discovered that there was no putting away of the filth of the flesh.
By that baptism, by that confirmation.
So I was in salvation.
How is the salvation? Well, we come out because when Satan got the world and crucified the Lord Jesus Christ, the kingdoms of the world became his.
And so crisis bring them out from His Kingdom, bring them into mind, baptize them in the false unto Holy Ghost. And so they came. They came in multitudes.
And some are followers, some are true, some are followers, but they all came in.
But that's the great oaks, and now we have to go to work in the great oaks. Within the great oaks. Out of the greyhounds comes the spiritual house. It isn't baptism that brings me into the church. It isn't baptism that takes away the filth of the flesh. I've found I have the filth of the flesh all these years and at night time when I go to bed.
I've scared kids. Every night a scared kid went into that pet bedroom. Pray. Yeah, on my knees. I prayed. Probably just Lord's Prayer. Repeatedly. I pray. I was afraid. Not only that, I'll give you the credit now to the person. How much? My time for me. Someone. I have no time. I can't see the clock. I have a person that I didn't realize.
Was having the biggest effect on my life. I didn't know it until he was dead, my father. I found out afterwards my father, through his younger sister, was now in her 80s as I sat with her.
She was passing away, going home. Told me about my father and his twin brother and and how they spent their nights with math. Math tell us Bible stories. Math tell us stories over and over over again. My father was a real believer. Would never say that. I don't know a difference because I grew up in this little small town and in that town is, you know, the homes were homemade. There was no electricity.
Great big kitchen because this is where we lived. Potbelly stove, table, kerosene lamp and so I spent my nights there here.
School work reluctantly, or puzzle or something more pleasingly and off The kitchen is my father's room, mother's room, and because there's only one source of heat, the door stayed open, stayed the jar.
And I could see, night after night, my father's feet sticking out beyond, beyond that door.
And on Sundays, we had a radio at one or two stations maximum. Yeah, I didn't like Sundays. My father had the radio after a big, big dinner, you go in and I see him now going in. The door would be wider open, this orange radio. He'd lie on the bed and he'd put it on his chest and and he'd listen to religious broadcasts all day long.
00:25:23
I had no such appetite.
I didn't want any of that. I wanted the music.
I knew then, without knowing it then, that he had something that I didn't have. He had baptism, he had confirmation, and so did I. We both had Holy Communion, but it didn't mean a thing to me. He didn't do anything for me. Why? Because I never had a relationship.
I never had a relationship. I was in the great house, but I had not come into the Kingdom of God. I found myself later. We won't turn to take a time I'll tell you about because you know well in Nicodemus, Nicodemus. It was like those Israelites just read about and like me, he came to the Lord by night and he came.
In his own strength, you might say he was a Jew. Not only a Jew, a Pharisee, responsible one, a teacher himself.
So he was gonna come for a discussion, and what does the Lord tell him in that discussion? Twice. He says you must be born again. You must be born again, he tells Nicodemus. I'm gonna turn to because I'm reading verse.
He tells him that why does war enough? Flesh is flesh that was born of spirit, the spirit. What he says to him, he says unless you.
Chapter Yeah.
He says.
Marble knot that I said unto thee, must be born again. That was born on flesh is flesh, and that was born of the spirit of Spirit.
Master in Israel don't know these things.
And then he says to him, Verily, verily, I say unto they, accept a man of men be born of water and of the Spirit. He cannot enter the Kingdom of God. The Lord came by water and by spirit. There's two salvations, you see. There's a salvation that we have that comes from baptism. Christianity is that.
What I want to say you're going to identify with if I ask you, what other nation, what other culture would you want to be born under in this world?
Other than under Christian nation?
Look at the, the, the world that's been produced, the world we grew up in. Look at our, our social system, our health systems. Look at the care we take for our, our elder, our younger. Is there a better system when there's things going on? When disaster strikes Haiti, who is it that runs down with all kinds of of help sending doctors and they don't even name or even in the foreign kind of like Syria and there's millions that got to flee from Syria.
Whose doors are open? We take them in.
You haven't see it the other way around.
Because there is a salvation, there's a there's a blessing.
By being under the banner of Christ. And the world has benefited and everyone under that banner has benefited. But you know, it doesn't stop there. That's OK for life. But now he says Nicodemus. Nicodemus.
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God. But you must be born again. You must be born again. My son came to die on the cross of Calvary. He perished, he was hung up, he died. He bled and died, shed his blood. And now?
That's the offering. Have you accepted Him as your savior?
Have you accepted him as you're saving you coming in and received him?
Here it says.
If you're.
Not washed.
It says, except you'd be born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God. Except you'll be born again, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
Paul picks it up in First Corinthians 15 and says flesh and blood cannot inherit inherit the Kingdom of God.
So my question is to all of us Christians.
Have we been born again?
And we accept that Chrysler is our savior. Are we a new creation in Christ? Have we? Are we now part of the spiritual house? I think everybody here is part of the great house. Been baptized into this. Only way you get into it.
00:30:02
There's only one way to get into the spiritual house too. It's accepting the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. He laid down His life for us. We have to believe it. It's as spiritual as He says. They're in that same portion.
It's a spiritual.
You talk about the mercy of David here.
Umm, am I out of time?
Yeah, OK. I was going to mention the second king. King. Hey, as give an example of where we are, I could turn to Laodicea to tell us that we're much like this situation, right? We think we're rich. This world is. We have need of nothing, but we're poor, naked. And the Lord is standing by the door saying I'll be all right. I'm not at the door knocking. Open the door. That's what he's saying to us. He's saying I want to come in. I want a relationship with you.
I wanna do that.
Hey, as you know what AIS did.
Idolatrous king, he went, he went with the Syria, and in Syria, Damascus, he saw an altar, beautiful altar.
At the end I only would pictured it, but he didn't have one, so he took the measurements of it. He had a measurements down to every detail and he gave it to an invoice and bring it back to Jerusalem and tell the Chamberlain to get back there. I want that built by the time I get back.
And he did. When he got back, it was completely done and no doubt a beautiful altar. Next, he said, lay old on the brazen altar, picked it up and take it away.
And you put the new one in place.
First thing you did.
What did he do?
Sprays and alter is where all the lambs were killed, the blood was shed. It was the approach to God. So why does it speak of the brazen altar? It's the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ was taken away by King as a new altar put in, and that reflects our day, right? Let's go to God by some other way, not the cross.
Social gospel type thing. We don't need to cross anymore. God is love. You forget about the light. New altar. Hey, as did that one other thing he did. He sacrificed his children on the altar. Veil, sacrifice his children.
Do you know where the greatest serial killer is in the world today?
His name is Kermit Gosmo.
And over 30 years has performed thousands and thousands of abortions and he has killed hundreds of babies born alive on the table.
America, Canada, we have sacrificed our children. That's the age we live in. This is why it's so close. Judgment is coming. That's why the Lord is saying please, saying whoa, why spend your money on these things that satisfies money. You're thirsty for real things, real life. You'll find it here. You'll find that they'll come and drink of this. I'll give you the Lord said it to the woman at the well. Remember that give me the drink, he says, and she gave him the drink and I.
I'm like this. I think the Lord took it and took a sip and when he put it down, because she was watching him, because you do, you pass him a glass of water, you watch him take him, you watch him drink it. And as he was putting it back down, he said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is speaking to you, you would have asked of him and He would have given you living water.
That's when Isaiah was offering living water, seeking, seeking, seeking, now seeking the Lord. While he may be found, he's knocking at the door. This may be the last opportunity. Those Israelites were going into that village that night.
But even if the soldier wears, they might never see Isaiah again. But here he was singing out to him. Oh, you'd have passed by, come by water, milk, without money, without price.
That which you have lost in terms of the land of milk and honey, it's now yours, free, no price whatsoever. That's what is offering you an eye to night. Let's not think we're protected and safe because I've been baptized, I've been christened, I've been confirmed. I was there, but I had no peace until age 26, so I knew it. I knew there was no relationship and I feared great and I knew my father had something I didn't have.
And thanks to the Lord, he was so faithful to me.
He brought it.
To me, time is up, isn't it?
The closing period.
Our gracious God, our Father, how we thank thee for our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless the Lord Jesus that would seek to arrest us where we are. Sometimes we trust in things. We trust in performances, rituals, universal salvation. We feel that we've we're in because we've been baptized, we've had the rights read over us and all we have no relationship.
00:35:24
You know how many young people here? Lord Jesus, we have grown up in houses where there's prayer every day and where the Word is read.
And they read it repeatedly, yet more than no different than I was being baptized or confirmed, I had no relationship. All they need to make a relationship to realize that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin and nothing else. And so we pray indeed we bless Thy word in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Father, we ask it Amen.
The Narrow Way
Children—Alex Nash
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.
Uh, we're gonna start off with singing a few hymns. Does anyone have a thing you'd like to start with? Go ahead.
#41.
And this one I'm I know it but I'm not too familiar with it with someone. Please start #41.
No, no, no, no, no.
Really shy.
Feeling strong when I'll see you afterwards. Growing up, our life is life and joy and joy that may have a birthday.
Anymore.
Call everything about 362 blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
What brings them to my brother?
Swear all in his thy joy and love out any of the children, that they're saying glory.
Glory, sorry to talk about your heart.
#16.
Whosoever hears.
Over here crying out loud, it's, umm, really Slider little dragon?
But far away.
That's not possible.
There's a loving father on the wonderful.
Line around that call.
Good. So I'm not going to buy cigarettes like cigarettes.
All day and see why you're in bed. 831 we fell out for real. OK come.
Lose my life around the world. Lose my life around the world.
There's no problem. And the loving father of the wanderer of the wanderer, home with the land, the world may come.
You were first. Go ahead.
#40 Is your name Isaac?
Was it? Yeah, I see. That's like me.
Yeah, she's not 5 minutes, she's not about Don't tell me so.
These are from me to God. That's not a mistake. You're lost. And why he will wash away my sins. Let our land so shallow thumb and yeah, give me some 12 days to love. She's got me.
Just because of me, she loves my nose. Don't need so.
00:05:17
73958.
55.
Dial 05653.
5.
520.
Yeah, me. That's like me.
Without me SO.
All right, 38.
I know not one anymore.
So.
I have been doing anything with that and I have a great spray and then, uh, continue to spray and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SN what about in the evening? Is it raining anywhere to get anything to work right here this Wednesday and then run high 5190. I have to do anything and I have a great sweat and hang on a minute. Uh, continue. That's great and bold to.
OK, I'm doing good, my hands.
Away.
OK, last song.
#11.
We might sing some more after the message, but I have no idea how long the message is going to take so.
#11.
Well, you're right.
And then we have to drive like it's powerful that I can shut up. What they're going to grow fasting to the rock where it can run through.
12130 MSA.
00:10:06
In the strain of air who went to Breakers, all the transformation is near.
On the rising side, you can never fail while you're answering the call and love.
We Are dangerous and **** ****** falls as a joy of the love of novels.
Therefore, guidance and help.
Lord Jesus, we thank you for another Sunday, another Lord's Day that we can all be together. Thank you for these children that are here, these boys and girls, and just pray that you would give to the speaker a message that would touch our hearts. And if any of these little ones don't know the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior, pray that they would bow to thee and they would accept thee as their Savior. Look to thee for this and just commit the rest of this time to Thee in Jesus name, Amen.
OK, now I'm gonna need some of your guys help. I have written down four different references. So people who have Bibles, is anyone willing to read some references for me? You will. You're willing to read one? OK, now you're gonna. I'll call on you when it's time to read your references. I'm trying to remember who's got what reference.
Thank you.
I'll give you one and your name. OK, so these references, umm, let's see one of the references I'd like read right away if that's OK. So if you are finding them, who has the reference in Isaiah? Which one of you has a reference in Isaiah?
Not you. You was your reference, Matthew. Where's yours?
OK, that must be you, Mayola.
Proverbs. Jeremiah. Not Isaiah. They're close together. Jeremiah. Could you read yours, Marianne, please? I'm sorry.
Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 16 I think for anybody else who wants to find it in their Bible.
Oh dear, and I'll give you this so that you can.
I can hear you a little bit. Thus saith the Lord Sandy, and the ways. And seek and ask for the old path, where is the good way? And walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said we will not walk therein. Thank you very much, Miriam. OK, so I have AI, have AI. Think a fun story for you guys.
So this is I'm gonna tell you a true story happened about, I don't know, between 6 and 10 years ago.
And it happened to me and I almost lost my life in this story there. Kind of exciting for you guys. And umm, this is basically a story when I did not follow that verse. OK, so, and I have some pictures because I'm going to take you back to a scene in Acadia National Park, which is a park in Maine, umm, where there's some beautiful mountains. I'm gonna take you back to a scene there. And so I'm gonna show you some pictures of Acadia National Park and of a particular mountain that we were hiking.
When I chose to go my my wayward way. Alright, so the first picture I'm gonna show you is the actual mountain.
I do not know if this picture is real because the clouds don't really look real, but.
It looks like the mountain anyway, so this is called Beehive Mountain. Everyone can see it. This is Beehive Mountain in Acadia National Park. It's called Beehive Mountain because it kind of looks like a beehive.
00:15:09
If you hopefully you can see from the picture.
I think it looks like a good guy anyway. OK.
So let's be high National Park. And this one's a blurry because it was, I think taken from a cell phone or something, but this is an actual picture to prove we were there. So you can't make out who is there. I think the guy in white might be Kevin House and the girl in red might be Marianne. I don't think they were married at this time. So anyway, but here's a picture of us climbing along, uh, along the mountain. I don't know if I'm in the picture or not, but I, I assure you I'm in other pictures and I was there.
OK.
All right. And on the on the backside of this you're probably seeing is a picture of the old path that I chose not to follow. So you can kind of see there's a reference that one of you guys has in Matthew. Would someone read their reference in Matthew?
Oh hang on, let me do this.
Gate For the gate destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Thank you very much.
OK, so does this look, does this look like a narrow path to you? This is a real picture. It's, it's really part of the path that you climb to get us to the top of beehive. At the top of beehive, you can look out over sand beach. It's a very pretty view. So this is, this is probably one of the narrowest parts of the past, but it's, it's quite a narrow path. So hopefully you all can make that out. OK, so I'm, I'm there, right. And, uh, when I was younger, I was a lot more athletic and I, I went out way in front of everybody and.
But there's one guy who couldn't lose Ben Porter, a friend of mine named Ben. And we, we went way out in front of everybody together and we felt we were pretty, uh, intellectual individuals. And, uh, we were walking along this path and we looked up ahead, way overhead. You could see that the path crosses again. So basically the path kind of switched back up the mountain because you're going up basically a, a Cliff base. So the path would go up and then would turn around and come back up.
So as you climbed up you or as you went, you could see the path above you and you could see down where you'd been, you know, 20 minutes before or something like that.
So Ben and I, we got an idea. We both loved Rockland. Do any of you guys like to rock climb? Do you like rock climb? A few of you. Rock climbing is a lot of fun as long as you do it safely. So we didn't have any equipment or anything, but we thought this is a grand idea. I see the path up there. So we can't get lost. We'll just climb up this rock face. So we said great. So we did and and we made it.
We said, oh, that was a lot of fun. Let's go to the next one. So we started climbing to the next one and this the the next path was a little bit harder. So I'm gonna try to walk you through. I don't know how well I'm gonna be able to explain this.
Because this was my climbing experience. So I was climbing and Ben was climbing off to my right about 15 feet and we were climbing up and I started to realize I was getting in trouble because I was starting, it was turning into more of just a, a sheer granite face. And I you need hand holds or footholds or a crevice or something in order for you to climb a mountain. Because even mountain goats, I actually need that. So maybe if you're a spider or something, you can just climb straight up, but we're not like that. So we have to have hand holds.
And so I was climbing up and I started to run out of run out of handholds. So I realized I'm in a, I'm in a little bit of trouble here. But if I, Ben was still climbing and he was making it OK. So I realized, well, he's doing all right and I don't really want to go back down. So I think I'll just keep trying to go a little further. So I kept climbing and umm, and I got to a point where I couldn't climb up any further.
And umm, I had a good hand hold I I remember this decently clearly, but some of the details might have gotten lost over the last 10 years. But anyway, I had a decently good handle with my left hand.
It was on a good a good handle and I had a good pudding with my right foot. So I'm here. My left foot was there wasn't really anything. There wasn't anything from my right hand. So I'm there in this situation. I've got no nowhere else I can go. I could get back down, but I couldn't go up any further and umm, the only option I had. There was nothing to my right. The only option I had was I saw a toehold off to the left and I thought I saw a pretty good hand hold over there too. So I thought if I could get over there, I bet there's a way I can keep going up. So I switched over and I took my right hand.
On the handhold OK, now I've got my right hand on the hand hold kind of bracing myself and I've got my right foot I said, alright I'm going to have to swing so I let go and I swung down it was below me so I, I swung down and I caught it to hold with with my with my left **** and so it was like great I made it so now I'm holding up here with my right hand and I've got a toehold here and I reached up to the hand pulled and it was it was a false hold It was when I it was a nice little hole, but when you put your.
00:20:13
And it was like this and you, you can't, you couldn't grip it. It was nothing you could grip. So I couldn't get anything with that hand. And so most of my weight was on my right arm and I had a little bit of weight on the toe hole, but it was just a toehold. It wasn't very big.
And so I was in a predicament, as you can imagine. And so I'm sitting there and I thought I have to swing back. But to swing back, I would have had to try to jump off of a toehold and pull myself up and get my foot back over and pull myself over. And I didn't know if I'd be able to do it. So I'm sitting there.
Hell, look down.
And it 6080 feet into rocks. Oh boy, what do you think? I started thinking, who has the verse in Proverbs? You haven't. Would you read it? Please let me bring this over to you.
There is a way which seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are always.
Are the ways of death. Oh, so you think that's what I was thinking.
So as you can imagine, and I don't know how well I've been able to bring this picture to you, but as you can imagine, I was actually not that far off from death, in my opinion anyway. I wasn't a very good rock climber. I didn't think I'd be able to swing back over and get the other toehold and my arm was giving out. I'm just holding onto it and.
I mean, I could maybe hold for 15 minutes or so, but most of my weight was on this arm. I could only take a little weight with my toe hold and there was just, there was nothing else.
So I don't remember all that. I thought it was a long time ago, but if I was in that situation now, I just, I just think of that verse in respect to that. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Now, does anyone have an idea? I'm gonna apply this to all of your lives. What is the way, the right way, the narrow way that was read.
For you, does anyone have an idea?
Henry.
Jesus very good Henry, and I'm going to read you a verse for that. I forgot to write this reference down South. I'll just read it. It is John, it's a well known verse, probably most of us who quoted John 14 six. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father.
But by me?
So in other words.
In applying this to all of your lives, it's like you're on a mountain.
And you have a way that's an old way, a traveled way, a narrow way. That way is Jesus Christ. No man cometh unto the Father, but by him. You also have a Broadway that's like the entire mountain face. You can pick any direction up you like. The Broadway is just anything aside from Jesus. Be it religion, be it atheism, be it good works, whatever it is, it's just whatever isn't Jesus. That's the.
And you can choose to take that Broadway.
You can choose to try to do a lot of good works, you can choose to just disbelieve or do whatever you like and try to climb. But I guarantee you you will end up in a situation like I did where you're out of holds and death is staring you in the face and you don't have an answer.
So I recommend to you, and I tell you from God's Word, to choose Jesus Christ as the path for your life. There's no other way, if you will, to get to the top of the mountain. In my figure. Jesus Christ is the only way.
And umm, does anyone have any ideas? Because I'm obviously here, I didn't die or fall. Does anyone have any ideas how I got off the mountain?
What do you think?
I do not remember. I probably did. I was a different person back then. But Simon, what do you think?
You think I swung over and caught it? You have a lot of confidence in me. OK, What do you think?
So we got a helicopter flying over all right? What do you think, Marianne?
00:25:02
How do you know this story?
I did.
You have a better memory than I do. Well then don't say anything.
Does anyone else have ideas?
No other ideas. OK.
OK, I'm gonna open it. No.
I'm gonna open it up. Does anybody have any ideas as to how I got down? There's a little key part of the story that I said. I'm wondering if you picked up on it. Does anyone raise your hand if anyone has an idea?
I'm gonna ask these people first. Does anyone have an idea? Raise your hand if you do.
Oh, Ben Porter was climbing 15 feet to my right and he was a far better rock climber than I was. And I called out help. I'm in trouble. And he was able to climb up and over and he was able to drop down above me and he dropped down his foot and I grabbed his foot and I used his foot to swing back over and and catch. So I guess you were technically right. I guess we were caught back over, but I used.
Kind of climb over him and I got back over and I climbed up and I didn't climb anymore.
So I learned a lesson that day and I hope it's a lesson that's stick sticking with me. And I hope that you guys will learn from my mistake because in in the path of life, I mean, you all have to face death. You all recognize death may seem like a really long way away. I know even for me, sometimes death seems like all that that's way out of sight.
But we don't know how long we have. It's like you're walking along a path and you just don't know where the line is of death. And all of a sudden you realize, oh, I just.
This is the end. Now you may think that that line is a long ways down the road, but you don't know that.
None of you can possibly know that, and so as you walk along the path of life, you need to choose or take the path of the Lord Jesus. It's a narrow path. There's only one way. That's through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. I think you all probably know He died on a cross to take away your sins. He died the only way.
To umm to reach the Father or to go to heaven?
To be with Jesus is to believe on Him. That's the only way. There is no other way. No matter how many other ways may seem good and fun and right. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the ends are of there is a way. I'm going to change it. There is a way that seemeth right unto a boy or girl. At the end thereof are the ways of death. OK.
Who has the verse in Deuteronomy? Because that's what I'd like to close the story with.
I called heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both thou and thy seed may live.
OK, that's what I've done. I have just set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, and I am telling you to choose life. It is an order that is given from God in Acts that says God now commandeth every man everywhere. To repent is an order that is given from God. It's not an option. You are required to repent. You are required to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, however.
You do have to choose to do that. So my prayer for you, and I hope all of you will consider this, my prayer for you, is that you will choose.
You will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ if you have not already. And for those of you who have, you will choose as your daily path in your daily walk to take the path of the Lord Jesus. Because even as a Christian, you can. It's not exactly the same thought as a broad path, but you can. You know very well you can veer away from the Lord Jesus and you still end up in trouble and you still end up in sadness and death and destruction.
So I hope that for all of you who who do know the Lord Jesus.
Do believe on the Lord Jesus that you will continue on a daily basis to choose life, to choose blessing.
In the follow the path of the Lord Jesus.
OK, this ends at. When does this end?
10:00 OK, so we have about 15 minutes, something a little bit faster. All right, so I'm going to pray and then, umm, we're going to sing a few more songs. But before I pray, I'd like to just sing the first verse and the chorus of Trust and Obey.
00:30:10
OK, and I, I'm not overly familiar actually with the verse. I always know it, but I normally have a hymn sheet and I can't say I think, I think I can start it, but I'm just gonna ask if someone would please start just the first verse in the chorus of Trust and Obey. We'll just, I don't, it's not on the hymn sheet. I look, umm, but I, I trust we all know it. Can someone please start it?
Available.
Antibiotics and pill flu medicine, but I'm doing blood and go ahead and go ahead cross that obey.
To be happy and she has like to trust and go ahead.
Let's pray, Lord Jesus, we do pray that all of us in this room, all these boys and girls with trust in thee, Lord Jesus, as their Savior, as our Savior, and that we would also obey thee as we walk through our life. And we pray now just for a blessing on the message that's been given and for a blessing on the rest of the singing.
Let me just look to thee for this in Jesus name, Amen. OK?
Now I was told, and I promised that if we did singing afterwards, I would get out of this little sheet. You can call him from there too, if you like, but these are some action hymns and Mr. Grinton might have to help me to know what all the action songs are. But there's a list here and it's all back, so you already have your hand up.
Zacchaeus. Let's see, where is the picture? Oh dear.
Down the tree, Zacchaeus. OK, can we all do Zacchaeus? Zacchaeus was a wee little man.
Of good singing. And that's the savior. That way. He looks up in the trees and he said that yes, you are. Now we're unknown if you don't have to say anything or I'm going to have to say anything.
Alright, good one. Any others?
Simon.
Daniel and the Lioness, then.
I think that's Daniel was a man of prayer, right?
Daniel was a man afraid.
3 * 0 way 29 and umm and understand not why I'm leaving him crystal down and put all of our heads in him. God has got the light and smile double oxygen.
My heart again.
I don't know the actions for that one. OK, what's yours?
OK, sure.
What's that? Yeah, we can say versus too, if you'd like to. We can do that. Let's do this song and then we'll we'll say some verses. Umm, can someone start #4 please?
No, I can say I am fine, evidence happy and just sent by screaming.
00:35:04
To her blessedness of Savior.
OK, let's let's have the appointment.
This is the standard for me.
I'm saying that like me.
78149 51671014.
Alright, so we can do some verses now and I'll just start with you because I know you wanna do it and I'll just work my way around. If you don't have a verse, that's fine, don't worry about it. But if you do then you can say your verse and I don't know what your verses are, so I don't know if I'll be able to help a whole lot.
Farm 100 Make a joyful noise, and tell the Lord all you land. Serve Lord with gladness. Come before His presence of singing. Know ye that the Lord He is God. It is ye that hath made us, not we ourselves. We have people in the sheep of His pastures. Enter into his gates with Thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.
For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth unto all generations. Some 100.
Pretty good. Wow.
OK.
Dolores, my shepherd, I shall not want. He may give me lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul. He leaves me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Yeah, either way I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
Thyroid and they stash. They comfort me.
Thou perished the table before me in the presence of mine enemies.
Thou anointest my head with oil, my compromise over.
So surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
His eye will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
Psalm 23.
Very good. All right. Do you have a verse?
The 360 For God to love the world that he gave his only beyond Son, for whosoever believeth in him should not pass the everlasting life.
John C-16.
No.
John 317 forgot that not his son into the world to condemn the Word, but the world through him might be saved.
John, 317.
Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous?
Uh, the lower you've got is with you and.
00:40:00
Joshua 19.
Lord Jesus, thank Thee again for this message and for the singing that we could have and for these verses and we just pray that we take them to heart and commit the rest of the day to Thee in Jesus name, Amen.
Assembly Testing in an Evil Day
Open—Enos McCavour
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.
Without grace, shall I say it? And if we don't, we'll try to come through that. That's where I'm at my home.
With anything about our provisioning, but thou know how many father has a great name. Oh God I love my daddy.
Right.
Right.
Now what I want to do is transcend them a lot while I'm.
And close plain gather the thighs eye.
Level underneath all of everything.
There are so many people who are hard to get in ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
And and uh.
Is there anything there or something?
Long to remember to speak in English.
Long return to work as well as they they are blah blah blah blah.
Dial David Hilfenhaus.
To turn to 1St Corinthians chapter one, chapter one, verse 10. Now we see you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, they all speak the same thing. They'll be the old divisions among you about that. You'd be perfectly joined together. Same line, the same judgment.
There is been a declared unto me of my brethren, and which are of the House of Cleo, that there are contentions among you, as I say, that every one of you said, I am a Paul, I am a Paulus, Cephas, and eye of Christ.
Some time ago I was reading a little booklet, I think it was Brother Bruce Asti.
And, uh, since the time of reformation, I think you mentioned that.
Every 17 years or so there's been a division among the Lord's people of some sort. Scattering or something has come in.
We haven't had any, and I don't wanna suggest that the Lord may be printing something in. Uh, I would like to think that we're just a remnant and the Lord's coming is very imminent and, uh, we're gonna be kept all together until that shout's given. We'll be all raptured home together.
00:05:13
But there's always a possibility that there could be another testing that comes along and, uh, to mention those standing in the evil day, that's the day of testing.
I know myself there's been problems in the Assembly since I've been gathered different places. We don't do very well in discerning the Lord's mind in these things.
Applying Scripture and and to discover from scripture what the Lord would have us to do, we don't do very well. My concern is there's younger ones that are coming along. If if we're left here much longer, testimony is going to lie with you.
And.
How are you gonna handle it?
A problem comes along.
Well, I didn't wanna suggest any particular type of problem today, but more or less.
To look at perhaps three things that are the cause, the result of the problems since reformation 3 things I think that is brought out here in this first book of First Corinthians. The apostle Paul noticed these things. Among them there was a.
Attention here because they had their eye off of Christ and onto one another and we know that's what that leads to. And in the book of Proverbs, I think it's chapter 13, uh, verse 10, it says only by pride come with contention. But the last part of that verse, sometimes we don't quote it says, but with the well advised, there is wisdom.
I think the apostle Paul was applying that verse here in First Corinthians. He saw that.
Well, there wasn't much spiritual wisdom. Perhaps they had all sorts of gifts. They, they came behind a no gift. There was lots of knowledge among them and everything. But, uh.
There's lots of things they didn't know and, uh, I think it's eight times repeated in the next few chapters over, uh, it says, uh.
No, you're not.
No, you're not. It goes on to mention different things to them about.
Certain things they were, seemed to be vague and knowledge about Was marriage going to court with one another? Umm, there was a moral, uh, wickedness in the assembly that they didn't judge.
There were a number of things that, uh, they weren't, uh, paying any attention to. And the Apostle Paul would seek to, uh, bring, uh, those things before them that they might correct them and go on. And we're no different.
We're no different. We, uh, we're subject to those same things because we have the flesh in US.
And, uh, very, very things that happened to the Corinthian states can easily, easily happen to us. We're not above anything that they, they fell victim to.
Those three things that I mentioned that that I noticed.
Leading up to chapter 1011, three things that the apostle Paul would would have wanted to correct them about because.
We're called into a fellowship. Let's look at First Corinthians chapter 10.
Verse 16 There it says, the cup of blessing which we bless is not the communion of the blood of Christ, the bread which we break, Is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
It's not the What I'm Speaking of here isn't the table that we have on Lord's Day morning where we we set the elements on.
Because we're called into a fellowship with the Lord, we're in fellowship with the Son and the Father and the Holy Spirit, all three.
And we're called into this place of fellowship and it's it's called the Lord's Table.
It's, uh, where he is, where he's promised to be among his people.
00:10:00
And, uh, the ground of that fellowship, of course.
It's the blood of Christ that's put first we know in verse 16 and then it's a loaf.
Because of the fellowship that we have together, the ground that we meet on is the blood of Christ. Without that shedding of blood, we still be in our sins or wouldn't be a ground of fellowship. And then of course the body is is put last, but it's not a physical table as we have the emblems on in Lord's Day morning. It's a symbolic table because.
Every believer God sees is part of that one body.
And every, every believer has a responsibility to practically, uh, follow the instructions of the word of God as to that one body. That is where we should meet together. And all those things are practical.
But we know that that testimony, that fellowship has been broken up into many different factions over over the years. So we have a lot of denominations. We have a lot of.
The Lord's people that that just has split off and they go anywhere they like. This is not scriptural. The Lord has a place for for every one of his own and that that's in the body. He has placed us there.
And, uh, because he has placed us there, no, no believer can ever be really taken out of it. But, uh.
We only only way that we can be taken out of it as we do it ourselves practically and unfortunately many have done this by not following the instructions of the word of God well.
There are three, uh, different things that I'd like to look at. One is, uh, ecclesiastical evil. It's, uh.
Somebody's gonna be at the lawyers table. Shouldn't be going on with something that would be dishonouring and displeasing to the Lord if, uh, ecclesiastical evil I believe is mentioned that uh, in this 10th chapter.
In verse 18 mentions Israel after the flesh. Are they not? Which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
And So what that brings before us is.
That whatever is sacrificed in the place where we come together to the Lord, our prayers, our thanksgivings, whatever it is that's going up to Him.
We're partakers of it.
And so if I go to a place where I know that the doctrine that's spoken there isn't according to Scripture, and I'm a partaker of that.
And I'm a partaker of everything that goes on in that system or that place. And if it's wrong doctrine or if there's moral evil there that's not judged, if they accept people that's been married three or four times, all that kind of thing, those kind of things are.
What we would refer to as there's moral evil, there's doctrinal evil and ecclesiastical evil, but if we're mixed up in a system that's going on with any of those things, it's ecclesiastical evil where we're departing away from where the Lord would have us to be at the time. This was written here for the Corinthians Saints.
There wasn't any divisions among the Lord's people like we know today.
The one body was still intact. There wasn't any outward divisions, but the seeds were there, as we see in the first chapter. And so the Apostle Paul was seeking to nip these things in the body, you might say, before they developed into.
The visions and heresies and so on.
But today we know that the Church has been divided up practically.
Into many different umm.
Denominations and so on. And so if you're going to one of those places, it's important that you look in the Word of God and find out what they're doing there is that according to Scripture, this is according to what the Word of God tells us in Scripture. And if it isn't, then you know, you should go look elsewhere. But what I would mention to you today is.
00:15:07
All the guidance that we have in Scripture, we have good guidance to where the Lord would have us to meet in Scripture. I just mentioned those three things.
Ecclesiastical evil.
Uh, the other two evils, I just look at this briefly. I don't have time to go into anything in detail, but uh, First Corinthians 5.
Which are familiar with with the one that was put away there for moral evil.
It says there.
In verse six, that your glorying is not good, know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
So the principle there is that if there's evil in the assembly, if it's not judged, it's going to affect, it does affect the whole assembly. And it's not just your local assembly. When you're when we're Speaking of the body of Christ is every believer that's in that body that has an effect on the whole church. And and so that is.
The effect that that moral evil has in the Church of God.
It's like, uh, putting a a.
One bad apple in a a barrel of good ones, That one bad one will spoil a whole barrel if it's let go. And then the other one that we have doctrinal evil. We have that in Galatians.
Galatians 5 it is.
In verse nine it says there again is repeated a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Here it was false teachers come in that were seeking to put the Corinthian Saints back under the law.
So this evil was a doctrinal evil.
It was just as bad as the moral evil and would have the same effect of dividing up the Lord's people and, uh, it was to be judged just like the moral evil would need to be judged. And so the apostle Paul says.
I would that they were even cut off which trouble you verse 12. This is not something that's that's taken lightly and God doesn't take it lightly and if we provoke provoke God, he God will act and so there's three kinds of evil that.
For those that are gathered to the Lord's name, we should be careful about ecclesiastical evil, doctrinal evil, and moral evil. Those three things, well, we see that the Corinthians, Saints they were.
Uh, going on in a bad way. They were, they were looked at as being carnal or fleshly. They were walking after the flesh and it was all sorts of problems that they were having. And the, the apostle Paul knew that if they weren't corrected, they would come in, they come into the assembly and would have that same effect of destroying the testimony. And so he's very careful to seek to bring.
Bring that to them to put those things away.
And so he uses it. Go back to First Corinthians 10 again.
I'll mention the three things now that I, uh.
That I feel that it's the same today for us as it was for them. The three things that I believe that has caused every division.
Every scattering, every sort of, uh, problem in our Christian lives and our pathway. Three things, and that is.
Self denial.
Self denial, denying oneself for the benefit of others.
If there was that denial of self put into practice, we wouldn't have these problems.
And then there's another self.
Self-control.
Self-control, keeping the body, the mind, the spirit under control of the Word of God.
Self-control.
Then of course we have self judgment. We're to judge ourselves. We would not be judged. Three things that are prominent all the way through this book of Corinthians. There was a lack of that and the apostle Paul to teach them he he showed them by a sample.
00:20:14
Let's turn to.
1St Corinthians 9.
The Apostle Paul wasn't very well accepted by the Corinthian Saints. He, he didn't look at him as a real apostle. Umm, he wasn't, He didn't come from Jerusalem. He didn't come the way of the other apostles. He got his apostleship from the Lord himself, but he was an apostle. He was appointed as an apostle.
He says, Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Am I not seen?
Jesus Christ our Lord, are you not my work in the Lord, the work, the their salvation itself was proof enough that he was an apostle son of the Lord, but they didn't treat him as such. See, they didn't support him in his work and.
The Apostle Paul sought to correct them. In this, I'm not going to go into too much detail.
About that, I'll just mention a few things that he brought before them, not for his own benefit.
But for the benefit, I believe of others that would come after him to correct that with the Corinthian Saints, so that they would see.
That's important to support those that are out into the Lord's work and, uh, he brings before them.
There first of all, he had rights, uh and verse three, my answer to them to them that do examine me is this that we not power to eat and drink. We not power to eat about a sister, a wife as well as other apostles as brethren of the Lord and Cephas.
We're all or I only and Barnabas have we not powered for bear working or hold back working. They worked. They provided not only for themselves but for the others that were with them. He was a tent maker and he he worked hard, the apostle Paul to provide.
For what what he was lacking from Corinthians Saints, he worked to provide it himself.
He breathed before them that umm.
He brings the foil on the soldier. He brings before them a farmer and he brings it brings before them a shepherd. All these three partake of the occupation that they're in. They they're rewarded for it in some way that who, who, who go with the warfare anytime those own charges.
Who planted the vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth the flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock?
And, uh, he brings out about, uh, old temp, old, uh, testament scripture about oxen, uh, doth God take care for oxen? It says you not the muzzle, the mouth of the ox that credits out the corn and so on. And so he brings these pretzels, principles before them and also that, uh.
The 13th verse Verse. Do you not know that they which minister vote holy things live on the things of the temple? May which wait at the altar, are partakers with the altar.
And so a priest had offered up the sacrifice of the Lord. Part of that, uh, sacrifice belonged to the priest.
Fed them and so on. So he raised these principles before them that they had a responsibility to to support him and those who were with him in the work, but they refused to do it and so he says.
In verse 15.
I have used none of these things or none of these rights, neither have I written these things that that it should be done unto me. He wasn't looking to write these things to them, to chastise them, to chastise them for his own self or his own benefit, but for others. And he's a very unselfish person and it shows us he gave up these rights that he had.
And that was self denial he denied himself.
So that the testimony that he had before them and before the Lord would not be damaged and, uh.
It was a lovely example of, of, uh, self denial by the Apostle Paul so that the Christians could see, uh, hopefully they would see it.
00:25:06
I'd just like to look in on that particular, uh, subject. Self denial.
The perfect example that we have is found in Romans.
Romans 15.
We then utter strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and ought to please ourselves. Now this is self denial.
To bear somebody else's problems and help them along. And, uh, not to please ourselves.
Well, we know that that's hard to do, isn't it? Sometimes we we like to put ourselves first. I have an old nature and that old nature would always want to put myself 1St and then it's usually other second. And a lot of times it's it's the Lord in the last place. But it says let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification.
And then it says, For even Christ, please, not himself, but as is written.
The reproaches of them, that reproach thee fell on me. All the reproaches that man had against God the Father and against God the Creator, they fell on the head of the Lord Jesus Christ. When He was here, He took those reproaches. And we know that the Lord Jesus denied himself. He, He laid aside His glory to come down from that home above.
He went right down to.
Uh, to be made a man, He took on manhood, uh, made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. He can break down three steps, and then the last step he went down even further and going to the cross to bear the judgment for our sins. So the Lord Jesus is a perfect example for us.
In self denial deny himself or us and we know it's hard but.
It's, uh, I remember talking to a brother some time ago and often call once in a while and, uh, ask him about his family and everything. And I know he had a dog and I asked him, you know, with the dog and don't have that anymore recently.
I said, oh, I said, what happened? The diary hit by a car? No, he said.
He said. I just, uh.
You know, there's some, uh, Saints that we'd like to have in our home have visit and he says they're allergic. He says I had a cat too and I, I let the cat go.
Well, you know, I'm not suggesting anybody here today that has a dog or a cat to get rid of their dog or cat. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that this brother had an exercise. He wanted to have fellowship with some of the Saints that he knew that they wouldn't come to his house if he because they were allergic to the dog or the cat. And so he was willing to.
Give them away or to somebody else who could look after them.
And to enjoy the fellowship of the Saints, Well, that's a good example of what, uh, self denial is. And then self, uh, control. We haven't 1St Corinthians 9 as well.
The Apostle Paul said in verse 27, But I keep under my body, read it into subjection, lest by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Oh, you know that Paul was in the castaway and he couldn't be a castaway. He was the Lord, but he didn't want to give the appearance if he if he wasn't keeping his body under himself or keeping it in control.
It certainly would give the appearance that maybe he wasn't real. How many?
Televangelists or people today that we know over time have gotten themselves into moral problems, uh, with the misuse of the body. And we don't know it brings into question where they, were they really the Lords or not? You really question that because of their actions. And so the apostle Paul is very careful to keep his body under self-control.
So he would not bring reproach upon upon the Lord's name when he when he preached the gospel.
It should be a lesson to us as well that I think it says those that preach the gospel should live with the gospel. I think it's verse 14.
00:30:06
Is Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live with the gospel? And so the Apostle Paul, he, he sought to do that and, uh, he knew that if he didn't, uh, keep things under control, that, uh, his ministry, his preaching would be brought into question. And so it's a very important thing, self-control.
The other one we read about is in Chapter 11.
About judgment.
Judging themselves.
Verse 31 This is a.
For if we would judge yourselves, we should not be judged, but when we are judged, we are chasten of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
This is in connection with the Lord's Table. There were some that perhaps were there at the Lord's Table and there was going on with things that were sinful, not right, and they were failing to judge it. And of course, if the assembly doesn't judge it, the Lord will. He'll command and he'll, he'll correct it and so.
This was the other important thing. So there was self denial, self-control.
And self judgment, when you think about it, all the problems that we have personally and throughout the church history, if we want to be honest, fall under one of the three most times all three. And the Lord brings out before them in, in, uh, the the first part of 1St Corinthians 10 just before.
He takes up the Lord's table. He brings before them about the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness.
I'm not gonna go into it because time is pretty well gone, but had mentioned there are different things that, uh, show that those that were causing these things had no sense of any self denial. They, they were, they weren't thinking of others. They were just thinking of themselves when they were doing these things and there wasn't any self-control involved in it. They were out of control and the Lord had to come in and judge.
So much so that.
The Tabernacle had to be taken out of the camp, far off from the camp, and when they went to worship, they had to go out of the camp, beyond the camp, the worship, The camp was so defiled by what they did that the God couldn't stay there.
And, uh, and so he brings these things in, he screws in just before he mentions about our fellowship with the, with the Lord at the Lord's table is a table is symbolic in nature because it's, we can't really see everyone that's at the Lord's table. We just don't, can't see that. But if we could look at it in a physical way.
If you could put every believer on the face of the earth at A at a physical table.
I don't know where, where it would end if it started here in Toronto, may go all the way to New York City or even further, I don't know. But it just, uh, if you try to get a picture of every believer the way God sees him at his table, it was a physical table. We don't know how far that would stretch, but we're not given to, He doesn't give it to us in that way. He presents it as a table, but it's a symbolic table.
But every believer is is in the body of Christ.
And are expected to be at that table. And there's instructions of Luke 24 and so on how we should, uh, uh, follow the man with a pitcher of water. There's enough instructions in the word of God to show us where he would have us to be.
As believers, there's enough instruction that He has given to us to point the way and to show us where we should be remembering the Lord in his death and we're.
Who we should be having fellowship with, but uh, it's to be searched out. I'm not going to go into those truths. Most of them mostly just probably know them anyway. But uh, it's important to bear in mind that we're at the Lord's table. There's three evils that the Lord is going to protect the Lord Jesus from ecclesiastical evil.
Moral evil and doctrinal evil. And if we don't judge those things, the Lord will.
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And uh.
I'd just like to leave you with those, umm, thoughts.
Leaven of Malice
Open—Ted Porter
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I'd like to speak a little on a moral evil that I.
Don't believe that I've ever read about.
Uh, any man making comments about it? Expounding it?
Maybe you have, I'm not that well read.
But, uh, when our brother began to speak about divisions.
Something that I'm sure all of us have given a good deal of thought to.
We'd like to try and.
Find out what the root of it is and I believe if you.
We're to know more details about all the divisions that have taken place. You would probably find out that it started.
A couple of Saints not getting along.
So there is this term turn to, uh, First Corinthians chapter 5.
First Corinthians, chapter 5.
And verse 8.
And look in the middle of the verse.
And you'll see this phrase.
The 11.
Of Maoist.
11 of malice.
We talk about moral evil and uh.
I think for many of us, we immediately think of things like fornication and.
Perhaps lying, theft, things of this nature.
But here, he says, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven.
And then the first thing he says is the leaven of malice.
And then wickedness.
Malice for those who may not know the term.
Malice is when.
You've got it. I don't know how to generalize it. You've got it in for somebody.
That's malice, and it can be very obvious. It can be obvious to you and it can be obvious to others that you just don't like that guy or or that sister.
But malice?
More often is very subtle and sometimes you yourself don't know. You're not really conscious of the fact that you have malice towards somebody.
We uh.
As our brother said, we're all human beings and umm.
We all know from the time that we're really small that there are just certain people that we just would rather not be around. And I see a lot of grins, but, uh.
This is way more serious, I think, than we realized.
Because if I have malice towards someone, and especially if it's that subtle kind of malice.
What begins to happen is.
Probably even subconsciously I start to order my life and my conversations with people in such a way.
As.
To facilitate.
The removal of that person from my life.
That's the leaven of malice, because now it's not just affecting me, but I'm affecting others too.
Maybe I just slipped a comment to a brother or sister about that person.
That's uh, like a snakes venom.
And that's the leaven of malice.
And as I said, many divisions start this way, you know.
Umm.
Someone mentioned during this, uh, conference the book of Philippians and they made the comment. It was a very touching, uh, epistle.
And if you we can turn there if you'd like, if you were to read this official carefully from the beginning, you can tell that Paul has a great deal of affection for this assembly.
00:05:04
And, uh, believe he uses the term beloved and.
He says in verse nine, I pray that you love me abound more and more.
I don't have time to take up this epistle. Umm.
Spent a whole hour on it once, umm.
But what you'll find out is you get down to chapter 4 and I think as you're reading the epistle, you may find that just there's something, there's something there on Paul's heart about this assembly. And I may not be putting it right, but it seems like there's there's something that's worrying him.
About what's going on in Philippi.
Is very appreciative of them. They had fellowship with him in his work and he loves them very much and his very apparent in his writings. But kind of this this kind of undercurrent as you read through the epistle and it almost leaves one feeling like what's there's something bothering him. Well, you know what's inspired by God. So that means there's something bothering the Lord about what's going on in Philippi.
And I believe he gets to it in chapter 4.
And verse 2.
Where he says, I beseech Yodius, and I beseech Syndicate, that they be in the same mind in the Lord.
An iron tree fee. Also, Yoko helped those women which labored with me in the gospel, these two women.
Had helped Paul, they labored with him in the gospel, and obviously he's got a very great deal of affection for them. But you know what?
They are not getting along and that may not be something so outward.
But Paul is aware that.
They rub each other the wrong way, and he knows that. This may seem like a small minor thing, but this could turn into a major disaster for that assembly.
And so he appeals to the one he's writing to. It then says, I, I entreat you, as if writing to the whole church right here, He's getting personal with the person who's receiving this letter. He says, I beseech thee.
To help them.
Some have heard this. You may giggle a little bit, but I think it's appropriate.
Many, many years ago I heard a brother refer to Yodius and Synteke as odious and so touchy.
And, you know, you get sometimes kinds of people, they're just, they're odious.
Uh, the speaker is probably one of them. And then you get, and then you get those that are really touchy, you know, I mean, they just, they don't like anything disturbed and one little mistaken comment to them and they go off somewhere and cry. I'm being exaggerated, but you, you may be one or the other, but just imagine putting these two together.
As one is just so odious and the other one that's just very touchy and they're trying to help the apostle Paul.
And uh, the odious 1 bumps into the touchy one, and the touchy one is, you know, breaks down, falls apart.
So quite often.
The Lord puts us with those that naturally rub us the wrong way and, uh.
Brother Robert can wave me down if I'm starting to take too much time. Umm.
Yodi, Yodius and Synteke. Odious and so touchy.
This.
Has to do with what our brother just said about South denial.
Umm, we who?
Are rewards. Maybe that's not the best way to put it. Who are in Christ? Who are in dwell with the Holy Spirit?
Who possess eternal life, we have another nature.
And.
In order for that to be manifest.
Our natural life has to be contradicted, and the Lord will set those circumstances up where you're going to be.
Crossed your nature is going to be.
00:10:00
Pretty much.
Frustrated trying to think of terms, but you know what I mean.
And it's usually gonna be another brother or sister who's gonna be used to do that. And you will either.
Practice self denial.
And love.
Or you're gonna start to develop the leaven of malice toward that person.
Which is it gonna be?
Most, I think many, if not most of you in here have been around long longer than I have.
Among the so-called gathered Saints and you've seen more divisions.
Let me put this before you. It says the body is builds itself up in love, right?
If there's no opportunity for love to be exercised, how is your gonna be building?
We can come to conferences. You know, I don't see you very often come to conferences. We're happy to see each other. It's all warm and fuzzy feelings mostly, but the ones that you're really getting built with are the ones that you have to grind with.
Week after week.
For the early believers, it was day after day because they were ostracized from their society and had to live communally, so they were had to be with each other all the time.
We have it easy, we just see each other perhaps a few times a week and we still have problems getting along.
Why?
Part of it is.
The lack of self denial.
And the number one commandment, love one another, well, it speaks, you know, love. Love is exercised in forgiveness.
And long-suffering.
Preparing with one another Love is exercised in asking for forgiveness.
In confessing your faults to one another.
Bodybuilders, you know, those guys and women now who just, you know, they build their bodies up, pump them up and they get big, huge muscles and they're rippling and everything. They know this secret, that muscle, the way to build muscle is through tearing and repairing.
Tearing and repairing.
They push themselves until they're actually their fabric is is tearing and then it repairs itself, and when it does, the repair is stronger than the original.
Must.
It's, it's just like welders, you know, welders, some piece of steel will crack or be broken and the welder will go in and he'll grind, grind down through the, the, uh, the tear and open it up. And then he'll lay a bead of steel in there. And that Weld becomes much stronger than the original if it's done properly.
Well, muscle is built this way, tearing and repairing so.
It's gonna be something you don't have to do. We all know that the fences trespasses against one another sins. These things will be there by default.
The question is, are you gonna see those as an opportunity for building?
Or are you gonna get political with each other and.
Grin and Barrett for the one hour you have to be around that brother or sister, and then find relief when you can leave the meeting and go home.
Brother told me once about.
When a brother did something, I don't remember what it was, whether he had, he committed some offense, I don't know if he took something from him or what it was, but he was, uh, he was fairly young at the time, at his early 20s or something, and.
And I remember him saying that he he felt spiritual and so he just kind of took it on the chin and wasn't gonna do anything about it.
He said.
You know, he thought he was doing the right thing, being spiritual, forbearing and so on, but he said.
00:15:06
Years went by.
And their relationship was never the same.
In a negative way.
I think it's still that way to this day. Then about 30 years.
He realized he should have gone to the brother, which is humbling.
And tell him I was offended by what you did. It wasn't right.
Our brother mentioned pride, and you know pride, that is, that pride is the our enemy of love. It is totally incompatible.
And this, you know, if you've married in any kind of relationship, pride is the enemy of love. And pride will keep you from asking forgiveness. Pride will keep you from telling someone that you've been hurt. Pride will keep you from forgiving.
When my daughter got married, she asked for advice. I said I have a little piece of advice for you. Just very simple.
In marriage as in any relationship.
Selfish selfishness will get you in trouble.
Pride will keep you there.
Selfishness will get you in trouble, but pride will keep you there and this can be applied amongst us.
Little offense has come in and brethren don't like each other, but they know it's not right not to like each other. So they hide it, and they even hide it from themselves, and they lie to themselves.
But the leaven of malice.
You know what Levin does? It just, it kind of blossoms, if you will, and it comes out one way or another it comes out and it causes great harm.
Great harm.
To the assembly, so.
Just remember that term, don't overlook it. Think about it, the leaven of malice, and just judge yourself.
And remember that these all these divisions, you know.
I believe Paul was understood this very much and there in the book of Philippians he puts his finger on something that could end up destroying that assembly. Just a little problem. Two sisters having trouble getting along together.
And we have an individual responsibility when we see this in our assembly.
Not to turn away and think it's their problem, because after a while it's gonna be your problem and not just your problem. It's gonna be all of our problem.
Because we know these little divisions, they don't stop with just one assembly. Eventually they they're splitting up assemblies everywhere. You know this. But think about it. The root. What's the root? The brother said It's a flesh. Well, it is, but there's that subtle leaven of malice. Don't forget that.
Having a Forgiving Spirit Toward One Another
Open—Robert Boulard
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I'd just like to look at Matthew chapter 18 was alluded to, but uh, there's a solution for what we've been Speaking of this afternoon and the the Lord by his Spirit is brought before us. I believe in Matthew chapter 18. We'll just read from verse 15. It says, moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault.
Between thee and him alone.
If he shall hear thee.
No, Husky and thy brother. But if you will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if you shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the church. But if you neglect to hear the church.
Let him be unto thee, as in heathen man and Republican.
You know, sometimes we talk about these problems. I'm thankful that we can, by the grace of God in a venue like this, says let the prophets speak two or three. And the Spirit of God has, I believe, seen that there's a problem and addressed it head on not.
Perhaps in a superficial way. And here we have the this the Lord Jesus spoke these words himself, and they're recorded here and it gives us a little bit of an indication as to.
The seriousness of this problem among His people and the solution. I'll just point out that the next similitude of the Kingdom here and from verse 21, perhaps down to the end of the chapter in chapter 18 is the 7th similitude of the Kingdom because it begins in verse 23. Therefore is the Kingdom of heaven likened unto.
A certain king, and it's one here that is.
Umm, it it speaks in this similitude of the Kingdom of the instruction is given of having a forgiving spirit.
The first three similarities to the Kingdom in Matthew chapter 13 bring before us what Satan is doing to oppose the work of Christ in this world. And then the next three similitudes in Matthew 16, Immaculate 13, I'm sorry, are the what the Lord Himself is doing in spite of what Satan is doing during the day of grace?
The very next similitude of the Kingdom. The 7th similitude of the Kingdom. There's four that.
Give us our own responsibilities during the time that the Lord is absent. The very first similitude of the Kingdom has to do with you and I having a forgiving spirit towards one another. And if we don't have a forgiving spirit towards one another, it says in verse 34 that his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him.
So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you.
If ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother, their trespasses. And so to be delivered to the tormentors doesn't mean that this is, uh, someone that was saved and now is going to be lost. That's not the that's, that's false doctrine. This the passenger scripture is sometimes taken out of context in that way. It's the fact that a believer can have a tormented conscience and the Lord can allow the conscience to be tormented because he will not forgive.
You know, wonderful to just have the new life, a new life, the very life of Christ to be indwelled with the Spirit of God and have the ability to forgive one another. And it may take grace, it does take grace to look at one another and to forgive. But uh, just to speak of verse 15 here, it says if thy brother shall trespass against thee, if.
He says here go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. Now why does it say this?
There's wisdom. It's the wisdom of God. It's the Son of God who's speaking. He says, well, your brother might not even know that he trespassed against you. He doesn't know.
And so you go to him alone. You don't write him a letter.
You don't, uh, send them an e-mail.
You don't umm, tell your friends about the problem. You go to him alone and you say brother.
00:05:00
It was very hurtful what you said to me or what you said to my son or whatever it was, and you speak man to man.
Brother with brother, sister with sister, if I could put it that way. It's the wisdom of God. It's a provision for us, and the Lord desires that we would communicate with one another and have the honesty to communicate with one another in this way. Tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Isn't it nice to just be able to speak with one another honestly and to say, brother, I love you and the Lord, I just am so thankful.
For the, umm, gifts that you have and that, uh, you exercise from time to time in the assembly and that, uh, you just have a, a personality, perhaps that you do a gospel work outside the assembly. Perhaps, uh, this brother's, uh, teacher, perhaps someone just, uh, very quiet, doesn't hardly, hardly never notice them. But isn't it wonderful just to be able to be on good speaking terms and to just be able to.
Love one another.
Even as Christ loved us and to, in a sacrificial way, set aside our own rights and our own, uh, likes, dislikes and so on, and just go and speak with one another.
Well, it says that we shall hear the Daisy and nine brother. So if I went and I spoke in the right way, in the right tone, with love in my heart and the desire for reconciliation, I think my brother would hear me. And so it speaks in First Corinthians chapter 13. I might just say chapter 12 is the machinery, you might say of Christianity. Chapter 13 is the oil, for the machinery speaks of love. And then in chapter 14 you get the machinery.
Of Christianity in action. And so love thinketh no evil.
Let's think of novieval love is easy to be entreated.
Oh, how wonderful it would be if we were easily entreated for one another and by one another. Well, it says if he here will not hear the then take with the one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. Is this to pressure this brother to forgive you? No. Maybe you say I just didn't. I wasn't able to communicate this very effectively. And maybe.
You know, we can just go out for a coffee and, uh, we can talk about it, uh, maybe with, uh, one of my friends and maybe he can help communicate.
How offensive this was to me.
I might just say just in a natural, uh, sphere of things, umm, when we were in business, often times we'd have a situation in the office or whatever and umm, so we have a, a, a challenge with one of the employees. And the first time that we had a little bit of an interview, we would go to a coffee shop in a non threatening environment and just lay out the issue that was.
Uh, at hand and then if the thing didn't improve then.
Sometimes it would be into the conference room in the office, then we'd have another coffee and try to be, uh, uh, communicate the thing more effectively in the conference room. Well, the third time was would be in my office if the thing didn't improve. And so, you know, the Lord delights to, uh, have us communicate effectively with one another, with appreciation for one another, with love and, you know.
Are you honest with yourself? Honest with the Lord you know?
And I know that he speaks once and he speaks twice. Sometimes he speaks three times with us.
He's faithful, he trains us and he doesn't give up the first time. So I think this is really what is Speaking of here, that if, if he doesn't hear you alone, bring someone else with you and, but don't uh, use pressure tactics or anything. It's just really the desires to win the heart. Well, if you neglect to hear them, tell it under the church, you know, it might affect the assembly. If you and I have hard feelings towards one another, it might affect the assembly.
And it might be necessary to tell those that are in the assembly, perhaps those that have responsibility and care in the assembly, those that are oversight. And so I got a problem.
This brother just doesn't wanna be reconciled. This brother just wants to go on in this course. And he I've taken brother so and so we've played with him, but he just doesn't wanna hear it. And it's gonna cause a problem in the assembly. I don't want it to cause a problem in the assembly. Please help us.
Isn't it nice to just be able to, umm, ask for help?
00:10:02
And ask for help in the assembly, ask for help for those that are in oversight that, uh, have a desire to see and are responsible for the way the Assembly goes on. Well, it says here, if, uh, he neglected to hear the church, let him be unto thee, as in he than man and Republican. So we've read and we've commented that, uh, as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men.
He said don't treat him like a publican.
Just you might have to just bear with this if he doesn't want to walk in a peaceful path, let him be unto thee. To you as a heathen man in public and someone that just.
Perhaps doesn't wanna walk in a Christ like way and you have to bear this. And so the Lord gives this provision and the Lord is able to straighten these things out. Now I just want to read in Colossians just to close up these thoughts.
In umm.
I think it's Colossians chapter 3.
And just point out in verse 8.
It says Now ye also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
You'll notice that it says anger first, wroth second, malice third.
There's a progression. Things don't happen all at once. And all of a sudden you find out that the malice of leaven, the leaven of malice is spreading and malice or leaven is a culture. It's uh, uh, we know it as, umm, yeast and it works absolutely marvelously under the right conditions. And sin is like that. It works under the surface and in a Co, It's a culture and it just, it just spreads silently.
And it corrupts the whole thing when connecting with bread. But this begins with anger, having an angry feeling. And you can just feel the indignation and the wrath and the anger. You have some an angry feeling, but then it turns to Roth and uh, so you get a little bit more passionate about it.
It's not just you're not just angry now. Now you've got.
You. You really. It starts to show on your face.
It's not just anger in the heart, then malice in French and Spanish, and probably Portuguese as well. Uh, math means to hurt.
Hurt Malice. Malice. Now you want to hurt this person?
Now you want to hurt them with words, you want to hurt them circumstances, so on and so forth. Well, May God give us the umm discernment to judge our own motives, our own hearts in these matters, that we might not be angry with one another and that we might not be wrothful, might not show on our faces.
In that way, and that might be judged that there might not be malice towards one another. And let's remember.
Dear brethren, the solution for these things so clearly taught by the Lord Jesus himself in the word of God and he says go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. Now there's if I could just take one moment and just show you in Matthew 18 here it says in verse 31.
There's someone else you can tell. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry.
And came and told unto their Lord all that was done.
So they didn't go and tell the other servants.
They went and told the Lord about it.
So you can tell the Lord about it.
When you see a problem developing, tell the Lord about it. Be sure that we keep those short accounts with one another. And may the Lord bless us in these last days as we await His coming to have tender hearts for one another. Forgive me, Ephesians chapter 4. Just one comment on this. It's the verse 32. Be kind one to another.
Tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. You know that's the only time in the New Testament that this word tender hearted.
00:15:03
Is used.
Tender hearted. You know, I stop at a lot of rest areas as I travel, and every now and then I see an old man, an old woman walking up the sidewalk, going to use the restroom. And he's so tender hearted, so tender with that dear woman. I oftentimes wonder if they're saved. And you know, I see these different places. Tender heartedness.
And the Lord sees it too. Tender heartedness. Let's be tender hearted.
Not hard hearted with one another.
288 versus 2 and three.
Fraser, my life.
Shall grateful birds and frown of heaven bring all our love away? And I understand. And if you want to say you've heard the gold.
Uh.
Right.
Hebrews 12:15, Philemon
Gospel 2
Gospel—Wally Dear
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.
I think somebody is doing me a favor.
Turned off the clock.
Let's begin tonight by singing #16.
We sang 16 today. One of the children gave out this number. I enjoyed it so very much. Whosoever heareth shout, shout the sound. Send the blessed tidings all the world around. Spread the joyful news. Wherever man is found, whosoever will may come.
Blessed tidings and joyful news.
You know what blessed it means? It means happy.
You know what tidings means? It means.
What good news?
So tonight we have something.
To present to you.
That will let your spirit.
And if it doesn't, I don't know what else will.
Because it's a message of love that's come down from above.
From the heart of God.
God loves each and everyone in this hall here tonight I see boys and girls and men and women, and I'm here to tell you that you have a God that desires the very best for you. He wants you to be thoroughly happy.
And he's made it possible. But you know many people tonight.
They're trying to live their life without God.
You're so sad.
Somebody said that living one's life without God is like.
Dribbling of football.
Have you ever tried to do that?
Football.
You can do it with the basketball.
Doesn't work with the football.
And if we think we can live without God, independent of God.
It won't work.
And we are in big trouble. It's serious. So the message here tonight, even though, as it tells us in this little hymn, it's blessed, it's happy and it's joyful. It's also very serious.
Depending on how you respond to this message here tonight.
You're gonna be with Christ.
In his happy home in the coming day. Or you're gonna be.
With the devil and his angels.
In health, God didn't prepare health.
For people.
We prepare health for the devil and for his angels, but for those that reject his Son.
It's the worst crime that you could commit is to say no to Jesus.
I hope here tonight nobody.
Is saying no to Jesus.
Because God doesn't appreciate that and in fact it tells us in John chapter 3 and verse 36.
He didn't believe it's on. The sun has everlasting life.
But he that believeth not the Son shall not see life.
But the wrath of God abides on him.
Well, that makes me shudder. The wrath of God is anger.
You know, God thinks so very much of his beloved Son. He's so lovely and so wonderful that if anybody would reject him.
We find out.
Their asset? God.
Abides on him. That's what it tells us in the Bible.
We don't want the wrath of God abiding on us.
So we're going to sing this little him whosoever heareth.
00:05:05
Shout, shout the sound, and perhaps we could stand as we sing #16.
Whosoever.
Shall shut the town and come back the time he called the world around the Joyfulness Royale and I had a good time. Umm, it's a little older world and he come on.
With all of the world, who is the wife of the ground and approximately?
The land hail.
Let's pray.
Our God and Father, we thank you tonight for that.
Sweet and wonderful word come.
We thank Thee tonight, dear Father, that Dowardin fighting boys and girls and older ones too, to come to Jesus, to come believing, and to finding him joy and peace. And so tonight we earnestly pray that as Thy word is presented, that it might penetrate the hearts of each one in the audience.
And that we might be moved by thy word, Speaker included.
And that we might indeed come to realize in a fuller way.
I love, dear Father, that led thee to give thy son, as we often sing for a.
World by sin and time.
For that law of Lord Jesus that took thee to the cross of Calvary, we thank Thee from the bottom of our hearts, that thou would suffer on that cruel cross.
For sinners.
In order that we might become.
Clean in order that we might become thy companions for all eternity. So we rejoice tonight.
In the opponents of Thy grace and goodness, we do honestly pray for any still their sins that they might wake up here tonight.
Accept the Lord Jesus before it's too late, we ask all thinking, two of thy word going forth in many parts of the world tonight. We pray it might run and be glorified.
And so state.
We ask this as we give thanks our worthy precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
Well, tonight I was thinking of two questions.
One question has four words in it.
It's called the sin question.
And there's another question and it has 5 words.
And it's called the Sun question. So let's first of all.
Turn to the sin question.
So.
Genesis chapter 4.
I'd like to open our Bibles to Genesis chapter 4.
And this is the story of Cain and Abel.
00:10:04
Now you know.
Pain. He brought an offering to God.
He was like a farmer.
And he raised, I suppose, vegetables, maybe fruits and so on, and I think they were very nice.
And he brought a sacrifice to the Lord.
Of the fruit of the ground.
And you know what? The Lord didn't accept it.
On the other hand, Abel, his brother, he was a shepherd.
New course and girls know this story and.
He killed a sheep and he offered a sheep, and God accepted that.
And that made Chains so very angry because God accepted his brother's sacrifice.
But God wouldn't accept it.
The king had sold purely. He got mad.
Well, why is it that God accepted Abel's and not?
Keynes.
It's very simple.
Keynes was a bloodless sacrifice.
There was no blood offered.
And.
Pain, I believe, should have known better. He should have realized that it's very important, the shedding of blood in order to approach God.
God had made coats of skin.
4 Adam and Eve.
And.
The coats of skin, of course, that came from animals.
And I've never seen yet an animal that was skinned that was still alive.
If you skin an animal, that animal dies.
In order to provide.
Its coat, it has to die. And you know when that animal died, I believe God took the skin.
And he made coats for Adam and Eve. Now I got a pair of shoes on here.
And these shoes happen to be leather. Not all leather part of the man made shoes, but.
I believe.
Animal had to die.
In order that I could have shoes like these on my feet.
And I never thanked the animal.
But now I'm thinking about it, that animal sacrifices life so I could have shoes. And you know that animal that we read about here in Genesis was sacrificed, that Adam and Eve could be covered and God provided coats of skin. Well, the blood was ****. See, that's the thing. The blood was ****. And I believe we learned right from the beginning of Genesis the importance of the blood.
To approach God.
And then he said, I don't believe that. I don't want to have anything to do with Christianity. One man, he said this is a slaughterhouse religion.
I don't believe in that.
I wanna tell you something.
Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. That's what we learn in New Testament.
You see what we read here in the Old Testament.
We need to look at it in the light of the New Testament and we find out that there was one who shed his blood, and that was Jesus at the cross for sinners, that we might be saved and.
I think the Bible is so wonderful.
From the beginning of the book right to the end.
We see how God.
Is approached only by sacrifices and the shedding of blood well.
Here tonight.
I wanna tell you something.
Cain was infuriated.
And the Lord tried to reason with him. He said, OK, you got opportunity to repent.
00:15:08
He says you can offer.
A sacrifice that I would accept. Fatima wouldn't listen. He's too proud. You don't appreciate if somebody tells him.
What to do? He's got his own idea.
And that's not good.
And Cain went from bad to worse.
And as we read here in Genesis chapter 4.
It tells us in verse eight that Cain.
Talked with evil his brother, and the came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel's brother and slew him.
That's just he killed him. He murdered him, his own brother.
And maybe he did it in a very, uh, kind of sneaky way. You know, He's in the field, he's just talking to him.
And all of a sudden.
I don't know how he killed him.
But he did.
Now notice verse 9.
And the Lord said unto king, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I.
Know not.
Is that a good thing to say?
You said I don't know where my brother is.
That was a lie.
You know, when we do something bad, we often try to cover it up.
And things go from bad to worse, and that's what happens here with Cain, he said. Am I my brother's keeper?
And he said.
Now here's the question, what hast thou done?
What hast thou done?
The Lord knew all about.
What had taken place?
And Cain thinks that he's going to hide it from the Lord.
And the Lord speaks to Cain.
What have you done?
I ask you here tonight.
What?
Have you done?
You say, well, I never murdered anybody. I'm not like King.
But you know, I'm thinking now about.
I believe it was Steven.
He was preaching to his people and he said that they were the betrayers and the murderers of the just one.
What was he referring to?
His people, the Jews, had put to death their Messiah. They put the death Christ on the cross of Calvary, and they were murderers.
And you know, it tells us.
That not only did the Jews, but the Gentiles as well, They joined together with the Jews.
In order to put to death.
The Son of God.
Like Peter was.
You spoke about how you killed the jest. You killed them.
And you know, tier one's here tonight. We can point the finger.
But I do believe because we are sinners and we're born with such a rotten nature.
Were bad that we are really.
On the side of those.
Who put to death the Lord Jesus Christ?
I can see my own.
Place in that crowd that was clamoring for His blood. Crucified Him, crucified Him.
It's hard to Man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? Desperately wicked.
00:20:11
We cannot cover up our scene.
I recall reading about a smuggling shift.
And the captain he saw in the distance.
A Coast Guard.
And that Coast Guard was coming in his direction and he had smuggled goods on board.
He knew he was in big trouble, so he ordered his crew.
Two, throw the cargo overboard.
And to hit these feet, boxes of smuggled good, I don't know exactly what the goods were, but they were all packaged in boxes. And so they begin to take these boxes out of the bottom of the ship and they bring them up on the deck, and then they put up a big sale at the back of the ship.
So that the Coast Guard, if they had the doctors, they could not see what they were doing.
So they're gonna hide what they're doing from the Coast Guard.
They begin to throw the boxes over.
One after another, into the water they go, and they went down underneath that big screen, big sale.
Finally, they came to the end of the boxes.
No more boxes, all the smuggled goods sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
And the captain?
Told his UH.
Crew member there. I want you to go back and check the position of the Coast Guard. So he went back and looked around the screen. You know what he saw?
Every one of those boxes.
Was floating in a line.
It looks like it's we're stretching all the way back to that Coast Guard ship.
And he came back to the captain. He said it won't sink.
You won't think.
Well, that captain got in big trouble.
Yeah, he was arrested. I think his ship was confiscated. He went to prison. But I understand that this captain, later in life, he came to Christ.
And.
There was one verse that really meant a lot to him. Thy sins, iniquities. I will remember no more. You know that, Captain.
He thought he could cover up his shin, but it didn't work. And is there somebody here tonight that thinks they can cover up their scene? You might be able to cover it up in some way for a time, and you might be able to fool.
Some of the people, you know, somebody said one time, we can fool all the people some of the time, and we can fool some of the people all the time, but we can't fool God any of the time. And we need to realize that, you know, God is looking down here tonight. It tells us that the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding to evil and the good, and he's looking down on you and you and you.
And you, each and everyone here tonight. Christianity is a very personal matter. We need to realize that. The other day I was in the airport.
And it was a huge crowd of people and I was just standing in the crowd.
However.
In order to get on the airplane.
We had to do what they asked us to do.
And instead of the big, huge crowd, just.
Well, walking up to the airplane.
They made us go.
Into this.
Like a maze.
And I come to find out we're going now single File.
And you know, many here know what I'm talking about, but.
You come to this gate.
And then you have to go up to a podium and there's a one person there and they're gonna check your ticket to make it sure it's a true ticket, It's a good ticket. And they look for ID and you go up there one at a time.
00:25:02
And the next thing you do.
You take things out of your pocket.
And you put them onto this conveyor belt and your luggage and so on.
Depending on whether you.
Find pre checked or not depends on.
Determines how much you're gonna put on them.
And there and that conveyor goes through an X-ray machine.
And it's gonna check everything that senior belongings and then you have to come up.
And stand in front of a metal detector.
And then they tell you to step in, and I wanna tell you something. There's no way more than one person at a time is gonna be in there. So you step in there. You might have to put up your hands like this.
They check you out thoroughly, one at a time.
It's a thorough check.
And I thought of this here tonight.
God.
Is checking you out one at a time. You sit in this hall.
And there's a number of people around you, but you know God, he sees you.
As an individual and we have to meet the Lord Jesus one-on-one, one at a time.
Somebody said nobody goes.
Into heaven.
Other than single File.
And the Lord Jesus said I am the door.
So we come one at a time, and the Lord Jesus wants you to come tonight. But this question, I believe is the same question. What have you done?
If I was to write on this wall everything that you have ever done in your life.
And I rolled it up here on this wall.
And not only what you did, but what you thought and what you said.
And I wrote it up here on this wall. Would you feel comfortable?
Sitting here in this room with all these people.
I see some going like this, no?
I would neither.
What have you done? Is there anybody here tonight that thinks they're perfect?
I wanna tell you something.
If you wanna come to God.
Based on what you have done or haven't done.
Gotta be perfect.
You know one.
Sinful thought.
Our one simple word. 1 harsh word.
One action, it'll keep you out of heaven.
Sometimes I have a balloon. I have a big balloon.
And this is a beautiful balloon. I didn't bring one here tonight, but.
It's a nice red balloon. Or purple. Or maybe it's green.
And I sit and I look at it and I think, and it's very nice. It's very beautiful. And sometimes it has some picture on or design or something like that, you know?
But what does it take to spoil the balloon?
Just a little.
Pinprick. You ever look at it end of a pin or a needle and it's so tiny you can hardly see it, but you put that up to the balloon.
It's all done.
Spoiled it? Well, you know that's what happened, I believe, in the Garden of Eden when Adam listened.
I should say Eve actually listened to the devil, Satan.
And she heard what God had said, but now she's listening to what Satan has to say, and she has a decision to make. Who is offering her?
The best option? You know what she did? She decided to go with Satan. Isn't that awful?
And that's what happened ever since in this world. And we know Adam, he went along with his wife.
And Eve took of that fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
00:30:00
Got him ate of it, and they sinned. They disobeyed God and as a result death has come into this world. Tells us by one man's disobedience sin enter into the world, and death by sin. And so death is passed upon all men.
Terrible what happened there in the Garden of Eden. But you know what? I believe this gave God opportunity.
To show his love for sinners, because we find that instead of destroying Adam and Eve, just instead of destroying the human race, abandoning it, starting over, he provides a Savior. And that's what the gospel is about. This is what.
The joyful news is about that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And now?
Let's go to the sun question that's over in, uh.
Matthew, Chapter 22.
I will say this, our brother Jonathan said to go over. He didn't think anybody was gonna get too upset. I forget his exact wording, but uh, I'm not gonna go over too much.
I think I'm over now.
We gotta read this son question though. Matthew chapter 22.
And we find here in this chapter we've got.
People, men, they don't appreciate the Lord Jesus and they don't believe his preaching. So sad.
And there are those that were trying to trip him up.
Trying to frustrate him in his speech so he would say something that didn't make any sense or at least contradicted maybe his.
Lifestyle or whatever.
And you know.
We got people today.
They are contradicting.
The Lord Jesus, God's own Son.
I trust here tonight there's nobody like that and this question.
I believe.
We need to take it to heart because depending on how you answer this question, you're either on the road.
To heaven or you are on the road to hell.
And here's the question.
Verse 41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them Sing What think ye of Christ?
That's it. What?
Think ye of Christ.
And as we read through the Gospels, we find out there were those that appreciated the Lord Jesus Christ. You take like Peter, he says we believe and we're sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
John the Baptist, he spoke about the Lord Jesus, he said. The one that comes after me, he's preferred before me because he was before me.
He thought everything of the Lord Jesus. He was wonderful. There was an elderly man by the name of Simeon. And when he saw the baby Jesus, he picked him up his arms and he says, now you can let me depart from this world because I have seen your salvation. And he was looking at the little baby Jesus. This was God's salvation. A Savior had been born into this world.
God was reaching out to sinners.
And he reaches out to you here tonight.
Now this is the question, What think you of Christ?
As I look about this fall here tonight.
I'm seeing those that.
They really love the Lord and they put their faith in the Lord Jesus, they put their trust in Him.
And they believe that on the cross He gave his life and shed his blood in order to cleanse them from their sins, in order that they might be redeemed, in order that they might have eternal life.
In order that they might enjoy a relationship with God the Father and with his Son Jesus. And it makes them happy. It makes me happy. But.
00:35:06
I don't know everybody in this hall here tonight, and maybe there's somebody.
Who is still?
In their.
And rejecting the Son of God.
The Lord Jesus says, Come unto me.
All unit labor and are heavy laden.
Have you come or do you say no? Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week. To neglect is to reject. And I'm going to tell you something here tonight.
This used to make me shudder because I wasn't saved.
The preacher would tell me as I sat on the seat.
That if the Lord Jesus was to come.
The door of heaven would be shut.
And that went right to my heart and to my conscience.
And I thought to myself, could that possibly happen tonight?
Because the Lord Jesus says I'm coming quickly and I'm thinking about this. I didn't want to be outside the door.
Knocking to come in, the door would not be open. It's too late. I'd be left to sit on that seat and then.
What next? My parents are gone. My brother. Sister. Well, I didn't have a sister. My brother.
Oh, I guess she was younger than I was.
I gotta think back to you.
I guess I got probably saved before my brother did, but anyway.
Of course, he was just little too.
But if you're old enough, boys and girls, to know that you are a Sinner and that you need to be saved, then you shouldn't wait to open your heart to the Lord Jesus. But you know, the time came when I accepted the Lord one night they simply asked him to wash my sins away. And you know he he did that. But I didn't have peace in my heart until sometime later I went to my parents and I told him that I.
Jesus to save you. And you know, I think that's confessing with the mouth. So we read in Romans 10:00 and 9:00, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus.
And believe in thine heart that God has raised them from the dead.
Thou shalt be saved.
So have you done that?
So let's not forget these two questions.
What hast thou done?
That's the same question.
There's an answer.
To the sin problem.
And it's Jesus and his blood.
The blood of Christ is that which cleanses from all sin and.
It's wonderful to be saved, to know it and to enjoy it. And if there's somebody here tonight that's not sure about salvation, please come and talk to.
Somebody about this because we want you to be happy.
Your parents want you to be happy.
Most of all, the Lord wants you to be happy.
But there needs to be repentance towards God, a willingness to admit that I have sinned, I've done wrong, but then faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He that believeth.
On the sun has everlasting life. It's that simple.
He that has the Son has life, he that has not, the Son of God.
Does not see life.
Perhaps we could see.
2 verses of what can wash away my scenes #3232.
Let's sing the first and last verse of 32.
What can wash up?
Stand up low thyroid makes me not any kind of snow.
00:40:17
Flower of life in a while for their flashlights and flashlights on nothing but nothing but the blast.
And, umm.
I hope that's me. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Right now, nothing but the bottle of Ginger.
On the grassroots and throat flow, thyroid, thyme and thyroid and snow blows.
Oh wow, there's I'll, I'll see you now see how the blood out and all the kidney, umm.
Right. Maybe.
Courage and Strength
Talk—James Amsden
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Our Godfather, we do thank you so much that we can be here tonight together in this circle of warmth and fellowship, together on this night. And thank you for this wonderful time we've been able to enjoy these last few days together for the many profitable conversations we've had.
Just thinking.
I guess tonight and we can truly lean on me and knowing that we have no strength in ourselves, we just ask for whatever word we have for us this night so.
We don't want to say it would be. That's her blessing upon it in Jesus name, Amen.
Actually, Mary, you know.
This morning.
I won't have to confirm your Bible with Joshua chapter one and verse 9.
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with you with their.
You know, it's, umm, it's kind of funny, every, every time, every commerce I've been to recently kind of start off looking at your schedule. Looks like a long couple of days in a way. But then Sunday afternoon comes along after lunch and you look at it, well, this thing's almost over, you know, umm, never was that like that one as a kid, you know?
Just drive on and on, but now?
You just, you just look at them and you look around and you kind of think like, I'm going to miss all you guys. You know, we all have to go home. We're all going to go home tomorrow. And, uh, some of us, we're going to keep on vacationing, but we're going to move on to other things. You know, we're going to go back into the burns, into the trials that we've been going through, whatever it might be.
School or family or a meeting or whatever it is. And it's easy to feel alone. It's easy to feel kind of bogged down by those things we're facing. But it's so wonderful to be able to be reminded of this message that the Lord said to Joshua so many years ago, and yet it's applicable to us today.
Just that he is with us wherever we are, wherever we go. You know. This message was said again another 1500 years later. Basically cycle when they were on the boat and they were caught in the store.
And, uh, with the BFP, you know, being not afraid as I and, uh, and that same message goes out to us today. And if you read in Hebrews 13 of umm, how to put it, uh, I'll, I'll never leave, you know, for safety. So that message has been gone going from the beginning that he is with us, He is there for us.
Well, who is it that's there for us? It's, you know, if you were to read in Hebrews 2 and four, we know about our great High Street, that one who who suffered so much even before he came to the cross, he suffered concerns. He suffered from hunger, he suffered from grief. He suffered and even says in one place and Matthew 26, but in the Darby translation that he was greatly depressed.
You know, we've all faced these things. We've all, like I said, we all struggle. We all have things we have to go back to this week.
Let's know that there is one who enters in with us in those things. You know, we we can only enter in so much into what the other person is going through. Case and I go through the exact same things that we both break our legs. He doesn't know exactly how I feel. I don't know exactly how we feel. Hopefully this won't happen tomorrow.
But the Lord knows. The Lord knows how you feel. He's been through the same, you know. He took not himself the seed of Abraham, but every way he was tempted.
Just like we are yet without skin. So I don't know if we just take comfort in that. Just take comfort that you're not alone and umm, whatever you have to face, whether it's any of those things I just mentioned, grief or pain, depression. But any of these things that we have to taste are just just a day-to-day grind of, of just trying to live for him. Just to know that he's there for you. He cares for you. And we don't have to be afraid. We don't have to.
Umm.
He all alone is there with us so.
That's all I really have, but I just want to make sure it's just to go on with him and, uh.
This to enjoy his company and, uh, enjoy who he is. I guess we could just.
Fit ourselves and doing good. Thanks for the food now or.
00:05:04
Our Godfather again, we just thank you for the reminder of umm.
About about being with us and umm, we can have this very High Priest and Lord Jesus.
By whom we can come to the holiest of all things boldly, come to the holiest of all, to make our cares and our needs known to just. Thank you Father, for this. Thank you for thy love and goodness to us, and thank you that we could be together like.
And as we go out now and go to our smaller assemblies in our in our lives.
Just to just to know that the same Lord who we felt so definitely over this weekend is still with us. He hasn't changed and we just pray for this pray for a comfort brief heart and for strength for each heart would do well. I would do thank you for this evening and do thank you for the food that we have here for the fire and.
For these people.
No, no.
Hebrews 12:15 - Philemon