Vestal Conference: 1994
Table of Contents
Hebrews 12:1-6
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The profitable for us to take up the 12Th chapter of Hebrews. We have there our blessed object brought before us, as well as the end of the journey, and this is what we need in these days in which we live.
Hebrews, chapter 12.
Wherefore, seeing we also accomplished about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which just so easily beset us, and let us run with patience in the race. And they set me for 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 to set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest he be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against them. And He had forgotten. The exhortation would speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art reduced to Him. For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth.
And scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
He endured hastening. God deals with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?
But if you be without just as meant we're a full of partakers then our E ******** and not sons.
Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, We gave them reverence, so we not much forever be in subjection unto the Father of spirits 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.
No, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Afterward they yield at the peaceful fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down in the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet. Bless 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, Lest any root of bitterness is bringing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Did you want the entire chapter at Jim?
Pardon.
I would just say before we comment on this chapter specifically, that I've enjoyed the fact that the ascension and enthronement of Christ is brought before us in a very remarkable way in the book of Hebrews, because you have the Lord Jesus seated at the right hand of God four times in this book, you find him in the first chapter seated there, having made full atonement in the purification for sin.
You'll find him in the 8th chapter seated as our High Priest, that one who is taking up our interests at the right hand of God and ever living to make intercession for us. Then you find him in the 10th chapter seated, having offered himself as the supreme sacrifice and satisfied God as to the whole question of sin. And we find there that it brings before us the security that we have in Christ, because it says by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified.
And here we find Him in our chapter seated, having pasted through this world in the path of faith and obedience, and as having completely begun and completed the path of faith and perfection. He seated now as the object for us as we pass through this world. It's remarkable that in the book of Hebrews you only have one specific mention of the cross. That's where we read in the second verse here, and then one specific mention of the resurrection, which is in the next chapter, the 13th chapter.
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Because I say it's more his ascension and his enthronement that is taken up here. And when the Lord Jesus walked in this world, there was an object in this world that was worthy of heaven's gaze. And that's why you find as the Lord Jesus walked in this world amongst men, that there were occasions when the heavens would open up and all heaven would gaze down at that blessed One, and a voice would proclaim, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
But the Lord Jesus isn't here in this world the way he was 2000 years ago. He has risen from the dead, He has ascended, and he's glorified and seated at God's right hand. And I believe the book of Hebrews opens to us the heavens, not so that heaven can gaze down, but so that now we can gaze up by faith and be occupied with that one that God would always occupy his people with. The one in whom was all his delight, the one who was the express image of his person, the one who could say I have glorified thee on the earth.
I have finished the work that thou gave us me to do. And so as we take up this chapter, how good in these days when the enemy is busy and there's much to discourage and distract. So look up into the open heavens, brethren, and see that Blessed One there seated at the right hand of God. He hasn't failed. He's altogether lovely. He's the same. And as we take up this chapter, may we realize that the resource that the people of God have in Christ this afternoon, this morning.
Is the same limitless supply that has always been available to the people of God.
I didn't read the last part of it but I just thinking of it in the chapter uh noticing the 28th verse. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved.
Blessed and precious truth of Kingdom that cannot be moved. And that blessed one is there already, isn't it? Waiting for the time when he's going to take his people out of the scene and bring them into that place of glory? And I think it's so beautiful.
But in between the verses, between the opening of this, the thought of, uh, looking unto Jesus, the one who has not only begun the path of faith, but finished it not, not to all the worthies of the Old Testament, which are glorious, no doubt, but to that blessed one. And so in between this chapter, as it was being read, I thought of there's, there's difficulties, there's trials, there's all these things that come in and we're directed, always directed.
The looks of the head look to the Lord Jesus and uh, as as it says in verse 15, looking diligently lest any man's veil of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. How wonderful to know that most of these chapters you read the if you read the beginning and the end, you'll find that in between God makes provision for the situation for the place that we're in at the present time, doesn't it?
I've always enjoyed the fact that God does two things for his people, and He's always done it in any dispensation. That is, He has always given a hope, an eye to the future. Because if we're going to run the race that is set before us and run with endurance, we need to have an object. We need to have a goal. The runner who goes out and runs, if he doesn't have an object in view, he's not going to be concerned about completing the race, but he has that cries in view and so he runs with endurance.
So God always did that for his people. He did it for his people in the Old Testament. When they redeemed them out of Israel by the blood of the Passover lamb, He set a hope before them. They were going to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. In fact, I've enjoyed that when they got discouraged very quickly after their entrance into the wilderness, they cried to Moses and Moses cried to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, tell the people to turn around. They're looking in the wrong direction, they're looking back.
And so as they turned around and looked out over the wilderness, it says they saw the glory of the Lord in the cloud. In some way, Jehovah was pleased to give them a vision of himself in the cloud. And with that in view, they could press on, knowing that they were going to something far better. But what about in the meantime? God provided for their every need. He provided food when they were hungry, when they were thirsty. He gave them the water from the rock. He, their sandals didn't wear out. Everything was provided.
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And when they finally did get into the promised land and look back, they had to give Jehovah all the glory. They had to realize that it was all the way that he had LED them and that it was nothing of themselves. And so he does those two things for us. And brethren, we're going on to the Father's house. We were singing of that. We're going to see our blessed Savior, perhaps to be taken from these meetings into the very presence of the Lord Jesus, to see him not by faith, but by sight. But what about in the meantime?
Maybe there's someone here and you say I just can't go on in the situations. How difficult are things going to become before the Lord comes to call his own? Well, brethren, again, there's full provision for us and God has provided everything that we need if we're willing to draw on that resource.
I like to just say too, concerning this cloud of witnesses that he mentions in our first verse. It's a referring back, I believe, to those who have been mentioned in the 11Th chapter. Because there we have a list of those in the Old Testament who live by faith and triumph against all kinds of odds and difficulties for the Lord's glory. And they're brought before us to encourage our hearts and to show us that it's never been easy for the people of God to go on.
For the truth in their day there's always been opposition to the truth, and the enemy is always busy to tear down and destroy that which God has set up and instituted. But I believe that the Spirit of God is very careful to guard, lest we ever think that our brethren are given to us as the object for faith. Now we are told later on in this very book, that those who have gone before it says, whose faith follow, but they are not the object for our faith.
The ones that are brought before us in the 11Th chapter, they're not the object. They're given to encourage our hearts. And even in our day, we can look around and our brother and I trust, encourage our hearts, and we ought to encourage one another as we go on in the path of faith and service. But immediately on completion of that list, that great cloud of witnesses, he lifts up our eyes to the open heavens and he says, here's the object for faith. Here's the one that if you follow him, you're going to be preserved in the path of faith. If you follow someone else, you're going to be discouraged.
You're going to miss the path because David said in 119th Psalm. I have seen an end of all perfection. And if we're looking for perfection down here, if we're looking for perfection in our brethren, we're going to be disappointed. But we won't be disappointed if we're looking to him as the object.
It was good to see two that says you're in verse one. Let us lay aside every week. Well, some of the younger ones here might wonder about this.
Oh, wait, uh, could be something that hinders your walk, hinders your progress in the Lord, may not be sin. It may be something, uh, that just hinders you. It's a wait, but I was thinking of a verse over in the second or first Timothy chapter.
Uh, chapter 6, if you'd like to look at it. Uh, we're to lay aside every wave, but then there's something else for us to do too. I speak as to those who know the Lord.
Umm, verses 18 and 19 of First Timothy chapter 6. That they do good, that they be rich in good works.
Ready to distribute, willing to communicate. Notice verse 19. Laying up in store for themselves. A good foundation against the time to come.
But they may lay hold on that which is really light. Uh, I believe there's a need of a, of more being more closely connected with the Lord Jesus himself, his own personal, we, we know him, all of our Savior, they know him. We know him as our savior, but do we really appreciate him as the one who has authority in our lives, the one who is soon to where he's soon to come for us? We're going to look into his blessed face. Well, I think it's good for us to remember as we were reminded into him, where we're going.
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Uh, the, the joy of that is going to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus. So he says here in, in the first Timothy 6 and 19, laying up, laying aside that which would hinder and laying up for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. Well, eternal life, we have it. But he says, lay, hold on, enjoy it, make it good to your soul.
Going back for just a moment to the word witnesses.
I think it's important to notice something that's called attention to doing a footnote in Jandy's translation that there are really two senses to the word witness in English. One is.
That I see something in order to bear witness about it. The second sense of it is to give testimony to, and in this particular passage, the thought is to give testimony to. What did they give testimony to?
They give testimony to the path of faith and what the character of that path is and the nature of God's dealings with those who are in the path of faith. So we're surrounded by that cloud.
Of witnesses in the sense of giving testimony to what that path is and what the God is that we know and sustains us in that path.
The raise to the step before us.
University of Ecclesiastes, 9 chapters. I said it now.
First, uh, 11 The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.
Media, bread and the wine and so forth.
Let's see, raise it into the Swift. Who is it to? Who wins this race?
That was rude.
It's not a sudden burst of speed and how often we see somebody start off so well they don't finish well. You know, it's important to finish well, you know, to continue on in this race to run with these words and things. What you're saying is nutrition pathway. It's not 100 chart dash, it's going on.
And there are many difficulties to put in the way, but when you look at that, Blessed is running glory.
So it's beginning our journey as we go on, when we realize when his journey was here, it must be set with much opposition. But he went home.
I think there's some scriptures concerning the end of Paul's journey and, uh, his pathway here in Second Timothy that might be helpful in this connection he just noticed in Second Timothy chapter 4.
Paul writing by the last before the last time by divine inspiration. He says in verse six, For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also.
That love his appearing.
Well, Paul was one who ran with patience, or I believe, as Mr. Darby translates it, ran with endurance. And you just have to read the life of the apostle Paul read concerning his life in the book of the Acts and then through the epistles. He was one who didn't have an easy pathway. He suffered things in the path of faith that you and I have never been called on to suffer. And if you read that list in the second chapter, the 11Th chapter of Second Corinthians, it's a tremendous list of things.
And I used to read that list and wonder, how could Paul go on day after day, year after year, and endure those things for the Lord's sake? Well, he had the goal in view because in the very next chapter, second Corinthians, chapter 12, he tells us there of that time when he was caught up to the 3rd heaven, saw a risen, glorified Christ, and heard unspeakable words that it was not lawful for a man to utter. He didn't just have a vision of the coming glory. He'd been up there and saw it himself. And I believe with that in view.
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And knowing where the race ended, knowing where the pathway ended in the glory, he could press on. And he doesn't speak here in second Timothy of winning the race, but finishing the race. And we know too that he said, I believe it's in Acts 20. I have finished my course with joy. It wasn't an easy pathway, but there was joy as he went through those trials and proved the all sufficiency of his God and the all sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ. Brother **** was telling us about what these ones in the chapter before the 11Th of Hebrews gave testimony to.
One of the things they gave testimony to was the all sufficiency of their God, that their God was able despite the situation. And brethren, I say again, he's still able. We have the same God that the Apostle Paul had. We have the same God that Daniel and David and those Old Testament Saints had. He hasn't changed. Perhaps he doesn't work quite the same way, the end of this dispensation the way he did in past ages or even in the early days of the church, with great deliverance and great grace and great power and outward signs and things like that.
But has it? Is this power any less? I like what it says at the end of Daniel's life, where Daniel proved the Lord in wonderful ways. It says the God of Daniel is the living God and steadfast forever. He's the same today, and he's brought before us in the next chapter in Hebrews, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. But I think we need to stress, but particularly for those of us who are younger, that there must be the goal, there must be the object.
And all those that live by faith, in the 11Th chapter, they all had an object. It says of Abraham truly went out, not knowing whether he went, but he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. We read that there were those who didn't receive the promises, but they saw them afar off and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims. Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible. And so I just say to those of us who are younger, we must have the glory before us, because where no vision is, the people perish, and every man that hath this hope in him.
Purifies himself, even if he is pure.
I don't think we can emphasize too much the importance of fixing the eye on that Blessed One. As the leader and completer of faith, we can tend to get our eyes on men on issues.
And I believe God would have us.
Picks our eyes on him. He's the leader, the initiator.
The author.
And the completer of faith and.
All others might give us a testimony to what that path of faith is all about, and we might see it exemplified in their lives. But there's nothing that will still give you a motive and encourage you to go on is to fix your eyes on him as the leader, as the completer of faith.
May the Lord direct our eyes and work to Christ as we go on. I think of different ones that I perhaps thought of a lot of in my life and.
Sometimes I'm so disappointed.
But he's never disappointed, as he's always that supreme object, the one who God sets before us to encourage us on the way. And.
He himself, in view of the joy before him, endured the cross.
Despising the shame, I mean, where is he now? Sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. What a what a goal before us, what a thought to engage our hearts. There's a lot that would discourage.
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I often think of.
A little question the Lord raised more in regard to His appearing than in regards to the, uh, rapture. But those events are so close that one can really apply them. And it says, when the Son of Man comes, shall we find faith on the earth?
And you look about and you see it giving up on every side and, uh, turning his side.
When I think of the Lord's word to Peter in the 21St of John.
Just follow me.
Peter turns around and he says, What about this man? About John? And we all do that, though we get occupied with what somebody else is going to do. The Lord says, if I will, that he tarry till I come. What is that for thee? Follow thou me. It's as if the Lord says to Peter, that's not your occupation, it's none of your business. You follow me and we follow him by grace.
Supplied from heaven's eternal strength.
But God has given us an object, a never failing object, one that won't disappoint US1 That completed the pathway of faith.
But it cost him and we thought of that. Uh, I was thinking again, brother **** ** verse two, looking unto Jesus.
And then in verse 3 for Consider him, are we really considering Him?
As you pointed out, looking unto Jesus.
The Sinner looks to the Lord Jesus and he gets salvation. You know, he, he hears the words of love and truth and he's saved. He looks to the Lord Jesus, but to, uh, then to forget what the cost was. We'll never enter into the depths of that. But as, as I read this verse, the author and finisher of faith, the whole pathway, he was the one who began it and he ended it. He finished it.
Do I consider him not just as my savior, uh, looking to Jesus, but do I consider that Blessed one? Do I consider what it cost him to redeem this individual? How much did he pay? He paid with his life.
Are we considering him? That's that's really it. I believe it's emphasized here. I don't know the thought in connection with the consider, but at least have we meditated upon him? Have we wondered, have we marveled at how much he paid for us?
What it cost, it cost the contemplation of these things that could that allow the apostrophe to stay in its religious rejoice in the Lord. Now where was he when he said those things? He was in the prison.
I have a further circumstances.
He had to write the prolific that some of them seek their own. They tell what it says. No, they all seek their own, not the things that are things that are Jesus Christ, but he had his face set as were in glory. And for the second time he says not rejoice in the Lord said rejoiced in the Lord always and even finished. Yet he said, and again I say rejoice now that's the man who's locked up in prison.
Seeing the difficulties of the way, yet he can stay three times over.
Rejoice in the Lord.
For an example, we have in him to follow his faith and he as a follower of our Lord Jesus.
I like to contrast that incident with the apo, with, uh, Solomon, because Solomon on the throne of Israel, at Israel's pinnacle, humanly speaking, had everything that his heart desired. In fact, it says he didn't withhold himself from any pleasure. And you might say naturally speaking, he would have been the one to write rejoice in the Lord, but he's the one that writes vanity and vexation of spirit. In contrast here with Paul, as you say, in the lowest of circumstances that were perhaps human possible, humanly speaking.
And you might naturally have expected him to be the one to write vanity and vexation to spirit. And if he had, you'd say, well, of course he didn't have anything anyway. But it was just the opposite. Solomon with everything that his heart desired of this world and glory and power and so on, he didn't find any satisfaction in it. But Paul had a joy. Think of Paul and Silas in prison. They had a joy. There in that trial was midnight, it was a dark hour. They must have wondered what they were doing with their backs bleeding and their feet in the stops. But they had that joy in the Lord. Because it says your joy no man taketh from you.
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I think it's nice to see what the Lord Jesus said as He endured the cross, despising the shame. He looked beyond the long dark night, knowing the truth of that verse that says sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
He looked on to the day of glory, He looked on beyond the cross, and He knew that when the work was finished, he would return to the Father. He had come from God and He told his own that he would return to God. He knew that there was the glory ahead, and not only so, but He knew that He would have his own around him for all eternity that day when he would see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. And with that in view, He could endure the cross, despising the shame. And He's given to us as the perfect example, brethren. And again, if we have that.
Glory before us. We can go through the trials like those that we read about in Scripture, like the Lord Jesus Himself, knowing that He's going to give grace and glory. Grace meets our present need and glory is what comes at the end.
What is the joy we had in verse two? It says looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, hopefully joy invested before him, endured the cross, but joy in the Lord Jesus had before him.
Yeah, we thought when?
It wasn't a joy or was doing the Father's will.
Because I thought that was his meat, wasn't it? Finished the work that he gave me to do. And that joy isn't dependent on circumstances. I, I don't mean to take away at all from the thought too, that the joy of sitting down at the Father's right hand, but it was as having finished all that the Father had given him to do and to finish the path. And that was joy to his soul.
I'll be glad to hear what you have in mind, brother.
We could even go beyond that.
Travelled it's all satisfied that you look at all the stars on the confusion in the world, but we look past that the eternal state when they'll be blessed in our earth and blessing in heaven and all will be according to the Father's heart and with patience he endured the cross so he was not he was the Lamb of God was taketh away the pin of the world and so that the earth and blessing the whole blessed blessing will be will be brought into joy. That's what we look forward to across.
As love doesn't have its rest until we as we think it redeemed our wisdom fully blessed.
So my father worked for 32 and I worked and so even now.
He said the father's right hand in the seating for us and I may say that.
Still looking forward, I believe till that time when it'll be redemption, one thing will be forever done away and.
We get that in the 10th chapter where he seated and it tells us there from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool and saw his brother Neil says he's looking on to that day. But I'd just like to make a comment in connection with his joy, the joy of obedience, because I believe that he has put before us an example that we should follow in his footsteps. And as we read of the life of the Lord Jesus, we find there's only one way to be happy in the path of faith.
And that is in obedience, we sometimes sing with the children at the Bible hour in Maine, a sheep, uh, we find we sing, umm, they are only happy when they follow his command concerning those sheep that he has, uh, picked up and redeemed. And so, well, you see it in the path of the Lord Jesus. He said, my meat is to do the will of God and to finish the work of it. I'm not quoting it correct, just correctly. But that was his whole joy and it halfway He could say it in the fourth of John.
That I have meat to eat that you know not of. And his delight was to do is my delight is to do thy will, Oh my God. And I think you see it very beautiful in the tents of Luke as well. We won't turn to it but that we know that the Lord Jesus was the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But there is one time in His pathway we read specifically of His rejoicing, and it's under very excruciating circumstances. He looked around at those cities that He had come to blast. His heart went out to them. He wept over them.
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His desire was to draw them around himself and to bring them into blessing, but because of their rejection, he had to pronounce judgment on those cities.
And what does it say? That same hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit. Why did he? How could he rejoice in spirit Even so far? For so it seemed good in thy sight. Perfect submission as a man to his Father's will brought that joy. And I say it's an example for you and I, because we'll never have true joy in our pathway unless there's true submission. It's not that we're going to have an easy pathway. Let's never think. Rather than that if we follow the Lord, it's going to be all sunshine and roses.
Those who live by faith in the chapter before they had difficulties, there was opposition, no doubt, many things that they never understood this side of glory, but they had joy in their path because they knew that they were doing the will of God.
I think the thought that our brother Neil brought out is confirmed too, and although I think it's primarily here, the joy of doing the Father's will, the added thought of the blessing of His own is, uh, confirmed in June, that He might set us before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Sometimes we read that I think wrongly.
With our exceeding joy, well, it's going to be exceeding joy for us to be there. But.
His joy will be to get us home and get us there safely, and that's always been a great joy to my soul, to think of that in a time such as Jude has to worry about.
Comes to a doxology at the end where he he says he's able to keep us without stumbling.
And the said it, that's how it should read without stumbling, not without falling, but even without stumbling. And the set us before his presence was exceeding joy. It will be his exceeding joy to have us there. And we have the same thought in Umm Zephaniah is it where he says he will joy over me with singing, particularly Israel and view there. But I'm sure we can apply that to ourselves. The Lord is going to sing to get his home safely.
It's going to be his great joy to bring us into the Father's presence. And if you think of a illustration of someone fetching a bride from afar, I think of our dear brother Donald. I don't know if he's here or not. Donald Williams, he in Brooklyn, he waited a whole year, more than a year to be able to bring his pride from the Dominican Republic. And you should see the smile on my brother's face and how much he enjoyed having Martha Wizard.
And how much more the Lord's joy to have us there with Him.
When he sit down.
Umm, at the right hand of uh, the throne of God, and it for the joy that was kept before him.
That's why he stepped down there. And so he's seated there now as an ascended man who's gone up there and he's given gifts for man. He's looking after our entire chase from a place of power.
So that, as you say, you might bring us safely home. That's why he's seated there now. And so how much more we save by his life is that he's living now there in the presence of God for us, in the place of power. And as it says in Colossians, that is very lovely and the connection.
It says uh.
1St uh eleven of the first chapters strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power unto all patients, and long and suffering with joyfulness.
So, uh, we've been translated into the Kingdom of the dearest God and he's there now in place of power at the right hand, step down at the right hand of the throne of God so that he might be able to go on. And, uh.
This way is uh patient and long-suffering with joint illness.
That supply is important to remember that, not to forget.
Not only what he has done for us, but what he's doing for us now. I believe we have an intervening versus here following this. We have how he's working in us now to perfect us for that time of glory. Uh, he's seeking to write Christ upon our hearts, isn't he right now. And I think it's so important to me that if, if, if we're, if someone here is going through a trial now who belongs to the Lord, don't be discouraged.
00:40:19
Find the Lord Jesus as the object.
There's a reason for it. God has a purpose in it, and I believe we have some of that in these intervening verses here before he come, we come to the end of the chapter to see that he's already, uh, we, we, we're receiving a Kingdom. He's already there and he's seeking now to write his name upon each part of the believer. So if you're going through a trial or a difficulty now, read those next verses from verse five down through and take it from the Lord. Ask the Lord to give you the grace to find your eye fixed upon him for you know, we know.
It says whom the Lord loveth. He chase me so he loves his people, and he's perfecting them now while we wait His return, isn't he?
We often see in school among people full of talent and ability, but they're like water poured out on the ground. And it, it never missed one of their parents really. She was coddled and I may put it in play, given every favor, but never really under his mother's care. Umm, that we see here of the Lord Chorus as a father and then, uh, the, the father of spirit.
And chase. So the Lord is not forming in us the capacity to share His joy.
And so it produces a deeper, yet a calmer joy as we submit to the hand of God in our circumstances. And that is why He is there now in that place of power, so that He can order all circumstances. We don't think of it. We think that we don't see all things yet put under him, but he's now there in the place of power that He might order the circumstances today.
For our learning and for our education.
We would like him to order the circumstances of this urge for our reason, for our respiratory, but our rest is not here. But he's now in the place of power to order the circumstances to learn the lessons that we can only learn here on earth.
Perhaps it would be good then that we're entering on the thought of chasing to make very clear in the beginning that we have greatly limited that word in our language. We've made it mean punishment, and it really has three senses to it that are brought out in the 37th chapter of Job. I believe it's 37. Perhaps we could look at that a moment.
Ma'am, I'm sorry.
The 13th verse.
Go 37.
Verse 13.
We're talking about the elements in the previous verse.
And uh, then in the 13th verse it talks about them this way. It causes it to come.
Whether for correction?
Or for his land.
Or for mercy. And I believe chastening has a very broad sentence in this chapter that we're looking at. It really has the sort of purifying.
It may be that God allows something to come into our lives. That is called chase me because we need to be corrected. It has a punitive sense to it I think. If I remember correctly, Brother Harry Hayham used it used 3 words to begin with P as a help in understanding not punitive.
The second is purgative for his land. That is, it isn't because we did anything wrong or to prevent us from doing anything wrong, but it's to cultivate the land for more fruit for its glory and honor.
So God sends it for His land sometimes. Why did the Lord allow that in my life? Because I did so, and so I might not do so. And no, no, not necessarily.
00:45:00
Just to bring forth more fruit and glory for Him to purify my life in that way. And then the third purpose is for mercy.
What is mercy? Well, I believe in this special sense in this chapter in job is to prevent my doing something. So we have punitive chasing.
Purchase of chasement and preventative chase preventive chasing it's and an example of that is that Paul was given a thorn in the flesh because he was exalted and and lifted up now that he might not be and some things the Lord allows in our lives.
Are chastening, but the purpose of them is that we might not do something that would dishonor or.
Be not for our good or blessing. And so that's a mercy to us then, isn't it? And some things the Lord extends into our lives. And I I think it's so important as we enter on these verses that we keep in mind that broad sense of the word chastening with its three aspects.
For correction for his land, or for mercy, that is.
On it, just for something to correct us for something.
To stir up the land so that it produces more fruit for him and to prevent our doing something, it would be child training.
I think one of the writers, Mr. Niger Kelly, refers to it as child training.
How do we train our children? We don't beat them until they're at fault. We don't do that. So when we think of chasing, I know it was 11 Time we spoke. We were thinking about this chapter and chasing. You mean that you're gonna you're gonna beat them and so on. I said no, it doesn't. It doesn't have that sense in it because he's speaking a lot. He's talking to his people here, isn't he? Keep talking to believers in Christ. And so again, he's trying to imprint Christ in our hearts.
And sometimes it it, it's a necessary thing for us and we need that chase. As it says here, we're told that we need it and God doesn't. Does he, does he do it because he hates us? No, because he loves us. That's the whole point. If we could just see that as I look at some trials that I may have, I can say.
Lord Loud love to me, thou lovers to me. And I know this, though I'm not always. I don't always enjoy the difficulty. I don't always enjoy the trial. But he does it. He doesn't love me and I don't see it.
There are three reactions that one can have to chase them too. 3 aspects of it and three reactions that we can have. The 1St is called attention to in verse 5.
We can despise it.
I believe the sense of that might be if the Lord allows something in our lives and we say, wow, that happens to everybody, instead of saying Lord, what should I learn out of it?
Wheel comes off my car on the road. Does the Lord have something to say? What is he dealing with me here? Or I can despise it and say, hey, everything made by man's right. And you know it could happen to anybody. Yes it could, but God allowed it to happen to me. And why? Well, I asked him then why? What is what Lord? What are thou saying to me in this? What? What is the purpose of that?
Instead of despising it, then the second part of it, the second reaction is to faint, pay off too much. I can't take it. The Lord has put this and this and this in my life.
I it's just too much. I'm going to dissipate. I can't carry on. Well, no, you can't do that either. If he allowed this, this and this in our lives, he has a purpose, doesn't he? And then the the last thing is what you have down in umm.
In verse 11.
Those who are exercise right. Oh, that's the that's what the Lord wants doesn't mean that everything that he brings into our lives in the way of chastening that we might have an exercise about it. Now that word sometimes may be difficult for children to understand. We think of exercise something we do after our class or something. Everybody stand up with that some exercise. Well, it's really gonna work out, isn't it? And.
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And to and to be to work it out into our lives. That's what exercise to be exercised by it, not to think about it and simply say, well, uh, that's, uh, that's, I can see this in theory. No, to say now, Lord, you've allowed this. What am I going to do about it? What am I going to learn out? How am I going to change my way? What am I going to do from here on?
That's really mean exercise. Fine. That's why he's doing it. I think any of a, of a, uh, of a, uh, an year brother years ago, he was telling me about, you're talking about this chapter and he was telling me, he's telling me about someone that he met that was just had one difficulty trial after another trial after trial after trial. And the poor brother, he said he was really, he was weary with all this. And he said to, he said to this brother, I would mention his name. Uh, he said, uh.
I I don't know what to say one trial after another, his brother, his brother, his brother he was talking to he looked at him and he said, you know, the Lord must love you and an awful lot. So he was rather surprised and he said why? He says, tells me here in Hebrews that whom the Lord's love of features.
You are probably going to difficulties in trials, but I could never bear when the Lord knows that so he's doing it that you might exercise.
Because I'd like to speak about Persian, we mentioned that and I suggest John 15. And we may feel safe and just the rod of God as we sit there and Joe in a footnote, but it's purging. It's a very necessary thing. And I once went out with a Christian fellow there that had an orchard and pruned trees with him in the winter time.
In the cold of winter. And it was interesting what he said about the branches that he pruned. He said there's four kinds of branches that I've pruned besides the dead ones. He said there are the branches that grow inward and lock the sunlight from the other branches. And you said you have to take those away and take care to do that. And he said there's a suckers that will never produce fruit. They have the biggest leaves and the most beautiful. They grow straight upward, but they'll never produce fruit for God.
Per cruise. And so he said we removed all and umm, I should say there's a third one besides the deadline. He said that there's a branch that comes the load of the earth that the fruit is soil. And he said, I don't want you to type anything else because he said they're the hardest ones to know what to do with because he said sometimes they can be propped up and other guys have to cut them off. But when he goes through the forest, uh, through the foresters, there's quite a, the trees are looking pretty bare and it looks pretty severe.
But it wasn't a callous thing, but it was a sealed hand that he used to prune those trees, and there was no thought of correction there in the sense of there's something wrong, but that the tree might produce more fruit. Lord desires that for us and that.
As we said there, we can change under this and we do the five that you can just let the tree grow. The fatherless husband then would never do that, but, uh, just let it grow wild. But it wouldn't be truthful if we could realize that what God is doing in, in the trial, uh, in the testing is to print twice on our heart. That's the point.
Not religion, not church membership, not knowing a lot of verses, which is not non discrediting that, but he's seeking to print Christ upon his heart.
And the one of the old writers, but the true fruit for God, if you want to think about fruit is what God sees in you of Christ. That's that's true proof that will bear it through that will bring honor to God. What he sees in my heart of Christ, which he's trying to do, attempting to do every day of my life is to imprint Christ on my mind.
Sometimes the natural reaction.
When we see a brother or a sister going through some trial is to feel that there's been some fit sin or failure in their lives. But I've enjoyed it in connection with John 9, where they brought the blind man to the Lord and they said who have been this man or his parents that he was born blind? And what did the Lord Jesus say in response? He said neither this man nor his parents, but that the works of God might be manifested in him. In other words, as they brought this man who had been born blind, a trial allowed in his life a situation.
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God was going to be glorified as the Lord Jesus healed that man, and then the works of God were going to be manifested in him as he gave testimony to that work of grace in his life. And brethren, that's really what he wants. And he allows these trials and difficulties that Christ might be seeing in us as our brother Charlie has been bringing before us. Because when we go through the trials, they are to draw closer to Himself. And there's only one way to bear true testimony and to be a true reflection of Christ in this world.
And that's the walk in the presence of Christ, because as we walk in the presence of the Lord Jesus, as the trials cast us down but cast us on himself, then there's going to be that reflect an unconscious reflection of Christ in our lives. I say that because sometimes those of us who are younger hear this thought in Christendom of generating a testimony for the Lord. But I believe true testimony springs from the measure in which I am in the sanctuary and the measure in which I walk in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
When Moses was on the mount with Jehovah, he came down and his face shone, but he whipped. Not that his face shone. It was the unconscious reflection of being in the presence of the Lord Jesus. I just say too, that I think that when the Lord Jesus allows us to go through trials, sometimes it's to be a help to others.
And I think you get that thought in the first chapter of Second Corinthians. In fact, if you just look at it, it's very precious.
First Corinthians now Second Corinthians, chapter one.
Right, and verse three, blessed be the God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort we're with. We ourselves are comforted of God for us. The sufferings of Christ abound in us. So our constellation also abounded by Christ.
And so as we experience the hand of God in our lives and experience that, uh, chastening and that comfort that comes when we're exercised, uh, through the situation, then we can be a help to others. It's wonderful to have someone with us in a situation and to be able to take their hand and go with them through the trial. But isn't it more wonderful to have someone who's been through a similar circumstance? You say, we know, uh, we understand one another. It's that he's been through a similar trial.
And so the Lord passes us through these things, that we might be a blessing and a comfort to others. And isn't it wonderful, too, to think that he himself hastened through this world in the path of faith and obedience, and He doesn't ask us to pass through anything in the past of faith, that he hasn't felt himself as a man. And so again in Hebrews we have him in the 8th chapter seated as our High Priest, one who knows what we're passing through. It says we have not a High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
It behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a faithful and merciful High Priest. So he knows what we pass through, and then in His grace He allows others to pass through similar circumstances, that we might be a help and blessing to one another.
Everything #2323.
How good is the dog? We had over 23.
All good.
To take care of.
Serving
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Hebrews 12:7-17
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Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 7.
If you endure hastening, God deal with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?
But if you be without justice, mentor of all our partakers, then are you ******** and not sons.
Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. So we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and blood, for they verily for a few days chasing us after their own pleasure, but He for our prophet, that we might be partakers of His Holiness.
Now notationing for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Afterward yield is the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised and thereby.
Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet West, and that which is laying 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 with any man fell of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Plus there be any fornicator or proof fame person as Esau, who for one morsel of me sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected.
Before you found no place of repentance, though he saw it carefully, with tears.
So you're not come unto the mount 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 that heard and treated that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. But they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast and touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with the dark.
And so terrible was the slice that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are come unto man Zion, and unto the city of a living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, into an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.
And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.
Into the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
See that you refuse not him that speaketh, whereas 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 had promising. Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
In this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, if those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we are 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.
I was wondering if there isn't a particular exercise that maybe would be well if we just moved on through the chapter. And I say that because I think there's a tendency.
That we get sometimes, uh, bogged down and when our young people go away from the meeting, they don't have an overview of a chapter. We enjoyed many wonderful things, but that has its place after we get the overview. And, uh, I would kind of suggest that we, uh, not to cut off any exercise about these verses on, uh, chasing, but just that we keep in mind that it would be good to.
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Go on and give an overview.
I think that's a good exercise. I just say in summary before we pass on, but I think there's two things that stand out in connection with these verses that we have read and in connection with chasing our child training. And that is first of all, it's done in love because the sixth verse says whom the Lord loveth he chasing us and then we find that it's done for our profit. If you just notice, particularly the 10th verse for verily for a few days for they verily for a few days chastened us.
After their own pleasure, but he for our prophet that we might be partakers of His Holiness. I think it's good to get a hold in our souls of these two things, but when God allows something in our lives, it's done in love and it's done for our prophet. I have children and I often correct them and chasing them, but I couldn't say that I always did it for their profit. Sometimes they're in the way and I don't want them there. They're making too much noise or they're a bother to me and that's not for my pro. That's not for their profit. That's just a selfish motive in chasing my children.
But isn't it wonderful to think that our Father, uh, he chastens us, but it's for our prophets that we might be partakers of His Holiness. And so if God has allowed something in our lives in his schooling or under his chastening hand as far as correction, let's remember this. It's in love and it's for our good and blessing if we're exercised and we learn the lesson that he has for us, because as we said this morning, it's only as we learn the lesson and our exercise by what he allows. If there's indifference, we're not going to receive the blessing.
But to realize, brethren, that not only is everything in our lives for a purpose. I might have a purpose for the family, but again, it may be just a selfish motive to gain some end for myself. But God's ways with us are not just for a for a purpose, but they're for a purpose of blessing. And I believe that while we see that now as we look back over many things and we own the Lord's hand and we receive the blessing, I do think that there are many things we're not going to understand until we get to glory.
But there are some things the Lord passes us through that we're really not going to see the fruition of the purpose until we get home and we look back and we see all His ways with us. And it says of the heavenly city, in that day, it's clear as crystal. Now we see through a glass, darkly or dimly. There are perhaps things in our lives we don't understand. But in that day, everything is going to be clear as crystal, and we're going to look back and we're going to praise Him for His ways with us.
As David said, thy staff and thy rod, they comfort me. But I do believe I agree with Brother **** that we should move on and give an overview of the chapter.
Speaking of uh, Jeremiah 31 about Ephraim, remember, uh, in.
Interesting there as he says in verse. I'll just read the verse. Umm Jeremiah 31. Verse 20 is Ephraim my dear son.
And he a pleasant child, For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him. Still he has to refuse. God has to do this, therefore my bowels are troubled for him.
I will surely have mercy upon him, said the Lord. I think of that, I read this chapter how that God is merciful to his people. He can't let us go in our own way, in our own direction. He has to bring us back. He has to correct us, but he does it because he loves us. I, I think that's beautiful to see that.
He's lifting up the hands just hang down and the feeble knees and make him straight fast because the real objects across is what we find in the 14 first as we go through this team is to follow peace with all man and holiness.
Without with no man shall see the Lord and we can get our eyes in the pathway and we can even get our eyes on the ways of God, but it would really it is real often because that we have our eyes upon him and holiness is really that God is holy because he delights in what is good and what flows from that of course is he of course that was a diva has to correct and chastise and keep it from out to people, but his real object is.
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That, uh, we would delight in that which he delighted.
These verses too, beginning at verse 12, encourage our hearts to go on amidst failure because sometimes, as we've been saying, the Lord has to bring something into our lives to speak to us. But we can go on from here. And I think it's good to realize that we can never come to a point in our Christian lives where we have to say we failed so bad that we can't go on from this point. We can if we're willing to humble ourselves and learn the lessons that God has for us.
There is still, as we've been saying, a path of faith so that we can go on. It's true. We need to humble ourselves. We need a brother get brought before us in the last meeting. We need to own our part in the failure and the ruin. We need to have our faces in the dust. But I believe too, we need to get up and go on because he abides faithful. He hasn't. He hasn't changed. We can't go on in our own strength. We can't go on because of any merit of ourselves or something we have done. But we can go on because the resource is the same.
The grace is the same, the path is the same, the power is the same, and so He encourages us, even if we fail, even if God has to come in and put us under His chastening hand. Go on, learn the lesson and humble yourself. But then go on from this point for the Lord's glory and honor.
That's important point because Satan would whisper in our ear and say, well, you just failed. Look what you've done. It's no use. You might as well give up. That's his work, isn't it? He would cause us to be turned aside. But I think, as Jenna said, to go on from where we are, judge the thing that has caused this deep decline or downfall. Go on from there. There's never a time.
In the Christ, in our Christian pathway. But what we can't go on from that point. We all fail. That's true. We can't justify that either. But Satan would say, well, it's no use what look what you've done. You might as well give it all up. And I believe that the Lord is telling us something here on that where he says, uh, umm.
Lift, lift up the hands which hang down and the people's knees and make straight. As for your feet.
Oh, that's different, isn't it? For your feet, Not worry about somebody else's feet, but your feet. And then notice what he says. Umm, bless that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed.
Someone, maybe there may be someone who is lame and may be infected by our failure. And uh, I believe I see that here in this chapter. I think it's clearly brought out looking a little later there, umm, where at verse 15? I'm not skipping verses, but just looking at verse, looking diligently. Does any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you again, He goes back to you and thereby many be defiled. Ah, that may have a wide effect upon others.
If, if the, if the, uh, I'm the lot look diligently. Let's see if we fail in the grace of God that it may have a very bitter effect or a bad effect upon those around us. And I believe I see that here in this chapter. No man is an island. You're not an island. You have an effect upon somebody. Every one of us in this room, someone is looking at you. I mean, I, I know the Lord is all the time, but someone else.
You're an example of someone somewhere.
And as, as as I've often said, we're, we're not an island, you know, we're, we're, we affect others.
So not only does going on in the path of faith affect our own joy, but it, as you say, we have an influence on others. I've been impressed with that verse that says no man liveth to himself and no man dies to himself. And I think I should go through the stories in the Old Testament of men and women and young people that God used. You see how they affected.
Another a good example is Daniel, because Daniel took a stand at the beginning of that time when he was taken to Babylon, he had the purpose of heart. He took a stand for the truth as he knew it in his day. And what was the result? His three friends were encouraged to take a stand with him. It's true that later on they had to stand on their own because when it came to the test of the fiery furnace, Daniel wasn't there to speak for them and they couldn't rest on Daniel's face.
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But no doubt their faith had been strengthened because they had been in the company of Daniel and his life had been an influence to them. And so our lives right now are having an effect on someone else. And it's a solemn thing to think that our lives are either affecting others for good and blessing. We're either an encouragement to the people of God or we're a hindrance and a discouragement. There's no neutral ground. I say, no man liveth to himself and no man dies to himself. Peter said, I go a fishing. And what was the result? The other said, we also go with thee. That was an, an, an influence for, for what ought not to have taken place. Daniel affected his friends for good. Peter was a, was a hindrance to his, uh, companions in the past of faith.
Well, as it's been said, we need to be exercised by this. This is a day of discouragement. But we need, like David, to encourage ourselves and the Lord and then to encourage those who are with us. Because when he encouraged himself, when he got into the sanctuary himself, then he went down and he was a tremendous encouragement to his brother. And it was a great victory that day because of David's faithfulness.
I'd just like to, uh.
Reemphasize something that our brother Charles remarked earlier. It does not say.
To make straight paths for everybody else's feet.
And the tendency in a time of failure and weakness.
Discouragement is well, let's make some rules that'll get everybody straightened out. It won't.
We want your brethren to walk on in the past, walk in it yourself now. It's your feet. And I want to call attention to a little grammatical thing that perhaps we might be fast losing. But.
Your insurance and our, uh, King James, and also in the JMD translation is plural.
So it's a collective responsibility here, isn't it, to make straight paths for our feet. But the purpose of that is that that which is lame be not turned aside rather than it be healed and.
If we see laminess.
And we live in a day of a lot of lameness.
Uh, I think we see it in our own walk, don't we? And if we don't have to look at others, we see the lane this with which all of us walk today.
Well, do we then make a crooked path? No, we make a straight path for ourselves.
And then the people of God can follow on, but it isn't making rules for one another. That's not the point here. The point is that you and I walk on in the straight path and make that straight path.
And that'll make a good path for the lane one to walk in too. And then it might be healed because that lameness is to God seeks its healing, not the perpetuation of it, but it's healing. So there's a healing ministry. And then immediately it says pursue peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord and normally.
We need to be reminded of holiness first, but here the Spirit of God has been pleased to bring peace 1St and I believe that there's a need for us to pursue peace.
And with law, but not to forget holiness in there, because that's the fundamental.
Requirement for senior lawyers.
Lovely verse in Second Corinthians chapter 3 that I thought of in in this connection.
Verse is the last verse, verse 18 of 2nd Corinthians 3. He has been speaking about the the Lord, the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there's liberty. But notice verse 18. But we all with unveiled face, the holy, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
It should have an effect upon us if as he says here in our chapter follow peace with all men and holiness without reason, no man will be the Lord. This should have an effect upon us not because not to be uh to be saved or to get into favor with, but because we are occupation with Christ will be there was something that would be that would close out from this. There will be an overflow, won't there that will affect others and I believe I see in these verses the.
00:20:33
The, uh, the effect that it will have upon others if our path, if my path, I have to read, refer to myself, what am I doing? What am I, what is my deportation? What am I, am I an example of a believer or am I hindering it? It's very important to see that. And, uh, the only way that I can do it is if I'm occupied with a person of Christ. That's, that's the secret of it reflecting Christ.
So it's very important to speak.
We're never justified in compromising the truth to try and be a help to others, whether it's to give out the gospel or whether it's to try to be an encouragement and help to our brethren.
And so holiness is very necessary. I think it's remarkable that in Second Timothy, in a day of weakness and ruin and a giving up of the truth, he reverses the order. You don't need to turn to it, but I'll just read it. He says follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them to call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Because as I say, I don't believe we're ever justified in compromising the truth to seek to be what we we might use it as an excuse to try to be a help to others.
Someone has said, you never push someone out of a ditch. You pull them out of a ditch. You never get in the ditch with them. You never compromise your own position. You stand on the solid ground and you, you, you pull them up to that solid ground. And I think this is good in the day in which we live, because I believe that compromise is letting the barrier down slowly. Sometimes said, if you have a brick wall and you come along and you take A roll of bricks off the top of the wall, well, it doesn't seem like very much just six or eight inches off the wall and nobody, maybe nobody misses that row of bricks when it's gone.
And so every once in a while you come along and you take another row off. Pretty soon the barrier has been let down. And maybe nobody misses the wall when it's removed because it was taken down slowly. Brethren, compromise is letting the barrier down slowly. And we need to, uh, be exercised because in Second Timothy, he puts righteousness and faith first. It's holiness and the truth of God. And that's the basis for communion. And if we're not holding to the principles, we'll never be a help to someone else. We may think we will be.
But I say we're not justified in compromising to seek to go on in peace. And if we have peace and love at the expense of righteousness and truth, that's compromise.
Just call attention to the fact that the word holiness.
In verse 14.
Is a word which means the practical effect produced in the salt, the practical effect. It isn't so much the quality, but it's the practical effect I think we've, uh, shifted away from.
Uh, paying attention to that word, holiness.
Our holiness denominations and perhaps uh, have scared us from it, but.
God still says be holy, for I am holy.
That is, God's nature is holiness, and if we call Him Father, we are to remember that, that we are partakers of his nature, and we are to manifest that nature in our walk. And so here the pursuit of holiness is practical holiness. Now someone might give us an idea of what holiness means. Maybe we haven't defined that for a while, and it would be good to understand what the word means.
When do you look like you're ready to do it?
Don't patio he appears to begin with and they are adjusted the same. Those who have been set apart and God is completely set apart from sin. God has no fellowship with sin and he wants his children to be completely separated from sin. Positionally, God's Jesus and Christ and so he addressing the apostle, the apostle Paul addresses as many times as to the Saints here and there and so positionally we are staying before God. We are accepted.
00:25:14
Into the other and so practically.
It should be too, uh, well, through our possession of it before the Lord, months have been set apart. Is that right, brother?
According this is the importance of evil, isn't it very simple? Since I'm sure there's more to it than that, but I've always, uh, bought that. It's a very simple term that we could all understand if I can go along with evil and still, umm.
I think I'm in communion with the Lord. I'm, I'm mistaken because holiness is the abhorrence of that. We just don't, if we're going on with anything in our lives that is contrary to the truth of God, then we are not in communion with the Lord and we are not, uh, walking in the path of holiness because God is holy. And I think as, as you brought out, I think it's a practical thing here, isn't it? Because of the speech about follow peace with all.
And holiness, without which you remember she's the Lord Umm.
It, it doesn't mean, uh, because one is going on in evil, you've lost. I don't believe that's the thought, is it? It's just a not in the enjoyment as as we have a little later in verse 15, lest any man fail of the grace of God. I used to bother me a little bit, but really what it is I, I lose confidence in God's love if I'm going on in a way that's displeasing to him.
Think David summed it up when and had a nice desire when he said taking out the spirit of holiness from me. In other words, very simply, he said, I don't want to get used to sin. And I believe it's important if we're going to know what true holiness is in a practical way, to first of all get into the presence of God and to have the word of God before us as the standard. Because I think that in a day of lowering standards, we really little enter into what sin really is and what sin means to a holy God.
The Lord Jesus felt the effects of sin when He walked here in this world, because He had nothing in him that would respond to sin, and so he could groan in His pathway. We put the grave of Lazarus as He saw the effects of sin. He felt it keenly. He felt it as He was made sin for us, the one who knew no sin, that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him. But we have an old fallen nature still present with us, and we get used to sin, especially in a day of lowering standards.
Sometimes when I read the writings of the old brethren, I have to smile because some of the things that they felt were the epitome of worldliness and that which the people of God should shun. We look at very lightly today in a day of lowering standards. So I just say again, we need to get into the sanctuary, into the presence of the Lord with the word of God if we're going to know what true holiness really is. Is that right brother ****? Yes, I would like to thought in the Psalm that says.
Umm, thou has loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. That is, the Lord Jesus was holy, and I believe not only is it the abhorrence of evil, but the loving of good. Now Adam, and this is important for our young folks to understand, He was never holy.
He was innocent, He did not know evil.
He did not know good in evil, but he was innocent. The Lord Jesus in his humanity was holy. That's why it said that holy thing that is born of me. That was never said.
Of anyone in the first data, the first item was innocent until quality.
Then.
When the Lord Jesus comes into the world, he comes.
As conceived under the power of the Holy Spirit. And so it says. Therefore, that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Why? Because he was the one who loved righteousness and hated iniquity.
Or wickedness in his very nature. And that's why when we insist on the impeccability of the Lord's humanity, what do we mean by that? We don't want to be theological, but just say that He could not have sinned. That's a cardinal fundamental doctrine, and it must be insisted on that in His very nature as man.
00:30:19
Here on earth, he loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and he was holy, uh, the holy One who knew no sin.
He was here in that way, and I just think it's important for us to understand that word holiness in that sense. It is in the one's very nature, loving righteousness and hating wickedness.
By the Lord Jesus.
Died of the cross, he read. The faith of the faithful was rent and trade from the top to the bottom. What does that mean? That means that now we have access in the holiest of all. In the Old Testament, only the high priesthood enter into the Holius, and usually when you see a person.
The first thing you see is their face. If there is a mark on my shoulder, you may not see it. If there is a mark on my forehead, you see it right away. And so that's the first thing perhaps God would see of the men who would enter into the holiest of all the plate of gold. And something was engraving on there. Holiness to the Lord. And so let's characterize all these things today too, as we have accessed into the holiest development.
If I understand what you said by the neck, I don't want him right to righteousness and quoting that first.
And then God delighted in me and good, and I believe that that is the first bite of it. And Mr. Darby made a helpful comment. He said that we are too negative and divine things. And often the minute that we speak about holiness, we immediately began to speak of sin, as if holiness will merely the avoidance that which was evil. But really in its foundation it is a delight in that which is good. And God was holy before sin ever came in.
And the reason that he hates sin is that he serves that which is perfectly good.
And so you had to seek a remedy for skin that had come in. And they put it that way. And he hated that which it disturbed, that when thing was brought into the world. And umm, that really is what we need to fix our heart on, to delight in that which is good. Now it does involve the hatred of that which is evil. But that really in principle is what holiness is. It's a delight in that which is good and well.
You want me to say this? I've often said.
That, uh, had a cough so little understand what the baptism of the Spirit is and many Baptists don't understand what baptism is. And those of the holiness movement don't really understand what holiness is because they viewed holiness as simply the positive assurance of evil. And really what it is is delight, delighting good to know what the president position of the believer is, what he's been set apart to that will teach him what he not to avoid.
So we're holding this.
Every believer in Christ is holy in.
And every believer in Christ peaks too, but nonetheless use the practical signs that we follow reasonably to follow holiness because of positioning we've already brought into that.
It's because we're not, we are willing. It's not that we get hold of you. The whole notion of religion is the exercise amount so that he gets holy. But the exercise is in here because they are holy, better and because we do have peace with God. You want us to practically enjoy it in our circumstances.
So we go on to the 15th, 1St.
Brother Charles has commented on the beginning of it.
You have the root of bitterness springing up troubles many being defiled. I believe Brother Jim made a comment on that. As to the fact that bitterness that springs up can be file others many are defiled by it. Let's be careful about that.
It's a very practical thought is when a root of bitterness springs up, it not only troubles the immediate environment, but it many are defiled by it and there are assemblies that have not prospered.
00:35:03
Because of bitterness that has come up and has never been judged. And it and it's, uh, distress. I remember.
Visiting an assembly in which I was informed that there was a sister. Had never spoken to another one other than, uh, just ordinary greeting in more than, I don't know, 17 or 18 years. And I almost wept when I heard that. That's nothing more than bitterness, beloved. Rather than it, he files the assembly.
Defiles the home it's come up in families where a, a feud will come up in a family, uh, two brothers, uh, that fall out and move speak to one another. Those are terrible things and maybe file.
I'm glad you mentioned brother **** the family, because I've been exercised as the people of God have gone through some real sifting and, and some real trials and tests to notice how that sometimes the root of bitterness can even be passed on to the next generation. And I think this is a word to those of us who have families that we don't, uh, at the dinner table and in the home, uh, roast our brethren. I'm speaking very plainly because that is passed on to the next generation.
Our children have ears and even at a young age they are listening to what mother and father are discussing. And if they, if we're only discussing the faults of the brethren and that bitterness and those things that we might feel against our brother, that's going to be passed on to the next generation. And brethren. I think we've seen that happen in the situations that we've been through in the last while where a root of bitterness was passed on from one generation to another, and then when the conditions were right, that root of bitterness came out.
And many were defiled.
I don't think I can properly express the rebuke I felt back.
Back, uh, the the trouble that we had about Shrewsbury.
When my children said to me one day at the table, can we have any meal without talking about that? What a review.
I had to hang my head.
And I, I think of it, there's no way you can gather those things up, but we can learn from them. We can learn from them. And we have to, as our brother Jim was saying, what we talked about at our tables, uh, effects our children very, very much. And I have no doubt that one of the reasons that a lot of young people are not going on is a lack of guardedness, what we said about our older brethren or our brethren in general.
Uh, at our tables. Interesting verse in uh, Deuteronomy chapter 29 and the children of Israel.
Of course it has to do with what they saw in Egypt, but, uh, I just noticed the language here, as you were saying, brother ****. Uh, uh, it has a wider package upon others. If you look at, uh, Deuteronomy 29 and, uh.
Verse 15.
There's a lot we could read, but anyway, but with Him there's standard here, that standard here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with Him that is not here with us this day. Notice the brackets then. For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the nations which He passed by, and He has seen their abominations and their idols, wood and stone.
Silver and gold which were among them. Of course, they were looking at the open idolatry that they saw.
But most in verse 18, lest there be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turneth away the state from the Lord our God, to go and search the gods of those nations, lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and warmly. What a warning to the people of God. And we know what is the open idolatry, but we we have to be very careful.
How we, what an effect these things have upon family, friends, and also on. It's a very interesting verse. Umm, as he says, looking diligently, must any, uh, any man fail the grace of God lest any root of bitterness training up trouble you and thereby many are defiled. Well, uh, the Lord warned them there in the book of Deuteronomy that many would be defiled, and they were.
00:40:12
Adverse. That's very solid. The judges, chapter 18 and verse 30. I'm going to appeal to Mr. Darby's translation.
I think the Jews were so, uh, embarrassed about this that, that that judges 18 and verse 30.
And the children of Dan set up the graven image, and Johannathan the son of Gershom, the son of and Mr. Darby's translation says Moses.
Moses.
Well, the rabbis, I believe, tried to eliminate that and they put Manasseh because that's just too much to think of. The grandson of Moses introduced idolatry in in an organized way into Israel.
Just two generations down from Moses, we have a man introducing idolatry. It just bears out what God had warned them about in Deuteronomy.
29 doesn't it?
Reread his page. In fact, before that's the worst thing taking them out. Ephesians 4, the last two verses.
Metallica and Branch and Younger.
Glamorous 0 Speaking and put away from you and all mouth.
And he is fine and cancel another tender Harden for giving one another even as strong as they have triggers.
Who started his arrow? Like when they're put away and extended the positive side in the last verse.
Well, we have two kinds of people introduced in verse 16. I think it's gone beyond here, just the root of bitterness now.
But there's actually a fornicator, and let's not limit that word. I think it includes it, but let's not limit it to its primary meaning. I believe it has a spiritual sense too. That is, there is such a thing as spiritual fornication or unfaithfulness or perversion of what is right.
And then a profane person, maybe somebody can help us with that expression profane.
Umm, let me think of profanity as, uh, uh, some words that characterized by irreverence or God or holy things. That's a beautiful definition of it. I was going to read that again. Buddy characterized one who is characterized by irreverring or God or only thing for us could be a nice person, but that person has no faith in God. This year fell at East law and heard 16. They've been a very nice person, but I mean.
Yes, and none of his ways did he manifest any faith in gossip.
He despised the birthright.
Uh, what was his?
By birth he despised and sold it for a meal.
That you may see him. What was so terrible about that?
Well, it it's exactly what for the Reuben. Read to us there. Read it again. Ruben might help us. One who is characterized by irreverence, or God, or only things.
The birthright was a holy thing, wasn't it? And, uh, he despised it. He said, hey, a meal is just as good, you know, And, uh, I want to call attention to something that's not too clear in our, in our, uh, common version of the Bible.
Uh.
The, uh, thing that Esau sought diligently or earnestly was not was repentance. It wasn't repentance. He found no place for repentance.
What he desired earnestly was the blessing.
He did want the blessing that came with the birth rate, but he despised the birthright. So why then does he get the blessing? He can't get that letter because he despises. And besides, he found no place for repentance. That is, he did not turn around in his thinking and say I was wrong. I should not have desired, not have sold my birthright for a meal.
00:45:24
And what he thought. So let me read that from J&D's translation. I think it'll help.
For you know verse 17, for you know that afterwards desiring to inherit the blessing.
He was rejected now as a parenthetical expression that I'll leave out, although he sought it earnestly with tears.
Now I'll go back and put in the parenthesis.
Where he found no place for repentance.
What did he seek earnestly? The blessing. And that you'll find that often a profane person. He wants the blessing, but he's already despised the birthright. And when you despise the birthright, when you have no love for that which is of God.
And you despise that that which is sacred. Sacred is the opposite of profane, isn't it? That which is pertains to God?
And he if we despise the the birthright, then there's no place for plastic repentance. Yes, he could have repentance and he if he had really repented, but he found no place for it. It was not in his agenda. We might say it plainly and clearly. If there's anyone here who is rejecting the offer of salvation, you're despising a birthright that could be yours.
You're despising not just turning away from it, but you're despising it and the only way of receiving that blessing is through repentance, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. I know this verse has stumbled me for a long time until I got clearly that the the thought of the birthright and we use it today in the terms of do I really have I repented to God and accepted the Lord Jesus as my savior. If I am, I am a child of God. I have an eternal birthright.
And if I don't, then I'm despising it, not just turning away from it, but despising it because God could do, he could do no more. And he has done no less than giving his own beloved son for the, for our sakes, for our salvation. And I, I think it's important to see that to, to, if there's anyone here, young people that don't understand this, I believe it's well to remember that the thought of birthright is that he saw, he despised that it didn't mean a thing to him.
Does salvation mean anything to you?
That's that's the key that we did first. Go ahead. I was just going to say, we see a nice contrast with the prodigal son, because initially with the prodigal son, he desired the blessing without the presence of the father. And so he thought that he would have the portion of his inheritance. He took it away from the father's house, away from the place of enjoyment. And he found that there was a price to pay because he squandered it with riotous living. But it's beautiful to see there that unlike Esau, that man came to himself.
And their once true repentance, He owned that I have sinned and not only saw, but he said, I will arise and go to my father. And so he came and confessed that sin, and there was a real work of repentance. And I really believe that when the gospel goes forth today, we sometimes, and I say this to my own heart, we sometimes leave out the need for repentance because there has to be a work in the soul. It's not enough to receive the word in an outward way. I used to wonder when the seed was sown by that man who went out to sow the seed.
And the seed fell on Stony ground. When the disciples asked the Lord what it meant, he said it was those that Anon received the word with joy. And I used to think, well, wasn't it good that they received the word with joy? Well, I believe the thought is there that there was no root, there was no repentance. Because when there's true repentance, repentance is godly sorrow. There's no joy initially. When there's repentance, the joy comes after we realize that we're not just sinners, but then God has provided a remedy and in his mercy and grace reaches out to us in our need. But true repentance brings godly sorrow. And there must be that work, that root, that work in a soul. And so I think it's nice to see in contrast with Esau because.
These ones in scripture, they had opportunity to repent. Even Cain, when he sinned, he had opportunity to repent and to offer a sacrifice that was acceptable to God, but he refused to do it. And God never judges without giving a warning and without making a way of escape, so that there is room for godly repentance in the soul.
00:50:17
Just so we're sure that, umm, we didn't, and that you don't have to, Let me put it this way. Someone might say, well, what if I don't have Mr. Darby's translation? How would I know?
That it was what Esau was seeking. Turn to Genesis 30, uh, 27.
Genesis 27, verse 34. Remember, God's word explains itself internally and uh, we don't need to guess about things. Uh, Genesis 27 and verse 34.
And when he saw heard the words of his father, he cried with a grain, and exceeding bitter cry instead unto his father.
Five sin, Is that what he said? No, he said.
Bless me, even me also, O my Father, what was he seeking? Blessed without repayment?
And, uh, you know, and religious ritualism.
I think some would come out of that will testify that one of the most common things you say is bless me, Father. Right, Sir. And uh, that is not how we come to God. We don't say bless me, Father. We, we, uh, come and repentance. Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and they're no more worthy to be told by some. He didn't even get out of his mouth. Make me as one of my hired servants.
The father wasn't seeking hired servants, but he brought that up because, uh, you know, they've been those that have argued about this. But, uh, however, in the market, two or three witnesses is every word established. God doesn't give us just a verse in, in an isolated way. If you look carefully at the word of God prayerfully, you'll find your answer. It's all here in the word of God, isn't it? If I see, if I see some portion that I don't understand.
Ask the Lord to make a good studio and continue seeking His grace and mercy in reading the Word of God.
Brother, if there's any other example of this with stalling First Samuel 15.
Verse 24 And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and I word, because I fear the people and obey their voice.
Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord.
And Samuel said on the saw, I will not return with thee, for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. And Samuel turned about to go away. He laid hold upon the skirt of his cattle, and it ran.
And Samuel, sit on me then the Lord had sent the Kingdom of Israel from you this day and have given it to us to a neighbor of mine. That is better than thou. Well, this sounds like a pretty good confession on so hard on stand. And uh, he does kind of blame the people, but transgress the commandment of the Lord. And then he wanted to worship the Lord. But the real sign in Saul was not really repentant was that he wanted to escape the government of God in connection with his sins.
I understand now, honored you before the people.
And that is, uh, really what you see. The contrast with David is the last chapter of Second Samuel.
And, uh, he has 10.
And Second Samuel 24 and 10.
And David's car smoked him. After that he had numbered the people. And David said, under the Lord, I have seen greatly in that I have gone. And now I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done very foolishly.
For one day, but it was up in the morning, The word of the Lord seemed it unto him by the prophet God David, see or say, Go and say unto David. Thus saith the Lord, Ioffer these three things, choose thee one of them, that I may do it under these. And so he gives David this choice. And what does David do? Does he please to escape the government of God? No, he leaves the choice to God. He has more confidence in the kindness of God.
00:55:23
In his own thought toward God. And that is really a sign that as tall as we can before God is to submit to the government of God in connection with him.
Someone might ask what is your kindness?
In simple terms, that repentance is not only owning what I have done in the presence of God, but what I am.
I am umm, we need to we need to get into the presence of God about that, don't we don't wanna get in my subject for repentance, but I just thought of how not only what I have done, I have to confess that, but what I am.
The Lord said concerning the Pharisees that they received not the counsel of God against themselves, and I believe that's really what's involved in repentance is receiving the counsel of God against me.
The word fundamentally, of course, means to rethink comes from the French root, which is what I Paul say, but which means to think again.
And to again think of the matter, but to think of it now in a new way as God sees it. And so it's involved in accepting the counsel of God against me. And that's why they refuse to be baptized with John's baptism, because that was under repentance, wasn't it? That was to to accept the counsel of God against themselves.
I'd like to say to all the boys and girls here in this room.
All of you have a birthright. I take for granted that all your boys and girls have heard the gospel from your parents at home, and as such you're entitled to a double portion. Enjoy the Lord Jesus now and enjoy in the future. If you do not accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you're despising your birthright. There are many boys and girls walking down the street. Just go to the corner. Do they have a birthright? Many of them are not born in Christian homes, but you are.
You're privileged, don't despise it. And what about the parents? We heard something about roasting our brethren.
And your customers really, if you like, and he went to glory. He was the company back, Elijah. Well, the classmates have talked about this, Elisha. They must have roasted that man at the dinner table because some young people later on came along and said you go out your ball head. One of those very irrespective disrespectful of these children to say that, but the parents for the brunt of it because Toshiba came along and for 32 of them.
How many children know that Elijah had gone to glory in some fashion? They have heard it at the dinner table, but they also had at the same time heard disrespectful remarks, perhaps, perhaps about election. And so the parents lost. There were 32 Children were torn. And how many young people have been lost? It was because of things they have heard at the dinner table. Let's bring our let's, let's bring the Lord Jesus before our children that each and everyone may be saved.
Each round have a double portion. They enjoy the Lord Jesus now and in glory. We can take that a step further too, Brother Wim, because many of us here who have been brought up in Christian homes know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. But I think sometimes we don't value being brought up in the assembly and being brought to the assembly meetings where the truth is presented from the Word of God. And I think this is something that we need to value. So we get a little older, we perhaps look back and we appreciate it more. But I'll never forget reading a statement some years ago that.
Impressed me in this connection. The author said that often the 1St generation buys the truth at great cost, the second generation enjoys it, and the third generation often, not always but often squanders it. And I wondered if that wasn't something of the exercise. When Paul wrote to Timothy, he had a godly grandmother, a God fearing mother. Now Timothy was, so to speak, the third generation. And Paul says you value what you've been shown by your mother and by your grandmother.
And you go on too, in the troops that I've presented to you. So it's an exercise for those of us who are children here and young people. It's a wonderful thing to be not only brought up in a Christian home and be saved, but to be brought to the assembly. May we learn to value it and buy the truth for ourselves.
01:00:15
Say #256.
I Love the Lord
Gospel—Randy Hale
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We begin our gospel meeting this evening by singing together #7.
I'd like to turn to a portion in God's Word. Some of you may have heard me speak on before, but it's in particular very precious to me this passage since Psalm 116.
116 Psalm.
I'll just read it through first of all.
It says, I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice.
And my supplications, because He hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord.
And righteous, yeah, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple. I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul. For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, and mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
I believed, therefore have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted.
I said in my haste, All men are liars. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints. O Lord, truly I am thy servant. I am Thy servant and the son of thine handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds.
I will offer to thee the sacrifice of Thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the court of the Lord's house, in the midst of the old Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord.
But you know, first of all, I'd like to mention that in the Psalms we have many different things, and primarily I believe we have a little history of God's earthly people, Israel.
We have all that they pass through and right on into the future of what Israel will pass through. And we also have in the Psalms the sufferings of Christ. We have in the Psalms what the Son of God passed through for his people, for you and I.
But thirdly, there is also in the Psalms that which the soul passes through, that which we each pass through, that is the deep longings that we all have down deep in our hearts. We also find that in the songs. And it is in particular that that is the portion or that is the part which I'd like to deal with tonight. And the one thing I want to impress upon you tonight, if I can, by the by, with the Lord's health.
00:05:12
Is the love of God to you, dear friends, in all this Psalm begins, and in the Psalms we often have.
In the first part we have the end result, the blessing, and then after that, in the succeeding verses we have what the soul passes through to get to that point. And so it is with this song. We have in the 1St 2 verses the blessing that the soul has come into, and then in the succeeding verses we have what it is passed through to get to that point. And dear friend, there is a point that God wants you to come to.
You may be here tonight because someone has brought you here or because.
You're here because it's your normal custom to be at the meetings, but you're here tonight because God wants to tell you something. God has a message for you, and He wants you to know that He loves you.
Well in the first verse it says I love the Lord.
And you know, by the grace of God, I can stand here tonight and I can say that I love the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to ask you, friend, is there anyone here tonight who can't say that, who cannot say that I love the Lord Jesus Christ?
Well, I want to tell you something. It's a wonderful thing to be able to say that. But you know, it also tells us in the New Testament that we love because.
He first loved us, and dear friend, the Lord Jesus loved me long before I ever felt any love for him. He loved me with an everlasting love. It tells us in Romans that God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Yes, the Lord Jesus loved me long before I had any affection for him.
How much, how much does God love you? How much does God love you? Well, many of us here know that well known gospel verse, that beautiful verse in John 316. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
But you know, Satan is at work. Satan is real and he is at work. And the one thing he wants to do this evening is to whisper in your ear to tell you, to convince you that God doesn't love you. And whether you're here tonight as someone who is still in your sins, as someone who is still not accepted the Lord Jesus, or whether you're here as someone who does know the Savior, who has accepted him as your Savior, Satan is still doing the same thing.
He's trying to tell you that God really doesn't care about you. He really doesn't love you. But you know, it also tells us in John, in the Gospel of John, that Satan was a liar from the beginning. He's the father of lies. There's no truth in him.
And so do I, dear friend. When he whispers in your ear that God doesn't love you, he's lying. He's lying, plain and simple. And he began way back in the very beginning. If we were to go back in the book of Genesis, we would see that he whispered in easier. He tried to convince Adam and Eve that God was holding back something from them that would really be for their good. He was trying to tell them that God really didn't love them. And you know, he succeeded. He succeeded. They believed his lie rather than God's truth. And that verse says God.
So loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
And why is it that he gave his only son? Because God is love. It's his very nature. You know, some of you may have heard this little story before, but one time around about the turn of the century, there was a man named Rudyard Kipling. And you may remember, perhaps you learned in school one of his poems in particular, that one. You'll be a man, my son. Well, you know that man, Rudyard Kipling, he had some very definite.
Ideas about what manhood was all about. He had some very high ideals about what it was to be a man. They were very admirable ideals too, and he followed through with them his life, I believe. But you know that man rubbed your Kipling. He longed for a son. He longed for a boy. He had two daughters, but he longed for a son. And you know, he finally received that son that he had waited for so long and called his name John.
00:10:09
He had a son, and he only ever had one son, and his name was John. And that's the one who he wrote that poem for. You'll be a man, my son. And in it he expressed his high ideals of manhood. Well, you know, there came a time in that young man's life. He was only 17 years old. And at that time there was a terrible war raging in Europe, a terrible war in which many young men lost their lives.
It was just at the beginning of this century and there he was, a 17 year old boy and he wanted to go off into this war. Well, this man, Rudyard Kipling, he was faced with a decision because of 17. That boy couldn't go without his father's consent. And so here he was faced with a decision. Shall I sign and let my son go and perhaps die or shall I not and spare him? But you know, because of what he believed was manhood, because of the high ideals that he held for country and so on and for God.
He signed a paper and he let his only son go because of what he believed.
Well, it was just a few weeks later that they received word that young John was missing in action, and it was until two years, two years later that Roger Kipling found out that his only son had died, had given his life for what he believed.
Dear friend, it's only a pale picture of what God has done. That man gave his son for what he believed, but God gave his only son.
For what he is, God is love.
And he gave his only begotten Son for you and for me.
So I can stand here and say I love the Lord, but it's because he first loved me and he gave his only Son to die for me with Calvary. What about you? Are you going to spurn such a love as that? Are you going to spurn the love of God for you, your friend? It's a wonderful thing to know the love of God. Well, it says I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my lo, my supplication. You know, it's a wonderful thing.
Because the Lord Jesus not only gave himself for me, the Lord Jesus not only went to Calvary, dear friend, for you to save you, to have you with him for all eternity in heaven, but it says he hath heard my voice and my supplication. You know, the Lord Jesus is someone that I can go to at any time, at any time of the day, and I can talk to you. And he listens to my voice, He listens to me. He cares about everything that happens to me, and he cares about everything that happens to you too.
Wouldn't you like to have a Savior like that, One who no matter what the problem is, and it doesn't matter what longings you have in your heart, and we all have the most deep longings that we can't talk about to anyone else. But if we were to go back just a few pages in 107 Psalm, it says, He satisfies the longing soul, and he really can, and he does so. He has heard my voice and my supplications. And then it says, Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him.
As long as I live, you know, I look around here tonight and I see some brothers and some sisters who've walked with the Lord for many years. They've walked with the Lord for many years and they've enjoyed His company. And I know every one of them. If they would say so right now, they would say it was worth it. They would say it was worth every minute to know the Lord is my Savior and to walk with Him because He's listening to me and He's cared for me.
As long as I've lived, as long as I've lived. I'd like to turn to a verse in Isaiah chapter 46.
I've enjoyed this verse so many times.
Isaiah 46 and verse 4.
And the Lord says, And even to your old age, I am He, and even to her hairs.
Will I carry you? I have made and I will bear even I will carry and will deliver you that a wonderful verse. It doesn't matter how long you've lived. The Lord says, I not only want to save you, but I want to come in and walk with you and take care of you every step of the way, every minute of your life. And he says, when the road gets too hard, when you feel like you just can't go on, when the trials and the tribulations are just too much and you can't take another step, he says.
00:15:20
OK, wonderful, you carry you even to ***** hairs right to the very end dear friend, and right on into the glory. What a savior we have to talk about tonight, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, now we come to the third verse and we begin to speak here about what the soul passes through to arrive at this point, to come to the point where you know the Lord, as you're saying.
And sometimes it's not an easy thing. Sometimes we pass through a great deal.
Sometimes the Lord has to speak to us many times, and through difficult circumstances, and so it says here, the sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me, and I found trouble.
So the Soros of death company.
I wonder, dear friend, the Bible says that the wages of sin is death.
The wages of sin is death and by man sin came into this world. You can't blame that on God. It was by man that then came into this world and if you're honest with yourself, you will agree with God, God's judgment of you all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have sinned. There is none righteous, no, not one, and you know it's true.
All have been, and so the sorrows of death come to me.
Have you ever realized, dear friend? Have you ever perhaps come to that point where you've maybe stared death in the face?
Have you ever realized that someday you're going to leave this world, but you know there's something far more serious than even death?
The wages of sin is death, and it also says in the word of God it is appointed unto man once to die, but then it says after this.
The judgment.
And dear friend, if you should die in your sins, if you should die tonight without Christ, after this the judgment.
The Bible says of God he knoweth the secret of the heart.
And again in Romans it says God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.
That's your friend. You'll have to stand before God, the very one who's loved your spurning tonight. You know, on our meeting room at home, we have those two things, those two verses. God is love and we also have God is light.
That's his very nature, love and life.
And so he has to judge sin.
And dear friend, if you don't accept the Lord as your Savior, you'll stand before God in all your sins one day, and He knoweth the secret of your heart and mine too.
While the sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me.
And that's a very solemn thing, because you know, hell is real. Hell is not just something made-up. There's no one that spoke more of hell than the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
He spoke of a man, a rich man. It says he lifted up his eyes. In hell, being in torment. Have you ever thought about that word torment? Have you ever felt yourself tormented? Maybe. Perhaps you face something daily and you feel you're just tormented. You feel you just can't get away from it. But you know it has an end. Someday it'll be gone, but this torment will never be gone.
I was once asked to visit a man in the hospital and he was dying and he was in a great deal of pain. And I can remember that man calling out, calling out in pain. But it tells us that in hell there's going to be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and all that man's suffering and pain. I never saw him gnash his teeth, but in hell there's going to be weeping and wailing and national peace.
It's real, friend. You need a failure. You need the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
00:20:01
Well, as I found trouble in store, maybe trouble has come into your life. Maybe the Lord has allowed difficulties, trouble, and sorrow. You know, we live in a scene in a world full of sorrow because it's full of sin. It's a very sorrowful place. And you know it is. And it's getting worse all the time. It's full of sorrow. And maybe the Lord has allowed you to get into sorrow. Maybe He's allowed something to come into your life.
What are you doing about it? We heard a little bit about that this afternoon. Are you listening? You know, if you don't know, the Lord Jesus is your Savior. He's allowed that sorrow in your life because he's trying to speak to you. He's trying to talk to you.
Why? What's he trying to say to you? Turn over to Joel for a minute. Just go back one book, Joel Chapter 34 I believe it is.
Job Chapter 33.
Show chapter 33.
And verse 19.
Speaking of man, the Lord says He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and in the multitude of his bones with strong pain, so that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen in his bones that were not seen stick out. Yeah, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyer, and so on. And then verse 29.
Lo, all these things worketh God, oftentimes with man to bring back his soul from the pit.
Dear friend, God has no delight in the death of the wicked. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and He doesn't want to offend you to hell. He loves you and He wants you to be saved. And so He allows these things in your life to speak to you, to bring back your soul from the pit. Are you listening? Are you listening tonight to what God is saying to you? I pray that you are, because you may not have much time left.
The Lord is coming.
Well.
It says in verse four, Then I call upon a name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.
Very call upon the name of the Lord, and you know, it's just that simple.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's just that simple. It's a call of faith.
Have you ever called on the name of the Lord? Have you ever called out, Lord, save me? Have you ever realized you're going down? You need a savior? You remember that thief on the cross? He didn't have opportunity to do anything. He didn't have opportunity to do any good work or to be baptized. So that's right and proper.
All he had time to do was to say, Lord, Remember Me. But you know, I believe it was in earnest. It was, Lord, Remember Me, and how cometh into thy Kingdom. And what did the Lord say? You say? No, you're too bad. No, you've done too many wicked things. You've never done anything good.
On the response of the media today shall thou be with me in paradise? And that's just how fast, friend, you can turn from darkness to light. That's just how quickly you can accept the Lord as your Savior. Lord.
Remember Me? That man was in earnest. He knew that he didn't have long. He might not have long either. See a lot of young people here tonight. You may not have long. You think you do. I remember being young, younger, and I remember thinking I had a great deal of time. The older guy gets, the more I realized how quickly time passes. Time is gliding swiftly by and death and judgment both draw nigh. And it continues that little hymn that says to the arms of Jesus fly.
Be in time.
And we hear about it all the time. I don't have to go into details. Young people passing into eternity.
You don't have time. You don't have any time. Now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. I called upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. And what's the result? Verse 5. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous ye are God with mercy.
The mercy of the Lord endureth forever.
00:25:01
And the Lord Jesus said him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. And it doesn't matter, friend who you are, it doesn't matter what you've done. The Lord Jesus loves you, and he'll take you just as you are.
Just as you are come, the mercy of the Lord endureth forever. Gracious is the Lord.
You know.
Says By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of work, lest any man should boast.
Not have worked. An awful lot of people think that they're gonna be all right because they do type things, but it's not a work, Dear friend, it's by grace, the grace of God, that I stand here tonight a saved Sinner. And it's by the grace of God that you too can be a saved Sinner. And on your way to glory, all you have to do is open your heart to the One who loves you and gave himself for you.
Gracious is the Lord and then it says verse six. It says the Lord preservethis simple. I was brought low when he helped me. The Lord preserved us this simple.
There's a lot of people that think because they're very intelligent. I know a man, he lives very close to us and he has a great deal of confidence in his own intelligence. He has a great deal of confidence in his own ability. And you know, he is a very intelligent man, extremely so.
But you know that man is trusting in himself, that man is trusting in his own intelligence, in his own ability to solve all the problems of life. What about you? Are you like him? God says the foolishness, the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
So it says.
You preserve it the simple, and you know you have to come to the Lord as a little child. You have to accept His salvation just as a little child. Won't you come?
Won't you come? He has everything for you. You know, I've repeated this before, but I think it's so lovely. It's the story of a man, and it's a true story. And it happened long ago. And he saw two little girls and they were off in the distance, and they were standing in front of a store window. They were standing in front of a store window. And they were all beautiful things in there, dolls and everything else that would appeal to little girls.
And the one little girl, she was waving her arms and the man was standing off at a distance and he could see that she was really happy. She was really, really thrilled to see all these things. He was smiling and laughing. And then she noticed the other little girl was just standing there and she wasn't moving at all. She just stood there. And he didn't understand why. He could see that both of these little girls didn't have a lot of money and they probably couldn't buy these things. And so he couldn't understand why this little girl wasn't thrilled to see what was in this window. So we came up a little closer. He wanted to find out why.
And as we got a little closer, if you got a little closer, he found that why the little girl was blind.
She couldn't see. She couldn't see what was in the window.
And the other one was trying to tell her, but she couldn't. And dear friend, I can't tell you. I can't tell you honestly in all its fullness, the love that the Lord Jesus has for you. I can't tell you all the things that He has for you. I can't describe them to you. Words can't tell.
To see it, to have it, you have to come. You have to come to the Lord yourself. Accept Him as your Savior and He'll open it all up to you, everything He has, and it's worth it. Won't you come? Well, I was brought low and He helped me. This next one says I was brought low.
Hey friend, have you ever been brought low?
Have you ever been brought low?
Or are you still turning away from the Lord because you're too proud?
Is it a humbling thing to accept the Lord and Savior? Yes, it is, Because you have to own that. There's nothing you can do. You have to own that. There's no good in you. You have to own that it took the precious blood of Christ to cleanse you from all sin.
So it is a humbling thing, but let me ask you, everyone in this room, have you ever been brought low? Have you ever gone through a real exercise of a thin and a serious?
You know, a lot of times we look on sin pretty lightly.
00:30:00
Especially our own skin. Sometimes we wait and we say these fins are really bad and these fins aren't so bad.
You know sin is thin.
And while there might be quite true, there's degrees, but I wanna tell you, everything is serious in the sight of God.
In the sight of God.
Do you wanna know how serious sin is in the sight of God?
I want you to close your eyes and I want you to picture. I want you to see the Son of God with nails through his hands, nails in His feet, and a crown of thorns on His head. I want you to see that fear pierced through His side, and I want you to see the blood flow out.
I want you to close your eyes and picture in those three hours of darkness when the Son of God had to cry out. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
In those three hours of darkness, when the wrath of Almighty God against sin was poured out upon the head of my Savior for my sins.
And if you will have a friend who suffered for your sins too. That's how serious sin is in the sight of God. May we each one be exercised about the seriousness of sin. Took the life of my Savior of the Son of God.
Have you been brought low? I hope so. In other words, a man named Nebuchadnezzar, a king, A mighty king, perhaps. Probably the most mighty king had ever lived on this earth.
And he was humbled. God brought him low, and God trying to bring you low tonight if you're still in your sin. And that man finally said the most high rule in the Kingdom of men. And then he adds, and he setteth up over at the basis of man. And I believe that Nebuchadnezzar at that point was owning that he was the basis of men.
Have you ever humbled yourself before God? Has there ever been true repentance, dear friend? Because you know there needs to be repentance, there needs to be repentance. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, and your sins shall be blotted out.
Have you ever got to that point where you truly humbled yourself before God? You know, maybe there's someone here tonight and they say, well, I'm not all that bad. I'm not really that bad. But you know, back in that portion, back in that previous book that we read in Job, God said of Job that he was a perfect man, one that has to it's evil.
God had a good report about Joel. He said he was a perfect man, but after God worked with Job.
What did he say at the end? What did Job say at the end? He said, Now mine I see a thing. Wherefore I bore myself and repent. Does not, dear friend, have you ever really got into the presence of God and seen yourself as He sees you? And have you ever really hoard yourself in the presence of God?
I was brought low and my desire is tonight that if there's anyone here who has not been brought low.
In the presence of God, that He will bring you low tonight, and that you won't leave this room before you have repentance towards God and before you accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
Well, a wonderful result in verse seven it says, Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord have dealt bountifully with.
Is there anyone here tonight? Perhaps you're safe, but you're not enjoying this rest. We've forgotten that the Lord loves you. You've forgotten that the Lord cares about you. We often do that, don't we?
I know myself how often it is Satan comes along and he says to me, the Lord really doesn't care. He's holding back things from you. You know, again, that's just a lie of the devil. He loves you, He loves me, and he wants the very best for us. Have you found this kind of rest? Return to thy rest. Hold my soul. Have you found the peace of God that passeth all understanding? Maybe you have peace with God, but if you found a peace of God.
Are you really trusting? You're trusting him for your salvation, but are you trusting him for your life?
He wants you to, He wants you not only to have peace of conscience, but to have Peace of Mind and you can have it. The Lord will take care of those problems. It's true we go through problems. We're not fair problems just because we know the Lord is Savior. We have problems just like all others because we're living in this world. There was verses read this morning at the prayer meeting, the whole creation groaning, and then it says we ourselves grown within ourselves.
00:35:27
Waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our minds. And so we're in a groaning creation. Those of us who know the Lord and Savior, I say, brethren, we're in a groaning creation, but the Lord cares. We can go to him with all of our problems and He wants us to. He loves them. He really loves them.
Well, return to direct and then he says verse 8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling. There's three things here. He delivered his soul from death at the very first thing. And the most important thing of all is to get the Lord Jesus as your sins accept him now. And the second thing, my soul from death, mine eyes from here.
There's a lot of tiers we have to set, isn't it? Even those of us who know the Lord is Savior? And I know if there's anyone in this room who doesn't know the Lord his Savior, you have a lot of tears too, because we just said it's a sorrowful world. You know, in the Psalms it also says, put down my tears into thy bottle. Are they not all in thy book? The Lord Jesus knows every single tear you've ever shed. Can you go back and count all your tears? The Lord Jesus knows every single one.
Take care, we've marked them down.
Has marked them down. He knows all your problems.
And he cares, and he wants you to come to him with.
So mine eyes and tears, dear friend, dear brethren, tells us in the Proverbs there is an end, and thine expectation shall not be cut off. There's coming a day when there will be no more tears, neither crying, no more sorrow, no more death.
Are there any more pain for the former? Things are passed away.
But that day will only be for those of us here who have accepted Christ, those of us here who are in Christ. What a wonderful future. Is it worth it? Yes, it is. It's worth every minute.
Well, the third thing is my feet from falling. And, you know, maybe there's someone here who says, well, I'd really like to come. I'd really like to know the love of God, but I'm afraid I just can't walk the Christian path.
What he says and my feet from fall, our Lord will help you. I can't walk it either. I can't walk it either. And there's not a Christian in the world that can say I can walk that path. It's by the grace of God. Even the apostle Paul said, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And the Lord will give you that grace. If you walk in dependence upon him day by day, He'll give you that grace and he'll keep your feet from falling. Look to him for that.
The next thing says I will walk before the Lord.
In the land of the living.
You know, very interesting here it says I will walk before the Lord. Walking seems like a very simple thing, doesn't it?
We're going very quickly on time, but I'd just like to look at a few verses in Isaiah chapter 40.
Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 28. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint.
And be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as Eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not think. You know, I find this last verse very interesting because I think if it were left to me and left to most of us, we would put walking first, then running and then the mounting up is Eagles. But God puts it the other way around. He says the first thing is they shall mount up with wings of Eagles. Is that wonderful? The first thing is when you accept the Lord as your Savior.
You're not just a saved Sinner. Bible says, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Dear friend, you don't just become a saved Sinner.
00:40:07
You're brought into the family of God, you're made a child of God with all the blessings that go along with being a child, with all the blessings that go along with being in that family. And so the first thing is it says they shall mount up with wings as Eagles. You set, you take the Lord as your Savior and he sets you in high place.
Success you in heavenly place, you're associated with the Lord Jesus in heaven. So that's the first thing, the high places. And then it says thou shalt run and not be weary. He'll help you in that pathway. He'll help you through this world. And sometimes we gotta run. Sometimes there's an awful lot of pressure put on it and he'll help you for that run. But then the last thing of all is this thought of walking. You know, we may think that's the easiest thing.
But I remember someone mentioning to me once that walking is sometimes the most difficult of all because a lot of us here, that's just what we have to do. We have to walk every day. We look at perhaps the brother or sister or someone who's out on the Lord's service and we think, oh, it's not wonderful there. They are running in the Lord's service. What an exciting thing. But you know, one of the hardest things of all is just to go about your daily routine is just to go to work every day.
Sometimes it seems very monotonous, but that's the hardest thing of all, to go day by day, walking that path in faithfulness to the Lord. But you know the Lord will help you do it. And you see, I can't live the Christian life. The Lord will give you the great to do it, to walk day by day, giving honor to the Lord wherever He's placed you at work or at school, you can do it for Him. Whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord, so He'll give you the grace to walk.
Well.
It says here in verse 10 I believed, therefore have I spoken.
Dear friend, I stand here tonight. Nobody. I'm just someone who's believed.
I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and that's why I'm here to speak tonight. I just want to tell you about my savings. You love me and he went to Calvary for me. I.
Believe, therefore have I spoken, and I would that if there's anyone here tonight that is not a believer, that tonight you believe, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Therefore have I spoken. And then it goes on and it says I was greatly afflicted. I was greatly afflicted, you know, David said it is good for me that I have been afflicted and maybe you've suffered that too.
Maybe the Lord has allowed affliction. We've already spoken a bit about the Lord allowing sorrow in your life.
And maybe you say, well, how? How could God love me and allow this kind of affliction?
In my life, maybe it's a kind of affliction that nobody knows about. It's not obvious. Maybe it's something you have to suffer every day.
And maybe it's not going to go away either.
Maybe it's like we spoke about this afternoon, that thorn in the flesh.
You know God's allowed it just because He does.
If you're without Christ, be thankful, and I'm thankful that you're reflecting, because it's far better to be afflicted and to have the Lord still speaking to you.
And to harden your heart and to get to that point where the call of the Spirit of God is lost, because if you get to that point, dear friend, you'll be lost for all eternity.
So if you're afflicted, I'm glad because the Lord is speaking to you. The Lord is speaking to you. He loves you too much to let you go.
I was afflicted. I was greatly afflicted. And then he says. I said in my haste, all men are liars.
Have you gotten to that point perhaps you found in this world, and I know we've all found that, that there's no truth in this world. This world right now is Satan's domain. And as we've already said, he's the father of lies. And we often find that. We find that we can't trust people. We can't trust those at work. We can't trust those whom we come in contact with. And sometimes we find that even those we love and who love us, we can't entirely trust them. Sometimes they let us down.
Don't they?
You know, we get to that point. Sometimes we get so discouraged we said everybody is a liar. What's the point?
But God doesn't lie, dear friend.
And I'm not standing here telling you on the authority of my words I speak tonight, I trust on the authority of the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.
00:45:08
Lord Jesus said heaven and earth may pass away, but my word shall not pass away. And the things we speak of tonight are from the word of God. God doesn't lie.
God is love.
Well, in verse 12 it says, What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?
Maybe someone here thinks, well, what can I do, What can I do to get salvation? David here says, what can I render unto the Lord? And you notice the answer. He says, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
Couldn't do anything. He couldn't do anything. All he could do was think.
And that's the kind of God that we're speaking about tonight here, friends. He's a giving God. He doesn't want anything from you. He wants to give you salvation free and full. He wants to give you freely that cup of salvation. But you know, it costs. It doesn't cost you or I anything. But there was another cup in Scripture, a cup that the Lord Jesus had to drink.
The cup of judgment for my sins. For your sins.
And he was willing to go to that cross for me, and he wants to save you too.
And there at that cross of Calvary, that soldier took that spear and pierced his side. It says forthwith came their own blood and water. You know there's a verse in the Old Testament, you know that story of Cain and Abel. And Cain flew his brother Abel. And God said to him, the voice of thy brother's blood cryeth unto me from the ground. You know there's also a verse in the heat in, in Hebrews, in the New Testament, God says the blood of Christ, which.
Speak us better things than that of evil.
That wonderful.
Tonight I have the precious blood of Christ speaking on my behalf.
Do you, do you have the precious blood of Christ speaking on your behalf? In first John it says the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sins. But I'll tell you friend, if you don't have the blood of Christ speaking for you, it'll cry against you in that day when God shall judge the secrets of men because this world.
Is stained with the blood of Christ. This world ought to answer for the murder of the Son of God, and if you don't have the blood of Christ speaking for you in that day, it will cry against you.
Won't you come and accept him tonight? Well.
He goes on and will take the cup of salvation. And then he says in verse 14, I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Now this verse is repeated in in the 18th verse. So I'll pass it by for now until we come on. But in the 15th verse it says, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints.
And you know.
Adverse brings a couple of thoughts to my mind personally.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints.
There was a brother here last year. Sad about there.
And he sat there the year before, too, when we were at this conference. Brother who many here knew and loved very much. Brother who was a real encouragement to us and a cheer to many of us.
It's not here anymore. It's not here today. He went home, the Lord took him home. He's in the glory and right now he's enjoying the presence of the Lord this very minute.
But what about you? What about you?
If the Lord should end your life tonight, and I want to tell you your life is in His hands, God, in whose hand is the soul of every living thing in the breath of all mankind, He holds your life in His hand. What if He should take it tonight?
Would you be at home in the glory like that?
Could you say that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints? Now remember what a few years ago, a brother or two I loved very much, and I remember the Lord took him home. He was still fairly young. And that night I went to bed and I was pretty down buddy, and I wasn't going to read. I wasn't going to open my Bible, but I thought I turned out the light. I turned it back on. I said I have to read. So I opened my Bible and I turned it to Isaiah 57. That just happened to be where I was reading that night.
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And the first verse says, the righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart.
Our brother was taken home to glory. A brother that sat here last year was taken home to glory. But there's a warning in it. Have you laid it to heart?
Both those brothers weren't that old.
Have you laid it to heart? What if your life should terminate tonight?
Would you be at home in the glory? I hope so.
And he, the Lord, his Savior.
Well, the other thought I had on that little verse, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints, and all we're told in Colossians it says mortify, therefore your members upon earth.
And sometimes it's not easy because just because we belong to Christ, there's an awful lot of temptation still.
But you know what the Lord tells us to mortify our members which are on the earth, and He'll help him. He can help us to put to death the flesh. Again, we say sometimes it's not easy, it's hard to walk that path of faith, but the Lord will help you. You accept Him as your Savior, and you'll find He'll not only save you, but He'll give you the great to walk that path and to put to death those deeds in the flesh.
Well, just in a couple of minutes that are left, I'd like to notice these last verses.
It says verse 16. Oh Lord, truly I am thy servant. I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bond. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of Thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. And here we have that verse again. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the present of all his people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of the old Jerusalem. Praise ye, the Lord tells us. We're not supposed to vow in the new test. But I like to think of this.
These two verses, because it's repeated twice, I will pay my vows unto the Lord. You know what James tells us? He says you show me your faith without works, and I'll show you my faith by my works.
Dear friend, those of us here who know the Lord as Savior, does the world know?
Does the world see that there's a difference in US?
So to speak. Do we pay our vows?
Are we really living for the Lord Jesus? When I grew up, you know, the people around me in my street, whether they were Christians professing or whether they were lost sinners, they generally all lived fairly much alike. They were upstanding people. People lived, they had manners and they had principles that were leftover perhaps from their parents that they lived by. And it always wasn't obvious to see a true Christian. You know, today it is very obvious if there's a true Christian really living for the Lord.
It's very obvious the people know that you're a Christian, and I don't say you have to speak it audibly, but can they see from your life? And our lives are a real testimony. We spoke this afternoon about the heritage we have, and there's an awful lot of people on the streets of this city tonight who don't have what you and I have. They don't know the love of God for them. They can. They could, because it's to whosoever will, but they don't have that.
They don't have it and they don't enjoy the privileges that go along with it. But do they see it in our lives? Do they see that we have something they don't? They ought to, brethren. They ought to see that we're different in the way we live. I will pay my vows unto the Lord. But then it says, I am thy servant and my servant, and the son of nine handmaid. And I know if the Lord, if you've enjoyed the love of Christ for you, then there's love in your heart for the Lord. You can say that the beginning of this Psalm. I love the Lord.
It says in Peter, it says that unto you therefore, which believe he is precious. And I know that those of you here tonight who know the Lord as your Savior, who really love the Lord, you want to do something for.
You wanna serve him? He hasn't asked us to, but I know that you wanna serve him. And so he says here I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid. And what is the first thing that he says here? I will offer to thee the sacrifice of Thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord at the very first service. You know, we often like to do things perhaps gospel work or serving the Saints, and we think that service. Well, it is. And it's wonderful thing to serve the Lord in that way. That's that's royal priesthood.
00:55:12
But you know, before that we're holy priests and the most wonderful service of all we can all do, and that's to give praise to worship God.
What a wonderful service, what a privilege, brethren, to come together around a person of the Lord Jesus Christ and to offer him the praise of our lips, the worship of our hearts. There's nothing higher than that, because all service, I believe, begins with worship. It flows from a full heart. That story of Mary, that story rather of the woman at the well, The Lord said to her, God is the Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit.
And in truth, in spirit and in truth, you need the Spirit of God before you can please. You have to be saved. You have to have the Spirit of God indwelling you before you can truly worship. And then the other part says, in truth, according to His word, what a wonderful privilege we have. What a service to the Lord to worship. What about it? Have you remembered the Lord? Have you remembered the Lord? He's coming soon, and there won't be much more opportunity to do that.
He stood up and praised him in the meeting. Have you given out to him? Read some scriptures.
Have you offered to him a Thanksgiving? The praise of your lips? Well.
We're out of time. I just want to mention this last verse. It says in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of the old Jerusalem, praise ye the Lord, this is where it ends. This is where it ends, in the court of the Lord's heaven.
And dear friend, that's what I'm looking forward to.
The courts of the Lord's house.
Read in Thessalonians that the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.
The dead in Christ shall rise 1St, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the cloud, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Does that comfort your heart to know that you're going to spend eternity with the Lord Jesus?
Comforts my heart in all the sorrow and the trials that I have to pass through. And we all pass through them. That's the one thing above all that comforts my heart. Maybe today it might be tonight the Lord is going to call me home.
Dear friend, if you don't have that hope, if you don't have that hope to be in the Lord's court, you can come right now. He loves you so much and he wants to save you.
He'll save you right now if you'll only come.
I just wanna read because I have in my Bible. Here we spoke a little bit about service.
And it's a 2 little verses of a poem that I don't know where I found them back in February. And it says.
Well, what can I do for my Lord? I am foolish and small and weak, and I know not what to do, and I know not how to speak. Oh, child, there's not you can do. Sit down at his feet and be still. But what can he do with thee? Oh, child, he can do what he will.
And if you've gotten to that point where you can say I love the Lord, if you've enjoyed the love of God, the love of Christ for you, and you can say I love the Lord, you put yourself into his hand and he can do anything he wants with you. What a wonderful thing it is to know the love of God. Like that little song says, it's past his telling and I can't describe it to you. You have to come, come now, find out the love of God for you. We just close in prayer.
Consider Him
Awaken
Friends
Hebrews 12:18-29
Reading
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Hebrews chapter 12. Then they commence with verse 18.
For your not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire no one to blackness and darkness and Tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard and treated, that they should not be spoken to them anymore. They could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as the beast touched the mountain, and shall be stoned or thrust through the darkness, and so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.
But your come on to Mount Sinai 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, and to the spirits 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. For 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? His 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 it once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken.
As of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain, wherefore we are receiving the 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.
There's a lot in these remaining 12 verses.
I uh.
I wonder if it would not be useful for some brother to give an overview of 18 through 21.
Without lingering on those.
Not to diminish their importance, but to give an overview of it. And then?
Spend a little more time on the time that remains on the versus, umm 22 onwards, what we are come to.
What we're not come to is, importantly, from the standpoint of the Hebrews.
Also to us, but it's more important from their standpoint.
Uh, and then give one to what we are come to.
Sometimes we.
Uh, linger a little too long.
For the reason that probably we can tell all the Lord to give us a an orderly and, uh, helpful summary of 18/19/20 and 21.
Please, brethren, I'm not trying to take the place of the Holy Spirit in making that suggestion. It's just a suggestion.
What we find in the book of Hebrews that he makes a contrast between that which we had under the Levitical order, the Jewish order of things in the Old Testament, and that which we have in grace. And I think this is characteristic of the whole book. He takes up first of all the subject of angels. He takes up the subject of Moses and Joshua. He takes up the subject of the ironic priesthood.
Of the old, uh, ordinances, the worldly sanctuary. And the worry goes through every segment of the old order of things. And he, uh, brings it before them as to the fact that it was right and proper in its place and ordained of God for the time. But he sets it aside because we have something better in Christianity and under the dispensation of the grace of God. And so the law could never bring blessing because man couldn't live up to God's standard.
It's remarkable that when the law was given, we have here what took place. So terrible was the site that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. And at the giving of the Law there were about 3000. There were 3000 souls slain. But in contrast, if you go over to the book of the Act, as the dispensation of grace dawns and the gospel goes forth there in the second of Acts, I believe it is you find there were about 3000 saved. What a contrast.
00:05:25
The law could only condemn it was this due and thou shalt live, but man couldn't keep it. He said at the giving of the law at Sinai. All of the Lord our God has spoken, not what we do, but it wasn't very long till he broke the 1St and the greatest commandment that they weren't have any other gods before them and they set up the golden calf as Moses delayed to come down from the mount. And so I think it's important to see this contrast that he makes and I've enjoyed the 13 times in this book that you have the word better.
If I can just illustrate it this way, when when my wife and I were engaged to be married, we were engaged for about 11 months before the marriage took place. And on my desk at home, I had a large photograph of my wife because we lived quite a distance apart at that time. And that photograph assumed a great importance in my life. It wasn't I, I never went in the room without looking at that photograph. But then the day came when we were married. Now I had something better. So I can put it this way, I had the real thing because.
And, and so the because my wife was with me now and we were there together. And so it wasn't that I threw out the photograph. I still value the photograph, but it doesn't assume the same importance to me now that it did when my wife and I before we were married and we were separated by a great distance. And so I believe what he brings before us in Hebrews is that now you have that better thing. And brethren, what is that better thing is Christ the law and, and that which we have in the Old Testament, the sacrifices in the ordinances, they were just tail reflections.
They were just feeble foreshadows of that which was in the heart of God. But now Christ has been revealed and the heart of God can flow forth now, not under the order of the law, but uh, under the dispensation of grace. And I believe that's what he's bringing before us here. That was, no, the last thing couldn't fully flow forward under the law because of man's failure. But now he's brought in something that doesn't depend on your faithfulness and mind. It depends on Christ.
We have that better thing, and that's the Lord Jesus fully manifested, and we rest on the work of Christ, not in those sacrifices. In the Old Testament they could never put away sin. They only atoned for that one sin.
And then they had to bring another, and another. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down on the right hand of God.
I had another thought, if I made it that Jim, in regard to the.
Character of the uh, that which what it came to. It didn't draw their hearts out.
It didn't at all grow their hearts out.
Now I just want to ask, has anything we've heard over the last two days?
Made you say, oh, I'd love to know more about that. I'd love to hear more about that. I think nearly everything we heard had that character, didn't it? But not here. They said, hey, that's enough. We don't want to hear anymore.
Please don't say anymore. Why, Because there's anything wrong with what they heard. No, because it didn't bring grace in, of course. Uh, and it condemned them. There's a whole sense of.
Of darkness over this whole thing, isn't there. Why? Because there was anything wrong with what God communicated. Whose side of it? No, of course not. But man in his sinful heart could never keep that. Before Moses had ever gotten down from the mountain, that had been manifested fully. And so, uh, I think that's another aspect of it. It did not draw out our hearts. It wasn't something we want more of.
It was necessary to bring out where we were and what we were. But you sure don't wanna hear any more about it. I think that's good because we hear a lot today about Christian liberty. And Christian liberty, I believe, is contained in the verse that says if a man loved me, he will keep my commandments. As you say, under the law. They had no choice. It was this, do and thou shalt live. But I've enjoyed a little illustration that helped me to understand the difference between what you have under the law and what you have under grace as far as our response.
00:10:04
The illustration has been heard by many, but we'll suppose that a man hires a housekeeper to do his housekeeping, and as he hires that housekeeper, there's a salary established and a set of rules, perhaps of regulation, perhaps go up on the kitchen wall. Perhaps she's required to do the, uh, washing on Monday, the ironing on Tuesday, the baking on Wednesday, the cleaning on Thursday. And we wouldn't raise an eyebrow at something like that. We think that that was all right and proper and that a proper salary be established for her service.
So what's the pause for the sake of illustration, that the man in time falls in love with his housekeeper and the feeling is mutual and so he marries her. Now you'd be very surprised if that list of rules stayed up on the kitchen wall. You'd be surprised if there was the same salary and regulations that there was before. But you'd also be very surprised if she didn't do the laundry, if she didn't do the baking, if she didn't do the cleaning. In fact, she'll probably do them better now because there's a new motive. And that motive is love. And that's why the Lord Jesus said to the disciples, if a man loved me.
He will keep my commandments. And I believe, brethren, as I say, that true Christian liberty springs from a response of heart to Jehovah, to Jesus, to the Lord Jesus. If we love the Lord Jesus, if he has touched our heart, then there's going to be a response and we're going to keep his word. Not because we feel it's our duty or because we feel this book is a set of rules and regulations, but because we delight in that one. And when we delight in someone, a request has the power of a command over us.
I like to just temper, umm, what Brother **** and I have said too, because with a practical comment, because I fear there's a great movement in Christendom today to set aside the importance of the Old Testament and to say, well, this is a dispensation of grace for in Christianity now, and the Old Testament isn't important. I just want to say to those of us who are younger, particularly, we need to read the Old Testament because in the Old Testament we have the types and shadows.
And the illustrations that help us to understand the doctrines of the New Testament. I think you mentioned, Brother **** the other day that we don't have doctrine in the Old Testament, But what we do have are the illustrations that help us to understand the doctrines of the New Testament. And if you don't read the Old Testament, you're not going to see clearly the truth. Again, let me illustrate it this way. I'm not very good at putting things together, figuring things out, and I try to avoid buying things that stay on the box. Some assembly required.
Because it frustrates me, but sometimes you have to. And so I bring something home that requires assembly. And there I have the instructions. And perhaps there's 12 or 14 points that I have to go over to put this thing together properly. And I'm frustrated. I can't picture it in my mind. And usually my wife will come along and turn the page and say, here's the, here's the diagram. Maybe that'll help you. And that diagram helps me to visualize clearly the written instructions and to understand them. Now, brethren, God has given us both.
He's given us the written instruction, the doctrines of Christianity in the New Testament, but we need to go back and we need those illustrations that we have in the Old Testament. And so as we speak of the Levitical order and the, uh, the law and so on, we don't want to in any way set aside the fact that we need to go back there and see those types and shadows because it all speaks of Christ. It says of the Lord Jesus when he spoke to those on the way to Emmaus beginning at Moses and the prophet.
He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Why did Mozilla feel in verse 21? Was it the majesty of God, or was it the ground upon which people had placed themselves before God?
Sometimes you question why in the Old Testament.
Moses here prior test it says you probably paid you for sick, uh, ages. He was already a believer. He had faith in the Lord, but many of the Old Testament the same communities through God.
Uh, my best as low as me, you know, and my father's handsome said to me, what are we going to die? Because we've seen the safety call and the car in the time they have 83,000,000 if you're dead. Mm-hmm. Well, why does fear so prevalent throughout the old world?
00:15:06
Do we have the same here today?
Well, I'll just add one thing to that or in the way of a partial answer to that perfect love casts us out fear. We've come to know his perfect love having me and that's some that's an immense privilege. That's an immense privilege. But looking at the text itself, it really is precise, isn't it, that so fearful was the site that Moses said.
Uh.
I exceedingly, uh, I am exceedingly afraid. I'm full of trembling. No doubt there's a sense of the majesty of the law and the the giving of the law was glorious. It had a glory, a glory which is a knowledge, by the way.
That is, it's done away.
Uh, but there was a glory connected with it and it was manifested excellence of the.
Of the uh, uh, presence of God and that which he had.
Demanded as a result of the people's statement, of course, but they nevertheless, uh, there was that sense of what they had really come into the presence of. And I believe Moses had a sense of it perhaps more than any other, because he actually went up in the mountain. And I was, I, I have to tell you, if I saw a mountain that was smoking and, and any beast that, that came near it had to be put to death.
I think I might quit.
I might quake, however, if the one who that mountain represented reached out to me in perfect love and gave his son to die on the cross of Calvary. For me, that takes away all fear of being in his presence, but not, uh, doesn't take away the sense of holiness. You should never do that, but the sense of fear.
The people themselves, it says that as he said that.
The, uh, you're not coming onto the mount that might be touched and it burned the fire nor into blackness and darkness and Tempest of terrible sight, a sight as you say it. I, I'm, I'm sure anyone would fear that, but you might wait through. I might. And the sound of a trumpet, the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated that the, that, uh, the word should not be spoken to them anymore. But as you call attention who was up in the mouth with God, it was Moses.
As far as man was concerned, he was the greatest.
At that time, but it says for they, they could not endure that which was commanded. And it's so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with the garden. And so terrible was the sight that it says, umm, that Moses said, I exceedingly very quiet. Here was the greatest, you might say, of of men at that time, but he had to say, I exceeded me fear and weight.
Uh, so it was a, it was a majesty there, a power there that we would never really battle inside. But I, I like too where it says the verse 18 says you're not common to this mouth. But now verse, verse 22 Says what? We are come unto monster. And that's important to see, isn't it? We aren't come to the same mouth. No, we're not. That's a very important thing to see. And I want to say something with all, uh, love.
There's a chain of radio stations around the United States, 24 hours a day. Christian broadcasting. Erica Odd. Is that wonderful? They bring believers to Mount Sinai.
I'm talking about Family Radio. I'm just going to be very plain about it because they're 37 stations around the United States and I hear believers under that influences talking about it and they're brought to Mount Science. We are not coming to that now. We are come to Mount Lion. And beloved, be careful that somebody doesn't turn you to the wrong mountain.
00:20:02
Zion speaks of grace, doesn't it? The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. That's that's where we have been brought. That's where the deeper believers have been brought. I'm sure they would understand that those that were the the Hebrews at that time in this written epistle to them would understand this perhaps clearer than we do, because now it's not as their fathers were. You're not coming to this mountain.
But you've come to great to to the to Zion Marvel. Use Jim's illustration a little bit further.
Umm Jim talked about the housekeeper and list of rules.
We takedown that list of rules.
What would you think if somebody said to the wife, what did you do with the list of rules? You're not paying enough attention to the list of rules.
It would be unthinkable, wouldn't it? And yet, if you listen to some of these covenants theologians, they put you right back under those that list of rules. We're not on that basis with God. And just be careful of it. Some of our own dear brethren have been and stared at it and no longer walk with us because they've been taken up with covenant theology. Be careful about that. We're not under a covenant.
And, uh, we're on the basis of pure graves. Pure graves.
I might just say that connection, not to get away from our chapter, but something that I think is relevant to the day in which we live. And that is that we need to have a have a dispensational outline if we're going to clearly understand the Scriptures and if we're going to rightly divide the word of truth or as Mr. Jarvis says, I believe, draw a straight line concerning the truth. Because if you wipe away the dispensational guidelines, and this is what Brother **** is Speaking of, those who have wiped away those dispensational guidelines.
You take them away. What you're really saying is that all Scripture and its strict application applies to the church. And brethren, we know that's not true. Now, all Scripture does is written for our prophet and our learning, and there is a present application that we can make. We read the Psalms and we enjoy them. We read those types of shadows under the Levitical order and we see Christ in them and we enjoy them. But we need to realize, brethren, that there are Scriptures that apply to Israel under the law.
We need to realize there are scriptures that apply directly to the church in this dispensation. We need to realize that there are scriptures that are yet future in their character. And I think if we, uh, fall into the snare of wiping away dispensationalism, and I would just say that I was saddened in picking up a book as to an outline of covenant theology to find that the author spoke of dispensationalism in two ways. He spoke of it as brethrenism and Darbyism, and he wiped away those guidelines on that.
On that account.
Well, maybe God did use men of a past generation to bring out these guidelines and establish them for us. But Brennan, their importance, I say we'll never rightly divide the word of truth if we don't hold to, to dispensationalism. Do you agree with me, brother ****? Yes. Uh, I, I guess I would use the word instead of ISM, which is, uh, has a sense of schism in it. Uh, I'd rather use the word.
A dispensational view of Scripture because God, What do we mean by that? And we might take just a minute to say that we mean that God has different administration. Now, we'll grant there have been different administrations in the United States when, uh, when Mr. Bush stepped down and Mr. uh, Clinton or Mrs. Clinton stepped up, uh, it, uh, then, uh.
Became a different administration.
Now when God changes his administration, he doesn't change his character.
Often the different administrations are the result of a different character. In the case of the Lord, it's not a different character, but it's the way that God deals at a particular time, what he's bringing out, what he's teaching, what he's, how he's dealing with man. And if you give up that, uh, concept of Scripture, you give up any orderly understanding of Scripture, I'm gonna say something that may sound.
Perhaps a little extreme, but I I say it carefully.
00:25:01
The reformers never understood that.
Perhaps William Farrell came close to it in some aspects, but the Reformers never understood it. What do I mean by the Reformers? Calvin, Luther, Not Swingley? None of them ever escaped that failure to understand that God dealt administratively in a different way in different times. And I think our own chapter lets us know that there are two mountains and and Galatians tells us there are two CO2 Covenants and and tells us that there are two.
Places, guys, and we get to know this by reading all the scripture. Let's not confound it. What are we coming to? Not science. You said that would be rightly dividing the word of truth, wouldn't it? To recognize that when I read a certain portion, perhaps it's speaking to Israel and another portion is speaking to the church and another to, uh, to the Gentile or to an individual. So we find it all there, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Puts this in a clear with a clearview as to the truth of God, doesn't it, Uh, doesn't mean we see everything clearly. We see through a glass dimly. That's true. But at least we have an outline of the God's design for us, as you say. I think that I think that's good, the expression of, of an outline and we need that. We need to be instructed with these outlines.
Just a little word further about.
I trust we're moving on now to 22. Umm, Before we do, I'd like to call attention to the fact that.
It's not entirely clear the separation of the various groups of of things that we have come to Mr. Darby and his translation says that the word and in his translation helps in that he made it a definite way that you can tell where there's a change. And please allow me to read that one verse in that translation or two verses. But you have come to Mount Zion.
Semi colon.
And to the city of the living God, Heavenly Jerusalem, semi colon.
And to myriads of angels, the universal gathering.
Semi colon.
And to the assembly of the first born who are registered in heaven.
Semi colon.
As to God, judge of all semi colon.
And to the spirits of just been made perfect semi colon.
And to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant.
Semi colon and to the blood of sprinkling.
Speaking better than Abel, period. Now why is that important to see? Because each of those things within the semi colon are in opposition. That is, the one refers to the other. In other words, the city of the living God is heavenly Jerusalem.
Lemurians of angels are the universal gathering.
The assembly of the first born are those who are registered in heaven.
I just call attention to that because otherwise we might get a little confused in looking at these various groups.
I love the thought of the of that to the Church of the first born, which are written in heaven, uh, one speaks of it as being inscribed in heaven, uh, engraved there. Will they ever be erased? Never, never, never.
Wireless.
Just in connection with this expression, Zion has already been alluded to.
But I think it's an important expression because it's the undeserved favor of God. And I think it's good to realize that even in the Old Testament under the dispensation of the law, when God acted primarily in his character as a righteous God, that he still was a God of grace. Brother **** said his character doesn't change. He may, in a dispensation or an administration act in some particular character, but that doesn't change his person. When God acts in life, he's still a God of love. When he acts in love, he's still a God of life.
00:30:03
And I think it's important to see that any blessing in any dispensation really was on the grounds of grace apart from grace. If God hadn't come in, brethren in grace, the Sinai, the whole nation would have been blamed. They never would have made it half that now if God hadn't acted in pure sovereign grace.
And it's true all through the Old Testament with the dealings of its people. He came in in his grace because he is a God of grace. And so Zion is the undeserved favor of God. And I think it's important to see that in a coming dispensation, when Israel is finally brought into blessing, Zion is addressed. And those scriptures in the Old Testament that are yet future, it speaks of the Lord coming out of Zion. Why? Because he's going to bless those people.
Not on the basis of the law, not on the old basis of the old covenant, but he's going to bless them on the grounds of pure sovereign grace. I think there's something nice in contrast, uh, in Hebrews here, because when the gospel went forth to the Jews in the early part of the act, because it was to go forth, beginning at Jerusalem, that nation that had rejected him, we find that the culmination of the, of the rejection of Israel was the stoning of Stephen. And when we, when we see Stephen take his final breath.
He looked up and he says, I see heaven open and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God. I think that's important. We mentioned yesterday that in Hebrews he seated because as he writes to the Jewish brethren, those who had received the gospel, he writes of the Lord Jesus seated to bring before them their security and the one that's there on their behalf and so on. But he's standing there in the 7th of Acts because I believe such was his desire for that guilty nation.
That had they received the testimony of the Son by the Holy Spirit in the early days of the act, He was standing ready to come back and to bless that nation. But God had given 2 great testimonies. The first was the testimony of the Son as the Lord Jesus walked in this world. They rejected that when they said away with Him, crucify him. The other was the testimony of the whole of the Son by the Holy Spirit as the gospel went forth from the day of Pentecost to that nation.
And they said in their hearts, we will not have this man to reign over us. And they don't. Stephen, I believe at that point the Lord Jesus sat down because the Lord Lord had nothing else. God had nothing else for that guilty nation at that time. But he will rise up and come and draw Israel back to himself in a coming day. But he's going to do it on the grounds of grace. And so for us in this dispensation, we have been blessed on the grounds of grace.
We've been saved. Uh, we've been, we have glory before us. We have, we're joint heirs with Christ. We're redeemed with the blood of Christ as we had before us this morning. Why brethren, it's all the grace of God. Nothing that we have have done has merited a favor, acceptance before God. But we come in a closer relationship than what's ever enjoyed in the Old Testament because the blood has been shed and he's made peace through the blood of his cross.
Have you ever counted these?
Elements in these two verses, the 21 and 22.
I think you'll find 8 portions there.
And the the end of it to me is very precious as it says.
Uh, and, and to the blood of sprinkling that seeketh better things than that of Abel. That's the key, isn't it? The secret to it all, not the blood of beasts and umm, and all that, but the blood of, of Jesus seeketh better things than that of Abel. So it's, it's precious to see that, isn't it? That the, uh, right into the Hebrew believers that, uh, they might see that all that is, is contained there is the, as the result.
Of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the result of the blood of Christ. That's how the blessing will come. The blood of Abel cried for vengeance, didn't it? The blood of thy brother Abel calleth to thee from the ground. And because of Abel's shed blood, Cain had that mark placed upon him. The earth was cursed, and Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. But in contrast, in the 10th chapter of Hebrews, we find that we have boldness.
By the blood of Jesus to enter into the holiest of all. So indeed it does speak better things than the blood of Abel.
00:35:06
Speaks in her lesions halfway about the various families in heaven and the Scripture bring before us these very groups that will be in heaven. In other words, we have verse 23, the renewable company of angels.
Those unfallen angels, that's more preserved and versa. Verse 23, you have the Church of the first born. That would be the church. You know who's up. And then the end of that verse appears that just man made perfect. Perhaps a reference to the Old Testament things that will be there.
There's a brightness connected with all of this, isn't there? What we've come to, there isn't an aspect of darkness to it at all. What a contrast. If you want your soul to dwell in brightness, feast on where we come, where we come to, as under grace, Mount Zion.
The city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem.
Earthly Jerusalem has been a burdensome stone, isn't it, to, uh, uh, the nations. And even now at this time with the Burgess exposed, uh, the, uh.
Innumerable company of angels or myriads of angels. Universal gatherings.
And uh, the ones who are in the first quarter place, whatever, what a privilege that is. Now let's understand about first born.
There isn't anything.
In the spiritual sense in Scripture has nothing to do with chronology. The Lord is the first part. No matter where He understands, He comes into the creation that He made. He has to be the first part of Creator. It's new creation. He's the first part of the new creation.
If he's.
Come out from the dead. He's the first born from the dead.
So it's a place of privilege, isn't it? And we have to understand that and realize that this is the assembly of them and they're registered in heaven. Never mind if they're not noted down here or not registered down here. They're registered up there, but they're little thought of it. They're even Johnny Grenadi when he came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior.
Some 40 years ago.
He, uh, a little more than that. I guess it's 41 years now that he came to know the Lord.
When he and his wife and their little family professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bishop of Cassano Leorio got up with it, publicly excommunicated them and for bad anyone to sell them food or have anything to do with them. And for five years they went around taking herbs from the side of the road in order to feed the family. But he says, oh brother **** that was a wonderful five years, he said.
I learned the provision of the Lord, and I learned my name had been scratched off the rolls there, but it's registered in heaven instead.
Uh, that's a wonderful position to be brought in.
I wonder if we can turn to the 21St chapter of Revelation for just a moment.
And the second verse.
Revelation 21 verse two and I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And in the ninth verse, the end of the verse, come, hit her, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.
During this conference, there's been things that have been brought, I believe, by the Holy Spirit out in our hymns and in our prayers of addressing the Lord Jesus as the Bridegroom.
We had it in, uh, Frankie and Fred this morning in the first him before the first reading meeting. It was the the the bridegroom would soon appear. And in this chapter, it's as we've been sitting here.
00:40:08
Uh, touchingly, we had in the second verse, uh, that the Lord Jesus for the joy set before him, despised the shame, endured the cross and despised the shame and was given to us. I believe that the joy that was before us, before him was to have us as his bride and.
In the intervening versus in this chapter.
Where we had about our conduct and about the discipline that of God on us, perhaps we might say will be as in the 19th chapter of Revelation, the bride making her garment. It was given to her to be arrayed in fine linen, which is the righteousness of the Saints. And it just on my heart to make a little mention of this, that I believe the Spirit of God would really like us to enter in to the fact that we are the bride of Christ, the Lord Jesus paid so much for us.
That is our portion that we will have all eternity.
To be as individuals will be there as worshippers before them, but together collectively. The Spirit of God is forming this pride for the Lord Jesus that he gave himself for and the Spirit is carrying us as we had in in the story of Rebecca and Isaac this morning, carrying us through the desert. Just like to encourage us to ponder that just for a moment here. As we say, brother Keith of that vast multitude, as John said, a vast multitude that no man could number.
To think that we're going to enjoy the inner circle of relationships with the Lord Jesus for all eternity as his bride and as his wife. We understand that when we go to a wedding, there may be a lot of guests there. They may be very distinguished and prominent guests, but there's an aisle up the middle past all those guests and that bride is under, past all those guests that distinguishes. They may be into the very presence of the bridegroom. And we all rejoice when we go to a wedding. It's a happy occasion.
But who's the shares of special joy on that occasion? It's the bridegroom and his bride. And who's going to share the special joy in eternity? John the Baptist said he was going to rejoice because of the bridegroom's voice, but he owned that he was going to be outside that inner circle. We're going to be ushered past Moses, past Elijah, past John the Baptist, of whom it said there had not risen a greater, and we're going to be ushered into his presence and we're going to be married to the Lord. And brethren, we little enter into what a relationship of joy is going to be.
And not only for us, but whose joy is going to exceed ours, His joy to have us there. He's been waiting for his bride almost 2000 years. I was visiting in a home one time. There was a young man in the home who was anticipating marriage. And every day when he came down to the breakfast table, he announced to us how many days until the wedding. The first day it was 30 days, the second day 29 and 28, and so on. And he came down every morning with a glad smile on his face.
And announced that it was one day near to the wedding. And I thought if an earthly bridegroom could anticipate in that way and look forward to the time when he would have his pride and they would share their joy and love together, how much more the heavenly bride, Grandmother, he's been waiting not just a few months, not just a few years, but he's been waiting for 2000 years as a man of patience. And soon his joy is going to be fulfilled in having a surround himself as he sees of the travail of his soul and is satisfied. I think what you say is very important. We need to realize that, enter in to the fact that we are going to be the bride of Christ and enjoy that inner circle of relationship.
It's a very touching expression at the end of chapter one of the seasons that I wouldn't dare to apply to us if God hadn't done it.
Ephesians one and verse 22.
Speaking of the Lord Jesus, it says He has put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body.
And this is what I can't even, I can hardly read the fullness of heaven that filleth All in all. It's such a, a, a wonderful statement there as to, uh, that relationship into which we've been brought with the Lord Jesus Christ so that we're called the fullness of him that will evolve All in all.
It, it takes us back again to creation in a feeble way. Uh, that is creation in a feeble way takes us on to this thought.
00:45:03
Uh, God looked at me and he said it's not good for him to be alone.
It's just not good for it to be alone now. God it made.
But God, this is the thing I believe we have to understand. It's not that God made something imperfect, but he made him to have a counterpart.
He made him to have a counterpart.
Someone who would exactly compliment and.
What grade the love of this God has brought us into that position with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, the 2nd man?
And we are Philippians are in Colossians 2 where he says they're just looking at it here when you're speaking umm versus 9 and 10 for in him.
Dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead body.
But is that all?
And ye are complete in him.
Is there gonna be any shortage? No, no, you're complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. So we see that and I, I think of this, that one of the writers speaks about the verse that says which are inscribed in heaven.
Inscribed is the.
You remember, uh, some of us remember, uh, brother, we did a lot of stonework, you know, and engraving and, uh, I asked him, I said, now, if you engrave something in stone, can you erase it? Never, he says. Never he category.
Well, our, our names are engraved in heaven, they're inscribed there. But I I've always enjoyed that to think that that's the place that the church has that we have there in Christ.
MMM.
There's an expression that you may run across if you have Mr. Darby's translation and you're reading in it, and you may be startled to find an expression that says the Christ.
The Christ. Now it's not always that, but many times when it says read Christ, it's not the Lord Jesus alone, it's Christ of his own. And uh.
One example is in Corinthians where it says that the body has many members. So also is the crisis, crisis ahead. And we the members and God sees us as one and looks on to that. Now, that's not exactly the thought of the bride, but it's connected with it. You know, if you go back to creation, you see that with Adam and Eve, sometimes the question is raised, what was the, what did God call the first woman he ever made? And usually the answer is these. So that's really not so because Adam called his wife's name Eve.
God called their name Adam in the day that he created them, male and female. He saw them now as a, as 1A complete unit. As you say, Adam was an incomplete unit, we might say, if I can put it that way. But now with his bride, they were a complete unit and he called their name Adam. And let's just read that verse in First Corinthians 12 because I think it's very precious to see this.
First Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 12.
For as the body is one and half many members.
And all the members of that one body being many are one body, though also is the Christ and brethren, isn't it a thrill to our soul to realize that as Gomez used the body we the members here on earth connected by the Spirit of God to our risen head in glory. Christ himself. God views the body in its whole the members on earth. Christ ahead and he says so close is your relationship with your head that it's one we know that if you sever the head from a natural body.
That it, it, it no longer function. And so we're connected and we can function here in this world as the members of the body of Christ, because we are members of him and connected to the head. But God sees us so close in Christ that he says the head and the members are one. We have a hymn that expresses this nicely. So near, so very near to God. I cannot never be, for in the person of the sun I am as near as he.
There's a little detail that Keith called my attention to after our reading meeting yesterday that I enjoyed. I'd like to share it. Umm, uh.
00:50:04
It says that.
Uh, first, uh.
16 Let there be any fornicator or profane person, why doesn't it say adulterer?
And uh, I, uh, I think, uh.
We might look through the New Testament and find that adultery is not applied to the church because we are espoused to Christ.
Umm, and now the one exception to keep attention to me was in James where it says adulterous. No, you're not that friendship with the world. But to whom is James writing? He's writing to the 12 tribes, Jehovah's spouse. And so in our case, it's fornication isn't it's just an example of the accuracy of the word of God and the Spirit of God being careful.
To.
Umm, say what is exactly? We may make them just indiscriminate, but God doesn't.
I've just been using it that so the more we read the word of God itself, apart from not discrediting, discrediting ministry, but reading the word of God itself, how accurate and perfect the word of God is and those that have sought to find the error in a certain area have always come to frustration because God's word is absolutely true. We know there are passages that are that are perhaps maybe a little better rendered in with J and DS rendering but at the same time.
The word of God itself can speak to our hearts and if, if we search it, we find absolute perfection, all the perfection of the word of God. And as you say, it's very clear, isn't it? It's not, uh, not confusing at all.
Charlie, I noticed you stopped with umm, when you were, and I know there's a reason for it, but you stopped with umm, the uh.
Uh, go out to judge your ball.
Uh, and the spurious adjustment made perfect, umm, when you were giving us those things as broader and broader spheres of things. Uh, do you think also that even the UN unbeliever is brought in there and that expression, God judge of all?
Judge of all.
It's very solid as it is.
Oh, it's a little challenge to the the and we know that in Hebrews that's always left as a as a possibility that there might be one in an imposter.
Umm, that is present but is not real.
That seems to be in the book of Hebrews, isn't it? That, that, uh, there, there may be profession without reality. And God warned of that, doesn't he? Well, just to go on here with this, uh, in, in if I know there's much to be said about Jesus, the mediator of the New Testament and so on, to speak of better things than that of Abel. But I was just thinking in verse 25 as a warning to sounded again, aren't they, that he refused, not him, uh, that speaketh he's speaking right now, isn't it?
Umm, so it's kind of where if they escape not or refuse him to stay on earth.
He spoke on Earth. He was here.
How how much more shall we escape if we turn away from them that speaketh from heaven? And the there's a there's a.
It's far more, there's far more responsibility now. Why is this? Because we have in our hands the Word of God. We have the Lord Jesus up on high living for us who has accomplished all the work, and we have the Spirit of God within us. That is a very serious thing to refuse that, because God is speaking in that way to us now, different than He did when He came down and spoke to them.
The Lord Jesus. So I, I think it's very sounded warning here, isn't it?
Hmm.
I had a, uh, little problem a while back. I was trying to buy some Bibles for the jail work. We give every man who comes to the Bible study and Bible take home with him and when he gets out or goes to state prison or wherever it is, I tried to find some Bibles without red letters and they thought I was a fanatic I think because I kept saying don't you have one without red letters? And uh, he said, what's so important about that?
00:55:28
Because all you're doing is highlighting what was said by the Lord Jesus on earth. And it's very important. But the whole of the epistles is what he said from heaven through his apostles. And if we don't see that, beloved, we get back under a kind of legalism and a kind of, we get off of we're, we're on the wrong mountain again if we don't remember that, that when the Lord Jesus descended up on heaven.
And he made an interesting statement before he went away. He said, I have a baptism to be baptized with. And how am I narrowed in? That's what straightened means. How am I narrowed in until it be accomplished? And once it was accomplished, he went back to heaven and through the Holy Spirit communicated all that was in his heart to communicate to us. Now we're gonna put red letters on what he said when he was down here.
I think in essence what we're doing and I, I use Bibles with red letters. I finally had a yield to get the right one I wanted and the proper, uh, but I make a speech about it to every prisoner I hand the Bible. I say, now, don't pay more attention to what's been read than what the Lord says. For Mavis, uh, he spoke from heaven. And in principle, what we're doing is despising and refusing the one that speaks from heaven.
So the Lord Jesus said when He spoke to His own in the upper room, before He went away, He gave them that precious upper room ministry. He said there were many things that He wanted to tell them, but they couldn't bear it because the Spirit of God hadn't been given and they couldn't enter into the things that He had for them later on in Christianity, as the Spirit of God came and brought the truth before them in this way. And so it's true, He spoke on earth, and we don't want to set that aside, but He completed the revelation after He ascended.
And sent down the Spirit of God. Paul himself was caught up to the 3rd heaven and heard unspeakable words that it was not lawful for a man to utter. And I believe perhaps much of what Paul received concerning the truth was received in the presence of a glorified risen Christ there in the 3rd heaven. I didn't say to to continue the thought that we made earlier concerning the importance of the Old Testament, the New Testament. I think in this connection we need to realize the importance of both the Gospel and the epistles.
Because in the Gospel, the Lord Jesus sowed the seed of every truth that's later developed in the epistles.
But I, and I know nothing about farming and planting, and so I want to be careful. But I do know that you need more than a seed if you're going to have a harvest. You need more than a seed. Well, you have the seeds in the Gospels. Like you've got to go to the epistle to have the truth developed, to get the full bloom of the truth and to understand it.
Uh, by the same token, you can't have a plant unless you have a seed. And so you've got to go back to the Gospels and you've got to get the seeds. And so I just say again, we need a balance when we read the word of God. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. In fact, I'll just read that verse. You don't need to turn to it. He says, I'll read the 15th verse from that. From a child, thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make the wines unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for corruption, for instruction in righteousness. I was saddened to talk to a brother one time who's no longer the Lord's table, and he said, I don't believe the epistles are as important as we have once considered. He said, I only read the gospel. Brethren will never get the truth developed concerning our heavenly calling and our true relationship with Christ and what's before in the glory if we don't go to the epistles and get the truth revealed there. To get the plant, we need the seed in the gospel.
But then we need to have it developed. I was, uh, very encouraged years ago, uh, when our brother Clarence Lundin passed through Chatham on a night when we were just finished taking up, uh, some portion of the Word of God. I don't remember what it was. And we were kind of before the Lord about what to take up. And our brother wisely wasn't going to say anything in the meeting about it. But afterwards, umm, as we were talking about it, he said this to me.
01:00:08
Luke alone is with me. You know Brother Lindeen was based off of just say say it and then ex expound on it at all. So I bit and I asked why. Well, what do you mean by that?
And he says that the only way that we can carry out false teaching.
In these dark days is to have the spirit that's brought out in the book of Luke before us. So I appreciate what you say that the two are important. And ever since that time, I've thought about that every time I think about the relationship of the two. Why did Paul say that Luke alone is with me? I believe it's exactly what Brother Lundin was trying to bring before. Besides the historical fact that Luke was with him, There's a reason why the Spirit of God tells us that Luke was the companion of Paul.
And that is that in that spirit of the of the little remnant that feared his name is really carried on from Malachi 316 in the book of Luke, and how that little remnant is let out into the place where the second book of Luke takes up their new position as members of the body of Christ.
In that period in between, the spirit is laid out in which we can walk in Paul's doctrine. And, uh, just a little remark of our dear brother is stuck with me for many, many years.
Probably 20 years ago that he passed through shot him with that remark. I hope it was good to do.
I would suggest that verse 25 Harkins back to the very first verses of the entire book. Seeing that you refuse, not him that speaketh, say where has he spoken? You go back to the chapter. You have to keep backtracking, so you go all the way to the beginning of the book of Hebrews.
Where in the first verse it says God.
Verse 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by or in Is not uh?
The wonderful truth you've just taken up a few minutes ago about the bride are known in Paul's doctrine is the mystery. And you don't get that in Hebrews chapter 12 because their state wasn't up to it. It's very wonderful that your state was to enjoy it here this afternoon, but their state wasn't up to it. And it's not brought out here. Uh, and what a thing to have to say to them. See that you refuse, not him to speak. It's a negative, uh, exhortation.
But the one speaking, I would suggest is God himself speaking as as brother **** has already mentioned, not in just in the red letters or not even in the black letters of what we call the Old Testament, but in the person of the Son himself. And this beautifully, this is Hebrews chapter one is is one of one of those majestic portions of Scripture. God speaking not much by his Son. That is the son speaking the words that his father gave him.
Because we have in John's Gospel, but the sun coming forth in the majesty of a divine person proceeding forth from God, comes into this world as the very brightness of God's glory in the expressed image of this person. And he speaks in himself. So he just comes and he displays himself. And whether he moves his finger in the dirt or whether he makes the spittle, or whether he speaks, it was all the IT was all God speaking in the person of his Son. And it's very beautiful.
Beautiful things that ponder, and it relates to the beginning of John's gospel where the Lord Jesus, the Son of God is given the name or title of the word, because that's what a word does. It communicates. And the sun is the expression and communication of God outward to man. And we think sometimes from our point of view, well, wasn't that a terrible day when God dwelt in thick darkness and man was kept out? And not only was he kept out, but if he went near, he would perish, as you mentioned.
Bring to Exodus 19 but in a certain sense, God kept himself back in this darkness. And so the work of atonement having been accomplished, not only do we now have access by faith, uh, through a rent fail. Now God is free to come out and all that he is displayed himself in the fullness of his nature, which is not just light but also love. So this is never quite noticed it before, but it seems I just suggest that this person.
This 1St 25 goes back to the very beginning that God has spoken. See that you don't refuse.
To see what happened, the people who refused when he spoke on earth, He's speaking from glory now in the person of his exalted son. And by, by the way, he also asked verse 26, He shook the earth once and he shake it again. And it's uh, a very, uh, wrong expectation to people, uh, who were weak and uh, and unskillful and use of the word and we were wavering from their professional faith.
01:05:22
She's time is gone, but I just say before we close that.
Verse 28 is very encouraging because it brings before us two things. It brings before us a Kingdom and it brings before us great. And as we said in these meetings, we all have that hope before us where the Lord said to his own, fear not little floss, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. He could encourage them because there was something better ahead. But what do we have in the meantime? Brother of all we received of his fullness and grace upon grace, David said the Lord will give grace and glory. Grace meets our present need and glory is what comes at the end. The end of the blessed UMM book. We thought of the word of God, we find that he.
Brings those two things out. Behold, I come quickly. Even so come Lord Jesus. That's what we're looking forward to. But what about in the meantime? What about as we go back to our jobs, to school, to our home assembly? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. What a blessed provision He's made for us. Glory at the end. We're going to share in the Kingdom in the coming days, but in the meantime, we have his present grace. Do we need more grace to give us more grace?
#46 in the back of the book.
Zacchaeus
Gospel—Jim Hyland
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Long I was hanging in the darkness.
Now, by His grace, I am free today.
Of the day in America.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're responding to me.
You've got our line around the sun.
Let's get the slave here for me.
Thank you for calling me.
Lay down there.
They're on stay in there like me.
Sharing his blood toward my grandson.
For me.
Just as I was erasing me, they came from translucent.
No, there is no problem. And then they shine.
This is the savior for me.
Later for me.
Wow, we've got a lot of sun changing the landscape called Dark Things so Pretty.
No, it's come on. It's got a lot of kids praying.
This is a savior for me.
Shedding his blood for my grandson.
It is a savior for me.
So we ask God's help. We thank the our loving God, and I'd like to turn to a familiar portion of the word of God, Luke, chapter 19.
Luke chapter 19 and verse one. And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho, and behold there was a man named Zacchaeus.
Which was the chief among the publicans. And he was rich. And he thought to see Jesus who he was and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before and climbed up into a Sycamore tree to see him, for he for he was to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him Zacchaeus.
Make haste and come down, for today I must abide at my house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying that he was gone to be a guest with a man that is a Sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my good I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation.
I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, this day his salvation come to this house, For as much as he also is the son of Abraham, for the Son of man is come to seek and to save.
That which was lost. Well, I know this is a familiar portion. I know the youngest boys and girls here this evening have often heard this portion read in the home by their parents. They've heard it read at Sunday school. They've heard it explained and gone over at gospel meetings like this. But, you know, it throws my heart tonight to think that we don't have to turn to some obscure passage of the word of God, but we can turn to a familiar story, like the story of Zacchaeus.
00:05:24
And we can proclaim, as has often been proclaimed, that there's a savior for sinners, that there's a blessing for those who are seeking for the Lord because he's seeking for them. And so I'm glad that we can turn to this familiar story, and I'm glad that we can speak of the love of God and the provision for sin. You know, just before a Gospel meeting like this, two young people were heard to say, well, it's just another Gospel meeting. It'll probably be over around 8:00.
Well, it probably will be over around 8:00, but I want to tell you tonight that no gospel meaning is just another gospel meeting. It is a thrill to our souls to be able to turn to the word of God, to speak from a book where we don't have to decide whether it's true or not. You know, sometimes you go to the library. I'm speaking to the boys and girls. Now, you go to the library and you choose some books and you bring them home and you read them, and maybe they're interesting stories and maybe they're based on fact. Maybe they even profess to be true stories. But you read those stories.
And you say, well, some of it no doubt is true, but some of it, as they say, you could take it or leave it. You're not really sure if it's the truth. Because no matter what man writes, he always puts in his own opinions. He always puts in a little extra to try to make the story more interesting. But isn't it a thrill tonight to turn to the word of God and know that the word of God is true? From the first book of the first verse in Genesis where it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth till the last verse of God's word, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Be with you all and we can rest our souls tonight on the word of God. And I can open this book and read you this familiar story. And I know that this story is true. I know that this story is a historical fact, but it's more than a historical fact. Tonight, it's part of the inspired word of God. There are many interesting historical facts that we could come tonight and present. And those who are interested in history might come and listen to those stories. And we like to look back. I know when I was in school, one of my favorite subjects was history.
And social studies. I like that type of thing. But I say this story we've read tonight from the inspired word of God is more than just an interesting story. It's more than just a historical fact. This story is given to us to bring before us the truth that we're sinners, that we need a savior. But of the Lord, Jesus has come to see and to save that which is lost. And so, as we comment on this story tonight, with the Lord's help, I trust that your ears will be open tonight.
Not just your physical ears, but I trust you listen with the ears of your heart tonight and the God will open your heart, that he will touch your conscience and your heart tonight, and that you'll receive Jesus as your Savior, if you have not already. You know, I've often said as I look into the faces of an audience like this, that I find it not only a tremendous privilege to stand and present the good news of the gospel, a tremendous privilege to proclaim that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
But I find it a tremendous responsibility sometimes. I have the privilege of presenting the gospel to those who perhaps have never heard a clear gospel before. Presenting the gospel to those where I feel most in the audience are perhaps not saved, and that is a tremendous challenge and responsibility before God. But I feel an even greater challenge tonight as I look into the faces of boys and girls and young people.
And men and women who have heard the gospel over and over and over again.
Most of you tonight, as I look up and down these rows, I know who you are. I know that you have been brought up, some of you in Christian homes. Some of you have heard the gospel from the days of your earliest childhood. But I wonder tonight if you have closed your ears to God's word. I wonder if you're indifferent to the gospel, if you sit through a meeting like this and you say, well, we've heard it all before and it's just another gospel. And you watch that clock as the hand moves all too slowly around the dial.
And you're glad when finally the hour is up and you can get on with with your friends, you can go out and you don't have to think about these things anymore. You know, I think too, it's a very solemn thing to stand at the last gospel meeting of a series of meetings like this and to look into the faces of those who have sat here for two days, sat here last night and heard the gospel, heard that you're a Sinner, heard that Jesus loves you, heard that God has provided a remedy for sin through the blood of Jesus.
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And you went out the door last night and you said not tonight. And maybe you're planning to do the same thing tonight. You're going to go out that door and you're going to say not tonight. I want to warn you tonight that if you go out that door and you say, I'm going to put it off, I'm going to neglect God's word, solemnly declares in Hebrews, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? You know, I think there are many in a lost eternity tonight.
Many in hell tonight who are there because they put it off. They neglected. They said I want to be saved. They were like Felix. He heard the gospel from the Apostle Paul. Wonderful privilege. Think of hearing the gospel from the apostle Paul. And he heard it and he trembled and he knew he needed to do something about it. But he said when I have a more convenient season, I will call for the when I have a better time. I'm not going to get saved tonight. I'm going to put it off. Is that what you're saying?
Are you saying I'm going to wait until I'm a little older and then I'll come to know the Lord Jesus? Oh, if you pass into a lost eternity tonight, or if the Lord Jesus were to come before this hour is completed, and you look around and you see mother and father gone. You see your older brother gone. You see Grandma and Grandpa gone. You will lift up your eyes in a lost eternity and you will realize you've lost your soul. Isn't that a solemn thing? We can lose a lot of things.
We were having some children's meetings in Widow Pitlock, Maine, last week and there was a little girl there and she went out in a canoe on the river that runs by the Fish and Game club that we rent to hold the meetings. And there were some other children and they were having some fun paddling the canoe and fishing. But this little girl, she lost two things. She lost her watch and she lost her gold ring and she was very distressed. Those, uh, that watch in that gold ring were a gift from her mother.
Well, it didn't take long to find the watch, but they couldn't find the ring. And so they came back to where we were staying, and they told us what had happened, and we all shook our head. We felt sorry that she had lost that ring because, as I say, it meant a great deal to her, not as far as monetary value, but because of the one who had given it to her. But, you know, that little girl wasn't about to give up. And so the very next day, she and some others went back to that spot where she had lost the ring.
She'd lost it in the river. And to our surprise, about an hour later they came back and she was wearing that gold ring. I don't know how they ever found it in the weeds and muck of that river, but they searched until they found it And that watch in that ring were restored. And we lose things and we search for them, and they're restored. But I want to impress upon your soul tonight, if you don't know Jesus as your savior, there will come a day when you will wind up in a lost eternity and you won't be able to restore your soul.
It will be lost for all eternity when that man in Luke's gospel, earlier in Luke's gospel that the Lord Jesus told about, He lifted up his eyes in hell being in torment, and did he ask for release from that place? Oh no. I believe he knew that he was in a fixed state. I believe he knew that he would never get out of that place of torment, and all he asked for was one drop of water to relieve that pain.
To relieve that suffering for a moment. And he never got it and he never will. He's still there tonight. And so I warn you tonight at the beginning of this gospel meeting, if you don't know Jesus as your savior, the way of blessing is open for you tonight. The Lord Jesus is still a savior on high in the glory. He still desires your blessing. And you know, it's interesting that the Lord Jesus comes to this city called Jericho. You know, on the way into Jericho, he healed the blind man. We have that in the chapter before.
If we were to turn over to Matthew, we would find that as he left Jericho, there were two blind men and he brought blessing to them too. But what about in Jericho? What was the miracle that he performed in Jericho? It wasn't the opening of the eyes of the blind. It wasn't the cleansing of the leper. It wasn't the raising of the dead. It wasn't the hearing of the year. It was the salvation of a soul. You know, there are perhaps not great miracles performed in this world tonight, like when the Lord Jesus was here.
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We don't expect to go out on the street and find someone who has loss of hearing, someone whose death do all of a sudden have their ears open. Someone who's blind to all of a sudden have their eyes open. I know that medical technology has advanced to great stages in this day in which we live, but there aren't miracles, instantaneous miracles like you have when the Lord Jesus walked amongst men. But there's still a miracle taking place in this world tonight as one another here and there in this world.
Hear the gospel and they receive the Lord Jesus as their savior. They receive the forgiveness of sins. Isn't a marvelous thing. Those of us who know Jesus is our savior, to think that our sins are gone. You know, a little boy went to Sunday school one time and he came home all excited and he said to his mother, you know what we learned today in Sunday school? He said, we learned that there's something God cannot see. Oh, his mother was so surprised.
She said. Are you sure the Sunday school teacher told you that? Oh yes, the Sunday school teacher told us there's something that God cannot see, the little boy's mother said. I've always taught you that the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good, that God sees everything even into your heart. Oh, the little boy was insistent. But finally the mother said, What is it that God can't see? Oh, he said, God can't see my sins when they're washed in the blood of Jesus.
Oh, isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful to sit here tonight and know if you've received Jesus as your savior, but your sins are washed in the blood of Jesus and those sins are blotted out for all eternity? I have two girls and I know sometimes when they go out to play, they get pretty dirty and we bring those clothes in and my wife will try to put some special detergent on those spots and then put them in the washing machine with her favorite laundry soap.
And then after a while, she goes back to the machine and she pulls them out. But those clothes have not come clean. The stains are still there. Often we have stains that cannot be removed. But all my stains of sin tonight are removed. They're gone as far as the east is from the West, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. Thank God. There is something tonight that God cannot see, and that's my sins washed in the blood of Jesus.
You know, Jericho is a city that really has a double connotation. It was the city of the curse. And we know the story back in the Old Testament, how God brought judgment on that wicked city of Jericho. It's true he spared rehab in her household because she had faith, but he brought judgment on that city and he pronounced the curse on that wicked city. And it's a picture of this world. This world is under judgment. And I want to impress this on your soul tonight.
So as sure as we're sitting here in our seats on the 3rd of July 1994, just as surely there is judgment coming on this world. You know, people stop at that today. But when I hear someone scoff of coming judgment, to me it's a proof that the judgment is about to fall because it says in the last days shall come, scoffers saying where is the promise of his coming for since the father fell asleep?
All things continue as they are, even until now. They speak of judgment and nothing happens. Isn't that what you hear today? The apostle Paul spoke of judgment. The Reformers spoke of judgment. The early evangelists like Moody and Spurgeon, they spoke of judgment. And it hasn't happened.
You know, I'm sure there were similar comments made in Noah's day. They had never seen rain fall from the sky on the earth. They had never seen a flood before in Noah's day. And I'm sure there was much scoffing as Noah preached righteousness for 120 years. But the judgment did come. And God, at the point of the day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained judgment, hangs over this world, the sentence has been passed.
And so Jericho was the city of the curse. But, you know, to me it's very interesting that not only was Jericho the city of the curse, but it was the city of palm trees as well. It was a place of, uh, uh, where it was pleasant. You know, I think of the man in the tent of Luke who left Jerusalem, and he started his journey down to Jericho. And I've wondered if that man looked out from Jerusalem and down that road toward Jericho, if he thought it wasn't going to be more pleasant in Jericho, the city of palm trees.
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If he didn't think he was going to find his fame and fortune, perhaps some ease, some pleasure in Jericho, but all he found that it wasn't worth the trip. It wasn't worth the cost. And before he ever got there, he fell among thieves that stripped him and left him half dead. You know, that's the work of the enemy. Satan only wants you for what he can get out of you. The Lord wants you for what he can give you.
And that man who left Jerusalem, he looked over at that pleasant city, and that's what he chose. But all here, the Lord Jesus comes to Jericho. He comes to the city of the curse. He comes to the city of palm trees. He comes in grace. He comes with a desire for the blessing of those there that would have him. You know, it is also a very solemn thing to realize that you only read once of the Lord Jesus in his pathway.
Passing through the city of Jericho. You know, I wonder if I look into your faces tonight, how many times you've heard the gospel. I wonder how many opportunities you've had to be saved. I look into the faces of boys and girls here who, as I said, have heard the gospel from the early days of your childhood. And I have been in some of your homes and I know that at the breakfast table or at the supper table, and sometimes both places.
The word of God is taken out by Father and read to you. You hear about the Lord Jesus sometimes twice a day in your home. You come to the Gospel meeting on Sunday night. You go to Sunday school. You come to the reading meeting during the week. You hear the truth. You hear about the Lord Jesus. You know you need to be saved. How many opportunities have you had? I just challenged some of you boys and girls who are a little older to go home.
Get out a calculator. See how many times your father reads the Bible to you during the day. Multiply it by 365 days of a year and multiply it by your age, and then add 52 weeks for each year that you that you've been, that you've lived. And multiply that and add that in. Because that's probably how many Gospel meetings you've attended. How many opportunities have you had? You know those in Jericho only had one opportunity.
And you've had many God speaketh once, Yeah, twice. Yet man perceiveth it not. And so the Lord Jesus came to Jericho. He came only once. But he came. And the Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He came down from heaven not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him. What was that will? To go to the cross and die so that you so that I could be saved and be in God's happy home in heaven.
Well, you know, there was a great crowd that followed the Lord Jesus as he entered and passed through Jericho. But, you know, there was one man who was interested in really knowing the Lord Jesus. He wanted to see Jesus. His name is familiar to us all. His name was Zacchaeus, and he wanted to see Jesus, who he was. You know, I hope there's someone here tonight, and you want to really know who the Lord Jesus is. You know, there was a man named Herod, King Herod, and he lived in the time of Jesus, and he wanted to see Jesus too.
It says he desired of a long time to see Jesus that some miracle might be performed. He just wanted to see the Lord do some miraculous thing, some great display of power. But you know, we never read that he got that opportunity to see a miracle done. But here was a man and he wanted to know the person of Christ. He wanted to get to know the Lord Jesus. Why? Because he felt his need. He knew. Zacchaeus knew.
That he was a Sinner. I wonder if you've ever come to that realization. You know, it doesn't matter our station in life tonight, it doesn't matter our family background, It doesn't matter whether we've been brought up in the meeting or not. Wonderful as that is, the question tonight is, do you realize that you're a Sinner and that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God? You know, sometimes I have the privilege of visiting in Western North Carolina.
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Around the area of the city of Asheville, and it's a very beautiful area, the Blue Ridge Mountains, the lush green forests. Asheville itself is a is a beautiful city as cities go. But you know, if you were to take a short drive from Asheville, which I have often done, you will come outside Asheville to a town. And outside that town is what is called Biltmore Estate. It's a beautiful area.
It's a beautiful setting. You look out on these beautiful gardens, you look over and you see Mount Pisgah and all the other mountains that surround you. And if it's a clear day, you can see a great ways off. And Biltmore Estates was built by Mr. Vanderbilt noted as a railway tycoon. And he built that uh castle like home for himself and for his family. And it's open as a museum to the public and you can walk not only through the gardens.
But you can walk through that beautiful home and imagine what life must have been in a home like that.
But here was Mr. Vanderbilt on his deathbed. He had come to the end of his life, and it was a successful life. As man would count success. He had amassed millions, one of the wealthiest men of his day. But you know, all that didn't matter. As eternity drew near, and he called for one of his faithful servants that he knew was a Christian, and he asked him to sing at his deathbed. Come ye sinners, poor and needy.
And that uh elderly servant sung that hymn and he sung it with the tears running down his face. He sung it from the heart. And as he finished, Mr. Vanderbilt turned to him. And he said, Vanderbilt is a poor and needy Sinner. And I believe Mr. Vanderbilt received Jesus as his savior. It didn't matter about all the accomplishments. It didn't matter that in a few days when he was gone, his name would be splashed across the pages of the American press.
Oh, what mattered was where he was going to spend eternity. He knew he was a poor and needy Sinner. He knew that all the accomplishments and all the good he had done for mankind didn't merit him favor before God. He knew when he stood before God that all those things that he had and had done wouldn't mean anything. And he came as a poor and a needy Sinner. Are you going to come tonight as a poor and needy Sinner? Here was Zacchaeus and he was a man.
That was rich. He had possessions. He had possession. He was noted in the town of Jarrett, in the city of Jericho, but that didn't matter either. He had a need, not a temporal need, but he had a spiritual need, and he realized it. You know, if you don't realize tonight that you have a need, you're not going to come to the Savior because the Lord Jesus said himself. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. We read that they that are whole need, not a physician, but they that are sick.
You know, if you get sick and you feel there's something you can do to cure that sickness, you're not going to seek the advice of a doctor. But when you realize that you can't cure yourself and that you really have a problem, then and only then will you call a doctor and seek his help and advice.
All tonight would that I could impress upon your soul the need that you have a need as a Sinner before God that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Solomon said there's not a man upon the earth but hasn't sinned well. Zacchaeus realized he had a need and he sought to see Jesus who he was. Not only did he realize he had a need, but he knew where the remedy was.
You know, I'm thankful tonight that the gospel doesn't end here. I'm thankful that while I have to faithfully speak about judgment to come and I have to faithfully speak about sin and the fact that we are sinners, I'm born in sin and conceived in iniquity. I'm glad I don't have to stop there. What a sad message it would be tonight if the gospel stopped there. In fact, if the gospel stopped there, we couldn't call it the gospel because the gospel is good news and it's not good news to.
Uh, just say we're sinners and not present the remedy. You know, I suppose there's nothing more frustrating than going to a doctor and having him analyze your health and then to have him shake your head and say you're very sick. But I can't help you on this one. There's no cure for your disease. That must be very frustrating. I've never had to experience that by the grace of God. But I know there are those who have had to experience that, and it must be a hopeless feeling. But tonight the good news is.
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That while it's true we're sinners and we can do nothing to better our position before God, yet tonight there's a remedy for sin. There is a Savior on high in the glory.
That the Susquehanna River flows through this area, and if we were to follow the Susquehanna River a little ways out from Binghamton towards Vestal, I believe we would come to a place called Murphy's Island.
Something happened there a couple of winters ago that made the headlines of the local newspaper. There were eight men out on the river fishing ice, fishing on a big chunk of ice, and there they were, having a good time fishing in the ice. But all of a sudden that ice broke away from the shore and it began to drift. And as it began to drift in the current of the river, it began to break up as well. It came to a bridge and as it hit that bridge.
Many pieces of the ice began to break off. The water began to flow over that ice, and those eight men knew that they perhaps only had moments before they would be dumb in the frigid waters of the Susquehanna River. But, you know, thankfully someone had noticed their peril and someone had called the rescue team and boats were on the way moments after they had, UH left their UH station.
Folks were on their way to try and rescue those men, one man said to the reporter who interviewed him. He said I was doing some praying that day isn't that interesting. Men will brush the Lord aside. They'll brush their knee to side, but when they get into difficulty, they know where to turn. Men will start to pray as they face eternity. I remember as I was traveling in the United States during the Gulf War, that many of the billboards and signboards along the highways and on businesses.
Said pray for our troops. Men will take prayer out of the school. Someone was telling me that as the Gulf War began, they in the high some of the high schools, they were announcing prayer meetings in different rooms of the school. They'll take prayer out of the schools. They'll brush the Lord aside. They'll forget their need, but they know where to turn in their extremities. Well, this. These men knew where to turn in their extremities. One man in particular was praying as that ice floated down that current, as it began to break up, as the water flowed over it.
They sent out that boat. They plucked those men from that ice, and they were thankful to be rescued. I read the newspaper accounts very carefully, and I didn't find that there was one man who resisted his rescue. They knew that they were in danger. They knew that they were in peril. Do you realize your danger tonight if you're not saved? These men knew that they had only moments, and so they gladly received the rescue team. They gladly were plucked from that thinking ice.
Into those votes. And as those men were put into those boats and they turned towards shore, they watched that ice flow. And within moments, within minutes, that ice, that sheet of ice that they had once stood on, sunk to the bottom of the Susquehanna. That's how close it was. And, you know, to me the most remarkable thing was that at the end of the newspaper article, the reporter asked one man. He said, will you ever go fishing there again?
You know what the man said? He said never. He said when God speaks once, you better listen. Isn't that remarkable? When God speaks one, you better listen. I remember hearing of a little girl. She went to a gospel meeting and the man said to her after the gospel meeting he said what? When is the best time to be saved? You know when that question is raised, usually the answer is now, but that's not what this little girl said.
She said the best time to be saved is the first time you hear about Jesus. Isn't that sweet? How many times have you heard about Jesus? How many opportunities have you had? How many times has God spoken to your soul? How many times have you sat in a gospel meeting? When God speaks once, you better listen because God speaks the truth. Sometimes I know the boys and girls. If they're like I was when I was younger. You don't listen at school.
You know, I used to have that problem, especially as the nice weather approached and I used to like to have my desk over by the window. I usually chose a row by the window so that I could look outside and Daydream and wish that I was out there rather than in school, and the teacher would be going over a very, very important lesson. And I wasn't listening. My mind was off somewhere else, my ears were closed to the lesson. And I'm afraid when Friday afternoon came along and there was a test.
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That sometimes I fail the test because I didn't listen. Those who are older here will pardon another story for the sake of those who are younger. There was a little boy one time, his name was TomTom, was five years old and he went to kindergarten and his mother had tried to impress upon him before he went to school the need of listening to the teacher. And so he went off to school and they had fire prevention week, which I know they still do have. They still have in our area and other areas.
And one day some firemen came to the school to tell the boys and girls what they ought to do if they were ever in a situation where the building they were in was on fire. And Tom listened very well to what the fireman said. And little did he know that it was a good thing he did listen, because it was just a few days later when he was returning home from school, and he noticed that he rounded his corner, that his home was on fire.
And so he raced up to his home. There was no one around. He raced up to the door. He opened the door. Smoke had been pouring out the window, but as he opened the door, the air current burst the home into flames. He went inside. He thought perhaps his mother and his sister were inside, and he began to choke on the smoke. But you know, he'd listen to what the fireman said. And he knew that when you get into a smoke filled building, you've got to get down low.
On the floor. And so he got down low on the floor because that's where the freshest air will be. And he crawled towards the door and he got out safely. As he came out the front door, he saw his mother and his sister come around the end of the house. They'd been looking for him. His mother hugged him. She said, how did you know what to do to get out of the burning house? All he said. When the fireman came the other day, I listened carefully to what they said. You know, I'm afraid there are people when we open and read the word of God, they don't listen carefully to what God is saying.
Doesn't matter what I say tonight, but what God is saying is what is important tonight. Are you listening tonight? We've had that over and over again in these meetings, The need for listening, because we're not talking about getting out of some burning buildings. We're not talking about failing a test at the end of the week or something like that. We're talking about where you will be in eternity. You know, we talk about spending eternity, and I know what people mean when they use that expression, but can you spend something that has no end?
You know, I have a bank account back in Smith Falls.
But it wouldn't take long to send that bank. Bank account. We have things. We have money, the children have money. And sometimes my oldest daughter comes to me and says I spent all my money. You can spend things, things get used up. But oh, isn't it solemn to consider that you really can't spend eternity? It's never going to end. For those of us who know Jesus as our Savior, we're going to be home with the Lord Jesus in the Father's house, joy and bliss. And we're not going to count the days either.
We're not going to come to the end of the meetings like we have this weekend. It's going to be forever and forever and forever, something that has no end. But what about those in hell? They will be in hell for as long as those of us who are in heaven are with the Lord Jesus. Well, this man, Zacchaeus, he desired to see Jesus. He felt his need, but there were difficulties. You have some difficulty tonight. Do you have something that's keeping you from coming to the Savior? There were two difficulties that presented it to themselves.
To Zacchaeus one, he was little of stature Again, the older ones will forgive me if I just make an application here. You know, Zacchaeus was a little person. And I'm thankful that Jesus is interested tonight in little people. You know, there were some mothers one time they brought their children to the Lord Jesus. They wanted those children to hear the words of Jesus and to receive a blessing. But you know, the older ones came along and they said take the children home. The disciples didn't understand. They said the Lord Jesus doesn't have time for little one.
Did the Lord Jesus have time for the boys and girls? Of course he did. He said Let the little children come unto me and forbid them not. He desired their blessing. We were seeing that him this morning at Sunday school. A little child of seven or even 3 or 4 May enter into heaven through Christ the open door. If there's someone here and you think you're too little to come to Jesus, oh, I want to tell you, no matter how little you are tonight you can come. He's willing to receive you. He wants the boys and girls. He wants the children to come in simple faith and receive him.
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As their savior. But you know, there was enough. Another difficulty for Zacchaeus. There was a great crowd around the Lord Jesus. You know, this crowd for the most part really weren't interested in seeing Jesus for who he was. They just wanted to see some miracles, to hear some wonderful words, some wonderful teaching perhaps. And here was this practice proud. And they were between Zacchaeus and the Lord Jesus. Are there some friends tonight that are keeping you from Jesus?
I know when you go to school, you have what they call peer pressure. And we like to be like to fit in. We like to feel we're accepted by our peers, by those we go to school with, by the other boys and girls in the neighborhood, maybe even by the other boys and girls at the meeting and at Sunday school. And you know, it's not really wrong to want to be accepted, but who's acceptance do you really want? Do you want the acceptance of your friends, or do you want the acceptance of the Lord Jesus?
You know, the Apostle Paul said, we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. Paul suffered all kinds of ridicule, all kinds of reproach. People misunderstood them, they beat them, they tried to stone them, they put them in prison for preaching the gospel, He said. That doesn't matter as long as I have the Lords acceptance.
Well, Zacchaeus wasn't going to let these two things stop him from coming to Jesus. He wasn't going to let his his thighs, and he wasn't going to let the crowd. And so he knew that the Lord Jesus would pass a certain way as he went through that city, and he ran ahead of that crowd. There was energy. Are you gonna come to Jesus tonight? Are you gonna come and receive him?
The Lord Jesus said, Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Our brother Blair gave us that verse uh this afternoon. The Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and are safe. The Lord Jesus himself said flee from the wrath to come. He gonna flee to Jesus tonight. That's what Zacchaeus did. He fled and he ran to that Sycamore tree and he knew that the Lord Jesus was going to pass that way. But you know, I'm thankful that I can stand here tonight and say there was someone who was more interested in the blessing of Zacchaeus than Zacchaeus himself.
And that was the Lord Jesus. Mr. Moody, years ago, was preaching in a large circus tent outside the city of Chicago, and there was a great crowd to hear him that night. And near the end of the meeting, a man pushed his way through the crowd, one of the men that had been hired to keep the aisles clear. And I suppose they would call him an usher. They might call him security. But he pushed his way to the front, to the platform where Mr. Moody was standing.
And in his arms was a young boy, and that young boy was lost. He'd become separated from his father in the crowd. But the young boy didn't seem very concerned as to his situation. He didn't really enter into the fact that he was lost. And so Mr. Moody was preaching from this very portion. He was preaching from this tenth verse. For the son of man has come to see and to say that which was lost. And Mr. Moody held up the young boy in his arms. And he said, there's a father in this crowd.
That more anxious to find this boy than this boy is to find his father. And as he said that a man was pushing his way through the audience up to the front and without stretched arm teeth, and turned toward the boy. And that little boy saw his father, and he ran to his father and all. His father was indeed glad to see him. He'd been anxious for the welfare and safety of his voice. He was more anxious, more concerned about the sun than the sun was about the father.
And there's someone tonight who's more anxious about your soul salvation than I am. There's someone who's more anxious about your soul's salvation than mother, then Father who are praying for you. There's someone who's more anxious for your soul salvation than perhaps you yourself. And that's God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Lord Jesus came so that you could receive blessing when the prodigal son returned from the far country to own his guilt and his need. Who was watching for him afar off, who desired the blessing of that boy? It was the Father. He ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And what a blessing that boy received, as he was welcomed not as a servant, but as a son, back into the Father's house. Well, Zacchaeus was anxious to see Jesus.
00:45:14
But the Lord Jesus wanted to speak to Zacchaeus, and so he comes. We know the story well. He comes under that Sycamore tree. He looks up. And how startled Zacchaeus must have been when he called him by name. You know, if the Lord Jesus were to come, I speak reverently. If he were to come physically to this room tonight, we wouldn't have to introduce anyone. You know, the other day we were at a graduation and there were a great many people there, and some of them, uh, we weren't familiar with and they weren't familiar with us. A lot of people we didn't know.
And so it was decided that we would go around the room and say our names and introduce one another. But you know, I speak reverently, the Lord Jesus, you wouldn't have to be introduced to him tonight because he knows all about you. You know he knew about you even before you were born. He knows your family background. He knows your situation. He knows if you're the oldest in the family. He knows if you're the youngest. He knows if you're somewhere in the middle. He knows if you feel sometimes the older ones don't have time for you. You feel neglected and left out. Nobody to talk to. The Lord Jesus knows that.
And he looks into your heart and he knows whether you're saved or not. And he knows your name. He knew Zacchaeus name. Zacchaeus had never personally met the Lord Jesus before. But the Lord Jesus knew Zacchaeus. He knew his name. He knew all about the desire of Zacchaeus heart to see the Lord Jesus. If there's someone here who's truly seeking for Jesus tonight, the Lord Jesus knows the desire of your heart and He's seeking for you.
Well, we find that he calls him by name. He tells him to come down. And what did Zacchaeus do? He made haste and came down. You know, I've been impressed in reading any portions of the word of God that have to do particularly with the gospel. There's always haste involved if there's always an urgency about the message.
Someone was preaching the gospel one time in the Gospel hall, and there were a couple in that had never been there before and perhaps had never heard a clear gospel.
In fact, they were from a communist country. And after the meeting, someone asked them what they thought of the message and they said, well, the preacher is very passionate about what he believes. Why is that so? Why are we so earnest about the gospel tonight? Why do we make an appeal to you from the heart of God? It's because there's an urgency about the message. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. This is the last meeting of these, this series of meetings this weekend.
It might be the last gospel meeting that is ever preached in your ears. Think about that. You might never sit in another gospel meeting because you may leave this world by death, or the Lord Jesus may come and take all the Christians home. You know what is a searching thing to realize that in Elijah's day when Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirlwind? Who was it that misty Elijah? If I can put it this way, it wasn't the general public.
It was the sons of the prophets.
They were the ones that missed Elijah. And if the Lord Jesus were to come tonight and most in this room were to go through the ceiling on to glory, to meet the Lord in the air, who would miss?
Those who are gone, who would miss? Mother, father, grandmother, brother, sister.
As it were the sons of the prophets, the sons and daughters of Christian parents, the sons and daughters whose parents sat in these seats and prayed that they'd be saved.
That's who will know. And if someone you were to go out on the street and someone would ask you what happened, you'd know you'd know that the Lord Jesus had come. What a solemn thing to realize that this may be your last opportunity, Zacchaeus. As I said earlier, he only had this one opportunity to see Jesus. He took advantage of it. Are you going to avail yourself of the opportunity tonight? I mentioned Felix to put it off. Instead, when he had a more convenient season or a better time, he would listen.
Again to what Paul had to say, you know you can search the pages of God's Word and you'll find you'll not find any record of him having a more convenient time. Now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Satan says put it off, put it off. You'll have another chance. But Satan's not your friend. We were Speaking of friendship this afternoon, and the Lord Jesus is that friend that sticketh closer than a brother. But Satan is not your friend. He wants to drag your soul down.
00:50:17
To a lost eternity. Well, he was to make hay. He was to come down, and he made haste and came down. He realized that the Lord was only passing through Jericho, and that there was an urgency with the message, and that appealed to come. And he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. Do you want joy tonight? You know this world speaks of happiness. They speak of joy, but their happiness depends on their circumstances.
They can be happy when they get that, that promotion or that new job, when they get that nice home or that car they've always wanted, when they pass all their grades at school and get a good report card, but just introduce something adverse, some little problem, some little difficulty, and that joy is immediately gone. But here Zacchaeus received him joyfully, and this is true joy, as the Lord Jesus said, your joy no man taketh from you.
If you want fullness of joy. But I'll tell you again, they'll be they'll be joy not only in your soul, wonderful as that will be, but there will be unparalleled joy in the heart of the Lord Jesus and unparalleled joy in the presence of the angels of God. Because we read that there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over 1 Sinner, that repenteth. You want to cause all heaven to rejoice tonight. Do you want to cause joy far beyond anything that's ever been experienced in this world?
In the heart of the Lord Jesus. Oh what joy it will bring to him. What joy to the heart of God tonight.
If you come as a needy Sinner like Vanderbilt came and received the Lord Jesus, be washed in the precious blood of Christ, look forward to that happy home in heaven, well, you know he received him joyfully. But there were those who didn't understand. There were those who were self-righteous, who thought they were pretty good. They didn't realize they had a need. And they murmured and they marveled that this man went to be a guest with a man that is a Sinner.
You know, on another occasion we read this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. You know, that statement was really made in derision, in mockery. But I'm thankful for the truth of it. Well, they said made that statement in mockery. Little did they realize how we would stand here and rejoice tonight that he received sinners and eateth with them, that he loves and longs for the blessing of those who realize they have a need.
He received sinners. He came to the home of Zacchaeus, and what a blessing was brought to that home, he says in verse 9. This day is salvation come to this house.
You know, I think of another man. I think it's in the chapter before he went up to the temple to pray. There were two of them. One didn't recognize his need. He told God he was a pretty good fellow. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. I'm not like this publican. But what about the other man? The other man only was a Sinner and confessed to sin. What does the Lord Jesus say of that man? He says, I tell you, you know, I like that language. You don't often read language like that in the word of God, I tell you.
This man went down to his house, justified rather than the other. And here in Jericho, where this multitude around the Lord Jesus, how many do we read of receive the blessing? One man.
You know, we would like to have multitudes come in and hear the gospel tonight. And if people really knew the love in the heart of God, this room couldn't contain the people that would want to hear in the city of Binghamton. But, you know, while we would love to have multitudes come in and hear the gospel, I've been impressed in reading through Matthew, Mark and Luke and John to see that there was something that was really dear to the heart of the Lord Jesus than speaking to the multitude. And that was speaking to individuals, that was meeting the need of individuals.
We find in John's Gospel he stays up one night to speak to Nicodemus. He travels a great way so that he's weary with his journey, so that he could be at that. Well at Sycar to speak to one woman that he knew would be there and a woman who again felt her need. We read in Mark's Gospel how there was a blind man and he took them outside the city, and that man received a blessing. He received his sight. Oh, how the Lord Jesus delighted to speak to individuals and to meet the need of individuals, because you're an individual.
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In God's sight tonight, He's looking down. It's just like you're the only person here at this gospel meeting. In fact, I believe that if I had been the only Sinner in this world, God would have sent his Son, the Lord Jesus, to die for my sin so that I could be washed in the blood of Jesus and be in that happy home in heaven. God loves you as an individual. Why did he pass through Jericho? Because he knew there was a man there that was in earnest. He knew that there was Zacchaeus, and Zacchaeus was going to receive a blessing. And he makes that trip through Jericho, you might say.
Naturally speaking, and I don't want to suppose or read in the scripture, but if there had been headlines in a local paper in that day, his trip through Jericho would have been forecast proclaimed as a failure. But was it a failure? People might look in these windows as they passed by and say what is that handful of people doing in there with someone preaching from God's word and we go out and we don't hear of any blessing and man says it was a failure.
God knows the heart tonight He knows if there's someone here who needs Jesus, someone who wants to receive Him and all. Tonight I trust you're like Zacchaeus, that you'll make haste and come to the Savior, receive him joyfully. For the Son of Man is come to see and to save that which is lost. And if you remember nothing else from this time together tonight, remember this The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.
You know, if you receive the message of this little verse, two or three lines, no big words in it. If you receive the message by face tonight, and there's true repentance in your soul, you can be saved by this one verse of Scripture. The Son of Man is come to see and to save that which is lost. We don't have time. But I could stand here and tell you stories of folks I know and folks I've read of who heard one verse of scripture.
And it was enough to save their soul. Oh, won't you rest your soul tonight on the word of God? Won't you rest your soul tonight on the Lord Jesus, that rock, that tower that the righteous runeth into and are safe? Won't you rest your soul tonight on the blood of Jesus? There's no security in this world. There's no security for eternity apart from the salvation that God is offering through the Lord Jesus Christ. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The Son of Man is come to see.
And to say that which is why shall we pray?
Hymns
Serving, Midian
Open—J. Hyland, D. Gorgas
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I wonder, brethren, if we could just meditate for a few moments on three well known portions. The first one is in the Gospel of Luke.
Luke, Chapter 10.
Luke, chapter 10 and verse 38.
Now it came to pass as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his words. But Martha was cumbered about with a much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Did her therefore, that she helped me?
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful. And Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her.
And then in John Chapter 11.
John Chapter 11 and verse 18. Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem about 15 furlongs off, and many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother.
Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary sat still in the house, and then noticed verse 32 Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, she saw him, and saw him she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. And then in verse 45 then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did.
Believed on him, and then noticed some scriptures in the 12Th chapter, chapter 12 and verse two. There they made him a supper and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of Spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
Well, as I say, these are very familiar portions of the word of God. We've read them and meditated on them to our benefit and enjoyment many times. But I was just thinking here this afternoon of how Mary, this one, this dear sister, we might say she found her delight in being at the feet of Jesus. We spoke this morning of how we need to have Christ before us as the object for our pathway, how we need, in the words of the hymn writer, to turn our eyes upon Jesus.
To look full in his wonderful face, that the things of earth may grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. And so we need Christ before us as that object, and we need that exercise and that desire, like Mary, to sit at the feet of Jesus. And so, just for a few moments I'd like to meditate on these portions concerning this home in Bethany, and particularly dear Mary, who found her delight in the company of the Lord.
You know what? The Lord Jesus walked through this world? He was the homeless stranger. He could say the birds of the air have nests and the foxes have holes. But the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. There was another occasion when it says every man went to his own house and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. And there were really few homes that the Lord Jesus was welcome in as he walked amongst men, as he showed out the Father's heart of love, as he dispensed blessing, and as he fully glorified God in his pathway here.
But there was one home mentioned in these three occasions where the Lord Jesus delighted to retire, where he found a rest from his weary journey, and where he could be surrounded by those who loved him, rather than that's really what he desires, He desires your company and mine. We think sometimes of the joy it brings to our hearts to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus, to sit at his feet individually, or to sit at his feet collectively, like we've had the privilege of today.
But all his joy in having us surround himself far outweighs, far exceeds any joy that by the grace of God is in your heart and mind. The Lord Jesus expressed it in John 17, where he said.
Father I will but they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am. We know that this will yet be fulfilled in the Father's house, in a coming day, when every child of God, every redeemed St. from all the ages, is going to be around the Lord Jesus, he the center, and will give him the glory. But he doesn't want to have to wait that day to enjoy your company and mine. And I believe with all my heart that he has made provision for us so that we can.
00:05:16
Follow him now and walk in his company. We were speaking this morning of the path of faith and how it says let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us or as Mr. Darby says, the path that lies before us. And so I believe there is still a path of faith for us. As I've sometimes said, there's a path of faith for us individually, there's a path of faith for us as families, and there's a path of faith for us collectively, as gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
There is that place where we can enjoy his company, as I say individually in the home and, uh, collectively when we come, as gathered by the Spirit of God around the person of Christ. You know, there were two great institutions set up and established by God. The first one was the home and the second was the assembly. And when God institutes something, when he establishes something, he always makes provision to the very end. You know, that thought has thrilled my soul lately, as the enemy is so busy to weary the people of God, to discourage, to divide.
To attack the home, to attack the assembly. There's provision rather until the very end, because we can never look around at the day and the circumstances and say it's so bad we can't go on. Timothy was exhorted in the second epistle where you see the breakdown of everything. He was exhorted to go on and continue in the things that he had learned and been assured of. And so we find first of all, where we began the Lord Jesus comes to this home.
And I would just say this, that in these three portions we have read, we find that Mary of Bethany is mentioned specifically by name. And these are the three portions where she is named specifically. I say specifically because she's alluded to, I believe in other portions, but in these three incidents she's as she's mentioned specifically by name and every time she's at the feet of Jesus, we find the Lord comes to this home, perhaps for the first time here in Luke chapter 10.
And I suppose these sisters were both busy preparing for the arrival of the Lord Jesus. I say to those of us who have families here, those of us who have homes, Is the Lord Jesus welcome in our home? Do we delight to honor him and to serve him in the home? And so here was the home, I say, where the Lord Jesus found his delight and where he was welcome. And so these sisters were making preparation for the arrival of the Lord Jesus. What a privilege it must have been to have this divine guest come and sit down in their home. Think of it. Would your heart of thrilled if you had heard the Lord Jesus was approaching? And then he was coming to your very house?
What a joy it must have been to receive the Lord Jesus into the home. And yet I believe that we still have that privilege in the day in which we live. As I say, there's provision to the very end. There's provision so that we can make the home of sanctuary. We can honor the Lord Jesus and bring up our children in that place. And so the Lord Jesus comes. He sits down in this home and we find that Mary, as it were. She says, now the work doesn't matter. I'm going to sit down and hear what Jesus has to say. She was going to sit down at his feet. She was busy, no doubt helping Martha.
And Martha seems to be one that always had to be busy in doing something. Martha said there are many things that we need to do. We haven't got all the preparations for the meal and all this kind of thing done. And here's Mary. She's left me to serve alone. But oh the Lord Jesus, how he valued the response of Mary's heart as she had that desire to let everything else go and to sit down at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And he told her that she had chosen that good part that would not be taken away from her.
Do we take time to sit at Jesus feet? Those who are older here will pardon me if I just speak to those of us who are younger for a few moments. This is a day of tremendous pressure. You get up in the morning and life is so pressured. You've got lots of work and business going through your mind. You've got to get out the door and get through that traffic. Then you get to work and it takes everything you have to survive in business. It absorbs your whole mind today. But you know, I trust I've learned in some little measure.
To appreciate the truth of that little hymn that says take time to be holy, we need to take time like Mary to sit at Jesus feet. It was a busy day here in this home. There was much that needed to be done. But Mary let those things go because she knew how important it was to take time to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus. And so we sometimes sing that little hymn. 216 We sit as learners at thy feet, thy words and honey far more sweet. Can we ever replace communion? Is there any substitute for sitting at the feet of Jesus?
00:10:26
And hearing his word, as I say, the enemy is busy because he wants to interject every kind of thought and activity so that we don't take time for the presence of the Lord Jesus. And I would just say to to those of us who are fathers here, you know what's interesting? We noticed a picture the other day in a book concerning the gathering of the manna. And it was the ladies in the picture that were gathering the manna. But if you notice the account carefully, in the 16th of Exodus, it wasn't the ladies that gathered the manna, it was the men that were together. Because I believe it brings before us responsibility of the head of the home.
I'm thankful I grew up in a home where the word of God was read to us. I remember my father sitting at the breakfast table with the word of God open so that he could catch each one of us as we came out to the breakfast table and then off to school so that there was a portion for us. I didn't always appreciate it at the time. I sometimes tried to hurry out at the last moment so I wouldn't hear the word of God. But as I look back, I'm thankful that the manner was gathered in our home. And so we need to take time in the home to read the word of God to gather for our families.
And will will we ever be disappointed that we took time for the things of the Lord that we ever took? Will we be ever disappointed that we let something else go so that we could gather the manna for our families. And So what a responsibility it it is. And I just say before we pass on that Mary learned very early in the pathway of the Lord Jesus to value the privilege of sitting at Jesus feet and what a blessing we she received.
Well then we find in the 12Th chapter of John where we were the 11Th chapter of John, where we read that the Lord Jesus comes again to this home in Bethany.
And, you know, I would just say this concerning the concerning Mary. Her name means better. You know, I've wondered about that. But this morning we were Speaking of those trials. We were Speaking of how God passes us through things. He passes us through things sometimes to correct us because He sees us getting away. He sometimes, uh, passes us through things in his schooling and to teach us many lessons. Sometimes He passes us through things so that we can be a help and a blessing to others.
All these different things that we experience, sometimes they seem like better experiences. Mary didn't have an easy life. She had bitter experiences, as we're going to see here in John Chapter 11. But what was the difference with Mary? She found her resource in the Lord. You know, I often wonder what people who don't know the Lord Jesus as their savior do when they get into a difficult situation. They lose their job. They don't pass the year at school, they lose family members.
David said when my mother and father forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. In other words, he said, even when earthly relationships breakdown and fail, I always have the Lord and we who know Christ as our Savior. We enter into this. Sometimes there's no one we can turn to. Uh, that is an earthly friend, a relationship. But we always have the Lord. We have one who fully enters in and understands what we pass through. I like that little Him 281.
It says with joy we meditate. The grace of God's high priest above his heart is filled with tenderness. His very name is love. He, in the days of feeble flesh, poured out his cries and tears, and though ascended fields afresh, what every member bears. Are you going through some trial? And you say no one enters into it with me? I can't talk about it to anyone. They don't seem to understand. There's one who does. When the Lord Jesus constrained the disciples to get into a ship and to go across the sea to the other side, where was the Lord Jesus?
He was on the mountain, praying that which would bring before us that high priestly work of the Lord Jesus, whose interceding for us and praying for us every hour of every day. And as he looked down from the mountain, I like what it says in Mark's Gospel, it says. And he saw them toiling and rowing. He knew what they were going through. Is there some difficulty in your personal life, Something in the family, something in the assembly? He sees us toiling and rowing, but he not only saw them toiling and rowing that night.
But he came to them on the storm. He was above the storm, and he proved to them that he was able for the situation, and that even Peter could rise up and walk above the storm with the Lord Jesus. He walked on the water with Jesus. And so it says, they don't wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings of Eagles, They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. Will a sorrow had come into this home in the 11Th chapter of John.
00:15:31
The Lord Jesus knew about this sorrow marathon, Mary. They loved their brother Lazarus. They felt their sorrow very keenly. Because it's true. We don't sorrow as others who have no hope. But it doesn't say we don't sorrow. We feel these things. We feel the loss of a loved one. We feel what the Lord has passed us through. The Lord Jesus. As he walked through this world, he groaned in spirit and was troubled. And so we groan in the situations. We feel them very keenly.
And so we find here where we began, that they came to Martha and Mary to comfort them, that is, umm, the Jews, those that they knew of their acquaintance. And we find that Mary, uh, she sat still in the house. And, uh, I think this is very precious because sometimes when a situation arises, the initial reaction is we've got to do something to straighten out this situation. Well, it's true. When they told Mary later on the master calleth for thee there was immediate obedience as she rose up and ran and fell at the feet of Jesus.
But all I like what it says about Mary in the end of the 20th verse. And Mary sat still in the house. How could she sit still in this difficult situation? Was she indifferent to the situation? Oh no. She loved her brother Lazarus just as much as Martha. But she had that confidence in her Lord. She had sat at his feet and heard his words. She'd been occupied with his person. And now when the difficulty came.
She could sit still because I believe Mary knew that the Lord Jesus was coming in his own time and in his own way, and that when he came he would take care of the difficulty. Are we willing to wait upon the Lord? I suppose that's one of the hardest things. When some situation comes and we don't like to wait. You know, this is the day of instant answers and remedies. It's a day when you have a problem and you call an 800 NUM number.
Or you punch it into the computer, and there's an immediate answer for every situation that we face in this world. But, brethren, we need to realize that it doesn't work that way in spiritual things. We need to have that waiting upon the Lord like Mary to sit still in the house. You get a similar thought in the book of Ruth, where Naomi could encourage Ruth. Sit still, my daughter, until they'll see how the matter will fall, for the man will not be in rest until he accomplished the thing this day.
Again, confidence that there was one who was in control of the situation and one who would bring everything to fruition according to his purposes, could encourage another to sit still in the house. And brethren, he's working everything after the councils of his own will. Sometimes things seem out of hand, but they're never out of the Lord's hand. He's always in control. He's on the throne. He's head over all things to the church, which is his body, his son over his own house.
And I say there needs to be obedience, and when we have light like Mary, we need to act. But I believe too, it's a great lesson for us to learn to sit still amid the difficulties it says in Isaiah 30. And their strength is to sit still. It's contrary to human nature. We like to feel we can help the situation, but sometimes the Lord brings us to the end of ourselves, and then when we own that, we have no might for the situation then.
He comes in, just like Israel, on the banks of the Red Sea. It must have been a frustrating situation, the enemy coming behind them, a wall of water in front. What were they going to do? Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord? He brought them there to prove himself. And I really believe that often the Lord Jesus allows situations in our lives to prove his care and His power to us. We never know his preserving grace, his preserving care.
You'll never know his high priestly intercession for us if we didn't have trials and difficulties. And so these things cast us down. But they cast us, I trust, on the Lord. They bring us into the sanctuary, they bring us to the feet of Jesus. And that's what happened here. We find in the 32nd verse where we read that Mary comes and she falls down at the feet of Jesus. She had earlier been at his feet as a learner, listening to his words.
00:20:15
Now she comes. Uh, And what we might say is intercession on behalf of her brother. She knew where to turn in the situation. Isn't it wonderful to have a friend? And we enjoy those happy times of fellowship together? And then when a difficulty comes, we know where to turn because we've sat in one another's presence, we've got to know one another. You say that brother knows what I'm going through. That sister understands me because we've, uh, enjoyed those times of fellowship. Mary enjoyed that sweet time of communion with her blessed Lord.
And then when the difficulty came, she knew where to turn. Because as we were saying this morning, we're not promised sunshine and roses for our pathway. Here the Apostle Paul, as he followed the Lord in his pathway and sought to seek to serve the Saints and to preach the gospel, He didn't have an easy pathway. Those in the Old Testament that thought to be faithful and to stand for the truth that they had in their day, there was all kinds of opposition.
Satan has always been opposed to that which God has set up and established. There's going to be those trials because there's three things at least, that we're not going to be rid of until we get home to glory. One is the work of the enemy, the other is the flash, and the other is the school of God. We have those things, and not until we get home to glory and sit down in His presence will the trials and the tests and the circumstances of life be behind us.
And so she comes and she falls at the feet of Jesus in intercession on behalf of her brother. She says, Lord, if that's been here, my brother had not died. She knew that he could have prevented the situation. But she also knew too that even though her brother had died, he was able for the situation according to his own will. And so how good to come to the feet of Jesus and to just accept his will?
In the situation, it's true the Lord Jesus here came in in grace and raised Lazarus from the dead. But I'd just like to say this before we pass on that God doesn't always promise to remove the difficulties. You know, sometimes I have visited dear brethren, and they've been going through some real trial, and then I go and I visit them next year and the year after, and they're still going through that trial. And you wonder why the Lord hasn't removed that difficulty. Well.
Sometimes the Lord doesn't remove the difficulty, but I believe what He does give is grace for the situation. When Paul prayed that that thorn in the flesh would be removed, he prayed three times that the Lord would remove the difficulty. The Lord said, no, Paul, I'm not going to remove the difficulty because it's for your good and blessing. But he said I'm going to give you the grace to glorify me in the difficulty. He said my grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness.
You know, Martha seems to be one who always had to be busy, always had to be active in doing something and trying to help a situation. The Lord has said to her, in loop thou art careful and troubled about many things. But I say again, I love the spirit of Mary. Here I covered it for my own soul that Mary sat still in the house. And brethren, what was the result here? You know, the more I read the word of God, the more I'm impressed with its accuracy.
And where we begin in verse 19, it speaks of those that came to Martha and Mary. But that's not what it says in the 42nd verse where we read. It says that many of the Jews which came to Mary. Because I believe that those who came to that home on this occasion as they saw the confidence and rest that Mary had in the Lord, and as they saw her quiet testimony.
As she sat still in the house, it was a tremendous blessing and encouragement to them.
Because, you know, it's easy to be a Christian. It's easy to be happy when things go well. But the test is when something adverse comes into our lives. Now, are we in the sanctuary now? Are we enjoying the presence of the Lord so that there can be that peace and that rest exhibited in the situation, so that there can be that Christ likeness brought out and so that others will receive a blessing? You know, sometimes I have seen.
Dear children of God, go through real trials and difficulties, and as I have watched them and seen their quiet testimony and how in quietness and confidence they found their strength, it has been a tremendous blessing and encouragement to my own soul. I'm sure you can think of brothers and sisters in the Lord who went through some trial and you say, I don't know how they ever went through that trial and how they had that peace in their soul. It comes from being at the feet of Jesus.
00:25:31
And So what a blessing it was, as they saw dear Mary, had she, how she could sit still amidst the difficulty. I say it was a blessing to those who came, uh, to marry. And so I just say again, there are going to be those sorrows in the home, in our lives individually and. But he's able. He's sufficient. He's the God of all comfort. And he passes us through those things to to to teach us lessons, to draw us to himself And then.
To make us a blessing to others. Well then we find in the 12Th chapter the Lord Jesus comes to this home for the last time in His pathway here. How it must have thrilled his heart, and how it must have how he must have enjoyed this little season as he came. And again he's surrounded by those who love him. As the hour of Calvary approached, as he realized that he was rejected by that nation that he had come to bless, he came unto his own, and his own received him not.
Has he realized too, that uh, Peter was going to deny him, That all the disciples were going to forsake him and flee as he realized what it would mean to go under the waters of judgment and be made sin for us? What a cheer it must have been to his heart to come to Bethany once again before he went to the cross. And so he comes to this home, and we find these three here. And I believe that these three that are brought before us in this way.
They bring before us what ought to characterize a Christian home. First of all we find in verse two. And they made him a supper, And I love this brethren, it says, And Martha served. You know, when the Lord came for the first time, the service was cumbersome, and he had to rebuke Mary, because she was careful and troubled about many things. But here was service in his in his proper place, because I believe that Mary learned the lesson.
That the Lord had thought to bring before, or that Martha had learned the lesson that the Lord had sought to bring before her In Luke chapter 10, she learned that joy in service springs from the presence of the Lord from sitting at the feet of Jesus. And I really believe that Mary learned, or Martha learned to sit at Jesus feet so that when he comes to the home for the last time, she serves. But there's joy in her service, Nothing about the service being a burden here.
We were noticing some of us in Worcester the other night, how that Solomon's servant sat in his presence, and the queen of Sheba noticed this. And then they went out, and they stood before Solomon to serve each in their capacity. And what does it say there in First Kings? 10 about those servants? The queen of Sheba noticed that they were happy servants. Happy. Are these thy servants? You know you don't always think of servants as being happy. When we think of service and servants, perhaps we think of those who carry on.
They're tasked, but there's no real joy in it. Maybe they do it out of a sense of duty, maybe because it's a requirement and they have no choice. But perhaps they're just mundane tasks that they perform from day-to-day. Was that the way it was with Solomon's servants? Oh, no. They sat in the presence of Solomon, and their joy in service sprung from those times set aside when they sat in the presence of Solomon. And we find here that Martha, she serves in a proper capacity. Because I say again.
She had learned to sit at Jesus feet and service is a wonderful thing. Everyone of us here, if we know Christ is our Savior, we have a path of faith and service that he has set before us. Our brother mentioned that verse this morning in the end of John, how the Lord spoke to Peter concerning that path that Peter was going to have and something of what Peter was going to suffer in the path of faith and service. And Peter turns to John and he says, and what will this man do?
And the Lord said, if I will, that he tarry till I come. What is that to thee? Follow thou me. He has a path of service for us. And it's an individual path too. He had a path for John. And the Lord is it worse that I'll take care of John? He's got a path of faith and service too. But Peter, your responsible to walk in the path that I have set before you.
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Sometimes use this illustration. I know many have heard me use it, but you know, I've been helped to understand that portion.
By a little incident that used to take place in our home when we were growing up, particularly my sister and I, sometimes we would be given a task to do perhaps to clear off the supper dishes and wash them and put them away. And mother would leave us to that task. And after a while she would come back into the room and she would say, Jim, you're not doing what I asked you to do. And I would usually say, well, Jennifer's not doing her part. And Mother would always say you do what I asked you to do.
And I'll take care of Jennifer. Now that, in a sense, is what the Lord was saying to Peter. He says, Peter, you are responsible to follow me in the past that I have for you, and I'll take care of John. I just temper my remarks by saying that it is true that we ought to have the same care one for another, and we ought to bear one another's burdens. But, brethren, in the final analysis, when I stand before the judgment seat of Christ, who am I going to give an account for?
How? Well, my brother Pennsylvania, uh, walked in the path of faith. How? Well my sister followed the Lord. I'm going to give an account of myself whether I followed in the past that the Lord had for me. And so it's an individual path, because the path that the Lord has for you is not the path that He has for me, but it is a path nevertheless, and it's a path marked out in God's Word. And I believe if we really desire to know that path that he's willing to show us in all thy ways, acknowledge him.
And he shall direct iPads. If any man desire to do his will, he shall know. He wants to show us the path and to make it clear, Even in this day of utter weakness, even in this day of ruin. Thank God, if we're not faithful, he abideth faithful He cannot deny himself. And so Martha serves here. And then we find that Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. He enjoyed that fellowship and communion.
Not only had Martha learned the lesson, but Lazarus had learned it too. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful? When you go to a home and you visit in that home, and the whole family has a desire to follow the Lord, you just know that the Lord is welcome and honored in that home, and there's a desire for the enjoyment of the things of the Lord. That's the way it was in this home in Bethany. Martha serves in her proper capacity. And Lazarus, who also had seen, no doubt.
Mary sit at the feet of Jesus and receive a blessing. Now he sits at the table because the table would speak of communion or fellowship. I say. Again, brethren, there's no substitute.
In our Christian lives, for communion with himself, that's what he desires for us, and we'll be happy Christians. Uh, if we're living in the conscious sense of the presence of the Lord Jesus. You know, sometimes we pray and we ask the Lord to be with us. But, you know, I don't really. I don't believe we need to pray that prayer as much as we need to pray the and ask the Lord that we might have be walking so that we have a conscious sense of His presence with us because He never leaves us nor forsakes us.
If I don't enjoy the presence of the Lord, if I don't enjoy his company and fellowship, it's not because he's left me. Even those two on the way to Emmaus who were going away in disobedience. Jesus himself drew near and went with them. He, uh, he they didn't understand who it was that was with them, but Jesus was with them nevertheless, and they eventually did have their eyes open and come to appreciate that it was the Lord Jesus who was with them.
And so the Lord is with us. But may we be exercised to enjoy, uh, that portion and that communion that He has for us. Well, then we find that Mary is at his feet again. She was at his feet as a learner, listening to his words, she was at his feet, an intercession on behalf of her brother and in her sorrow. And now she comes, and she's at his feet. As a worshiper, Mary had been occupied with the person of Christ as he walked through this world.
And at the end of it all, her heart is overflowing in worship and praise, because worship is a springs from a heart overflowing with the person and work of Christ. To be occupied with himself, to be occupied with His glories, to enter in more to who he is. As Paul said, it was the great desire of his life that I may know him. Oh, that's what will produce true worship in our hearts. And so she comes and she brings this costly ointment. She doesn't count the cost here.
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It was costly ointment, but she brings it with a response of heart and she pours it out at the feet of the Lord Jesus. She had criticism again they because if we notice, not only did Judas speak against her, but all the disciples spoke up against her. But the Lord showed that he valued the response of Mary's heart and brother. That's really what he wants this afternoon. He wants worship from your heart and mind. He could say to the woman in the at the well in John Four they that worship the Spirit, the Father must worship him.
In spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship him, and so how good to be occupied with the person and work of Christ, and then to have that response of heart again. It's not that we try to generate some response within ourselves, but it will be there as we're occupied with Himself as we enter in more So what he means to the Father, as we enter in more to the fact that he glorified God in His pathway, and as to the work of eternal redemption.
How good it is, like in Hebrews, to lift up our eyes to the open heavens and be occupied with himself. And so Mary, she doesn't count the cost, but she comes to the feet of Jesus as a worshiper. Well, how good for us to be individually and in our homes at the feet of Jesus. But before I step down, I'd just like to apply it in a collective way, because when we take up the scripture, there's two lines of truth that run parallel through the Scripture.
There's the the individual aspect of things, our individual position and responsibility before God. And I think you'll find when you have the individual aspect of things, there's always a comparable truth connected with the collective side of things. I'll just give you a quick example or two you find individually, Paul said. The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, What's the collective truth and comparable truth? Christ also loved the church.
And gave himself for it. We find that and we read in Hebrews. I will never leave the nor forsake thee. That's individually. What's the collective side where two or three are gathered together in my name? There am I in the midst of them. And so I'd like to apply these three little portions in a collective way, Because first of all, we noticed in Luke that she was at the feet of Jesus to hear his words. And brethren, I believe we need this more and more in the days in which we live. We need to be collectively.
In the presence of the Lord Jesus, with the word of God before us, we need to avail ourselves of ministry in the assembly. You know, I've often said that I'm glad I grew up at a time and in a home where our lives were planned around the assembly. But you know, I'm afraid that today what we do is we plan our lives and then try to work in the assembly rather than it doesn't work again. Satan is busy. It's a day of great pressure. Life is getting faster and faster.
And we need to plan our lives around the assembly so that when prayer meeting night comes, there's no question as to what we will be doing that evening. When the night for the ministry and the assembly comes, there's no question as to where we will be and so how good to avail ourselves and to bring our families to the assembly meetings. I say to plan our lives around the around the assembly. It's vital. It's needful in the days in which we live.
And so there are those times set aside when we can come collectively and have the word of God before us, because it's in the assembly that we learn. Now, it's true that the assembly doesn't teach, but it's in the assembly we learn as taught by the Spirit of God. And the assembly is to be the pillar and ground of the truth. And when we come together in the Spirit of God is given liberty, then the truth can be ministered to us, and Christ can be brought before us as to His glories, His person, and His work. And so I say again how needful this is.
In the day in which we live, and you know, I think too, this is one of the wonderful things about being gathered to the Lord's name, because there are so many who will put them in at the front and they might get part of the truth, They'll get one aspect of the truth. But nobody questions what he says. But I believe when ministry is taken up in the assembly in the way in which God has instituted it, that we get that balance in the assembly. You know, we're creatures of extreme. I often think of that verse that says Ephraim, is a cake, not turned.
You know yourself, if you put a cake on the brittle and you don't turn it, it gets too well done on one side and not enough on the other. And I've noticed that those who do not avail themselves of ministry in the assembly, and brother and I don't want to take away from personal reading of the word of God. It's vital and important. But if we don't avail ourselves of ministry in the assembly, we can become unbalanced. We can become extreme in our thinking. And when ministry is taken up in the assembly, if I bring out something that's not correct, another if the spirit of God is given, liberty can correct it.
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If someone brings out one aspect of the truth, another, by the spirit of God can balance that we know in the assembly. Some can bring out the doctrinal principles and give us an outline. Some can make a nice application. Others can bring out the gospel from the same portion, and so we need to avail ourselves of ministry in the assembly. Then we find that in Luke, in John 11, Mary was at his feet in intercession on behalf of her brother. I'd just like to apply this in connection.
With the assembly prayer meeting, you know, I am saddened to find as I travel amongst the people of God, that often, not always, but often the assembly prayer meeting is the most poorly attended. Why, brother? Well, I suppose there are several reasons. One is perhaps we don't really recognize the power there is in collective prayer, and secondly, we don't see the Lord in the midst. If I really believe that the Lord was there on Tuesday night, just as He is on Lord's Day morning, wouldn't I want to be in His presence? I say this is the collective side of things.
So that he can enjoy our presence, not just individually, but he can enjoy our presence collectively, like Israel, in the wilderness, he said. But let them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. He didn't want to wait till they were in the land and the temple was built to enjoy fellowship with his people. He wanted them around himself in the wilderness. And so we don't appreciate, perhaps, the fact that the Lord is there. But I say we also don't really realize, at least for my own soul.
The power there is in collective prayer, if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that you ask, and it shall be done for you of my Father, which is in heaven. And when he takes up there in Matthew 18, the administration of the local assembly, what is to characterize the local assembly dependence? And so we need to come. He knows our needs collectively, even before we ask, but he wants us to come as dependent children and bring those needs before him.
And recognize our own nothingness, but that we have everything in himself. And so how good to come and bring our petitions to him. And haven't you often, as you look back, haven't you often seen the power of assembly prayer. You know, I think we have it in principle with Daniel. There was a situation that affected not only Daniel but his three friends. They were going to be to lose their homes and perhaps their lives if the King's dream was not told to him. And then interpreted. But Daniel knew where to turn. He gathered his three friends together and they had a prayer meeting. And the Lord came in.
And answered their prayer. And it was a tremendous request. But when they came collectively, he answered that prayer in a wonderful way. In Acts 12 The Saints came together to pray about Peter, who was in prison. They were burdened because I believe collective prayer is to bring before the Lord those things that affect the people of God as a whole and those things that affect us as assemblies gathered to the Lord's name. And is there an assembly gathered to the Lord's name today that isn't going through some real situation?
That doesn't have some trial, some difficulty. There are those things that affect us collectively as gathered to the Lord's name. The people of God were burdened in the 12Th of Acts for Peter, and they came together with very little, if any faith. But the Lord honored that collective exercise to pray collectively for Peter and delivered Peter. And I just like to say something I've said before as an encouragement to the sisters, because Rhoda is SPE specifically mentioned there.
You know, Rhoda was a sister, a damsel, a young girl, and she might have said, well, why go to the prayer meeting tonight? I can pray for Peter at home and the brothers are going to pray audibly at the prayer meeting. Well, she could have prayed at home, but I believe the Lord gave her a special blessing that night in allowing it, That she was the one who went to the door and saw first hand the power of God to answer prayer in the assembly and then there she would have heard about it the next day.
She would have rejoiced with the Saints. But I don't think Rhoda missed very many prayer meetings after that because I don't believe she ever forgot that she saw the power of God to answer prayer in the assembly and deliver. Peter, do you want to see power in the assembly? Do you wanna see answered prayer in connection with the people of God? Rather than we must be at the assembly prayer meeting. And I'd like to say something too that recently has exercised me concerning collective prayer. You know when they prayed in Ezra's day, it says and all the people said Amen. You know, I love when I visit an assembly and after a brother prays, there's many audible Amen.
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Now sometimes I go to the assembly and a brother prays and nobody says Amen at the end of his prayer. You know, that's disheartening, particularly to those who are younger, if nobody says Amen at the prayer, end of the prayer. And that brother who has prayed has prayed Uh. As as a mouthpiece of the assembly. And when we say Amen, we give consent to his prayer. And so how good to listen to those prayers, not to fall asleep, not to be thinking of other things. I know things come in, but we need to listen to those prayers. And if we agree with those prayers, if the brother has expressed the burden and the thought of the assembly, how good to say?
Amen. At the end of the brothers prayer. Well then very quickly we find that uh Mary is at his feet as a worshiper in the 12Th chapter. And what a privilege we have upcoming on large day morning and pouring out our hearts in praise and Thanksgiving. Oh brethren, may we value this precious privilege of coming on Lord's day morning to remember the Lord Jesus and his death. And it's often been said we don't come to uh yet at the at the breaking of bread we come to give. How good to pour out our hearts. You know, I've enjoyed in connection with the six water pots that were at the marriage of Canaan of Galilee, just a little practical application. I like to think of them as six days of the week. And they filled the water pots to the brim with water that which would speak of Christ and they were to be filled right to the brim. And then the Lord Jesus took that water and turned it into wine.
And if we, uh, fill out the water pot 6 days of the week, we can come with that which we can turn to praise and joy, and we can worship him, uh, on Lord's day morning. But if I haven't filled the water pots, there's nothing for me to bring to pour out to the true governor of the feast. Well, Mary valued these things, and I just trust, brethren, that these scriptures will encourage us to value the FA the privilege of sitting at Jesus feet as individuals, of having the Lord Jesus the center of the home, sitting at his feet as families, and sitting at his feet collectively.
I say again, he's made full provision for the pathway. Soon we're going to be home. Soon all the redeemed are going to join in the eternal song, and we'll never take our eyes off Him for all eternity. We'll be at his feet for all eternity to enjoy his company and he to enjoy ours. But all I say, he wants our company now, and this is what brings delight to our soul to spend time at the feet of Jesus to walk with that blessed one who loved us and gave himself for it.
Let's turn UH to the 6th chapter of Judges.
Judges Chapter 6.
And verse one.
And the children of Israel.
Did evil in the sight of the Lord?
And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel.
Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made them.
The dens which are in the mountains and caves.
And strongholds. And so it was when Israel, when umm Israel had found that the Midianites.
Came up, and the Amalekite and the children of the East.
Even they came up against them and they encamped against them.
And destroyed the increase of the earth as thou come unto Gaza.
And left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ***.
Where they came up with their cattle and with their tents, and they came as grasshoppers by multitude.
Let's go down.
Verse six in Israel was greatly.
Impoverished because of the Midianites and the children of Israel.
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Cried unto the Lord.
Just wanna stop there for a moment.
I'm sure all of us are aware, but it bears repeating frequently.
That the stories that we have in the Old Testament are illustrations of things that we learn in the New Testament. We do not get doctrine from the Old Testament stories. It's very important to keep that in mind.
Just say that because I think we tend to lose sight of that sometimes, and yet they're very rich in teaching us things.
And I believe this little story of Gideon.
And his days has a lot to teach us.
The direct.
Cause of.
The.
Dealing in government with Israel that God had at this time was that they did evil in the sight of the Lord.
They had gotten away as a people from the Lord and so the Lord delivered them into the hands of Midian. Now for the benefit of the young ones, I remember when I was a young fellow, sometimes I used to wonder, brother would say, well, Midian means right And then I say, well, where did he get it? How does he know that? Was this some secret that this brother had discovered or how did he find it out?
Well, I think it's much simpler than that. It's simply the meaning of the word. It means strife. And God uses that then as an illustration for us of what the Lord sometimes delivers us unto because we've gotten away from Him.
Look back with me a couple of years, 3-4 years and.
Where we delivered unto the Midianites as the people of God.
Where are we?
Yes.
Strike difficulty contention.
And why?
Well, because there were these fellows that didn't want to go on, and we could think of all sorts of things like that. But the real reason is, plain and simple, beloved brethren, that we as a people did evil in the sight of the Lord.
Don't turn away the edge of that because that's God's word and that's what he's saying to us.
Collectively we did evil on the side of the Lord.
Doesn't mean Midian was good. Doesn't mean strife is something that we think is a good thing among us. The results of it are very plain here. Israel was greatly impoverished because of it.
Isn't that so?
Isn't that our story as well as Israel's?
What an impoverishment there was through strife.
Verse two says.
Because of the Midianites.
The children of Israel made them the dens.
Which are in the mountains and caves and strongholds.
I believe that not everyone, but a lot of people that.
Went out from among us.
We're just plain fleeting drive.
Not at all.
But some were fleeing strife and they now is that what God wants us to do, to go make dens and caves? No. I think we're going to see a better path in this chapter.
There's one man that God notices, and we'll come to that presently.
But I think we have to recognize that strife doesn't produce prosperity among the people of God.
And when the Midianites came up, also Amalek came up. Strife leads to Amalek is a picture of the flash.
And the flesh becomes very active when there's strike.
And I wanna call attention to that verse.
That we have in.
00:55:04
Umm, we're sick.
And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites.
I have a deep love and care for our young people.
They mean a lot to me. They've encouraged me in a way I can never tell you.
And I want you to know.
Various young people, you know who I'm talking about. You've been an encouragement to me.
I don't want to embarrass them that there's one man right there, Jose Luis. What an encouragement he's been to me.
And it hurts me to think of the impoverished condition of the people of God brought on. Why? Because of our failure, because of our doing evil in the sight of the Lord. And God is too faithful to let us get by with that.
And so he delivered them into the hands of Midian. We've got to recognize that beloved brethren that we were delivered into the hands of Midian.
But I think it's very sweet to see this. I'll just call attention to one more thing before I notice it.
And verse, uh three.
And so it was when Israel had sown that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites and the children of the east, even they came up against them.
Our sewing.
Just seemed to go for north, isn't it?
The sawing that was done, the precious seed that was sown.
It just seemed as if it was overcome.
We were overcome by strife.
Now I wanna call attention to the end of verse 6. And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord.
Oh beloved brethren, that's the thing that's needed is to cry to him.
What did they cry to him? I don't know. Doesn't say here. But I suspect that the first thing was to say, oh, we're overburdened by this. We're we can't. We don't have anything. This is discouraging.
Because the Lord in answering them, and that's what I want to notice next.
Verse 7 And it came to pass when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, because of the Midianites that the Lord.
Sent a profit unto the children of Israel, which said unto them.
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.
I brought you up from Egypt and brought you.
Forth out of the House of ******* and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians.
And out of the hand of all that oppressed you.
And grave them out from before you and gave you.
Their land. And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.
But we have not obeyed my voice.
End of prophecy.
End of prophecy? Oh, wait a minute. It isn't prophecy encouraging.
Not always.
Prophecy in its basis.
Means a word spoken on behalf of God or on behalf of another, but particularly in the scriptures on behalf of God. There's one instance where Aaron was the prophet of Moses.
It's when one speaks on behalf of another.
And when they cried to the Lord, the Lord answered them.
But it wasn't to say, well, everything is going to be fine from now on.
He didn't say that.
He lays before them the root of their problem.
She lays before them what he had done for them.
01:00:04
How he had delivered them out of ******* and all, if we look at what the Lord has done for us.
Who of us would not be touched in our hearts as we think of that?
To think of how God has brought us out of darkness into light from the power of Satan to God.
But he's also said to.
I'm the Lord. You're not to serve the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. And, beloved brethren, I believe that's God's word to us. We have.
Served the God.
Of the people among whom we dwell, what are those gods?
Money. Prosperity.
Beautiful circumstances in homes.
Sports and music.
And we've been infected by that worship.
That is all around us, that is, are the gods of the Amorites, and God will not put up with. That is a jealous God.
I'm not saying and please don't misunderstand me that.
We want to impose a system of legality on the Saints of God. That's not the point. The point is where are our hearts?
Are we really a people that the Lord has taken hold of?
That are separated unto him for whom he is the very first and foremost the one Who.
For whom we would live.
And the sad end of the prophecy is you have not hearkened unto my voice.
You have not obeyed my voice.
God has spoken to us disastrous to be holy for him.
We've gotten so enmeshed in everything around us that we've lost our character.
As heavenly men.
That's end of processing.
Profit didn't stay around to give them some encouragement. Afterwards, he delivered that message and he let it sink in.
Are we listening?
Is it true? Do we have to say yes, Lord, we've allowed a lot of things to take possession of our hearts.
Where R.
And I know there are, but where are?
The men and women.
Who are one thing people, one thing that I desire to the Lord and that will I seek after.
Where are they?
The Lord looks down, and he's looking for a separated people. Beloved brethren, does he see it in me?
Or have we worshipped the gods of the Amorites, among whom we dwell now they're not the old gods on the other side of the river.
They're not the Old Gods.
Those who were delivered out of idolatry.
I said praise God, I don't have little statues in my car and I don't have crucifixes hanging on my wall and all that kind of idolatry.
That's the Old gods. But what about the gods of the Amorites, among whom we dwell?
And that's what the Lord would put his finger on in this prophetic message that this prophet gave.
Now I wanna turn to a brighter side of it in verse 11.
Entertain an Angel of the Lord.
And SAT.
Under an oak which was an Oprah.
That pertained unto Joash the ABS right, and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress.
To hide it from the Midianites. Oh, I love this. What a scene it is. Here is a young man.
01:05:07
Who bucks the tide?
Will you stand up and be counted, young brother and sister, and buck the tide?
What great thing did he do at this point?
The great thing was that a fresh week to hide it from the Midianites. Where did he thresh it? In the wine press? I judge that that speaks of self judgment.
The week.
Speaks of Christ.
And here is this young man who says no matter what the condition of the people of God is, I'm not going to go off into a cave or a den or a stronghold.
I'm gonna stay right here.
And I'm going to get something of Christ in picture for my own soul.
Is that your purpose?
Well, I want you to know that if it is your purpose.
The Lord is sitting there watching you.
Brother Jim was mentioning in his encouraging word.
That is hard sometimes, to take time to get alone with the Lord and get communion, but it's absolutely essential. If we want to go on for the Lord, you've got to do it.
And when you take time in the morning, perhaps getting up.
I won't embarrass her by mentioning her by name, but a dear sister that's sitting right here.
Encourage my heart immensely.
Couple of years ago I was visiting in another country.
And I had gotten up early in the morning to read the scriptures, and I was sitting about 6:30 or so out on the veranda.
Of the home.
And meditating on the Word at my Bible open.
This young sister who was, I think, about 17 at the time.
Suddenly walked down the road from the beach with her Bible under her arm.
And Hermantea if I remember correctly.
You just come from a time of communion with the Lord and she and some other Christians.
Would get up in the morning and go down to the beach and get their little time with the Lord.
What an encouragement that was to me. She didn't do it to show off. She had no idea I'd be sitting there reading.
But suppose I wasn't there? Who did notice it?
This Angel of the Lord, I believe is very clearly from the rest of the chapter, very clearly is the Lord himself.
It's the Lord present and angelic form among his people.
And he came and sat there, I believe at this point invisible to him.
Why do you say that, Brother ****?
The next verse.
And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him.
The Lord is sitting and watching you as you take time. Dear young brother and sister. An older one too. But this is a young man here, still living in his father's house.
And he.
Has that purpose of heart that he no matter what the impoverishment that there is among the people of God, no matter what the effects of?
Right among the people of God, no matter how strife, it robbed the people of God of sustenance, he says. I'm going to have something for myself, perhaps for his family, too.
The Angel of the Lord sits there and watches him.
And then the Lord appears to him.
And he says.
The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of Valor. Wait a minute.
Hiding from.
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Hiding some wheat from the Midianites. Remember, what God calls mighty man of valor is not what we would necessarily call a mighty man of valor. We think of some great exploit, but I tell you, there's no greater thing to do for someone.
Who is in the midst of a condition among the people of God which was brought on by general failure? Who rises above it and says I'm going to get something of Christ for myself?
And I say again, he got it in the wine press.
I believe that's the place of self judgment.
Well, Gideon's rather surprised, he says unto him.
Oh my Lord.
If the Lord be with me, with us.
Why then, is all this befallen us?
And where be all is miracle.
Which our fathers told us of saying.
Etcetera.
You know, there's something very interesting about this. The Angel of the Lord, or I believe the Lord himself, says to him, the Lord is with thee, Gideon.
Now mighty man of valor, but you know he doesn't separate himself from the condition of the people of God. And in the next verse he says, if the Lord if Jehovah be with me, no with us.
We can understand why.
A brother might say, If the Lord is in the midst of those gathered to his name, why all these things that have befallen us?
I've even heard it.
Now I have no doubt that the Lord is in the midst of those gathered together to his precious name.
And in that special sense of Matthew 18 there only.
But he begins to wonder about it.
And he says, Why is all this happened to us? Let's ask it. It's not wrong to ask it. Why has the Lord allowed this to come in? Why have all these things befallen us? Where are the the great days of the uh of the uh apostles, or the great days of the Reformation, or the great days of the recovered testimony in the 1800s? Where are they? What's going wrong?
He says The Lord has delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. It's a good thing to recognize the Lord's hand in all of these things.
Don't blame others. Don't look at others. Say the Lord has delivered us. You know, brethren, one of the things that I'm going to sit down in a minute, but one of the things which has really impressed my soul in recent years is to think about two men among the 12 spies who went up to the land, who gave a proper report, a report of faith, and walked for 40 years with their brethren.
In the consequences of their brethren's failure, that takes grace.
That takes grace.
No, I'm not justifying walking in evil. That's not the point. But to walk in the consequences of failure. We are a ruined testimony, dear brethren, A ruined testimony.
If we are anything, it is a testimony to the ruin of the Church.
Brother **** don't you think we ought to go on? Yes, with all my heart, I believe we ought to go on, because I don't believe God teaches us that we're gonna be anything other than that. Second Timothy makes it very plain that our testimony is a testimony to God's faithfulness in the midst of ruin, not ours.
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I wanna notice verse 14.
Here's another.
Hint that it's the Lord himself and the Lord.
Looked upon him, and said, Go and this thy might.
Dear brother and sister.
The Lord is looking at you.
He's looking in love.
Sanyo.
And if you'll take your place humbly with your brethren in the ruin, acknowledging the ruin, and seek grace from him, he has a word for you. Go in this thy might. What is thy might? What was it?
His might was to go on.
In a path of faithfulness to the Lord, in spite of the ruin, the general ruin, among the people of God.
And I just leave you with that encouraging word. I trust it's an encouragement to your young brother. Young sister, don't chafe under the thought of the ruin. Don't let it. Don't let it turn you aside to say, well, where is the big meetings? Where are the great gospel works? Keep on and do the work of an evangelist. Yes, Don't give up on that.
But be willing to go on with your brethren in a path.
That's a path of reproach. For the glory of the Lord go in this thy might.
Consider Him, Awaken, Friends
Open—R. Ruga, C. Little, B. Conrad
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You know, there are a lot of things we can consider.
And the Word of God exhorts us to consider certain things.
But we occupy our minds with during the day. Usually forums are a character.
And then what we're occupied with is usually what we speak about.
For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
But when I was thinking of a scripture in the book of Haggai in the Old Testament.
Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai and Zechariah in the first chapter of Haggai.
In verse 5.
That one verse.
Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways.
Saying that lovely hymn, what will it be to dwell above and with the Lord of glory reign? You know, brethren, you have any idea of the joy that will fill our hearts when we get to be with the Lord right now in the Spirit of God, I sense is often occupied with, uh, calling to our attention, our deficiencies, how far short we come.
Of what we know we should be. And we grieve the Spirit of God repeatedly. And the Spirit of God has to spend so much time exercising us as to our ways and bringing the word of God before our heart to search us into correct us, examine ourselves before we even come into the Lord's presence as to remembering Him in death. This morning we're told to do that in First Corinthians chapter 12. Often we have to consider our ways.
Uh.
And it hinders us from communion with the Lord, because our ways are not pleasing to the Lord.
Is the verse in the Song of Solomon, it says, uh, that the, the fox, the foxes, they, they spoil the vines, the vines are tender. How, how very easily communion is disrupted, isn't it, brethren, by very little things that come into our lives. These little foxes, they, they intrude themselves so easily and uh, immediately we find ourselves out of happy communion with God our father.
Because we had not considered our, our ways, would our eyes be held? You know, the Bible says mine eye effect is my heart. What we see during the day, it affects our, our heart and our meditation and we're passing through a polluted theme. Uh, it's very easy to become defiled, isn't it? It takes constant washing of the water by the word, meditating upon God's precious word, getting up early, reading the scriptures and meditating upon what we've read throughout the day.
We have to what this prophet Haggai says to consider our ways here. Those to whom Haggai is writing they they weren't considering their ways. They were neglecting the construction of the the temple there and the remnant and that was restored to Jerusalem. And instead they were discouraged by a report and they went back to building their own houses.
And while they were doing that, the House of the Lord was lying lakes.
Often we, we suffer spiritually in our souls because we are too much occupied materially with present circumstances. I know such is the case in my own life. We're we're so diligent, you know, as to our business and providing for our families, necessary though that may be, and we neglect the feeding of our souls.
Haggai says consider your ways. Was this the time for them to dwell in field houses the brother yesterday was speaking to us about?
Are being occupied with so many things in this life that we forget our heavenly calling.
Well, here the prophet says, you know you haven't prospered, you've so much and you've only brought in a little wine because you didn't give the Lord the preeminence. Do any of us really give the Lord the preeminence in our lives?
We allot the Lord so much in our lives and that's all. The rest is for myself. Well, we have to consider our ways. The Lord exhorts us to this. If we want the blessing of the Lord, we have to be exercised as to giving the Lord His rightful place in our lives, the preeminent place. Another scripture that comes before 1.
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In the Psalms, the 8th Psalm.
O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.
Who hath set thy glory above the heavens?
Out of the mouth of babes and supplings hast thou?
Ordained his strength, or established praise because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. And this is the Scripture. Happy for me when I consider thy heavens and the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained.
You know, coming driving up here to the conference where you're passing some beautiful mountain ranges, lovely green trees, and we, the wife and I, considered the handiwork of a Lord. The Lord made all beauty.
Lord, Lord for it by sin, but still nonetheless we see traces of the handiwork of the Creator and all that which He has done, still visible to man, in fact the Lord Himself when He was here.
Uh, on earth, He says, consider the Li, the lilies, how they toil not, neither do they spin. I say unto you, that Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like unto one of these. So the Lord would have us to consider, uh, his handiwork, these flowers that we so admire their beauty. Another occasion the Lord says, uh, consider the Ravens, which have neither storehouse nor born, and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Really not much more care for you, or you have little faith.
So the Lord would have us to consider his animal creation. This verse brings before us the celestial creation of the Lord, the moon, the stars which thou hast to ordain, whether it be the broad expanse beyond or whether we consider the the minute under a microscope, it doesn't matter. We see the handiwork of God and we we realize how great and how powerful God is. And you ever think, dear young people, especially that that same great powerful God.
Loves you so much.
His love is as great as His power. He knows neither measure nor end. Uh, sometimes we think we're very small and insignificant, but small and insignificant as we are, the Lord loved us so much that He died for us on Calvary's cross. The same great God that created all these things and He would have us to consider them all. He says, you know I love you and I'm going to care for you just like I care for the Ravens, worthless birds, unclean birds, I care for you.
And, uh, we, we consider the majesty of God and, uh, the great power and, uh, we, we, we think of the love of God. This morning as we were remembering, uh, the Lord and his death. And we, we realized that it was incomprehensible. It was beyond our, our taking in with our finite minds, uh, the love of God, we could never fathom.
It's great. It's a good thing to realize God and to acknowledge him as the Creator. Man, especially in this age in which we live in 1994, likes to shut out the Creator from his own universe. They don't want the mention of God in the school system or any reference to the Bible or any quotations from the Bible and newspapers entirely different than what it used to be. We used to read the scriptures in the school and you hear many a newspaper they have at least the violent Times Journal had a a verse of Scripture every day on the top of the newspaper.
No more, but God would have us to consider that He made all these things.
Another thing the Lord would have us to consider we've been taking up in the 12Th chapter of Hebrews.
Hebrews, chapter 12.
Verse 3.
Or consider new translation tests. Or consider well him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.
Consider well Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. There are many things that can occupy our time and our minds. You know, we go to school, we get an education, we go on, we get higher education and then we get a job and you need further job training. It seems to be endless the things that can occupy our minds when here the Bible says we are to consider well Him.
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The Lord Jesus Christ to endure the contradiction of sinners against Him. Did He deserve this contradiction of sinners?
You know, you read that 53rd chapter of Isaiah and it says he is despised. Despised this man. Why, what was so despicable? Nothing. He was perfect in all his ways. He was sinless as we heard, but yet man rejected him and rejected and despised of men. Here's the one that the Lord would have us to consider, I believe.
Get our ways straightened out before the Lord. It's all right to take up with astronomy and microbiology and all this, but above all things, we come to this consideration. Consider Him. Do we consider the Lord Jesus Christ?
What a meditation it is to have the Lord daily before us in our way is so that we can be transformed into His image and be more like Him as we await His soon return.
Could you turn, please to Isaiah?
Chapter 51.
I wanna read read a few verses here.
Umm in con connection with what our brother has already brought before us to consider. And so before we can consider, we have to hear what God has to say to us.
I want to read Isaiah chapter 51 and verse one.
Hearken to me.
Ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord, look unto the rock, whence ye are hewn into the whole of the pit, whence ye are digged.
Drop down to verse 4. Hearken unto me, my people.
And give ear unto me all my nation.
For the law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for the light of my of the people.
Go on over to verse 7. Hearken to me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whom? In whose heart is my law.
Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings.
Well, I believe we have here three different.
Thoughts connected with hearkening. You know, today they say, are you listening? You know, sometimes I thought of it. We we're speaking to someone and they're they're looking at us and they're listening, but are they hearing what God has to say?
And I believe it's very important to see that God has given us the whole scope of His precious Word. And as our brother has been saying, consider various things to consider. But if you don't hear what he has to say, how can you consider? You've got to listen to God's Word. And very interestingly, I want to show you in these verses a little clause he says in verse one hearken.
To me.
Verse 4 Hearken to me.
Verse 7 Hearken to me, what is he talking about?
God is talking to his people.
And those of us that are the Lords, he's talking to us too at this very moment. He wants us to hear what he has to say. And I think it's important to see, you know, we hear many things in the world and we we hearken dear young people, you're probably listening and hearing many voices in this world. But are they the voice of God?
Are you listening? Are you hearkening to what God has to say? Not just while at these meetings, but the rest of the week, Come, come the following or in your contact with those at school, those in contact with, in contact with those in your employment, wherever it may be. Are we listening? Are we hearkening to what God has to say? It's interestingly the interesting that he, God doesn't say.
Are you listening?
You know, he says. Are you hearkening?
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Are you giving ear to what God has to say? The only place you're going to know what God has to say is in this precious book, as our brother has been pointing out, to consider him and to consider your ways. And in that book of, uh, that our brother was referring to also is quite an interesting thing that goes on there. Consider your ways because.
Your ways may wind up with an empty heart.
And an empty grave and a lost eternity. So it's very important for us to hear what God has to say. But this isn't all he says here. I just call attention to these three portions. Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness. Are you really following after righteousness?
You know you have none of your own if you're a child of God. The only righteousness you have is Christ. Are you listening? Are you hearkening to what his word has told you or instructed you? And I believe it's so very important to see that God isn't speaking to the world here. He's speaking to his people. And I believe, as our brother **** was mentioned yesterday, how important it is for us to realize that God has called us out of a condemned world.
A people for his name up there and what are we doing with our time? Are we listening? Are we hearkening to the word of God? Are we being exercised? Are we considering these are practical things. You know, we know a lot of doctrine and we know a lot of truth. It's not my thought to go into the to the doctrine of this epistle or of this of this book, but it's just to to pick out the thoughts that God has for us here hearken.
Ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord.
Well, I'm sure if I were to ask you young people, if you're seeking the Lord, you probably are. And I, I must agree with that. But are you listening to what he has to say or is it just a moral ascent, a an ascent of saying, well, I know the Lord is my Savior. I believe it's very important to see that he's bringing that out here. Ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord, look unto the rock, Quinciar Hyun.
And.
And the whole of the pit when you're digged, what does this bring before your soul? Am I? We had it this morning before us in the remembrance.
The rock is Christ. The whole of the pit is where we were.
We've been digged, We've been brought out of that. What is our response? Are we hearing what God has to say to us? Are we listening, hearkening?
Well then, I'm not going to take a lot of time here, but I just wanna point that out to you. Look, listen, Hearken. Then he noticed. He says in verse 4, Hearken to me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation, for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for light, for light of the people. God's desire is your blessing, not your judgment.
And so for this people, he could say.
They a law shall proceed from me. I will make my judgment to rest for a light. He's going to hold it back. He doesn't want to judge his people. He wants them to be brought into the light, but he wants us to listen. He wants us to hearken to what he has to say. Then going to verse seven, consider hearken unto me ye that know righteousness. He had spoken about following righteousness and now here he says hearken to me ye that no righteousness.
Do you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior? Truly know Him? Are you acquainted with Him? Do you talk to Him every day? Did you talk to Him this morning before you ever came to meeting?
Interesting, isn't it? He desires your company. He wants to hear your voice. He wants to hear your words. Because he loves you. He gave himself for you the rock from whence you were digging.
The the hole from once you were digged and you're on solid rock.
But as our hearts that's solid. Are we not melted in the presence of the Lord Jesus, So he says ye that no righteousness. The people in whose heart is my law for us here was the nation of Israel. We apply it now.
To ourselves. What is in your heart? What has God planted in your heart? The Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God is here implanting Christ in our lives. The Spirit in whose? In whose heart is my law? Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings. Here's a good word for each one of us, each one of us, older and young. Many times we fear man.
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The fear of man is a snare.
And the only way we're going to hear what God has to say is not to fear man. So the fear fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. Now I've read to you three places where he says, hearken, hearken, hearken. Now let's look at a little further here.
Look at verse 9.
Awake. Oh, here's something else.
If we hear.
Are we awakened?
Awake, awake, put on strength the arm of the Lord. Awake as in the ancient days. Here was the nation, of course, and they were asleep. They were not awakened. They were. They didn't listen. They didn't hearken. Read the history, They didn't hearken. Is our history any better? Not in the least. We too have failed. We have not hearkened and we've been asleep.
I think of that verse in Ephesians.
Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from among the dead.
Can a child of God be asleep? Yes, he can. And so the word here is awake, awake, awake, put on strength. But interestingly, he gives us this three times.
You know in the amount of two or three witnesses. Let every word be established. God establishes His truth in threes.
And also in sevens, but I believe many times it's established in threes. So just notice verse five of our chapter. Awake, awake, put on strength.
O Arm of the Lord of Wake, as in the ancient days, dropped down to verse 17.
Awake, Awake. Stand up. Stand up.
Don't Crouch down in a beaten fashion. Stand up, he says. O Jerusalem. Stand up, O Jerusalem.
Then going to verse chapter 52.
Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem. To me this is beautiful. Three times over, he says, hearken, hearken, hearken. Three times over he says, awake, awake, awake, wake up. The world is asleep as to the person of Christ, and judgment hangs over like the sword of Damocles.
And it's going to fall just as sure as we breathe. The judgment of God is coming.
But he wants us to hearken.
And then He wants us to awaken and see what He has for us. Oh, God has wonderful, glorious truth for you. You can have some of it. You have some of it now. If you're a child of God, you have the indwelling Spirit of God.
To make it good to your soul. You've been brought into the light, why go to sleep?
Why sleep? Why go back into a, a, a lethargy? Why not go on not only being awakened or hearkened, but to be awakened very interestingly, ver uh, chapter 52 and verse one awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion. Zion was the place of grace, wasn't it? And we have been brought by the grace of God into a marvelous place, a marvelous position as children of God.
We've been given the grace of God, has wrought in our hearts and brought us into a place of blessing and nearness. And He wants us to.
Awake and realize this and enjoy it and the only way you can do it is by if you're awake to it.
If I'm asleep.
I may dream, but that's not reality. But if I'm awake, then I can get, I can see the reality of what God's love is for me. Oh dear young people, please please, Please remember that God's love is for you.
And he wants you not only to hearken and listen. Oh, you know, you read verses, we read verses. You go to Sunday school, Bible class, so on. I'm sure most of us here do. But are we listening? Are we awakened? Are we, are we hearkening? And are we awakened to what God has to say to us? Because he loves you. He really loves you. He's proved it. We've had it this morning, remembering him, remembering him and his death.
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A death that we will never fathom. A love that we can never, never find its depth.
Oh dear young people, each one of us, may we be not only awakened, but may we not only to hearken, but really we have awakened. Awake, awake. Put on thy strength, O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments.
You know every child of God is clothed with the righteousness, God's righteousness, which is Christ. You have a new garment which you didn't have before.
And he says, here, awake, enjoy it.
Respond to it.
As he says, awake, put on thy beautiful garments for Jerusalem, holy city. For henceforth there shall be no there. There shall no more come unto thee, the uncircumcised and the unclean. The beautiful picture here. I want to go into doctrines on this, but just to bring this out to you, that this is so beautiful to me. Zion, a place of grace. We have been brought by the grace of God into a marvelous place. We've been given a new garment.
We've been clothed out of God's righteousness, which is Christ, and he wants us to be awakened to this, and not only so. If we are, then he says, for henceforth there shall no more come unto thee. The uncircumcised and the unclean separated past is our path not to be mixed up again and go back into the darkness from whence we came and and be confused and cover up.
Or really despise that beautiful garment of righteousness which is Christ. So I, I, I think of these three portions, Harken, harken, harken, awaken awake and awake. I just thought it might be of interest. Sometimes you can read it over yourself. Consider it. You may get some blessings from it. I did. And but I just pass it on to you that God's desire is for each one of us. As he says, awake thou that sleepest.
And arise from among the dead. Don't be like the rest of the dead.
Awaken, Hearken, Hearken. Hearken and awaken. Awaken, Awaken.
We turn to Luke's gospel in the 11Th chapter.
I don't know how I get into these situations. Being the last one up, I've exposed myself to David's.
Pronouncement, but hopefully time will be not an issue here.
Luke Chapter 11. I'd just like to read part of verse 5.
The middle of verse 5 Which of you shall have a friend?
I'd like to speak for a few minutes about friends.
And I was.
I feel particularly.
Happy to speak about the subject because for some reason or other I've been.
UMM benefited. I don't know if others have benefited as much as I have from having good friends. UMM and I know.
There are many times when I sense that I would have been turned aside.
Or made shipwreck if the Lord hadn't used the Instrumentality of friends in my life.
And.
If I get distracted as we go along and taking up what we take up.
I want to just say at the outset here.
And certainly, as we read in the book of Proverbs, I think it's at the end of the 17th chapter, there is a friend which sticketh closer than a brother or another translation has been a lover. There's no friend like him.
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And if you were old enough.
When you were saved to know a little bit about what it's like to be out in the land of the prodigal, and you can remember the experience in your life when no man cared for your soul.
How expendable that you felt, and what a amazing thing to have a person, the very Son of God Himself, come into your life, not merely not only as as the Lord, but also as one who.
In spite of the fact that he is the Lord of Lords, and God over all, blessed forever has condescended to come down and to take up and consider the things which belong to the sons of men.
And to call us his friends. To think that he has a desire to commune with us and tell us his thoughts. I want to hear ours. There is no friend like him.
Which of you shall have a friend? Are any of us that feel like we don't need or want friends?
Sometimes at meetings like this, there's people sitting away back in the corner.
Or those of us by nature. Maybe our personality is such that we are what people sometimes call loners.
We allow for all of that, but still no one knows our hearts like God and on the authority of Scripture, we can look at each other and say your heart is like mine for as in water, face answers to face. So the heart of man to man. And someone once said that the human heart has 22 deep needs to be loved and to be understood. And uh, I've been thinking about that on and off for 17 or 18 years from the time I first heard it. I think it was in a conference.
And I never seen anything in the Word of God or in my experience that would tell me that that isn't so, that we have a desire not just to be loved.
If you could remember times in your life, or maybe in your childhood or in your youth, when you felt that you were loved by your parents or your brethren but you weren't understood, there's something missing there.
And how awful it is to feel that we're understood but not loved. That's.
Like being in the presence of light without there being any love, and that's an exposed feeling and we wouldn't want to be in that situation to be understood but not loved.
We like both. We desire both.
And.
It's something worth pondering how it is that the Lord weaves our lives with people coming in and out of our life's experience while we go through this journey on our way home.
Whom we desire to call friends.
Well, to start with again, just to confirm that.
Let me put it this way.
What's the what's the source of of friends?
Oh, so we often have, sometimes we have young people's meetings and we feel that young people are the only ones sometimes that have decisions to make special times in their life of difficulty and perhaps the temptation or a special influence to the effect of friends. And I'm sure that's so.
That there is special time like that in the lives of young people, but I think we've seen it in older ones, too. We've seen men and we've seen women in their 60s and 70s who have come under the influence of friends who are not for their help and profit have been turned aside. And so I don't think any of us, old or young, are exempt from the danger of having friends that aren't a help to us.
And also.
Uh, open to the benefit of walking with those that are help to us, that when we perhaps have a thought to turn back or if we should stumble, to have someone there to help us, to prop us up, to stir us on unless we faint in the way.
You know, it's interesting that as.
As many times as we have taken up the subject in Revelation 3 of Philadelphia.
Which is a profitable thing to meditate upon. And certainly we would aspire, all of us, as believers.
To the state of of being those that.
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That would like to follow the Lord closely, knowing Him as the one who is holy and true.
And we aspire to have access to the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who has the key of David.
As the one who has the administrative authority over the treasures and riches of God. As David could assemble all those treasures for the House of God, but he wasn't allowed to build it. Solomon did. But David amassed all those riches and building materials, if you will, and he had administrative authority over them. So Christ has that has the key of David. He opens and nobody can shot and he shots and nobody can open.
And then we would all of us aspire to keep his word and not deny his name. But we so rarely. I don't know if I've ever heard anyone speak much about the name Philadelphia, which I believe means city. It's a city of brotherly law. And so it's something that I feel constrained to speak about a little bit this afternoon, along with the subject of friends to encourage one another, especially those of us that are maybe a little keep our.
Feelings and thoughts very close to the chest, so to speak, those of us who are males.
Uh, we tend to keep our cup very close.
And this is.
Uh, not conducive.
Of creating.
Wholesome, helpful friendships. And at the risk of hearing about this from my my closest friend and partner all the way back home tomorrow, I'd like to speak a little bit about that friendship, which we call marriage as well.
So back in the book of Proverbs, first of all.
I think it's in the 13th chapter.
Proverbs 13 and verse 20.
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Kind of company do we keep is the question we can ask ourselves who do we walk with who do we surround ourselves with someone said in between the meetings that in this world when men are let go as we speak of the disciples being let go they want to their own company when the world is let go they run to their sports or wherever who do we walk with who do we surround ourselves with when we have so-called free time say well it's my relatives, my family or my.
People I work with, the people I go to school with, and all of that.
No matter if a person is a relative, they may not be a suitable friend to walk with.
It's a hard saying perhaps, but it's, I believe, born out very faithfully from the Lord himself and in the Scripture, that just because someone is my brother, my brother-in-law, my sister, my father-in-law, does not mean I can walk with them. How can two walk together except they be agreed? And it may even come, as some of you have been tested in ways I haven't, or even in spiritual things.
And things that come up in the House of God, tests come up where we find we can no longer walk, but those that we feel closest to by nature. And what a test this is. But he that walketh with wise men shall be wise. And how susceptible we are, if we company our spend our time and company with fools to learn their bad habits.
Their, uh, pick up attitudes, speech and things that.
Would distract us and turn us away and leave us with a bad conscience.
In Psalm 119.
A well known verse. Verse 63. I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.
And so that really, as a believer, if you belong to the Lord, whether you're six years old or 60 or anywhere in between, you have no right to choose your friends.
You're not your own anymore. You're bought with a price and you belong to another.
And that other one.
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Who is your Lord is going to determine is to determine who your friends are and who you walk with.
And the psalmist said, I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.
Much as we like to, sometimes we can't choose who's going to be at the Lord's Table in the place where we live.
You and I may just in our minds, just pluck out of our mind all of our favorite brethren.
All of the favorite Christians we know and say that's who I'd like to have right in the assembly where I live.
And someone said that'd be a recipe for disaster.
And I believe it would.
Lord, as head of the Church, sets us in the body as it pleases Him in a general sense.
And we know that providentially, if we could call it, that, he orders things.
So that our pathway is.
We go in and out amongst those who are intended by Him to be a help to us. And so we don't choose our friends, we don't choose who we walk with. The Lord chooses the path for us and He puts others in it. And it's our responsibility and our privilege to walk with those whom He has put in the path with us. And that'll be our happy path. And it'd be a happy thing. If we could say this, then it could be true of us that we are companions of all them, not just a few special ones.
But of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.
Speaks even in the Old Testament of a highway. The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. And in Second Timothy 2 it speaks of individuals who purge themselves from vessels to dishonor in what is likened to a great house. It speaks individually to an individual person if a man purge himself. And I can remember when I was young and was faced with these issues in that particular passage I was convinced and other Christians were convincing me.
That I was gonna be all alone, and I thought they were probably right, but I didn't know what else to do.
So I, by the grace of God, obeyed that verse, and lo and behold.
Like it says in the very next verse, to follow righteousness and so on with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Where did the with them come from? You follow down through that chapter and it's individual. If a man if a man if a man and he goes out and you think now he's going to be lonelier than ever.
As those who led me to the Lord told me, they're gonna be unfruitful and you're gonna be alone.
And I thought they're probably right, and I had no answer. Lo and behold, we can say as many can in this room, by being in the way. The Lord led me to the House of my masters, brethren.
And what a happy thing to find out that we're not alone, that others have.
Walked, gone through these exercises, and that there is God sees to it that there is with them, that there are others who also, having departed from evil, find themselves in the highway of the upright. And so in a general way, we can start with this and aspire that our companions would be those.
That would be those that fear the Lord, that keep his precepts and as it says in Proverbs 13, that are wise men. You know, it says in the First Corinthians, I speak as to wise men when it refers to the Lord's Supper on the Lord's table. And so it's not just referring to older brothers or older sisters, but those who have been initiated into the secrets of God, the mystery of the gospel.
And the mystery of God's will, which I'm sure many of those that are not even 10 years old in this room, would qualify in that scripture as being wise men.
In the book of Proverbs.
Verse seven. Chapter 17. Verse 17.
Just to read the 17th verse. Proverbs 1717.
How do I know what a friend is? A friend love us at all times.
A friend love it at all times.
There's none like him.
Who loves us, having loved his own says and John's gospel. He loved them through it all or until the end. And then someone read the passage yesterday even to ***** head to the end of our journey. I believe it was our late brother Eric Cokington that told the story about the man that had apparently been a shepherd with with sheepdogs and on his deathbed he as Eric told the story.
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He was whispering something like they caught me, they caught me. And people are saying what caught you, what caught you? And they couldn't understand. And they kept saying they're catching me, they caught me, they caught me. I know some here know the story. Finally they said what caught you. And he said, goodness and mercy, they've been following me all the days of my life. They finally caught me. And Eric likened them to two sheepdogs under the command of the shepherd, following them all his way through.
Finally catching up to him. A friend. Love us at all times, and this is the friend we have in Jesus.
Well, what a happy thing it is when the Lord raises up others and when we cultivate the friendship. The brotherly love of our brethren doesn't happen automatically. You and I could be raised two houses away. We could be cousins.
We could eat dinner together every Lord's Day afternoon. We can go to reading meeting Tuesday night, prayer meeting Thursday night, the breaking of bread, Lord say morning and the gospel Lord say night, and go to conferences together.
And never really be close friends.
This is what I have on my heart.
Nothing wrong with going together like that. Nothing wrong at all.
But I believe there's something that we need to cultivate. Now. Is this just my thought? I don't think so. If we turn to the Book of Philippians.
We see that it was the exercise. Let's just go there.
We see it was the.
OK.
Philippians 127.
Middle of earth, whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the face of the gospel.
Chapter 2. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies fulfill you, my joy that you be like minded, having the same love, being of 1 accord and of one mind.
I think the Darby translation has joined in Seoul thinking one thing.
Mr. Darby was one who, though he never married, made the statement that there's no bond as powerful over human heart like devotedness, mutual devotiveness to Christ.
And we see in David's life that when Jonathan was slain.
And David laments for Jonathan. He speaks of Jonathan's love and sayings. I love to me.
Just came and went.
I think the second Samuel 1.
I'd love to meet with Wonderful, I think it says.
End of chapter one. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant hast thou been unto me. Thy love to me. What's wonderful? Passing the love of women. How are the mighty fall and the weapons of war perished?
Bond between David and Jonathan A picture perhaps, in some sense, of a believer with Christ, but also of two hearts with the United object. How much more wonderful if man and wife as believers have this bond, so that the natural tie of marriage is deepened further still by mutual devotion to Christ.
We see in the book of Philippians that the apostle had a burden, among other things, for the desire, his desire for the Saints to be bound together in soul, not just to be laboring together, doing the right thing.
But doing it together in the spirit and with A1 mindedness and with a a jointness of soul that would bind their hearts together.
If you turn over to Peter.
Who we think of as the man of action. And we say, well, wouldn't be natural for Peter, Peter to think about these kind of tender things.
First, Peter.
First Peter, chapter one, verse 22.
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Seeing you have purified your souls, and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.
Or with a pure white heat. I think someone translates that.
In the fourth chapter of the same book, first Peter four verse.
I'll read verse seven for the context first. Peter 4:00 and 7:00. But the end of all things is at hand. Be therefore sober and watch under prayer. And above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Above all things, all things.
It's an amazing passage of Scripture above all things. Next time you go to the brothers meeting, to the care meeting, think of that Bruce. Think of that above all things. Differences over translations, our translations, an unimportant issue. It's a very important issue. I, I happen to feel, and I'm sure you will agree, very important issue.
And other issues and other things that come up. But above all things, have fervent, active, outgoing love amongst yourselves necessary.
Amongst the Saints of God, for us to continue along in a way that will please the Lord.
You know, when I was the boy in school, they used to teach us, uh, square dancers and, uh.
I don't know how old I was, 10 or 11. I was at an age where to me it was a very uh.
Something I I didn't desire to be near to girls being a boy, but we had to dance the square dance, you know, in gym class and you had to touch the girls and swirl around. And I thought that I didn't like this. But you can't really dance those dances right, You know, unless you're relaxed enough and can hold the hand of the partner and swing around and do all those things. Well, sometimes in the assembly, you know, this is the way we are. She'll excuse rather.
Mundane analogy.
But God intends the assembly to work in a certain way, and the way He intended to work it needs.
This activity of love can't work other ways than that. We cannot just come in as as strangers.
And break bread together and it just doesn't work.
Not God's intent or thought. Fervent charity among yourselves. We could turn to John and see added what we want.
Back to the book of Proverbs again.
The encouragement to walk with wise men, to be companions of those that fear the Lord and a friend can be.
Someone sent from the Lord at the right time to help us.
A friend can also be a terrible, terrible snare.
They say, well, a spiritual person should be reserved.
And you know, even the Lord said He knew it was not what was in man, so He did not commit himself to any man. So therefore I feel that I should just not get too close to anyone because difficulties come and people leave and my heart is broken. Is that the way the Lord walked? The Lord was the one who said that it, it said of Him in John chapter one. But when we read the Psalms, we read of one who had the tenderest of heart. And it always strikes me how it says of Him in the Psalms prophetically, He looked for some to take pity.
And found none. They say, Well, this man like no other in his, in the majesty of his bearing.
We see him in John's gospel just majestically going through all of the shame and the spitting and the insults.
No matter what they did, the Son of God always is proceeding through it all.
Then came Jesus forth. I mean, it's just majestic in John's college, such a one as that. And yet in the Psalms it speaks of his heart. He looked for some to take comfort and pity and found none.
He felt it when his own familiar friend, with whom he did eat, friend, they walked together to the House of God, lifted up his heel against him. He felt it.
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And we can say of the Lord as a man down here, that in his love he extended himself.
And ultimately, of course, on Calvary's cross, the surety for the strangers.
He paid and was sore broken for it, but he extended himself and his love nonetheless. It's an extending thing to preach the gospel from the heart.
It's a wrenching thing to have a care for a soul, whether as to their soul salvation or that they would go on in the truth.
And so do we withdraw? No, I believe the Lord would have A to abound. You know that verse that we.
Used, though often helpfully with each other in Two Corinthians about being not unequally yoked together.
2nd Corinthians 6.
Verse 14 Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, well known important principle of Scripture, but right before it. Verse 11 OE Corinthians Our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. You're not straightened enough, but you are straightening your own bowels now for a recompense in the same I speaketh unto my children, be also enlarged.
Before the apostle speaks about a narrow path, he speaks about an enlarged heart.
And these things can perhaps be a real difficulty to a young person, a young believer. They were to me. I could not understand. I feel I sincerely could not understand and come to grip with how it could be. I knew that in the Word of God I was to love my brethren, and that I did love the brethren because I was now a child of God. It's the proof of it in first John. We know we passed from life, from death unto life, because we love the brethren.
And I knew I loved the brethren, but how did I reconcile the love for the Brethren with walking in what was not to them a very loving?
Relationship.
And it was on January 1St in Colts Neck, NJ, probably 1977, when our late brother Adrian Roche stood up in the open meeting and answered. The Lord just raised him up right like that to say that. And among other things, he said we need a large heart and a narrow path. And it just clicked. And he expounded on that for 20 or 25 minutes. And that was an immense help to me, a large heart in a narrow path.
And I'm not sure we can walk in a narrow path. Maybe legally we can, but spiritually I don't believe we can without an enlarged heart. I don't think we can be preserved in this world without a large heart.
Because like it again in Psalm 119, I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart without a large heart.
The fresh affections for Christ and a willingness not to shun the promised cross.
Without that, our pathway will become broader and broader, because true separation is the work of the heart.
It's in love to a person, and devotedness to a person is the only way I believe we can ever walk in a narrow path.
You know, on the subject of friends.
While we're there in Proverbs, if we could turn back to Second Samuel, First Samuel.
Sorry, Second Samuel.
Second Samuel in chapter 13.
Second Samuel 13.
One of David's sons.
Amnon came to pass after this, that Absalom, the son of David, had a fair sister, whose name was Tamar, and Amnon the son of David loved her, and Amnon was so vexed that he fell sick for his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin.
And none thought it hard for him to do anything to her.
But Amnon had a friend. Isn't this solemn? But Adnan had a friend.
I would hope when the record of my life is written and when the record of your life is written, that there's no chapter like this.
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That there's no turning point where a divine author could put at the heading of what was to follow an expression like this. But Amnon had a friend.
The marginal rating in my my Bible for verse two. Adnan thought it hard for him to do anything.
I don't know what basis the translators have for this. It was marvelous or hidden in the eyes of Amnon to do anything to her. Almost seems to imply, and if others could help me, let appreciate anybody had light on this. But it seems to me that he had no thought of acting upon this wicked lust that came from his fallen nature. Seems to me he had no thought to act upon it, but he was plagued with the existence of it. You and I would speak of these things in different terms.
Because since the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit, we have a different character, a different relationship to God in Christ. As new creatures we have the Spirit of God indwelling and so there is a different character to the warfare which is not our subject this afternoon. A flesh warring against the Spirit and independence. We would seek to be guided by the Spirit and not to fulfill flesh's lust.
That's not the subject here.
But I just point out that it seems from the scripture that he had no thought to act upon this.
What I'm not had a friend. Our friend's important this point. This friend comes into this young man's life and suggests a way. Just read verse three in its entirety. But Amnon had a friend whose name was John Adab, the son of Shimia, David's brother. He was also a relative.
And Jonadab was a very subtle man. And he said unto him, Why art thou, being the King's son, lean from day-to-day, and so on raises questions.
Always the work of the enemy to raise questions. Far more questions than ever could be raised than ever could be answered. Some senses.
The Friends important You find yourself at a crossroads at a particular point in your life of weakness or vulnerability.
What if he had had a different character of a friend? What if he had a friend he could have confided in? And so I've got this terrible problem I need to speak to you about.
And if he had a friend who could have appointed him in the right direction, it would have spared his life, and it would have spared other lives and lives that were in some measure ruined by sorrow.
There are other examples, beautiful examples in the life of David and his family of faithful friends. A time where I think our brother put it before us and Dorothy a few years ago when Jonathan was going up against the Philistines and his armor bearer turned out to be a very good friend to him. He said turn me, go up, do all that is in thy heart.
And other occasions we can read about, you know, why is it in the at the end of the book of Romans, the epistle to the Romans in First Corinthians. When I first began to read the Bible, I thought how strange that all of these these personal references are appended in the Bible after the main part of the Epistle. I thought it was strange. I don't think it's so strange anymore. Probably you don't either. All those references verse after verse after verse of references to.
Different of the Saints and to the relationships that the Saints had together very important.
Proverbs 27.
Verse 6.
1St 5 Proverbs 27 and five. Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Verse 9.
Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, So does the sweetness of a man's friend. By Hardy council, or in the margin, the council of the soul.
What a wonderful provision from the Lord. The Lord himself is the one in Isaiah who read about whose name is called wonderful counselor, and he is the counselor with the capital C.
But just like in the things of other, the things of God, in instruction we have not many fathers, but we have 10,000 instructors in Christ. He is the teacher with a capital T but we are taught by others.
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And he is the counselor with the capital C on how grateful we are. If you're like me and you are, I'm sure you can look back to times in your life when the Lord has sent someone, a visitor on their way through with their family, someone maybe you didn't know that closely at that time yet. But the Lord allowed you to have fellowship together, true fellowship and communion, and to feel comfortable speaking to one another. And you received what it calls here in Proverbs 27, the Council of the Heart.
Ointment and perfume, the sweetness of a man's friend.
By hearty counsel.
If you have a friend that loves you enough to correct you. A friend that loves you enough to risk hurting your feelings.
Out of necessity, out of love for your soul and for your benefit would encourage you to cultivate and regard that regard that friendship very highly in the Lord, a valuable, valuable thing. You know, as men we can be as, as males, we can be, uh, pretty thick skinned, or at least we can give that impression of it. Many of us, some of us, and we can really rob ourselves as a blessing.
That would be ours and the practical help, if others felt more comfortable to address us and to give us hearty counsel. It was quoted yesterday from the book of Romans. No man liveth unto himself. We affect one another. We are members one of another. We're going to be together throughout all eternity. And this life is in view of eternity, the eternity of eternities. How important, how vital.
To liken the in the picture in the book of Deuteronomy.
For a man's ox or his *** runs away. Well, what do we do? Just say, oh, I saw it and I just let it go. So in Deuteronomy, we're instructed to, to take it and to keep it by us. And when the man comes looking for it, to restore it to him. And sometimes the ox is a picture perhaps of, of, of usefulness and of, of strength. And sometimes there may be something that I allow in my life that is robbing me of usefulness and strength. How good if my brother.
Sees that captures that arc, so to speak, keeps it by him. And maybe someday when I come by, so to speak in the language of Deuteronomy, he has it by him and he can deliver it back to me. And I say, well, you know, I've been feeling kind of discouraged lately. You know, sometimes a person just comes and they want us to talk. And how wonderful if you've had the care and the conscientiousness to to retrieve to capture that ox and you can give that back to them and help them along in their liberty. It's very beautiful the way the apostles speaks of not desiring to have dominion over there faith, but to be fellow helpers of their joy.
To help the things along in their walk of liberty in Christ.
Verse 10 Thine own friend, and thy father's friend forsake not.
I never could understand why I should feel sorry.
For I was 23 when I was saved and shortly thereafter gathered to the Lord's name, and I lived in a remote place.
And I didn't realize until I started going to conferences number one, that I was a young person.
With a capital Y, capital P, and #2 That I was deprived because there weren't others of me all around where I lived.
And I felt very richly cared for in the Lord. And I'm trying not to be just merely facetious. I felt so thoroughly cared for in Christ in the assembly where I was. I used to go to the reading meetings on Tuesday nights and get there. And it seemed like the whole meeting was the fruit of somebody following me around all week long and knowing intimately what all my problems were, and then giving it to the brothers to minister it in the meeting. And I just felt so richly blessed.
My friends were some of them are with the Lord, like with he.
Some of them are Floyd Temple with the Lord and known to some here. Some of the older sisters are still here, still on fellowship and the brothers in their 60s, seventies, 50s and me in my 20s. We had beautiful times together.
Beautiful fellowship, did things together. Fishing, I never was much of it, but we went and did. It didn't matter. Go to pick up something at the store, it was wonderful.
The Lord ordered that place from me and brought me there. He could have brought me some place 5 miles from where I grew up. I lived in another city for a while, and I was four blocks from the meeting of the Saints gathered to the Lord's name in that city. Walk by day after day, Lord brought me to that place.
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And it was an end, still is, and it was furnished and still is, and it was a blessing.
So I found it hard to feel, and I must confess I feel hard to feel sorry for anyone that is an isolated circumstances because I feel that if the Lord has LED you to the Lord's table, He's going to provide for you richly. And I do not mean to make light of loneliness.
You know, without times of loneliness and times of weeping in a Christian's life, there will not be depth in our souls. What I wish on my own children or myself or any of my brethren here, times of sorrow and isolation, I wouldn't.
I can feel it as I stand here. Times of reproach.
I wouldn't wish that on a soul. But if you read through the Little Flock hymn book, you read through the lives of the Saints, whether in Scripture or in other accounts, and you see that some of the sweetest fragrances, the most precious hymns we've seen young sisters, married at 17, widowed at 19, gone to be with the Lord in the 20s.
Lies of sorrow.
Tears.
And that is the backdrop against which the Lord perfects and and extracts precious fragrance of Christ in our lives. We shrink from it. We always perhaps will shrink from it. What a precious thing it is. And Lord allows it in our life. Our widow is here. There are widows and widowers. There are those who perhaps will never marry and others for whom their partners have left. And they may go along single, raising children in all kinds of situations.
Others with unbelieving partners and we feel for anyone in these situations, others in isolation, but those are the valleys of Baca of weeping, and the Lord can come through and make these times wells.
And I'm happy that the younger folks, in all seriousness, can get together. So a lot of them have left now by now and get together and be together. And it's very wholesome and very good. And I enjoyed it too.
But I can't feel sorry for you if you come from an isolated place, because that's where the Lord has you and that's where the Lord is going to care for you and He will make it rich and a blessing for your soul.
My own friend and my father's friend. How wide is your source of friends? Is it the world? Well, you don't want that. You don't want the world to be your source of friends. But amongst those that are walking in the path of faith, look a little wider.
Don't forsake your father's friend. As time goes on and even a natural sense, I think we appreciate our fathers, our our grandparents and their friends. Maybe I'm not, maybe I'm not the only one that has always enjoyed older people.
Cultivate these friendships. If all of your friends are in your same age group, you have nobody to give you a frame of reference for things you haven't gone through except the Lord. But if your friends are in all different ages?
You have all kinds of help in people that can counsel you and help you in ways in which you are weak, and the same will work out for those who are older. How encouraging and refreshing it can be to be with those that are younger. Verse 17. Iron sharpens iron, though a man sharpeneth a countenance of his friend.
And how important it is to remember Romans chapter 15, where the apostle says, I myself, brethren, am persuaded of you, that ye also are.
Full of goodness.
Filled with knowledge, able also to admonish one another, It's a serious thing to step in and give counsel to someone in their life.
There needs to be a pattern of goodness towards that person. If we only go to speak to someone to correct them, they're gonna dread seeing us come across the room. And also we have to note we're speaking about come and speak to someone and give advice that it's contrary to the word of God. That's not good advice.
But with the knowledge of the Word of God and a pattern of goodness in your life towards me makes it easier for me to receive the counsel in correction I sorely need. So brethren, like it says Nathan's parable to David about that little ewe lamb, that.
Laid in his bosom, ate his meat, drank from his cup. There was an intimacy there, a beautiful picture of marriage which the clock has precluded us getting into.
David is going to push me off here in a second, but a beautiful picture of what marriage should be.
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See the meat a cup people don't, you know, everybody's got their own cup at the table, don't they? Cup is generally something you don't share. It's my cup in front of my plate on the table.
And that's the way we are in this plan, right? I drink out of my cup. You drink out of yours. And in the palms, I believe the cup speaks of our personal portion, but that Ulam was raised like one of his donors and it drank out of his cup. And it's a constant struggle, if I could confess this before so many, a constant struggle for me to open up to those that love me and to share within my cup. It's a blessing when I do. And if you have the same problem, I encourage you to work on it too.
Umm, I know some brethren and every couple of years I sit down with one brother that I know has a big heart and he feels no one loves him or understands them. I say, brother, you gotta open up to the Saints that love you, share your thoughts, share your concerns and your fears. And I said you'll find a real source of camaraderie and help and your brethren that'll help us go along until the Lord comes. We say we're getting weaker and we look all around and we see the numbers dwindling at the meetings of the Saints and that can be disheartening.
But really no weaker than we were before when there were thousands, really.
Really no weaker, the Lord's just shown us what we are. But how much more do we need one another? And not just in a formal way, at a arm's length way, but to seek grace and tenderness, to be able to walk together in the bonds in the bowels of Jesus Christ. As it says there in the book of Philippians, that our love, seeing you have purified your souls into unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another of the pure white heat.
You think together hit #84 and the bending.
The number 84 and defendant.