Vestal Conference: 2005
Table of Contents
Romans 8:1-8
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Romans Chapter 8. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God.
Neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he had raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die, but if he through the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body, he shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA, Father.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in US.
For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth and pain together until now, and not only they but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves.
Waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen, is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does he had hoped for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patients wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also help with our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. For he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he did for know He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.
Or over whom he did predestinate, them he also called, And whom he called them he also justified. And whom he justified them he also glorified. What shall we say then to these things? It's God before us who can be against us.
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yeah, rather that is risen again. Who is even at the right hand of God? Who also maketh intercession for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, for thy sakes, we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, our principalities and our powers, and our things present, and our things that come, our height, our depth, or any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
00:05:15
The chapter starts with no condemnation and ends with no separation.
What a range of truth is between the two?
In the 7th chapter.
He was looking for an answer to his dilemma within himself and the reason that there is no condemnation in Romans 8. Because a man is in Christ, he's in a new position.
And in the 7th chapter, the desires are right and yet there's no power. The good that I would do that I do not. And there's this struggle going on.
And now we see, as you pointed out, that this chapter starts. There's now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
That's unconditional, isn't it? There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. That's our position. That's why the latter part of that verse does not belong there.
But you find it a little further down.
Verse 4 Where the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, we certainly have to walk into spirit in order to fulfill the righteousness of the law as far as the fact that condemnation for every believer is fast.
Does not depend upon our walk.
And if we don't understand that, we'll never understand God's dealings with us, because man thinks God's against him and he's trying to get him, punish him. But the believer, that is not God's purposes for what he allows in our lives. And we see that the infirmities and all things working together for good. That it's not the condemnation that God is working in our lives because there is none. I just want to offer a little bit of an explanation because sometimes for the younger ones we hear this.
Thought well, you know the latter part of that verse shouldn't be there, and that is true.
We sit on our with Bibles on our laps. But as we know that the Bible was written in manuscript in hand, and so the old manuscripts, they picked them up and just like some may write in their Bibles, that there were little expressions, maybe handwritten into a handwritten Bible. And it wasn't quite clear in the New Testament as to what was there in the original and what was not. And that's why it took a spiritual translator to see perhaps what had been.
Added as a little comment because the statement is true.
It is not characteristic of a believer that they walk after the flesh, but that is not the truth that the first verse is trying to bring out.
The Old Testament there is not that problem because the scribes when they count it when they copied it.
They attributed A numerical value to every letter and they added up the value of the manuscript that they copied. And if it if it didn't add up, they would not try to correct it. They would destroy it and start over because they thought if they found one mistake, perhaps they made two or three, and so only if the manuscript proved to be perfect. But in the New Testament there was more of this problem.
Of these little interjections that are put in.
And the spiritual translator could consider the manuscripts and to see whether they belong there. And as you see that it's a true statement, but it's not really what the first verse is trying to bring out.
In this chapter, the Spirit of God is mentioned about 18 times.
What characterizes Christianity is a man in the glory, having accomplished redemption by his work on the cross, and then the coming sending down the Holy Spirit to indwell us, to unite us. This is not in Romans to unite us into one body. That's in Ephesians, but.
The We're living in the day of the Holy Spirit.
Where all that is ours in Christ. Whenever you read about being in Christ, it means in Christ's place before God. There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. God sees us in the same place of acceptance and favor and blessedness as his own Son, and He's given us the Holy Spirit so that we can be in the enjoyment of that and live in the good and the power of that.
00:10:05
And that's true Christianity, isn't it? The spirit of God is here. He's been here now for 2000 years, and when we're raptured, he'll he'll.
Leave in the sense in which he's here now and what he's doing now. He still works. He still works always. God works by the Spirit from the very beginning. In fact, he's the first person of the Trinity that's mentioned in Genesis 1.
The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and.
He's one of the He's the last one. In Revelation 22, the Spirit and the bride say come, so we have the Spirit of God.
Fully characterizing this day of grace and every single one of us who's a believer has a divine person dwelling within us. That's a fantastic thought, isn't it?
Tremendous thought. God the Spirit indwells us and enables us to enter into his thoughts of his beloved son and all that he's done for us. Well, there's so much. There's so much in this chapter. I remember I used to go to the County Hospital in Chicago and I read Romans 8 to the patients there so many times that I didn't try to memorize it, but I pretty much did.
When I was a young man, because of reading it so often and their faces just lit up with joy as you read some of these precious verses that are in Romans 8.
There are two things in connection with the indwelling of the Spirit to get in Corinthians, and that is that we're individually indulged by the Spirit of God, that our bodies are the temples of the Spirit of God, and they give us the power, as we see in this chapter, to walk in the last chapter. There was no victory, There was a desire.
But there's power in this chapter and.
In Corinthians you get our bodies are indwelt by the Spirit of God individually, but we see something else in Acts that comes out in Corinthians. Is that the House of God? That is the dwelling place of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God came down and filled the whole house, and that is what is characteristic of that. This day and dispensation in which we live is that that place is is filled with the Spirit of God.
And maybe even possible for one that is not saved to be in the enjoyment to enjoy the benefits of the fact that the spirit of God has come down and filled the house and you're not be personally.
A. A indwelt by the spirit of God and be a saved person at all.
But what we get here in Romans is the personal side of things, is the Spirit of God coming down and and what he's done.
What God has done as a result of the Lord Jesus Christ being exalted.
Notice in the 7th chapter where you have a quickened soul, but he's under law and he says in verse 22 I delight in the law of God after the inward man. He had a nature that could delight in that. But he says I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members if.
A quickened soul, one who's been born of God, gets under law. He's going to be miserable.
So he says here, O wretched man, that I am, who shall deliver me, deliver me from the body of this death. And then he says, I thank God the deliverance comes through Jesus Christ our Lord. And notice the second verse of Romans 8, the law of the Spirit of Christ, of life in Christ Jesus. That's not the law that the man was under in the 7th chapter. This is a fixed principle of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Made me free from the law of sin and death. The law of sin and death made the man wretched. In Chapter 7, if you find a true believer that's under law, he's not happy because.
It's that's not what is the power. The power of the Christian life is in the spirit of God. It's a new life, and he operates on that life and sets us free from the law of sin and death.
Do you think that maybe Cornelius could have experienced what we have in the 7th chapter of Romans because he was a quick and sold but not yet saved?
00:15:03
I had my Bible open to that very place, and it might be good to look at that because it may seem to some of the younger ones that this is some strange doctrine that's been surveyed, is that a person might be quickened or have life towards God, not be saved. But we see that perhaps we should turn to to Peter.
To to see this, but let's just look at Cornelius.
In Acts chapter 10.
There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the van called the Italian band, a devout man, one that feared God with all his house, and which gave much alms to the people, and which prayed to God always.
Well, we know that he was earnestly looking to the Lord, and the story is familiar to you. Let's go down to the 34th, 1St.
Then Peter opened his mouth. Instead of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, and that in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him the word which God sent under the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ.
He is Lord of all that word I say he know was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, and went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. Well, Cornelius knew that. But there's something that Cornelius did not know, and that is what he goes on to say, and we are all witnesses of those things which he both did.
In the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem, who they slew and hanged on a tree. Him God raised up the third day and showed openly.
Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink with him when he arose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the quicker, the judge of the quick, and the dead, or the living and the dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth on him shall receive the remission of sins. And while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the word.
Why was that? Well, Cornelius had known that Jesus had come preaching peace and doing good, but he did not know that Jesus had died on the cross and that God had raised him from the dead, and that by preaching in that name that a man could receive the remission of sins. And so on, Ephesians, you get that truth, that after you believe the gospel of your salvation, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And that's what happened to Cornelius.
I believe that's what happened to the Zacchaeus, because Zacchaeus said to the Lord to half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I've taken anything, I've restored it fourfold. Zacchaeus was doing that before the Lord Jesus ever came along. But he said come down, I'm going to come to your house. Salvation has come to your house this day. And when he had that personal encounter with the Lord that he really came to know the Lord Jesus Christ in a personal way. And that is really what salvation is.
You get a picture of it also with the prodigal son.
And I think it's an experience that in some measure all of us have been through.
And so the Spirit of God can perhaps use that picture to bring these truths home to us. That young man, he went away from home, and he he followed a wicked path in his own will.
But in the end, he comes to himself and he judges himself. He looks at himself and he owns this condition and that's the activity of the new life.
He says I'm just reading from Luke, chapter 15.
And verse 17. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bred enough, and to spirit I perish with hunger.
It's really repentance. He's He's owning his true state, and so he's converted. He turns around. Verse 18. I will arise and go to my Father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants.
So haven't we all been in a position in our lives where we disobeyed? We've done something and our conscience is convicted about it, and we've got to go tell Dad or we've got to go tell Mom. And it's not a very pleasant journey to find them and to have that out before them. And we go with a heavy heart, and there's a question of whether we'll be accepted or not.
00:20:17
There is therefore now no condemnation.
Or we could put the word judgment in there to them which are in Christ Jesus.
You know, this young man didn't know what was before him. He couldn't say. There's no judgment for me.
But he wanted to do what was right. It was the activity of a new life that had right desires.
And so he goes back to his father. And as he comes to his father, he makes this little speech up. And I mean, you've done that too, You know, you've got to face the music, as they say, and you kind of try and figure out what you're going to say. You come up with a little prepared speech of how you're going to approach this situation. And that's what he did. And he said, you know, I'll just tell my father that, that I've sinned and I would be so happy if he would just take me in as one of the hired servants.
And, you know, it's been grace on this father's part to accept that. But after that, what would happen? He'd have to work for that acceptance, and he'd never be out from under the position of wondering whether he was accepted or whether everything was good and right, or whether he was facing condemnation.
It would never be a settled thing in his soul and so he comes to his father. But his father brushes that all the way and a beautiful picture there, you know, his father's song says from afar off. You know Joseph's brethren song from afar off and they've inspired to slam, and that was our heart towards the Lord Jesus, but the Father's heart towards us as he saw us afar on.
He ran and fell on his neck and kissed him, and he put that robe on him and shoes on his feet, the ring on his hand. And you know it's all a little picture of the fact that like that robe that was put on him were accepted in the Beloved. You're in Christ. And that ring on his hand, the ceiling of the Spirit of God, and he brushes that all the way, that prepared statement, No, he won't take him in as a servant. He says there's no condemnation for you. And he brings him back in and the full acceptance of the Son.
And brings them into that household. And you know, there's coming a day, as we just read in Acts as Peter said, the Cornelius, that the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man, he'll sit on his throne and he'll judge the living and the dead.
And the nations of this earth and his own people will be gathered before him, pictured in Matthew as sheep and goats. And they're going to learn at that throne their eternal destiny. But for you and I, we know it now. There's never a day coming where we're going to stand before the throne of God to find out what our eternal destiny is.
There is therefore now no judgment. We're never going to stand in judgment like that again. No condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
I'd like to turn to that verse in Peter because it summarizes what?
This.
Matter of.
Salvation and the Spirit working first Peter chapter one and verse 2.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the through sanctification of the Spirit.
Unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied.
It begins with God elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
Were set apart by the spirit, and the angels were ministering spirits of them that should be heirs of salvation. They perhaps preserved our life from death before we were even saved, but we were set apart for God.
Unto
obedience the gospel is to be obeyed. God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
And so there's obedience of faith, and then there's sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. And it's this grace and peace we realize, that if you were Speaking of the prodigal son.
Is that when he came back and confessed his sin to his father, what grace and peace he enjoyed? And that is the result of that. And that's the Holy Ghost, is what gives us that sense of the grace of God and peace. But it's the blood of Christ that's been applied to wash our sins away and puts us in this perfect standing that we have here in Romans chapter 8. No condemnation.
In the third verse of our chapter it says for what the law could not do.
00:25:04
It demanded obedience.
It could not produce it.
It could not do that.
So anyone that gets under law and breaks it is condemned by it. What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. This man in Romans 7 found that out. He had a nature that wanted to do what was right, but he always found he did what was wrong. He hated the wrong that he was doing in the new life, but he didn't find any power in in carrying it out until the spirit of God. The spirit isn't mentioned once in Romans 7.
He's mentioned 18 times or more in Romans 8. Spirit is the power of life, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Spirit of God operates upon that new life that we have in Christ and enables us to.
Fulfill the requirements of the law without being under it. We're under the power of the Holy Spirit. Notice it says what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh. God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. So that sin nature that we have, it's not just our sins are gone, but the very nature that we had in the flesh is condemned, not forgiven. Our sins are forgiven, but the nature's condemned.
That the righteousness, the righteous requirement of the law, what it required, might now be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. That's very precious, that the Spirit of God operating in that new life that we have in Christ risen.
Takes us all together.
Above the law. Not that there's anything wrong with the law. The law is holy and just and good.
But.
We are taken into.
Association with the risen life of Christ.
Now by the power of the Holy Spirit you get that in in in John 20, where the Lord breathed on his disciples his resurrection life, and said, receive you Holy Spirit, the Spirit operating in that new life.
Leads us into.
To walk as he walked down here, it's possible for a Christian to say I can't live. The Christian life is wrong, Totally wrong, because he's given us all that we need to live it. He's given us a new life and it's a resurrection life, a life which is beyond the law.
They're making a lot of hullabaloo about the 10 commandments and though, and that would be better if they put John 316 up instead of the 10 commandments, because we all the law does is condemn us. But what Christ has done has put away all the condemnation brought us by a new life in the power of the spirit of God into association with Christ in glory, and the righteous requirement of the law is now fulfilled.
In US who are not under law but under grace.
That's so important because there's a general thought in Christendom is that when Christ died on the cross, he got rid of this awful thing called the law. That was against me. Because when I wasn't saved, I thought I was going to be happy by getting my own way, by lying, by stealing, by wanting what somebody else had. And I thought, like the prodigal son thought he was going to be happy by getting his own way. And so the general thought in Christendom is that God, Christ died on the cross, has got rid of this awful thing alone. I'm free now. That's not true.
God has fulfilled the righteousness of the law is fulfilled because.
A man is in Christ, and Christ was never really He was born under the law, but he was never under the law because he never had a desire to do anything that was contrary to his Father's will. We did, and that was the weakness, was that all I could do was condemn what I wanted to do.
It couldn't deliver me. It could look for something, but it couldn't give anything. Grace gives me something.
Law requires something of Maine and so we see that that the righteousness.
The work of the Lord Jesus Christ maintains the righteousness of God and the righteousness of the law too. And what was quite thinkable under the law is unthinkable under Christianity. If I went out into the forest with you, and we were cutting down a tree, and I got careless and it fell on you, then your relatives could come and and pursue me to a city of refuge. And if you got to me before I got there, you had the right to kill me. That was the law. Well, such a thought is unthinkable under Christianity.
00:30:17
And there are many things that an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth, that two children were playing and 1 poked out there. The other ones eye through carelessness. Well, the law said poke out the other ones eye. But that's such a thought is is unthinkable under Christianity. Grace brings us into a part higher position than we were ever under when the man was ever under, when he was under the law.
Because it really gives us the desires of Christ as he walked. In this world I do always those things which please my father I meet to eat.
Teeth that you know not of my will is to do the will of him that sent me. That is the life of the believer now.
I want to read a verse in Deuteronomy 6, two verses 24 and five. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as it is at this day and notice. And it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as He hath commanded us.
That would be man's righteousness.
He's kept the law. Well, can't do that. But that would be something we could boast in. There'll be no boasting in heaven, there'll be nothing in us that we can boast of. We are now viewed as in the righteousness of God in Christ. And that's an entirely different thing. Paul says being found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, even the righteousness which is of God by faith.
That's what we brought into God sees us as righteous as his son.
That's infinitely better than having a righteousness which is keeping the 10 commandments.
How many times have we had Gordon say that when you get saved that you don't lose the old man, You still got the old man. And there's two of them are inside. And every time somebody knocks on the door, which one do we let go to answer it? And the one that we let go to answer it is the one that we're feeding, and that's our responsibility. Are we feeding the old man?
Because if we are, he's the one that's going to answer it.
There's something else that the apostle brings out and a little bit later in the chapter, and it has to do with love. And it's really in our understanding of the love of Christ that leads us to understand that we are not condemned. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. And so we understand that because of the love of Christ there doesn't need to be that fear, it says in first John Chapter 4.
That umm.
It says in verse 16 partway through God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in Him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. There is No Fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. And so we have that thought of the prodigal son. He's coming back. He has.
He knows what the law demanded, perhaps, and he had no sense of the grace and the kindness and the love of the Father. But then he comes in, he sees he experiences that love, and he recognizes that there is not that condemnation. He's in the place of the sun. And so it's a lovely thing for us to lay hold of, and as we go through this, that the law goes no farther than a boundary, as it were. But the heart of God was not going to be bound by the law.
He goes way beyond that, and he presents his Son, and our blessing is entirely based upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus.
Probably typified also by a Mephibosheth that David said that he would sit at his table as one of the King's sons, and I assume that the custom in those days was that his lame legs would be under the table. The custom was a little bit different in the days of the Lord where they lay at table.
And your feet was out behind so that the Sinner woman came and anointed the feet of the Lord while he was at the table. I don't think that was the custom in David's day.
00:35:06
I want to make a comment. It's hard. The acoustics here are poor.
We're not getting everything but the in the third verse. Notice the perfection of Scripture. Look at it carefully. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. It doesn't say in the likeness of flesh. No, it was true flesh.
But it was in the likeness of sinful flesh. It wasn't sinful flesh.
And for sin condemned sin in the flesh, God sending his own Son in not in sinful flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh. But it wasn't the likeness of flesh. It was true flesh that you can't take any of those words out and get the truth. He he he he sent him in the likeness of sinful flesh. He looked, he looked just like.
You and I look.
Externally, I've often reflected on this. We often criticize the disciples and that because they didn't realize who he was. But put yourself in their shoes, here was a man in their midst. You look just like them. Spoke the same language, ate the same food, did the same things. He was just a man. Oh, was he just a man?
It took a tremendous work in their souls to for them to see that he was infinitely more than just a man. Now we have a tremendous advantage in this 21St century. We can read John 11. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God that tells us right off who he was. He just saw a man. What manner of man is this that even the wind in the sea obey him?
How can who maketh thou thyself the things that he said and did?
Takes a tremendous leap of faith on the part of the Observer to realize that he's more than just men.
God and man and one person, tremendous. We know that. We have a tremendous advantage. We have a complete Bible in our hands. They didn't have that. They didn't have that.
And we do. We are so blessed in this present day, are we?
No one said to me, what's the greatest miracle?
The Bible.
Think of a miracle that's more, I mean, how could 66 books written over a long period of time by all different authors in that? And perfection, perfection and God and and and it was trying to get rid of the Roman Catholic Church, burned it and burned it and burned it. And the enemies were there and they're still at it. But you can't get rid of the word of God. And we have that which is the greatest miracle right in our hands.
I.
It's not characteristic of a believer to be after the flesh. We may act like that, but what is true of us, they that are after the flesh, behind the things of the flesh.
Is really characteristic of a man that is not safe?
In a new position. And so the Lord in looking at the Lord, they could look at the Lord and see contemplate. That's why John said her hands have handled and they've been close to the Lord. They never saw the Lord act.
According to sinful flesh, I may say, well, I'm Irish, or I've got red hair, or or, you know, or I may excuse myself, but as we have here, He condemned sin in the flesh, but the Lord never acted according to the flesh. Every reaction was according to the Spirit and the will of His Father.
What a terrible thing it was for Judas to be with the Lord. Never ever saw the Lord react in self-interest or or doing anything to please himself.
And so that is what is true of the believer now is that we're after the Spirit, that we belong to Christ. But as our brother May, he brought out is it It's possible that we might walk after the flesh. I'm, I'm a man. I may walk in here in a dress and sit down in a dress.
And it doesn't turn me into a woman, but it sure makes me look like one and causes a lot of confusion. And it's the same thing a believer is belongs to Christ and he has a life of Christ. And I may act in a way that is a practical denial of that. If you do that, it's an abomination to God.
00:40:13
Where where are Woman's Apparel?
Verse six it says in our King James to be carnally minded. That really gives us the wrong thought. It really reads the mind of the flesh is death but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.
The mind of the flesh is death. It can only lead to death. It is.
The flesh.
Is looked at as as controlling someone as a mind, and it always thinks of evil things.
But we have the mind of the Spirit now, and it always thinks of things which are pleasing to God.
There's four times in John's gospel that the Lord states that he does the will of the Father. The first time is in John's Gospel, chapter 4 and verse 34, where he speaks of what the new man really would desire to feed on it. And so he says in verse 34, Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. And so he was satisfied to do only that work and to feed upon that which was.
Of the spirit, and then it says.
In chapter 5 and verse 30 I can of mine own self do nothing as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me. And so in judgment then he only does the will of the Father, he doesn't do his own will, as we often try to get our own way even in things of in matters in discipline and so on.
But the Lord only wanted that which his Father wanted. And then in chapter 6 and verse 37 it says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and shall he that cometh to me I will and no wise cast out, for I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And then one more in John's Gospel, chapter 8.
And verse 29 He that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him. And as he speaks these words, many believed on him. And So what we recognize is that the flesh does not please God, and it says that in in our chapter. So then in verse 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but you and I have the capacity to walk as Christ did.
Through this world, and seek his will and that which would glorify him.
It's possible, the Lord said. I do always those things that please him. It's possible for a Christian because he has the new life. He's born of the spirit. He's in dwelt of the spirit, he's sealed of the Spirit, He's anointed of the Spirit. And the Spirit of God is in control. It's possible for him.
To say I do those things that please the Father, because we are now in the life and nature and power that operated in our blessed Lord Jesus when he was here as a man, and He's given us all that is needed for us to walk as he walked. That's what John says. He did say if he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk even as he walked, how can we walk as he walked?
In the power of the Holy Spirit.
The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. I could not walk as Christ walked. How many of us do? Well, we have to say we don't, but we can. We have all that's needed to do it. Isn't it right?
Let's look at a verse in Colossians in connection with this Colossians one verse.
21 Connection with the 7th and 8th 1St year.
And you that were sometimes alienated, an enemy in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, unblameable, and unruh, provable in his sight. That's our standing. But the practical side comes in if you continue in the faith ground, and settle, and move not away from the hope of the gospel. So that's where the responsibility comes in. But.
00:45:06
The answer to the fact that we're alienated and enemies by wicked works in our minds. We have that in our seventh verse, that the mind of the flesh is an enmity against God was that he condemned sin in the flesh. I'm crucified with Christ, and so, as we've often heard, the blood of Christ puts my sins away, and the death of Christ puts me away in the cross of Christ.
The world away as far as we are, and so before God. And so the power to walk in that life is if we continue to walk as he walked.
But we're not going to get a different life when we get to heaven, because if we turn over in Colossians, he says, when Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory.
He is our life.
And that is really why.
He brings this in, and the Spirit of Christ in the 9th 1St is speaking about our position, but you are not in the flesh. That's our standing, but in the Spirit.
And if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you, the Spirit of God indwelling the believer is in a new position before God. He is not in the flesh, but he is in the Spirit. And what is the proof that one is indwelt by the Spirit of God? If so be he goes on to say Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of his it doesn't say the Spirit of God, but the Spirit of Christ and the proof that one belongs to Christ and is indwelt by the Spirit of God.
As he manifests the Spirit of Christ.
Noah was not indwelt by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God came upon him, but he manifested the Spirit of Christ. We see that in Peter the Spirit of Christ which was in them did testify of the Spirit of the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow. When he pled with them to come into the ark, he manifested the Spirit of Christ. And when a child comes to their parent and says, Mommy, I got saved last night and we heard that about a little girl in Saint Thomas.
And you could see that the manifestation of the Spirit of Christ in that child, that that that child was indwelt by the Spirit of God.
And that is really what the proof And if you don't see that, you don't see the Spirit of Christ in an individual, they are not as far as we can see and dwelt by the Spirit of God.
And it's more than it's more than that. It's the the having the life of Christ.
We're we're quickened by the Spirit. We're born by the spirit, and then we're sealed by the Spirit. And I want to address young people, especially now. I want to set before you from Romans 8 here the seriousness of you entertaining the idea of getting engaged and and eventually married to an unsafe person.
I want you to think of this now. I'm going to read this passage as it is in the new translation.
They that are verse 5.
They that are after the flesh.
Do mind the things of the flesh.
Are you going to entertain the idea of getting linked up the rest of your days with a person that only has the mind of the flesh and they can only enjoy the things of the flesh? They don't have the spirit, They don't have a new life.
They that are after the flesh, mind the things of the flesh. Now you, a Christian, have the flesh and the Spirit.
You still have the flesh, so you can. I mean, the only thing that's going to happen, if you married one that only has the flesh, they're going to bring you down to their level. You can't lift them up to yours because they don't have a new nature, they don't have the indwelling Holy Spirit. So it's a serious thing to even don't even go out with them. If a if a young man ask you young lady, to go to a dancer, to go to the show or whatever it might be, if they're not the Lord, it's absolutely not. Absolutely not.
Listen verse 6.
For the mind of the flesh, new translation is death. Everything the mind of the flesh sets its heart upon has the stamp of death upon it. When they say let's go out to see life, they're not looking at life, they're looking at death. They're looking at these things that the world enjoys.
This is solemn.
The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit.
00:50:02
Life and peace. That's life, That's peace. That's joy. That's happiness. The the mind of the spirit. Life and peace. Notice verse 7 because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God. Are you going to marry a man or a woman that has nothing but a nature that is enmity against God?
Serious. The mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God. Neither, indeed can it be so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. You're going to marry someone that can't please God. This is serious. This is serious because he only has a nature which minds the things that are deaf.
Things of the world.
So be careful.
Say absolutely no I can't go. Can't go with you I can't have I can't even have a date with you or whatever it might be. I I you know some people they go on a blind date have no idea what that other persons like. No idea. You should never go out with anyone that you aren't sure is the Lord's and has a life that the lights and the things of God. Otherwise you're you're you're you're dealing with fire.
And it's it's it's gonna be the worst decision you have ever, ever made. And it's irreversible. Marriage is an irreversible yoke, as you say. But there are other yokes into which we can get the scripture says be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And so there's a maybe a great temptation to get into business with someone that's not a believer, but they have only one object and that's the pleasing of self. But when a believer goes to work.
Whether it's collecting tickets or whatever that's doing there, they have an object to do that for the Lord and that's the desire of the believers heart. And but the moment that we yoke ourselves together with unbelievers, we're now together in a yoke with one that has only one object. And they may be good and decent people. Maybe they don't go to shows and movies and drink and that sort of thing. There's a lot of morally decent people in the world, but they they still have the mind of the flesh and it's still death.
And so we can sometimes we can see the air of our way and get out of those situations, unlike marriage. And that's the the one which cannot be broken, the yoke, but you're still in a yoke. And so it's very important and there's a lot of carelessness with this. And also what religiously is getting together with those that have an interest in the things of God who may not really be belong to the Lord at all. And there's a great deal of that, of joining together with those that are not. I worked with a fellow and he got involved in this Habitat for Humanity and there's a great big banner on the Mormon Church.
Partner Church and Habitat for Humanity. Are we going to involve ourselves in good works with those that hate the person of Christ that denies eternal sonship?
Well, that's a yoke that we get involved in and good works and so on. And you say, well isn't a good and a noble thing to help the poor build houses? Well, it's not. We the God's given us a work to do, and if we we will be just Hanford and limited, because as you pointed out, and the scripture points out so clearly that the mind of the flesh is just at enmity with God. And then the next verse, like ye are not in the flesh verse 9 but in the Spirit. If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you.
Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's the spirit of God. He's the Spirit of Christ. He's the formative power of Christ in our life. He's none of his.
Serious, But we're completely different. We live in a different world if we're living in the Christian sphere.
We have a new life, new power, and without that, nothing but the flesh and the world and all the entertainment that's there and all that.
It's terrible.
Probably that eighth verse would help to explain.
The first we have in Proverbs 21 four, it says. The plowing of the wicked is saying.
If you don't go to movies and dances and all that, what's wrong with plowing?
But as long as the person continues on without acknowledging Christ in their lives.
There in the central course.
This they first says that they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
It's the same thing. They can't do anything to please God so long as they don't acknowledge God in their lives, in the lordship of Christ. To go on in that way, you cannot please God. You could take that verse you and the plowing of the wicked is sin. You could change it and say anything that the wicked does is sin.
00:55:14
Because you didn't have a new life.
The Lordship of Christ is brought out in connection with marriage in First Corinthians Chapter 7, and it's good to look at it. In verse 39 it says, I'll read the whole verse. It says the wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth. But if her husband be dead, she's littered at liberty to be married to whom she will only in the Lord.
It doesn't say only in Christ, doesn't say only in another Christian.
But it really speaks of one that would own the lordship of Christ, and it's a lovely thing for us not only to be saved.
To know our sins forgiven, to be gathered to his name by His grace, But then to acknowledge the authority of the Lord in our lives, the authority of the Lord in our homes, the authority of the Lord in the assembly, and by the grace and kindness of God. There are those that are young people that are growing up in the in the very presence here this afternoon that by the grace of God have a desire to acknowledge the lordship of Christ, to acknowledge his authority. Well, that's.
That's really a picture of Christ, he acknowledged the authority of his father entirely.
And what blessing it brought.
There's a little picture, I know it comes the end of our time, but this little picture in second Kings?
And Chapter 6.
And just kind of give it to you in brief.
The sons of the prophets said, The place that we dwell in is too straight for us.
And so.
Elisha says.
They said, Elijah, first one of second kings. 6 Behold now the place where we dwell with these two straight for us. Let us go. We pray thee unto Jordan, and take thence every man of beam, and let us make a place where we may dwell. He answered, Go ye. And once I be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So then he went with them. So they when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood.
But as one was spelling a beam, the axe had fell into the water, and he cried.
And so the last master, for it was borrowed, the man of God said where Philip, and he showed him the place, and he cut down a stick and cast it in thither. And the iron did swim, therefore said he take it up to thee. And he put out his hand and took it. And so there's a picture there of Romans 7:00 and 8:00. There's these ones. And you know the place they dwell in is too straight. They're feeling the pressure, like that man in Romans 7 desiring to do that which is right, but not finding within him the power to do it.
They say, let's go to Jordan.
And he says, go. And they say no, be content. Go with us. You know that there's a test there of affection, but they've got the right idea. They want a license to go with them, a picture of Christ. And they're going to the right place down to Jordan, the picture of our death with Christ. But, you know, they each take a beam, They take something that's going to give them relief of their straightened place that they live in. And there's one he's, he's got an accent. He's feeling a beam, you know, the means.
Whereby he's going to get deliverance, whether it's turning over a new leaf, whether it's New Year's.
Resolutions or whatever it might be. He's going to get relief from this straight place that he's in and that iron flies off and it goes into the water. And he asked, asked to own his complete incapacity. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me. You know, Elijah comes down.
And he puts that stick a picture of the cross of Christ, and he cast it into that place where the iron fell.
And you know the nature of iron as it goes right to the bottom, right down to the muck, and that's the nature we were born with in this world. It goes right to the bottom.
But when the cross that stick is applied the Jordan, the death of Christ, and we see that that.
Spin. That old principle that produces sins has been fully judged in Christ on Calvary's cross.
That iron swims well. Iron doesn't swim, That's not its nature. And So what we see is a whole new principle at work in that iron, a whole new nature.
The principle of life, the law of life, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the loss and the death. But now he says, Now take it to thee, if you have to, reach out and pick it up and take it to yourself, and apply these things that we've had before us to your own self. Take it to your breast. Take it to your heart, make it good to your soul.
01:00:19
But seeing that verse keep us Lord or keep us cleaving.
To thyself and still believing promise, Joyce, with these at 2:56.
The Life of Moses
Address—R. Boulard
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I'd like to open this meeting by seeing number six in the appendix.
Verse four says, when the world would bid me leave thee, telling me of shame and loss, save your guard me lest I grieve thee, lest I cease to love thy cross. This is treasure all the rest I count but draw number six in the appendix may be local brother could start it.
Well, shall we ask the Lord's blessing?
Our loving God and our Father, we thank thee for. Our Savior, the Lord Jesus, we thank thee for that one. Whoever did thy will and in perfect obedience walked through this world with love in his heart for thyself, and perfect devotion to thee, our God, and he walked.
In that course that led to the cross and to bring us into such blessing. And so this evening, our God, we can sing of the cross of Christ and what it is to be associated with that cross as those that belong to the Lord Jesus. And so we just pray that thou is blessed by precious word this evening, and that as it's opened, I thought it's work by thy Spirit with each one of us, that there might be that desire to go on.
And to associate ourselves with that cross and with that person.
The One who loved us and gave himself for us. Oh our God, we just ask thee for hearts to be stirred to follow thee with purpose of heart to cleave unto Thee while we wait for Thy coming. We ask if we give thanks now for this time together and the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
I'd like this evening, with the Lord's help, to just look at some portions of the Word of God in connection with the life of Moses.
And uh, perhaps we can open our Bibles to chapter 2 of Exodus. I'll just read a few portions and then make some comments. And then if the Lord allows and there's enough time perhaps to read a couple more portions. But particularly what I have on my heart here is an Exodus chapter 2 and a few other portions, some of the New Testament Exodus chapter 2 and verse one. And there went a man of the House of Levi and took a wife, a daughter of Levi.
And the woman conceived and bear a son, and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
And when she could no longer not longer hide him, she took for him an ark, a bulrushes, and dobbed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child there in. And she laid it in the flag by the river's brink, and it stood. His sister stood afar off, to wit, what would be done to him. And then a little further on we'll read.
In uh verse 16, Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock, and the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them.
And watered their flock. And when they came to Ruel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon today? And he said, And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherd, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock. And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? Why is it that ye have left the man to call him, that he may eat bread? And Moses was content to dwell with the man, And he gave Moses to pour his daughter, and she bare him a son.
And he called his name Gershom, for he said I have been a stranger.
In a strange land. And then we'll read.
In chapter 3.
And verse 10 Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.
And then we'll turn over to the New Testament in Hebrews Chapter 11.
And verse 23.
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the King's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
00:05:15
By faith he first struck Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood of blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea is by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do were drowned, and then in Numbers, chapter 12.
We won't read the whole account in Numbers chapter 12. I just want to make reference to a couple of verses here.
From verse one. And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married.
For he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. And then in verse seven, my servant Moses is not so who is faithful in all my house? And then we'll read in last portion in Exodus chapter 33.
In verse 14.
And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carryeth not of him. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated I and thy people from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also, that thou is spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.
And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness half before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy upon on whom I will show mercy.
And he said, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall come to pass while my glory passes by, that I will put thee in the Cliff of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back heart, but my face shall not be seen while we turn back.
Hebrews Chapter 11, we go through that little portion, we'll find that the Spirit of God records 7 things that are of particular interest in connection with Moses life. And God has the ability to look at your life and mine and a very few short sentences to sum it all up. And what he has to say about Moses is very touching because you know, Moses was born in the land of Egypt, a picture of this wicked world whose ruler and Prince is Pharaoh and he is his desire.
Is to destroy the royal seed his desires tonight, dear friends.
Is to destroy your life and mine, that there might not be any fruit for Christ. And so we find here that Moses was brought into this world. And I read in Exodus chapter two and three there because it tells us that he had parents of faith. He had a mother and a father who loved the Lord. And how important it is to have a mother and a father that loved the Lord. Many of us have been blessed in this way.
And so.
We find that God records this, that he was born and he was hid three months of his parents. All beloved brethren, isn't a wonderful thing to know Christ as Savior and to have a knowledge of God in the home. And this little picture given to us of the Spirit of God says that this man, Moses, this little child for three months was hidden from the world, from Pharaoh, from the Prince of this world. And what a privilege it is to have a Christian home.
A place where the world cannot enter in. Sad to say, we have perhaps a tendency to allow the world to come inside the sanctity of those four walls of the Christian home. And I can remember well as a young man, 10 years old, being brought up in a Christian home. And I was thankful for it. But I remember well when the television came into the home, there was tragedy and there was sorrow in that home after the television came into that home.
00:10:23
Oh, dear brethren.
Might we just embrace and kindness to our children, preserve them from this wicked scene, wicked world? And so Moses was hidden from Pharaoh. We need to hide our children, as it were when they're young, from this wicked world and from Pharaoh, the king of this world. Well, it says here that they saw that he was a proper child. And I believe Mr. Darby's translation says that he was fair to God. I believe that's the proper.
Umm, translation. And so, dear one, every one of us is fair to God. We're born into this world. We're born in sin and shape and iniquity, But by the grace of God, he sees one that is born and he says this one is fair to God. You're fair to God. And if you're not saved tonight, if you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
All he wants to save you that you might be forever fair to him. He only created one person just like you and he wants you in the glory. He wants to enjoy your presence eternally. Well it says of his parents that they saw he was a proper child.
Say her to God. Do we see our children as fair to God? Do you look upon your young ones and say that child is fair to God? It's lent to me and I ought to train up this child and teach this child as a savior of the love of God.
And to bring it into the knowledge of that one who desires to redeem it. Well, it says they were not afraid of the King's commandment. And so, you know, these godly parents, they feared God. They had a reverence for that One who was the God of Jacob, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac. They had a reverence for him. They knew by faith that he was their God. And they no doubt spoke to Moses of that God.
And he was here.
In this land filled with fear. And so the believer doesn't need to walk through this world in fear. And so, parents, could I just encourage us in these last days not to be afraid of the world as it were, not to be afraid of feral, but to fear God and to seek to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It's a wicked world. But if we preach Christ, if we bring Christ before them, then there will be blessing. And I believe this is what happened in that little home.
With Moses that the God of Israel was presented as the source of blessing, and Moses never forgot that blessing of his parents.
Well, it says then in verse 24 by faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Well, by all outward account, Moses looked like he was the daughter. He was the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He looked by every appearance, his relationship there in the Kingdom of Egypt. It appeared that this was really the case. And you know, we're all born after the family of the first Adam, and we look like we belong to this world, if I could use that terminology, But we really don't.
That's not the truth. God has created you in his image and for his glory. And so he has created you that he might enjoy your company, that he might, that you might walk with him in communion through this wicked world. And so it might look to all those in this world that you look like a child of Egypt. And we find as I read in Exodus, that these women, they saw Moses and they said an Egyptian came and delivered us. He looked like an Egyptian. He dressed like an Egyptian.
But he wasn't an Egyptian. He was one of God's people.
And so this little combination that the Spirit of God gives us of Moses, he says he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
00:15:00
And so he had moral courage.
To be, to speak the truth and to stand for it and to say I'm not the son of Pharaoh's daughter. And so God records this. And so, you know, here, one dear brethren, beloved brother, it takes courage sometimes to refuse what the world considers to be a normal thing. And we don't live a normal world in a normal world, if you could use that terminology. We live in a world that's ruled.
By the Prince of the air and the normal course of life is to live for Christ. That's the normal course of life. And so he refused to identify himself in a relationship that was really a false position. He refused and it takes courage to refuse. Now it says in verse 25 he did something else that says choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.
Rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin.
For a season. And so there came a time after Moses really was a young man and responsible and he chose.
And he weighed the choice. You know, there was a life that he could live in the flesh, all the advantages of the flesh. And we've been reading about that in Romans chapter 8. He could have lived his life in the flesh, but then he could live his life in the spirit. And so if he lived according to the flesh, it would bring moral death. He would go in the same course as the Egyptians, in the same course of idolatry and.
The flesh desires, of course, the path of ease, a path of luxury. Look at the billboards and the magazine ads that we see as we walk through the scene. It's for luxury and ease and convenience. Not for sweat and toil, as it were, but for luxury and ease in that world that has been created. A world system that the man of this world might walk through this scene in a state of alienation from God.
But as comfortable as possible in his state of alienation from God, Well, Moses, the Spirit of God says he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season.
Oh, how encouraging it is to read this.
And to think that a young man at the beginning of his career.
Perhaps his education complete, perhaps just in the lineage of the government and the social structure of that society that he lives in about to take off, as it were.
And he was going to make a choice. And so every one of us is going to make a choice as life goes on. Perhaps young people more than others that are older, but our brother Gordon Hale used to remind us that a good beginning is a good thing, but a good ending in the path of faith is even better. Oh, it's lovely thing too. As a young child, go on for the Lord to be saved when you're young, and then as a young man, young girl, to choose to follow the Lord.
But here it's not just choosing to follow the Lord, it's to choose to suffer.
Moses chose to suffer.
Affliction with the people of God.
He didn't want the luxury of Egypt. He didn't want it convenient. He didn't want it to carry it. He didn't want.
All that spoke of what was against his God and against God's people and had enslaved God's people, he could see the moral course that was going to lead to moral death. And God gives them this commendation that he chose rather to suffer.
And so.
Dear ones, if we buy luxury cars, we're not going to suffer very much. We buy luxury homes, we're not going to suffer very much. We buy luxury, convenient, luxurious vacations, whatever it might be. All but Moses is a picture of the Lord Jesus in this. And the Lord Jesus could say, show me a penny he chose. The Lord Jesus came into this scene from the purest heights of glory.
Where sin can never come. He came down into the sea. He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. I wanna ask you tonight, is there a desire in your heart? Is there a desire in mind to choose to suffer affliction with the people of God, to identify ourselves with that people that God loves, desires utmost blessings, and to go on faithfully, simply with the Lord and with His people?
00:20:22
Well, we've seen verse 26, Moses, it says He esteemed, or is steaming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, For he had recompense unto the recompense of the reward.
And so he could see down to the end of the path.
You know there's a replica of King Tut.
Two in the wicked city of Las Vegas.
And I have business there once a year usually, and I went to tour that place. They have a replica that's two and a replica of some of the treasures in Egypt. And they have some of the very treasures of Egypt there, some of the gold coins, a chariot that was really used in Egypt. They have a bed that was slept upon in Egypt, ancient Egypt. And they have some of the treasures that were there.
And my heart was moved as I saw those things and as I thought of Moses, looking upon all the grandeur and the luxury of what they represented, and the wealth and the ease.
And I looked at that and I was moved as I thought. He counted the cost, and he esteemed he had an estimation of the cost and of the value of those things.
And he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, And so it's as if he added us all up.
And he said the reproach of Christ is something I want.
The reproach of Christ is something that's of exceeding value. It's worth more than all the treasures of Egypt.
Beloved brethren, there's a scene that we live in that will be a scene of reproach if we name the name of the Lord Jesus. And Moses identified himself with the people of God. He suffered affliction, but there was reproach to come and to identify himself with the name of the Lord, and he counted that cost esteemed the riches.
The reproach of Christ. Greater riches. Well, I just asked this for myself, for yourself.
Is it a rich thing to be reproached for Christ? Is it a rich thing? Have you ever thanked the Lord for it?
I don't have a lot of courage on an airplane perhaps, and other places, but one time, you know, I pulled my Bible out.
And I was just enjoying a portion and desire to meditate upon it.
And the people that were sitting beside me were reading their Star Wars magazine and they very abruptly, that I might understand that my presence wasn't desired, took their good and moved some other seats in the airplane. Well, you know, I thank the Lord that there was some reproach and I enjoyed something special of the presence of the Lord on that trip. And so that's what will happen, dear one, if you suffer something of the reproach of Christ, you'll enjoy something of communion with the Lord.
And he makes himself near to those that would esteem in that way. Well, it says in verse 27 that he first took Egypt.
Not fearing the wrath of the king.
He forsook Egypt, that entire system raised up of the enemy of our souls, that we might live in ease and comfort without the knowledge of God. He first took Egypt.
He doesn't say he left Egypt.
It says he forsook Egypt.
And he first took it. He never went back in his heart to that place. He never desired the leeks and the onions and the melons. Yes, physically he went back. The Lord sent him back into that place after he spent 40 years in the backside of the desert. And so he had. He was a suited messenger and a prepared vessel, the Golden Sea Ferrell.
But his heart was taken up with the Lord and with his people and he first took Egypt knew her brother Harry Hale used to say. And I have enjoyed listening to the tapes and CD's, some that have been so kind to put his addresses on recordings.
00:25:13
Copied them. He used to say this, you can have as much of the world as much of Christ as you want and your life will show how much you want. Isn't that a positive way of saying that you can have as much of Christ as you want and.
Your life will show how much you want.
Well, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. And I want to say this, if you leave Egypt, if you forsake Egypt, if you forsake the climb to the top of the business world, the climb to the top of the educational world, if you forsake Egypt and its system, its entertainment, the king of this world will be wrathful Satan.
We'll test, Satan will oppose.
And what a lovely thing it is to have a sense of the presence of the Lord as we walk through this world and recognize that the enemy of our souls is angry that we might forsake his world and his system and cleave unto the Lord. O Moses could look by faith to the end of the past and could say it's not worth anything. It's all stamped with death. Brother, Last night at the hymn thing made that comment.
You might as well take a rubber stamp and stamp everything that's in this world, stamp it. That's going to burn real well. It's condemned to burn. Condemned. There's nothing that you see with your eyes that's not condemned to burn.
It says here too in verse 27 the last part, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
And so that's the fifth thing that the Lord says about Moses in this particular passage. He says he endured. Isn't that lovely? Does that not encourage you in this world that we live in the the Christian pathway is not a quick Sprint to the finish line. It's an endurance race. If you could use that terminology, doesn't that just encourage your heart as the Spirit of God records of Moses that he endured. Do you think that Moses didn't receive some tests? Do you think Moses.
Didn't have some pangs of anxiety from some of the tests that were sent his way. Do you think that Moses perhaps thought that his life sometime was wasting way 40 years in the backside of the desert was hard, you know, to go from Pharaoh's court into that backside of the desert. But by faith, it says he endured as seeing him who is invisible. And so he had his heart set upon a person. And beloved brethren, that's what's going to give us the endurance as we walk through this wicked world.
Is if we have our eye on Christ, if you have your eye on anything or anyone else but Christ, there won't be that endurance. And so that's the secret to endurance in the presence of God. And the godly life, a life that's filled with Christ, is seeing him who is invisible. And so God records this that he endured. What a lovely commendation. Then it says in verse 28, through faith, he kept the Passover.
And the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them.
Isn't that lovely? At the end of this path? At the end of the backside of the desert? Both training years.
What a privilege he esteemed the reproaches of Christ. Far greater riches than all Egypt had. He chose to suffer the affliction of the people of God.
And God, in his grace, in his wisdom and His kindness, uses Moses as his beloved servant to bring before us the Passover.
And we can read Exodus chapter 12 and other passages throughout the Word of God and even read that Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. Oh, what a privilege it was for Moses to walk with God. And as they began that wilderness journey, to experience the protection and experience the deliverance of what the Passover speaks to us. And so as we walk, as we begin in the pathway of faith.
And we continue in that path, we see Christ as that Passover. And so it brings before us the blood of Christ his Son that cleanses us through all sin and allows us to walk through the wilderness in a clean path separated under our God. And so it says to here in verse 29 that by faith they pass through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do were drowned. And so they were delivered from Egypt.
00:30:20
And it speaks of the death of the Lord, doesn't it? Doesn't it speak of us being associated with him in death? Going through the Red Sea men later on, they were going to go into Jordan, cross Jordan, going to that promised land. But what a deliverance. The Lord used Moses to bring them out. And I want to turn to Numbers chapter 12.
And read a couple more things that the Lord says about Moses and we'll just comment on verse 3.
Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.
Well, here we find that Moses had his relationship with the Lord. He loved the Lord.
God has this combination to say of Moses. He never defended himself. He was meek. He didn't have high thought to themselves. And why was that? He had high thoughts of Him who is invisible. He had high thoughts of God himself, and He knew He had been in the presence of the great I am. And He there in that wilderness scene was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.
Well, what a commendation, what an encouragement to us as we think of how Moses was tried in this situation and he married this Ethiopian woman.
We know that perhaps there are things that are done which is not done in faith and bring reproach. And Moses perhaps could be faulted for this. He took this woman, an Ethiopian woman. But you know, I wonder too, if there's not a picture of Christ here, and that is that the Ethiopian woman was black and perhaps not that desirable, if you could want to put it that way, naturally speaking, but in connection with Christ, you know.
He's taken a bride.
Sometimes we wonder what the privilege and the ponderous thing to think of that were part of that bride. And Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it, that He might present it to himself, a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that he might present it to himself, a glorious Church, not having fought or wrinkle, or any such thing. And we find here that this woman, no doubt.
Had some qualities that Moses.
Desired and so the Lord looks upon his own, his church. There's something that he desired. What we find that he had Zipporah, a wife that was given to him of the Prince of Midian. And that wife, if we read in Exodus, we would find that she didn't walk in.
The reproach she didn't follow in the wilderness. She went back with Jethro, her father, and her two sons, and they didn't walk with Moses in the wilderness. And how he must have long for that fellowship of his wife and his two sons. And what a picture it is to us, and ought to encourage us as fathers, as husbands, as wives, that we need our children, we need one another.
We need to walk in the fellowship companionship of those that God has provided for us, that we might enjoy them while we're in the sea. And so Moses took this wife.
And there was reproach, but he was very neat. And then the Lord says in verse seven of Moses, my servant Moses is not so who is faithful in all my house?
And so we find that Moses was born into a household of faith.
The Spirit of God gives us a short history of his life there in Hebrews. Chapter 11 adds that he was very neat.
And he says, who is faithful in all my house?
God has a way of saying very little, saying it all in very few words. And he could say of Moses, He is faithful in all my house.
All that speaks to my heart.
Does it speak to yours? Are you faithful to the Lord faithful? Can he count on you? Does he count on you?
00:35:05
Oh, the Lord could call upon Moses, and he could count upon Moses as a faithful man to execute that which was necessary in the administrative matters among his people, and he could use Moses to deliver his people and to bless his people. I want to turn to Exodus chapter 33 now.
We'll find that there was a low point in Moses life.
In the path of faith.
The children of Israel, I'm not going to read it, but umm, in chapter 32, they've fallen into idolatry. The golden calf was there.
In the camp. And then it says in verse 7, Exodus 33, and verse 7, Moses took the Tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, a far off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation, and came to pass that everyone that sought, which sought the Lord, went out under the Tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the Tabernacle, that all the people rose up and stood every man.
At his tent door and looked after Moses until he was gone into the Tabernacle. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the Tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the Tabernacle. And the Lord talked with Moses, and all the people saw the cloudy pillars and at the Tabernacle door. And all the people rose up and worshiped every man in his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp.
But his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not.
Out of the Tabernacle. Well, we didn't read that at the opening of the meeting, but I had it on my heart to bring out that, you know.
There was a crisis among the people of God. Moses had chosen to suffer affliction among the people of God, and now there was great failure.
And perhaps you might have thought, a questioning of whether he'd really chosen the right path or not. And beloved brethren, there's going to be affliction with the people of God. They're going to be reproach of Christ if we follow the Lord Jesus. But what a blessed thing it is. And what did Moses do when there was failure? Oh, it says that he took that Tabernacle and he pitched it outside the camp, afar off from the camp, that it might be a clean place for his brethren, that it might be a clean place that the Lord His Holiness.
Might be there, and that he might dwell among his people, and there was a young man there.
Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, departed, not out of the Tabernacle. And so none of us live unto himself, no man dieth unto himself. And Moses had an effect upon those that younger generation and dear ones. Every one of us has an effect on another generation, the other generation coming up, and if we'll walk with the Lord, oh, what a blessing. Joshua saw something in the life of Moses and the choices that he'd made.
And he said, I want that, I want to walk with the Lord.
The Lord says in verse 11, he spake unto Moses face to face as a man or mouth to mouth is perhaps a better translation, as a man speaketh to his friend. And he turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man. You know we make the decisions of life, and we set the chart, the course of life in our youth at the time when we have the least experience in the path of faith.
The least experience in the life. And So what was it that? What will it, what is it that will give us the strength, give us the wisdom? It's the word of God. As we take up the Word of God and we see Christ revealed and we see that the path of faith brings glory to God and glory to the Lord Jesus, that's what will reflect upon the younger generation. And so Joshua could see that Moses had made a course, charited a course, and he saw something in the life of Moses that attracted him to the Lord.
And he wanted to be where the Lord is. And so, dear ones, do you want to be where the Lord is? It's an unspeakable privilege to come into the presence of the Lord Jesus. The assembly is like no other place upon earth where we can come into the very presence of the Lord Jesus, to remember him in the circumstances of his death, to come to the reading meeting, to the prayer meeting, and to the meetings, to the open meeting, perhaps an assembly meeting. Those assembly meetings are outlined in Acts 242.
00:40:17
To and So what a privilege it is to come into the presence of the Lord.
You, perhaps many of you, were brought up in the assembly. Some of us weren't.
And I can remember the first time that I came into the assembly meeting.
I can remember.
Leaving a division, and coming for the first time to where the Lord was in the midst.
And my heart was moved as I saw the people in this place and I came into the presence of the Lord.
And it made an effect upon me. It had an effect. Oh, it's lovely to for us to see. And it ought to be an encouragement to our hearts that we're not just coming to meetings. We're coming into the presence of the Lord. We're coming to enjoy his presence. We're coming to learn more of himself.
And if we read down a little bit further we find I'm not gonna re read this, but Moses had a request.
He says in verse 17.
The Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also, that thou has spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And he said This, I beseech thee, show me thy glory.
And so he made a request. Isn't it lovely to have that confidence in the Lord to make a request? And what did Moses want?
Naturally speaking, he left it all in Egypt.
Naturally speaking, there wasn't.
Much that he could really have in this world, if you want to use that terminology. What was his heart set on was set upon Lord, and he wanted to see something of the glory of the Lord. He didn't want to see something of the glory of this world. He'd seen it before and He'd left it. He'd forsaken Egypt.
He wanted to see something of the glory of the Lord and he had his request granted to him. You know, we'll just turn the page here to chapter 34 and it says in verse 29 it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony and Moses hand. When he came down from the mountain, Moses with not that his skin, the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him. Well, if really let's just read the last verse, The children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses face shone, and Moses put the veil upon his face again until he went to speak with him. Wasn't this lovely? What a lovely encouragement it is to us if we'll come and spend some time in the presence of the Lord.
Our faces will shine.
You know, as I walk through the cities of North America and some of the cities in Europe, I look for smiling faces. It's just something that I do. I just look into the faces of the people that I'm walking facing and as we cross paths and you'll find very sad, sorrowful faces. But the Christian can smile as he walks through this world. He can smile. He can reflect the life of Christ and some of that moral beauty that is of Christ as he walks through and shines for Christ.
Well, Moses, this is what God says of them, that his face shone while he talked with him. And so your face will shine as you spend time with the Lord, as you meditate upon His word, as you desire just to walk with Him in separation.
From this world, from Egypt, and to just forsake Egypt by faith and to cleave unto the Lord. Well, if we turn a little bit farther on in Moses life we find, I think it's at the end of Deuteronomy.
Chapter 34.
Moses went up from the plains of Moab under the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is, over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dam, and all Naphtali, and all the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah unto the utmost sea and the South, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, and the city of palm trees unto Zoar. And the Lord said to him, This is the land which I will which I swear unto Abraham.
00:45:29
Under Isaac and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
Well, here we find that Moses is on a mountain top experience if you want to use that terminology. And he was with the Lord, and the Lord was showing him things that were of value to himself, and he was going to bring his people into the land. It speaks to the truth of God, dear ones, and how the Lord Jesus himself would desire just to open it up with forest if we would just spend time in His presence.
And here Moses, the man of God, a faithful man, meek, one that is forsaken. Egypt.
He had a view to the recompense of the reward, and he's standing upon the Mount Pisgah and enjoying something of communion with his God. And he saw something that he would never see in Egypt. He saw something that was of immense value, and he enjoyed something of the glory of God and the communication of God from his heart. Oh, have you ever enjoyed something just between you and the Lord?
As you spent some time over the word and just meditated a little bit on a portion of scripture and walked in, uh, separation from Egypt, Egypt, and just desired to spend some time with the Lord. And he just showed you something that was exceedingly precious and special to him, and you shared it with him. Oh, what a privilege it is to walk through the scene and enjoy the Lord's company and the Lord enjoy the revelation of Christ himself as we walk with the Lord.
While on.
Read very briefly in Luke's Gospel, Chapter 9.
And we'll just read verse 30.
Behold their talk with him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and speak of his deceased, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
Oh, dear friend.
Do you think Moses ever looked back and said I wish I'd stayed in Egypt?
Our brother Harry Hail used to say you'll never see a Christian that walked all his life with Christ and at the end of his life said I wish I hadn't done it, you never will.
Oh, it's lovely thing we saw here our brother.
Charlie Little.
I didn't ask him that question.
Perhaps 95 years old.
There's a lot of things that he'd do over again. There's a lot of things that I would do over again if I had a chance to do it over again.
But if you've made a choice for Christ, if you desire to suffer affliction with the people of God and you look back on the pathway.
As you see the Lord in his glory, you'll never regret a choice that was made and any faithfulness for Christ whatsoever. And so is it lovely that this encouragement that the Spirit of God gives us to just walk with the Lord and hear Moses is standing. He's one of the two that the Lord desires to have with him on that mount to see his glory right in the land. Moses couldn't go in because of his.
Failure.
At one time he failed in patience with the people of God. But isn't it lovely that the Lord Jesus himself?
The I am the same one that Moses met on Mount Orum, The very same one brings Moses into the land, and he shows him that glory they sake of his deceased which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. He came into the secrets of the Most High God. Oh, do you want to enjoy something of the secrets of the Most High God?
00:50:07
It's a lovely thing, but it can't be done while you're enjoying Egypt. There has to be a leaving of Egypt, a forsaking of it, and a cleaving under the Lord, a walking in the Spirit.
And we each won.
Need to make that choice and perhaps make it more and more.
With determination as life goes on. Well, that's really what I had on my heart tonight. I wanted to make another couple of comments.
How did this?
I've felt sometimes that there.
These parents of faith that Moses had, there was something that they desired for their son. And I want to tell you, dear young people.
You're Christian parents. There's something that they desire for you more than anything else.
In this world.
They desire that you could repeat after the Lord, as it were. But I am a worm and no man.
Nothing in this world. All they want you to be nothing in this world.
That's what they really want. My father is with the Lord.
He never said that to me, but I'm sure that that's what He wants for me now. He wants me to be nothing in this world, and He wants me to be everything for Christ. He wants the Lord to shine in my life. That's what your parents want. And you know your parents what your children want most.
What did Moses want most in his parents?
All he wanted parents that feared God, he wanted parents that loved the Lord he wanted. Oh how he must have looked back to those times in his parents home.
Where every vestige of Egypt was vanquished and only that which would be relevant to the home of a godly parent would be in existence. That's what your children want is a home, and the world is outside the four walls of that home.
Oh, what a lovely thing it is for us, how encouraging it is for us to see that it's possible to forsake Egypt in this day that we live in, and to have homes that are.
Sanctified, set apart for God and for his people, and to enjoy something of Christ in those homes.
Perhaps we could sing #100.
And 74 I believe.
174.
Should amend ourselves.
Our loving God and our Father, we thank thee for our Savior, the Lord Jesus. We think of how Moses could speak and say that the Lord would send a prophet like unto me, and him shalt thou hear. Always think of how our God, thou, has given us this picture, this little story of Moses.
Used them to write the first five books of Thy precious Word.
Call them faithful in all of our house.
Oh, how about its value is company and value is fellowship?
How thou just delight to bring him into the land and show him.
Thy glory.
Oh our God, we just ask you that these two verses of Scripture and these meditations might just encourage each one of our hearts.
Just to cleave under the Lord with purpose of heart, and to esteem the riches of Egypt.
In their proper place, as dung not worthy of our attentions, and to desire to suffer affliction with the people of God while it is called today. And so we just ask thee for thy blessing upon thy precious word, that there might be fruit for thyself.
In the life of our young people, young men and young women, and those of us that are older too, that we might have a desire to endure. While we wait for Thy coming blessed Savior, we just ask if we plead for the courage of heart to walk to Thy glory. While we wait for Thy coming blessed Savior, we ask these things and we pray for our brethren that travel to we ask Thee for safety, for Thy blessing, thoughts of Thy love and grace to our God. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we ask these things and give thanks. Amen.
Romans 8:9-17
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Romans chapter 8.
Verse 9.
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. So be the Spirit of God. Dwell in you Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the Spirit of ******* again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry. And the Father the Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in US. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same and hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth and pain together until now, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen, is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for, that we have, we see not, then do we with patience, wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also help with our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. For he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose.
For we know for whom he did. For know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called them he also justified, and whom he justified them he also glorified.
What shall we say then to these things?
If God before us, who can be against us, he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with Him?
Also freely give us all things. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yeah, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, for thy sake, we are killed all the day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors. Through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, and our things present, nor things to come, our height, our depth.
Creatures shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There were two questions.
That I had during the course of the first reading meeting.
Didn't get the opportunity to be asked and then during the lunch hour they were brought up at the lunch table and a number of us were discussing them and didn't really have a clear answer either. And they were both about verse 5 and I was wondering if I could just ask those questions at the beginning of the meeting.
00:05:10
Go ahead verse five. It says they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
They that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit, the first question.
Is those that are after the flesh and those that are after the spirit. The language, the language changes. In verse nine it says those that are in the flesh and in the spirit, and the question was being asked through the flesh and after the spirit. Is that talking about our position or practical walk? You know, I'm out hunting. Then I could say that I'm after a deer and it's something that, you know, I seek after. And that was the first question. And then the other one was.
The things of the flesh and the things of the Spirit.
What are things of the flesh and things of the Spirit? Are they natural things, the things of the flesh, or are they sinful things? In Galatians 5 it's the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, and we were wondering what things of the flesh and things of the Spirit are being after the Spirit.
Being after the flesh is the state of one who is not converted.
Being after the Spirit is one that has the Spirit of God.
In Christ is our position before God. In the Spirit is the state that the that the possession of the Holy Spirit forms in us as being in Christ.
They go together.
But one has to do with our state. That's the in the spirit and in Christ is our position.
But they're absolutely they don't change.
Is that does that clarify?
Or don't you agree with that?
It's not our practical state. It's not, it's not a Christian that can be after the flesh.
One who's after the flesh is not saved.
He's after the Spirit. He has the Spirit of God.
Every Christian exhortation flows from the state in which, from the position we are in before God.
And so you can't. I sometimes hear people at the church down the road, they have a fellowship hour for the community. They want to encourage people for their unsaved people. But you can't encourage unsaved people in the things of God because they're after the flesh.
That's their state and a believer.
I may walk in a practical way, in a carnal way, but what is characteristic of you and I as believers is that we're after the Spirit. And that is really why a believer can be the most miserable person on earth is because they have a nature that loves and delights in the things of God. Though he may feed the flesh, but what is characteristic of him is that he is after the Spirit.
There's no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. You're either in Christ as your federal head or your in Adam.
As your head to get that in the 5th chapter, the second part of the 5th chapter, but going along with being in Christ is being in the Spirit subjectively. But that's an absolute thing that doesn't change. That's produced by the presence of the Holy Spirit and in the flesh is one that does not have the Spirit, is not born of the Spirit, it's just a natural man.
And as to the second question about the flesh and nature is that the Lord was hungry.
The Lord knew what it was like to be alone. He looked for comforters and looked for some to take pity on him. And there were none that was that wasn't the flesh acting in Him. There's nothing wrong with feeling. When he went into the Pharisees house, he said. You gave me no water for my feet. There's nothing wrong with feeling, feeling it when you're insulted. The Lord felt it. We react in the flesh, but He always acted with it. He always acted in the Spirit. But and that's why.
I believe if we don't understand that, what comes later in the chapter about weakness?
Will not really clearly understand why the Lord condemned sin in the flesh, but He helps us in our infirmities.
Because.
Those feelings may give way to us acting in the flesh.
And that's really why it's important to understand where we stand before God.
00:10:06
But it's not wrong if somebody insults you to feel it, but it's how we react in response to that it really shows.
And the Lord will help us in that, but it's not how we react in response. In verse five, it's an absolute state. We're either in the flesh or in the spirit. We're either according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. That doesn't change. No, I'm. I'm glad you're clear. As to the I'm glad you're clarifying what I say as to that, because but unless we're clear as to that, then we won't understand when we get into this.
I may put it this way, turmoil later down in the chapter is to weakness.
Years ago, brother, I'll mention his name, Pira paddle. He was often criticized because people could not and understand what he said. He said it's wickedness. It's wickedness. And her brother said, was that weakness or wickedness? There's a big difference. And he said wickedness. I'm not sure that we ever understood what he meant. But there's a big difference between weakness and wickedness, and the flesh only seeks to please itself.
And those that are after the Spirit desire to please the Lord, and that has put his characteristic of a believer. That is our state. That is the life that we possess.
The new translation reads a day that are according to flesh. Mind the things of the flesh. One who is according to flesh is one that does not have a new nature, does not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He's a natural man. He's just according to flight and he minds the things of the flesh and they that are according to spirit.
Mind the things of the Spirit.
That's what characterizes one who is according to flesh and one who is according to spirit.
Doesn't mean that it's. It doesn't refer to the practical state of the person, but his absolute state as being involved with the Holy Spirit or not.
Maybe just one other verse in Ephesians chapter four that might help.
In connection with this.
1St 12 For the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword.
I'm sorry, Hebrews 4. I'm sorry.
And 12 Thank you.
For the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. There are two things that are very difficult to discern between oftentimes and that is the soul and the spirit.
And.
Man, naturally speaking may be a very loving and caring person.
And you say my is the love again and carrying a person.
But I may really act in such a way. If I'm just acting in a soulless or a natural way, it really may be the manifestation of my flesh.
That's that's entirely different. Yes, I I realized Romans ate it all. I realized that. But I'm just bringing it up because it I believe it helps when we see this is that when we see this distinction is that the word of God is that which separates between that which is of the Spirit of God.
And that which is of nature. And when I simply act in nature according to nature, it's the flesh.
It's what the flesh minds and what the Spirit minds.
Flesh has a mind, and its mind is set on the things of that lead to death that.
Are hateful to God.
And the lines of the Spirit is that which is pleasing to God.
In this in in Christendom today.
That the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God.
Is not acknowledged.
Now there's many things that are brought out.
As we're having this chapter as Brother Hendricks has told us that the Holy Spirit of God is mentioned many times in this chapter, how many people in Christendom believe?
00:15:14
And enjoy the fact that the Holy Spirit of God is present.
How many?
There are many in Christendom who actually do not believe that.
If you pin them right down, you'll find out they do not understand that, and by that they don't understand many things in the word of God, because the Spirit of God is here to make good to your soul and mind the things of God.
We find here in this chapter, and it's the spirit of God that makes them good to you.
The only thing that you're going to get, that they're going to enjoy, that are going to be yours is what the spirit of God gives you.
After you read, you can read and search and and reason about a lot of things. It's the only thing you're going to get from God is the things which the Spirit of God gives you.
And there's a precious thing there, concern that you got to read. Oh, let's just read the patch. I'm going to read the new translation and read verse 5 for a day that are according to flesh.
Mind the things of the flesh and they that are according to Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit, life and peace, because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, for neither indeed can it be, and they that are in flesh cannot please God.
But ye are not in flesh but in spirit, if indeed God's spirit dwell in you. But if anyone is not the Spirit of Christ, he's not of Him. But if Christ be in you, the body is dead, and account of sin we have to go into that. But He's, He's contrasting 2 absolute states. You're either in the Spirit or you're in the flesh. You're either according to the Spirit or according to the flesh. And if you're according to the Spirit, you mind the things of the Spirit.
That mind is the things of the Spirit. And if you're in the flesh, that mind according to the flesh, that mind is not of God at all. It's death. It's enmity against God. He's contrasting the you're either, I'll put it this way very simply, you're either a true Christian or you're not.
True Christian is in the Spirit, that one who is not is in the flesh.
Just that simple.
The difference in the words in and according I think would bring before us this.
In is.
Strictly as we've been saying our position.
That place in which we are before God were in Christ according to is that which characterizes those in that position. And I think that's really the difference that you're looking for.
In those two words and the spirit of God does use two different words according and in and it's connected with verse 4. The same word there is used in the new translation who walk not according to the flesh.
It's that which characterizes those in that position.
Galatians chapter five goes through the list there in the 1St 17 if we read Galatians 5 and 17. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would.
Well, a believer that walks after the flesh is walking out of character.
He's not displaying the character as being a son of God, heir joint heir heirs of Christ, joint heirs of heir of God, joint heirs with Christ. He's he's acting out of character.
Language here almost reminds you of John's epistle, doesn't you? Where he speaks in absolute and positives. There he says in that in the third chapter of John's epistle that you cannot sin whatsoever whosoever is born of God.
00:20:00
Doth not sin, for his seed remaineth in and he cannot sin because he is born of God and these verses that we have here.
Are very much like that.
Year verse nine, you're not blessed, but in the spirit and.
Group back to the our chapter Romans, chapter 8 and verse.
10 Christ being you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. We have a nature which cannot sin, and that's our position before God, isn't it?
We ought to walk worthy of the vacation to which we've been called. Brethren we we are conscious of the fact that we have also a nature that can sin within, but God sees us as in the Spirit.
What verse is that here?
Verse 9 But you're not in flesh but in spirit, and so be that The Spirit of God dwells in you. That's our our position in Christ, and that's how he sees us. He doesn't see see us as men in the flesh, but as in Christ. And we cannot sin when we do sin. It's because of an old nature allowed to act within.
If we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are in the Spirit according to this passage, not in the flesh.
Absolutely. Whether we're walking in the spirit is another matter.
Or walking in the place. That's another matter.
But if we have the spirit we are.
In that state which is characterized by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit according to Spirit.
Maybe a few verses from Luke chapter 4 would help.
To.
Luke 4 verse one.
And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, once led by the Spirit into the wilderness, And being 40 days tempted of the devil, in those days he did eat nothing, and when they were ended the afterward hunger. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone.
That it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written that man shall not live by bread alone.
But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
But you could ask, but what's wrong with turning bread to stone if you're hungry? What's wrong with being hungry? We've all felt that. But the Lord was in the Spirit. He not only. And he walked in the Spirit. And so he would not turn that stone to bread without a word from his Father. And so that in a practical way and that into the life that we now possess is that we desire to do that which is pleasing to the Lord. But he would not act without a word from his Father.
And so it's quite a different thing than being under law and saying, well, what's right with doing this or what's wrong with doing that. That's quite a different thing because it supposes a nature that wants to do its own will. And the law has to step in and say, no, you can't do that and this is what you've got to do. Whereas the Lord, he really had that before him to do that which was by do always those things which please my father. And so that is really what we have here in our chapter as being after the Spirit in Christ.
The Lord had no flesh nature.
He was always in the Spirit, and he always walked according to the Spirit.
By the Spirit, we have a flesh. We have flesh so we can we can walk wrongly. But he's looking at the absolute state of the Christian in contrast to the unconverted.
We have that verse in proverbs 21 and four.
And the last part of it, the following of the wicket is sin, I know. It's been explained to me.
What that meant?
That you say? Well, there's nothing wrong with a man plowing.
But if somebody came and started following up your, your.
Land and went to put seed in it. He'd say hold it, hold it that that's my land, you say. Well, I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm just plowing. Yes, but that's my land. You you don't do it on my land. And this is the same with the Lord is we've just had.
That the one that's outside of Christ can't do anything, right? Nothing.
But if Christ be in you, verse 10, the body is dead on account of sin because we have sinned in this body and so we hold the body as dead to the impulses of that sin nature so that we don't sin. That's what that's saying. But the Spirit is life on account of righteousness in order to produce righteousness in our pathway. The spirit is the one that is yielded to.
00:25:20
And he is the life of the Newman and.
What is produced as He guides us and leads us is a righteousness.
Practical there. That's practical righteousness.
I've often said.
The proper exposition of Romans is not easy.
A lot of books that are much easier to explain than Romans, but that's, I believe the meaning.
But if the spirit of him I'm reading Darby here, verse 11 That has raised up Jesus from among the dead, dwell in you, we have the same spirit that raised him from among the dead dwelling in US.
He that has raised up Christ from among the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies.
And that coming day hasn't happened yet.
That's at the Rapture, also on account of his spirit, which dwells in you.
So when?
When these mortal bodies are quickened by the spirit in that sense, then we it says in First Corinthians 15 the body will be changed.
The dead shall be raised, and we will be changed, and together we will rise to meet him in the air.
But the same spirit that that.
How does it put it? The spirit of him that raised up Jesus from among the dead, You've got the whole Trinity to raise, raising him In Romans 6 he was raised by the glory of the Father. He said destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. And then here we have the Spirit of God raising him up. Everything that God does, he does in Trinity. Everything.
Who is Godfather, Son and Holy Spirit?
It isn't that the Father does some things and the Son does some things and the Spirit some things. The whole Trinity is involved in everything that God does.
The creation in the beginning God Elohim, in plural, three persons created the heavens and the earth, every one of them active in the creation, every one of them active in the salvation of the soul. The shepherd goes out after a strange sheep, Luke 15 The woman searches the house for the lost coins. Spirit of God and the Father, receiving back the returning prodigal. The Trinity is there.
In everything that God does. Beautiful to see that when you read the scriptures.
The Christian is the only one on the face of the earth that believes that God is a Trinity.
The Jew does not because all you have to do to reject that God is a Trinity is deny the deity of any one of those three persons. The Jew denies that Jesus is God. That rules them out. They don't believe in the Trinity. The Muslim doesn't believe in the Trinity because.
They don't believe Jesus is God and others the Jehovah's Witness. They don't believe in the Trinity because they don't believe Jesus is God and they don't believe the Holy Spirit is a person. Any one of those things denied denies the Trinity.
I I don't know if I said this before here, but I was talking to a the young man and he is talking about another one that that he was dealing with. And he says he's a nice Christian, but he doesn't believe in the Trinity. And I said to him that he does not. He's not a Christian and he doesn't believe in the Trinity. That's what distinguishes us from everyone else and every other religion. We're the only ones that believe that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 3:00 and 1:00 and 1:00 and 3:00. And if you don't believe that, you're not a Christian.
That's one thing the Roman Catholic Church is sound on they believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
That's basic, isn't it? Yes. You don't have that. You've got nothing. You've got nothing exactly.
But if Christ being you, the body is dead.
A cow is sin appreciated. I worked with a man once and you had to go to some kind of hardware show and number. The students were standing around and said well you know what's at those places there's going to be some lured entertainment. What about what are you and Neil going to do then? And he said, he said I'm thankful that I have no interest in those things. Now they said come on, you're you're man, you've got an interest in those things. And he said I'm thankful to say that I have a nature that.
00:30:19
Put delights in the things of God and has no interest in those things.
And that is a wonderful thing to be able to be able to say by faith. But practically, practically, we come to that where it says here that we're to mortify the deeds of the flesh. And that's the practical side of it, is that we're to put, we're to reckon that man in the place of death and to say yes, a believer has no interest in stealing. He has no interest in telling, being untruthful.
He desires to please the Lord, and it doesn't mean we're not capable of doing those things.
But we're when we have those desires we can we say I have no The flesh was going to get me nowhere. My the exercise of my own will was going to take me exactly where the protocol took the prodigal, and it would have taken me to a lost eternity. And the only thing that's going to bring me happiness is it to do the will of God. And so we have a right to by faith, to have no desire for those things. And because it's true of us, we're in Christ, we're after the Spirit and we and but we're to put those.
Deeds in the place Mortify those deeds.
The body.
You get in verse 11, which you just referred to. Pardon me if I read Mr. Darby again, but if the spirit of him that has raised up Jesus from among the dead dwell in you, and that's that's an absolute truth.
It's not that he dwells in me if I'm a good boy. No, he dwells in me. I'm a Christian.
And he dwells in you. If you're a Christian, he that raised up Christ from among the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies.
Also on account of his spirit which dwells in you.
That's going to take place when the Lord comes, then the practical. So then, now the practical, carrying this out. Brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to flesh, or if you live according to flesh, you're about to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, this is practical, you shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Now that's that's what is characteristic of the Son of God.
The Son of God was always led by the Spirit of God. And if what characterizes sons of God is that they're led by the Spirit of God, does that mean that they're perfect in that the Lord was? But we know we're not. Sometimes the flesh gets going. But what characterizes sons of God or a son of God? The Son of God was he was always led by the Spirit. Always.
And when we act as sons of God, we act according to the character of the Son of God, and that is to be led by the Spirit of God.
With us, it's not perfect. With him it was.
Now, in reference to what Brother Charles said about what is held in Christendom as to the Spirit of God, there's a great deal of talk about the Spirit of God. But the Spirit of God will never lead us to act contrary to the Word of God.
And very often, where the Spirit of God is much spoken of, you see the most direct and obvious disobedience to the word of God. Well, the Lord the Spirit led me to do this, or the Spirit led me to do that. And you consider what is said in the light of the word of God, and you find it absolutely contrary to the word of God.
And so.
What is characteristic of the believer? And that's why in the temptation of the Lord, it was a manifestation of that life, not because there was any sin in him, but it showed what his life was and what our life is.
Is that there was nothing, there was nothing, to which sin could attach itself in the Lord. But that he he desired to do those, and he did those things which were pleasing to his Father. That is what his characteristic.
Of a child of God.
There's another thing that was helpful said about the leading is that we often got to ask what the will of God is in a situation when the only will of God is that we not be in the situation at all.
And we may get ourselves into situations in self will and disobedience, some of which we can't even get out of.
And we need to humble ourselves when we find ourselves in such a situation. But we have to ask ourselves, did we get into this situation by an act of disobedience? And that is what the prodigal said. I will rise and go to my father is that he returned. He was in a situation that he shouldn't have been in and it was as a result of self will and disobedience.
00:35:09
Usually when what you're saying when we ask for something and then we ask again, it's because we didn't like the answer we got the first time and we have our minds made-up. This is the way I want to go. This is the answer I want. If Daddy doesn't give it to me, I'll go to Mommy. They're great at at playing mommy and Daddy. Well, mommy said it was all right. My daddy said it was all right. Oh, yeah, Let's let's get them all together and see see what's right. But we know how the the flesh acts.
If if you if it doesn't get what it wants, it acts again, maybe he maybe maybe God will change his mind. Balaam.
That prophet, false prophet, how many times did he tell him to go here, go there, and you're going to change God's mind by asking from a different vantage point? You can't do that.
God eventually let him go, and we made the worst government of God. Maybe that he let us do what we want. I don't suppose he's not here. But one of my sons wanted to spend, I thought, an inordinate amount of money on a bicycle when he was young. And I told him I didn't think it was a good idea. It was his own money. He'd earned it and so on at his age. And so he asked, and he asked, and he asked. And so I thought, well, perhaps there's a lesson for him to learn. And so.
I said you going by the bicycle and he bought it and a short while later it was stolen. And I'm glad that he admitted that he had sought his own way, and the Lord will do that with us sometimes is let us have our own way and that's why we can say we see some of these things further down. I don't want to be telling stories about my children because it's true of all of us, as our brother Chuck was saying with Balaam, that if a man may insist on getting an answer.
We may eventually get the answer that we want, so that we might learn what is in our own hearts.
But what is characteristic of the believers? That they are led by the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God will lead us in obedience to the word of God.
That's the 14th verse, isn't it? As many as are led by the Spirit of God, our sons of God. That's what characterizes the Son of God. He's led by the Spirit, not by his own will.
In Proverbs, the word my son is used, I believe 17 times, maybe a little more. But the particular phrase my son really has the import of being the builder of the family name. And so the one that is in Christ knows Christ as Savior and acts in character is really as it were, building the family name and being LED of the Spirit, not exercising his own will. But.
To be LED is really to follow another and to follow in the will of another.
And so the Lord Jesus always perfectly followed in the will of his Father. He never would step out of that path of obedience. It's a real course of encouragement for us to see in his life. He was sent, We enjoyed that this this afternoon He was sent. But he also followed. He wouldn't step out of that character. He was a builder, as it were, of the family name.
Notice the this read on it says verse 15. If you have not received the for you have not received the spirit of *******. Again, spirit of ******* is what one has when he's under law.
Romans 7 Poor man was under *******. He was under law. Yeah, that's that's not what we've received again.
Repeat of the old something altogether new.
To you have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear.
But you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA, Father.
Settled established relationship which can't be changed. We cry ABBA father as a son in the family. This then it says the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God and if children.
Then heirs.
Whose heirs? Heirs of God? How much did we inherit?
Joint Heirs with Christ.
All that he has won as man down here, he's going to share with you and me.
Where joint heirs with Christ.
00:40:00
If so be that we suffer with him.
That we may be also glorified together. It's what a what? A jump from being a joint heir with Christ who's suffering with him. But that's our path down here.
We're joint heirs. Heirs of God, join heirs with Christ. But there's a suffering time, and that's right now.
Interesting verse. You mentioned at verse.
Verse 16 Very interesting verse.
The Spirit itself.
Bearer witness.
With our soul, spirit, spirit. Why? Why spirit? Spirit is God conscious?
That's why it's brought in there. It's a spirit of God conscious. A man asked me that question.
Why is it not saying our souls? Well, it's the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
And the spirit in man is that which is God conscious, Yes. So it's beautiful to see how accurate scripture is. So I've always enjoyed that first talking to this man.
Seeking to bring this before him about this verse. So that word spirit does not mean the Holy Spirit, it means our human spirit, spirit, soul and body, yes.
That is really, I just say this to the young people too, because there's a great deal of singing of the Psalms and so on and expressions. God has prayed and so on. But God was really characteristic of Christianity is to know God as Father in that relationship, and not just his Creator and his creator, He's father of all things, but to know him in that intimate relationship that he has an interest in us as Father.
ABBA father.
Anybody have, I think?
On how this area was verse 13 he through the spirit to mortify the beautiful body.
Lord, if I means put to death.
But the death of these of the body don't don't give a place to those things that the body wants.
Don't get yourself into a situation where it will produce fleshly lusts and things like that.
A man that worked with me, got saved and he was quite a drinker. And in Ontario the only place you can buy beer is in a beer store. I wouldn't even I've never been in one. I wouldn't know how to order if I went in there And I said to him, I said, you know, you know what it is to go in and buy a dozen cases of beer and drink them on the weekend. And I said, and you need to learn how to never step foot in a place like that again. So I'm thankful. And so it's true of you young children too. Perhaps there's places that you've never gone.
And you know that your parents wouldn't approve of it. Believe on the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ now shall be saved and thy house. And you've been preserved from certain things because you know that there's certain entertainments that you would never engage in. There are certain things that you would never do that would horrify your parents. And maybe you don't understand. The only thing you understand is that you know that they're not pleasing to the Lord, and it's good just to mortify those things. It's just to say, well, that's just not for me.
Now, it's not to be put yourself into some kind of legal ******* but it is really just to put those things in a place of death that it's outside of your sphere of existence.
It's not ******* to say no to sin. That's obedience.
They might want to make you think of you just as slave to being a goody goody.
Whatever they want to call you say I I'm, I'm to to submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit. You wouldn't know what that is because you don't have the Spirit. You haven't received Christ. But I have and I have to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. That's that would be our attitude.
Would you connect that 15 First, the Spirit of ******* again to fear with Hebrews chapter 2.
In verse 15 it says and deliver them through fear of death for all their lifetime subject to *******.
What are you reading now?
Hebrews 2, Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 15. Would you connect that with the 15 first of our chapter?
00:45:03
As well as, you know, fear of coming into condemnation that that fear is gone too. But as far as we have other fears, natural fears, I'm afraid of a lot of things in life, you know, but I think in its context it probably we're delivered from that fear, you know, the consequences of sin and of death, judgment thereafter.
You know the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 6 gives a picture of this. It's a lovely illustration. It says in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 13 thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him, and shall swear by his name. He shall not go after other gods of the gods of the people which are round about you, for the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you.
Bless the anger of the Lord thy God be kindle against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. Well, you know, what are the gods of the people that are around us? It's really the gods of entertainment and the gods of public opinion.
The gods of perhaps fashion of this world and it really feeds the flesh. It really exalts the first Adam. And so he says we're not to go after those other gods and that the Lord thy God is a jealous God. And so the Lord desires in love. He gives us this instruction that we might not have a saved soul and a lost life. He wants us to have a saved soul and have a a saved life that we might not just waste that which was given to us.
And so we could.
Address in perfect confidence with communion with the Lord, and be able to say that we have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA Father in very nearness to the Father, Just enjoy his company and enjoy the same path as it were that the Lord Jesus enjoyed. What a privilege it is for us to rise above the filth of what this world walks in, and to walk in the dignity of sons of God, and to address God as our Father and to know Him.
In that nearness of relationship.
If you don't understand some of these expressions, the way to get to understand is to be obedient to what you do understand.
To submit to the promptings and leadings of the Spirit of God and reject all that comes from the flesh. And if you do that, this will open up to you in a way that you'd never never realized before. Because God always rewards obedience, doesn't he?
We don't see everything all at once, do we? We, we, we grow, we mature.
Go ahead, the flesh may suffer.
On response to Brother Robert.
House's comment The flesh may suffer, and so that's why there's the encouragement there that if indeed if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together with him, is that there's suffering connection with the flesh, and we may turn aside from something that may seem innocent to us and go on with something that may just turn us aside from a fruitful pathway.
And waste our time.
And their suffering for that.
We may dissociate ourselves from a business deal because that may seem to make a lot of easy money, but.
In a desire not to be together in an unequal yoke, and may suffer for it. A person may suffer by being a good employee instead of rising up against his employer.
There may be suffering, but it's there's going to be a day of manifestation and every believer is going to have praise of him that we would desire, as Brother Robert said, not to have a lost, a saved soul and a lost life.
That 17th verse is puzzling at first glance. If children were heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, everything that he's inherited is going that is his we're going to share.
And that's the richest thing. That there is the richest thing, that we're we're at the height of riches. And then the very next statement is the very opposite. If indeed we suffer with him, we may be also glorified with him.
He tells us what we are as heirs and what we'll enter into in that coming day, but right now, suffering time.
That's Hebrews 12. Let me just turn to that in connection with the Lord and the apostle Paul too. None of the Lord's servants apart from the Lord suffered the way the apostle Paul did, but in Hebrews 12.
00:50:08
Get that thought?
Despising the shame.
Having despised the shame is that the Lord counted the shame that He endured for the joy that was set before Him. And it really is that day of manifestation and glory that is really going to give us the strength to suffer and to bypass things here.
It may be seem like innocent pleasures or what's wrong with them?
That is to see his approval in that day. It's like a student in a natural things that perhaps may forego going out and playing with his friends because he wants to do well at exam time. Well, when the marks are posted on the bulletin board and he sees his Marks and and his friends are kind of forlorn that they're having to retake the course, if I may put it this way.
He doesn't regret then a little bit of suffering that he went through at the time.
When it says here, if we suffer with him, we'll be glorified together.
Does that mean if we don't suffer, it won't be the glory?
Say that again. I don't think I understood what you said.
We'd be glorified together. We're going to be glorified together whether we suffer or not.
Seems to link the two together here.
It's nice. In Revelation chapter 2 The Lord Jesus gives a commendation to this little assembly in Pergamos, and he says in verse 13, I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seed is, and thou holdest fast my name, and has not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas my faithful murder, who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth.
Well, they lived in a day when it was.
To associate with the name of Christ meant that there was going to be suffering associated with it, and so they didn't follow a popular Christ. And we don't live in a world that loves the Savior. We live in a world that rejected him, crucified and said away with this man. We will not have this man to reign over us. Well, the believer wants one man to reign over him. He wants Christ, he wants to live for Christ, he wants to follow Christ, and he wants to bear the name of Christ.
Everyone of us that know Christ is Savior well as if we live in the spirit we want to walk to please the Lord. We need to hold past that name that was delivered to us to be able to manifest that we are of the family of God, that we can cry as those that are sons. ABBA Father. And so he says and has not denied my faith. And so the the faith really encompasses all of the teaching in connection with the person of Christ, the work.
Of Christ and all that is contained in the Word concerning the deity of the Godhead. And so we need to hold those things fast. And so it's going to encompass suffering if we do. It's not a popular Christ that we follow. And if you take and name the name of the Lord Jesus, there's going to be suffering now, he says. Then a little bit later on.
In Philadelphia that no man take thy crown. Well, I believe that there's special approval of the Lord.
As he sees us have any small desire of heart and return of affection to the Lord Jesus, just to bear his name and to suffer some reproach for Christ, it's going to be too late. When we get home to the glory to bear any reproach for Christ. There's not going to be any reproach there for him. But while we walk through this scene, I believe there's going to be some approval, some sense of the Lord's approval in our pathway and in some sense of the Lord's thanking us in a in a way that perhaps we can't really fathom in this scene.
But when we get home to the glory, he's going to say, I'm. I'm thankful that you name my name. It was a hard thing to do, and you bore reproach for it in your path. And when you met and you only took the name of the Lord Jesus, you were gathered into his name. There was a reproach there. I appreciate that. I appreciate you didn't take any other name. And so I believe that this is really what the Spirit of God brings before us, that if we suffer.
00:55:01
And so their responsibility.
Are we going to suffer if we suffer? Will I name the name of Christ? Will I walk with a rejected Savior if we suffer?
Isn't an encouragement to the time of suffering also?
Including those verses there. If children then heirs.
Of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be.
He brings that in now, just so be that we suffer with him.
That we may be also glorified together.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in US. In other words, He's encouraging them that there's a time of suffering and that time is now.
But there's a glory to be revealed.
I wonder if there isn't some little encouragement there about the time of their suffering he brings himself in. Personally, he says, I reckon, that the sufferings of this present time and he went through suffering. You read the list in Second Corinthians of the catalogue of his sufferings and 1St Corinthians we don't know anything about.
Nothing like he suffered, but he says, I reckon all that I've gone through, that the sufferings of this present time are worthy to be compared with the coming glory. So he says that he puts himself in there as a model sufferer.
Suffered more than any of us or all of us put together.
We do not have a hard master. You know that the unjust servant said, Thou art a hard master, reaping where thou hast not sown, and you look at even one like Lot, and you could point out 100 failures in lots light. But the Lord said he was vexed in his righteous soul from day-to-day, and the Lord could even commend that in Lot. And every man shall have praise of God a lot. If you see Lot in the glory, and you ask him Lot, you wish you have any regrets. And I you know.
I believe that after the judgment seat of Christ that we're going to say, well, I wish I'd suffered a little more and take not taking the ease of Sodom as much and I don't doubt that that's going to be one of the great things for the believers, the judgment seat of Christ when all this comes out and so but Paul in contrast here he he reckoned all of it. What he suffered for the Lord was, was nothing compared to what was going to be and Lot was a great loser in his soul and yet the Lord could command him for what he could.
There's a joy in the journey, even in the suffering. Apostle Paul could say that I may know him in the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. A verse was read to us earlier in the conference. Did not our heartburn within us. What was it? It was the companionship of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Think of two examples. Briefly, in the Old Testament there were the three Hebrew children who were obedient to God, and yet when they were put in the very fiery furnace, the very thing which they might fear.
There was found in there one light unto the Son of Man, and then Stephen, when he proclaimed faithfully the word of the Lord in Acts chapter 6, his face was at the face of an Angel, and yet he could see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. And so even in the most difficult times, even in the worst sufferings, it's the company. The joy is in the company and the journey. Three things that have been a helping, our brother's question that was mentioned.
Of things that we might have a help and our difficulties.
A heart possessed with Christ is fortified against the most seductive allurements of the world. We need Christ, we need to be taken up with Him. He needs to be the object of our soul and we need separation from the world. This world would seek to get into our hearts at every turn. And we need the word of God memorize Psalm 1. The word of God, the psalmist could say by the word of Thy lips. I have kept me from the paths of the Destroyer, and so in these things being taken up with Christ being separated from the world being.
Allowing the word of God, the living Water to wash in our souls and be a blessing to us, we can go through sufferings and the joy is in the company of our blessed Savior.
The appendix.
All the sorrows they are feeling is helped by him on the road.
Taken up in resurrection desert ways rehearsal, love, tell the power of God's salvation.
01:00:00
And is never fairly loved #35 the appendix.
Gospel 1
Gospel—S. Stewart
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We started our gospel meeting tonight by singing hymn #14 in the hymn sheets.
#14 Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed and the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb #14?
Have you been?
Alive, but I don't know.
Laurel, MD. Call 10-4 886538292638675. How are you doing tomorrow if you have a bottle of water bottle on the bottom of the line?
I don't wanna do that.
While I'm staying. Well, no, no, no, no I'm not.
0955 Are you lost in the door and all the time?
No, I didn't want it was one of the last.
77151.
Uh, no, I didn't want in the world.
Uh, bow our heads in prayer and ask God's help as we would open His precious Word tonight.
Our God and our Father, we look up to Thee.
We look up to thee as the one from whom every good gift comes every perfect gift.
And we look up to thee as the one who gave the dearest object of thy heart to come down into this scene. Thou didst send thy beloved son to become a man, and to go on to Calvary's cross and to lay his life down there.
To allow that soldier spear to Pierce his precious sign, that his precious blood might flow out in cleansing power.
All we do pray that if there is anyone in this room tonight that does not yet know the Lord Jesus as their Savior, that they might come confessing their sin.
To the and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and to know that that precious blood is washed them from every stain of sin.
And so we looked to these. We had opened thy precious word, that thy beloved Son might be glorified.
That whether Sinner or Saint, our hearts might be.
Warmed and drawn to him.
And so we just commit ourselves to the and for this hour and the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
00:05:07
Return to the Book of Numbers for one verse.
The Old Testament.
Numbers, Chapter 13.
And verse 22.
Since the last part of that verse, the Spirit of God had been.
Recording.
The Journey.
Of some spies that Joshua, captain of God's host.
That Joshua had sent into the promised land of Canaan to view that land.
And inserted here in a little parentheses is this.
Phrase now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.
Hebron was built seven years before Zolan in Egypt.
Hebron is a little picture in the Bible.
Of communion with God.
Zoan is a picture in the Bible of this world that we live in and all its independency from God, completely shutting God out and professing to be wise. Having shut God out, this world has become foolish. And so the prophet says the Princess of Zohan were fools. They were fools Communion.
Existed.
Before ever this world was and all its independency from God.
And that communion was between the Father and the Son and a past eternity.
We had some scriptures brought before us earlier today of how the Father sent the Son.
I'd like to turn to one in the Book of Genesis.
That was.
Genesis 37.
Verse 13 And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock, and Shechem come, and I will send thee unto them.
And he said, he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren.
And well with the flocks, and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the veil of Hebron.
And he came to Shechem.
The little picture, as was mentioned earlier, of how the Father sent the Son. He sent Him out of the veil of that place of communion, that place that was his from a past eternity in the Father's bosom.
That most intimate place of communion between the Father and the Son and He came into this world returned to the Gospel of John, chapter one.
1St 14.
And the word that is the Son of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ as the full expression of all the heart and mind of God, the Living Word.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
A better rendering of adverse will read like this.
And we beheld His glory, the glory as of an only begotten with a Father.
Full of grace and truth.
There is a glory.
00:10:03
That belonged to him and the Godhead in that place of communion that he had.
With God the Father.
That as they looked on him as he walked in this world, they said there is a glory, the glory that belongs to a special relationship between a Father and a Son as they walk together. The glory of, as of and only begotten with a Father. It's a peculiar, special glory, and they beheld it as that man walked through this world.
In communion with his father.
Return to the 40th.
Many, O Lord my God, are they wonderful, wonderful works which thou hast done in thy thoughts, which are to us word. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire.
My nearest hath thou opened burnt offering and thin offering hath thou not required. Then should I? Lo, I come, and the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will. Oh my God ye, thy law is within my heart.
I'd like to turn over to the Book of Hebrews where this portion is quoted.
In the new task commit.
Book of Hebrews.
Chapter 10.
And verse 4.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin.
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he says, sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not but a body. Hast thou prepared me?
We read that in the 40th column.
And it's translated there. My nears hast thou opened. And if you look at the margin where the there's a notation for the word open, it says dig. I'm indebted to a brother.
Here tonight we'll open these scriptures up to me.
And then later I was delighted to discover.
Mr. Darby had, uh, opened them up too in the synopsis.
But he pointed this scripture out.
That that word opened, as it says in the margin, has a sense of dig.
You know, and, uh.
I work in an office most of my life, but when I went to help my father-in-law one time on a job, the expression came up about preparing the job site. Well, I went to the job site and there's a big hole in the ground. What were they doing? They were preparing the job site. They were digging a hole.
And a body hast thou prepared me is how it's translated in the New Testament.
Pioneer hath thou opened or digged, or prepared a body, as is translated in the New Testament? Hesitation prepared me. Oh, this is how.
That eternal Son of God came into this world from the Father's bosom.
A body was prepared for him.
A precious body.
He came down here the eternal Son, and he took manhood into union for himself.
And in the second call, maybe we can turn to it.
00:15:06
Verse seven I will declare the decree.
The Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee.
He always was the Son, the absolute statement of Scripture, the statement of the Father. Thou art my Son.
But a body was prepared him, and he came into the scene and we know the story, how he was born in Bethlehem of a virgin in that stable.
Tenderly wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in that Manger.
And as a man, for the first time, he could look up as a man.
And call God his Father, and he delights to say, this day have I begotten thee? Oh, he didn't become the Son that day. He always was the Son.
And now, as a man, he said, look up a dependent man.
Oh, it's man's glory to be dependent, but he refused it, and he reached out and took that fruit that God had told him not to, and he's walked in independency of God ever since.
Ronald comes into the scene, a dependent man who can look up and call God his Father, the eternal Son of God. A body is Thou prepared me.
We turn to.
The 50th 50th chapter of the prophet Isaiah.
The fourth verse.
The Lord God hath given me the tongue of.
Of the learned.
Or we could read it the learner or the instructor.
That I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He waken us morning. By morning he awakeneth my near to hear as the learned or learner.
Hold your place there. I'd like to include another verse of that in the Tom 127 Psalm.
First two, It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows. For soul He given his beloved sleep.
All of the dependent man, he looked up to God.
And God would prepare that body for him. He looked up to God his Father.
And He could have him awakeneth me morning by morning. And so we give it his beloved sleep. Oh, we had a little thought before us earlier and the Lord asleep in that boat. And it was mentioned about the Lord being weary. Marvelous. The body is self prepared. Me could be weary. But you know, he didn't lay his head down on that pillow in that boat without a word from his father. His father said, if I can say it reverently.
Lay down, go to sleep.
And the disciples said, Master, we perish.
He said wake up.
Oh, we can hardly conceive of a man who walked in this scene so wholly dependent on God that every breath he took, every step he walked, every word he spoke, every thought he thought, all the thoughts and intents of his heart were fully in accord with the mind of God. Communion perfect.
Flawless.
I'm gone.
And yet every bit of man like you and I.
Truly man, truly God has that, hymn says.
O thou of God and man, this one.
00:20:05
You have given me the time of.
The learner or of a, as it were, a disciple.
He received his instruction day by day from the father.
That dependent man.
And every day, it LED them closer to Calvary's cross.
He fully displayed all the heart of God as he walked through this scene.
As a first, I'd like to read in Deuteronomy.
That we often take for ourselves, for comfort as believers.
But I think he knew it. And perfection.
End of Deuteronomy.
Chapter 33. Verse 27.
The eternal God.
Is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.
When the children of Israel.
Went into the promised land. They had instruction from God that they were to satisfy 7 cities.
Seven cities.
That were called cities of refuge.
Seven cities, that one who had inadvertently accidentally slain someone.
And there was an avenger of blood was going to come and take their lives because they had plain another They had shed someone's blood.
And the adventure of blood had a right to come and seek their life.
But they could flee to a city of refuge and find safety there from the avenger of blood.
One of those cities was Hebron.
The eternal God is thy refuge.
Oh, if I can apply it this way, what was that blessed man's refuge as he walked through this scene?
Eternal God.
Dependent man, he did not look.
Or depend upon anyone else.
Eternal God was his refuge. That place of communion was ever open to him. He was spotless, undefiled. There was nothing to separate him from God, no sin to come in between like you and I.
Oh, for all of us were born in sin and iniquity. Yes, we were born into this world as well, but that's where our existence began. His was from a past eternity without a beginning. He always was. We were born in a sin of our Father Adam, and we proved it. And you've proved it. I've proved it. We're sinners by nature and by practice.
We've lost that refuge if I.
I can say a barrier has come in between US and Gods. Communion is closed because of sin.
We turn over to the Gospel of John again in chapter one.
John, Chapter one.
Verse 29. The next day John sees Jesus coming unto him and saith, Behold.
The Lamb of God, which taketh or beareth away the sin of the world, He came into this world to remove, to take away that barrier between that divine bosom that He came from and us, and our loss ruin in sinful state.
Only came as the Lamb of God to take it away.
He came into this world and the apostle said.
Whom our ears have heard, whom we have heard, whom we have seen with our eyes, whom we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life. Oh, John, as it were. A sees him with his eyes here, and he says, Behold the Lamb of God.
00:25:07
We could turn later to the 13th of John and see the apostle leaning upon his bosom, how close he came. We could see and Luke Simeon, as he came in, in the Spirit of God into the temple, when the Lord Jesus was just a babe, and he took him up in his hand from our hands of handle.
Mine eyes have seen thy salvation as he looked upon that day, he declared.
On later in this chapter, John the Baptist.
Says in verse 36, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, all more than just whom we have seen with our eyes, with whom we have looked upon, whom we have contemplated in there as he stood. No crowd around, just a couple of his disciples, and he contemplates this one. He says, Behold the Lamb of God.
All the other hands handled him.
Whom you have taken by wicked hands, and crucified nailed to a cross.
And they smote them with their hands.
All their ears hurt them and they were forced to say never man speak like this man.
And sitting down after they nailed them to that cross, they watched him there. Oh, they contemplated him.
And wicked mockery on Calvary's crime.
He came down the eternal sun, and he could be handled.
Could be looked upon.
Heard, contemplated, A body hath now prepared me. What did they see?
In their body and we beheld His glory, the glory as of and only begotten of the Father.
Full of grace and truth.
There's only one other person in the word of God that I know of who's called only begotten.
And that's in the 11TH of Hebrews.
By faith, Abraham offered up his only.
We got.
You know, I think the Spirit of God put that there to convey to our souls.
The force of the term only begotten. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
And whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have.
Everlasting life.
Oh, maybe we thought of it as his only son he was.
But more than that, you know Isaac was not Abraham's only son, and yet he's called the only begotten.
Abraham offered up his only begotten.
He had Ishmael, we read later. He gave the rest of his son's presence and sent them away when he gave all that he had to Isaac.
The force of only begotten is the one who holds the chief place in the Father's heart. The only place the Father's heart was fully taken up with that man.
This is my beloved son. Hear ye him.
Beheld His glory, the glorious of and only begotten of the Father, One who holds that place in the Father's heart of ineffable delight.
We turn over to the Book of Exodus.
21St chapter.
First one.
Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If thou bind Hebrew servant. Six years shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
If he came in by himself, he should go out by himself if he were married.
When his wife shall go out with him, if his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be our masters, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post.
And his master shall bore his ear through with an awe, and he shall serve him forever.
00:30:07
Oh, a body was prepared him.
A body that he might go to Calvary's cross.
That he might be the Lamb of God. That he meant lay his life down, that he might stand.
In the place of sin on Calvary's cross, and be made sin.
That that barrier might be removed, and all that He knew in the Father's heart of love and grace might come out to you and I.
And so this Hebrew servant.
He says I love my master.
My wife, my children, I will not go out.
Oh, it speaks to us of the love of Christ for the Father.
Of the love of Christ for the Church, like that merchant man that we read of, and the similitudes of the Kingdom. When he had found one Pearl of great price, sold all that he had and bought it. I love my wine.
And all the Old Testament Saints.
Who look forward to the work of the Cross. They didn't know it as finished like we have before us tonight.
Well, they know it's finished.
My children, I will not come out of free.
And so his master would take him to this post. All it speaks to us of the Cross.
He could have returned back to that glory from once he came.
No, he did. He went by way of the cross.
He bored his ear through whether all.
Oh, he was pierced on Calvary's cross for Youth Center.
For you.
That He might bring you into that place of communion that He always knew with the Father. That He might bring you into that place of light and love that He always knew and enjoyed.
He came down to where we were, He came to the lowest place, and He might bring you and I up to heaven. Fire.
Seated with himself.
We turn over.
Book of Numbers.
Chapter 19.
Verse I'd like to I'd like to look at there.
Here was a special offering given to the children of Israel.
I don't want to take that particular offering up, but just to.
Notice something in connection with it.
Verse five and one shall burn the heper.
Her skin and her flesh.
And her blood herder dung shall he burn?
Verse nine And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place.
I'd like to turn over.
With that scripture in mind.
The book of lamentations that book gives us.
In a precious way.
The very thought of the Lord giva Christ as He hung on that cross when he was made sin for you and I.
Book of Lamentations.
And verse 12, chapter one and verse 12.
Is it nothing to you? All you that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, where with the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger from above happy sense He hath. He sent fire into my bones, and it prevailed against them.
00:35:11
I'd like to turn.
To the first book of the King.
Chapter 18.
In this account.
18th of First Kings.
The prophet Elijah is facing the wicked prophets of Baal and there are two sacrifices laid in order there.
And there's a sacrifice laid in order there by the prophets of Baal, and they're calling upon their God. And the challenge is that.
Whether they'll can can send fire down from heaven to ignite that sacrifice or not, and the God who can send fire from heaven upon that sacrifice would be acknowledged as the true God.
And so they cried to their false God, but of course there's nothing there, because there's only one God.
There's only one God and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.
And so now they've exhausted their efforts, and we come to the prophet Elijah.
Verse 31 And Elijah took 12 Stones, according to the number, The tribes of the sons of Jacob. Excuse me. Verse 30 And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him.
And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down, And Elijah took 12 Stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name.
And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench about the altar's great, as would contain two measures of seed.
And he put the wood in order and cut the Bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Phil 4 barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice. And on the wood he said, do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, do it the third time. And they did it the third time. And the water ran around the altar, And he filled the trench also with water. And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near.
And said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel.
Let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy word. Hear me, oh Lord, hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the Lord gone, and that Thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones and the dust.
And licked up the water. I was in the.
A hymn writer said.
I've been to the altar.
And witness the lamb.
Burnt holy to ashes for me.
And Zenith Sweet saver.
Ascend upon high, accepted, oh God, by thee.
Or have you been to the altar?
And by faith, seeing Christ.
In those hours of darkness as he hung on that cross.
And fire from above.
00:40:04
Fell on him.
And answered his bones, and prevailed against him.
For you all, you belong in that place.
God judged him there.
He was made thin for us. He who knew no sin, the.
Oh, I don't know, a picture given to us in God's Word that conveys the intensity of that judgment and those hours of darkness City bore.
More.
Than the description of this fire that fell down and consumed everything.
Nothing left but that bare earth.
What absolutely clean even the duct.
I don't know why. Nothing but the trench. Oh, what's the trench? His pathway from this earth.
He took the lowest place, and my friend, you have to take a low place if you're going to come to God. You have to come as a Sinner, but you can't take the lowest because he already took it.
He went to the lowest place and was made to him.
Return again to.
Profitized now.
And the 52nd chapter.
There is a beautiful.
Aspect of the cross.
We agreed upon the Gospels.
Or after those hours of darkness, the Lord Jesus said it is finished. No, that cross was not empty after those hours of judgment.
Like that altar on Mount Carmel and 1St Kings?
Now he consumed the judgment.
Nonetheless, the picture in scripture is he was burnt wholly to ashes for me.
52nd of Isaiah.
Verse 13.
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high, As many were astonished at thee, his village was so marked.
More than any man.
And his form.
The village is.
Once visible.
The Countenance.
The expression on the face is what you see when you look at somebody his business so hard.
All he felt as a perfect man.
And perfectly got to.
As a man, he felt those blows as they smote him.
But more than you and I could ever feel, he knew the heart and the intensity of the hatred behind it.
You know there are men.
And I've read of themes and battlefields.
And the awful carnage that has taken place in some battlefields where men are unrecognizable hardly as men.
What does it mean then? His visage was so marked more than any man. Is it that he was physically disfigured more than anyone has ever been?
00:45:01
No.
But no matter how brutal the punishment any man has ever taken from another man.
I never felt it with the intensity that he felt it and the perfection that he felt it because he knew.
Fully the wickedness and the intensity of the hatred of the hearts behind it.
Of those wicked hands that took him, and nailed him to that cross.
But more than that.
In those hours of darkness on that cross, when he was made, sin and fire from above fell upon him His visage.
And his four more than the sons of men you know. Your visage expresses what you're feeling, doesn't it?
God clothed that scene in darkness.
He would not allow wicked man to behold the faith.
His beloved son.
Forest form.
Pain causes more than expression on our faith.
It can even move our forms.
Oh no, the hours of darkness, more than the treatment he received at the hands of man, infinitely more his visage.
And his former and the sons of men.
So on the hour of his greatest need.
On that cross.
Alone and forsaken of men.
He who knew perfectly.
That underneath him were the everlasting arms, He who had always enjoyed as a man down here to be able to look up in perfect dependence upon God. He will always walk as a man.
In communion with God.
Cried out and said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Oh, that city of Hebron was always open to him, if I can say it that way. That place of communion. As a man, he could always flee to it in distress.
Return to Psalms again.
40 seconds. Umm.
I looked on my right hand and beheld.
But there was no man that would know me.
Oh, is it? Is it were?
He came to that city of Hebron.
00:50:00
As Gates had always been open to him.
And they were closed. And those hours of darkness.
All I see is the man.
And the Avenger.
Our blood overtook him there.
Did he turn to another? No, said the tower. Holy, oh, thou, that inhabiteth the praise of Israel.
Oh, he justified God.
And there is visage once so marked.
For you and for me in his form more.
Sons of man, Oh, sooner tonight.
He's gone back to that glory that he came from.
And he is beseeching you tonight by the Spirit of God. Be ye reconcile to God. He's removed that barrier of sin. All the ashes that the priest took up there, a witness of a finish and an accepted sacrifice. God accepted that sacrifice.
And he proved it in that he raised him from the dead.
I could finish.
Meeting tonight with the glory that he went back to.
Could we turn over to?
Book of Numbers again.
This account of the 25th chapter of the Book of Numbers. The children of Israel had fallen into grievous sin in the sight of God. They were in the very place that you and I.
Are as born in this world, and Adam our Father, sinners.
And it was a brave and then.
Who is more brazenly?
And to lift up his hand against the holy God.
Verse six We'll start. And behold, one of the children of Israel came, and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman, in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation.
All this sin was boldly, plainly in the sight of Moses before the Tabernacle, really in the sight of God. All your sins has been bold and plain in the sight of God.
Verse four we're gonna go back a little bit and the Lord said unto Moses, take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the Son, said the.
Verse 7. When Finnehas the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand.
And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
Verse 10 And the Lord spake unto Moses, thank, then ask the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest has turned away my wrath, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel, and my jealousy. Wherefore?
Right Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace, and he shall have it, and his seat after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for the children of Israel.
00:55:07
Off and 1/2 he rose up.
In the very place where sin was so brazen and bold in the sight of God. And he takes that javelin in his hand, and he puts away sin from before the sight of God. And God says he's been zealous for my sake.
He's made an atonement, and I'm going to give him an everlasting covenant of the priesthood.
Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ went to that cross zealous.
And he made an atonement on that cross.
For you and for me the way is open now to come in fully accepted in Christ before God. But you know it says in Hebrews he has appeared once and the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice.
Oh, he didn't appear with the javelin in his hand. No, his soldier with his spear and his hand Chuck and pierced his thigh. He received that javelin.
That was for you and for me.
We turn over to that same book, Book of Hebrews.
5th chapter.
Verse 8.
Go beware, son. He had learned the obedience by the thing which he suffered. We came in to that dependent place. He would have spoken the world into existence, came into the place of a servant, and learned the cost of obedience. It took him to the cross.
And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them.
That obey him.
Call of God and High Priest after the order of Mount Hizbak.
That word, called the translated, saluted a salutation, a greeting that conveys in it.
A sense of the title and bearing.
The Father Sent the Son To Do Multiple Things
Open—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
And verse 17.
For God sent not his Son into the world.
To condemn the world.
But that the world through him.
Might be saved.
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world.
But that the world to him might be saved.
Again, verse 34.
I meditated on this wonderful expression.
God.
Verse 34 For he whom God hath sent.
Speaketh the words of God.
For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
First time that expression is used, he didn't come to condemn.
But to save. And the second time the expression is found, he whom God had sent speaketh.
The words of God. God giveth not the Spirit by measure.
Unto him.
Chapter 4.
Verse 34.
Jesus saith unto them.
My meat.
Is to do.
The will of him that sent me.
And to finish.
His work didn't come to condemn.
Who came to speak the words of God?
He was sent to do the will of God.
And to finish his work.
That's why he was sent.
Chapter 5.
Verse 22.
Or the Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.
That all men should honor the Son.
Even as they honor the Father.
He that honoreth, not the son.
Honoureth not the Father which?
Hath sent him.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me.
Hath everlasting life.
And shall not come into condemnation, but his past from death to life, he wasn't sent to condemn. He was sent to say. He was sent to speak the words of God, he was sent to do the will of God, he was sent.
To honor the Father.
He was sent that we might have eternal life.
And not come into condemnation.
But to be passed from death?
Unto life.
Verse 30 I can of mine own self do nothing.
As I hear, I judge.
And my judgment is just because I seek not mine own will.
But the will of the Father which hath sent me.
Think of how many times you do your own will. I do my own will. It was one that never did.
His own wealth, always.
The will of the one who sent him.
Verse 36 But I have greater witness than that of John for the works.
Which the Father hath given me to finish.
The same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath.
Sent me.
This is the key expression in the Gospel of John.
Verse 37 And the Father himself which hath sent me, could have just said, And the Father himself hath borne witness of me, but he keeps reemphasizing that he was the sent one.
Father Himself which hath sent Me, hath born witness of Me. Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape, and ye have not His word abiding in you for whom He hath sent.
Him ye believe not. He was here to represent the Father. Speak the words of the Father, do the will of the Father.
Not to condemn, but to save.
Speak the words of God the sent 1 to reveal the Father.
Do you know this person?
00:05:02
Chapter 6.
Verse 28. Verse 27. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you, For him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent.
The stupendous work of God is to believe on the One.
Whom the Father sent.
Verse 37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me.
I will in no wise cast out, for I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him may have everlasting life. And will I will raise him up at the last day.
Verse 44. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me.
Draw him.
And I will raise him up.
At the last day.
Verse 33 Then said Jesus unto them, yet a little while, am I with you?
And then I go unto him that sent me.
Chapter 8. Verse 15. Ye judge after the flesh, I judge no man.
And yet, if I judge, my judgment is true, for I'm not alone, but I am the Father that sent me.
It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that beareth witness of myself and the Father that sent me.
Beareth witness of vain.
Verse 26 I have many things to say and to judge of you, but.
He that sent me is true, and I speak to the world.
Those things which I have heard of him, they understood not that He spake to them of the Father.
He said. Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself. But as my Father had taught me, I speak these things, and he that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always.
Those things that please him.
Verse 41.
Ye do the deeds of your father, then said thee to him. We be not born of fornication. We have one Father, even God.
Jesus said unto them, that God were your Father, he would love me. For I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Chapter 9.
Verse 4. I must work the works of him that sent me while it is dead.
The night cometh when no man can work.
When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.
This is such a beautiful picture of how one gets saved.
The Word became flesh, He spat on the ground.
Men was made flesh of the dust of the ground.
Made clay of the spittle, anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and he said unto him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent.
He went his way therefore, and washed and came. Seeing That's how you get your eyesight is you believe on the one whom he sent. He took, He became a man, he became flesh. He took his spittle and the mud he took and put it on his eyes and sent him to the water, the pool of Siloam, which means scent.
00:10:06
And when when one sees this gigantic immense truth that the father.
1 John 414 The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Then your eyes are opened and you know who he is. And if you don't know who he is, you don't know anything that's worth knowing.
There is nothing like the Gospel of John, nothing like it.
Chapter 11.
Verse 41. Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid.
And Jesus lift up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me, and I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe what that they may believe what that thou hast sent me.
Immense truth.
Necessary for one's eyes to be opened.
To believe he was sent to the Father.
That he came willingly.
As sent by him.
Chapter 12 verse 44 Jesus cried and said he that believeth on me believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.
And he that seeth me, seeth him that sent me.
Verse 49.
For I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me.
He gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak, and I know that His commandment is life everlasting whatsoever I speak. Therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
Verse 40. Verse 20 of chapter 13. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
Chapter 7. Excuse me, 14.
Chapter 14. Verse 24.
He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which he hears not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
Verse 21 of chapter 15.
But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.
Verse 5 of chapter 16 But now I go my way to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me whither goes down.
Chapter 17.
These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him, and this is life eternal.
That they might know thee, the only true God.
And Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Verse 8. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known, surely.
That I came out from thee and they have believed that thou did send me. Do you believe that stupendous truth? Do you believe that that's the most important thing here?
The whole theme in the Gospel of John.
And he says of his own, he says they believed that thou would send me.
00:15:04
Verse 17 Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them.
Into the world. So as he represented the Father and sent one of the fathers, so now we are here to represent him, the sent one of the Son.
Verse 20 Neither pray for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word that includes all of us.
That they all may be one, as our Father are to me and I. Indeed, that they also may be one in US that the world may believe.
That thou hast sent me.
And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be 1 even as we are one. I am them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know, not just believe, but know.
That thou hast sent me. He wants everyone to know that truth, that immense, wonderful truth.
Thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast.
Loved me. Verse 25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known.
That thou.
Past sent me.
Do you know that truth?
I mean in your inmost soul.
Is it everything to you?
Nothing like John's gospel.
Chapter 20.
And verse 19.
Then the same day at evening.
Being the first day of the week when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus the resurrected Christ now, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you as my Father.
Had sent me.
Even so, send I you.
When he had said this, he breathed on them.
Just like Jehovah God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of natural life, and man became a living soul, so now the resurrected Christ, the same person, Jehovah Jesus, same person, now breathes onto his disciples the breath of his resurrection life.
A life which is beyond this world, beyond death, and on into eternity.
And saith, receive ye the Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit before us. We'll have much more of that in the next meeting in Romans 8, the Spirit of God.
He sent. I didn't read those verses in John 14.
He says.
The Spirit the Father sent the Spirit the Son sends the Spirit.
And the spirit comes as scent of God.
Wonderful.
Brief meditation.
Meditate.
Upon these things.
Come to the realization.
Of who he is.
And who he represented.
And now he commits it to you, to me.
To represent him as he in perfection.
Represented the father.
Art Thou Greater? Man Wants a High Place for Himself
Lessons From Joseph a Wonderful Type of Christ
Romans 8:18-39
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
8/18.
8 verse 18.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in US. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same and hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travail us and pain together until now, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
We are saved by hope, but hope that is seen as not hope. For what a man seeth, why does he yet hoped for? But if we hope for that which that we see not, then do we with patients wait for it? Likewise the Spirit also help with our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
For he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose.
For whom he did for know, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, That he might be the first born among many brethren, or over whom he did predestinate them he also called, and whom he called them he also justified.
And whom he justified them he also glorified. What shall we say then to these things? If God before us, Who can be against this, He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yeah, rather, that is, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God.
Also maketh intercession for us who shall separate us from the love of Christ.
Shell tribulation, our distress, our persecution, our famine, our nakedness, our peril, our sword. As it is written, for thy sake we are killed. All the day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter they and all these things we are more than conquerors. Through him that loved us, Brian persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things that come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God.
Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Great encouragement to look ahead for those that are suffering so much. We know little of this, but many of our brethren are suffering greatly for Christ.
To and looking forward to the to the glory which shall be revealed to us. I think it ought to read.
The glory that we're going to enter into haven't yet, but what a day that will be.
Not to us only, but the whole creation suffers as a result of man's sin. And so when the rabbit gets a frightened look on its face, when it sees the fox or the Sparrow, we saw some sparrows and Hawks flying up above. They were made subject to vanity, not willingly, not by reason of their own sin. What a wonderful release there will be for the creation when the sons of God are manifest.
The peering of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When it says in verse 21, the creature itself shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption, should read into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. We are now enjoying the liberty of grace, but the liberty of glorious future. It's not just a it's a glorious liberty, but the liberty of the glory. When everything will be set right in the creature, as you say the creature will.
00:05:14
Benefit from that?
Mr. Long Dean used to say that glory is excellence in display. It's displayed excellence, and we see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus made a little lower than the angels. I thought of that. The last indignity that man did to the Lord was thrust his spear into his side, and they would have put him in the grave with the wicked. But God had other plans.
And we see now Jesus by faith raised the right hand of God.
But in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we see that little lamb that the world despised, and he's going to come in great power and glory and set things right and take what is rightfully his. And when he comes in his glory, it's going to be deliverance for the whole creation.
Even in the Millennium the there's going to be big changes the lion and the lamb will dwell together in The sucking child shall play on the whole of the Aspen. They shall not hurt nor destroying all my holy mountain. So there's going to be a complete change of things even among the animal creation.
Liberty of the Glory.
Will be a wonderful.
Change over what we have today, this now, the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Not only that I should it should read, but ourselves also, which which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of the body.
We have redemption of our souls and our spirits, but the body is not redeemed as yet.
What's the first fruits of the spirit that is mentioned here?
We have the firstfruits of the spirit.
It's in connection with this groaning creation.
And in that coming day, even the Millennial day.
There's going to be, as just mentioned, quite a change in this earthly creation.
When the Spirit of God.
Works in that new way to bring about those changes. We already have the Spirit of God in US, indwelling us. So we have the first fruits of the Spirit even before it is supplied to the to the earth, to the scene down here.
That's a thought who pre trusted? The Apostle says in Ephesians who pre trusted it could be translated in Christ trusted in Christ ahead of the time of His manifestation and all the world will see him so in that same sense first fruits of the Spirit.
We mentioned it yesterday, but it's good to repeat it. Everything that God does.
The Spirit of God is involved in it. So is the Son. So is his Father. All three persons. So the Spirit of God will work in in a wonderful way.
Where is it? It's in Isaiah.
11 Not sure get that right.
Yes, Isaiah 11 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might.
The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord shall make him a quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked, and righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of his reigns.
00:10:00
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion and the fattling together. And a little child shall lead them, and the calendar bear shall feed their young ones shall lie down together, And the lion shall eat straw like the ox, And the sucking child shall play on the whole of the *** and the wean child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.
As the waters cover the sea, And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an end sign of the people, and it shall the end to it shall the Gentile seek, and his rest shall be glorious. Well, that's the Millennial reign. What a day that is. And that's what this is looking onto, isn't it? Get a little more of that in Isaiah 55, verse 11. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper. And the thing where unto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be LED forth with peace in the mountains and hills shall break forth before you into singing. And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands, and instead of the thorns shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the Myrtle tree, And it shall be to the Lord for a name for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Won't be a perfect scene though, will it? No. Added to that that you stated there the last verse of Isaiah 65, verse 25 says the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, The lion shall eat straw like the bullet. Notice this one expression and dust shall be the serpent's knee. And the salt marshes also will not be healed. Maybe I'll use the salt there for sacrifices.
They'll be pretty close to perfect, you know, Satan being bound to those thousand years.
That shows that even though the Lord would give such a time of tranquility and blessing on the earth, it will not change man's hearts will. Because as soon as Satan is loose for a little season at the end of 1000 years, immediately an immense court follows him rebellion against the Saints that are in the environs of.
We're living today in the day when righteousness suffers, and in the Millennium righteousness will reign, and in the eternal state righteousness will dwell.
There won't be any evil whatsoever in the eternal state, but in the Millennium there still will be, and it will be dealt with immediately. Day every morning. Wicked will be dealt with in that day.
We spoke of the first fruits of the Spirit, but perhaps if we turn to Colossians chapter one, we'll see what the present activity of the Spirit of God is.
In the day in which we're living.
Colossians chapter one, verse 10. That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, and to all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness.
So this is how the power of the Spirit of God is manifested in the present dispensation at Pentecost, the Spirit of God.
The apostles could say.
The Joel Spake of this What they saw in the miracles at Pentecost was a little foretaste of what was going to be in the Millennium. But what is characteristic of the dispensation in which we're living is, as you've pointed out, is that righteousness suffers the same suffer. And so the power of we enjoy the power of the Spirit of God today in going on with the Lord in a day when the Lord is rejected and looking forward to that day of manifestation.
When the Lord will be manifested, not just we ourselves, but that the whole creation is going to be delivered from the ******* of sin.
Man is trying to deliver this world from the consequences of man's sin. And that's really why a believer wouldn't know where to put themselves on the political spectrum, as a conservative, or on the Green Party, or where they were. Because man is trying to deliver himself from the consequences of sin. There are many mercies we enjoy that, that abate the feelings of it. We have air conditioning and all kinds of things. Mercies, good roads and so on and and.
Helps in agriculture and all that sort of thing, but we're really looking forward to the day when the Lord has his rightful place.
00:15:05
First Corinthians chapter 15 says there in verse 5757. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so God never changes his mind as to what he had in view. He gave to Adam that dominion. He was to have dominion over the fish, the the sea, and over the air, the the, the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field. And he was too, as it were, Enjoy that creation.
With his Creator, and he lost it all. And so here we have the contrast given and God goes back to the beginning, and he desires that we would remember that we're going to.
While the creation suffers, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us. Why? He says, I I count it. I'm. I'm just counting the balances. I'm balancing this, balancing that.
And why I see that the whole creation that's suffering, it's not even worthy to count that suffering when I consider the glory that's going to be revealed to me as I see Christ and see what is his rightfully His, and how he's brought it all into subjection to the Father.
He's going to have the glory. So God always had in view that a man would reign over this creation and his man is Christ Jesus. And that's why he says now there's the victory and it's he restored that which he took not away. It's lovely to see that the Lord Jesus, he restores that which he took not away and it's the glory of God.
We're living in the last days of Sodom because in the days of Sodom and sought his pleasure and his ease in a world Lot sought, though a real believer sought that place of pleasure and ease. And even when he was put out of Sodom, let out of Sodom, he said, well, here's a little city, can I go there? And the craving of our heart is to have an easy time here. But Paul suffered, Paul suffered. As our brother pointed out the other day that Paul suffered more than any servant of the Lord besides the Lord himself.
For the truth of God.
And he counted that as as nothing compared to the glory that was going to be revealed to him in that day. And So what is the point of this suffering? We're learning lessons here now that we cannot learn in heaven.
He can't learn the Lord's goodness to us and sustaining grace and suffering in heaven, because there isn't going to be any.
We're not going to have to learn the suffering of come out from among them and be separate, and I will receive you, saith the Lord. Because at the Rapture every St. is going to be a gathered St.
There is going to be no separation then, but there is separation now and walking in that pathway and there's suffering connected with it. And so we're learning what the mind of the Spirit is in this time of suffering and we can just try to avoid it and run away from every kind of suffering. And I think very often we see Christians who are growing up and especially in large assemblies in a privileged situations, the moment there's a difficulty, the tendency of the heart is to run away from the difficulty.
Rather than realize that the Lord is really teaching us what the mind of the Spirit is in it, and to be faithful to the Lord and look forward to that day when that day of manifestation, when all was going to be made right. And so this is what He is learning, what we are learning now in this day.
At 24th verse says we are saved by hope. That's that's wrong. We are saved in hope and the Christian.
Has two aspects of hope. We can say Lord Jesus come, that's to come for us and take us home. That's the rapture. Then we can say thy Kingdom come. That's what he taught. That's what we have here. When the Kingdom comes, Lord will reign and everything will be set right down here. But something.
Precedes that for us who are part of the Church, Lord Jesus come for us first and then Thy Kingdom come. So both are proper. It's not wrong to pray Thy Kingdom come. It's not our proper hope, our immediate hope. But we certainly are looking forward to that day when He will have His rights down here and He will reign.
Don't you feel that as you go about, and you hear the Lord's name taken in vain, and you see obscenities all over the place, and you say what a blessed thing it's going to be when the Lord comes and has his rightful place. You hear people. I worked with a man and he took the Lord's name in vain, and he was my boss, and I said, can I please? I want to be respectful, but it bothers me to hear about the way you speak of the Lord, he said. Oh, he said.
00:20:04
I'm sorry, I wasn't aware of it. I didn't even think of it. He took the Lord's name in vain. But you just longed for that day when the Lord is going to be given his rightful place. And as you say, the Lord's Prayer is not ours. Thy Kingdom come, but the heart rejoices in the appearing of the Lord. Jesus. My brother was asking me yesterday, what's the difference between suffering with Christ and suffering for Christ? Well, the apostle Paul suffered much for Christ as well as with But when we hear the Lord's name taken in vain, when we, when we see the evils that are just everywhere around us, we suffer. We see.
We suffer with him. We have the same feeling. Well, Lord said, How long shall I be with you? He groaned just at the unbelief of his own. And how long shall I suffer you?
And when we see how the enemy is working and the the, the, the trouble he's he's created amongst the the Saints, not only the gathered Saints but the Saints everywhere the they're going through problems. The churches are.
Are being divided and scattered.
We ought to feel that. We ought to feel that we should have the attitude. Well, that's they're not gathered. I'm not concerned about them. They're part of the Lords. And whenever we see Christians suffer and churches being broken up that that were once true and faithful to the Lord in whatever measure they had, it ought to cause us to suffer.
We ought to feel it, but then suffered for him is to take a stand for him and preach him and then and and and get all the the evil that will be heaped against us. There are many in China and other parts of the world, Muslim lions and that they're suffering for him, aren't they?
That's what it says, Chuck. That.
No, don't let the sun go down upon your eye. And some people think, well if I have a core with somebody I couldn't go to bed till I've got it cleared up. But it also means, as as Neil just said that we're not to get so used to hearing people the Lords name being taken in vain. And not that we just say oh wow that that's the way it's that's the way it is. And we we we don't want to never let the sun go down upon our wrath for for things like that.
When you look at the Lord at the grave of Lazarus, and you see him groan at the effects of sin, it's a it's a real picture of the the same groaning that our chapter Speaking of, but just another little additional thought. Maybe strength from the chapter or some. But, you know, there's another aspect of his visage was so marred, more than any man Pin shall be astonished at him when they see the Lord Jesus.
In power and glory.
They're going to be astonished that that man.
Who was so despised and whose name has been dragged through the mud for the last 2000 years?
There has been no man.
Whose outward appearance that is that which the world can see.
Over the last 2000 years, that has been more marked than his his visit.
That which can be seen by others.
Even by that which professes to be the Church of God, and so dishonored that name and that man when they see him on the throne, and they say that man.
That man is the one whom the king delights honor. They're going to be astonished at him.
In this connection with the word hope, verse 424 and five, we're saved in hope. But hope that his scene is not hope. If you see it then it's been realized. But our hope is it's not an uncertainty. I can say to you, I'll see you tomorrow or there's an uncertainty in that. But our hope is an absolute certainty. But it's something future. It hasn't been realized yet. And so he he goes on to say hope that his scene is not hope, but what a man seeth Why did he had hoped for?
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we, with patience, wait for it. Absolute certainty. We know he's coming and we're waiting for it. We don't know when, don't know when.
I remember maybe I mentioned this. If I did, it's because I'm getting old and you're going to repeated things. That's what happens when you get old. But I was visiting with.
Bruce and we visited Brother Rule and I I was trying to.
Encourage him maybe to think maybe you should move out of this big huge house down Royce. He's in his 90s and I said if you thought about moving and he said, well, maybe maybe this afternoon.
00:25:07
And the only thing that's going to move me is the Lord's coming. I thought that was good.
We're saved in hope.
In scriptures the word salvation is used in three ways and the salvation of our souls.
And the salvation of our lives, the brother referred to that we can have a saved soul and lost life.
That is, in a practical way that we go on indistinguishable from the world, Peter says. It's they think it's strange that you run not with them, but there are many believers that are running with the world, and they're indistinguishable from the world, and in certain sense they'll be saved like Lot out of Sodom. And then there's the salvation of our bodies now as our salvation nearer than when we first believed.
And it is really having the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord coming to set all things right.
Having that as our goal, if we set our goal here is to be the largest church in vessel or be the largest assembly and we're going to be disappointed. Paul had to say look at Asian say all day of Asia forsaken me. His hope was not in seeing natural fruit for his laborers, but just to to see that day when he saw the church presented to himself without any spot or wrinkle or any such thing. If we have another object, we're going to be disappointed and we're going to fall into sin.
And so we're saved in hope and we can see that when we see the the end of all things.
We have. I'm trying to keep us going because if we're going to finish this chapter, and it would be nice if we did before five, we have to move on. There's two, there's two that are making intercession for us, very precious. The one is the Holy Spirit down here and the other is the Lord Jesus on high. He's at the right hand of God, verse 34, making intercession for us. So we have the heavenly man interceding, but the Spirit of God here below. And let's look at that 26th verse.
Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. That's not our sins, but our infirmities. For we do not know. We know not what we should pray for as we ought. There's a lot of things we we don't know exactly.
What to pray for?
What school to go to? Where to move?
What person should I marry?
There's there's all kinds of things that have an element of uncertainty. What about my job and so on. But the Spirit himself or itself maketh intercession. I just, I want to just make this I said himself. But why does it say itself? Because the word spirit in the Greek is in the neuter gender.
And it's not male, it's not female, but it's neutered and neuter is it. And so that's all it means. But the Spirit of God is not an it. He is a person. And just because it says it, the spirit itself. Other translations render it the spirit himself.
Very. If you look at, say, John 14, John 16, you'll see him referred to as he or him all the time. He is a person. Not in it, Not a thing, not an influence.
Not of power, but a person. And so the Spirit himself make an intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Sometimes all we can do in our prayers about a certain matter is saying, oh Lord.
With tears flowing down our cheeks, we can't put it into words. We just weep.
And he knows that and he intercedes on our behalf. And that's very precious, isn't it?
And we don't know our own hearts because we may pray for something, thinking we're really praying for something in love or for somebody's blessing. And maybe the thing we're praying for might be very hurtful to them. But the Lord searched. The Spirit of God searches the hearts, and he knows the Spirit has one object, and that is that we be conformed to Christ. And so he steps in and intercedes for us. And that's why I believe to move on, that it's important that we know all things work together for good to those that love God, to those that are called according to his purpose.
Is that we see God behind the circumstances of life.
There's an interceding of the Spirit that we might know what is the mind of the Spirit, but practical infidelity really comes from not seeing that God is in control of the circumstances. Well, he said this to me, or they did that to me or this happened to me. And we see second causes and not see like Joseph, when Joseph finally said God put me here for your blessing.
00:30:12
And and when Joseph finally saw that, then he could be a blessing to his brothers. And maybe that's why it took so long for him in prison, is to realize that it wasn't his brothers that had put him there. It was God that had put him there, and God had put him there so that he could be a blessing.
And what a blessing he was to his brethren.
And so that's why we need to see that all things are working together for good. The the best, the worst thing that can happen to a believer is, as we said yesterday, hasten the journey that leads him home. And so we can really submit to what God allows and not fight against God.
I believe that's why it says here in the end of verse 27 he makes his intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
And so the will of God is perfect. It's flawless. And in the proverbs, or I should say in the Psalms Psalm of 1830 says, As for God, his way is perfect and shouldn't we want the will of God? And oftentimes we strive against what the spirit desires, and what the Spirit would desire is the will of God in our lives. And those circumstances then require that their submission and as you say, Joseph.
It took him time to come to the point in his life where he would submit.
And what the Lord had allowed in his life, and what a lovely example he was a picture of Christ. And so will reflect the life of Christ and will reflect the submission of the Lord Jesus. There is no one on earth that ever walked this earth that submitted to the will of God like our Savior the Lord Jesus. What an example for us. It was the will of God that he submit.
And so the result of this is is that to be conformed to the image of his son.
So that we would be more like Christ.
Joseph had the truth when he went to his father and his brothers and said, you know your sheaves are going to bow down to mine and so on. What he said was true, but it wasn't very edifying to his brothers. It just provoked their jealousy of what a different scene we see now when God has worked through repentance and done a work in Joseph heart too, that he might be a blessing to his brother.
And so that's the purpose of these circumstances, that that Christ, that would God's original object was that he would have many that were just like his Son.
And so the world, Paul says that the world teaches that gain is godliness. And whether it's winning in sports or it's winning in money or it's winning in this or that, getting ahead, getting ahead of who? That's the whole thought of the world is to get ahead, to be a winner. That's why the universities and the schools occupy themselves so much with sports and so on. They want to teach people to go for the juggler and to be a winner. But the son of God came in and.
As our brother quoted Isaiah 52, he took that low place and.
Men are just going to wonder when they see that he's been exalted to that place and so God would have us to be conformed to the image of his son. The world teaches just stand up for your own rights. Put yourself forward. They look for self-confidence in individuals. I don't mean to despise the abilities that God has given you or to or to. You know, if the Lord has given you ability to do something and you don't do it, then you're not really using what God has given you. I'm not referring to that, but the world is always trying to press self forward.
The object of God is by the circumstances of life, is that we would conform to the image of his Son.
Verse 27.
He mentioned twice, Is that referring to the Holy Spirit or to the Lord Jesus?
God first one is God.
Either search at the hearts N what is the mind of the Spirit? Because he, the Spirit maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
But notice notice in verse 29.
Whom he did for now, whom he did for now he knew you, before you even existed. In time he knew you.
How can that be? Well, he is God.
To them that are called according to his.
Purpose whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate.
Now the foreknowledge and the predestination are in the past. As far as we're concerned with God, there is no past, present or future. He lives in an eternal present.
00:35:02
So you get the past, present, and future here to us as though it's all accomplished. Well, the foreknowledge was accomplished. The predestination it's whom he foreknow and what he did predestinate us for. Predestination is with a view to something. And what is it here?
Predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many Brethren. That's the past foreknowledge, and the predestination. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called. He called us in time, and whom he called, then he also justified, He justified us in time. And whom he glorified, them he also whom he justified them he also glorified.
To us that's future, but not to God.
It's in his purpose. The purpose was made before time began.
The foreknowledge, the predestination, the calling, the justification, the glorification, it's all the same to him. He lives in an eternal present.
He says in Isaiah.
5715 is it that he inhabits eternity?
Can you grasp that he inhabits eternity? Time is. I mean, I can't. You can't think without time of me. I can't think without time. Space, but not God.
The sister said the other day that he taught in the church that, well, God predestined certain ones because he knew that they were going to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. And that's not the thought at all.
Is that God knew just how bad I was going to be, and he just knew what it was going to take to make me conform to the image of his son.
It took the death of his Son and the shedding of the precious blood of the Son of God to cleanse me from my sin. It took the Spirit of God to compel me to come in, took the servants to invite me to come in the Spirit to compel me to come in. And if God did not act in sovereignly sovereignty and in grace towards me.
And towards you then there would have been nothing at all. It's not that God sort of looked out and said, Oh yeah, there's a good one there and there's a good one there and there's another good one there. That's not the thought at all. And so that's why he's going to be glorified in them. That believe is because it's going to just show the majesty of the grace of God that he could pick up on such as ourselves.
Fitness for glory?
I remember talking to a man who was a rank unbeliever.
But he was wanting to argue about it, so he said, what about predestination?
I looked at him for a minute. I said. That's God's prerogative. That isn't mine.
So I said, if you want to argue about that, why don't you ask God?
And I thought of this verse.
Predestined also.
In verse 29.
That he predestined to be predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first born among many brothers, moreover, whom he did predestinate.
Then he also called.
And again, as our brother has already said, moreover, whom he did predestinate? When did he predestinate us?
Before we were born.
Before we were even came into this world, we were predestinated.
Then he also called. When did he call us In time. Time. The time came when we got a call, and then it says and boom, he called.
When did he call you? When did he call me? The time came after so many years of rejection and unbelief. The time came when we responded to that call.
Then he also justified.
And then it says And whom he justified.
Then he also glorified that hasn't come yet.
That day when we're going to be glorified with him, I am a very precious verse to think that God here in the book of Romans and rises to this time of glorious time here. Doesn't many, many ask this question. What shall we then say to these things?
If God before us, who can be against us, he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?
00:40:02
What? What a beautiful line of reasoning the apostle comes up with here. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifies. He makes us righteous. Who is he that condemn it?
It is Christ that died. Yeah, rather that is risen again. It was even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us. The Spirit below makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered even in Christ interceding for us on high, so his work on the cross is finished.
When he entered the glory, he began a new work of intercession as our High Priest and Advocate and.
It's all in the hand of God. Wonderful that it will come to pass, exactly as stated here.
Man resents the fact that God has a right to choose.
And really, what we learn in this chapter is that all our blessing flows from the fact that God did the choosing and the predestinate all of man's choice, free choice, got him into sin and misery, and brought this whole creation into ruin.
But it was God's, and we see this beautifully here, that it was all on God's part, God acting and God acting his own free will. And that is why the gospel is to be obeyed.
Man's free will got him into nothing but trouble and brought creation into ruin. And really, the obedience to the gospel is setting aside the man's will. God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent because man has wrong thoughts about God, the Sinner said. Well, God's against me. God's going to send me to somebody said God's going to send me to hell for Steve.
And blessing is that God is for us.
And that he's given everything that he can give. And so that everything now that that God sends our way is for our good and our for our blessing if we're exercised.
There are things along the way, and you maybe not appreciate the value of them. And so there has to be exercise in connection with them, not just sort of a fatalistic attitude. Well, whatever happens, happens. As things come along. We need to be exercised by them. But it's a good thing to realize that everything that does happen and that God sends along is for our good and for our blessing.
And every time we exercise our own will, we just get ourselves into trouble and sorrow.
And none of these things that do happen to be ever so painful to us can separate us from the love of God. Who can separate us from the love of God? His love hasn't changed because our circumstances have, and they might be very bitter, but His love doesn't change. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ, tribulation, or distress, and persecution, or famine, or negativeness or peril or sword?
All these things happen to the Apostle Paul. He knew what they meant. He felt it. And he's the one that writes this. Isn't that precious?
But, you know, we can't emphasize this enough because we're living in a day when we do not want to suffer. We think all about those poor Christians that suffer in China, or those poor ones that suffer in some other part of the world, Muslim part of the world. And yet how much are we prepared to suffer?
And the way that we conduct ourselves is a believer.
You know, we get into a business deal and it's it maybe involves something that's not really to the Lord's honor and glory or getting involved with a some kind of union or association that a Christian shouldn't be in. And we say, Oh well, a man's got to have his living and we're not willing to suffer 1 little bit for the Lord.
Perhaps take a lesser paying job because so that we can be at the meetings or to be close to to be a help in situations and we're not willing to suffer. Well, We're fine to go and watch videos about suffering Saints across the world and read books about it, but we don't want to suffer.
And yet we realize that this is we are in the days. And this was the apostle Paul. Look at his life. This was mentioned in First Corinthians 15. All the things that Paul suffered for the as a sign of the apostle was the sufferings that he went through and for the Lord to stand faithful to the Lord.
A Chinese brother was talking to an American brother, the American brother said to him. We're praying for you that you don't suffer so much.
Chinese Brother said. That's strange. We're praying for you that you'll suffer more.
Suffering doesn't hurt us. It's needed we grow from that.
00:45:07
Let's look at some of the passages that talk about those sufferings in First Corinthians 4, First Corinthians 4.
Paul says in verse 10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong only back up. In verse eight he says to these Corinthians, Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us.
I thought he was talking to the Corinthians here. Maybe he's talking to the United States.
Think so? You've raised kings without us. I would to God you did reign, that we also might reign with you. We've been thinking of the reigning time, but that's still future. For I think that God hath verse nine set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men. We are fools, for Christ's sake. But ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong.
You are honorable, but we are despised.
Even under this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffered and have no certain dwelling place and labor working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we suffer it. Being defamed, we entreat we are made as a filth of the world and are the off scouring of all things Under this day I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you, they were living as kings, just like we do.
But what did he go through? And that's just one passage. We could read many others as well.
Should we read some more?
2nd Corinthians 11.
I think it's that.
Start with the 2nd Corinthians 11.
Verse 18 Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also for you. Suffer fools gladly, seeing you yourselves are wise.
For you suffer if a man bring you into ******* if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smites you on the face, I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. How be it, Whereinsoever any is bold, I speak foolishly. I am bold also.
Are they Hebrews? There are those at Corinth that were that were speaking against the apostles, apostleship and speaking against him. So he he deals with that. He says. Are they Hebrew? So am I. Are they Israelites or am I? Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I more in labor's more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons, more frequent in deaths OFT of the Jews five times received by 40 stripes save one.
Thrice was I beaten with rods once I was stoned?
Thrice I suffered shipwreck a night and a day. I have been in the deep, in journeyings, often in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watching this often in hunger and thirst, in fastings, often in cold and nakedness.
Beside those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily.
The care of all the churches. What a man.
The Apostle Paul and he was from the upper crust of society. He wasn't a hardened.
Calloused Galilean fishermen, where they really got, knew what it was to to work hard. He was at the upper crust. And that man, the Apostle Paul, went through all this tremendous. I often wondered if why that First Corinthians, Second Corinthians 11. It ends with him telling him that being let down in a basket over the wall, that wasn't the most difficult, difficult, humiliating thing for this man to to endure and so.
But these things are for our blessing.
We may sit here in a comfortable room like that and say that then when we pass through difficulty, but it is our privilege and Paul suffered for the truth. Why did he suffer at the hands of the Jews? Because the law said God is going to reward me according to what I am.
And there's something to glory in that, and the world will say make something of yourself.
00:50:02
Be something and the world will respect you for that.
But the gospel, what does it say? It says God acts towards us according to the goodness that is in his heart, in spite of what we are. It makes nothing of man and everything of Christ. The world doesn't want to hear that. The Christian world doesn't want to hear that.
Nice what he says here.
In in verse 36 of our chapter, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed. All day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Now in all these things we are more than conquerors.
Through him that loved us beautiful. Isn't that more than conquerors? Why? Because he had glory before him. Your glory was before him. That's truly that. For each one of us, we can say we're more than a conqueror. Because when we get home from glory, we're going to see the Blessed Lord Himself face to face.
There's another part here in verse 35.
Where it says.
Chuck has read shall tribulation or distress.
For persecution or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword.
That can maybe make a person scared and afraid to think that they have to go on. But if you're walking with the Lord and he puts you through some serious thing, he'll be with you and he'll give you the grace to to walk in it. I know there are many here that have passed through some pretty severe and severe trial.
And some of them have said people who said to you, well, I could never lose my son. I could never do this, I could never do that.
No, they weren't asked to do it. But when you come to it, the the Lord will will give you the strength and go with you through it. Look, brother, in connection with what you're saying in Second Corinthians one verse 8, Paul says, For we would not brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia.
That we were pressed out of measure above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life, but we had the sentence of death in ourselves. He thought, This is the end that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God. Which raises the dead who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us, he also helping together by prayer for us, and so on.
That man suffered for Christ, didn't he?
And he says it in our chapter, verse 38, of Romans 8. I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. What a chapter this is.
We started at the beginning, we said. It starts out with no condemnation, ends up with no separation, no separation from his love.
I wonder if we're really enjoying the Lord's love. Then when these situations come, there will be that response, Man told me. A friend of his was a cab driver in London ON and somebody pulled a knife on his neck.
He'd been newly saved and he said go ahead, make my day, send me straight to glory. And the man got such a frightened look in his face, he jumped out of the car with the knife and took off. But I just think, I'm not advising you try that. But I just thought that it was just a spontaneous answer of this man's heart, that he realized that the worst that could come would just bring him straight to glory.
And to be straight with the Lord rather.
And he was. He was convinced of that in his own soul. And we need that. We need that. We often avoid difficulty and we say, well, if we do this, I'm going to suffer too much, but we realize that it's just going to bring us a deeper sense of the love of God. And that's in Christ Jesus the Lord.
It's it's recorded. It's not it's not in the Bible, but it's recorded that all the apostles except John was martyred.
In church history, John was.
Exiled to the Isle of Patmos and he was supposed to have lived until he died a natural death, but whether it be not be or not or so.
The all the apostles.
Suffered so.
00:55:01
Because.
They witnessed to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And.
That pretty well proves that they saw the risen Christ they were willing to suffer even to death and the terrible torture some of them under endured because they knew that Christianity is real.
They saw the risen Christ. That was one of the requirements of being an apostle to have seen the Lord in resurrection. Paul saw him, Salsa saw him in glory, didn't he? Glory.
In the Philippians chapter 2 That we often read it in verse eight, it says being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And So what brings us into blessing in this way, And to be counted worthy to suffer? For the Lord is obedience to the precious word of God. And the Lord Jesus was perfectly obedient, and his obedience led him to the cross.
Well, if we were perhaps more obedient to the word, obedient and not characterized by the 1St Adam and his disobedience, his lack of wanting to suffer, the new man in Christ, we want to follow Christ. He's obeying, He wants to obey Christ, he wants to follow, and so we need to follow the Lord Jesus. He followed his his Father's word, He desired it. It was his very nourishment and in obedience that led him to the cross.
Would rather obey and die rather than disobey. He couldn't disobey. But you and I, you know, we just tested just a little bit. After we leave these meetings, we're going to be tested whether we'll be obedient to the word, whether in affection for Christ we'll just set our own wills aside and we'll obey the word. And if we do, if we obey, we'll follow in the pathway of the Lord Jesus and we'll share in his sufferings.
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
And the prosperity gospel which is preached in this country, it wouldn't be preached in a country where Christians were being martyred for Christ, but they can be preached here that it's God's will, that you drive around in a Cadillac and that you have a nice $1,000,000 home. And all this, that's a lie that just appeals to the to the lust of man trying to make something of himself. The apostles, the Lord himself, of course, suffered the worst, and the apostles followed in that train. And if we're true to him.
We'll know what it is.
Suffer for him, not just with him, we all suffer with him. But to suffer for him comes when we take a real stand for him in an evil day. And this day is getting worse and worse and worse.
Peter was a witness of the Lord's sufferings.
And he looked forward to the glory that would follow. But Paul was caught up and saw that glory. And he says in Philippians chapter 3 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death.
Every one of theater's chapters has suffering and glory. Everyone, I think.
And the reason the Christian path isn't it, the reason he brings it up in Peter, is because it's written to the tribes scattered abroad because for them.
Everything was here and now, naturally, as Jews, but it was a different thing to see that they had a better.
A heavenly home, an inheritance in an incorruptible place, and that now is the scene of suffering. It was quite a reversal to the Jew because the Jew to every blessing was here on this earth. But all our blessings are in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And naturally speaking, we tend to think like Jews is that our blessings are here, but they're in heavenly places.
But the love of God is seen in Christ Jesus. The Lord is. It's the love of God. But it's been manifest in Christ. That is the anointed man, the man who walked in the power of the Spirit, Jesus, a real man. And he's Lord. And we really need to learn the Lordship of the Lordship of Christ to to submit to the circumstances will be into His word and to submit to the circumstances that he sends. All things work together for good and if we're really to enjoy this truth in a practical way.
Verse 37 We have the expression more than conqueror.
It is one thing for a general to say at the end of the battle that is a conqueror. But we are an admitted and we can say by the language of faith that we are more in conquerors. Why? Because God is for us. Christ intercedes for us, and God's purpose is to bring us to the moral conformity of the Lord Jesus. So it's beautiful that it's a battle. We can say that we are more in conquerors through Him that loved us.
01:00:23
These are very practical things that we've been reading about these three meetings our brother mentioned yesterday, and sometimes these are difficult to expound on. But if I could give a little word for some of the younger ones, we find and believe in this chapter that which is needful for us as a believer in this life. We need to understand our position as a believer and we find that we're in Christ Jesus. We need to have a grasp in our soul of our position we're in Christ Jesus.
We need to know our position as a believer in the power of the believer, that is, the power of the spirit of God in verse 9. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. That is the power in our life, the power of the Spirit of God, and to the path for the believer in verse 14, as many as are led by the Spirit of God. So that is the path for the believer to be led by the Spirit of God in every aspect and every facet of our life. And two, as we've recounted of suffering, there's the purification of a believer.
Things that are very difficult and very painful that we might pass through, but it's for our good and for our blessing. We are earthly vessels here, and we're not yet with and like our Savior. But there's the purification of the believer, which God allows us to pass through difficulties and trials. And then in the end of the chapter, I believe we see our portion of the believer, our portion if God before us, who can be against us, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors.
Neither heights nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. So in the very first verse we find them which are in Christ Jesus. In the very end we find the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. This is the portion of the believer. God has given us a position. God has given us the power of the Spirit of God. We've been given a path, we've been given purification meaningful for us as we pass through the scene, and we've been given a portion so glorious and so wonderful.
Home, the road leads home and one day we'll be with and like our blessed Savior in His glorious presence. But here we've been given to walk in a difficult path for this scene and He can help us and enable us through the difficulties in the trial that we pass through down here.
All things work together for good presently.
And just enjoy this last part of the 8th of Romans in connection with a little scene unfolded in the end of Genesis.
Jacob says when God brings them into the place where he's just so pressed, hedged in on every side.
Verse 36 of Genesis 42 And Jacob their father said unto them, Me, Ye have bereaved of my children.
Joseph is not and Simeon is not, and he will take Benjamin away.
All these things are against me, but you know, it's as if.
The like the verses we've had in the end of this chapter, a little later on in the book of Genesis.
45.
Verse 25 They went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, and told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not, and they told him all the words of Joseph which he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived.
And Israel said it is enough.
It's a simple the spirit of God leads all those wagons out. Of course, in the end of this chapter and the response of the renewed heart, not old Jacob Israel said It is enough.
It was Jacob that said. Without doubt he's been torn in pieces by some wild beasts. He's dead.
It's Israel that says Joseph is yet alive. The difference between Jacob and Israel.
If you stick 100%.
Open Mtg. 6
Open—C. Hendricks, R. Ruga, D. DeGraaf
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
And verse 17.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world.
But that the world through him.
Might be saved.
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world.
Adapt the world to him might be saved again. Verse 34.
I have meditated on this wonderful expression.
God sent verse 34. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God.
For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. First time that expression is used. He didn't come to condemn, but to save.
And the second time the expression is found, He whom God had sent speaketh the words of God. God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
Chapter 4.
Verse 34.
Jesus saith unto them by meat.
Is to do the will of him that sent me.
And to finish his work, he can come to condemn.
Came to speak the words of God.
He was sent to do the will of God and to finish his work.
That's why he was sent.
Chapter 5.
Verse 22.
Well, the Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.
That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.
He that honor it not the son, honoreth not the father, which.
Hath sent him.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent Me hath everlasting life.
And shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life. He wasn't sent to condemn. He was sent to save. He was sent to speak the words of God. He was sent to do the work will of God. He was sent to honor the Father.
He was sent that we might have eternal life and.
Not come into condemnation.
But to be passed from death?
And to life.
Verse 30 If I can of mine own self do nothing, as I hear, I judge.
And my judgment is just because I seek not my own will.
But the will of the Father which hath sent me.
Think of how many times you do your own will. I do my own will. It was one that never did his own will, always the will of the one who sent him.
Verse 36. But I have greater witness than that of John for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do.
Bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me.
This is the key expression in the Gospel of John.
Verse 37 And the Father himself which hath sent me, could have just said, And the Father himself hath borne witness of me, but he keeps reemphasizing that he was the same one.
Father Himself, which had sent Me, half born witness of Me, He had neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape. And ye have not His word of biting in you for whom He hath sent him, ye believe not He was here to represent the Father. Speak the words of the Father. Do the will of the Father, not to condemn, but to save. Speak the words of God the sent One to reveal the Father.
Do you know this person?
00:05:02
Chapter 6.
Verse 28. Verse 27. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sensed.
The stupendous work of God is to believe on the one whom the Father sent.
Verse 37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone would see if the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life, and will, I will raise him up at the last day. Verse 44. No man can come to me except the Father which hath.
And I will raise him up at the last day.
Verse 33 Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you? And then I go unto him that sent me.
Chapter 8. Verse 15 Ye judge after the flesh. I judge no man, and yet if I judge, my judgment is true, for I'm not alone, but I am the Father that sent me.
It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true, and one that beareth witness of myself, and the Father that sent me bear witness of vain.
Verse 3026 I have many things to say and to judge of you, but he that sent me is true, and I speak to the world. Those things which I have heard of him, they understood not that He speak to them of the Father, He said. Then said Jesus unto them, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall he know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself but as my Father had taught me.
I speak these things, and he that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please help me.
Verse 41.
Ye do the deeds of your father, then said they to him. We be not born of fornication. We have one father, even God.
Jesus said unto them, that God were your Father, he would love me, but I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Chapter 9.
Verse Four. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. This is such a beautiful picture of how one gets saved.
The Word became flesh as she sat on the ground.
Man was made flesh of the dust of the ground, made clay of the spittle, anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and he said unto him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation scent.
He went his way therefore, and washed and came seeing. That's how you get your eyesight is you believe I'm the one whom he sent. He took, he became a man, he became flesh. He took his spittle and the mud. He took and put it on his eyes and sent him to the water, the pool of salon, which means scent. And when, when one sees this gigantic, immense truth that the father sent him first. John 4/14.
00:10:13
The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Then your eyes are opened and you know who He is. And if you don't know who He is, you don't know anything that's worth knowing.
There's nothing like the Gospel of John. Nothing like.
Chapter 11.
Verse 41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid, And Jesus flipped up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank Thee that thou hast heard me, and I knew that thou hearest me always, But because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe what that they may believe what that thou hast sent me.
Immense truth necessary for one's eyes to be opened.
To believe he was sent to the Father.
That he came willingly.
As sent by him.
Chapter 12 verse 44 Jesus cried and said he that believeth on me believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.
And he that seeth me, seeth him that sent me.
Verse 49 For I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me. He gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting whatsoever I speak. Therefore even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
Verse 40. Verse 20 of chapter 13. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
Chapter 7. Excuse me 14. Chapter 14, Verse 24.
He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which he hears not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
Verse 21 of chapter 15. But all these things will they do unto you, for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.
Verse five of chapter 16 But now I go my way to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me whither goes down.
Chapter 17.
These words make Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him, and this is life eternally.
That they might know be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
Verse 8. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known, surely.
That I came out from thee and they have believed that thou did send me. Do you believe that stupendous truth? Do you believe that that's the most important thing here, the whole theme of the Gospel of John.
And he says of his own, he says, they believe that thou had sent me.
00:15:04
Verse 17 Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world. So has he represented the Father, and sent one of the Fathers. So now we are here to represent him, the sent one of the Son.
Verse 20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word that includes all of us, that they all may be one as our Father, Arjun, me and I, indeed, that they also may be one in US, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one. I am them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know, not just believe, but know that Thou hast sent me. He wants everyone to know that truth, that immense, wonderful truth Thou has sent me, and hath loved them as thou hast loved me.
Verse 25. Oh righteous Father.
The world has not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
Do you know that truth? I mean in your inmost soul? Is it everything to you?
Nothing like John's gospel.
Chapter 20.
And verse 19.
Then the same day at evening.
Being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the disciples were to assemble for fear of the Jews, came Jesus the resurrected Christ now, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father had sent me, Even so.
Send I you.
When he had said this, he breathed on them.
Just like Jehovah God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of natural life and then became a living soul, so now the resurrected Christ, the same person, Jehovah Jesus, same person, now breathe onto his disciples the breath of his resurrection life, a life which is beyond this world, beyond death, and on into eternity. And saith, receive you, the Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit. We've had the Holy Spirit before us. We'll have much more of that in the next meeting in Romans 8.
Spirit of God.
He sent. I didn't read those verses in John 14, he says.
The Spirit the Father sent the Spirit, the Son sends the Spirit, and the Spirit comes as scent of God.
Wonderful.
Brief meditation.
Meditate.
Upon these things.
Come to the realization.
Of who he is and who he represented.
And now he commits it to you, to me, to represent him as he in perfection represented the Father.
A question that was asked this morning in the 8th chapter of John.
MMM.
Verse 53.
A very touching question.
At least it touched my heart and was quoted in the reading meeting.
Verse 53 Art thou greater? We may read? Verse 52 Then said the Jews unto him. Now we know that thou hast the demon, Abraham is dead, and the prophet. And thou sayest, If man, keep my saying, ye shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are dead? Whom makest thou?
00:20:17
Myself.
You know, brother.
Mortal man was.
Addressing a statement like this to God himself. God manifest in flesh. Say who? Who do you think you're making yourself? Uh, who do you think you are in our common vernacular?
Here they were addressing their creator.
And he wasn't seeking to make something of himself. He who was something.
Good morning to Philippians 2. Verse seven says he made himself of no reputation.
That he who is everything.
Made himself of no reputation.
Man, on the other hand, always goes the other way.
And he believes the lie of the devil.
No, He shall be with God. If you obey my voice. Don't obey God. Obey me and you'll be as good, knowing the difference between good and evil.
Man wanted a place for himself.
God told man to multiply and replenish the face of the earth. And so man as he journeys E, he comes to a plane in China and he says, ah, here's a place, let's settle down here. We don't have to be scattered all over the face of the whole earth. Let's build us here. A tower though. Go up to heaven and we'll get a name for ourselves.
You see, man thinks just the opposite of God.
Man wants to make himself something and can a little understand a God that would come down to where we were.
And make himself nothing.
May maybe wanna turn to the 4th chapter of John in just a few pages before.
The faith and the Lord there.
You must needs go through some area you know the passage well.
And uh.
Verse 6 John 4. Verse six. Now Jacob's well, was there Jesus, therefore?
Being being wearied with his journey.
That does unwell, and it was about the 6th hour. Here cometh the woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink.
The Lord of glory.
Weary with his journey. Can you understand that how God can be weary? The very one who tells us in Matthew 1128 says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and the heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me from my yoke is easy. My burden is light, and I'll get rest unto your souls, if everyone who calls the weary to come unto him for rest.
Is weary in his journey. How can this be?
What do you ask of this American woman? A drink of water?
Could it possibly be the the very same person in Revelation chapter 22 who says whosoever will let him drink the water of life freely?
The very same person said if you were thirsty, come and I'll give you the water of life to drink. Really.
Was he thirsty and asked a woman of Samaria water to drink?
Not only that, but did not the Lord, the glory of the cross say I thirst?
And what did they give him to drink there, brethren?
Vinegar.
Mango with wine.
That's what they gave me, the drink when he said I'm thirsty.
Who did he make himself?
No reputation. He was here.
A servant. A servant.
00:25:00
The gospel before this, in the 8th chapter of Luke, you need not turn to it, but the Lord had told his own to cross over the lake. They're going to go to the other side. But the Lord evidently was reared with this journey, and it says he was asleep.
In the booth, asleep.
Is this the very same person that we read of and call 121 That says that He's the keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Canopy that the Lord of the glory, as a man would be asleep in the boat, and his disciples be filled with timidity and fear, and say, Master hears them not, that we perish and wake him up.
Did the Lord not care in perish? He came to die for them, that whosoever will should not perish, but have everlasting life. It was the fact that the Lord Jesus was here verily as a man.
And he went to such depths, you and I, but you know the heart of man.
It's not stranger to wickedness. Turn to the Matthew Gospel before Matthew the 9th chapter. Look what they say about the Lord there.
Verse 3.
You know the story about the man on.
Sick of palsy, lying in the bed. But in verse 3, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, this man blasphemous, they were calling the Lord of glory a blasphemer. Can you imagine that?
I mean, we wouldn't do that to our fellow men to say you're a blast singer, but they said this is the Lord of the glory.
This man blasting, Why? Because he could forget someone their sins. Well the Lord says, what's easier to say to a man you know, take up your bed and walk or your sins are forgiven.
It's far easier to say, you know how naturally speaking, your sin is forgiven because you can't prove that man's sins are forgiven. It's harder to say, uh, take up your bed and walk because there you have the power of God brought in. But for the Lord Jesus Christ, it was more difficult for him to say to that man, your sins are forgiven you because for that the Lord had to die. But for him to say, take up the bed and the walk was only an exercise of his power, very small power on this part.
Did the Lord's last name.
The 7th chapter of John.
These very same men said the Lord and soldiers to apprehend the Lord and they came back and they told, uh, those religious leaders never man speak like this man. They couldn't lay hold of his words. There was never a man whose fight like him.
Words of grace, words of truth emanated from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ. Never a divergent thought or word that ever displeased God the Father who sends Him into this world.
But there's another time, dear President.
When he stood before Pilate and heard never said a word in self-defense, would you? Would you have remained silent if you were in that situation? Would you not have defended yourself to the hilt, especially if you had the power to do it?
Did he not have the power to do it? Could he not have requested 12 legions of angels and they would have been sent but never a word in his defense, he just remained silent as the sheep before her shearers is done. So he opened not his mouth.
So is our Lord. He made himself of no reputation. Another humbling thing. We had to turn to the 13th chapter of John's Gospel. You see that the Lord laid aside his garment, He got down on his knees and he washed the disciples seat with Patel.
It's very humbling, uh, to get down to watch somebody else's feet.
You know, this almost offended Peter, he said, Lord, I shall never wash my feet.
Well, are we willing to do that?
To watch one another sleep with the water of God's Word.
Sometimes we have to humble ourselves a little to do that, but this was the Lord of glory setting the precedent, an example as to what we should do.
00:30:06
Get down very low, it is very present.
I mean to take much time but.
The 6th chapter of Esther.
There was a king there. His name was the one night he could not sleep.
And a certain good deed was done for him, and it was told him that it was a Jewish man who did this. And he inquired, he said, uh, what, what, What has been done for him? And, uh.
He asked this question, he says, what shall be done for the man whom the King delighted to honor.
What shall be done to the man from the King, and delighteth to honor?
No, I'm not thinking, dear brethren of that king.
Nor am I thinking more to Ki. But would you in closing please turn back to Philippians the 2nd chapter that we started with again.
We'll see.
What's going to be done?
To the man and the king delighteth to honor.
Philippians, Chapter 2.
Well known scriptures.
Group 9 wherefore.
God also has highly exalted him.
The one who?
Made himself of the reputation, whom the people said, Who maketh now thyself? God is going to highly exalt him, and give him a name above every name, that the name of Jesus, every niece thou things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory.
God the Father.
Is this what is going to be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honor?
Thinking when our brother read.
Those verses in John have been sent.
Of Joseph, Genesis, chapter 37.
Verse 13.
And Israel said unto Joseph.
Do not thy brethren feed the flock, and shechem come?
And I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, and see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flock.
And bring me word again.
So he sent him.
Out of the veil of Hebron.
And he came to Shechem.
45th chapter.
The 45th chapter of the book of Genesis in the first verse.
Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him.
And he cried.
'Cause every man to go out from me.
And there stood no man with him.
While Joseph made himself known.
Unto his brethren.
And he wept aloud.
And the Egyptians in the House of Pharaoh Heard.
And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph.
Doth my father yet live?
And his brethren could not answer him.
For they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you.
And they came near.
And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me. Hit her.
For God did send me before you.
To preserve life.
For these two years have the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years into which there shall be harvest there. There shall be neither earring nor harvest.
00:35:05
And God sent me before you to preserve you of posterity in the earth, and to save your life by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me. Hit her.
With God, and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house.
And a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me Lord of all Egypt.
Come down unto me, tarry not, and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks. And I heard.
And awe.
That's all I have.
Says in first John, I believe it's chapter 4 and we have seen and do testify that the father sent the son.
To be the Savior of the world. There are so many lessons from Joseph and maybe just briefly touch upon a few others canmore ably speak of it. But here Joseph is such a type to us of Christ. We see in others such as David and Elisha and others a type of Christ. Joseph is a wonderful type for us We find in one of the first verses of this chapter.
It says in verse three now Israel loved Joseph.
More than all.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
Was the dearest object of the Father's heart, and yet the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. His desire was to redeem you and to redeem me, to bring us back to Himself, to draw us into His family. Then gave you power to become the sons of the children of God, even to them.
That believe on his name? What was the situation into which Joseph had found himself?
He was the 11TH of 12 Children. He was towards the end, maybe he might have felt insignificant, but his father loved him. Do we have that sense in our soul of the Father's love for us?
As a Father hath loved me, Even so I have loved you. Continue ye in my love. I really believe, brethren, that if we have more of the sense of the Father's love for us, what a blessing it would be, what a preserving effect it would be in this world so full of sin and wickedness and departure. He had brothers who hated him, but yet He was preserved. Just a few things that maybe briefly touch on and don't even turn all the verses, but.
Joseph had the sense of his father's love for him, and he heard when there was a message, when there was a dream, he paid attention. Dear young one, today when God's word is open, does it have an effect?
On our heart and on our conscience, you know, in this world, in the universities and the schools and the workplace, people receive truth through the intelligence. That's not the way the truth of God is received. It's through the heart and through the conscience. And these things laid hold on him and he repeated them. Do we take the word of God? Do we repeat it? Are we obedient to it? But there was strife. And how often, dear ones, in our homes and our families and the assembly, we find that there's strife.
And it comes from the war of the flesh, which is in our members. We fail. His brethren envy him. But his father observed the saying, and his brethren went to feed his father's flock. And Israel said to Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock, and check him in verse 13.
Come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I. What a picture of the sun's perfect obedience. He did always those things which pleased the Father.
We ought always to be obedient to that which the Father calls us to do.
He was ready. Joseph was ready, and he cared for his brethren. His heart was for his brethren. He desired their good and their blessing. He might have been afraid of what they might say. He might have been afraid of what actually happened. These are real consequences. But he was obedient regardless of the cops. Our Savior was obedient in Philippians 2, even to the death of the cross, obedience unto death.
00:40:03
But He was obedient, and so He went. He departed thence, when I see that phrase at the end of verse 14. So he sent him out of the veil of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. I think of that hymn. From the palace of His glory, from the home of joy and love, came the Lord Himself.
To save us, He would have us there above. It's as if He went on a personal rescue mission to save your soul and mine from a lost eternity in hell. To draw us unto Himself. He came down to do the perfect will of the Father.
And he could say it is finished. All was done in perfection and completion.
And what happened? Our hearts are revealed in verse 18. And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto him, they conspired against him to slay him.
That's our natural heart.
Jealousy, anger, hatred, strife. These things come. Even to believers. They come.
And the Lord preserved him. He was young. I believe it says somewhere that he was 17 years old.
He was young, you know, no matter what your age is here tonight, God can use each one and blessing even here. This one who is 17 years old, he went into the pit.
He went into the pit, he went into the prison, he was a slave, he was falsely accused. He was put in a position where he would say this is.
Without hope.
But you know, I believe God preserved in him a sense of his promises.
They were real in his heart. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And I believe he had some sense in his soul of what was to follow. And he went through many things which I won't touch upon. He was given a dream for the Butler and the Baker, and he obediently declared the dream. And he was forgotten. He was forgotten. But yet God, in due time, in due place, he was able to bring him up into blessing. And So what is the end? And perhaps in our last few moments, I'll touch upon briefly chapter 45.
Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him, and he caused caused every man to go out.
From me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.
The work of God and the soul is a hidden work. It's a divine work. It's something that perhaps no one else may see. But God would desire to do a weak work in each soul, and it will in due time manifest itself in blessing. Here we see the repentance and the restoration of His brethren.
They had committed wickedness, and God would desire that there be repentance and restoration in each one, whether as a Sinner to the Savior.
Or as a believer to the way in which he would have us to walk. I am Joseph doth my father yet live here? Is his care for his father and his brethren were afraid. They were troubled. Are we troubled in his presence? When we come into the presence of the Lord, are we troubled, or is there joy in our heart? Is there something that hinders our soul? What did Joseph say to his brethren? Come near to me, I pray you, Is Christ real? Is he precious? When you come into the presence of the Lord, when you come to the conferences, we may be very happy to enjoy the fellowship of our friends, to enjoy the meals, to enjoy the activities.
But how we responded here as.
They would respond to Joseph, come near to me. Surely this is the desire of the heart of God.
That we draw near to me, draw nigh to me. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
We read in first Peter, Try nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. The purposes of God were fulfilled. God sent me before you to preserve you of posterity in the earth and to save your lives.
By a great deliverance we've been delivered from the domain of darkness, and we've been translated into the King of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. He's been sent to the Father and the purposes of God. They were fulfilled here in the life of this one. Joseph. Read these chapters. Consider them. What a blessing they are. Here was one who.
Went through much sorrow, yet he was faithful, he was obedient, He had a heart of love for his brethren. And at the very end we see that the purposes of God were fulfilled, and blessing and encouragement to him and to his family and to all those around.