Vestal Conference: 2007
Table of Contents
1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Reading
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OK.
Umm.
How about you? I don't know whatever you need to do that. I don't know if it's, uh.
Umm, the retaining did anything? Yeah, they were called.
We look up to the.
We have sung our longing spirits cry.
And yet we feel all our failure, our feebleness.
Often, uh.
We walked by sight and not.
In the flesh rather than the spirit.
For that new life that thou hast given to us in sovereign grace.
That Newman.
That new creation which were part of laws.
Longs to be fed from heavenly springs.
Long to be fed with Christ.
Response to thy precious words.
Loves to walk in obedience to Thy will.
Loves to have Christ.
Or it's object and we do pray.
That Thou, within thy sovereign grace, grant us to be fed with food that is convenient for us, that would feed that you like we have in Christ.
Let us know our needs and all the circumstances of each individual pathway here.
And none of us is sufficient.
To give forth that that would meet those needs.
We thank either the sufficiency in Christ our head.
To meet those needs in this land of drought and dirt.
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To lift our spirits above this scene.
To give us the energy.
To the path of faith.
So we just look to thee, our eyes are haunting, as Thou art direct to the portion of Thy precious word that would be suitable.
Lord Jesus.
To think of that phrase, Lord of heaven and earth.
Oh Lord Jesus, we look forward to that day when thou be manifest to this world, not only Lord of Heaven, but Lord of Earth as well.
And I will set all things right.
We will not, uh, walk through a defiled fee and any longer.
Valid no longer be the one cast out and rejected, but the.
That son of man's supreme or overall things.
Our hearts only that now, Lord Jesus.
May it be real in a practical way in our day by day life, Lord of them.
So we commit ourselves to the looking, to the Lord Jesus as Head of the Body.
New Minister by every joint of supply that which is needed.
We thank you for thy grief.
Good evening, thanks our God our Father, and ask these things in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
This morning, you're a fervent.
The brother read to us from First Thessalonians chapter 5.
That is a lovely chapter filled with instruction through the breathing field. It may be profitable to look into that portion for the readings.
First Thessalonians, chapter 5.
But of the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as the thief in the night.
For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
Ye are all the children of light and the children of day. We are not of the night, nor of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and Fern helmets, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even as also ye do.
And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you and the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves.
Now we exhort your brethren, warn them that are unruly, Comfort the feeble minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesying, Prove all things, Hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearances of evil.
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And the very God of peace sanctify you holy.
And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
The times and the seasons.
You know, when the Lord was here on earth and the disciples asked him about that in Acts chapter one, the Lord said to them, it is not for you to know the times for the seasons.
That's because the Holy Spirit was not yet given. You find that in the second chapter.
Well, at this point the apostle Paul was not afraid, was he, to give to these new babes in Christ The full truth as to the revelation of God was revealed to him concerning the course of this world. What will take place after the believer is gone? And it certainly isn't that. A very bright prospect, is it present? We don't read in the Word of God that Christianity is going to convert the world and make it a better place in which to live. Oh no, we see things getting worse and worse.
And an awful time is in view for this world.
And evidently the apostle brought these things before the Thessalonians when he was there because he says, you know, it's not really.
Necessary for me to write these things, you know perfectly.
They should recall what the apostle Paul had told him that we are very thankful that it's recorded here.
So that we can know as well as the fulfillment who's prophesied in the Old Testament and read about it in Daniel Chapter 9. You know, uh, the dear servant of God was given to see what would take place at the end of time. And here it's confirmed to us in the New Testament as well.
Second of fiscal to Timothy.
Fall Rd. pulled past the form of sound words which thou assertively.
Another translation has have an outline of an outline I think of sound truth, And as Reuben was saying, it's encouraging to see that in spite of the little amount of time the apostle Paul had was easy in these converts, they had laid hold of an outline of sound truth.
And that's a very, uh, sound and useful way for us to learn too, is to get an outline of things and then little by little, meeting by meeting, week by week, year by year for Lord Carrie's week, add little pieces. Really, the Lord gives it to us. And if we have a, a sound outline, the pieces go into their proper place and our understanding deepens in our enjoyment, deepens of the precious things of God.
From Roost, do we look for signs and times or is our hope something different?
Or does this take place after the rapture?
Well, essentially our hope is in a person Christ Jesus, our hope says.
So we're really not looking so much for events as we are for the appearing of a person who has come into our lives and delivered us from so great a death.
Has told us He knows all about us and yet loves us thoroughly anyway, and has, uh, insured us that we're going to spend eternity with Him. Enjoy. And in a place where sin can never come. That's the believer's hope, what the Scriptures call the blessed hope. To be with Christ, to be with Him, and to be like Him.
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I used to be a little mystified when Brother Lundin used to tell us that prophecy concerned the earth, and the years went on, I understood better.
What he meant that God has a purpose concerning the earth, He's going to bring that purpose to pass.
The end of the ages, the Lord Jesus is going to come into this world and take his rightful place and rule over this world to God's glory and be a priest upon his throne in the rising of the sons of the going down of the Seine. The Lord's name is going to be like incense in every nation. And that's a wonderful, uh, anticipation that we have to see him finally have his rightful place. But as believers now we're really.
Not an earthly people were a heavenly people. We have a heavenly hope and.
And even our the essence of our life is heavenly was considered to be seated in the heavenlies in Christ and we wait for one who's going to take us to our proper place, which is heaven. And so even though we're waiting for the Lord to come and take us to be with himself, we're not unmindful and God does have a purpose with his earth. He's going to bring it to pass. And the apostle in the first verse here referred to those times and seasons that have to do.
With God's purposes with the earth.
Uses that expression in verse 2.
Yourselves know perfectly.
In the fourth chapter it was one of them, the Saints, who passed off. And Paul says, I would not have you to be ignorant.
Here's a different expression yourselves know perfectly you know the day of the Lord is mentioned at least 35 times in the Old Testament. If you turn like to the second chapter of Joel, the 2nd chapter of Isaiah, those chapters are just filled.
With the day of the Lord, that's the day of judgment, isn't it expressed in the day of the Lord is not the Lord coming for his own? Uh, that's the Lord coming in judgment upon this world. And uh, so he says here yourselves know perfectly that they would know from the Old Testament that meant repeatedly the Lord was going to come in judgment upon this world, not only for their sin, but to think that when finally the Lord says.
We love some saying they will reverence my son. Imagine the guilt attached to rejection of the Lord of glory. The day of the Lord is about to come, brethren. Now it becomes us to walk in separation and that which is under the judgment of God.
Sure, the residents all noticed that you have a change of the pronouns here.
Ye yourselves verse one and two, but verse three it changes. It's they them and they verse four, it goes back again, Ye reverend and you are. Some of these verses apply to the world and others apply to the same entirely different destiny for two two different groups of people. We're not of this world even as the Lord is not of this world.
The Apostle Paul had been a very short time with the Thessalonians and probably this is the first epistle that the apostle wrote and, uh, through persecution.
And the circumstances ordered of God, he was only able to stay there, perhaps just a few weeks at the most.
And so in the first chapter he rehearses how they had received the gospel.
And how it was known in the region all around that they had turned from dead idols to serve the living God. But it adds a he adds something in verse 10. And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
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Those things they knew perfectly what they had to be instructed in was in chapter 4. And that's where he says, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, in verse 13.
The coming of the Lord.
In loneliness and grace.
When he was born in Bethlehem was his first coming. His second coming is when he comes in power and glory. He appeared here in Lonely Guys. He's going to appear again in power and glory.
And the Word of God only looks at 2 Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first has taken place, the 2nd is yet to come.
And so the Thessalonians had been instructed in the fact that there was a second coming of the Lord Jesus, and they were waiting for him.
They were waiting for him to come in power and glory, and when some died, when some fell asleep in Christ, their concern was they're going to miss out. We're here waiting for the Lord to come back in power and glory and to set up the Kingdom, and we're going to reign with Him, and these are going to miss out. They're in the grave.
And the apostle opens up to them.
That the Lord, when he comes is going to bring all His own with Him and this is how it's going to be accomplished. He's going to raise the debt. He's gonna catch up the living. They're going to then proceed with him in His glorious appearing in this earth and reign with Him in the establishment of that Kingdom. The seven-year tribulation isn't taken up here. All those things are passed over. It's just is coming and we're going to come with Him. It's as if the picture that the apostle gives is the Lord is on his way from glory to this scene.
And on his way, because he's going to bring us with him, he catches us up, catches us up to meet him on the way down.
Now we know from other scriptures that there is a seven-year at least seven-year period in the interval between when we're caught up to when he actually appears in the Lord, but that's how it's presented in this epistle. There's only one second coming of the Lord, but his others have said in two installments 1 to catch us up to meet him on the way to his appearance. Events transpired on the way to that period the.
No doubt the judgment seat of Christ, the tribulation unfolds in this world at the end of which He does appear in all his Saints with him. And that's what he's calling here. The day of the Lord that they knew perfectly. They were expecting His coming in power and glory and the day of man now man that's having his way outwardly.
But the day of the Lord, the Lord is going to have His way and He's going to set all things right. They knew perfectly that that day was coming. That day was going to come as a thief in the night to this world. When He catches us up, He comes and meets us as a bridegroom, not as a deep. That part of His coming is for the affections of the believer. We look for our bridegroom. The part of it coming in power and glory is also for our longing hearts to see Him have His rightful place. We long to see Him who was cast out and rejected finally.
Have his rightful place and it's the day of reward as well. For faithful service to this world. It comes as a feast.
In Sardis, in Revelation, the warning to them was that there was not a turning about from their pathway because of the empty dead profession of that church, that he would come upon them as the thief in the night as well. And so the professing church is going to share in the judgment of this world when he comes as a thief in the night. But will all true believers will already be with him.
1St chapter.
Uh, just to pick it up in verse 7.
Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall also conform you unto the end.
That you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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And then in the second official first chapter.
14 in the middle ye are.
We are your rejoicing, even as you also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.
So there are other passages which speak of a very wonder wonderful aspect of this time when the Lord Jesus displaces the 1St man and in power takes over the headship of all things on this earth that Stephen was speaking about.
The day of Christ, the day when all the upside down things that are exist now are turned right side up and instead of uh, evil being promoted is good and good being.
Presented his evil.
Things are seen in their right way and up is up and down is down, and light is light and darkness is darkness. And the Lord Jesus is going to be head over all that. And there's going to be a display of what God had in his heart all along for man. A display of what he had in his heart morally as to purity, as to righteousness and love. And then we'll be blessed by this in this period of time when God heads up all things on the earth under the Lord Jesus Christ.
Will last for 1000 years. I think it's 1000 years because Revelation, I think it's chapter 24, five, maybe six times it says the 1000 years, the 1000 years. So I'm not a brilliant person, but I take from that that it's going to be 1000 years.
And so God will.
Uh, afford himself, so to speak, that amount of time to display his own glory and his love for man in that way. But the transition from where we are today when men rule.
Into that time when Christ is heads over all things outwardly is a is a terrible transition. Time, which I believe the Old Testament prophets speak of, is the day of the Lord. It's a day of of wrath. It's a day of tumult.
In a day when the Lord bears the lighting down of his arm and he comes and he says in the, uh, in the prophet Isaiah, he stains the pride of all man's glory. And it'll be as it's just briefly referred to here.
The Lord coming as a thief in the night. Nobody wants to be surprised by Thief in the night.
There's the element of surprise that the Lord were to come during this meeting when it's not as a thief in the night that He would come for us. But when He comes in this world, there will be a series of events like the world has never seen. The world has seen floods and tornadoes and pestilence and famine and all kinds of war as the result of man's sin, but it has never seen the wrath of God from heaven.
The Lord Jesus tasted wrath of Calvary's cross, and this world has never seen God's wrath and they will see it in that horrible time when in, as I say for lack of a better word, in transition, the Lord takes that power to himself.
And he himself displaces the 1St man and everything having to do with him.
He takes his place as a priest upon his throne. So there's a certain sense in which the day of the Lord refers to that, those momentous times of transition, uttering, ushering in the wonderful time of peace.
The day of Christ, the display of things that are good and blessed.
He uses the figure in that third verse of.
Sudden destruction coming upon them as travail upon a woman with child. It's a figure that everybody understands worldwide. I don't care where you go, they all understand it. Connection with childbirth is suffering. Uh, that is childbirth. Notice these children born. I believe that there will be a great multitude of.
Gentiles as well as Jews that will be saved to get that in the 7th chapter of the revelation, out of all nations that will be saved during the tribulation, a child will be born at this time. Uh, it will be a different gospel today. The gospel of the grace of God is being proclaimed, but then it will be the gospel of the Kingdom that the Lord is coming to set up his Kingdom here on earth. Primarily, we'll probably use his Jewish presence to initiate the preaching of that gospel.
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And they'll go forth everywhere preaching, and many will believe that that the Lord is coming. And, uh, they'll show their faith by the way they receive those messengers that the Lord sends forth. And, uh, they'll be born again and they'll enter into the earthly Kingdom, I believe, uh, a time of blessing coming out of great tribulation.
The Lord speaks of those days to the disciples, and he says man's heart will be failing them for fear for those things that are coming upon the earth. And so there's an expectation.
Upcoming judgment for the thought of a travel of a woman in, uh, labor, as well as that. Once that begins, there's no reversal, there's no escape. Once in the grip of that process of Labor and delivery, it's not going to stop.
They say peace and safety, but it doesn't say there is peace and safety then sudden destruction. It's just that they say it.
And so isn't that what the leaders of this world say today? Isn't that how they get their votes? They get their followers? They preach peace and safety, but they have no power to bring it about. There's only one who's going to bring that about?
What a interesting.
The touching thing it was when the Lord set up Israel as a nation.
Gave them their inheritances and assigned cities of refuge in different places so that a person who.
I think it says killed someone unaware that is an accident happened.
And they were entitled to flee to the city of refuge.
Uh, suppose.
You know, we're two of us are working together and inadvertently the axe head comes off where someone is accidentally killed. Family not understanding may desire vengeance upon that. Who killed our brother, our father or my husband? Well, the the person who experienced that, who had that happen can flee to the city of refuge and find shelter there.
Until, uh, it says the depth of a high priest.
And so it was, So it is really today that the Lord Jesus himself is that city of reference. When Paul writes to the Hebrews, he uses that very analogy. He says Ye have pledged for refuge, to lay hold of the whole which is before you.
And so it's God's desire that not any would be would be lost. God's desire is that all men would be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.
So the Lord Jesus stretched forth, stretches forth his hand all the day, and entreats men and women and country after country, day after day, to save themselves from this condemned world that is doomed to experience this sudden destruction, and individually to flee and to find shelter in the city of refuge, which is Christ.
The Lord Jesus encourages all to come and says Whosoever shall call upon my name shall be saved. You won't turn aside a single person who calls upon him by faith. That's the gospel, the good news of the grace of God and the Sinner today. There comes a time when sudden destruction overtakes, grows.
At that point the solemn Scripture will be true of them, that they shall not escape.
There's an escape available now. It will not be then they shall not.
Psalm 100 and thir 105, verse 38 says Egypt was glad when they that is the children of Israel who parted.
In the in connection with our passage here, they will say peace and safety. Don't you think, Reverend, that the world will be happy once we're gone to think that the Christian, you know, like a foreign in their side, we're proving.
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Telling them their ways are sinful, that they must repent, that there is no good in man. I think they will be glad when Christians depart from the scene are taken up to glory just like the Egyptians were urgent upon the children of Israel to depart unless they all be dead men. You know, I don't think the world will miss us once we're gone, but neither will we miss the world and they will be entered into uh, faithful give place to sight as we just sang and it said, you know, we won't have to exercise faith any longer. Everything will be visibly.
Before us.
So verse 4 teaches us that it's not just our destiny, it's our present place.
Love and often think of that part of the hymn in the little clock, where it says we stand accepted in the place that none but Christ be claimed, like the Gospel tract. But if we stand where the fire has already been, place of safety.
So it's not just that we have safety as our destiny, but we're safe now.
And one of the wonderful truths of the gospel is that we're safe already. We're accepted already. We have as a present possession already the forgiveness of sins if we put our trust in Christ. And God would not have us live in fear of our acceptance. He wants us to know that it's been settled when we put our trust in Christ. So. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness.
That that day should overtake you as the thief.
You're not in that place anymore that we once inhabited. We've been taken out of the Kingdom of darkness and we've been translated into the Kingdom of the Son of his love. And even though he, you know, you may work in the city and take the subway and bustle your way down the sidewalk or, or go to a, a large high school where there's kids coming and going and you don't look any different from anybody else in general, but you're in a different place. God sees you now.
As a child of light, if you're a believer and you are in the light in a place that your next door neighbor or the boy or girl the next desk over is not in if they're not in price.
Again, you see that illustrated, don't you? And with the Egyptians there in Exodus chapter 10?
And uh, verse it says in verse 23.
That there was darkness in all the land of Egypt three days, verse 23. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days. But notice the end of that verse. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. Well, President, we're not in darkness, are we? Uh, God has been pleased to reveal these things to us as our present position.
And enjoyment through it is by, it is by faith. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but uh, we believe this by faith. And God has been pleased to tell us what's to come upon this world, that we need not be fearful either. The Lord is able to keep in perfect peace. The mind that is stayed on him should be so thankful for the Bible.
A sister once asked me and I'd like to ask the question.
I think she's been reading perhaps this passage and not understanding what we've just been talking about, but she said that asked me, uh, do you think we should be getting ready for the tribulation? How would you answer that question?
This church period that we live in.
As I get we touched a bit on earlier forms. No part.
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Of the times and seasons that have to do with this earth.
It forms no part of the prophecy in the Old Testament that has to do with this earth, including the Tribulation.
And though we see things about us that do remind us.
Of what is yet to come on this earth, we see, uh, Israel back in the land and unbelief, not under the power of Messiah. We see the, uh, states of Europe coming closer together in a sort of union.
Yeah. Do you know tomorrow all that could fall apart. Israel could be driven back out of that land. It could go back to what it was.
100 years ago.
There could be 20 states in that union tomorrow, there could be 30 in it. The next day it could go back to two.
The prophetic clock has not yet started, and none of those things that we see form any part.
Annie Park.
Of the prophetic word of God.
And so it'd be pretty useless for us to prepare for the tribulation, even if we looked around and we saw things that seemed to remind us of what is to come, we're going to be caught up out of it. And so this epistle wonderfully takes up that very thought from the first chapter.
Which hath, who hath delivered us from the wrath to come? That is not eternal judgment in the lake of fire that he's Speaking of, that they were delivered from. That is the wrath of God that is yet to come upon this world, because of what they did to his beloved Son.
And they've been delivered from that wrath to come.
And so I believe too in verse nine of our chapter, for God hath not appointed us to wrath.
But to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the thought of we have a present possession of salvation. Now we read in Ephesians that this is salvation from coming judgment.
Not only are we delivered from the raft to come, God hasn't even appointed us to it.
We're not going to pass through it.
Death and judgment are behind us. Christ bore it on the cross, and we're never going to endure the wrath of God, and we're never going to stand before Him in judgment.
We're never going to stand before him and judgment, even like those sheep and goats in Matthew chapters and 25.
That stand before the Son of Man in his glory to find out what their eternal destiny is. We know what it is now. We're not going to even stand before Him in judgment. In that way it's behind us. It would dishonor the work of Christ on Calvary. Whoever thinks that we are going to pass through.
And under the wrath of God, all we may feel the wrath of man, we may endure all kinds of persecution and tribulation and suffering for Christ and for righteousness and maybe even for our own failures. But that's not the wrath of God. That's not the judgment of God. No, we've been delivered from all that.
7853 Revelation chapter 3 and verse 10.
I also got to keep it from the hour ago and he said which will come upon all the world pride us as well, all good.
Illustrated in the Old Testament with Enoch and Noah. Enoch being kept from the flood, being transported to glory, and Noah, a picture of the Saints who will be kept through the tribulation, right? They go through it. But our portion is is that of Enoch. We'll be caught up. We see that picture there.
So in the fourth verse here where it says ye are not in darkness.
The thought is not a question of ignorance, it's a question of your moral condition, right?
That we are safe. That we're in the light.
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That we have peace with God and that we have been put into a new position.
Not a question of our knowledge about things. It's a question of what Christ has already done for us.
I've often thought, Robert, you know.
Weather a St. Christian knows it or not, this is their position in Christ. How many there are who feel they can lose their salvation but they really are trusting in the shed blood of Christ. Whether they feel there they can be lost or not, they're still going to be with the Lord in glory. You know, they should know it. You know, I don't see how they can preach the gospel if they're not sure of their own salvation, but yet they go out and preach the gospel and.
Temerity.
But, uh, this is our position in Christ, as you say, and we should be wise as to it, you know?
My own heart was converted by where it talks about the children of life. Question I want to ask my own heart is how much do I walk in that life? It's likely children sing in Sunday school this little light of mine after many nights.
That brings us, I guess, to verse 6, doesn't it? The word, therefore.
The pattern in the New Testament epistles in general is that our standing is put before us first.
And all that Christ has done for us and all the privileges and blessings that pertain to that, and then the practical responsibilities.
And are presented in exhortations and admonishment.
Following that, so grace has put us into this wonderful place of light and love.
And so in verse six, it says therefore, in light of the fact that we've been put in such a place.
It becomes us and not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober. There's different ways that the word sleep is used in the scriptures and even in this epistle.
Verse seven for they that sleep sleep in the night is natural sleep that everyone will experience tonight hopefully.
Lay down and sleep and get up in the morning.
And then there's the sleep that is referred to in the previous chapter, where if the Lord takes my life and I die, I'm looked upon as asleep in Jesus. It has to do with my body.
The real me who I am, goes to be with the Lord, and it would be said of me absent from the body present with the Lord.
But as to my body?
Sleep and so there's that sense too but here in verse six therefore let us not sleep as do others its moral and if I forget what I'm really all about I forget who I am and who I belong to and the price that's been paid for my redemption and.
Then my practical life will show that I have forgotten, and I will slip down in the tone and character of my life and my thoughts and my attitude to be like, uh, another regular person of the world. Except I'll probably be more unhappy.
And so that is looked upon as being morally asleep.
You remember that in the voyage that Paul took at the end of the book of Acts, he, he stood forth and he made that pronouncement and said, whose I am and whom I serve.
The Apostle Paul was in the good of of who he belonged to and what his life was really all about, essentially.
When we lose that sense, then we we morally slip back and we're looked upon, even though a true believer, as being asleep.
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I think in Ephesians chapter 5, where that exhortation comes the weight. Verse 14 Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from among the dead, and Christ shall give thee light is an exhortation to that very.
Condition that I might some fearlessness let myself get into.
I might look even though I am sleeping. I might look like a dead person even though I'm a believer morally. I may look like the world.
But the the goodness of God.
Like it says in Psalm 23, he restoreth my soul.
Same thought is brought out in the tenth verse.
Quoting through new translation who died for us that whether we are watching, we should always have that blessed hope before us present or sleep as you were bringing out Bruce. If we passed out of this body. You know the Christian is always seen as being asleep in Christ. Our friend Lazarus sleeping now whoever we're still living, watching we're asleep. We should live together with him. So you have those 3 definitions of sleep right in this very chapter, don't you? It's often been said that.
Words find their meaning by their context though. Uh, these words, sleep mean different things according to the context of the word.
Well, instead of sleeping in verse six, we were exhorted to do 2 Things, to watch and to be sober.
I don't believe the main force is to watch.
And to awake every morning to every day to have that.
Possess that hope is a real thing in our hearts that perhaps today could be the day when, uh, faith will be laid aside as an unneeded thing and I'll be ushered into the presence of the Lord and, and see him face to face. My whole earthly career will be over and yours in a moment.
And like the hymn writer says, forgotten then, in glad surprise, will be our years of weeping.
So we watch for him, but I suspect.
Primarily here the plot is watching.
Uh, ourselves and as a guy I used to work for always used to tell me.
Get about this far from my face at times. And he says, son, pay attention.
And then I see Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he, he'd get me again, something that he'd almost grabbed my chin. He says. I'm I'm telling you, son, you need to pay attention.
It was George, I said. George, I got it. Well, I guess he perceived that I was distractible and he knew that what we were doing for work was somewhat dangerous and he wanted to be sure I had my wits about.
Well, we need to have our wits about us as believers too.
Peter writes to the Saints as well, in joining us. To be watchful and to be sober. For Satan himself walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist, steadfast in the faith. A similar thought.
So we need to be to be sober and to watch what we're about because there are pitfalls, there are dangers. There are things that can cause us to dishonor the Lord, cause us to incur, uh, sorrow and unhappiness.
That is not easily remedied in this light down here.
We're also to watch out for one another.
So in Hebrews, there's the uh.
I can find it real quick. Uh, I think it's in Hebrews 12 verse 15.
00:55:07
The early part of Hebrews 12 looking under Jesus.
And then in verse 15, looking diligently.
Keep our wits about us to keep our feet under us, so to speak, spiritually, but also for our brethren. Am I my brother's keeper? Yes.
You are uh, sister. The other day copied me on a letter she wrote.
To someone who had criticized the local assembly and she said one of the things that she said I enjoyed was that I value the sense of accountability that I have in the meeting where I go gathered together to the Lord's name. The sense of accountability where people know me and they look out for me and and they're not afraid to check up on me. And that's a wonderful thing, looking diligently.
Not casually, but diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God.
Failing of the grace of God is not repeated before hitting your thumb with a hammer and saying a bad word. Failing of the grace of God is losing the sense in your soul that God is for you.
That he loves you. He is 100% for you in everything that he is.
And that the circumstances in our life are allowed from him from his point of view of love interested in our.
In our thoughts, In our moral character. In in who we are and who we are becoming.
And if we lose that sense of God being for us, then bitterness comes in.
Bitterness is a is a tough weed to get rid of.
There are many warnings in the evening.
Thistles to the Saints.
Be careful that bitterness doesn't any root of bitterness springing up trouble you thereby many be defiled.
These things are in opposites to each other. Having the sense of grace in my soul.
Bitterness. So we need to look out for one another in that respect. And I'm sure there are other things which we that you would think of under the exhortation to watch.
Verse 11 May look very much wherefore comfort yourselves.
They look very much like 418 where for comfort one another but it's not.
It's a much stronger word if you have the new translation, it says wherefore I adjure you.
Now to adjure someone, that's the same thing as it's like putting someone under an oath. Remember, the high priest adjured the Lord Jesus Christ to answer him, put him under an oath, and the Lord did reply here, the Saints were adjourned to edify one another. That's something Brevin that has to be impressed upon us. Uh, in the 13th chapter of Revelation, it says suffer.
The words of exhortation, we don't like it when someone gives the word of exhortation, but here he says, uh, even as also you do. Evidently this was their practice there at Thessaloniki.
Minister the word of God to one another. And it was necessary, wasn't it, that they they bring the scriptures before them because it's very easy to turn aside. There are few admonitions later on in this chapter.
I don't know if we'll get to that later on, but uh, even you take the Ephesians where fall gets in the highest truth concerning the church, and at the end of that chapter, uh, he has to reprove them. We're constantly reminded, aren't we, from that we not only have all these things in price, but we have the old nature that has to be kept in the place of death. We have to be reminded of these things.
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Good morning.
Somewhere and I'll be able to grow up.
Go to bed.
01:05:02
Read a verse in the Revelation.
Revelation, Revelation chapter one and verse 3.
Rita's and they that hear the words of this prophecy.
Those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand to mend ourselves to the Lord.
Our blessed God and loving Father.
We thank Thee for this reading meeting that we've just had. We thank Thee for Thy Holy Spirit leading Thy brethren and guiding us.
We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for all the blessings that thou have blessed us with.
Set our ours in thee.
Thank you for bringing us into thy wonderful family. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that we are the children of light.
Lord Jesus, we thank Thee that we are not of the night and that we are not of the darkness.
But we are children of the light, we are children of the light, and we are children of day. And we thank you for this, Lord Jesus, and we thank you that we have the light of the Scriptures to guide us and to see the pathway.
For us to to be a light and a lamp unto our feet. Lord Jesus, we thank you for this and alight to our path Lord Jesus and we just pray that thou continue to give us grace and guidance for the remainder of the day.
We thank you for all the doubts.
So we just looked at me, Ukraine, we ask you and I know the most precious and worthy name, Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, Amen. Amen.
Praise and Worship Between the Rapture and the Coming
Following the Lord and Walk in Peace With Your Brethren
1 Thessalonians 5:12-20
Reading
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Thank you for the reading meeting that we've had this morning without his give up.
I think before the food that's out and supply for our, for our hearts and for our souls, spiritual food and the physical food.
Thank you for the open meeting that we've had last meeting.
We pray Lord Jesus, for grace and guidance for this coming, this, uh, reading meeting that we're about to partake of. We pray that thousands of leads and guide the brethren by thy Holy Spirit that Thou would give us more food for our souls.
From that person's work. So we count on Thy grace, and we count on Thy strength and Thy guidance to teach us more of Thy left ways.
So we prayed an almost precious and worthy name, Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, Amen.
00:05:08
The broken minded to continue with first.
Thessalonians, chapter 5.
First Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 12.
We beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves.
Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that our unruly comfort the feeble minded, support the weak. Be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit.
Despise, not prophesying.
Prove all things.
Hold fast that which is good, abstain from all appearance of evil, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body, preserve blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read.
Unto all the holy brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
I suppose there would be no need for an admonition as we have in verse 12, if we had a separate clergy from the laity, but.
Nothing is said in the Word of God here in the New Testament concerning any official position.
We are to recognize those who have the moral qualifications.
For leading the Saints.
Notice that we are to esteem them very highly, not for their gift, but for their works sake, says.
This takes an entirely disrupts what you have in denominationalism today, where you have a separate clergy from a laity be no need to know them, but we have a scripture. It says a man's gift maketh room for him, and the Lord is the one who qualifies different ones amongst us with their ability. A gift from above. It's not the ordination of man, is it? Although we can show fellowship with those whom the Lord has raised us.
Before the apostle had only been for a short time in Thessalonica and, uh, there had not yet been time in that brief period for fully, uh, to have the characters, the moral characters of the various.
Brothers in that assembly to manifest themselves.
The Apostle Paul couldn't really, in that time, appoint elders to, uh, oversee the work of the Lord in that assembly.
And so he has to write back to them, because now those characters would have become more manifest than he has to exhort them, than to recognize those who had taken up that work and were fitted and suited by the Spirit of God for that work that they took up.
We're in the same position today. There's no apostle to appoint elders.
In the assembly.
And there are no delegates of the apostles to appoint elders. Titus was a delegate from the Apostle Paul to go appoint elders and Greeks. And in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, the last chapter.
00:10:09
17th verse He writes the salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is the token in every epistle. So I write, so Titus might go to Crete and, uh, he would, uh, evaluate me before the Lord is to the character of different brothers there and appoint elders. And they say, well, where did you get the authority for that? And he pull out this epistle to Titus and he said, here it is. And see, it's signed with Paul's own hand, his token in every epistle.
It was the proof that he had authority from the apostles to do that. Well, we have no such thing today. Who can pull out an epistle from the apostle Paul signed by his own hand, saying I have authority here from the apostles to appoint elders or bishops or anything else?
In the assembly.
So we're in the same place as it were that these Thessalonians believers were and were to recognize those that the Spirit of God is fitted. You know, because the apostles not here or an appointed delegate does not mean that the Lord has left us. Uh, the rest of, of the value of oversight, The Spirit of God has still fitted those and morally fitted those who have the oversight in the assembly to carry on that work.
Were to recognize them.
Oversight, as we read about it in the New Testament, is always local.
And God's view was that it would be plural. And so when you read the word for elders, it's plural.
And so the Lord raises up those even today, whether official or unofficial, as you say, that know the Saints. It's a kind of a nice thing. And you're in an assembly and you see older brothers and they.
UH, can look and visit and interact with Christians that they've known their grandparents and their parents and they know them very, very well. And they can interpret behavior or issues or problems in the light of that person's context and experience. And that's a local thing.
But you never see in Scripture that this sort of, uh, rule is over more than one assembly. There's no such thing in the body of Christ as an organizational chart like you'd have in a company with, you know, those that would be over the assembly and those over two or three and those over 10 or 12, that does not exist. It goes from that local assembly right to the Lord who's in the midst. And that's an important thing to remember. And that's why often times and times the difficulty though we would be tempted to get.
A bunch of leading men or chief men together to resolve things. It's a dangerous thing to do because it's not God's way. The Lord is by God in the midst of thee is mighty and he's the one who has wisdom himself itself. And so there is local leadership in in the assembly at times of the week. And the Lord himself is in the midst and we look to him and he guides through those and who who whom he has raised up.
On the other hand, from that.
There are those that the Lord gives his gifts to the church still even in our day, such as we read about in Ephesians 4 says there he gave some apostles and some prophets and some pastors and teachers and gifts like those individuals are. And there are other types of gifts are given to the church as a whole and not just the property of one local assembly. And so if a brother is been fitted that way and raised up as a as one who can expound the Scriptures as a teacher can.
Well, he's has that when he's here and he has that when he's there and he has it when he visits across the country and same with pastoring. Well, and so I suspect here in this young assembly in Thessalonica that when he says there to know them, which labor among you and are over you or take the lead in the Lord, that there were certainly believers that were more experienced in the past like Paul was, who who visited amongst them just like it is today. And when I was young in the faith and lived in a small assembly, there were older brothers from other assemblies that came periodically through.
And, uh, they kind of kept an eye on our progress and kept an eye on our growth and our behavior and our attitude and we felt that sense of responsibility and we're glad for it. They were like parents that the Lord gave us for those of us who weren't raised in Christian homes. And so we knew who they were. We didn't thankfully esteem them very highly in love with the effort they made to come through. And, and even though it was sometimes with trepidation as to what they would say to us.
00:15:22
Umm, we, we value them highly and, and miss them a great deal to this day. And so it wasn't official. It's not official today, but by faith, we have a sense of those that the Lord raises up to take the lead amongst us or as it says, here are over you and the Lord. We accept their admonishments because we know they love us and we know they have experience in the past and what they say for us is going to be for our good. And, uh, it's our appropriate response to esteem them very highly in love.
To their work sake.
This is apparently the thing that didn't understand very well.
Because he really got upset when brothers came from other places and wanted to exercise and, and had a burden to exercise their, their care, their gift where he was, uh, he apparently wanted that, umm, that place himself and cast some out of the church and so on. So that's really the, the exception. That's not normal Christianity. And the apostle John points that out for our instructions.
How would you define the word admonish? How would you put that into it?
Ease your words.
Or maybe an example?
As a father, sometimes I admonish my sons. I see something in their behavior and I go to them and I talk to them. Maybe it's not something very bad. Maybe it's just a trend that they're starting on and I speak to them about it to challenge them, to encourage them to go on a better path, to perform better.
And so just to, I think an admonition is when somebody comes and talks to you to try and point out something in your life that could be better than what it is today.
And sometimes it might be about something that's particularly bad that you really need to straighten out in a hurry. Sometimes they just leave something with you for your conscience to think about. And that, you know, in a lot of words. That's what I think admonishing is. Maybe somebody wants to add to that or have some simpler words.
Just a little quiet talk to explain an idea or to point something out in your life that could be better.
Exhortation seems to be just a purely positive set of words like Barnabas came in the early days and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart that they would cleave under the Lord. It's not that they weren't, but he's exhorting them to do that. But as you say, admonishment seems to have a slightly corrective element to it, which we need. If you were to make a mark, if I know a lot have read through the book of Proverbs chapter, a chapter a day throughout the month, and if you were to put a little mark in your Bible on every verse in the book of Proverbs, that has to do with correction.
Or admonishment that the Spirit of God would use that verse to you. You'd have a lot of marks in the book of Proverbs because it's what we need and God graciously is gives to us what we need.
We need correction and we need admonishment.
And it's a, a great benefit to have brothers and sisters that are close enough to us that in love will, uh, provide that for us.
There is a verse in Romans 15 that interesting uses the same word admonish.
Romans chapter 15 and verse 14. And it says, I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren.
They also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. And I think it's a sign of maturity that when somebody comes and speaks to you that you have the ability to listen into, pay attention to what they say. And it is something that has to be learned. Sometimes it's not easy, but it's a sign that you've grown in maturity, that you can hear a criticism, listen to it, take it to heart and profit.
00:20:28
I don't know if we could look maybe an example of that in the book of the Act in Acts chapter 18.
Next chapter 18 in the 24th verse.
In a certain the Alexandria, an eloquent man.
This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being proven in the Spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.
He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom, when Akula and Priscilla had heard, they took unto him. They took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.
Which I believe through grace so mightily convince the Jews not publicly showing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ. When I really appreciated with this is here we have a couple that had umm a real desire to see umm to see a policy go on and to be able to use the gift that he had and what's what's beautiful in the assembly is when you have someone that has a particular gift.
And there are those that come along and as long as you meant perhaps have much less care for none at all. I think probably Apollo's had much more gifts than, uh, than Aquila did. And yet this couple, they took them under them and they expounded the scriptures unto him in a way more perfectly so that the work of God could, uh, could really benefit from it.
No, we all love it in a small assembly when someone comes to visit.
The verse, uh, we ended the last meeting with I guess verse 11.
A good thing to remember as well. Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another. In the Darby translation I think it says edify each one the other.
And so we're not just to wait for some noted or gifted brother from another place or sister, but to, uh, realize that that responsibility falls to us to seek to encourage one another along in the pathway. And we're very grateful for when someone comes through and uh, and has a word in season or just sometimes their mere presence. Just visiting in on a weeknight is a real lift in a place where you don't see many visitors.
And you can tell that it just has an effect on the assembly for days or weeks when someone comes through like that. And then once they go and go away, uh, you're back with just a few of the local ones. And then it says at the end of verse 13, be at peace among yourselves. You know, if someone's being used to the Lord for edification, it's not going to lead to strife or divisiveness or comparing one against another. It's going to.
Gonna produce good fruit. The feasible fruit.
Uh.
To see that brethren will, uh, be encouraged and be more inspired, if I could put it that way, to bear with one another and to, uh, esteem each one better than themselves and value our brethren for what we see in them. That's really of Christ.
That's why it's further works safe. Paul said to the Corinthians about Timothy that he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do. And so there might be that and one that admonishes us or is over us in the Lord and is used as the Spirit of God to correct us that we don't like your particular personality traits. Or maybe even the flesh comes out in some way. And we, we uh, might find that our own flesh and Satan urging us on to find a way to despise that admonition.
And so it's for their work's sake to realize that. Don't look at the vessel. Realize it's the work of the Lord that they're working and that they're seeking to do, Failing though it may be, it's the work of the Lord.
00:25:05
And says, esteemed them very highly in love for their works and sake, and that should be the motive. Uh, not only are they doing the work of the Lord, but we're to uh.
Consider them with affection in our hearts and seek to help them on their way forward, as the Saints often did in the New Testament to the Apostle Paul, because Satan would rather.
Stir up trouble amongst the Lord's people. That's why it says it adds to the same verse. And be at peace among yourselves. You know Satan would like to bring in quarrels and disagreements and feuds amongst the Saints.
Uh, even amongst new believers here at Thessalonica, there is constantly the exhortation to be at peace among yourselves. And uh, even the Lord said, did he not? Blessed are the peacemakers.
It's easy to stir up trouble, but often it's difficult to be a peacemaker. I've often enjoyed Brother **** Orgas admonition to me, he said. Rube.
I have to be a peacemaker, You know, it's easy, especially as younger brothers, to stir up trouble. That is what we hear. It says be a beast among yourselves.
Brother Neil Wampo is often reminded us that, uh.
As children, and we're not a child now, we were one once we.
Either made it easy for our parents to correct us or we made it really hard for them to correct us. And it's the same in the assembly. My will gets active and my back gets stiff. And so the expectation, be at peace among yourselves is we have to resign our will in these things. We heard that in the open meeting to be willing to give in.
To make it easy.
For the Spirit of God to correct this.
When my will gets active, then there's gonna be no peace because the lust is stirred up and I want this or I want that, and even if I get it, I've got it in a bad conscience and I have no power to satisfy that self will of mine. And it's less, and the result is just.
A tumultuous condition in my heart, and no peace. Peace is a nature satisfying while we have a new nature and it's satisfied with its objects.
Christ, and with its will, with my will renounced and laid down.
That's the only way for heat.
Now verse 14 is a very helpful and practical verse.
Many, many air meetings that I've sat in and places I've lived where someone's behavior was, uh, a concern.
The brother didn't quite know how to respond. His verse is always such a good guide to start with.
We exhort you, brethren, to warn them that are unruly or.
Maybe it says in the other translation, The unruly disorderly.
Comfort the feeble minded or faint hearted is another translation. Support the weak. Be patient toward all.
So is it a question of a person's will being active and going along in a self willed or unruly course? Well, that's where the brother was saying where admonishment is the right approach. Is it just someone who's gets faint hearted And you know, uh, we go along with brothers that we get to know year after year and it gets to be decade after decade that some just get discouraged more easily than others.
And yet, fortunately, sometimes those brothers are easy to encourage, too.
And they need to be comforted to be built up. Comfort the faint hearted.
Some measure all of us are weak.
And we need to be buoyed up in some aspect of our life. You may be strong in one thing and weak in another. We all have our tendencies, and we look out for one another and support one another in that way. And the overarching exhortation which always applies, to be patient toward all.
So often you see that someone just keeps recurring into the same bad pattern. It's not rare that the brother would speak in exasperation and count the times where this has happened or or try to draw some conclusion from the recurrence of this thing.
00:30:19
I have to remember that we're not the ones who died for that person. The Scripture uses the expression the brother for whom Christ died, and the Lord valued that brother that we may find so nettlesome or troublesome or irritating enough to die for him. And he's not done with. Emory wouldn't still be here with us. And if we looked in the mirror, we find that we probably have similar things that are of a.
'Cause our brethren to desire patience for us. And so such a good thing to remember. Be patient toward all.
The Lord when the certain Samaritan picked up that man and fell among thieves, and took him to the inn, after having set him on his own ***. And he said to the He gave him 2 Pence, and he said, Whatsoever thou spendest more.
When I come again, I will. Some of us require more than two tents, more than more than 20 pence. Doesn't matter. The Lord has given us an open checkbook.
Basically says whatever it takes, spend it.
That should be our attitude towards our brethren. We're not trying to build up some sort of All Star team. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not trying to take the local assembly and make it into the best and brightest Christians in the town we live.
That's not the basis of being gathered together to the name of the Lord Jesus.
Our commonality is that we are washing the blood of Christ and by receiving God's Holy Spirit, we've been joined to one another as members of one body.
We receive whom the Lord saves, and.
Seek to go on together.
So it does require patience. I know I require patience from others.
Umm. And uh.
We all benefit from that wonderful exhortation. Be patient toward all.
Apostle Paul could see the need of that admonition in verse 14 to warn them that are disorderly as you have in the margin.
New Translation.
Because in Second Thessalonians we find that there were some there who didn't pay any attention to that admonition. Second Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse six, they were told to withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly, not after the instruction which he received of us. And then in verse 11 we hear that there are some which walk among you.
Disorderly working not at all. And our busy bodies.
Well, it's all good. Maybe foresaw that when you wrote in this 5th chapter. It's a dangerous thing if you don't have occupy your time. The Lord says occupy till I come. And if we don't fill our time and service for the Lord, Satan will surely fill up the vacuum with other things that won't be profitable. The Proverbs tells us about those who have nothing to do and go about as busy bodies. They usually get in trouble.
Is it possible that a believer would be tempted to render evil for evil?
I guess it is, or we wouldn't have the admonition here.
So we need to take heed that we're still subject to these kinds of petty feelings that.
Evil has been shown to us, whether by a brother or somebody in the world.
Just leave it with the Lord, take it from the Lord and leave it there.
And as it says, the exhortation is such a good one be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. What a helpful practical verse that is whether his parents or in the workplace, you know, the negative aspects which may rise up can can tend to if occupied with in their correction even can end up developing the whole family or the whole assembly or the whole workplace.
00:35:28
Sometimes it's good to look to the Lord for what to do and then just to simply do it.
And pray about it, and leave it with the Lord, and go on.
Ever follow that which is good.
Wisdom is plain, isn't it? In some respects and.
Teenagers or young children tend to make things real complicated or things get real complicated in the workplace. You know, ask yourself, you know, why is this so difficult? It shouldn't have to be that difficult.
God puts before us a plain path, and when our hearts are right, the path becomes a lot cleaner. So we have these kinds of plain expertations. Follow that which is good. Do good exhortations like be courteous.
Well, there's not a big explanation of what that means.
Assumes that the willing heart will know what's appropriate in a situation, in a culture and a time in which we live to be courteous or to follow that which is good.
Apostle Paul says that Alexander the Coppersmith did him much evil.
What was Bob's response? This is Second Timothy 4.
Verse 14.
The important word missing there in our King James should be the Lord will reward him according to his works. The Lord will reward him. Paul wasn't seeking to you.
He did vengeance against Alexander the Coppersmith, who did him a lot of evil.
Doesn't it tell us in the 6th chapter of Galatians whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap?
It may not be in this life, but it certainly will be an eternity.
And then there's a proverb, chapter 24, it says in verse the end of verse 12. And shall not he render to every man according to his works. So sometimes it takes patience doesn't just to leave it with the Lord.
And the Lord will.
Take care of things in his own time.
The vengeance is mindset. The Lord I will rebate. We don't have to get revenge at all.
Well, it wouldn't seem like it would be that hard of an exhortation to accept, to rejoice.
Suppose in modern American language it would be be happy.
Rejoice evermore and be happy.
There's something in it. So I think at times that feels like we're not worthy of being happy.
Manhattan is some sort of a special privilege only for a few.
And it is true that.
Sweet ponder what we are all about now is new creatures in Christ that.
Holy Spirit is the source and the energy of our joy inside us, and then if we're going along carelessly, then the Spirit is going to be grieved in.
Her joy is going to go away.
But under normal.
Christian.
Uh, situation is.
To be happy.
I don't know how the rest of you feel about it, but.
I know when I'm not happy, it's because I've been slothful or careless in my life.
And I know that God is faithful whenever I realize it. And. And umm.
In remedy that uh, destruction or carelessness.
Lord brings that joy back.
00:40:01
So I I think it's an important thing to realize that.
It's not just up to you. It's not just that you have a right to say, well, I, I can be happy if I want to be. And if I want to be kind of mopey, I can be mopey. No, you can't because you don't belong to yourself anymore. You've been purchased by another. And his desire for you and me is that we'd be happy. Christ died to make us happy. And for a believer to be happy in the midst of all the circumstances we have is quite a testimony.
And the Lord desires that testimony.
Faith, I think we sang in the opening hymn, can sing through times of sorrow.
And we know that's true. We've experienced it.
So it's not that we go around slapping people in the back in some sort of silly giddiness. That's not the point. But to be at peace in our soul, to rejoice.
But when the apostle wrote this to the Philippians, he repeats it because I think we're slow to take it in. So then again, I say rejoice. Well, what about this problem or what about this? What about this failure that I have or no?
What about that situation? Well, the Lord knows all about those situations.
N.
He expects us to do what's appropriate in those situations, but meanwhile, having cast our care upon the Lord, we have the privilege to rise up and to walk in peace, to know the peace of God and to be happy.
It says he rejoiced ever more. My brother Clyde Roberts often reminds us that in the original, that is a shorter verse than Jesus wept in John 11.
Rejoice evermore. It doesn't say rejoice intermittently.
But rejoice all the time. Now the classic example of one who suffered much in the Old Testament was poor Job. And notice how he passed through that trial in the first chapter in verse 21. He said, naked came out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away notice. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
In verse 10 of the next chapter, he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaking.
All right, so we received good at the hand of God. And shall we not receive evil in all this? Did not Job sin with his lips?
Our present before our meals, we, we thank the Lord for the food and then we start complaining about the food. Oh, that shouldn't be that way. You know, we should thank the Lord and uh, the joy of the Lord should be evident in our behavior that we're happy in the Lord. Sometimes, you know, you can't rejoice in your brethren. Maybe perhaps you can't rejoice in your circumstances.
But we can always rejoice in the Lord. That's a great encouragement. The believer can always rejoice in the Lord and rejoice evermore.
313 to me.
It sounds very nice that they rejoice every morning. Yeah, we should be happy and let's put a smile on our face and let's be joyful.
But we can't mechanically crank it out. In fact, it was a time in David's life where he really desired the joy of his salvation. He wanted to have it he he had it in the past. He he desired to have it in his life, and he wanted it back.
And it wasn't coming. So an exhortation like that just would not make them joyful. It wouldn't put a smile on his face. Now we know what he said, what David, that he said, rejoice unto me, uh, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, the joy of my salvation. It was something he realized was gone. And umm, sometimes we, we can treat joy like a, like the kitchen faucet. We can turn it off pretty quick, but we just can't put it back on.
00:45:08
And, uh, when we get into a bad space.
In order in order for us to be joyful.
I suppose that is a question of communion, isn't it? When we're in communion, we're happy. And of course that is severed. We become unhappy and and so we look around for something to bring us pleasure.
And of course the state says when we return to the.
Jeremiah 15 and verse 16 is a was a favorite verse of Charles Hayhouse. He quoted it often. It says, Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.
For I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.
So spending time in the Word of God is a good way to find joy, to start rejoicing.
These three things think of a state of soul that he desires that we would continue on in.
Rejoicing.
Brand and thanks Thanksgiving, thankful heart of rejoicing heart and the heart that's dependent upon himself, as you say, it's, it's a desire for us isn't an on and off thing, But then it would be a continual state of soul just as repentance as well. And our life needs to be a continual state of soul, self judgment, a continual state of soul. And uh, it reminds me of the 12Th of Luke where we have that.
Well known exhortation, but rather seeking the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. Sometimes we think all these things being more the physical things that, uh, raised concerns in our hearts, but I think it's more than that. The Lord speaks to them of being doubtful mind. And why take eats off And uh, the occupation was earthly tanked. He said, speak ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things, not only God meeting our needs in a temporal way, but a state of soul that's not restless.
That's not anxious, that's not doubting, but rather a state of soul like we find in these 3 verses. Rejoicing, thankful, dependent, prayerful.
He stated, brother, that we can't crank up joy.
And yet you know the Lord.
Prayed in John 15 that his joy would be filled in the disciples.
What joy is he referring to?
For in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, he's designated as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and yet with all known as a man of joy. His joy was to do the Father's will, wasn't it? He did that perfectly. And he wanted, he says, that joy can likewise be in you, as we do the Lord's will. Now joy is, I would think, more than more than peace. I think joy is.
Peace bubbling over. You know, you see in the Lord's people who walk with the Lord, they're just full of joy. Uh, my brother Hale used to say that faith and salvation go together.
And obedience and happiness go together. Not true that is, isn't it? Brethren, we can't lose our salvation. We can certainly lose our joy if we. And that's very easily done. We're out of communion. Allow things that are not pleasing to the Lord. The Lord was always in the enjoyment of the Father's love, and that brought that joy in His heart, even though the cross was before him. And he wished that that joy would be in His disciples as well.
00:50:25
For an Ephesians, it speaks about grieving, not the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed into the day of redemption.
The Spirit is holy and afar. Practical ways are inconsistent with that. The Spirit is grieved.
And He will occupy us with the inconsistency or the digression, the sin, in order for us to judge it and to be restored.
His desire that he would be LED in paths of righteousness for his namesake.
But here in our chapter it's Quench not the spirit, so this would be an include a wider sphere of things.
I would be grieving the spirit of my own conduct, but quenching the spirit might be anything which would come in to limit the Spirit of God wanting to use me in the way that He would like to.
Or it could be.
In some manner or other limiting the liberty of the Holy Spirit when we are together.
So that the Spirit might not be free to.
To edify and to exhort and to comfort the Saints or.
Whether by word or worship or anything else that the Holy Spirit would desire to manifest amongst His people.
And that could be a number of things. It could be our traditions that we so subtly, uh, uh.
Uh, slip into or.
Things of that nature. Or it could be.
Uh, pride, which would make me feel embarrassed or timid to speak a word that the Lord would have me speak.
There could be.
Anything like that. But whatever it would be, the expectation is plain simple. It comes right in through the front door. Quench not the spirit. Spirit is a wonderful, wonderful influence.
He is a divine person that has taken up his residence in our bodies. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. It's an amazing thing to to sit and realize as you sit here today that that's the reality for every believer.
And the Holy Spirit has taken up his habitation in the Church.
Consequent upon the Lord Jesus glorifying God here on Calvary's cross and ascending up to the Father's right hand. And the Holy Spirit brings the benefit and a blessing to all men by being here. That will not be the case forever. So none of us in our right mind want to in any way limit or quench the action of the Holy Spirit in this present day.
When God is desirous to insult Christ and to do his work to gather out of Jew and Gentile of people for his name.
That more people may be united in in exalting Christ.
Picture is very graphic, isn't it the word choice quench.
When I think of the word quench, I remember near where I live they have Upper Canada Village and it's in my 1850s town that's been restored and operates during the summer time as a tourist attraction. One of the places that I like in that town is the blacksmith shop. And I remember him making it a horseshoe and one of the things he did was he heated it until it was red hot in the coals and then he quenched it in a bucket of water and it's a very memorable thing. But when that horseshoe and red hot, when it came out, it was black.
It was cold. And so you think about that, that the Spirit that gives energy into our Christian lives. And if we quench the Spirit, think about taking all that heat that the Spirit would have generated and cooling it off. That's the picture that I have in mind, whether it's our participation in the assembly or.
00:55:01
Not expressing something that the Spirit wants, or speaking out of turn and preventing somebody else from expressing something that the Spirit wanted expressed, or even in our life.
What the Spirit would urge us to do if we would pour water on it, that would cool it off.
Despise my prophesying.
You are to receive a message.
As from God one is presented.
Into it says prove all things, brethren. It doesn't mean you mean to see if it's true or not, but it means to walk in the good of it for our own blessing.
Like in Malachi 3 where the Lord says prove me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts.
Bring all to stores into and ties into the storehouse, and see if I will not open to you the windows of heaven to pour you out a blessing, that you shall not be able to receive it. The Lord says, prove me, see if it's not true. And so here it says, Prove all things which you walk in the good of God's word, for our own blessing and for God's glory.
True, it is when the word of God is brought before us, we should.
Testify the scriptures.
That's what the, uh, Bereans did remember, even though the apostle Paul in Acts chapter 17 came to Berea was a message from the apostle. But they searched the scriptures to see if these things were true, that they wanted to see if it conformed with the word of God. And I believe we, we can do that too if we hear some doctrine. Is this what the word of God teaches or not?
You can see it, brother Reuben, that, that what you're saying in connection with Sabri and was in contrast to the festival. And I can those of it says there that the Bereans were more noble than those of Tesla like us. And so here we find the, the, uh, exhortation to prove all things. It was perhaps a weakness to him. And so they needed to be reminded of these things.
The Holy Spirit not only is the one who can truly and with liberty give out the truth, and that's what He desires to do.
Lord Jesus before he went up on high said, he shall take the things of mine and show them unto you. But in you and me the Holy Spirit is, is the one who enables us to properly take in the truth in the right way and and to embrace it with affection in our hearts. So the apostle John writes to the believers and says you have an unction from the Holy One and know all things. And so the Holy Spirit is you might say on both sides of the equation so.
There's to be not the quenching and allow the Holy Spirit to give out the truth. And then on my part, each of our parts, really, it's on the other side to be sure, it's the Spirit of God will indeed receive the word of God, uh, absent our will and take it in. And then the Spirit of God is the energy and the new life and the new man to try and, uh, desire and to try and walk in it, in the, in the proving of it.
It's especially in the character of prophecy here, not prophecy in the sort of future events.
The prophecy really is in the highest character of, of communication from God to man through a man, and that is that which brings my soul right into God's presence and into the light of his presence. And, you know, it reaches my conscience and there's a tendency to despise it.
And the 4th chapter of the Gospel of John, the woman at the well, she's listening to the Lord's words. And there were wonderful words of grace and they just were like water right off a duck's back. Finally the Lord stopped, completely changed his direction. And he says, don't call thy husband.
Oh, I have no husband. All that is well said. Thou hast no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and he who thou now hast is nothing.
Oh Sir, I perceive the art of profit.
One, her soul was brought right into the presence of God.
01:00:03
And you know, like Adam in the garden, that things aren't right in our hearts. The word of the Lord comes. We're not too comfortable. As long as the word of the Lord didn't come, there he was with Eve. And they have those aprons of fig leaves and.
He could look at her and say, you know, you look pretty good. And she could look at him and say, you know, as long as you're willing to say I was pretty good, I'll say you look pretty good. And we can keep each other very happy and our conscience is fully covered. But the word of the Lord came and he says, I was naked and I did myself. He was brought into the presence of God. And you know, the 1St, the 1St.
Reaction of our soul is to if there's something there that the word of the Lord is searching out on us is to be uncomfortable.
But the psalmist said, search me.
Search me.
And you know, if we don't despise those prophesying, we'll come to find out they're the greatest source of blessing to us.
100 and 69169.
Lord, we can see.
Migraine.
So what I just wanted to do is I don't remember and when I have a little bit later for that.
Oh, one or two days and I don't know the last one, so I.
Uh-huh.
OK.
105.
Nearly in the morning.
Uh-huh.
01:05:13
Our God and Father, we just give thanks again for thus giving us this afternoon.
Let me know our minds.
Tend to not hold on to things.
We just asked if I was uh.
Help us to, uh, not only.
Hold on to this in our minds, but in our hearts and in our walk, we pray that, uh.
We would.
Use what thou has given us for the glory of the Lord Jesus.
We just ask this in the worthy name, the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Peace
Gospel—Rob House
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Piece.
Please, I'd like to open tonight's gospel meeting.
By looking in the 10th chapter of Acts.
Acts chapter 10 and verse 36.
The word.
Which God sent on to the children of Israel.
Preaching peace by Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all peace.
I'd like to welcome each and everyone of you to the Gospel meeting tonight. I intend to talk about the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ. I intend to talk about peace.
But to open up, I'd like to start by singing #4 Christ is the Savior of sinners. Christ is the Savior for me.
Somebody could start #4 please.
18619 UMM.
That's that's what they got for me.
I'd like to ask the Lord for his help tonight.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, we come to Thee tonight and ask for Thy help.
To preach the gospel, the good news about thyself, about the love of God, and about peace.
We ask if there's somebody here tonight, Lord Jesus.
Who has not accepted thee as their Lord and Savior, that they might do so tonight?
We asked about blessed thy word, work by thy spirit to bring blessing and fruit for eternity. In Jesus name we pray, Lord Jesus we ask thee Amen.
00:05:06
I'd also like to sing number six number six.
Tells you the gospel story as you sing it. Listen to the words. God in mercy sent his Son to a world by sin undone. Somebody could start number six please.
00:10:00
As I said at the start of the meeting, the subject I wish to speak about tonight.
Is peace.
I'd like to turn to the book of Romans.
Romans, chapter 5.
Chapter 5, verse one. Therefore being justified by faith.
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
About four years ago.
Gentlemen I worked with from Sweden came to America as we were driving through Michigan.
He looked out over the countryside and he said to me, it's hard to believe this country is at war.
And, you know, as I sit here today, it's hard to believe this country is at war.
Because.
All around me it seems so peaceful.
And yet I think there's a lesson for us in the.
It seems.
Peaceful, but there is a war going on.
A war being fought on the other side of the world. But it's a war and people are dying and that's not nice.
But.
We just read in this verse. Being justified by faith, we have peace.
With God.
Did you know there's more than the war?
In Iraq going on.
There's a war that's never reported in the newspapers.
There's a war that we don't read about on the Internet.
And it's a spiritual war.
Are you aware that you're right in the middle of it?
Let's turn farther down in the chapter.
Romans, chapter 5.
Romans, chapter 5, verse 10.
For if when we were enemies.
You know, if you're an enemy, that means there's a state of war.
A state of war?
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And so tonight you might ask, how did I become?
How do I make myself an enemy?
Let's read verse 12.
Wherefore, as by one man's sin entered into the world.
And that's by sin. So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
Send.
That is what made you an enemy.
In the Old Testament, we read that our sins have separated between us and God.
Our sins have made a division.
Turn to Isaiah chapter 59.
Isaiah chapter 59 and verse 2.
But your iniquities that sins have separated between you and your God.
Your sins have hit his face from you that he will not hear you.
What a solemn thing.
To think that sin has come between you and God.
Let's keep reading.
Your hands are defiled with blood, your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth. They trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, sin.
God looked down from heaven in the time of Noah, and he looked into all the hearts of all the men that lived on earth in the time of Noah.
And everything that he saw when he looked inside the hearts.
Was evil continually.
What happens when God looks in your heart?
What does he see?
Now I said I was going to speak about peace, and I am.
But in order to understand and appreciate peace.
You need to understand that there's a war first.
That's been going on and I wanna try and help you understand what that means. And I, I plan, with the Lord's help, to speak about peace between you and God.
00:15:10
To speak about peace on earth.
To speak about peace in your life.
To speak about peace in the Assembly and to speak about peace in the family.
And right now I'm just going to try and reach to a level that I think everybody in the room can comprehend.
I'm gonna talk about peace in the family.
I hope all of you have the privilege of growing up in a kind, loving family.
I did and believe that my home is a kind, loving family.
But there are times when the peace.
It's gone.
That usually happens.
When there's been some S, will.
When somebody has been disobedient.
Now there is reference in Romans 5 to the law.
And some of you might be able to quote the 10 commandments.
But when the Lord Jesus was on earth, somebody came to him and asked the question. Let's turn to Mark chapter 12.
Mark 12.
Verse 28.
And one of the scribes came, and having heard them, reasoning together, and perceiving that the Jesus answered them well, asked him, which is the first commandment of all. And Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is 1 Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God.
With all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy minds, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment.
And the second is like, namely this Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.
And so when somebody gets into self will.
Who are they loving?
Are they loving their mom?
Are they loving their dad?
Or are they saying I want what I want and I want it now?
Children, obey your parents.
That's one of the commandments that comes out of the Old Testament, out of the law.
And I love to use it in the Gospel because no matter how young you are, if you can understand me, you've probably disobeyed the person you're responsible to.
Whether it's a mother or a father or somebody who's taking you into your home, their home. You said no, I want to do something I want to do.
Maybe you didn't wanna go to bed when they said it's time to go to bed, he said. I wanna stay up.
But that.
Self will is not loving your mother, not loving your father.
Or maybe it comes down to your brother. Your fought with your brother or your mean to your sister.
Or you took the last cookie when your mom had promised it to your sister.
Is that loving your neighbor as yourself? No.
And so those little things have come between you and God.
And I love to tell that. Talk about children. Obey your parents because I know every single adult in this room was once a child and grew up.
And as I speak to the children about what they've done wrong.
I know every single adult knows that they've done exactly the same thing.
And so it doesn't have to be big, doesn't have to be murder, doesn't have to be adultery or fornication.
Or grand larceny.
Or embezzlement or fraud. Doesn't have to be something you go to jail for. It can be something small.
Just disobeying that or disobeying Mom. And then you have what we have in Isaiah 59. Your iniquities have separated between you and your gods. Now let's turn back to Romans 5.
00:20:03
Because in Romans 5.
Were taken right back to the very beginning, to the very first act of disobedience.
Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world.
I'm sure everybody in the room knows the story. God created Adam.
And he saw Adam was alone, and so he created Eve from Adam's side, and there was peace in that garden.
And then one day the serpent came into that garden, and Eve listened to the serpent.
And she took the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that God had said, Don't eat it.
Don't eat it.
And after she'd taken it, she went to Adam and she said, look.
I ate it.
Here's some for you. Here's all the advantages. And Adam, knowing full well what he was doing, took the fruit and he ate it.
And that's disobedience. That's why it says here, by one man's sin entered into the world.
And each and everyone of you in this room is descended from Adam.
And he had that first disobedience. But as we've been talking about, each and everyone of you has sinned. I sin, and I'm only a Sinner saved by grace.
And so I'm pointing fingers at you, but I've also had them pointed at me. And it was true of me and it's true of you.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And so there's a problem. Just like this half is separated from this half, you are separated from God.
What could possibly be done? The first verse that we read in Romans chapter 5. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace with God, how do we get it back?
Through Jesus Christ, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
I'd like to turn back to the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah Chapter 9 and I want to read about God's Son that he sent into the world.
Verse Six. For unto us a child is born.
On to us as Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called. Wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Why is he the Prince of Peace?
There was a war, we had made ourselves enemies to God. But God, as we sung is light and God is love, and the fact that he is light required that separation between US and himself. But his heart is loved, for God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son.
The Prince of Peace, what did he do?
A child is given.
They are born to marry was a little boy. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
And that's what he did. When he was about 30 years of age, he started to travel around and we read one interaction between the Lord Jesus and that scribe who asked him what the greatest commandment was.
In the Lord Jesus gave him those two commandments. Love God, love your neighbor.
What an understanding he had. What wisdom.
On those two commandments hang all the law in the prophets.
The Lord Jesus kept them both. He traveled.
To Calvary's cross.
Because, he said, I do always those things that please my father.
And his father wanted you to be saved.
God in heaven wants you to be saved. God is long-suffering, not willing at any should perish. Not willing that you should perish, perish.
00:25:03
Past eternally ruined into a sinner's hell. God created it. He knew it. God.
God didn't want you to go there.
So he sent his Son, and because Jesus loved his Father, he went. And yes, he kneeled in Gethsemane's garden. He wept and he sweated, as it were, great drops of blood.
And he said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.
And so he went before the high priest, and he was mocked.
And spit upon.
And he was taken before Pilate and given a false trial.
And then they took him out and beat him, crowned him with a crown of thorns.
Markton.
Took him out and nailed him to the cross.
Sitting down, they watched him.
In Boston, the Son of God from heaven on the cross.
Why? Because that's what God wanted.
Why? Because then God turned off the lights and in those three hours of darkness on that cross.
God, who knew every single one of my sins, took them one at a time and laid them on His Son.
So I wouldn't have to be punished for them.
God, who is light, revealed every sin that I've done, every sin that I was going to commit, put them on Jesus. Only God could do that, and he punished his Son.
For me.
And Jesus says, Whosoever will may come, come on to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. He is the Prince of Peace, reaching peace by Jesus Christ. And So what he says is you deserve to go to hell.
The way Jesus sent his death, but after this the judgment.
It was yours, and Jesus told us faithfully that right now if you do not believe in Him.
The sentence has already passed.
You're condemned.
And the only way of escape is to accept Him as your Lord and Savior. Believe that He died on that cross instead of you, that He was your substitute. That's the only way of escape. And that's what God wanted.
Someone to go in between, to bridge the gas, to make a way back to himself. And that's exactly what Jesus did. He glorified God, He made God happy. He satisfied every question that God could ever ask about my sins. Jesus paid for them all. And when Satan goes into the presence of God and says Robert House did something bad, the Lord Jesus is there that says my blood, the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed him from all sins.
The same can be true for you tonight.
That precious blood has not lost its power. It can be applied to you.
Will you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior? It's a simple thing.
You confess to Jesus that you've sinned.
You tell them you can't save yourself. You tell them that you believe he died in your place.
And he said him that cometh to me. I will in no wise cast out.
What a savior, what an offer you know thou shalt love the Lord thy God. Jesus proved it in going to the cross. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Know the Lord Jesus looked at you and he said you are my neighbor.
I see my neighbor going to go to hell and I want that not to happen.
And Jesus Christ loved you. He came into this world because he loved you. You can put your name into the middle of John 316 instead of whosoever put your name.
00:30:02
God loved you, Jesus loves you, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself.
For me, can you put your name in where it says me?
The Son of God who loves.
Robert.
And gave himself for Robert. Can you put your name in where I put mine in?
Because he demonstrated his love by going there and bleeding.
In suffering and dying with his arms stretched out and in the darkness, suffering the punishment of God so that you wouldn't have to, so that you could go free.
And so that's the war that's been going on, that battle, that spiritual battle.
And it may rage tonight in your heart.
But you have made yourself the enemy, like we read in Romans chapter 5. Let's go back there.
Romans, chapter 5.
For if we when we were enemies, is that what's going on in your heart? You're staying there. I don't want anything to do with Jesus. I want to run my life my way. I want to do what I want the way I want. I don't want even my parents telling me what to do. I don't want my brother talking to me. You have the same attitude and feeling as King did when Abel brought his offering. You can't even abide somebody doing what's right.
Because it bothers your conscience and that struggle goes on inside your heart.
Yield, be reconciled to God. That's what it says in this verse. If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, that's what he died for, to make a way back, to make peace. And so at the beginning of this chapter, we have peace with God by faith.
We're justified by faith.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And now there's something else that's important. You may have believed in your heart in the last minute.
But unless you open up your mouth and tell somebody else, none of the rest of us will know.
And so in Romans chapter 10 and verse 9.
It tells us that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made on the salvation. You know having peace with God is a wonderful thing. And you know I want to move on now and talking about having peace.
Inside.
Peace inside your heart.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved.
In 1945.
Japan surrendered the United States of America.
World War Two was over.
United States sent all kinds of help to Japan.
Established factory is really interesting in my line of work as I search through and look at company after company after company and look on the Internet. One of the things that they often bring up.
Is company history.
And as you go through Japanese companies, you see time and time again, started in 1946, started in 1947, started in 1948. What was happening?
The Americans were there. They were helping the Japanese get back on their feet. A country that had been bombed, destroyed by war, all their resources depleted.
And you know, I see a bit of an allergy in that because God looked at this world and he said it's ruined by sin.
And he sent his son to Calvary's cross to the greatest battle that was ever fought. There were no guns.
There are no bombs.
But there was the greatest struggle of all time, because on that cross the question of sin was answered once and for all.
00:35:02
That God could be righteous.
And deal with sin and still save me.
What an amazing thing. And so I see a parallel there. The Americans brought blessing to the Japanese.
Lots of blessings and God has brought blessing to this world. You think of what Paul told the people in Athens. He told them this God that you worship in such an unknown way, and that's not the case in this room.
All of you know who Jesus is.
You know all about him, that he's the Son of God from heaven, what he's done.
He said. He gives the rain, the food, the blessings, health, strength, all those things God gives to this world and they're not even aware of it.
What a heart of love that God has. And so I see a parallel there. The American nation brought to the Japanese so much, and we all know what's happened. Japan has prospered, a wonderful economy. They've done extremely well.
I remember as a teenager sitting around my family table.
And listening to CBC Radio Canada, Canadian Broadcast Corporation.
A very interesting story was on the news.
There was a lady in one of the islands.
In the Far East.
And she had noticed things from her garden were disappearing.
At night.
And I need to give you a little bit of background about what happened in World War 2. The Japanese came down from Japan and they went right down that string of islands and they were headed for Australia.
But before they got to Australia, they bombed Hawaii. Pearl Harbor.
And that brought the United States into the war.
In that battle, that war went on year after year, but they never got beyond that last island they were on. They never got to Australia. And what happened was there was a principle in war that was developed during World War One and what armies had always done before that is they had just marched on mass and just everything in the way got pushed out of the way. But what happened then they started going, if there was a big strong Fort, they would just go around it and once there was no food left in the Fort.
That was the end of the soldiers. They surrendered. That part of the war was over. And So what happened on those islands, each of those islands was fortified. And what the American armed forces did is they went from 1 island to a strategic island, and they skipped four or five islands in between. And then they would skip more islands, and then they would skip more islands.
You know Japan expected every single one of her soldiers to die, for the emperor to never give up and never surrender.
And as they skipped islands, the supplies would stop coming and stop coming.
There would be no more bullets, no more food.
And then the news would come.
You have to surrender.
There was one Japanese soldier that didn't surrender. Somehow he hadn't heard that the war was over.
And in 19 the 1970s.
He was sneaking out because he was getting old and not so good at finding food. He was afraid he was going to get caught by the Americans in the 19701973 was going to get caught by the Americans.
He was sneaking out because he couldn't catch food in the jungle anymore because he was getting maybe pretty old and stealing from one of the villagers gardens and one day they taught him.
And they brought him into the police station and.
He found out who he was. He gave his rank and serial number, they said. Man, the war has been over for 28 years. Japan's a wonderful, prosperous country.
There's no more enemies. The war is over.
What did that man miss for all those years?
All those years trying to catch little animals, digging up wild roots, getting dirty, never having a proper bath, no soap, no shampoo.
All that time out in the Bush, never seeing his family, none of his friends. And then he finally gets caught. And what was the result of getting caught? Well, he got to go home. He got a good shower, he had a good meal.
00:40:05
That to see his family again after years, 30 years, he got to see his family. And that reminds me of you tonight. How old are you? You know, 2000 years ago the battle was fought and won by Jesus.
Peace was made. Will you accept it? Or are you still fighting your own private war inside your own heart against God?
Will you surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ tonight because all He wants to do is bring you peace and joy and happiness?
He wants to bring you every blessing that he possibly can.
Later on in this book, there's the most wonderful verse, Romans chapter 8. This is what's in the heart of God.
Verse 32.
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? Are you going to stay like the prodigal son in the pigsty?
Maybe your life isn't a pigsty yet, but unless you come to Jesus.
It will be. And from God's point of view, if you're living independently and in South, well, remember your sins are separating between yourself and God.
So will you come? Will you surrender? God's heart is a heart of love. Jesus loves you. All He wants to do is bring blessing to you. He wants to take away your sins and bring you every good that love can give.
Now let's talk about peace.
You want that piece.
Let's turn to Philippians.
After we're saved, we still need peace. There's a lot that goes on in life that takes away peace.
Let's read in uh.
Philippians, Chapter 4.
In verse 6.
Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Prayer.
In supplication, the first prayer you need to make is the sinner's prayer.
After that, Lord Jesus.
Anything you ask according to His will and His will is to bless you.
Ask it in his name, the father will give it.
The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, if you lay your cares on Jesus.
Will enter your heart.
It will keep your heart and your mind through Christ Jesus.
What a thing to look forward to. I said I was going to talk about World Peace and I'd like to turn to Ephesians chapter 2 to do it.
We've had the discussion about our status as aliens, as enemies from God.
Let's read verse 11.
Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh, made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. No, that was our condition. I certainly hope it's not your condition tonight.
And if you are currently without Christ and without hope, the door is open now. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you'd better believe Him. You'd better believe Him.
Because of the day coming, when he will be anointed and come here to rule as King of kings and Lord of Lords. Now look at verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
I hope that's true of you.
Are you near to God or are you still separated by your sins? His blood takes away our sins, verse 14 for He is our peace.
Who had broken down both.
Sorry, for He is our peace, who have made both wine, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.
00:45:03
Having abolished in his blasphemy even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for making himself obtain 1 Newman soul making peace.
That he might reconcile both unto God in one body, by the cross having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were far off, and to them that were nigh one of the facts.
About Jesus Christ being the Prince of Peace is that the day is coming that we are talking about this afternoon and this morning at his appearing.
And I told you the battle was already over.
All that's left to do is the mopping up operations.
And part of what we're doing right now is mopping up operations.
One of the things that they do in war, sometimes they drop bombs that explode, sometimes they drop bombs that spread information leaflets telling people what their options are. And that's exactly what I'm doing for you tonight. I'm telling you that chances now take it. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, have your sins washed away, be ready for heaven. It's important.
Do it now, the offers now. And the reason it's important is because there's a day coming at Christ's appearing when he comes out of heaven.
And he has a huge army behind him.
I'll be part of that army. I'll be coming behind them.
Coming to rule over this world to help Jesus and his administration in his government.
But the interesting fact is that that army doesn't fight.
Out of the word of the Lord, Jesus melts as you rise in that White Horse out of heaven.
He destroyed by that sword, by that word, all his enemies, because the battle is already won. Satan and his forces are defeated. And if you allow yourself with Satan tonight, if you stay on the opposite side from God, I'm telling you, you're on the losing side. The battle's finished, it's over.
Jesus is the winner. You want to hang around with the loser?
Because as much as Jesus wants to bless you, the loser, his name is Apollon, Destroyer Satan, all he wants to do is ruin you.
So choose.
And like Moses told the children of Israel, choose life, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thou shalt be saved.
Now let's turn to the book of Colossians.
Think of it. I have the Prince of Peace living in my heart.
I have the Spirit of God.
Every believer has the Spirit of God living inside them. The Lord Jesus said that.
He and his father would come and make their abode with the believers.
What a thing to have in this temple.
His body of mind, what a thing to have the body of yours, God Himself. And so we read here in Colossians chapter 3.
In verse 12 put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any. Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which ye are also called in one body. And be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever you do in Word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father.
By him.
You know, I like to think that everybody that's in fellowship.
00:50:01
Is as described in the first verse that I read, therefore, as elect of God, holy.
But what an awful thing if you're sitting there breaking bread on Lord's Day morning, eating and drinking condemnation to yourself because you are not saved.
What an awful thing to think that if you are sitting there passing as a Christian and making trouble in the House of God where Christ, the Prince of Peace reigns.
His son over his own house, that you would sit there and make trouble because you aren't holy, Because you aren't even saved.
Would you defile the House of God? There is still hope for you.
Accept Jesus.
Now tonight, as your Lord and as your Savior, maybe you're not in fellowship. Maybe you sit in the back 2 ropes.
But your path is a Christian.
Are you really holy? Are you really set apart to God?
Have you been moved to God's side or are you still separated by your sins from God?
And you know, as we heard this afternoon, sin can come in between, can defile the vessel and interrupt communion.
And if we've allowed that in our lives, that's gonna make it hard to do these on other things.
How do we have a heart, a feeling of mercy?
If we're letting the old nature do its job.
If we let the old nature out of the casket.
Out of the place of death, because when I look at the cross of Christ, I see myself crucified there.
And I have life in Christ. The old man is dead, and I am to consider it that way the rest of my life.
Don't let the park that wants to be self pleasing, that doesn't want to be kind to the neighbor, that doesn't wanna please God, that doesn't love God out. Don't let it get active. And so we do these things because we have that new life inside us, because we have the life of Christ for a new creature in Christ Jesus if we're saved.
If we've accepted Jesus as our Lord, we'll be able to be kind, to have a humble mind.
To be meek and patient.
To bear with the things that other brethren would do to us as we would see it.
For quarreling to forgive.
If we're holding something against somebody to give it up, the Spirit of God would urge us to do it. We have a life that can do it.
And then it says above all these things put on charity. We've had a discussion back in Rio Ferry the last couple of weeks in our Reading meeting talking about divine love charity.
And that's exactly what God has. It is not natural for a human to love their enemy.
And that's what God did. We made ourselves enemies by our sins and he came to us and he said, I love you anyway. I'm giving you the best thing I have, my only son.
And he sent him here. That's divine love. And so when I look at a brother and when you look at me, even if you don't see anything in me, maybe my face just makes you sick.
But just remember, I am a brother, and you are a brother for whom Christ died. He loves me, and you have that divine love inside you that you can love me too. And I have that same divine love to let me love you.
But will we let it? And so it says, let the peace of God rule in your heart. We can have that peace of God. We can have that nature that satisfy.
We can have everything at peace in our hearts if we let it.
An unsafe person doesn't have a free will because all he ever wants to do is sin against God.
But I, as a Christian, have a choice.
I can do what's right in response to the love of my Savior because I have that new life, or I can choose to let the old nature out of the casket and start after being active. But I can choose. And so I can choose by what I decide to do, whether to let the peace of God rule in my heart or not.
Earlier we talked about.
Family and I want to close with peace in the family.
Verse 18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is Fit in the Lord.
00:55:07
The Lord Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God.
Everything you've got everything.
And the second is likelihood to love your neighbor as yourself.
The husband and wife relationship is as close to neighbor as you'll ever get. In fact, it's far beyond neighbors.
Wise submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is Fit in the Lord.
That's a solemn word to husbands.
Never ask your wife to do anything.
That's not Fit in the Lord.
Never do anything to your wife that's not Fit in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives.
Husbands, love your wives.
Doesn't matter what she did, love her.
Not an emotion, it's something you do.
A choice.
Be not fitter against them.
No hard feelings no matter what happens.
Children, obey your parents.
In all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
Fathers, provoke not your children to anger. I think it's the same sort of principle.
I'd ask them to do your wife. Do what's Fit in the Lord.
Ah, in God's stead towards your children.
Peace in the family.
Love the Lord.
Love your neighbor.
That's God. Jesus on the cross, loved God, loved you, loved me.
You can have peace with God tonight. Yours for the asking.
Jesus offers it to you now.
You can have peace in your own heart once you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
There will be peace in the world because Christ is coming again and He will take his place.
As King of Kings and Lord of Lords, he will judge all evil. The battle is over. Evil is nominated. Evil is conquered.
The only thing left for him to do is take that place.
Peace in the assembly Will we let the peace of God rule in our hearts?
And peace in the family.
Will we be obedient to God's words? Will we love Him and love our neighbor?
That's the recipe for peace.
Christ came preaching peace. I preached peace to you tonight. Today is the accepted day. Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Accept Jesus as your Lord and as your Savior while I pray.
Our God and Father.
Thy command is to each person in this room who has not saved.
To repent now, change their minds, Accept the peace offer.
Our gracious God and our loving Father, if there's somebody here tonight that just wants to hold on to their own evil, their own sins, their own will, we ask if thou is break that desire, Freedom from sin, freedom from Satan's grasp, set them free tonight through faith in Jesus.
My Father, we pray that thy word might bring forth fruit, that thou might be glorified, that there might be joy in my company tonight, joy in the presence of the angels of God over one Sinner. And Lord, if there's more than one, save the 2nd and the third one too. If there's more, save them all. We just pray for each one and ask this in Jesus the Savior's name, Amen.
He's Number 1; Who Is Number 2?
Children—Norm Wood
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.
Good morning. Let's commence with #44 on the back. Then after we pray, we'll relax some of your little young folks for some more hemp. So #44, I've asked my good friend David Mearns to raise the tomb for #44.
I don't think Sunny's falling and everything arrival and once I'm scratched out, but she'll turn on a man. Nobody ever had something before.
2004 left of boys and not to be not, but I did not join.
In our parents, my hands fell in full. Nobody, ever.
Again and all that again.
I don't know what are you making.
Oh Lord and all that you can't say all the time. But, yells granddaughter. And nobody ever has no people.
Banking we thought about where God described that that's the end of the family, often Las Vegas on his old alert and he.
And I don't have the infection for me.
Oh my God, now when I can't make some story breaking more and more.
No one can stand up and kill yourself, man. Nobody got friend. Had 40 people.
All right, well, just a word of prayer.
Our God and Father, we thank Thee for these gospel hymns that we can sing together at the start of a Sunday school. We thank you for this story about this little gypsy boy who had never heard the gospel before, But he's on his deathbed and some missionary comes along and tells him about thy beloved Son, our God, and He accepts the Lord Jesus just before He dies. We we we know we're going to see this little gypsy boy in heaven.
And we pray Lord Jesus, that every boy and girl in this room.
That will see them in heaven in a day very, very soon. We thank thee, Lord Jesus, for thy marvelous love.
Which continues on and on, but the door will be closed so very soon and so we pray.
That all of us will have urgency this morning about salvation and those that are in the room and lost.
We pray for help in every way. Bless thy word and direct Lord Jesus in thy precious name. Amen.
Now perhaps a boy or girl would have a hymn. Now, you're not all on the front seat, so you're going to have to holler. Anybody got a hem for it?
This young lady's got him. Got a hymn for it? No.
Oh, here we are. OK, yes, #16. Let's see what number 16 is. Oh, that's that good to him. That's that good. Him #16, please.
00:05:53
Isn't that a marvelous message? Whosoever will, and now whosoever will, can pick the next temp.
All right. Uh, Sir. What? Uh #3?
Oh, that's a lovely him too. #3, please.
Umm, I guess, but then.
I've got a friend.
All right.
I'm sorry, I'm looking at the same thing. Umm.
It's Umm uh what about her?
Anything I don't know?
Turn on Way around.
My grandparents and her eyes come on and friends, let's go blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
As we sing these hymns, we think in a little bit about the memory verse for this week on the Messages of Love.
All right. Who has another hymn? Yes, young man.
#46 oh, you know what? These hymns, they just give the gospel so beautifully, don't they? Here's another 1 #46 please.
Thank you.
Know oftentimes in our home we hear the telephone ring and generally speaking we want to answer that and see who's on the other end.
And generally speaking, and listen to what they have to say now.
The God of eternity and his Son the Lord Jesus is calling to.
Boys and girls this morning, and it's a marvelous thing if each of us answer the Lord Jesus. All right, one more hymn. Another hymn.
00:10:12
Oh, here's OK Someone raised a hand over here, number #4.
These are all great hymns. Let's sing verse one and four of #4, please.
You know, I've, I've been looking at the wrong clock. The clock I've been looking at the the hands aren't moving. And so I think, wow, there's still, we're going to sing for 15 minutes. And I thought, well, we still have a lot of time. Now let me see.
We're almost down to the 6th on that correct clock. One more hymn? We might be here a long time. Yes, back in that corner with the pink hat.
#11 Thank you.
All right, hurdles right now. That's a good one. What's my last one? I love you. Go over and down the road and hold on.
The neighbor. My kids are the falls. That's why I'm so wonderful.
I can still run away.
All right, this brings us briefly to the the memory verse for today.
And I must confess that I didn't know this first myself. I didn't know what the verse was.
And so I asked a fair number of people, and finally I had an idea.
And I asked my wife to go to a mother with a lot of young kids.
And we found the verse and the verse happens to be Romans 10.
And verse 17. Well, someone stand up and say that first, please.
OK, it starts out.
So then, faith.
Let me see where that mother is. I'm sure her youngsters know the 1St. All right, There's some mom. There's somebody back there. Know that first.
00:15:07
Sometimes they know the verse, but at a conference, that's a big chore to get up and say the verse.
There's a lot of persuasion going on here, but it doesn't look like it's going to be successful. OK, here's a young man that's going to say the verse.
Isn't that marvelous? He's coming by, cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Now does anybody else want to say the verse?
All right. Well, so, yes. So here's another hand.
So say OK, I'm Listen, say it again.
This young man said the verse exactly correct. I didn't hear it. Very good. But you know what? God heard that very clearly, yes.
Excellent. All right. Well, that's very nice to have. Yes, one more.
Isn't that marvelous? Thank you all very much. You know that verse means simply this.
That when you're listening to somebody, read the word of God.
Or you're reading it yourself, the Lord Jesus.
Can come along, or more properly, the Holy Spirit can come along and can take that verse of Scripture.
And.
Put faith right inside your heart. And a new life and a brand new life, and that opens up your heart to all kinds of marvelous things. I want to illustrate that by a verse, a familiar verse in Acts 16 and 31. Let's take a look at that first Act 16 and 31.
And it's a familiar verse, but it's just as good as the day it was written. Acts 16 and 31.
OK, the jailer.
That was in such a terrible position, fell down in front of Paul and Silas, and he asked the question and we sung a lot of questions this morning. What must I do to be saved?
And the Apostle Paul said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Now, as a youngster, I had a lot of trouble with that verse.
But the Holy Spirit here this morning, if there's a little youngster here that's heard that first.
They can take the Holy Spirit can take that verse and give you the faith to believe in that verse. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Rather believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the faith is without any questions. But now as you get a little older with this, first the questions start. All right. I'm sure everybody here has had that experience. I've, uh, you know, I had that, that experience for a long time.
The question starts all right. Now let's say, umm, uh, that uh, this gentleman here.
He's going to show me an important person, OK And this important person walks by and he and he says to me, you know Norm, uh, I want you to to see that person. I know that person. And uh, so immediately in my heart and mind, uh, the questions arise. Well, who is this person?
And maybe this young man says, well, you know, that's that's the president of uh, of a Honda automobiles thi. This man hears the president of Honda Automobiles. So I know that he's an important person. The next question comes along, Well, what has he done that makes him so important? And of course, in this case, the average the.
Obvious answer is, well, he makes marvelous automobiles. So there's the two questions that came to mind.
When he pointed out this man, number one, who is he And #2? What's he done?
And those are exactly the two questions that the Holy Spirit.
Would bring to you older boys and the rest of us this morning. Number one, who is he?
00:20:03
And once he's done well, very quickly, we know that he's the Son of God from all eternity.
And you know, Peter said that when he was asked by the Lord, who do you think I am? And he said, Thou art the Christ.
The son of the living God, the Apostle Paul, the first time he spoke publicly after his.
In his conversion, he said Jesus is the Son of God. Not Jesus was the Son of God, but Jesus is the Son of God.
And the Apostles John. He explained this so many times I don't think we could count.
So it's a marvelous truth and there will be nobody in heaven.
That rejects the truth that Jesus is the Son of God. That truth is so important, it's absolutely fundamental.
So if there's a boy or girl or older person in this room that doesn't believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
You're on your way to a lost eternity, even as we speak. Now, I think this is especially important. It always was, especially today, because across the whole world they're saying he isn't. That isn't true. But we have it here so many times in the scriptures that Jesus is the Son of God. OK, that's the first question that comes up when we look at that first believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The second question is, well, what has he done that's significant.
Well, you know, he's done what he said he would do before he came. You know, the verse that we have, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's what he said he was going to do when he came. And has he done it? Oh, absolutely, he's done it, you know. And Isaiah 53, we have that marvelous verse. All we, like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him.
The iniquity of us all and we have in that verse in Peter.
That says he bore our sins on his own body, on the tree, and so today.
Knowing those two things about the Lord Jesus, we can be fully saved and on our way to heaven.
What a marvelous thing that is.
I'm going to write well, uh, the second uh part of that is is, is is as important as the first. It's it's absolutely essential to believe that Jesus is the Son of God's my eternity to get peace about her sins. That's an absolutely necessary to believe that the Lord Jesus died for our sins on the cross and we accept that and we have peace. You know, there's a lovely hymn. I hope I can quote it.
It's a it's a it's a sad hymn, but it goes like this.
How dreadful must have been the sound when jeering soldiers stooped to pound.
The cruel nails, one by one, that crucify God's only Son.
They raised his cross against the sky, as corners there still passed him by, But he alone must bear the pain to bring man to his God again. Is there any better, better story than that that could be told? A marvelous story of the love of the Lord Jesus that brought him to Calvary's cross. Marvelous, that is, isn't it? Now I want to write on this paper on this poster.
And not a very good writer. Matter of fact, when I was in grade school, they, uh, as I went up their grades, they every teacher said, you know, Norm, yeah, you do pretty good work, but your writing is really bad. Then when I got to high school, uh, they said, uh, you know, Norm, you I wish you'd consider learning how to type because if you could do that, then it would be so much easier to read. So let me see.
OK, we're going to have somebody read this.
And then OK.
All right. Well.
I'm sure you read very well, but what have I written here? Yes, I've written Jesus down in a vertical fashion just like that, and I'm going to write some words beside that using the 1St.
Letter as the. I hope nobody says I can't read that. All right. I hope this is written uh, carefully enough so that that uh, we can read that.
00:25:13
Do you think you can read that? No, it's pretty. It's a little bit.
All right. Do you think you can read that? OK, this is the first word. And then you read that. Well, you know what she read? She read Jesus Exactly. Suits us sinners. Isn't that a marvelous thing? We have such a need with our sins, and the Lord Jesus has died and suffered for our sins. And so what's available from the Lord Jesus matches our needs. Jesus.
Exactly. Suits us sinners.
I'm flying, but I want to ask you this question. Let's say we read it this way. Jesus exactly suits us things.
Well, that's a searching question, isn't it? And I have to give this sad answer is no. No. But he will someday. And he does most of the time now. But not all the time. Jesus exactly suits us, Saints. I'm searching that all right now.
The most important name in all the world in heaven and earth is the name of Jesus.
I want to tell a story about a person named Mickey, and Mickey was a very important person.
Particularly in New York, NY State, because his name is Nikki Mantle.
And we could take Mr. Mantle's picture and go downtown Binghamton and show them to all the adults there in the vast majority would say I know who that is, that's Mickey Mantle. And for those of you that are a lot younger, Mickey Mantle was a star baseball player for the New York Yankees, played center field, hit away over 500 home runs, was on many All Star teams.
And was a very important person, unfortunately, and he was from Oklahoma.
Unfortunately, there was a disease in his family where the males, most of them died.
By the age of 40, so Mickey Mantle number one was afraid of death. And the way he dealt with it wasn't the right way. He thought, boy, I better get going and live as much of life as I can. And so we get into alcohol and all kinds of bad things.
Which may have influenced his baseball skills, but not noticeably. All right, all right, so he retired from baseball at.
I think 37 years of age.
So it didn't affect them that much. But later on, when they were 64, Mickey got cancer. And it was a bad type of cancer. But anyway, they doctors were able to deal with it and pretty well beat it back. But he had a bad liver. You see, if you drink a long time, you're going to destroy your liver. And it finally caught up with Mickey and his liver was destroyed.
And but the cancer was pretty well beaten back and because he was making mantle they were able to find a liver for him and put in.
A new liver, but the cancer progressed.
And it got worse and worse and there is no question Mickey was facing death.
But you know, when Mickey was playing ball, there was a fellow ballplayer in his team named Bobby Richardson who was a Christian.
And Bobby used to tell Mickey about Christ.
Quite often.
And then all way down at the end of his life, Mickey thought of Bobby Richardson. And so he got his family to contact Bobby Richardson. And Bobby Richardson came into his his hospital room. And here's Mickey laying there pretty poorly. But you know, the first thing that Mickey told Bobby Richardson was this Bobby, I want you to know that I put my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's my savior.
And he had remembered all of the gospel messages that Bobby Richardson had told him when he played baseball in New York City.
Isn't that a marvelous thing? A man that was saved on his deathbed? We call that an 11Th hour conversion.
00:30:00
And you know, we don't have any lease on life. The Bible says, behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
Just this week in Smiths Falls, you know, that's near where we live. It's just a little town, maybe not quite 10,000. And just on the border of Smiths Falls there lived a grand grandparents. And you know what?
Their daughter and son-in-law came to visit the grandparents and they had a little girl a year and a half years of age, year and a half years.
And you know, the little girl was out the back.
And there was this dog tied up. It was a fair German Shepherd and Rottweiler.
Great big dog back there, tied up and this little girl wandered back.
And right into the range of the dog and that dog.
Turned vicious and got a hold of that little girl and mauled her badly. They called the ambulance, took her to the hospital. She's dead on arrival. Here she is in the hospital, dead. So we have no lease in life. And the the parents were devastated. Their grandparents were devastated. And there's just one ray of light in that whole story and that is here's a little girl, a year and a half.
Years of age that died, the Lord snatched that little girl and took her right home to heaven. This little girl, if she had lived, she may never have believed the gospel.
But at this age, you know, if something like that happens, the Lord is just and righteous and he takes that little, sweet little girl right home to be with himself. But there's nobody here. Uh, that I'm talking to under the front row. I see a little youngster there, and that's fine. I'm thinking of that. Those that are old enough to hear what I'm saying, Umm, that won't happen to you if you die without Christ.
Without believing in Christ, you will be in hell for all eternity.
There's so many here that are that are on the way to heaven and you know as you are sitting there.
Even though you're sitting there, you and I are walking this road on to the future.
The heaven or hell? And the question is, have you ever?
Believed on the Lord Jesus. OK, now I want to tell another story.
And this is about a boy named Philip. Anybody here by the name of Philip?
No Phillips here.
There's a Yes, of course. My old friends from my friends from Rita Ferry, of course. Hello. It's been a while since you've been a boy, Philip, but that's all right.
The he he was once, wasn't he? He was a boy, and he trusted on the Lord Jesus. And now he's up in years and like Mickey Mantle, he's all ready for the Lord to take him home and maybe we'll all go together. Wouldn't that be marvelous? All right, here's this little boy.
Philip He didn't have the advantages that boys and girls in this room had.
This boy, six years of age, his dad at the business is dad in, was stealing OK? And he had a little game and uh the the uh the dad, uh and the his coworkers would go around at night and break into houses and steal things and then sell them and uh the little boy, umm was taught to go into his store and quick as the wink slips things into his pocket. He was a thief too, and the little boy he got to got very good at it and got kind of proud about it. All right?
Now, as the story goes.
In late one year in November, in a very rainy day and cold.
This little group, uh, running away from the police, ended up in the countryside and by a burn, and they all crawled up a ladder and into the loft and the hay and went to sleep for the night. Uh, except this little boy, Philip. And uh he was. So I'll.
He he must have caught a bug in the cold, damp weather made him quite I'll and the added temperature and he didn't sleep all night but his dad woke up early in the morning and give him a kick and said wake up Phillip. We're all going to go now And but Phillip is so sick he couldn't get up. They left him right there. The dad left him right there and the other man and that mouth and the boys crying away as he's left. But you know what? There was a sweet older woman.
00:35:02
That lived on that farm, the only person that did, and she was coming out to feed the chickens this year. This strange cry.
She knew what it was, she said. That's a child crying and she went up in the loft and soon had that boy.
Down and into a nice bed, uh, in their house and uh cleaned them up some.
And he was very ill. But finally he got better.
And he became a real friend to that woman and used to help her with her chores. And the lady told him stories.
And best of all, the lady told him about the Lord Jesus and the gospel story.
Well, at that time nothing happened, but after about a year of this.
A happy life. A knock came at the door. A heavy knock came at the door.
And the lady went to answer the door and here was a rough looking man and it turned out to be Philip's father.
And he said, I know my boy is here. I want my boy back.
So all she could do is make a nice lunch for him and send him on his way with these.
Rough man and they had a job in mind and there was a big house there in an area where it was a wealthy area but the people had gone S for the winter and but everything was locked and barred so well that the thieves couldn't get in except an attic window. Up on the third story there was a little attic window and the dad thought, I'll bet my son could climb up a ladder.
And get in there into that attic and then come down and let us in.
Though he persuaded the boy Philip, he was very hesitant.
To do it because he had heard about the story of the gospel and he knew it was wrong to steal, but they persuaded him and threatened him. And finally they told him, well, look at you're not going to steal anything. You're just going to let us in. And so up the ladder he went and they're holding the ladder. And the boy says, Dad, make sure you hold that ladder. Well, the boy says, that's the father says that's I'm holding it. Well, you just watch out what you're doing.
And the boy, after he's up at the second story on the ladder and he looks around the corner and there's two men.
They are not with the gang that are running around the corner, the dad and the thieves at the bottom. They see that they let the ladder go and they run for their lives. The latter falls and this little boy Phillip falls all the way down and here's his broken body right on the ground. So the policeman get an ambulance and they take him to the hospital. Here he is unconscious in the hospital.
For days.
Finally, he wakes up this little boy, Philip, and a new nurse comes in that night.
See this Awake? But the little boy's got this frown on his face and so she says to Philip, are you feeling pain? And he says, no, I'm not feeling any pain. And she says, well look at tell me what's the matter, Maybe I can help you.
You know what this boy said? He said. Oh, I want to go to heaven.
But I know I can't.
And all the so the lady said, she knew the gospel well, she knew the Savior. Oh, she said, yes you can. The Lord Jesus died on the cross that you could go to heaven. Yes you can. But all know the little boy says I'm too bad to go to heaven. So the lady thought.
How about if if if I read about a thief in the Bible that went to heaven and oh, the boy says, well, that'd be good.
That would be good. So the lady turned to that passage in Luke's Gospel about the thief on the cross.
That accepted the Lord Jesus, that is understood that he was a king and that he was coming back again.
And so she told him about that story, and then she left.
The next evening, she came in.
And the little boy had said, oh, I'm at peace, he said. If that thief could be saved, then I can be saved too. And I've accepted the Lord Jesus.
As my savior and I'm safe. She came in the next evening into that room and what she saw was a bed.
Neatly made-up with nobody on it the Lord Jesus had taken.
That little boy Philip, home to be with himself, A little boy, six years old.
00:40:01
Is there somebody here that's five or six or four or seven?
Or three. And you know what I'm saying? That's sitting here and you've never accepted the Lord Jesus Savior. If there is, don't wait another woman. OK, one more song and then we'll. If I'm looking at the right clock, we have a.
One more song. Does somebody have another song?
Boy, there's been some great gospel songs given out. Everybody. Pardon me.
#5 Is that the number? Yeah. OK, a happy day. That fixed my choice. Please start #5.
I'm back to dumb and that was my morning Sunday and coming close to me and I thought about why I'm still in the past, so I'm denying.
05378, I want to help out with that one 3 + 5, let's go. Rest in one. May have a little oxygen break and let's resolve it. You have to play that. Oh, I'll be back all happy lenses when you're so hot. I'm getting somewhere.
39, five and six 575-5975. No, I have a problem. God, I'd love to take part where I am. There's not bad grieving, but so bad.
Well, I don't think that's all. I don't see that what happens. It's not a lot my life. I don't talk about it across the house to my own temperance. And I haven't been $3 and everything. I have a great job. Oh, that's the guy. Oh, I'll stay nice and glad to see you. Sunglasses on and so forth. One quick question.
For those that know the Lord his savior, when did the Lord Jesus wash your sins away?
When did the Lord Jesus wash your sins away?
OK, that that might be a tough question.
Yes, Pardon me.
OK, the the answer was when you do bad things. OK, that's an answer. One more answer real quick. When did the Lord Jesus flush?
Your sins away? Yes. When you confess your sins, that's another word. That's another answer.
Umm, OK and.
And I'm looking for another answer.
Who's gonna answer for me? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. When you ask him to. OK, that's a good answer too. But there's another answer. All right, Kevin.
Oh, that's when he was.
Our sins away when he died on the cross and if you get saved today.
It means that you just found out about it.
You just learned that he did it all almost 2000 years ago on the cross.
And you've just learned, and you know, you think, oh, I'm an awful Sinner, and then you've learned that Jesus died for you.
2000 years ago? That's a marvelous answer.
That's when he washed our sins away. All right, now that's marvelous. We're going to pray our God and Father, we thank you for the opportunity here this morning. We know it's a weak message, but we pray that through thy Holy Spirit thou will touch the hearts of those here that are. On that downward Rd. We earnestly pray this Lord Jesus in thy most precious name. Amen.
At the Feet of the Lord Jesus - The Place of Blessing
That One Word - Father - My Father and Your Father
We Are Children of the Day We Need the Armor of God
1 Thessalonians 5:21-28
Reading
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Moving on. And our Father, we look up to thee.
We stand accepted before thee and the place that none but Christ could stand. We look forward to that day when He will, as uh Joseph brought uh Manas and Ephraim out from between his knees to present them to his father Jacob.
That thy beloved Son will bring us and present us before thee. Behold eye on the children whom thou hast given me.
Emily is marvelous sovereign grace that picked each one of us up and uh, has, through the work of Calvary and my beloved Son, brought us back to thee thy once lost children, and not only children, but to be before thee as sons of full age and in whom thou displaced thy confidence and the understanding knowledge of thy counsels and purposes and thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so we do.
Pray that we might have a sense.
Of the grace that we have been brought into and which we stand day-to-day.
The sense of the dignity.
His deportments have become such a standing.
In our walks laid here below.
And we pray that Thy precious word, as we have it opened before us now, might have that effect upon us, to more conform us to the image of Thy beloved, beloved sons, predestinated sons. May we be practically conformed to His image even now.
00:05:14
So we do ask Thy blessing on Thy precious word to our souls. Pray for wisdom as to, uh, the portion that's before us. And uh, another portion, uh, is, uh, the mind of the Spirit of God, may it be made manifest to our hearts and given out. And so we look to Thee for this and this desire, spirit of dependence upon, uh, Thee and Spirit of God and His leading in the assembly.
In the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
We did not quite.
Finished First Thessalonians chapter 5.
Some brother have another passage on their heart that they feel we should look into. Or is it the mind of the residence here? Continue on with this person.
Brother Norm, did you have another passage there on your mind?
No, I was thinking maybe we should finish this.
1St Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 16.
Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesying, prove all things, hold fast that which is good, abstain from all appearance of evil, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved, blameless unto the coming.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faith faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.
Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.
I charge you by the Lord, that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
I think we might have gotten down maybe to about verse 21 actually.
21 I'm just thinking about verse 17 perhaps.
The 11Th chapter of Luke.
Uh, the first verse.
Connection with pray without ceasing.
Luke Chapter 11, verse one.
It came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
Well, evidently John the Baptist taught his disciples how to pray.
John the Baptist went beyond Moses.
The prayer.
Is the expression of dependence.
And below.
Didn't teach them dependence on God.
They are quite independent, but now under grace, we are to be dependent upon someone else.
00:10:03
John began to teach his disciples to pray, and the Lord's disciples wanted to be taught also. They didn't know how to pray. They weren't instructed in prayers. Uh, they heard instructed from the rabbis.
How important it is, brethren, to be in a place of dependence. For the Lord had said John 15 Without me you can do nothing. When we think, when we think we're something, we are nothing. We deceive ourselves. Uh, the Lord would have us to be in constant dependence upon him, even as the Lord was. Oftentimes he woke up long before.
They began and he was found in prayer. In fact, in one instance, it says he continued all night in prayer before he chose the 12 apostles.
You ever pray for an hour?
I don't know I've ever prayed for a whole hour. That's a long time to pray.
The Pharisees made long prayer, but it was hypocritical. They made their prayers on the street corners to be observed by others, but the Lord told his own that when they pray to enter into a closet.
And that their father is a seasoned secret would hear them.
In that secret place.
Long prayer doesn't become a public place as a present. If you want to pray for a long time, try it in your closet privately to the Lord. And I don't know that we always have to.
Uh, be on our knees in prayer.
It says here.
Pray without ceasing. I believe sometimes we can just lift up our hearts to the Lord in prayer without being on our knees, wherever we may be, being the attitude of dependence on the Lord.
And, uh, that should of course be umm.
That shouldn't cease, of course. We know it does. But.
That's that's part of the message here. Free without speaking to me in communion all the time.
Something that will await the glory.
Interceding brothers like the universal prayer work. When you say it that way, not exactly. I think what it means is that it's not even an attitude of always being God, conscience and everything.
There was a Christian man who worked in a monastery many years ago. I think he was a 15th century person.
Uh, a fellow by the name of Brother Lawrence.
When he was asked about his.
He was, he was known to be a very special man. And when he's asked about the secret to it of that, he said that for me the time of business is no different than the time of prayer. His job was to wash dishes and he, as he washed dishes in the monastery, he was constantly enjoying the things of thinking of the Lord. And in fact, he said sometimes when the call to prayer came.
It was an interruption.
Of his communion with the Lord, because.
For him, the time of business was the time was the same as the time of prayer and that.
My business, I don't think I could probably do that, but uh.
But, uh, you know, there are times perhaps painting a wall or something or, uh, or.
Doing other things that we might do, cleaning our room or something.
Where that can be true, that our time of business can be the same as the time of prayer that ought to be that because of his expectation is.
00:15:07
I've enjoyed the wording in Luke 11 That you brought the horse Reuben.
Says here concerning the disciples.
Became the path that he, as he was praying in a certain place where he seized, one of his disciples, said unto him.
It doesn't say, Lord, teach us how to pray, not what it says. It says here, Lord teach us to pray. And the difficulty is not so much with us as to whether or not we know how to pray, But the difficulty is to pray is to actually physically get sprained. Umm, have it done in our hearts and have it, uh, as something that's part of us so that we do pray. Well, here the disciples, umm, they wanted to be taught to pray.
And the Lord's holding his disciples in Luke 18, that they always to pray and not to faint, it would imply that the Lord would not be with them, that they were going to undergo difficult circumstances. That's why you have to pray. The Lord wasn't going to be there any longer. And we here in Christendom today that we should pray is so-called Lord's Prayer, which He taught his disciples.
On the Mount, the Sermon on the Mount, there is the Lord's Prayer. That's what we should pray. Well, I don't think that is really the Lord's Prayer. You get the Lord's Prayer in the 17th chapter of John.
And it's not really, although it has lovely sentiments in that prayer. There are things contained therein that we would not pray intelligently today because we're not looking for the Lord to set up His Kingdom here on earth. Presently we're preaching not the gospel of the Kingdom, but the gospel of the grace of God. When He comes and sets up His Kingdom, that will be different. But today we look to the Lord independence.
The conversion of sinners, you know we're not looking for the Lord to to.
Set up his Kingdom today while he's rejected.
It's a solemn thing we're reading this morning in our motel room that the Jewish people told Pilot his blood be on us and on our children. You know, God hasn't forgotten that statement. Uh, the Roman Catholic may endeavor to exonerate the Jewish people, but God requires that which is passed. And he's remembered that statement that they wanted his blood on them and on their children. To what end do you think that the Jewish people suffer so?
2007.
It's because God remembers that there's coming a time, brethren, when a prayer like that will be intelligent. But today.
We are always to pray and as you say, Brother Dave, the tendency is for us to give up on prayer and not some of these prayers that they pray, They read, they have a prayer book, you know, and they said, well, didn't the Lord go away and pray the same words three times over? Well, sometimes, you know, we may, uh, ask the Lord repeatedly for something, but the Lord may give us an answer. Uh, and then we ought to see some desist, I mean.
The apostle Paul besought the Lord three times that the thorn would be taken from him. And the Lord answered that prayer and said that my grace is sufficient for thee. Well, that was the answer to prayer. Sometimes the answer to our prayer is no.
You referred Brother Ruth to.
Luke 18 and there's a parable of the Lord Jesus tells there to illustrate what he meant by.
Always praying, I think they're.
A couple of things that we learned from that parable.
The lady came to the unjust judge in the parable, and he says in verse five of Luke 18.
Yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.
The first thing that we learned the Lord Jesus uses. This is an example, and I don't believe that that widow woman spent all day with the judge, but day after day she came back and made her request to the judge. Maybe he didn't give her a hearing, but he saw her out there.
00:20:01
Day after day. And so I think the first thing that we learned from the concept of pray without ceasing and always to pray is that the concept is, is that we keep coming back to the Lord, We keep coming back to God to make our request, like you said, until we get an answer, after we get an answer, we shouldn't persist if the answer was no. The second thing that we should learn from this is in verse six, the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said.
And we know what Abraham said of God, Shall not the judge of all the earth do right when we come and pray? We're not coming to an unjust judge, we're coming to a righteous judge. And then in verse 7, there's another thing that we learn. It says, shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? So if we ask things according to God's will, if God has chosen these people, he certainly wants to bless them.
And that's certainly our case. We're part of the bride of Christ. We're chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. We learn in Romans chapter 8 that it's God's intention to bring us every blessing according to his purposes. And so we have No Fear of coming and asking God our Father that that brother Martin was talking about the last meeting. Four things, recognizing that he has in his heart a desire to bless us.
And will give us what is good for us, We ask it according to his will. And so I think there's those, uh, three things that one that the prayer.
Something that we carry on with, it's not that we're necessarily praying all day long. Not all of us have the situation of Brother Lawrence that like you say, Paul, uh, you don't have the opportunity. You have to stop to talk to customers every once in a while.
But it should be that our hearts go back with what's on them to God our Father to make our requests. And that's what the intention of, uh, our verse in our chapter, that it's to be that dependence and the need that we expressed to God on an ongoing basis. It's not that we're praying all day long.
That we give up on prayer, and we do because we are, has often been, said unbelieving believers.
I like to have us think a little bit about Daniel who prayed for.
Three full weeks and fasted until he had no strength. And then when the Angel came by, he says uh, that his prayer was heard from the first day. It wasn't after 3-4 weeks that the prayer was heard.
But it was heard from the first day and.
Uh, I think that God.
Valued.
The prayer that went up continuously for three weeks also, but it was heard from the first day and then another.
Example on somebody who gave up on prayer would be Zacharias in Luke chapter one and he and the Angel comes by and says to Zacharias and verse uh 13 the Angel said on a pure Knox for thy prayer is heard.
This is a prayer that was long, long given up.
Umm, it was hopeless for Zachariah, and he didn't even believe it when the Angel told him they heard from the Angel song left, so to speak, that his prayer was heard. He still didn't believe it. That prayer had been long given up. He's an old man, and he had no hope that that prayer would be answered. Daniel says if your prayer was heard. And so that prayer was probably 30 or 40 years old, I don't know, maybe more even.
And.
That guy had forgotten about it, but God had not forgotten about that prayer.
And then the one other thought on that is?
That the passage in Revelation in the Revelation where it speaks of.
00:25:09
Who didn't have their prayer answered on earth?
But yet they were offered up as incense.
And so not only does the pair change things, and not only is the pair heard from the first day, that's that it's utter.
But even if it isn't that according to our thoughts, or according to our will, or according to our time.
Still high as in at the front of car?
There are a fine line between.
Of this matter.
That's a pretty plain answer, and sometimes we get an answer like that, and yet we can persist in praying from what we've already got an answer for and that.
Paul, you mentioned Daniel.
In Daniel's case that you referred to as very interesting, it starts out in Daniel 9 and verse 20. He says while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, Israel.
And that says something. That's an important aspect of prayer too. In Psalm 66, we have a verse that says in verse 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
And even in connection with what, uh, Dave was saying, if we're asking when we know we shouldn't be asking, it becomes iniquity, doesn't it?
But anything that is sin that's in our life interferes with and prevents us from having the attitude that we're supposed to have when it comes to prayer.
Sometimes we miss it. Why the 22nd verse?
Obscene from all appearance of evil.
I think a better rendering of that verse would be.
Abstain from all every form of evil.
Because you know, brethren, sometimes something may appear to be evil, yet it is not so.
I've used this illustration.
Occasionally the brother from our assembly will have to go into a liquor store.
To buy the meeting room wine for the remembrance and you may get a real impression if you see him coming out of that store.
But here we're to abstain from every form of evil.
Not to be in any way identified with that which is, uh, wrong.
I know they said of the Lord in Luke 15. He's a friend, Republicans and sinners, but.
Uh, his association with them was to bring public and sinners to God.
The hypocritical Pharisees didn't associate with them because they thought they were more righteous than, uh, this low class society. They would not associate with such, but uh.
You have to be careful, uh, to have the same thoughts and sentiments of our Lord. Are we not willing to step down to the very dregs of society, the down and outers as they're called, and, uh, bring before them the gospel, those who are poor and needy. The Lord has thought such. When the bidden guests would not come, they declined to come. He says you go out into the highways and hedges, and call in the lame, the blind, the halt, and the main.
And bid them to come. Well, the Lord wants us in like manner to seek such out. Uh, and that, that is not evil, that that's not associating with those that the Lord would not associate with. He did.
00:30:20
Maybe someone could comment on the end of verse 21? Hold fast that which is good.
God said to the church, Philadelphia, hold fast. That was so hands. What's your thought on that day?
Those of you who have the Darby translation, you'll find a very interesting note there.
Connection with verse 21 and verse 22.
In Darby it says, But prove all things hold fast the right hold aloof from every form of wickedness, and then the note says the distinction between the expressions the right and the word translated wickedness without an article is profoundly beautiful. The latter is looked at as a general thing.
And has kinds or species they were to hold fast.
The right, the thing in itself.
But we cannot speak of evil as evil in itself. As an abstract existence, its most absolute form is Satan as the wicked one, though we may practically speak of evil.
So part of the thought that's in this is that 2 expressions go together were to hold fast that which is good.
And were to turn away from that which is evil.
So I think the two expressions, you look at them side by side and uh, it's turning away from evil and towards good. It reminds me of that expression that cease to do evil, learn to do good.
The expectation in the verse is 4 believers to be judicial or discriminatory.
Need we need to be able to discriminate that which is good and that which is not.
Well, having done that.
Then we need to hold fast to that what you that was just good.
Might be a connection with the first Epistle of John.
Chapter 4.
And verse one, beloved, believe not every spirit, the private spirits, whether they are of God, because there are many false prophets, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God and it goes out from there. But we've had some things stumbled in the exhortations that the Spirit of God gives here there's individual.
Characteristics in verses 1617 and 18, but I believe the next few verses are more what is collective.
And the activity of the Spirit of God in the assembly and so.
Quench not the spirit. The spirit shouldn't be hindered.
And his ministry in the assembly.
And the next thing, and it's connected with it is despised, not prophesying the way the Spirit of God would speak to heart and conscience. And it might even be from a lowly source, but don't despise it.
But beloved pride, the spirits, not everything that might be said is of the Spirit of God. Not everything that might be uttered is, uh, of the Lord. And so there is that proving and trying of what is said. And that's the wonderful thing about the assembly meetings. There's that provision given as a check to what is said. And if correction is needed, then the Spirit of God can correct.
And we can be thankful for that. And often those corrections have been very profitable for our souls. We've learned much at times in those things, and so despise not prophesying, but prove all things. And then there that which is good, hold it fast. So the good were gathered in vessels, and the bad were left on the shore.
00:35:53
Oh, really had a father's heart for these new converts, didn't he, after laying before them these admonitions?
If they were adhered to, wouldn't the God of peace be with them? Wouldn't they be sanctified? Holy. Wouldn't we be brevin? Wouldn't we be found in peace if we implicitly obeyed the Word of God? What would disturb our peace if we were to submit ourselves to the will of God in our lives, if we walked in obedience to the Word of God?
Doesn't it tell us in the Old Testament? I think Isaiah 12 Great peace have they who love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.
Christian is the only person on the face of the earth who has a right to be happy and to be peaceful to it in all the circumstances. Doesn't matter if you're prison, the Lord has imprisoned you there. You could be peaceful. The apostle Paul was the most terrible circumstances, and yet he desired that these things, the peace of the Lord, would be with these Thessalonians. It wasn't going to be easy for the Thessalonians having received Christ, was it?
But they knew the God of peace.
And they had peace with God. And now it says the God of peace will sanctify you wholly. And then he, he puts it in the proper order. Sometimes we put it backwards. But you see this tripartite being that we are spirit, soul and body, all can be preserved blameless if we walk in obedience to the word of God.
Let's go back a minute to, uh, verse 21 Through all things maybe a little practical.
Thought on that. David when uh, he went out to meet Goliath, he was first given Saul's armor and uh, he never had anything like that on and he finally put it off and he says I haven't proved it. I haven't proved it.
And so he wouldn't go out in what he didn't know to be tried and through he took up what he had proven a little picture of taking up what we've proven in our lives and walking in the word of God. We found it to be effectual and real in our lives. It's proven and then it was mentioned in the previous reading meeting that prove me now here with.
The Lord said to those that Malachi say whether he wouldn't open the windows of heaven, but he says just before that brain the time into the storehouse. In other words, not like David who had proven. He says I want you to prove it. Here's how you prove it. Be obedient to my word and you'll find out it's effectual. It'll bring blessing into your life and so prove all things.
Is.
It should have a practical effect in the life. The only way we prove it is to walk in it.
There's nothing more, uh, distressing, you might say. I don't know exactly how to put the words to it. Then. To be in the condition of always wanting something that you can never, never have. And So what an awful place a lost eternity is to always be longing, longing, longing for all eternity for what you can never have. But that's how man is in his nature now. He wants, he wants, and he's never satisfied. He's never.
00:40:11
He cannot find his heart satisfaction in this world, and he always wants more, and he still never satisfied. But God has given us the nature, and He's given desires to that nature, and then He's given us that which satisfies that nature, until we have a new nature that possesses presently everything to satisfy. And in nature that satisfied is that peace. And so He's the God of peace.
He's given us the nature, He's given us new desires, and He's given us that which satisfies those who desire absolutely and fully, and the result of that is peace, until He's the God of peace.
Those desires are not unholy. That he's given that new nature, their desires that are right and good, their desires that sanctify their desires for that old nature are wicked. And they're the absolute opposite. They're unholy. They're unsanctified.
Positionally we are sanctified. It says Hebrews chapter 10 by 1 offering that perfected forever them that are sanctified. But what we have in this chapter where it says the God of peace sanctify you wholly that is.
Weaning us from this world. There is a natural tendency to settle down in this world and to want the things of this world. But we are to the God of peace will sanctify us. We know our affections from this world and set them on higher things above. That's what takes, I believe, walking closely with the Lord to lay aside the temporal things, those things that are eternal.
The.
Ensigns, the three parts again of the human being.
The spirit, perhaps our intelligence and God consciousness, the soul, our feelings, our desires, our passions, whether for good or evil, and our body.
The outward man, uh, the inner and the outward man age keeping does in the present, uh.
And the Lord wants us to take care of our bodies too. There's a certain honor due to our bodies. The Lord doesn't want us to walk on beds of coal or lie down on nails. The Lord wants us to preserve the temple of the Holy Spirit and as well as the inward parts of the man, body, soul, and spirit. Spirit, soul and body is to be preserved for the Lord.
I think there is some significance to the order of the words in that verse, says spirit, soul and body. And in the culture in which we live, very often the order is reversed. It starts with the body, it goes to the soul, and if it ever makes it to the spirit, it's remarkable.
Umm, all of the advertising is focused on the body.
It's focused on the, the soul, the seed of the emotions like Uncle Rube just mentioned. And uh, that's typically where it ends. It's designed to create lust based on the outward. And yet the order that God gives us is spirit, soul and body. And the practical significance of that is if I take, for example, if you're a young man looking for a young woman as a potential help me.
In your life, the place where you ought to start.
Is that the spiritual first?
What is your heart like to start with? Are you following seeking to follow the Lord as a young man?
And then the young lady that you might be considering, which direction is her heart going? Does she also wanna please the Lord?
And then if that's right, then the next question is what about our our souls? What are our interests in life? What are our personalities and do those match? And then the last thing and is the body and for Christians.
00:45:17
The body part comes after the marriage. As those of you who are young know, the world has forgotten all about God's order and typically starts with the body and very often doesn't get beyond it. And yet we're called to something much better because God always has what's best in mind for us. And so when he put this order for us, that's the way to reach blessing. That's the way to have the very best. It's God's design for our lives.
Spirit first, then the soul, and lost the body.
The soul and the body are often used interchangeably.
Assault spirits and assault often used interchangeably.
But sometimes it's hard to tell which is which is which in your own selves and.
In others even.
But in Hebrews Forest speaks of that the word of God being a.
Uh, quick and powerful, sharper than any sort of piercing into the dividing asunder of soul.
Ferris, That's only the word of God, really, that.
I maybe I shouldn't say only the word of God, but the word of God does that.
It helps us to discriminate between sometimes our desires.
And.
Uh, in our spiritual reasoning thing. And we can argue ourselves sometimes into.
Doing things that we.
Uh, convince ourselves that certain things are right, for example.
But the Word of God can Pierce and divide those things.
What the hell used to say?
Make it your daily prayer, read there in Psalm 15. One preserve me, O Gods, from in thee do I put my trust.
So here this verse, it states that your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved, blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I suppose it has more in mind there the appearing rather than the rapture.
And we consider ourselves very unfaithful at best. But you know, he did have Listen, Philippians, one, he's begun a good work and you will complete it till the day of Jesus Christ, the Lord is able to preserve us.
If we rely upon him and uh, he's going to see each one of us safely through to the end, and if he's begun a good work in some soul, uh, we can be sure that that soul will be.
If he's quickened, he'll born again. He'll be saved as the rapture. He'll be taken up. The Lord will complete the work. Many folks you know the the trusting in the work of Christ, but they're not sure.
That they are going to be taken to glory. Well, I think the Lord will complete the work and they will realize at the end that the work of Christ was sufficient with their salvation. Faithful as he that called you.
When the law was given.
They said we will do it.
Uh, there's quite a difference here.
He will do it, uh, verse 24 faithful is he that called you who also will do what he will do.
Well, this is this little passage that we've had before us.
If you look at them, there's perhaps 10 different.
Works, uh, to believers.
00:50:03
In the Old Testament they had 10 words.
1St UH-15 The third word be kind. Verse 16 be people of prayer, of of of people of joy and praise.
17.
People of prayer verse 18 be thankful. Verse 19 be people who are spiritual.
20 one be judicial.
And the 10th one, the Holy in verse 22. So there's 10 words for the believer.
Uh, and he will do it.
A question came up at the dinner table. Just the other.
Night. Uh, it will be Friday night.
On the verse 26, I don't know that I answered it too well and I appreciate it if anyone has a thought on it.
My feeble answer was, well, I OK.
They know it was practiced by rather more frequently who were older than I and I've often been greeted that way and have greeted older brother in in that way and and uh, appreciated it at the same time.
I think it wouldn't deny the scripture it's not good for a man to touch a woman, and that it wouldn't be appropriate for a brother to greet a sister that way. But, uh.
Beyond that, I really didn't have much thought, but I'm sure there's.
First means what it says, and it's repeated five times in the New Testament and we still don't do it. And yet, uh, football players will rejoice on the field after a victory in Kisler. We can't do it, but we're afraid that they'll think we're.
Something strange. Umm, and I'm not saying I'm practicing either. I'm acknowledging this is one of the many passages that we do not obey. And the I think that the the word is clear, we we don't like it.
We will say if we do start to practice it, especially in connection with what you said with men and women, make sure it stays a holy kiss.
It does show the real, genuine affection that existed amongst these early believers though, doesn't it?
When they greeted one another in such a manner and if you read the letters of Jay and Darby, the early experience amongst the Saints in Plymouth, England, the love and the affection that those brethren had for one another is amazing. What they did for one another, you know and.
A few boys shall all men know ye, my disciples, if ye have love one for another. And doesn't your heart just naturally go out to the brethren?
I've been kissed many times by older sisters, you know, and vice versa. It's just natural to the the new nature. And to think that the apostle Paul didn't consider himself above these new converts. What does he say here? Just the prior verse. He says, brethren, pray for us.
00:55:00
The great Apostle Paul wanted these newly converted Christians to pray for him. Yes, you know, it doesn't take long experience in the Christian pathway to pray. Brethren, it's nice to see in prayer, meeting younger brothers, praying. There's no such thing as the gift of prayer. No, no way. The Lord likes to hear the prayers of the youngest believers and hear the Apostle Paul asks these young believers to pray for him.
He valued those prayers and they loved him and he loved them and he wanted to stir up their affections, didn't he? When he says you greet one another with holy kiss and is our brother, Robert was saying the emphasis is on holy kids.
I'd like to turn to a passage in the Second Corinthians.
Second Pennies, Chapter 11.
You also mentioned the a number of things. You're starting with verse 24.
He says that the Jews find Pines received by 40 stripes saved one the right side with people abroad 1 stone to right side suffered shipwreck. And we know that, uh, you've had at least one more shipwreck coming.
A nightmare they have attended the deep, and journeyings often in pearls of waters, and perils of robbers, and perils of my own countrymen, and perils by the heathen, and perils in the city, and perils in the wilderness, and perils in the sea, and perils the false brethren. And weariness, painfulness, and watching as often hunger and thirst, fast things often, and cold and nakedness, is this next verse that I had before me, beside those things which are without that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
We read over and over in the epistles how the apostle prays for the Saints and he says, I mention us to always in my prayers. You know, I came to vessel here and I greeted many people and there were those that greeted me and it was very obvious that they had tremendous affection for me when they greeted me. You know, I'm thankful for that. And we know that there are those that greet us and they, they greet us perhaps in an old way. They, uh, they acknowledge us that there are those that greet us.
And it's with obvious affection. And I've just enjoyed that in this exhortation that that's what the, uh, the apostle would bring before us when he's, he's asking the brethren to pray for them, to pray for him. But then he says, greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. And you know, it's marvelous when we see that obvious affection that brethren have for us and that brethren have for each other.
22 in the appendix.
Oh.
I don't know why. I understand the name of the pilot and I'll talk about that.
All right, I'll give you that tomorrow.
I'm waiting blah blah blah blah blah.
Mend ourselves.
Our God and Father, we would thank thee for thy precious word, and we thank Thee for this time that we've had to learn from its pages. We would ask that.
We might seek every day to become more conformed to the image of Thy Son, Lord Jesus Christ, and we pray that when He comes, we might be found waiting and watching for His return. We ask these things in His precious and worthy name. Amen.
Servants
Address—Paul Hadley
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On my way up here this morning I was enjoying him and the appendix.
51 in the appendix.
Maybe we could sing that one and.
Uh, in my youth we used to sing this frequently when we went and visited Brooklyn. They sing it over there with the chorus of.
Behold what, behold, what manner of love the Father hath be stood upon us?
So let's give that a try.
#51 in the appendix.
Oh, what a gift my father gave me.
When he bestowed his son.
To say for Oh and guilty man fights and defiled undone.
Behold, what manner of love, what manner of love, the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we, that we should be called, should be called.
The Sons of God didn't realize it would be that much of a solo. Does anybody know that? Nobody else knows it, uh.
Alright, well, let's give it a try.
For I was lost and vile indeed to send a willing praise.
I'll God in mercy interposed and turn my night today.
Behold, what manner of love, what manner of love, the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we, that we should be called, should be called.
Now I can call the savior mind all unworthy still.
I'm sheltered by his precious blood.
Beyond the reach of him, behold what manner of love.
What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that.
Way that we should be called should be called the sons of God.
I'm all to trust in Jesus now and tell our choice abroad. Let thankful hymns of praise us in for Christ, the gift of God.
Behold what manner of love, what manner of love, the Father hath bestowed upon us.
That way that we should be called should be called the sons of God.
Well, that was like my favorite hymn 150 years ago. Now it hardly doesn't exist. Beautiful hymns. I'll look at that. Come all who trust in Jesus now and tell our joys abroad. Let thankful hymns of praise ascend for Christ, the gift of God. Let's give thanks.
Our God and Father, we thank thee for our Lord Jesus Christ, the unspeakable gift from thyself.
We think how that we have been.
Redeemed. We've been rescued and we think how much we owe the and how much we owe him. And we pray that they'll stir our hearts this evening to.
Certainly as we ought.
So we asked Thy health and Thy blessing on thy word, as we open it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
00:05:00
Hadn't mind to turn to the Gospel of Luke.
And consider.
Service or the servants and Luke.
And we'll start in Chapter 16. There's lots of these.
Servants and Luke.
Just a point or two about each one.
I'll read verse from verse one. And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man which had a Stewart, And the same was accused unto him, that he wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of the given account of thy stewardship? For thou mayest be no longer steward.
Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do?
For my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship. I cannot dig to beg. I am ashamed. I resolve what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called everyone of his Lords debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much OST thou unto my Lord. And he said, 100 measures of oil. And he said in him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write, Fifthly, 50.
Then set it to another, And how much oest thou? And he said in 100 measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill in right for score.
And the Lord commended the unjust steward, because He had done wisely. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
So the first servant or steward in this case is called an unjust steward.
And he was one who wasted.
His Lord had put him in charge of things.
And he didn't. He didn't handle his responsibilities wisely. He wasted.
And then we find that he did something else.
We read that he stole.
Or it doesn't save that especially. But he did steal from his master and this is how he did it. So he was in charge of all the debts and somebody owed 100 measures of oil and he realized he's about to lose his job. So he says to that person.
How much do you owe? Uh, and the man says I owe 100 measures of borough. They both knew what he owed.
And so he says to that man, sit down and let's change it to 50.
And so he stole from his master 50 measures of oil.
And he did the same thing with wheat for somebody else. And he did the same thing, I'm sure, with many other debtors, because his Lord had many debtors, people that the Lord had, many people that his Lord had, many people that owed things to him.
And he did it so that when he lost his job, he could go by and say.
Uh, Remember Me? I'm the guy who did your favor and, and you only had to pay 50 measures of oil instead of 100. You Remember Me and I'm kind of out of a place to live now. Uh, could you take me in? And so he provided for his future in that way.
But he he lost his job because he was a waster.
But when he knew he was losing his job, he did something else. He stole. He stole from his master.
All right. And the Lord, I believe, is the Lord Jesus here. Some people like to.
Point out that it's, uh, a small L, but I think it's the Lord Jesus.
He commended him not for what he had done, because there's nothing to commend in what he had done, but there was one thing he did commend, and that is this man. At least he was smart enough to know that he needed to prepare for his future.
And you, young men and young women, I wonder, have you prepared for your future?
00:10:02
He had got the matter of your soul's salvation settled for all eternity.
The Lord Jesus speaks of this man and says he's smarter than a lot of you people because you haven't prepared for your future. You haven't prepared for all eternity that's ahead of you. You have only this little life to live. And then there's that eternity ahead, and you have prepared for it. And so this wicked man who stole from his Master and wasted his goods, he was smarter than some of you people.
Are you smart? Have you prepared for your future?
So this man here, the point is he wasted and he stole, and so he's called an unjust steward. Alice turned over to chapter 19 of Luke.
We're gonna read about a man.
In verse 20.
Who did not steal?
From his master.
And he did not waste.
His master's goods.
But he was unfaithful.
Now let's read that Matthew. Sorry, Luke 19.
And verse 20 it says, another came saying, Lord, behold, here is thy town, which I have kept laid up in a napkin.
For a feared they, because thou art an austere man, thou take a step that thou layest not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow. Wherefore then gave us thou not my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required my own with usury?
And he said unto him that stood by, take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath 10 lbs.
You see in this account.
Somebody who is called a certain nobleman and I think we can all know that we're talking about the Lord Jesus here. It says they went away for into a far country.
That's in verse 12. And he called his servants and gave them each a pound.
He gave each one of those servants of his own repound.
Something that they were meant to use for him.
And one man took that pound and got 10 lbs out of it.
And the Lord when he came back says in verse 17 it says, well thou good servant, because thou has been faithful and very little, little have thou authority over 10 cities.
Another man was given his pound and he he used it wisely and.
He got five, made 5 lbs.
So.
Then they have his last man who had 1 LB and and he took it and he hid it.
And Matthew, you want to read about this, a similar account. It speaks of the talents.
Do you have any realization that the Lord has given you and to me?
A pound.
Or or a talent, something that we're meant to be using for him.
New young people with your right minds and your strong bodies.
Each one of you having different talents, different abilities. And the Lord's gone on a far journey, it says, to go claim for himself a Kingdom. And when he comes back, he wants to know what you're going to do, what you've, what you've done with all that he's given you.
Given some people abilities in sports, perhaps some people in abilities in arts or, uh, crafts. Others have abilities.
In communicating with people, uh, making friends.
Some have abilities.
00:15:01
Prayer and spending time with the with the word, there's just all kinds of things that people have abilities in and you could probably, if we're sitting under a tree together, you could probably talk with me and tell me what you think you're good at.
And then?
If it was the Lord, he would be saying, now what? How are you going to use that for me? I think we heard this morning about a man who was good at baseball and he used it for the Lord.
Bobby Richardson.
Umm, and there's just all kinds of things that people are good at.
And how are they going to be using them for the Lord?
But the thought here that I want to bring out in this we might call him an unfaithful servant.
So he had the unjust servants.
And now in Luke 19 we have somebody who is an unfaithful servant, and the Lord calls him a wicked servant.
He took that pound that the Lord had given him to use for him.
He took it and he hid it in a napkin.
And he buried.
Now, I think we've already gone through what the talents or the pounds and I know I'm I'm mixing up two different variables. They're not the same ones, but I'm doing that for because I want to.
Uh, we already know what they remind us of.
So what? What would it be if?
What would it mean to us if if I had a pound and I buried it and the Lord said to me, how come you didn't give me usury on that? Why didn't you take that and put it in the bank at least instead of burying it?
What does that bring before us?
You know, I think the burying it and the hiding it is the answer.
At the very, very least.
I cannot hide that I'm a Christian. That's the very least I can do.
Not high that I'm a Christian.
You know, I might be able to.
Go out and be a missionary and have thousands of souls saved.
And if I did that, the Lord might say to me.
Well done, good and faithful servant. Be thou over 10 cities.
I haven't done that, but I mean.
To think, no, that's, uh, there's a reward there.
That would be a great thing.
Or maybe.
Maybe I don't have any ability to speak at all and to preach the gospel.
Maybe I happen to be a very good businessman and.
I make a lot of money that I use.
To help other people preach the gospel, or to serve the Lord in some other way, or to give to the poor?
Whatever.
And the Lord might come to say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. These are five cities.
But the very very least I can do.
Is not hide that thing in a napkin, Wrap it up and hide it in a napkin and bury it. The very least I can do is somehow or other let other people know that I'm a Christian.
I'm afraid that's what.
All that's all that most of us do. We're all one talent people, I suppose.
That's the very least we can do.
End.
Reminds me of the client's over there, see Norm's face and we're just saying this morning, uh, about all the things that we could be doing.
And, uh, and I remember I, I said to him, I know that on my deathbed, I will regret all the things that I haven't done if I ever have the opportunity to have a deathbed.
Things that the Lord has.
Shown me that I could do for him and that I haven't done.
00:20:03
That'll be.
It'll be like somebody who, let's say is an investor in stock and and was told that you can buy this stock for $1.00.
And, uh, well, I heard of.
Uh, no, I'm just getting into that. But, uh, but, uh, and then the stock becomes very, very valuable and it's worth hundreds of dollars, let's say. And you look back and say, oh boy, I wish I'd done what I was told and bought that for only a dollar.
I have a feeling that you and I.
Or at least me, maybe not you. We'll have those regrets.
As we.
Come to the end of our life, many of us.
Look out at others, and I see others who are doing things that Lord much more than I.
But.
How we might regret.
Not taking more advantage of all that the Lord has given to us.
So anyway, we have the unjust, uh, servant, we have the unfaithful servant, and I guess we have the good and faithful servant too, the one who has spent his time for the Lord. Let's turn over to Luke chapter 12 now.
And we will find.
Faithful and wise servant.
That's in verse 42. I'll read that.
The Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise servant whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household?
To give them their portion of meat in due season.
That's the answer before the question in a way.
Now I'll consider a little bit what we have here in the chip 12:00 we have.
And verse 31.
Rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Fear not, little flock, it's your father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
You see, it's something that.
Is already in the bag. You know, if I go back to that stock that was selling for a dollar, I might, might buy it for a dollar and then it might become worthless because I don't really know just because somebody told me that it's worth something going to be worth something. I don't really know that it's going to get better.
This one is, shall we say, in the bag. It's all settled.
It's the Kingdom is his, and it's his good pleasure to give it to you and to me.
If only we'll do just.
What we have here haven't said yet.
Only we had to, Just what we have here. He wants to give us a part in the Kingdom.
You know, little kids, we, I guess older folks give up the idea that little kids dream of being kings and Queens.
Having people to be in charge of and all that.
Uh, God says to you, I want to give you the Kingdom, and this is what you have to do to get it.
Now this is the part we don't want to read very much.
Sell that ye have, and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which wax not all the treasure in the heavens that faileth not where no thief approaches, neither moth prompteth.
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning.
To summarize what we have here in this chapter.
We have the things that a servant ought to be doing.
And they all involve.
Work.
Of some kind.
Or providing for work.
Or expectation.
Those are the two things that.
The master of the house is looking for when he comes back to see who is the good and the faithful servant.
The work that you've done or how you've handled the talents that he's given you, the pound that he's given to you.
And the expectation of his return.
00:25:05
I really enjoyed that little story of Albert Hagel coming home and.
And seeing his daughter in the windows and her waiting for him, that kind of warmed my heart.
But that's the thought. Are you looking for the Lord to come back? He may not come back in your lifetime.
I'm not saying, well, it won't, That's not the issue. The point is that there's the reward for you to be looking for and expecting him.
Is not the reward for predicting the right date. There's no reward at all for that.
The reward?
Is for.
The expectation I get that in here.
So as far as the service it says you're let your in verse 35, let your loins be girded about.
And your lights burning.
Your line skirted about. That means you're ready to work. You know in the old days when they they dressed in these long robes, if you wanted to get anything done, you had to. You had to gird your loins. That means you tie up your ropes so you can be free to work.
So let your loins be girded about and your light burning. That means you don't have your talent hidden in the ground. You have a testimony. People know that you're a believer. Somehow. You've got to get it out that you're a believer.
I'll leave that up to you how to figure that out.
But somehow it has to be known by others that you're a believer.
So then we have in verse 36 and and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
That's the expectation part.
There's a special reward for those who are.
Looking for his return.
There's a special reward.
Or for you, if you're kind of anticipating the Lord to come maybe today. And I like that, that plaque I.
Seen it in many places. I kind of wish I had on myself. I don't. That says perhaps today, a little reminder, perhaps when you leave the door, leave your house. Maybe today is the day of the Lord will come.
Because there is a special reward and it says about that.
Verse 37 For those servants that have his the expectation of his return.
He says blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily, I send you that. He shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. So that's the reward that He's going to give for you and for me. We're kind of looking forward to Him coming back. And if we're thinking about it, maybe today, maybe today He's gonna serve us.
Just like he washed the apostles feet and served them.
Lord, glory is the serve us.
If only we'll be looking for him.
There's a special reward for service also.
That's in.
That's in the 44th verse of the truth. I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he has for one.
Who is serving him? Blessed is that. I guess we did read verse 43. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.
So there's a reward for expectation and there's a reward for service.
Flip over to.
Chapter 16 and verse 13 for one verse.
No verse 13 No servant can serve 2 masters for either. He will hate the one.
And love the other, or else you will hold to the one and despise the other.
Cannot serve God in amendment.
00:30:02
So who are we gonna serve?
Do the rewards and that we read about here and Luke move us at all? They should.
They should move us.
Does it matter to you? Do you love the Lord Jesus? I know you do.
And you know, we read in Galatians, I like to summarize it and it says by love serve one another. But I like to summarize it and summarize it like this. Love surfs. That's true in families, that's true in husbands and wives. Love serves. I love to serve my wife.
She loves to serve me sometimes too, but love serves.
You love the Lord.
One of the ways we show it is to serve them in some little way.
I guess we should point out also in Luke 12 verse 45, there's, there is, uh, another kind of servant, the unexpected servant, somebody who definitely doesn't think the Lord's coming back anytime soon.
And there's no use watching too much, no use doing too much because.
He's not there to watch.
My son in the Dominican Republic has a lot of workers that work as fields. Sometimes he looks when they think he's not watching and he he says some of them will hold a pickaxe in position.
Like this must be hard.
They just sit there and position ready for them to see him come. When he comes in, they go ahead and finish the stroke.
You know, I think if the if we got the news over there somehow or over the radio or whatever, that the Lord was coming tomorrow, I think they'd be all like that. We'd be out there preaching the gospel.
We're like those servants who are holding a pickaxe.
Wait until their master comes home. You know, uh, it's almost funny, but it's. But it's sad too, when you realize that we're just as bad as them.
So we have in verse 45 of Luke 12 That unexpected servant, and it says, But if that servant say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming, he doesn't even say with his mouth, He says it in his heart.
This is what happens when we lose the sense that the Lord is is near when he's coming, perhaps today.
This is what happens, it tells us.
In this verse 45.
He shall be, and shall begin to beat the men, servants and maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken.
Eat and drink with the drunken.
Means that he becomes self indulgent. He just, he does anything. Whatever gives him joy, they live it up.
Extravagance.
My extravagance in the world.
Is a testimony to my failure and expectation.
Every bit of extravagance that I have might would be a testimony to my failure in expecting the Lord to come.
The other part of this is that he.
Begins to beat men's servants and maidservants.
He begins to.
Abuse authority.
He thinks he's in charge of other servants that answer to the Lord himself. With Bruce, Conrad often mentions that the uh.
Organizational charts and businesses where you have, uh, the boss and then maybe two vice presidents and, or, or four or whatever, then a bunch of workers and everybody answers to somebody and then somebody else answers to somebody else. They call that the organizational charts.
And he has pointed out to us that's that's not how it is.
In the in the Christian world.
The organizational charges like this, the boss, the Lord Jesus, and all of us answering directly to Him.
00:35:08
But when we lose the sense that the Lord might be coming some, we start to beat our fellow.
All believers put em down.
Disrespect them and make myself in charge of them.
So there's two things that we have here.
That, uh, show that I'm losing the sense that the Lord is at hand. One is self indulgence and the other is the abuse of authority.
So those are the some of the servants in Luke the Unjust, who wasted and stole.
The Unfaithful 1.
He didn't waste your steel, but he was unfaithful in that which was committed to him.
Then there was the good servant who received the well done.
And the faithful and wise servant who?
Serve the Lord.
And expected his return.
And then this bad example of the unexpected servant.
There's one other service I'd like to consider, and that's in Luke 17.
Verse 7.
A little bit of a different.
Umm, so I say take on service.
Luke 17. Seven. But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he has come from the field, go and sit down to meet, and will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may suck, and gird thyself, and serve me till I have eaten and drunken, and afterwards thou shalt eat and drink. Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I try not.
So likewise, yeah, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded, you say we are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do.
You know, if I was out there on the mission field.
If I was out there.
Preaching the Gospel.
If I was out there day and night serving the Lord.
Feeding the poor, helping people who are in trouble.
Spending my time in prayer.
Reading the word of God at every moment I could.
If I devoted my life.
In in total faithfulness.
To the one who is my Lord and master.
I could only say that I was an unprofitable servant.
I've only gone.
What I was instructed to do anyway.
I have a feeling if I did any of those things very much, I'd be.
Thinking I was pretty good, but if I did all those things.
I'd be only doing what I ought to do anyway.
I was here. I just be an ordinary servant.
You know that's the that's true.
In this illustration, that the Lord gave is true.
We're so indebted to him that if we devoted the rest of our life.
It would just be the least that we could do.
And yet he is not that way with us.
Humanly speaking, it says. Does he think that servant? No, that's his, That's what he ought to do.
Yeah, we have a Lord and master who if we do anything.
Just even if we let other people know we're a Christian.
We do anything.
He rewards us.
Well, so we have these servants. I hope they're.
In some way, a little bit of encouragement to myself.
00:40:03
Perhaps to you?
To not be so such a waster.
Such a unfaithful servant.
Oh, that we could receive that.
Reward.
I think it would be such a reward just to be called a good and faithful servant, if only we had just that.
I think that would be worth.
More than being over 10 cities to me if it could only be said that.
But may we seek after these things?
Because the Kingdom is his, and his to give.
We are his servants.
As unprofitable as we are.
Let's close in prayer.
Our Lord Jesus Christ.
We acknowledge all of that was done for us, all that that was given to us.
We.
To feel how.
Little we've done for thee.
Thou art worthy of much more.
We pray that they'll help us to have our eyes on eternity.
Help us to.
Confess thee with our mouth as our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Help us to serve the.
The little corner, wherever we are.
Help us do daily have the expectation of thy return.
Perhaps today.
Like before.
Anything from thyself this this day. Think before the fellowship we've enjoyed together the times together in Johner. Thy word and John are thy presence.
Good thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, and thy name, Amen.
Open Mtg. 2
Open—N. Wood, R. Ruga
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
OK.
I'll try my way.
Wednesday morning.
For an hour in here.
Nsnoise.
8.
We could be 21.
Great blessed God and loving Father, we have just sons. We wait for the Son of God, and long for thine appearing. We await that blessed moment, Lord, when thou shalt have thy rightful place in the scene.
00:05:05
Where thou wast rejected, and thou hast said it before our hearts as an ever present hope.
May we conduct our lives in view of that eternal day when this uh.
Life's short span will be over. We've looked to the two for help on this afternoon in the ministry of Thy word By whomsoever thou mayst used to bring the scriptures before us. Thou knowest we are a needy people, and we stand in need of a heavenly light for our earthly pathway thy spirit may undertake. Give that which is needed for each one here as let us know the need to be.
We pray for our brethren elsewhere, thy blessing and care upon them. We know that many are laboring for thee very faithfully at this time.
We uphold them before the throne of grace. Thank thee for allowing a few of us to come together in this manner, and we wait upon thee now, giving thanks in thy name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen.
We've been considering somewhat this morning. The Lord is coming for us and also His appearing, so I was thinking of an event that happened in between.
I was thinking of Revelation chapter.
Four and five. Just a few thoughts.
These two chapters, the setting is very similar for these two chapters with the scene is in heaven where all the redeemed are, and there's a throne there in both chapters and in the in chapter 4. Umm.
We see the Lord there in the center.
And those that are adoring him and His Holiness is uh is shown out.
But if we go down to verse 11, we'll see the subject of the of the praise and worship here. Yeah, this is in verse four, Chapter 11.
The Saints in heaven, they say thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are in work created. Well, this is a marvelous thing, isn't it? The Creator God, the Lord Jesus himself, is getting glory in heaven from all the redeemed, for all the beauties and marvels and wisdom of creation, much of which we get to enjoy.
In contrast, we see the next chapter, and we have the as I say the same thing, the throne, the redeemed all around you and I, and but we have in the center the Lamb as it had been slain, that same person, the Creator God, that if we look at his hands and his feet, we see the print of the nails in both his hands and his feet, and the spear mark in his side, and it brings us back to Calvary's cross on all that he suffered there for us.
I want to. And so we sing the new song Here We Are in Heaven, and we sing that new song and let me see where it is.
Yes, first nine. This is the.
4 and 20 Elders adjust, the redeemed says, And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals the rough for thou West Lane, And hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue, and people and nations, and has made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. Well, that'll be a marvelous scene, when our hearts go out to the Savior face to face.
But I wanted to talk about that new song, and I wanna tell you about some laziness in my part that uh, lasted a good many years. Umm, you know, I was always puzzled about this new song because these exact words that we have here in this new song, we sing them over and over and over again. And the gospel him and in the Sunday School hymns and I'd say to myself.
00:10:09
How could this be a new song? Well, I'm embarrassed to say I probably asked myself that question for 30 years.
All I had to do was pick up a book on ministry.
On Revelation And there was the answer. You read the chapter and there it is. I forget who the what the book was, but it simply said. This is in contrast to the old song which was sung back in in in Job 38 and verse six and seven when uh, there was a song there.
When creation was created. And so this is a new song. It's new to Heaven, but of course it's not new to us. But it is new. It's going to be new in some very special ways.
Number one, it's never been sung in heaven before.
And umm, and also, uh, you know, we're going to be there. Redeemed souls are going to be there. Our bodies, uh, our old bodies and our old natures will be left behind. We'll we'll have that new body of glory like him. And so we're going to enjoy and understand, uh, that new song, that much more his his redemption and his suffering for us on Calvary's cross.
And the.
Umm, and it'll be some, don't you think, with the language of heaven. Now I don't know of any verse that tells us that there's going to be a special new language sung in heaven, but we know that the Lord says, the scripture says, behold, I will make all things new. And as we think of it, we were pretty certain that the none of the languages that have been used in earth which have been contaminated with all the vile words of man.
Would ever be used in heaven. And I'm sure there's going to be a special language in heaven that will automatically know. As we get to heaven and we see the Lord Jesus there, we'll be able to sing that in a pure language that's never been violated. And that's a marvelous thing to think too.
And our old nature will be gone.
We can hardly sing a song all the way through without getting distracted.
Mr. Roach years ago used to quote a poem.
About a little boy that sat on in his high chair having lunch here having dinner.
The reverse went something like this, very fit his face all around as the moon banging on the table with the spoon.
He dropped quickly to the floor, reaching for things not seen before. And so we get distracted. Even as we're singing a hymn, we get distracted. Maybe we're tired. Maybe we're so full of cares that we can't concentrate on it. I remember years ago, Mr. Chapter Brown, who I suppose a lot here never met, but he was a very godly and spiritual man that you know, he'd get up, you know, and give a lecture.
An address, and it was just marvelous, his choice of words.
His knowledge of the scriptures and his knowledge of the Lord Himself will he get up? One? I remember seeing him get up after the breaking of bread one day. And Mr. Brown read a verse or two about the garden, the Lord's experience in the garden of Gethsemane. When the Lord came up back to his disciples, he found them sleeping. And he said, What could you not watch with me one hour?
Mr. Brown read that, and then he said, Brethren, I've never watched the full hour. And he closed the Bible and sat down.
And that's how it is in this life. You and I are. It's it's failure, for sure, but that's how it is. But you know, that's not gonna happen in heaven at all. We're there with our new natures. That's all we got. We have no career to worry about, no school to study for. We're just there to enjoy the Lord and His presence and to praise Him and to sing this marvelous redemption song. And I'm sure we'll sing it all the way through and the chorus, too. And, uh, our attention will never vary.
And her hearts will just be swollen, as big, as innocent as we. We're there with our Savior, face to face. What a marvelous thing that is. And uh, it'll likely be, and maybe somebody will correct me here, but it'll likely be asked after the judgment seat of Christ takes place, when our lives have been reviewed, when all of the things that, uh, we did, uh, that were wood, hay, and stubble have been burned up and we've been delighted to see it burned up.
00:15:30
And uh, the bus will be something left, some gold and precious stones left at the Lord will have said, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
And so after we've gone through that, all our pride just ripped the pieces and left behind. And that's we're going to sing that, umm, really, really loud and clear too. And you know, it's going to have a lilt to it. It's going to be a happy song, and it's just going to lift us up so marvelously. Think about, uh, some of the family of God that get to heaven. And they've never been clear about redemption in the cross of Calvary.
Uh. Let's say uh.
Maybe some devoted Catholic person that has enjoyed the person of Christ, the fact he's the Son of God from all eternity, but because of the doctrine they hold, they've never been.
Known the security of what Christ has done on the cross when they get to heaven, and they re it's revealed for the first time why they're really in heaven.
Their hearts and voices will just swell.
Wanted as they recognized that everything they owe to what Christ has done on Calvary's cross, and so will ours. Well, just a thought or two, brethren, on that day that is so near at hand when we're going to be caught up to be with our Lord forever and ever.
Reverend in the passage in Genesis chapter 45.
Genesis Chapter 45.
Just read 2 verses here.
Verse 13.
And ye shall tell my Father of all my glory in Egypt.
And the end of verse 24.
C.
That he fall not out.
By the way.
You know, in retrospect, you look back over.
Your life amongst the gathered Saints.
And you've seen a lot of defection.
Brethren, come and go.
Large turnover, if you will.
Why so? One reason?
Is because we took our eyes off the Lord.
Joseph admonished his brethren to tell his.
Father of all his glory.
Which they had seen in Egypt.
And invariably we could put it down to that 'cause that we got our eyes off the Lord.
We left the Lord's table.
We got our eyes on grabbing.
On gift.
We saw men as trees walking bigger than one.
We have a higher estimation of them than we should have had.
You know, Joseph Brethren could have reasoned and said.
You know.
It really wasn't my fault. It was your fault and that Joseph was told you want to put him down into the pit.
And their oldest brother could have come along and said, well, I didn't want him sold at all. You were gonna slay him and they could have had it falling out amongst themselves. They could have started arguing, Joseph said, see that ye fall not out.
By the way.
Why have Gravan had such a falling out, by the way?
In the 20th chapter of Acts, the Apostle says of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverted things as it should read to draw away disciples after themselves.
00:20:13
As you reflect in your short life, dear Brevin.
Who has led the Lord's people aside? Has it not been those with gift? Those with ability? Those with persona? I mean, they appeal to you. Someone who could memorize scripture, quote Scripture left and right. Someone who's eloquent can talk for hours on end.
Those whom we looked up to.
They led others away.
See that you fall not out.
By the way.
We're very susceptible to follow those who have ability in the things of God.
To whose name are we gathered? Are we gathered to Brother Jones, Brother Smith, Brother Brown?
We are not gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Be careful in following persons rather than the one to whose precious name we are gathered.
Another danger?
His nepotism? What's that?
Because it the 15 chapters of Acts. Look at the end of the 15th chapter of Acts, I think we may see an illustration of that.
Connection with Paul and Barnabas.
15 and verse 37.
Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose her name was Mark, and Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them, from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work, and the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from the other.
And so on.
You see Barnabas was related to John Mark.
You ever find that people go with their relatives relations?
You ever heard it said. Heard it said that blood is thicker than water.
Rather than follow the water of God's precious word, we could follow our relatives. What they do, I will do.
We get our eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ, one to whom we're gathered.
Be wary of that, dear brethren.
See that you fall not out.
By the way.
Thankfully, John Mark was restored.
You don't read so about Barnabas, but John Mark, whom the apostle said later on, take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
You know.
You may be LED astray, but others that you lead astray from the Lord's sable may never be restored.
So be very careful as to that.
How else can we be sidetracked, taken away from the Lord's table? You know there are many verses.
In the book of Proverbs we don't have time to turn them all but the 13th chapter of Proverbs. It tells us that only by pride cometh contention.
Could it possibly be that?
I'm too proud to humble myself.
To my brethren.
I don't mean to say, dear brethren, that you give up scriptural principles. You always want to act on the word of God.
But be careful about pride. Pride is an awful thing.
Price is an awful thing, it tells us. Only by pride comes contention, You know, yielding, pacifier. Great things. If we would only yield, give in.
Here's another scripture in the book of Proverbs also.
Uh, that UH tells us.
00:25:00
The 26th chapter of Proverbs. It says where no wood is the fire goeth out. What's that mean? Where no wood is the fire, goeth out. Don't add fuel to the fire.
Another scripture says he that repeateth the matter separateth very friends.
If you continually harping on something and press it and press it, you will stir up the iron. The animosity of your brethren. You will cause a division.
See that you don't fall out.
By the way.
You don't want to do that. It's an awful thing. I believe the Lord hates to see this come in amongst his people. Gifted people. Sometimes I weep.
Whenever he's out, the trouble came in between WK and J&D and others. Men of God like this, but we have to keep our eyes on the Lord.
Not upon him gifted men.
What happens when we contend like this?
Suppose you've offended your brother.
You know what it says in the book of Proverbs again?
Maybe you want to turn to it about the 18th chapter.
See Proverbs chapter 18.
In verse 19.
Maybe verse 17 to get the context, he that is first in his own cause seemeth just, but his neighbor cometh and searcheth him out.
The lot causes contentious disease and part of between the mighty verse 19.
The brother offended. It is harder to be one than a strong city.
In their contentions.
Are like the bars of the castle.
You'll find out that.
Some of your relatives are the hardest ones.
To win for the Lord.
Because of something you've said.
It's like the bars of a castle and you can't get through to them. Maybe others could speak to your relatives more easily than you can and uh.
All because of some contention that came in. Don't let it even begin.
Swallow your pride.
Don't endeavor, dear brethren, to defend yourself.
Somebody calls my attention and comment by, heh, he said. Well, when he said never, never defend yourself, never defend yourself, leave it with the Lord.
Vengeance his mind, saith the Lord. I will repay, but no, we like to stand up.
For our rights as we think, you know, What do you think of the Lord when they accused him of so many things? And the Lord never answered a word? Could the Lord have answered those false accusations that will lay against him?
Certainly. Were they true? No, not at all. But yet there he stood as the sheep before her shearers is done. So He opened not his mouth. We like to defend ourselves. Help me breath.
See that you've fallen, no doubt.
By the way.
Another cause for departure and contentions Well known. First kings, right Chapter 12 Terrible division came in. There he would turn. Is that passage of what you were all familiar.
First Kings, Chapter 12.
Mm-hmm. Where Rehoboam reject rejected the counsel of the older men and consulted with the young men that were stood before him.
You know, I would advise this. If you have a problem, consult with your older brother. I remember one time there was a difficulty. And I can speak about this brother now because he's with the Lord. I called the brother Charlie, little dear brother. I spoke with him about the matter to seek his counsel.
00:30:11
In the matter. And he gave godly advice. Not that old. Your older brethren are always right, but they've been in the pathway longer than you have.
Rehoboam didn't do that.
His older Brevin gave him good advice here, don't you think? And he merely yielded to the people's request and not making the tax burden so great. He would have won them over and the Kingdom would have gone on United Way. But he didn't do that. He listened to the younger folks and the foolish statements that they they uttered there.
Resulted in the split up of the Kingdom.
True, the Lord sends a prophet and told the people that this thing is from me, verse 24.
Thus saith the Lord, This thing is from me, and the Lord allows things like this to come in amongst his dear people today.
The things that are proved may be manifest. As long as we are here, dear brethren, the Lord is going to test us. We cannot think that the last division was it that never more will. Can we face another test that we know too much? Not so.
The devil tested the Lord for 40 days in the wilderness and left them for a season, but came back later.
The devil will always test us as long as we're here to see if we approve. Do we have the Lord before our hearts, or we gather to this person or to that person? Remember the admonition. See that you've fallen out, by the way.
Another passage is Timothy.
Second Timothy. One of the last things that Paul ever wrote to.
One Whom he loved, Second Timothy, Chapter 2.
Endo verse 24.
There says the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all, have to teach and patient.
Does she have a margin in the Bible that says forbearing have to teach, and forbearing the servants of the Lord must not strive, yielding pacifiers great offenses? He pulled our brother Hale again. He used to say this. Overlook all your brethren's faults as far as you can, except the effect of the person and work.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know the president, bear with me.
Should I not bear with my brethren?
Tells us in Hebrews 13 suffer or allow the word of exhortation, dear brethren.
See that you fall not out, by the way.
Realize we have another 15 minutes. The last two verses of 288 preserved by Flock was graciously.
So on.
Umm.
Uh-huh.
Umm.
One thing of my desire to the Lord, that I will seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
We have 4 beautiful thoughts here.
The first one.
It's the one thing that we have desired of the Lord is to seek after.
We have the word of God in our hands.
And the way they're keeping our path is to keep our eyes on Him and to speak after what the Lord has given to us.
But we also have to dwell in the House of the Lord.
We have to be with him, commune with him, both in prayer.
N reading of his word.
In order to. When we do that, we will see.
All the days of our life to behold the beauty of the Lord.
Did you inquire always in his temples?
So I was just thinking of that one thing that I wish all of us a positive buyer to continually seek after what the Lord has for us each day.
Our dear Godfather.
In this world.
Lord, we just pray that all of us will have the desires to continually seek after.
What thou has given it to us.
00:40:01
That we may continually see.
In the way.
So Lord, we just do paints these.
Open Mtg. 6
Open—D. Mearns, D. Martin, C. Gesser
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And is it so I shall be like thy son? 18 in the appendix. Is this the grace which he for me has won?
Father of glory, thought beyond all, thought in glory to his own blessed likeness brought #18 in the appendix.
We pray.
Our Father, no God, Thou dost have purposes of blessing of thy dear people.
There is a scene that the house prepared above through the finished work of Christ, where love will reign supreme.
Where every vestige of sin will be forever removed, the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world. And everything will redound to thy glory and honor of God. You think of the life of the one who is here below and accomplishing thy purposes. Uh, whoever did thy will and uh, is now seated at thy right hand, who will bring to fruition all my purposes of blessing to.
00:05:16
All creation near below.
We thank thee, blessed God, that thou has revealed this to us in my precious word rises above all the other uh, thoughts, the thought that now are the God of love as well as the God of light without us love like creature and uh.
We'll bring them into that wonderful sphere of blessing both in heaven and on earth. We thank Thee for our position in Christ. Nearer could not be as part of the bride of Christ, our loving Father. We pray that.
My precious word may be blessed as it is ministered to our hearts this afternoon.
Without sin, take and use it by thy spirit.
We pray, too, for our brethren who may be traveling homewards, and do them see them safely to their destination. We thank thee for allowing us this occasion to come apart, and for the authorities too, upon whose heart thou dost move as the rivers of water, to accomplish thy purposes. And so thou happest to be in peace. You wait upon thee, giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
My personal reading.
I just started the book of Joshua.
And I read the part of the first chapter yesterday, and I read the rest of the first chapter today.
But then two days earlier, I was just finishing up the Book of Deuteronomy, and I'd like to turn there for a moment just to introduce what I have in my heart. Deuteronomy chapter 33.
Genesis 49 we have.
Jacob blessing his sons and then in Deuteronomy 33 we have Moses blessing the tribes, but he starts this portion off.
First one, and this is the blessing, where with Moses the man of God, bless the children of Israel before his death.
And he said, The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from seer unto them. He shined forth from Mount Paran, and he came with 10 thousands of Saints from his right hand, when a fiery law for them.
This verse that I had in my heart. Yeah, he loved the people. All his Saints are in thy hand, and they sat down at thy feet. Everyone shall receive of thy words.
You know this is a marvelous place for us to be found at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
It's the place of blessing, for every one of our souls is at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And I would like to look at some of the New Testament who found themselves at the feet of the Lord Jesus, and then to turn also to the Old Testament and to see some in type found at the feet of the Lord Jesus. So could we turn first of all to Luke's Gospel, chapter 10?
Luke's Gospel, chapter 10.
And in verse 38, every, every one of these ones we're going to look at, there's a little different characteristic with each one. Some heard, some saw.
But here we find Luke's Gospel, chapter 10 and verse 38. Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word.
That's all I'm gonna read. We know that this is the portion where we find Martha was cumbered about with much service. If we were to go to John's Gospel, Chapter 12, we would find, once again, Martha's there. But she's not cumbered with service. She's there in her right sphere.
We find Mary also and also Lazarus. But here we find Mary. She had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word.
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What a blessed place for us to be found at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
And it's there that we're able to hear what the Lord has to say to us. Sometimes in the busyness of life, it's hard for us to hear.
I've often encouraged those who are young to take up the Word of God and to read it, but not just to read it with your eyes, but to read it with your ears. To read it with your ears to hear what the Lord Jesus has to say.
And what a blessed portion that Mary had here. She sat at Jesus feet and heard his word. And a blessed thing when the Lord speaks, to be able to hear. No, I'm afraid there's been many times in my life when the Lord spoken and I haven't heard. I haven't heard. Sometimes there's a loud voice, but sometimes it's a still small voice that the Lord speaks with. What a blessed thing it is for us to be found like Mary sitting at the feet.
Of the Lord Jesus and hearing His word. Now let's go to the book of Second King.
Second Kings chapter 4.
If we were to read this chapter and we won't.
It's the story of the Shunammite.
And how she prepared a chamber for Elisha.
And she had a son, she had a son. And the son grew. And there came that time when the sun died. And what a sad time it was. But we'll take up now and read.
Umm.
From verse 30.
And the mother of the child said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And here rose and followed her.
And you hear thy passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was neither voice nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awake. And when Elisha was coming to the house, behold, the child was dead.
And laid upon his bed, and he went in there for, and shut the door upon them twain, and he prayed unto the Lord, Oh, what a time of extreme extremity we have here, and we find a man.
An intercession before the Lord in earnest. And we find in verse 34, He went up, and he lay upon the child, and he put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and he stretched himself upon the child in the flesh of the child waxed warm.
Then he returned and walked in the house to and fro, and went up and stretched himself upon him. And the child sneezed 7 times. And the child opened his eyes and he called and said call the Shunamite. So he called her.
And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son.
What I have is not to look at the story, but to look at the spirit of the at this particular time.
We know that this dear woman been through a terrible time.
Just one son. Now her son was gone and now her son's been raised and she's just been told to come and take up her son. But what does she do? Let's read.
We'll read the end of the 36th verse again. Take up thy son.
And she went in. Does she take up her son? No, that's not what she does.
She went in and she fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground. And then we read. She took up her son. You know, she could have taken up her son in obedience, but oh, there was an appreciation in her heart for what had just transpired.
And in the extremities of our life.
When the Lord's hands upon us, do I manifest that spirit that we find in the Shunamite?
Who when she was told to take up her son, if it had me, I would have ran to my son and picked him up and embraced him. But no, she recognized the source of the blessing that she was experiencing at this time. And she goes and it says here and.
She fell at his feet.
And bowed herself to the ground and took up her son and went out.
First Samuel 25. First Samuel, chapter 25.
What a story this is.
Story of Nabel.
And without again going through the story, we find the word comes to David.
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Of Nabal and verse 10 Nabal answered David's servants and said, Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse?
There'll be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I take my bread and my water and my flesh, that I have killed for my shears, and given unto men whom I know not whence they be? So Davids young men turned their way.
And went again, and came and told him all those things. And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword.
And they girded on every man's sword, and David also girded on his sword, and there went up after David about 400 men.
200 abode by the staff.
Oh, what a time we have here in David's life. David is furious. He's furious. And he gathers his men together, 400 men. They gather their swords and away they go. They're gonna do justice to what he's just heard.
And there meets him one in the way.
Verse 23.
And when Abigail saw David, she hasted. Let's picture the scene. David, an angry man, 400 men with him, with their swords.
When Abigail saw David, she hasted.
And light it off the ***. And fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground. Here's our subject now. And fell at his feet. And said upon me, my Lord.
Upon me let this inequity be, and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience.
And hear the words of thine handmaid. That's not my Lord, I pray thee regardless, man of Belial, even Nabal for his.
His name is so is he neighbor, all is his name, and folly is with him. But I, thine handmaid, saw not the young man of my Lord whom thou did send.
Now therefore my Lord, is the Lord living, and as thy soul liveth, seeing, the Lord hath withhold a knee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand. Now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my Lord be as neighbor. Now this blessing which thine handmaideth brought unto my Lord.
Let it even be given unto the young men that follow, my Lord.
It's a touching scene, isn't it, to see this army coming down to do justice to what they've heard. And here comes this wonderful woman in her place and she falls at David's feet and.
But she takes all the blame. If you read the portion, and I so appreciate it, you know, because in the next chapter we find that David is being pursued by Saul.
And that time comes when their soul lying asleep, and David approaches them.
Abhishek's there and David's counsel take off Saul's head. And you know, he doesn't do it. He just says, I'm not gonna lay my hand on the Lord's anointed. You know, I've just looked at that portion and realized, you know, it was Abigail that saved Saul's life. It was Abigail that saved Saul's life. Here's David, just ferocious, and he's on his way down. He's gonna do justice. He has his sore drawn. Oh, I believe he learned a lesson there here as Abigail steps in front of him.
And causes them not to shed blood needlessly. And in that next portion where he's standing in front of the Lord's anointed. Oh, the savour. What had just passed, I believe saved Saul's life here, This woman that fell at the feet of David. Let's go to Mark's gospel.
Mark's Gospel, chapter 5.
Mark's Gospel, chapter 5 and verse 20.
And he departed and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him.
And all men did marble.
And when Jesus was passed over again by ship under the other side, much people gathered unto him, and he was nigh unto the sea. And behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, GI rest by name. And when he saw him.
He fell at his feet, and he besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter laughed at the point of death. I prayed he come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed, and she shall live. And Jesus went with him, and much people followed him.
And thronged him, and so on.
When it came to Mary, it says she heard his word at his feet.
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But now it's a little different here in verse 22, there come with one of the rulers of the synagogue, the iris by name. And when he saw him, he fell at his feet. And hasn't that been our experience too? You know, we take up the word or there's some little incident that happens in our life and oh, it's a little glimpse of the Lord. It's just a little glimpse of the Lord. Perhaps we haven't heard anything, but we just get a little glimpse. And what does it do? Oh, it causes our hearts.
Mark's Gospel, chapters 7 and verse 24.
And from thence he arose and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into one house, and would have no man know it. But he could not be hid, for a certain woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came.
And fell at his feet.
A woman with a Greek, a sire, Phoenician by nation, and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil.
Out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled, for it is not meant to take the children's bread and cast it under the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord, yet the dogs under the table eat.
Of the children's crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying, Go thy way, the devil has gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid.
Upon the bed.
Oh, I can learn something here from this dear woman who heard of the Lord Jesus and came and fell at His feet. What was the deportment of this dear woman who was from Tyre and Sidon? We see that in verse 28.
She answered and said unto him, 2 words, 2 words, Yes Lord. Yes Lord.
Is that 2 words that come from our hearts?
On a daily basis, is that 2 words that come from our hearts? Yes, Lord. The portion that the Lord brings across our pathway, whatever it might be. Are we willing to be like this dear woman who in a time of extremity was able to say Yes Lord? Yes Lord.
I covet that with my own soul. I covet that how often I'm not willing to say yes.
To my blessed Lord, not willing to recognize the claims of that blessed One whom we had before us this morning, the Lamb of God. Oh my, my heart learned from this woman at the feet of the Lord Jesus who said yes, Lord.
Yes, Lord, let's go to the book of of uh.
Of Luke, Luke's Gospel, the 8th chapter.
Luke's Gospel chapter 28 and verse 26. And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes.
Which is over against Galilee.
And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city, a certain man, which had devils long time wear no clothes, neither a boat in any house, but in the tombs. And when he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most High, I beseech thee, torment me not. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man, for off times it had caught him. He was kept bound with chains and in fetters, and he break the band.
And was driven of the devil into the wilderness. And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion, because many devils were entered into him, and they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. And there was there unheard of many swine feeding on the mountain.
And they bethought him that he would suffer them to enter into them, and he suffered them. Then went the devils out of the man.
And entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake, and were choked. And when they that fed them saw what was done, they fled and went in and told it to the city and in the country, and they went out to see what was done.
And came to Jesus.
Found the man out of whom the devils were departed sitting at the feet of Jesus.
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Clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.
You know what matters not?
What's transpired in our life before?
What circumstances we find ourselves presently now.
The place of blessing is at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
Think of the experience of this man.
But think of the blessing here he found. They went out to see what was done, and they found the man of whom the devils were departed sitting at the feet of Jesus. What a blessed place.
So many of us here have had that blessed privilege to be found at the Lord Jesus feet just quietly sitting. What a blessing it is to be found there and here is this man at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
His life totally upside down, total turmoil, total confusion, and it's changed and he's found at the feet of the Lord Jesus. What a blessed place to be in. Let's go back a chapter, Luke Chapter 7.
Luke Chapter 7.
One of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with them, eat with him, and he went out. He went into the first his house and sat down to meet, and behold, a woman in the city, which was a Sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat up neat in the Pharisees house, brought an alabaster box of ointment.
And stood at his feet behind him, weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears.
And he'd wipe them with the hairs of her head.
And kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. When the Pharisees which were bidden saw it, He spake with himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touched him, for she is a Sinner.
Oh, what a place for this woman.
Just think of the circumstances of this woman.
And here she found standing at the feet of Lord Jesus behind him, weeping. No.
What did she have to do? It says she began to wash his feet with her tears and to wipe them with the hairs of her head.
This is the place for me. Here I have learned sweet lessons. Truth that has set me free, Free from myself Lord Jesus, free from the thoughts of men. Chains of thought that once found me never shall bind me again. Oh what a portion for this dear woman to be found at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
Let's go over 10 chapters now.
17.
Luke, chapter 17.
Luke 17 and verse 11.
And it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers.
Which stood afar off.
They lifted up their voices and said, Jesus Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests.
And it came to pass as they went, they were cleansed, and one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice, glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet.
Giving him thanks and he was a Samaritan.
You know we had yesterday in our reading and everything gives thanks.
Just picture these 10 lepers, picture them all being cleansed, nine of them. They're caught up with the ceremonies of the day and they're going to go and be obedient to what the Lord Jesus had said. But oh, there's one here and the affections of his heart.
Are unloosed, and he comes back and he falls on his face at the feet of the Lord Jesus, giving him thanks.
Is that deportment in my own heart, that spirit of thankfulness?
We appreciate someone who's thankful. We don't appreciate someone who takes things for granted.
Here's a man. He was thankful. He comes, he falls on his face.
The feet of the Lord Jesus.
With a thankful heart.
Now one last one in the book of Ruth.
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The Book of Ruth, chapter 3.
Ruth. Chapter 3.
And verse 6.
Speaking of Ruth. And she went down under the floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law bade her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn, and she came softly and uncovered his feet.
And laid her down. And it came to pass at midnight that the man was afraid. And he turned himself. And behold, a woman lay at his feet.
And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth, thine handmaid. Spread therefore it should read, Spread therefore thy wing over thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman. And he said, Blessed be thou of the Lord, my daughter, for thou hast showed more kindness in the latter end.
Then at the beginning, inasmuch as thou follow what's not young men, whether poor or rich?
And now, my daughter, fear not, I will do to thee all that thou requires. For all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman. You know Ruth, the only one in the Scripture that's called a virtuous woman. We find that here, all the city of my people that know that thou art a virtuous woman. And now it is true that I am my near kinsman. Howbeit, there is a kinsman nearer than I. Tarry this night, and it shall be in the morning that he will perform unto thee the part of the kinsman. Well, let him do the kinsman part.
But if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the Lord liveth, lie down until the morning, and here's our subject. And she lay at his feet until the morning.
I was enjoying yesterday in our reading here.
The thought of watching and waiting for the Lord Jesus.
I'm gonna tell a little story.
Many here have heard it, perhaps heard Albert tell it. He used to tell this story, but I drive by the place where this took place.
Every week, and sometimes several times a week.
This is when our brother Albert Hale was in business in Smith Falls and he'd leave his place of business and he'd walk home and he'd round the corner and up in the second Storey of the house just at the end of Strathcona. His daughter was watching and waiting every day.
And she would give him a big smile and wave to him, you know, And after a long day's work, he'd start on his way home. And just with anticipation, he'd know when he rounded that corner, there was his daughter B at the window. And so he'd round that corner, and there she was.
Big smile and big wave.
This one day he was detained a little at the office.
He was a little bit late in leaving.
And he quickened his step because he knew what was awaiting him. And he came down the street and he rounded the corner and there was nobody in the window, nobody in the window.
Well, you know, he went on home and he went in the door and he went up the stairs and there was his daughter in the room where the window was and she was playing and she looked up and she says, oh, Daddy, I just stopped watching. I just stopped watching.
And you know.
He had a heavy heart. He had a heavy heart. And as he talked with his daughter, he realized that she was disappointed too, That she was disappointed too.
Oh, may it be our portion to not simply be waiting for the Lord Jesus, but also to be watching. To be watching. Here we find in the book of Ruth. There she is found at the feet of Boaz. And how long was she there? It says she lay at his feet until the morning.
Until the morning, O may that be the portion of my heart to be found, watching and waiting until the morning at His blessed feet.
Can we turn to John 17?
John 17 in the first verse.
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These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven.
And said father.
Probably a lot number in this room. Can maybe even quote the rest of this chapter.
By heart, and those of us who can't certainly know and love every word of it.
But.
That one word.
Father.
We know.
How precious.
The fellowship was that the son enjoyed with the Father when he was here on this earth, but it's not that that I wish to just.
Remind our hearts of.
It's the relationship that we enjoy.
And first of all, to just underline the fact that it's the same relationship.
That the son enjoy with his father.
That very precious eternal relationship that the Lord Jesus shared with His Father has been given to us to enjoy.
I don't know.
Uh, how you pray?
You know, sometimes it's pretty simple. Dear God bless mommy and daddy and Grandpa and Grandma and.
Help me with this and that and the other thing. Amen. And I'm sure the Lord listens to prayers like that and loves to hear His children pray.
But.
Do you ever pray?
Or you can't get past the first word.
Does it ever?
Overwhelm your heart.
The fact that you are addressing.
The God of the universe, the eternal God of creation.
As your father.
And that he hears, and that he listens.
The other day I was watching.
A man leave the hospital carrying.
A baby carrier.
And his wife, who had done all the work, was about four paces behind and he had his head down and he was looking in the baby carrier.
And you could just about see the smile because it was wrapped around the back of his head. And he looked up at me and I went like that and his face just radiated.
The joy in that man's face was absolutely glorious and I thought.
My father.
Haste the light in me.
Imagine that. Think of that. We don't have to imagine it. We know it. Think of that for just a moment.
Who am I anyway?
This tiny little creature on a tiny little planet.
Somewhere in an infinite universe that's measured in light years, created by the word of his mouth.
And he looks down on you, and he looks down on me, and he takes delight.
Individual special joy and delight in you and in me. We know the principles, we know the truth. We know what Scripture teaches. We know the facts, and they're so precious.
But do we ever let them enter our souls in such a way that we're left speechless?
To think of the relationship that we enjoy, that you enjoy, that I enjoy, are able to enjoy, and we don't even begin to get to the past the the first stage of it. Perhaps what we do enjoy is by the Spirit of God and we know it's real and we know it's true and it's precious to us, but there is so much more.
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So much beyond what we comprehend on a daily basis. So much for us to just let penetrate our hearts, our souls, our thoughts, our beings. The Father that we have is the one who sent His Son and who became the Lord. Jesus became that which we were out of the love.
Of a father's heart for you and for me.
We just.
Perhaps I I should say we tend to start off rather quickly and start right into the prayer and and and begin with Father and begin with the Lord Jesus and go into those things which are on our hearts, but.
The thought that we are in a relationship with the eternal God is so far above and beyond what it even is that I'm praying about. Why did I start to pray?
What did I have in my heart? What was I going to tell him? What was I going to ask him? What was I thinking about? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. The fact that I can address him with that word that the Lord Jesus used and loved to use and speak to Him as my Father. Everything else just fades. It doesn't matter.
That relationship is ours, whether we enjoy it or not, whether we think of it or not, whether we even speak to him or not, but as we.
Realize what it means to have.
That ongoing eternal relationship with Him, how it takes us out of our circumstances, how it takes us out of our particular need. It may be, you know, when it talks in Philippians. We should read that verse.
We know it again by heart, but let's just read it, Philippians.
Chapter 4.
Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving.
Let your requests be made known unto God maybe.
Maybe we'll never get past the Thanksgiving.
F.
The thought of who it is that we're speaking to enters our hearts. It's by prayer and Thanksgiving, supplication with Thanksgiving. But the requests come afterwards, and sometimes we just don't get to the request because we're so overwhelmed with Thanksgiving for that relationship that is ours, bought with the precious blood of His beloved Son.
Hours to enjoy not only in eternity, but here and now. We live so much.
Not for ourselves, perhaps, perhaps not in a selfish way, But our perspective is so much within ourselves, even in a good sense, when we think of, you know, our families, our home, our responsibilities, perhaps our assembly, those that we love. Those are all important, significant and precious, but far above our own circumstances, far above our own thoughts, far above our own relationships.
Is that 1 glorious eternal relationship?
With God, who is my Father.
Look at the First Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 8.
I'm really thankful and.
Really happy and really encouraged with the reading meetings that we've had today, uh, this weekend.
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And uh.
Some of the things that we've gotten from this reading meeting, these reading meetings were umm, were children of the day, were children of the light and to be watching and waiting for the Lord.
Uh, to take us home at any moment because we are children of the day and children of the light.
First Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 8. But let us who are of the day be sober.
Putting on the breastplate of faith and love and foreign helmet the hope of salvation.
And, uh, that, that really does speak to my heart and I'm sure that it speaks to your heart as well.
Let us, but let us who are of the day, be sober.
And today we need that exhortation more than ever before because in this day in which we live, there has never been a day like today where there has been so much of this, uh, party spirit going on. And it's everywhere. There's this party spirit and the children of the night and the children of darkness.
Are apartment and have a tendency to get drunk and to do those things spiritual drunkenness, not just, uh, physical drunkenness, but their spiritual drunkenness throughout this entire world. And it especially seems that Satan has attacked the Western world.
Umm, very hard, because the Western world has been blessed with so much truth.
Because the truth of the gospel, of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ was spread throughout Europe when the Apostle Paul went to Europe. And, uh, it's umm, and of course we've, uh, experienced that blessing. That blessing has come over, uh, to the United States and Canada.
And especially, you know, in the last 100 and 71180 years when the truth was recovered by uh, brother John Nelson Darby and the brethren that were with him.
And.
It's, it's we need this umm, And so Satan has definitely attacked this Western world, Western Europe, and these countries, United States and Canada that have been so favored. And Satan, Satan knows that his time is short.
And so we need these exhortations that are in here in this chapter. There's a lot of practical exhortations as we've had, uh, to be sober. And I think I read one time where there was a brother that knew Mr. Darby very well that, uh, about the time when, uh, brother Darby, umm, recovered the truth, the Lord led him to recover the truth in his day.
Already, umm, Mr. Darby made, uh, made some kind of a comment that uh, there was umm, some kind of a party spirit going on. And uh, Fast forward that to 178 years later, seventy 100 and 78179 years later to the day where we're living right now, that party spirit is even worse. It's even full blown just before the Lord comes and to take us home.
So we need this exhortation to be sober more than anything, more than ever before.
Putting on the breastplate of faith and love.
Umm, putting on the breastplate of faith in Ephesians you have the the breastplate of righteousness and the breastplate. The breastplate of righteousness is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Here it is, the breastplate of faith and love.
The just shall live by faith.
And the breastplate of faith and love. The breastplate of faith.
The, uh, breastplate of faith and love is a wonderful thing when faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And it's wonderful and it's extremely wonderful to take up the word of God in your own individual time and read the word of God and see what your father and see what my Father has to say to us.
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And uh, it goes hand in hand with the assembly, reading meetings and prayer meetings. And to be in his presence collectively as an assembly, it's a wonderful thing. And uh, the breastplate of faith, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Breastplate of faith and love and, umm, the love of the brethren, the love of the assembly, the love of the Lord and.
If we show love one to another, it's a testimony to the world that we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, we belong to God our Father, and it's a proof that God is our Father and foreign helmet the hope of salvation.
In the book of Ephesians. Just want to get that thought.
How Ephesians puts it.
Ephesians chapter 6.
Yes, Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 17.
It says and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
And so the helmet of salvation, we need that helmet of salvation.
To protect our thoughts in our minds and our hearts. The helmet of salvation can protect our heads from the wicked thoughts that Satan sometimes tries to throw at us and the fiery darts of the wicked. And we need that helmet of salvation to protect us from that evil that the that the devil that the devil tries to throw at us, that Satan tries to.
Throw it us and rob us of the joy that we have.
So an foreign helmet, the hope of salvation. We have a blessed hope, the hope of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior. He's coming soon to take us home. And uh, we are soon to see the redemption of our bodies. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes, he's going to redeem these bodies. He's going to take these bodies of ours and he's going to fashion them like unto his glorious body.
And so we have a full salvation. Our spirits and our souls have been redeemed.
But the day is coming when the Lord Jesus Christ will take our bodies and He will fashion our bodies.
Like unto his glorious body.
Be sober and to be vigilant for our adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion seeketh about whom he may devour, and whom he may devour. The Lord Jesus, we pray that thou would help us.
In this regard, to those grace and strength, we thank you for Thy precious work that has gone forth. Pray that thou use Thy precious word to bless our hearts. We thank you for blessing us this afternoon with this open meeting.
Pray that thou continue to give us graceful guidance and we continue to look for thee for guidance, for strength, uh, for the next meeting as well, Lord Jesus. And so Lord Jesus, we just look to thee.
We thank You for bringing us here together and pray that Thou help us to value Thy precious word more and more as we get closer to Thy coming to take us home. So we just look to Thee, we pray and we ask it. And I know the most precious and worthy name, Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, Amen.