Vestal Conference: 2015
Table of Contents
John 17:1-5
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166.
Lord, thou hast run.
After me.
I don't know.
I don't know, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Blah.
Uh-huh.
And I'm checking.
Out I have a kidney because I've received a little bit of medicine.
All right. Well, I'm sorry, I can't.
Recreation the heart.
I've been calling Father. We're here this morning because we desire to learn more of thy beloved Son.
Think of this world that we live in and.
The anxieties, the trials, sorrows, and think of the much unrest.
And we just pray that as we are here, that.
That little spot to enjoy Thy work and that will feed our souls, our God by Thy Holy Spirit without guide us to a portion of being in our hearts and we'd be encouraged. And we too would say that we would take home something for those that were not able to come. Encouragement to them too.
So we just pray for each one of us. Lord, we need Thy help. Help us to pay attention, help us to focus and to put away the thoughts of this world from our heart. And we would just gain from being here. But there might be more to a real blessing. So we give thanks my name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
I would like to uh, suggest a portion and uh.
I genuinely would not be the least bit offended if someone felt strongly we should take up another one, but I do uh, wanna suggest John 17.
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Umm, just put that before the present.
I think that'd be fine, brother.
Happy to read that John chapter 17 and verse one these words speak Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said Father, the hour is come glorify thy Son that thy son also may glorify thee has always given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him and this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do and now will Father glorify thou me with thy own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gave us me out of the world. Thine they were, and Thou gavest Thou me, and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever Thou hast given me, are of Thee. For I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou did send me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given me. For they are Thine, and all mine are Thine, and thine are mine, and I'm glorified in them.
Now I have no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.
Holy Father, keep through Thy own name those whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name. Those that Thou gave us, me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the Son of Perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to Thee, that these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Thy word, and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou should just take them out of the world.
But that thou should just keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth, as thou hast sent me into the world, even though have I also sent them into the world.
And for their sake, I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me, and I and Thee, that they also may be one in us. That the world may believe that Thou hast sent me and the glory which Thou gave us, me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one, I and them and Thou and me, that they may be perfect in one. And that the world may know that Thou has sent me and has loved them as Thou has loved me, Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am.
Behold my glory which thou hast given me, but thou loveth me before the foundation of the world.
A righteous father. The world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it. That the love were with thou has loved me may be in them, and I in them.
In another place where where the Lord addressed the Father, he said.
That he knew that the father always heard him. But he said I'm saying it for their sake.
And so.
We'll leave the principle that flies here, that he prays this prayer to the Father. In a sense he opens up.
Opens up a window. He had always communed with the Father, often going off by himself. And he kind of opens, opens a veil, you might say, as he addresses the Father and allows the disciples and all of us to witness this exchange he has with the Father. And he opens up his heart and he's praying for his disciples. And so there's a lot of instruction here. This was the Lord expressing his desire for his disciples in his absence.
And that's the time we're in now.
Believe at the very end of it.
And so there's much here for us to learn as to what the Lord's heart, what his desire was for us.
In this world, in his absence.
This is very much in view of the, umm, coming of Christianity. Uh, this is the high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus in view of his absence, but it's anticipative of the Christian position, uh, from the 3rd to the 17th of John, we have the unfolding of.
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Of the provision that the Lord would make in his absence, the coming of the Holy Spirit.
His intercession for us at God's right hand and so on. So this is in view of his own being left in a dark and difficult world that was opposed to Christ, opposed to the Father. And it's a marvelous.
Unveiling of the heart of the Lord Jesus.
Uh, for the blessing of his own in his absence.
We look up now and we see the Lord exalted at God's right hand as our great high priest and our advocate. So this is really bringing us onto Christian ground, which we have in the Upper Room ministry that we are familiar with, I'm sure.
There are three things that characterize Christianity that did not characterize Judaism.
And one of them is that we are brought into relationship with the Father. We know the Father. We can address God as our Father. We don't pray when we pray to our heavenly Father.
That suggests the distance between US and that's what's the proper thing in connection with those that were Jewish and they were being taught by the Lord during the gospel era during those 3 1/2 years. But you and I can address God as our Father. It's unique to Christianity and so.
In John's Gospel chapter 14, the one of the disciples asked and said, Show us chapter 14 of John verse 5. Thomas saith on him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth and the light. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. And then Philip says in verse 8, Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. And then the Lord could say to him in verse nine, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
And how fast thou then show us the Father? And so we have a position of nearness.
Before God, that we can address them freely as Father, and then we know the Son.
Were brought into relationship with the Sun.
And he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
That's unique to Christianity. And then the other thing, if we turn to John's Gospel, chapter 10.
We have in verse 10, just at the end, it says I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Well, that's eternal life. You and I have eternal life. It's the character of life that is unique, that is in relationship with the Father and with the Son, and we have eternal life. And so those three things characterize Christianity. And here we have in John's Gospel, chapter 17, the Lord's Prayer.
To his father.
And he addresses his Father as Father, and you and I can address God as our Father.
And we know him in that relationship and it's a blessed relationship. And as we read this chapter and meditate upon it, we are brought into knowledge of that relationship and how God has given us these this relationship to enjoy here now and no doubt in the future.
I'd like to know if someone could say something about verse one where it says.
These words speak Jesus and lifted up His eyes to heaven with the emphasis on lifting His eyes up to heaven.
Can someone give us a comment on that?
That's where he was going.
And so he turns his eyes there, because that's where he's going. And that's where.
And the consequence of which all our blessings flow from. It's not just his death and resurrection, but it's his glorification.
That all flows from for us in our Christian position. And so that's where.
He's lifting up his eyes because that's where he's going. And this is a consequence of his being glorified. And that's what he speaks of when he makes this. Really, it's it's a unique prayer. It's a demand. If you read Mr. Darby's translation, he doesn't say phrase of demand. And it's based on the finished work of Calvary. He's speaking as if Calvary's already completed and he's looking back up and he's about to go on up and return to where he came.
As a man.
And be glorified there. And so that is what he prays when he says, Glorify thy Son.
That I, Son, also may glorify thee. In what way? Not like John 13 where he speaks of God being glorified in the hours of darkness when the question of sin was dealt with, but here it has, giving eternal life.
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And so the Father would glorify him, and he would glorify the Father by giving eternal life to all those that the Father gave him.
You see this looking up to heaven. It might be good to just look at Matthew's Gospel chapter 14 and verse 19 to support what you have said in connection with the blessing coming from above.
Matthew 14 and verse 19.
And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and break. He gave the loaves to his disciples, and his disciples to the multitude, and they did all eat. And then if you look in Mark Gospel chapter.
7.
It says in verse 33, Mark seven and verse 33, he took him aside from the multitude and put his fingers into his ears and he spit and touched his tongue.
And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said unto him, Ephrata, that is the open. So it says in James, that every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from above.
From the father of lights, with whom is no variable, is neither shadow of turning and the sun always.
Looked up to heaven for everything that he needed. He said truthfully in the Gospel of John several times. I do always those things that please my father. He never took anything that his father didn't give him. He always looked into dependence upon his father. We're not like that as much as we ought to be, are we? But the sun always look. He knew where the blessing came. And it says that Paul could say in First Corinthians, I think it's chapter 4, What hast thou that thou hast not received?
All of us can look at things in our homes that the Lord hasn't given us. All of us can look in our lives, and our consciences are smitten as we think. We didn't lift up our eyes to heaven. We picked up that piece of something. We ought not to have it, but the sun, always independence, could look up to heaven.
The yes of His perfection as a man was his complete dependence upon God.
It was always that, uh, unclouded, uh, communion between, uh, the Lord Jesus and his Father throughout his pathway down here. Uh, he fully, completely glorified the Father in every step of his earthly soldier. However, on the cross, although the relationship was not broken during the hours of darkness.
Communion was broken.
But up to that point.
The Lord Jesus always uses the name Father.
But uh, during the hours of darkness, as we know, he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So although there was wonderful complacency even during the hours of darkness, there was not communion between the Father and the Son because Christ was being made sin in that, in that in that period.
And so the Lord was going to glorify his Father as never before through the work that He would accomplish at the Cross.
And he would, uh.
And he desires to return to that glory from whence he came, which was his, uh, his native place, uh, in that, uh, glory that he enjoyed from a past eternity. But he was going to return in a different character. He was going to return in manhood. Now, uh, this had never happened before. Here was the Lord going through the work of Calvary. It was before his holy soul at this point.
And he was going to return, having accomplished the will of God, and God glorifying his Son to his right hand. He couldn't do anything else because Christ had so completely finished the work on the cross that God was bound to raise him from the dead.
And, uh, second there in the glory. So, umm.
It's a wonderful thing to contemplate. Also we might remark that this.
Character of father was not known in the Old Testament. No Old Testament St. enjoyed that relationship of father as we enjoy now. It will not be enjoyed in the tribulation. It will not be.
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A character of the millennial period, it is peculiar to Christianity.
That relationship, we are in the same position before God as Christ is. We have the very life of Christ. In fact, the life of the eternal life here is, is also peculiar to Christianity. It's having the very life of Christ able to enjoy that relationship as children of God, sons of God. This was not known in the Old Testament, having the Spirit of God and so on. These are all.
Characteristic of the period in which we are now the dispensation of grace.
Might be good to point out in the John's Gospel many different hours are spoken of. And so here you have the hour has come in verse one. It was really the hour of his return to his father. And if you look back to chapter 13, it's really the reference to it there, Chapter 13 and verse one.
Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should depart out of this world under the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them under the end and suffered.
And now he begins to give them the instructions in the upper room ministry here. And this is really chapter 17 that completes that ministry. And so if I'll just point out a couple of other hours and there are different ones, I think maybe there might be 10 of them, I can't remember. But if you look in John's gospel, I think it's chapter one. You have an hour there.
No chapter 2. Chapter 2 and uh.
Let's read verse 3.
When they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her woman.
What have I to do with thee? My hour is not yet come. He was referring to the hour of his manifestation to this world.
He was revealed and it was God who was going to his Father who was going to reveal Him in manifestation and power. And then if you turn to chapter 4 and verse 21, there's another hour.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither.
In this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what we know, what we worship for salvation of the Jews.
But the hour cometh, and now is when true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. So this is really the hour of Christian worship that is revealed by the Lord Jesus Himself. And then maybe just one more in chapter 5, verse 25.
Chapter 5 of John 25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God.
And they that shall, that hear shall live, while he's Speaking of those that would be quickened.
And so God is working in sovereignty and quickening souls so that they can hear His voice, so that they can be saved. They have life. And so those that hear His voice have life. They hear and they live. Then you speak to one other hour in verse 28. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear His voice. Well speaks of the hour of judgment. And so you have very orderly and very orderly fashion in John's gospel.
These different hours that are presented to us and in this hour, really the period of time that had come right on schedule and the sun was going to return to the Father. And so now he gives this, he prays to his father and his disciples needed comfort and he desired. He wasn't thinking of himself. This prayer really is in connection with his disciples and how he's desiring their blessing, their encouragement and their his desire was for them.
And that they would see him as they one who had glorified the Father. They would continue in the same.
Course.
In the.
17th chapter. First Samuel. The question is raised by David's brethren.
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Why came as thou down hit her?
David answers them in verse 29 and David said.
What I have, What have I now done? Is there not A cause?
And I believe that we have an answer to this in John chapter 12 and verse 27. Another reference.
Where the Lord Jesus says, for this cause have I come unto this hour, And I believe we can tie that in with that hymn that we often sing. The cause was love. We sink with shame before our blessed Savior's name, so that brings in that wondrous love.
That the Lord Jesus had for each one of us.
And looking at this chapter 2 it brings to mind.
Another Old Testament reference I believe that we have early on in this chapter both the essential.
Glory of the Lord Jesus brought before us and the acquired glory, so to speak, if we can speak in that way we read of Joseph his father made for him a coat of many colors and I believe that that would bring before us in Genesis chapter 37 the essential glories of the Lord Jesus But then if we go back to.
On to the 45th chapter of Genesis.
And we link that with.
The Lord Jesus referring to that finished work, we have something of the acquired.
Glories of the Lord Jesus. Let's just turn to Genesis 45.
There's one verse that sticks out.
And verse 13 it says, And ye shall tell my father.
Of all my glory in Egypt. That was as a result of, so to speak, what he had accomplished and what was accorded to him.
As a result of being in Pharaoh's household and.
I think that we can make a connection here in our chapter.
The glory which he always had from eternity really never ceased to exist. He veiled his glory when he came here. You remember when he went to the garden and they came to get him. It says in chapter 18 of John's Gospel. That's in verse 4. Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he.
Judith also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon, as soon then, as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground.
Well, he unveiled his glory momentarily. You could use that terminology. And they couldn't stand before the glory of the Son of God. They fell on their faces, they fell backward. And but when it comes to those acquired glories of the Lord Jesus when he came as a man into this scene, why He's obtained the glories that God has given him as the Redeemer. And he has glories that are in connection with that work upon the cross of Calvary that he never had in the past eternity, but now that he has.
And so this is what our brother mentioned in connection with his acquired glories. He is, he is had glory added to the glories that he had from the past, as it were. And his Father is delighted to bestow upon him every dignity, every honor, every glory that is possible to be bestowed upon his Son as a man. And so This is why we have the expression that we use the acquired glories of the Lord Jesus.
So that acquired glory is what we have in verse one.
Father, the hours come glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. And then he talks there in verse 2 about.
What it was that He would do without a fire glory, if I was giving Him power over all the flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as hell has given him. The Lord Jesus did not have that glory before the glory of Redeemer, Savior. And having then given up His life in that and fulfilling the will of God in that, He was able then to give this eternal life to those who would believe on Him. That was something new.
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So we call it an acquired glory, something that you get. It was different from his essential glory, which has to do with.
What he was and the nature of his being and that we have in.
Verse 5 Now O Father, glorify thou may with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was that is what our brother was just speaking to us about, that the Lord Jesus always had this glory as to who he was his God, and that could never change. He always had it when her brother was referring to how in John chapter one it says the word word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
Tabernacled among us, as in the Tabernacle in the Old Testament. There the glory of the Lord was in that place, but it couldn't be seen on the outside until the Lord Jesus took upon him a body. And while he did that for only the briefest of time on the Mount of Transfiguration was that glorious scene.
Otherwise it was shielded and now the Lord is saying he's looking forward to that time when he would be glorified again.
And He would receive that glory that He had before the foundation of the world in an open way. It was always there, but it wasn't going to be shielded anymore. The acquired glories, just for those who have wondered about them, We have here the Redeemer creators and other ones. Until the Lord Jesus created this world, He didn't have that glory as the Creator. Another one is head of the Church, He has that glory. He will be King of kings and Lord of Lords. He will have that glory.
These are things that he did not have before, and he will have for all eternity to come.
There is another glory, though, that we should just mention.
Who often speak of it think about it in a in a hymn that Christ could not be hit. There was an essential glory that he had, but that couldn't be shielded and that was his moral glory. The Lord Jesus always had that the perfection of his being. And even though the glory of the excellence of the display of all that God was had to be shielded in his physical body, yet the display of that glory of his perfection could not be that shown out brilliantly every moment that he was ever here on this earth as it did before and as it ever will.
To come. So those are the glories of the Lord and I hope it helps. I always often wondered about them when I was younger.
But if you have these essential glories and these acquired glories that he has.
So verse five is interesting, so maybe we could get a little more clarification. He's praying to be glorified with glory, which he had.
If he had it, why is he requesting it?
Now I.
My thought has been, and looking for others to comment, is that He had glory as the divine. He was the divine, He was the Son of God. He had those glories before the world began, but now having become a man, He is requesting to be glorified as a man with those glories which He had as the divine Thomas God. Is it not related to the fact that He has taken the place of being a man and is now about to be glorified as a man?
Yes, absolutely. That was the position he had.
Of being in all the display of that divine glory. And like I mentioned, it was seen there as Matthew 16 when the Lord was on the amount of transfiguration and there were just a short time that glory was revealed to the disciples and they saw Him as He was the brightness of that light. Paul also saw it. He was an apostle of a different type. He was the one who saw.
Christ risen in glory, and so on the Damascus Rd. At the beginning of his Christian life, He saw the Lord in that same glory. And you find that these ones, whoever saw it, couldn't stop Speaking of that glory, could they? But that was the divine glory.
We will share his acquired glories, of course. His innate essential glories we will never share. But when we contemplate that.
We have a divine life now. We have the very life of Christ.
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We have a divine nature.
Uh, and we have the, uh, the capacity.
Enter into the very thoughts of God.
As has often been said in the uh, in eternity, we will not have a different life than we now have. We have the same life that we will have in the glory.
But we won't be hindered by a body of humiliation and alas, our own nature. But we have that eternal life now. We have the ability to enter into the the thoughts of God, the purposes, the counsels of God. We are children of God.
Our sons of God, although sons is not the particular thought in the writings of John, it's life and nature. It's not the one body of Christ in the in the writings of John, but it's having a divine life and a divine nature capable capable of understanding the very heart of God, the very.
The very nature of God, Of course, the Lord was the full exhibition of God.
He, he fully revealed the Father in his pathway down here. But now we have that divine life ourselves. Are we are we enjoying? Are we enjoying it?
There are three things in this chapter that the Lord Jesus gives to his disciples. And so in verse two you have one of those things that he gives his disciples as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. That's the first thing. The second thing is in verse 8. For I have given unto them the word which thou gave us me, and they have received them. And so he's given us his word, and then in.
Verse 22 In connection with glory, now we have, and the glory which thou gave us, me I have given them.
That they may be one even as we are one. And so here it's really Speaking of moral glory. You and I can reflect the moral glories of Christ, his Godhead. Glory we can observe and we can rejoice in that. God the Son, we know him, we're brought into relationship with Him. And as our brothers said, we have eternal life. It's the very life of Christ. We have divine life. The Old Testament Saints had divine life. They didn't have eternal life like you and I have, in the sense that they didn't know the Father.
And they didn't know the sun, they didn't have umm, they were not indwelled with the Spirit of God.
You and I are indwelled with the Spirit of God. We have a life that's far more abundant, if I could put it that way, then the Old Testament Saints, they did have a they did have divine life. And so we can be thankful for that. But here the Spirit of God brings before us those three things that the Lord Jesus himself desires to give us and has had the power to give us. One was eternal life. The other is the words in verse eight and the glory we have the.
Privilege and the responsibility to reflect the moral glories of Christ in this scene. If this world is going to see Christ in any way, that's going to look into your face and look at your life and see something of Christ and the perfections of his ways and his moral glories. That's really what he's presenting to us here.
We've been moved from.
Knowing no law to needing no law.
That's the verse you're referring to in is says that that the.
Law might be fulfilled in US who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
And so that fulfillment of the law in US is not by law keeping, it's by walking by the Spirit. But that's how the law is met.
The righteous requirement of the law was met by the Lord Himself, and there is no such requirement upon us any longer.
Connection with the acquired glory. If you think of someone who was born son of a king, they're they're going to eventually take the throne and they have a glory that belongs to them by virtue of who they are.
But if that Prince goes out and he fights battles and he wins victories, he comes home with glories that he didn't have just by virtue of his birth as being the King's son, but things that he won. And so I think of that in the way of acquired glory. They're the fruits of the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you look at a verse in John's gospel a little earlier in Chapter 11.
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The death of Lazarus and the Lord comes and meets Martha. She says to him in verse 22. But I know that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
That word, we'll ask, is a word that the Lord Jesus never used.
It suggests the petition of one who is in a lesser position to one who is in a higher position but the Lord. The Lord always used the word that suggested equality whenever he prayed, being on an equal footing and familiar with his God and Father, never the place of one who was lesser in position.
But now he's really speaking and the cross is half to the word isn't literally passed, but he's speaking from that position and he uses an even stronger word. He demands. And so that one might come home having one victory and he's won, right? And he's won titles and it is now his two step before his God and Father and demand as a result of his victories.
Expectations that are hisby right to now demand.
And that's what he comes in this chapter. And he never asked for anything that was not his father's will. And So what he is demanding is perfectly in accord with the father's will.
And it's for the Father's glory. And so we give in these first verses, the Father's glory thoroughly secured. And the what the Lord asked for in the rest of the chapter is all for God's glory. The oneness of the disciples is for God's Lord, everything that he asked them being kept through his Father's name, and so on. It's all for God's glory, the Father's glory.
It's based on the finished work and is giving eternal life. And it was mentioned just a little before that life and unity in John's gospel is different than Paul's. And so the Lord gives that in chapter 12. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die to buy this alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit. And so the the it's a very beautiful picture, that corn of wheat that goes into the ground and the stock springs up.
And it bears fruit. And on the head of that stock, there are rows of grains that look exactly like the one that went into the ground.
Where? And those little grains all have life. Why? Because they're connected to the stock, and you and I are one plant with the Lord. We are possessors of the same life and nature. But that life, John says in his epistle in the 5th chapter, is in his son. It isn't just from his son as something we have outside of the sun or separate from the sun. It's in the sun.
And we only have it in that intimate unity with the sun as one plant with the Lord.
And so there is the basis of that oneness that he requests in the balance of the chapter, because we all have the same life. It's the life of his son, and it's only had in the sun, and it comes out in a display of the sun. And so all of those kernels look just like the one that went into the ground. They're a perfect replication of the one that went into the ground.
And so you and I have that life that is going to manifest Christ.
It's interesting that you refer to the 11Th chapter of John. Just call attention to verse 4IN connection with Lazarus. When Jesus heard that that he said this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Even though you know if you're saved, your your salvation you're being saved was for the Father's glory.
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Puts it on a kind of a different plane, doesn't it? And everything that happens to us is for God's glory.
And, uh, you know, any of those that talk about in those doctrines which talk about losing your salvation because of the lack of performance, if I could put it that way, this, uh, this is slander against God. This slander is his character. It slanders and demeans the work of Christ because it was all God's work. If you're saved, the Father gave you to the Son, and he did not despise that gift.
He values that highly, and the Father gave you to Him so that He would give you eternal life.
So that the Father would be glorified.
So that puts your salvation on a completely different plane, doesn't it? It's not so much for you as it is for God himself. And He's not going to let that go. He's not going to waste it, He's not going to despise it, and he's not going to lose it.
I was going to say that the Lord is speaking as a as a divine person in the Gospel of John. So when he says I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do in the councils on purpose of God was accomplished. Yet the Lord had not gone to the cross. At this point I say that I'm going to Africa in the early part of June, but I couldn't be sure of that. I couldn't make a definite statement. Something might happen that I I'm not able to go.
But here the Lord is speaking as a divine person in the purpose of God. That work was accomplished. Also he this is the only gospel where the Lord says it is finished. As the divine person who makes a comment upon his own work. We could not do that to naturally speaking. If I did a prepared something or built something, I wouldn't make the comment about the quality of the work. Someone else would do that.
But the Lord as a divine person, he comments on his own work. It is finished. And so here in uh, in our verse, umm.
By umm, verse four, I have finished the work which Thou gave us me to do. Of course, that would include His perfect pathway down here as well as the work of the cross. I believe this is all embracing the whole pathway of the Lord, including the work that He would accomplish at Calvary. Is that right Bruce?
It's instructive to see that earlier in the 4th chapter of John, the Lord was looking forward.
Are looking ahead in connection with that work in verse 34 where he says my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work and as you say, brother John the Lord could speak.
In our chapter of a work being finished yet physically the cross had not. He had not gone to the cross yet. And then again in the 19th chapter we have the Lord.
Uttering those words from the cross, it is finished. So that word is used at least three times in John's Gospel.
You have a quoted, I believe in the 22nd Psalm. The Lord uses this prophetically spoken in verse 31 of the 22nd Psalm. They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, and this is the expression.
That he had done this. It's a victorious cry. He had done it. It is finished and you have it in the Hebrew scriptures as it were. The Spirit of God records it prophetically. The Lords work was done, so the glory of God. And then you have that other Psalm, 23rd Psalm, the cross, the crook, and then the crown in the 24th Psalm.
In Ezra the Enemies.
Are taunting rather in Nehemiah? The enemies are taunting Nehemiah to come down from that wall.
But he says I am doing the good work and cannot come down. Well, that work is being what's being completed or finished, wasn't it? And so, uh, that's expressed in the Lord's words here.
I think it might be helpful to look at Ephesians chapter 2 just in connection with the comments that our brother Ted made, and to bring in the quickening chapter 2 of Ephesians and verse four. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace are ye saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
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Setting the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. And so you and I have been quickened. Now here in Ephesians, it's by the power of God. But we know that the Lord Jesus has been given that power to quicken. And you have life because God through the sun has quickened you.
And he gave you faith to believe, it says, and that not of yourself it is to get to God. So he gave you faith to believe. So here in John's Gospel it says in verse 3, This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. None of us would know the Father, none of us would know the Son, None of us would ever hear his voice except we were quickened. It's a sovereign action of God himself.
And so we ought to be thankful that, you know, someone has said, expressed it this way. You were born into this world. What did you have to do with your natural birth? Nothing. You were there, you were present, but you had nothing to do with it, as it were. You were there. And it's the same thing in connection with eternal life and being quickened. You were there, but there was an outside work. Nothing would have happened. You were dead in your trespasses and sins and accept God had acted, you would still be dead in your sins.
And her brother Gordon Hale used to give us a little illustration. It's like a dead dog lying on the floor.
And he's dead. You put 100 lbs of bricks on top of him, he's still dead. He doesn't even know there's 100 lbs of bricks on him. He can't feel those 100 lbs.
But if you have the power to give that dog life, he would immediately feel 100 lbs of bricks on his back.
And you want to get rid of that weight. He would struggle to get rid of the weight. So that's really in connection with the struggles perhaps of Romans Chapter 7.
For a believer that is quickened, but not yet perhaps sealed with the Spirit of God. And so here in John's gospel, his desire is that we would come into the full knowledge of the relationship that we have. This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
Oh, it's a little question here. It says this is life eternal. If we were to write this today in English, would we put a colon after that word eternal? This is life eternal, in other words, as he's saying this.
Life eternal is to know God and Jesus Christ whom we have sent so are being saved isn't just so we can go to heaven.
Are are being saved. The purpose of eternal life is to know God. And it says they might, that they might know thee. Mr. Darby says that they should know thee. And so if we get saved, if we're truly saved and we don't take advantage of this, we miss out.
We miss out. What we were saved for is to know him if we don't take time.
To know him.
We miss out, but that is the purpose. God saved us that we might know Him.
Pattern here in verse four, I might point the pattern out. He says I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do. So there's glorifying the Father 1St and then there's doing 2nd and that's the same in your life and mine. It ought to be. Why are you here? To have a good time, to enjoy your friends, to make lots of money, to have the best experience you can possibly have in this earth. That's what the man of the world thinks.
But that's not for you and I. You and I, who belong to Christ in our heavenly citizens, are here first.
To glorify God, to glorify him in our lives, to give Him His portion in this world, and that's what he delights in his people. And then by the grace of God, just to do something for him in affection for him, in devotedness for him. But we can never ever get the order reversed and have a right relationship with the Father and with the Son. It always has to be the glorifying of God in our practical lives, our spiritual lives, in every aspect of our lives.
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1St and then a doing. The Lord will prepare and have his portion first, and then he can use us if we're occupied with him.
Let me, uh, take a look at, uh, first Corinthians chapter 5, sorry, first, uh, chapter six, first drinkions, chapter 6. And I'm thinking particularly for the young people among us and for themselves. And starting at verse 19, First Corinthians 6, verse 19, watch knowing lot that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, that ye are not your own. This is the verse that we're thinking of, verse 20 For ye are bought with a Christ. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
That's one way we can glorify the Lord.
I don't think any of us could say in the same language as we have here that we have finished our work. Uh, we're such a failing group of believers, Paul said. He finished his course, but he didn't say he finished his work. Umm.
But uh, uh, we can speak to uh.
Glorify the Lord in our in our pathway. If you turn to Ephesians chapter 5, uh, first.
Verse Be therefore, followers of God as dear children.
Now we don't follow the Lord in order to become children, but because we are children and we have that divine nature.
The apostle exhorts us here in Ephesians 5 to walk in love, that in this chapter you have three things. You have love, you have light, you have wisdom. These are the practical exhortations in view of chapters one to three, where we have the unfolding of all the purposes and counsels of God in such heights. High measure the the greatest revelation in the Scriptures. But now here, this is the practical exhortation.
Walk as dear children.
Umm, the it's a loving obedience that is brought before us there walk in love. And what is the example given? As Christ also hath loved us, what kind of a love was His? It was a sacrificial love. It went even beyond the law because He gave himself as an offering.
And a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.
Well, the Lord's love led him right to the cross of Calvary.
He gave everything for us. He held back nothing. Now that's an example for us. Are we displaying this love to our brethren? This is the point of the passage I believe. Are we displaying this same love? The character was shown in the Lord that we fail very much, but we do have the divine nature and there can be that sweet smelling savour from our walk down here.
The lithiums were told that their gift was a sweet smelling savor that went up to to God. Well, the Lord's life was entirely a sweet smelling savour except.
During the hours of darkness.
When it's not the sin offering here, we can have no part in that. That was when God dealt with sin. That was not a sweet smelling savor there. The sin offering is not described in that way, but the whole character of the Lord's life down here is an example for us.
Eternal life is not unending existence and it was a help to me to get a hold of that because there are those in a lost eternity are going to have an unending existence in the Lake of Fire. That eternal life, Of course not.
Was brought out of eternal life as a character of life. Well, what does that mean? Well, we use expressions.
And are, and as we normally talk, maybe we talk about city life. I prefer city life. Well, I prefer Country Life. What are we saying? We're talking about a character of life that has certain relationships and activities and on and on that are associated with it. We know what we mean that way. Eternal life is a character of life.
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But it's eternal because it's a life that never had a beginning.
And it will never have an ending.
It's the very life and nature of the Son of God, and so in possessing that, we know the Father as He knew the Father, because He knows the Father.
And have been brought into that fellowship and that communion.
But it says also in Jesus Christ, whom now is sent.
Because He is the one who manifested the Father. And so in First Epistle of John in chapter 2, verse 23, whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. You cannot know the Father outside of the Son. He is the one who manifested Him. And so this character of life that knows the Father and the Son is what you and I possess. It's divine life.
That was mentioned to Old Testament. Saints had divine life. They were born of God.
In essence, it's divine. Mr. Patterson explained it very helpfully this way. He said, if I have a gold ingot, it's pure gold. If I take that gold and I mint it into a coin, it's still pure gold, still the same thing in essence. But now, of course, we don't use gold coins today. But now I can use it, I can possess it in a whole different way than if it was an ingot. I can go and buy something with it. I can spend it. It's.
It's in its essence divine, but it's life in a whole new character and has all new relationships and implications that go with it.
Maybe we could just refer to Ephesians chapter one in that.
Way just to support what you said, brother Steve.
In uh, chapter one.
And it says that in verse three, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings.
In heavenly places, in Christ. And so the Old Testament Saints.
Are never seen as in Christ. They don't have those blessings, all of the blessings that you have. And that's what infuriated the Jews when Paul spoke to them. And he gave them the gospel of the grace of God and its fullness. And he spoke of the blessedness of what it was to be brought into relationship with the Father and with the Son and to have the highest place in heaven in Christ at Christ's side as being a part of the bride of Christ. Could God bestow any blessing upon you?
That have eternal life, the character of eternal life, the very life of His Son. Could He give you more than He has already given you?
God's Word says he couldn't. He said He blessed you with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Someone else gave a little illustration. I thought it was nice. He said, umm, that it's like the Old Testament Saints. If you were to compare a couple of computers, they had black and white screen, and they might have run on DOS and an old operating system and so on. But you have the latest and the greatest, the best memory cards. You have full color screen. You have a computer with every bell and whistle that's possible to have. Nobody could think of any bell or whistle to add to it.
You have the very best and this is what the Son of God is telling here in this chapter and his desire was, as Paul speaks in his prayer in chapter one of Ephesians that we would know it and enjoy it. Let's just look at it. It's a very short prayer, Ephesians chapter one.
There are two priorities in Ephesians, but this one in chapter one.
He begins. Let's read from verse 17 that God, our Father.
That God of our Lord Jesus Christ and Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to upward, who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead, and set him in His own right hand in the heavenly places.
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Far above all principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And has put all things under his feet, and given, gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness or the completeness of him that is filleth All in all.
Oh, what a privilege, what a blessing is ours to be associated with that man of glory. And so often we live beneath the dignity of the place that we occupy before God as the sons of God. We don't recognize that we're Princess with God in such a way. We're sons, we're daughters, we're being brought into such a relationship.
To have eternal life and to have the knowledge of the Father and the Son, He couldn't give us anymore.
We believe it's in light of this the rest of the chapter the war takes up.
Can somewhat be summarized in that he's praying for their sanctification here on the earth. And uh, you know, for most of my Christian life, starting as a teenager, I, I loved this chapter, but I thought it was a prayer for oneness.
And I wouldn't say it's not, but more accurately, it's a prayer for sanctification that would result in oneness.
It's a prayer for sanctification that would result in oneness, and this is where the doctrine of the.
That Darby, Mr. Darby came up with and well, he didn't come up with it, but I believe he brought it out of the Scriptures and this Scripture in particular.
In a pamphlet he wrote early on that God's principle of unity is separation from evil. That's not something that he just made-up. That comes from the Scripture, and it particularly comes from this chapter. Each time you read of them being one, something precedes it. Now if you look at verse 11.
It says, Holy Father, keep through thine own name, That's sanctification. Keep through thy own name those who thou hast given me, that they may be one.
And then in verse 15 at the end it says, keep them from the evil. Verse 17 sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.
And uh, verse 19, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
And then verse 20 is a parenthesis where we get included. And then verse 21 That they all may be want. So you connect nineteen with 21, but they also might be sanctified through the truth that they all may be one. And then in verse 22, the glory which thou gave us, me I has given them that they may be one.
And so there is in a general way, this prayer is a prayer for sanctification in light of what we've been discussing, uh, and what has been brought out, what we have received and, uh, the position that we've been put in, in light of that, as he is leaving to go back to the Father and he's leaving these ones here, these ones, he's given eternal life and have received all the blessings.
That God could give He praised for their sanctification.
And that relates to what our brother was saying about.
You know our that from Ephesians about you know our bodies, the temple of the Holy Spirit and we should we've been purchased and.
The Apostle Paul there is.
Telling the believers the importance of being sanctified and keeping themselves.
It might be good to point out that the Lord, his prayer was answered. And let's look at Acts chapter 2 and read the answer that God gave to his Son.
Chapter 2 of Acts and verse one.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as a fire, and it sat upon each one, each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Well, that's what we refer to as the baptism of the Spirit. It only happened once. The church was formed on that day, and they were all one.
There is one body, it says in Ephesians chapter 4. And so God formed that one thing and there still is one church. There's one body. It's unchangeable. You can't change it and I can't change it. Our behavior doesn't change it. There is one body and there is one God, one Father of all. And but what did change was the testimony of it is fractured. What was delivered to the responsibility of man. Now we have at the beginning, at the end of the church era.
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In the day of grace is all fractured. It doesn't look like there's one church. There is one church. It doesn't look like it, but there is. And so our brother brought out here in connection with this chapter, it does speak oftentimes of sanctification. It means that God has separated you and I. He separated you and I for himself.
Separated us from this world. He separated us that we might live for his glory and that we might be a separate entity in this scene. And so Harry speaks in verse 17 and he says, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. And so he uses his word to exercise as to those things that would not be consistent with a separate walk in this world. The Lord Jesus was wholly harmless and undefiled, separate from sinners.
And so he never was defiled. You and I come into contact with defiling things defilement so easily. But God has desired that you and I would separate ourselves unto himself and for his purpose, that there might be a testimony of those that are gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus to in this scene, that would reflect to this world that there is a testimony, and that there is cleanliness in connection with the person of the Lord Jesus.
The separation is not isolation.
We have been.
Taken out of the world and the whole system of things down here which is opposed to God, it's under the power of Satan. Satan is the Prince of this world politically and the God of this world, umm, religiously, and he, he controls the whole social system of this world. We're separate from all of that as we have here in verse six. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gave us me out of the world.
Thine they were, and thou gave us them me. So we're a separate people. That's what the word St. means.
A separated or sanctified person and but then we are sent back into the world.
To be an imitator of God, as we refer to Ephesians chapter 6, we can't imitate God in his deity, but we can imitate the moral attributes of God that are brought out. We can imitate those because we have the same life and nature, and we should and so.
Uh, we have the assurance from the word of God of the person of Christ and, uh, the Lord did not pray for the, uh, for the world. That means, uh, he didn't break for the establishment of the Kingdom at that point.
Certainly is interested in the salvation of the lost in this world, and so should we be. But the Lord did not look on here at this point to uh, have the world Kingdom. Had he prayed for it, he would have received it. Uh, some too asked of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, the other marsh uttermost parts of the earth with thy possession. He will pray that prayer in the coming day and he will receive it, but not at this point. He was leaving the world, being rejected by the nation being rejected by.
The world really, and we are left down here now to be a testimony for him. Again, I say separation is not isolation. We're sent back into the world.
To be A to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.
It might be good to point out that the in the Scriptures the world is spoken of in three different ways, and it's good to get those distinctions. So in John's Gospel chapter 3, verse 16, it says that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Well, that's the world in connection with the people in the world. So he speaks of all the people in the world. God so loved the world. And then in first John chapter 2.
Verse 15 in the aspect that our brother was Speaking of, he says first John chapter 2 verse 15 lob not the world.
Neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So that's really the world system. Don't love the system, the world system of business, the world system of finance, the world system of manufacturing, the whole thing. The religious world. Men love the religious organizations of this world. They.
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Anyway, it's just the whole system of things that's raised up in opposition to God and to displace the glory of the sun and God says don't don't love that world and any speech of the habitable world the and if you look at just Luke's Gospel chapter 2 verse one, it gives us that little expression.
Chapter 2 of Luke verse one It came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world.
Could be passed so really it's the habitable earth and so the Word of God uses and in John's gospel, when you read of the world you need to recognize in John's ministry.
Which one he's Speaking of? So the people.
Or the the habitable part of the earth, or the world system itself. And then Paul speaks as well. He uses the the term.
Oh, what is it that he uses?
I think it's in connection with the Millennium.
Maybe somebody who remembers that the world to come.
And so that freely Speaking of the Millennium, he refers to that in his epistles.
Could we sing 340?
It's a vast, exhaustless treasure, Savior we possess in thee.
Laughing out loud.
And there's a lot of things.
Living in the Light of Another Day
Address—Tim 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.
In the meeting by singing #16 in the appendix.
And reading from verse 2, not not accord as pleasure compared O Christ with thee.
Zai Taro without measure earn peace and joy from me. I love to own Lord Jesus.
Thy clings, or me divine, bought with thy blood most precious, Whose can I be but thine? And I would like to just sing the 1St 2 verses and the fifth verse of #16 in the appendix.
Oh Jesus Christ.
I've been there for a couple of hours. Too bad I don't know what I'm sure.
900-0015.
I think we can take anything like that.
So we pray.
Our God and our Father.
Thou has heard us sing this song.
The expression of the heart.
And we confess.
We fall short of it.
Lord Jesus.
Thou art the one.
That we long for, and yet not as we are.
We just pray that that would kindle our hearts affections.
And draw them out more after thyself, Lord Jesus. And we pray that for the subject before us this afternoon.
Would each one be encouraged to follow the more we ask for Thy health and commit this meeting to Thee and Thy most precious and worthy name, we pray, Lord Jesus, Amen.
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Let's begin with a verse in Second Timothy, chapter one.
Second Timothy, chapter one and justice part of verse 12.
Well known verse Paul says, I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
Against that day.
Apostle Paul often speaks of that day. First Corinthians chapter three, he says the day shall declare it a little further on here and verse 18, the Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. The apostle Paul lived his life for another day, not the day that he was in. And that doesn't mean to say that he didn't live his life to serve the Lord in the days that he was in.
But his view was before a coming day. And that's what's on my heart to speak on this afternoon. Just a little bit about living in the light of another day. And as we we seek to develop this subject a little, let's just go and look at a few verses related to this idea as to how it is that we live in the light of another day. So let's go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4.
And verse 18.
Very important, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
And So what we have around us is the whole course of things.
That we see with our eyes and those things are real and they have a reality and they affect us.
Very much. But the apostle here is writing about things that are more important than that.
Those things that are eternal. And in connection with this I just want to look at some other verses in Second Kings chapter 6.
We can turn there for a moment.
Just pick a few verses from that story.
Second Kings chapter 6 and if we just begin the first part of verse eight, and the king of Syria warred against Israel.
And then in verse 14, therefore.
And he said, Her horses and Chariots, and a great host. And they came by night, and compassed the city about. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, and host compassed the city, both with horses and Chariots. And his servants said unto him, Alas, my master.
How shall we do? And he answered, Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
And Elijah prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see.
And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and Chariots of fire round about Elijah.
Just that far.
Here was a case where there was something visible to the site that very much affected this young man, this servant. He couldn't see past it, and it's so similar to how we find ourselves right now.
But there was something real beyond that he couldn't see, and when the Lord opened his eyes, he saw that.
And by faith, this afternoon, it must be the same for you and for me. Her brother read from the first of those two prayers in Ephesians in the meeting this morning. And he read that verse that says that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, you may know.
That's the point. We have more eyes than these physical eyes. We've got the eyes of our understanding and they can be enlightened by the Word of God through faith. And that's what we need to do. And believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to go on and we need to live our lives with this spiritual understanding that allows us to see what is real and allows us to live beyond those things that are around us.
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So that we can actually live in the life of another guy.
And there are many examples in scripture of ones who did this. Joseph, Daniel.
And so on. But just to read a few of them for the point that it says about them, let's go over to Hebrews Chapter 11.
And we'll just pick a few things out of this chapter.
Beginning at verse 10, speaking there of Abraham, it says he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Verse 13. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
But now they desire a better country that is in heavenly.
Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city. These are people who live before us, and did not have the life that we do. And they were all men and women of faith who lived in the life of another day. They looked past everything that they could see around them with their eyes, and on to that which is eternal. And they laid hold of it by faith, and said, That's what I want.
Let's go down to verse 38.
Just the first clause.
Of whom the world was not worthy.
That is God's estimation of what we're talking about.
The world will not understand this.
We don't naturally understand this, but God has spoken and he tells us about that which is eternal, and that was just real. And the world may scoff and laugh because of it. We'll see a verse like that in just a moment. But God says the world isn't worthy of these ones who live their lives that way.
There are examples.
Seeing we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses as chapter ends with.
We have those and then it goes on to a greater example, but we're coming to that.
You know.
What you believe?
Effects what you do.
And what you do shows what you believe.
I want to say something else about that too.
When it comes to the truth, it actually doesn't matter what you believe.
The truth is the truth, and it's true no matter what you believe.
You're believing this or that doesn't change it.
What you believe effects what you do.
And what you do shows that you believe. Let me give an example.
Little did all subject, but not much.
The Lord Jesus says.
Matthew 1824 Two and three are gathered together into my name. Bear am I in the midst of them?
And he said that because he meant it.
And when two or three are gathered together unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is there in the midst of them.
Now, if you or I come to that place and either we don't understand that truth.
Well, we're indifferent about it. We don't believe it. It doesn't actually change the fact that it's true.
And my belief may cause a loss to me and a dishonor to him, but it won't have anything to do.
With the fact that that is true, and so it's important that we take up the Word of God without understanding that God's word is true. And if so, it has a claim upon me.
I said what I believe will affect what I do and I believe that.
For instance, on this very same example, I have no doubt.
That if we are gathered together to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and He is there in the midst.
00:15:02
If we could actually see him with our eyes.
Things might be just might be a little bit different for each one of us than how they are.
Think about that. Would you act any different if you could see the Lord Jesus sitting right in the middle of the room?
Would it be all the same?
I hope it would be all the same because by faith you accept that and you live in light of that. Your belief effects how you walk.
This is true about other things as well.
The Lord's coming, how I live in the light of that. This world under judgment, how we live in the light of that.
You know, in Daniel Chapter 11 it speaks about two kings who lived long ago.
And it tells us about them, that they're there together to do mischief. And it says they sit down at one table.
To speak lies. They've agreed to something.
Who says near the end is that the time appointed, it doesn't matter. Those kings live and they died. The end came at the time appointed. Their schemes, their plans, everything they had in their mind, all their beliefs, none of it mattered.
They were ungodly kings.
What about us?
We're believers.
We say we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we say.
We followed him.
What does it mean to our hearts?
And do we believe what we say?
Is it true for those men the end came at the time appointed?
And that's what I want to look at first this afternoon, the judgment. Let's go to First Peter Chapter 4.
Verse four speaks about people in the world who don't understand how Christians live.
Then it tells us in verse five, Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick or the living?
And the dead.
Speaking about the end, the judgment, and it says really, if you read what this verse says, he's about to judge the living in the dead. That day of God's judgment is about to come on this world. It won't be long.
Verse 7.
But the end of all things is at hand. Be therefore sober and watch unto prayer. This is what it says for us.
Do we believe it?
Do we really believe it? Does it affect our walk?
Verse 17. For the time has come that judgment must begin at the House of God, and if it first begin at us.
What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the Sinner appear?
He's talking about judgment, a judgment that is just about to come on this world. And the Word of God is filled with verses that speak about judgment that is coming.
Matthew 24. The Lord Jesus devotes that chapter to it, most of it the whole Book of Revelation. Hebrews 10 So many places we have this subject of judgment.
And so we see that this world is going on to something where God is going to judge it.
That's the truth.
It doesn't look that way to me right now. My eyes see things around me and these things look like they did last year.
And my brain is telling me that they're going to look like this again next year.
Word of God says there's judgment coming. This podium, these chairs, this building, it's all going to be destroyed.
And that they may not be very far from now in the word of God teaches us that not only is that true.
But things are going downhill, and we're going from the condition of things that we have around us today. Down, down, down. First Timothy, chapter 4. Second Timothy chapter 3.
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2nd Thessalonians chapter 2. Indeed, all the 2nd epistles talk about how things are getting worse as we approach the last time in 2nd Thessalonians 2 talks about how they're that wicked impostor, the one who claims to be the Messiah of Israel, is going to come in a coming day.
And do his wicked things in Israel. And before that comes, it says there will be an apostasy, a falling away. And so the word of God is clear about this. Things are not going to improve. They're not going to get better.
Do we believe it? Because if we believe it, what does it mean to us? These are not things just to take in as head knowledge.
These are things that God shared with us so that they may have a moral effect in our lives.
So that we can live the way he wants us to live. Let's go to second, Peter.
Second Peter, chapter 3.
Verse 11.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?
Here we're told directly that's the purpose of this. He's talking about a day, even yet future, when everything's going to be melted with a fervent heat.
But the point is, it's all passing, it's all temporal. And he's saying, because it's so, then what kind of a person ought you to be as a believer? What ought to be your manner of life? How should you live your life if you just go on as if it isn't so and it doesn't matter, and you can just live as if this is all going to be here next year and take it for granted?
Now we can't live our lives that way.
We have another way and we're exhorted by the Scripture, and that's why these verses on judgment matter. I often talk to believers about the fact that all of this is under judgment, and I'm sad sometimes I find it people don't want to talk about that.
I know it's not the highest subject, but the.
But the Word of God is filled with these verses. We've just seen a few of them, and God gave them, as I say, so that they would have a moral effect in our hearts.
You say that's an awful pessimistic view of things around you. Well.
Yes, if you believe in the progress of man and that things are going to go on and get better and better in this world, and somehow as believers we have part in that. If that's what your view is, then what I'm saying is very pessimistic. But if this is the truth, then that isn't what the Word of God says. And in fact, the Word of God says that God tested man in the flesh and found him entirely wanting.
And God set aside man in the flesh at the cross, and God's program for man is nothing to do with the 1St man, but instead God is going to glorify Himself and the person of His Son, and in that He is going to have others with him.
There is no future for you and for I, or indeed for man outside of Christ. That's why.
Dispensational truth is important.
All of these truths affect.
What we believe if we take them in and we hold them, and then that affects how we walk and what it is that we're going to do as we live as believers in the world. And so it's very important that we get an understanding of the truth and that we act according to it.
Now I want to stop here.
And I wanna try to do something a little bit different.
I want to just go in our minds to a point in time.
I don't know how far in the future, but it could be maybe 7 to 8 years from right now.
The Lord Jesus may come at any moment, and when he does, the word of God says.
Sometime after that there will be a covenant made in Israel for seven years, and during that period of time there's going to be what the Word of God calls the Tribulation, where God is going to judge this world.
At the end of that period of time, that's where I want to go to in our minds.
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The word of God speaks of it.
And it's this moment that I'm thinking of. We have just come down with the Lord Jesus Christ out of heaven. I'm speaking to believers here today.
And for the believers who are here, every single one of us will be there. We will have just come down out of heaven.
With the Lord Jesus.
We all see him stand on the Mount of Olives, and that Mount of Olives is going to break in half.
And part of it is going to go to the north, and part of it is going to go to the South, and in between there'll be a great valley that's formed and the Lord Jesus has come.
Not long before that, just maybe just moments earlier.
Before we came right down and saw him put his feet there coming out of heaven, we saw in front of us that there were armies gathered together and they wanted to make war with that person that we were with, the Lord Jesus Christ.
They intended to do it.
The Lord Jesus took the leader of that army.
And he took that wicked man, the false prophet, the Antichrist, and he threw them alive.
Into the Lake of Fire.
And from this point in which he's now put his feet on the Mount of Olives, he's going to go forth and he's going to destroy the rest of his enemies.
So where are we? Like I say, this may be a point in time only some 7 to 8 years from right now.
I'm going to tell you this.
At this point that we're talking about.
The National Football League is no longer.
The National Hockey League is done.
All the great systems of entertainment in this world.
Have come to an end. Hollywood has stopped pouring out itself.
The rebellion is over.
The Lord Jesus is just about to reign.
Can you picture that point?
The Word of God speaks of it. It's real. It's going to happen.
Think about this now.
At that moment.
You have been from 7 to 8 years beyond all those things that I just mentioned.
Because some 7 to 8 years earlier the Lord had come.
And in a moment, you were snatched away.
And whatever those things were that captivated your heart.
That we're down here, they end it forever. Now for some 7.
To eight years.
We're so.
You've been able to see with your eyes.
And you've seen something that was so far beyond what was there.
And now with your eyes, what you're seeing is the judgment.
You're seeing the end of it all.
Those things that that world that was sliding down into judgment and sometimes as believers we got careless and justice split along with it. Now we see it come to an end.
There's no longer any question in any one of our minds about what's happening or what's important. It's over.
We know that there won't be a question about these things then.
The question is now.
What do you believe now? What do I believe now?
Revelation chapter 19.
I just want to read those last verses there.
I saw verse 19. I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him. They sat on the horse and against his army.
That one is the Lord Jesus. His army is us. I'm not making these things up. These are the unseen things that are eternal. They're real.
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Verse 20 And the beast was taken, and within the false prophet that brought miracles before him.
With which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and then that worshipped his image.
These both were cast alive into the lake, burning with fire and brimstone.
And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
That's the end of the filth of this world and its rebellion against God. Oh yes, there's more details given. The Lord goes forth from this place to put down all of his enemies. But this is the end that's being described, and we need to get a hold of that. It's important because it will cause us to live our lives in a different way.
Let's turn for a moment to Luke.
Chapter 12.
Luke, chapter 12.
Verse 34.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Where's your treasure?
Is it on Earth?
Or is it somewhere else?
Do you live in the light of another day, or do you live for what is here right now, in the light of this day, having your treasure here on earth?
Verse 35 Let your loins be girded about, and your life burning, and you yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he shall return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants.
Whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and we'll come forth and serve them.
And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch and find themselves.
Blessed are those servants. Again, we have God's estimation of the matter, and He's looking for those who understand by faith what He is doing and are simply watching and waiting for Him.
Is that your place? Is it mine?
Or are we just going along with the world that's under judgment?
You know, I've been talking a lot about judgment, and in a very real sense, I've traded down from a greater thing, haven't I?
Probably the very lowest motive that I could possibly speak about on this subject here this afternoon.
But the Word of God speaks about it, and we're exhorted based on it. And so I wanted to start there. What's a higher reason for living in the light of another day?
Well, Scripture gives other reasons. Let's go back to 2nd Corinthians.
2nd Corinthians chapter 4 again.
Verse 17. For our light affliction, which is thought for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Now we find something else that's beyond judgment. It's glory.
There's glory that God has prepared and if you go to Romans chapter 8.
I think it's verse 18I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory.
That shall be revealed in US.
This is a greater thing, isn't it?
You look at all of what this world has to offer, Satan would offer to the Lord, you know?
Here it is, kingdoms of this world and the glory of them. They're mine to give you.
What a pathetic thing to offer to the Lord of glory.
It is a greater thing. That's glory by now, some who are sitting here, probably.
Probably have it screaming in their minds. Oh, but there's something greater than that, and there is, isn't there? There's something infinitely higher than glory.
Let's go there. Let's go to Colossians chapter 3.
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Colossians chapter 3 and verse one. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above so far the same.
Here's a heavenly place and things in it. Let's seek that.
But it doesn't stop there, does it?
Where Christ said it at the right hand of God.
Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth, for your dead and your life is hid with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. And just the very end of verse 11, Christ is All in all, Christ is everything.
That's the object that we have, brothers and sisters.
Far more important than the judgment, far greater than the glory, He Himself is the brightness of that eternal glory.
That's the object given to our heart so that we can love him.
We can look to him. Somebody at once asked the question, they said. Let's suppose for a moment.
That you could leave this place right now and you could go to heaven and they are in heaven. Everything was perfect and beautiful, just like we know it must be. And there is no sickness. All of your friends are there.
There's perfect food, whatever it is, those things that would make you perfectly satisfied there.
But the Lord Jesus Christ was not there.
Would you be happy then?
It's quite a question, isn't it?
I think for every true believer, it's not quite a question really.
That answer ought to be immediately. No, I couldn't be happy there. How could it be a wonderful place if he's not there? How could it be heaven if the Lord Jesus Christ isn't there? How can I take and enjoy a place if the one who is the object of my heart, the one who I love and the one who loves me, isn't there to share it with? What does it mean? It's empty. I don't care how wonderful it is, without Him, it's empty. You go to the end of the Book of Revelation.
And we find there a spirit, and the bride say come. And then there's the answer. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
There's that desire, that affection of the heart.
To call out to him and desire his company to be in that place with him. And I do want to stop right now and ask you, how is it with you?
I'm speaking here to believers, but is it possible you've made a profession to be a believer?
You claim to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but there's nothing in your heart that desires to live for Him.
The end of First Corinthians chapter 16 think it's verse 22 Says if any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.
Maranatha, that means let him be accursed. The Lord is coming.
That's real. The Lord is coming.
Do you love him or do you make a pretence to it? And this is something I can't tell people around you, perhaps can't tell, although it affects very much how you live your life on Earth if you're going to live your life as if he's not coming.
It could be you're a believer in a very bad way.
But think about it in your own heart. Is there any love there for the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you have affection for Him?
Are you genuinely hoping that in the next moment he will come?
And then you're going to be with him, not just in heaven, but with him.
We need to examine our hearts. Like I say, it's possible as believers that there could be something that's come in to draw our hearts away from Him, and we need to examine that. What is it?
The Apostle Paul didn't struggle with it.
He yearned after the Lord. You look at it, it doesn't say He's not speaking about his love for the Lord. He's not proclaiming this all over the place, but you look at his language. Heck, let's go there to Philippians Chapter 3.
You listen to this language and hear the yearning of it. There's no question about the love.
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And the enjoyment of the love that the Lord Jesus has for him. Philippians 3.
He says, verse seven, What things regain for me those I counted lost are Christ, ye doubtless, and I count all things but lost to the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.
And be found in him verse 10, that I might know him.
You see the yearning, the longing that's there.
That's the higher object.
Paul said I had committed those things unto him against that day. He lived right now in this day, with a yearning after one who fills that coming day. His heart was there with him already. And that's the beauty of living in the light of another day. We don't have to wait for that day to enjoy communion with the one who fills it. He can fill our day while we're here right now. But what it does mean is that we get the eyes of our understanding enlightened so that we can see.
Past those things that our physical eyes see and so that we can understand those things that are real and those things that are eternal.
Very important for us to live in the life of another bank.
There was a blind woman named ***** Crosby. She lived through most of the 1800s. She wrote many of our hymns.
And she said something to this effect. I can't quote it exactly, but if I could ask for something, one thing I wouldn't ask for, I would not ask for God to give me sight.
Because when I die, I want the first pace.
And I see to be the face of my blessed Savior.
She couldn't see things in this world.
But I tell you, she saw the face of the Lord already by faith.
And that's what he wants from us.
She wrote so many of our hymns. Blessed assurance. I am thine, O Lord, so many others.
She had such a heart of love because she wasn't affected by things of this world. These things don't go together. You can't have both.
Can't serve 2 masters. There's only one.
Our hearts aren't big enough for the world and Christ too.
And so she lived for the Lord, and that's what she said.
Well, in the last few minutes here I just want to talk about.
Maybe it's somewhat of a summary, but what it means to live in the light of another day, We already saw that living in the light of another day removes my heart from a world that's under judgment.
Incidentally, that's why it's important to take up prophecy. One of the reasons why, oh, there's more than that, but one of the reasons why it's important to read the Book of Revelation and not skip all those middle chapters where you have the judgment spoken of. People say, I don't understand this. Well, even if we don't understand all the details, there's one point in all of that that you cannot miss, and that is that this world is going to be judged. And regardless of what men think and regardless of what their plans are, God is going to have the last word.
And it's all going to come to an end.
But we see too, that living in the light of another day.
Means that my heart gets not only removed from this world under judgment, but it gets put in a place where I can lay up treasures in heaven.
There's that greater thing.
And it not only does that, but it puts me.
My heart on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And his coming?
The Apostle Paul said at the very end of his life, almost the last thing he wrote.
He said. I'm not going to quote it right. Let me just read a second Timothy chapter.
4 Because we find that word there again.
In verse 8, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.
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At that day, and not to me only, but unto all them that love.
His appearing I'm going to submit to you that crowns are given for a reason.
This crown is the crown of righteousness.
And it's given for the reason.
And that those who live their lives and a life in the light of that coming day.
It affects how they walk.
And it affects what they do.
And they walk, and they do those things that please the Lord right now in this life. And so the crown of righteousness is given to them, because the effect of having their heart set on the coming glory in the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ caused them to walk in light of that fact.
The crown matched what it was given for.
And so it's a very important point that we understand.
That.
What we believe effects what we do now, and we see about the coming glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As well as the fact that he's coming at any moment and it affects how we live right now in this moment, it also.
Effects how we serve him right now. Second Timothy chapter 2 speaks about a soldier and he says no man that wore us entangles himself in the affairs of his life.
That he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
He doesn't get entangled.
Because he wants to please the one who's chosen him to be that, to do that job. And so it is for us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many things going on around us, but we don't get entangled in that because we have something else. We have Christ himself. We have another day.
You know.
If we go over to Philippians chapter 3, just the next chapter here.
And read just a few verses, we can see the opposite of what I've just been saying. Verse 18.
Says here for many walks, of whom I have told you often and now tell you even we think that they are the enemies.
Of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame.
And what?
Who mind earthly things?
Who are these ones?
They're enemies of the cross of Christ. These aren't believers.
Their end is destruction.
Having said that, what about you and me, brother and sister?
As any part of this true of us?
Do we mind earthly things?
I went through and counted in the Book of Revelation I.
Came up with eight times and it talked about earth dwellers. Maybe someone else here will come up with more.
No one brother will probably come up with about 20, but I came up with eight anyway. And the judgment comes on them. And that's the idea that you mind earthly things. This is where their hopes and their dreams are. And it's possible for us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to fall down to that level.
Not all the way. Thank God we have a Father too loving to allow it.
But where are you and where am I verse 20?
For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, he's about to come.
That's the place of our existence. That's where our citizenship is. That's our home. We wait for Him, we look for him to come from there. We're not people who are earth dwellers. Why should we mind earthly things?
Yes, those things might have a grip on our hearts naturally, but let's get the eyes of our understanding enlightened and be able to look past that by faith and see those things that are eternal.
Going to say something else here. Going along with all these things that we've been talking about. Living in the light of another day will enable us to live a life of self denial.
That means that right now, today, I don't have to have that thing.
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It means that I don't need.
Those people out there to know.
How smart I am.
Or how good I am?
Or I don't. There's a lot of things I don't need because I live in the light of another day. I know that eternity and heaven is my home and I have committed those things.
Unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and I know He's able to keep them against that day.
And so I'm content.
Very important.
Young sister.
Very capable, very able to do many things.
You sacrificed that in the light of that day to do the will of God in your life.
Those things that he has called you to do.
Ignoring the fact that people say you could do this and you could do that.
God who gave you those abilities knows what that sacrifice is.
And he's the one who says the world isn't worthy of ones who do that.
Young brother, same for you.
As a Christian, you're clean.
That alone gives you such a tremendous advantage in the world, and God has given you abilities and things.
He wants you to use them for him.
And when you turn around and say world, you know I'm going to live my life for the Lord.
And I will give that which I need to give, so that I can provide things honest in the sight of all men. But my life belongs to the Lord.
And that's your sacrifice to the Lord, he who gave you those abilities.
Knows all about them, and he's the one who estimates how great that sacrifice is.
He's the one who values it.
Father and mother with young children.
What you believe effects?
What you do?
Your children.
Maybe you are too young yet to know these precious things that we can read.
They haven't read them and come to understand them from themselves, for themselves yet.
But one thing they have read, and one thing they are reading.
Is you.
They know what is important to you.
They know whether you live in the light of another day. They know whether you say these things are important to me, but then you go and do something else.
That if by faith you live in the light of another day, your children will say, I don't know.
Why that's so important to dad and mom, But I can see they believe what they say.
And no doubt the Lord will use that.
Trust him for that.
What we believe effects what we do. And now, just at the end of the meeting, I want to just look at a few verses in clothing.
Second Peter.
Chapter.
Free again.
What we do say, is there to be no enjoyment then in my life? Am I to live a life that has no pleasure?
In it at all.
Just because I know.
That heaven is coming, and I know that His presence, His fullness of joy, is foretold in Psalm 16, and in His right hand are pleasures forevermore.
I'm glad about that, but am I to have no pleasure in this life?
The Word of God doesn't say that.
The Lord has given us pleasures according to his own mind.
In his own will, and the one who truly wants to know the will of the Lord, they will find their joy.
And their pleasure and that will. I'm not talking about a monastic life of just sheer rigor and no joy in the life until we get home to heaven. That's not scriptural.
And the Lord Jesus going through the hardest time said joy that was set before him, and we're called to follow him. We're to look unto Jesus is that same verse says the end of the book of Romans chapter 15 says.
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Even as Christ pleased not himself. And that's the point.
We are called here to please Him, not to please ourselves, and if and when and where He chooses to give us pleasure and joys in our life, which He surely does, then we take them with grateful hearts from Him now. But in all things still we live in the light of another day.
Second Peter 3.
Verse 14. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent, that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless.
And then in verse 17.
He therefore beloved, seeing ye know these things before.
Now here's the warning.
Beware that she also being LED away with the error of the wicked. Fall from your own steadfastness.
We've had the word of God before us this afternoon. We're going to leave this place if the Lord doesn't come and take us away before that.
I'm going to go back into a world that has no appreciation whatsoever for these things.
And the current of all that we see with our eyes is going to flow again.
And there's going to be that tendency.
To do what it says here, to be LED away with the error of the wicked.
But let's not we know these things that stay close to the Lord.
Let's live our lives in communion with Him, in life of not just another day, but in light of that coming day of glory when we will appear with Him.
And let's live each day right now, communion with him. Until that day comes, let's pray.
God and our Father.
We thank Thee for Thy faithfulness to share these things with us from my word.
To open our eyes and to enable us to see things that we could never know in any other way. We thank Thee for that Blessed One that's always given to be an object for our hearts, that one who will fail our actual eyesight for all eternity. Oh Father, we long to see Him and to be with Him.
We pray.
That that was so Phyllis, even now.
With that vision of who he is and what he is.
That having this hope in him, we would become more pure, even if he is pure.
And so we ask.
We ask it for thy glory, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for His glory, Amen.
John 17:6-14
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Mr. Mayor, but I might as well.
Uh-huh.
Take it to make me cry.
We ask the Lord's blessing.
Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for the truth of this hymn that reminds us that we are strangers and we are pilgrims. In this scene, we are strangers. We don't belong in this world. For heavenly citizens and pilgrims on the way.
Home to the Father's house.
And now with our salvation nearer than when we first believed our God and our Father.
We acknowledge that, umm, we see evidence.
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Of those things that are going to take place after the rapture, how this world is forming up morally and is being ripened, as it were, for judgment. And so as we have thy word before us this afternoon, we just ask thee that thou bless it, that it might bear that precious fruit in our lives, that we might have a sense of, uh, what it is to be in relationship with the Father.
And with the sun and what it is to have eternal life and the blessed portion that is ours. Our God, our Father, we pray that thou S work by thy spirit, that those things that are necessary for us might be brought out according to thy mind, and that we might be refreshed, might be encouraged, instructed, and that we might apply these things to our feet. Our God. And so we thank thee that thy love has separated us from this world and given us a life that's worth living.
So help us.
Our God and our Father, we give thanks for the occasion together in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Brother Ted, would you consider that we could start at chapter 17, maybe verse 6?
Chapter 17 of John, verse 6.
John chapter 17, starting with verse 6.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest to me, and they have kept thy word.
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee, for I have given unto them the word which thou gavest me, and they have received them.
That I've known, surely, that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them.
I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given me, For they are Thine, and all mine are Thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee, Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those Thou hast given me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the Son of Perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world.
That they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves, I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them.
Because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth. As Thou has sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Not that they are for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one as Thou, Father art in me. And I envy that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me.
In the glory which Thou has given me, I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one.
I in them, and Thou and Me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that Thou hast sent me and us love them as Thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also whom now has given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me. For Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee. And these have known that Thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it that the love were with Thou hast loved me, may be in them and I in them.
I have manifested thy name. What does that mean?
What would it refer to the the full, uh, revelation of the of the Father? Now in Christianity, as mentioned, we have the knowledge of a relationship with God as our Father is the same character as the Lord himself enjoys.
Umm and uh, we're brought into the enjoyment of that relationship.
Umm, as umm, believers now as children of God, I ascend unto my father, and your father to my God, and your God is. Is that the thought?
If you look back in John's Gospel chapter 2 and verse 11 you have another manifestation. It says in John 2 verse 11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus and Cana of Galilee and manifested forth His glory, and his disciples believed on him.
00:10:20
Whether he manifested fully the.
Father in all of his. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
And the Israelites in past time, they had the names of Jehovah. They knew the Lord as the Lord God Almighty. They had a distance of relationship. But now they were seeing that one who had been presented as Jehovah in the Old Testament. Now they were seeing who He was. He was being manifest to them. And in the completeness of what? His name?
Meant they they saw him there.
There's a verse in Jeremiah Chapter 9 that might tie some of this together. Verse 24.
But led him that glory, glory in this that.
He understandeth, and knowing me, that I am the Lord, which exercise loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth.
Or in these things I delight, saith the Lord. So in that sense.
There was the one that was the dispenser of loving kindness. That was the one.
That upheld righteousness, and this is but a partial.
Revelation, so to speak, of that manifestation that we have in verse 6.
Where it speaks in uh, just to uh.
Clarify that.
The relationship of Father, I think we all understand, is only known to true believers.
And it's a relationship that is characteristic of Christianity, where it speaks in.
Umm. In Ephesians 4.
Where it speaks of umm.
God and Father of all.
That does not mean that God is the father of those who are still in their sins without Christ, but that is in the creatorial power of God He created. Every person, every man and woman is responsible to God because they're the offspring of God, as Paul said, and they're.
They have accountability to God, He was their creator, although they don't acknowledge, and many do not acknowledge it, but the relationship of Father is something peculiar to uh, to Christianity and, and this, this period, this dispensation in which we are now, umm, to enter into the very.
Thoughts of God and have the capacity to to enjoy God in His person.
As in that relationship of bothering we as children.
So to manifest this particular.
Phrase to manifest his name.
Than was to.
Make appear. We can put it that way or to present.
All that the Father's name, uh, we might say, represents it represents who he is, His person is, if we can apply it this way, his personality, his, uh, the way he is, we might say. And that's what the Lord manifested to us. I know for myself, I've always had this concept of the sun and the concept of the Father and my concept of the sun was one personality who was.
Tender and merciful and kind. And then there was the Father who was austere, stern, and, uh, I don't know if others have kind of separated those two persons in that way or, or the thought that their personalities were different. Because what we're told is that what the Lord Jesus was manifesting here was the Father. He was making known to us, the Father. If you look at Matthew Chapter 11.
00:15:03
And verse 27.
A verse that a brother pointed out to me shortly after I was gathered many years ago. I had never seen this before, but Matthew 1127.
It says part way into the verse, no man knoweth the Son.
But the father?
Period.
That's what the brother told. No one knows the son but the father.
And neither knoweth any man the Father save or accept the Son.
And he to whomsoever the son will reveal him.
And so the Lord Jesus came to reveal the Father, but he didn't reveal them to everybody.
As you say it's, so this is.
One of the essential elements, if you will, of Christianity that's exclusive to it is that we know the Father because we when we knew the Lord Jesus, when we observed him in the Gospels, the way he is, his personality, if we can say it that way, what we are seeing is that of the Father.
The sun is hidden and This is why it's something that those that.
Don't understand or try to uh, apply the human relationship of son and father.
And try to apply that to the relationship of God the Father and God the Son. They've got it backwards.
There we we do not understand this mystery of the relationship of the Father and the Son. This has not been revealed to us.
What we know is the Father, and this is what you know, Philip, the Lord is trying to make Philip understand it was Phillip. I'm not. It was Phillip or Thomas. Thomas. Thomas, Sorry.
Why are you asking me to show you the Father?
That's what you've been seeing all along, you might say.
I'm sorry, what's Phillip?
Sorry about that.
Here we have in that diverse that our brother referred to. There all things are delivered to me of my father, and no man knoweth who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. Now we're on very holy ground here. We have to be careful because it doesn't say that the Father reveals the Son here.
This is an inscrutable mystery that we need to.
Be very careful that we don't try to analyze or dissect the person of the Godhead, person of Christ. It's an inscrutable mystery. We can, we can enjoy it by faith, but we're not called to understand it. And the early brethren have made some very serious errors in this regard. They have looked into the ark and they have been, they've been LED astray. We need to.
Simply rejoicing the truth.
Of the Person of Christ, perfect God, and one who took manhood.
Took the Godhead glory into union with himself as a man and leave it at that.
Is that right, Robert? Yes, if we go back to the beginning of the Bible itself in Genesis.
It says in verse one in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
It's really Elohim, plural. They didn't understand. They knew that the name of God there was plural, but they didn't understand.
And So what the Lord is saying here that in what characterized Christianity and he's giving the seed plot of Christianity in the Gospel of John, it's a transitional gospel and he's unfolding the knowledge of the Father and his name is exposed here. It's the the manifested all of the glories of his name in connection with that relationship. And that word manifestation means to really take the cover off. It's our older brother used to give a little illustration and I think it's very nice.
Is you might have a table with a tablecloth on it and all kinds of things underneath the table. And you might say, well, I think that's a bowl that looks maybe like a glass. I can't see it clearly, but there's clearly something underneath the tablecloth while someone reaches out and pulls the tablecloth off of that table and you see clearly now there's there's a bowl, there's a cup. And in the Old Testament, they, they read those names of Jehovah. Let's look at it in Isaiah Chapter 9. They read those names.
00:20:16
And, umm, they had a little idea of the.
The Godhead glories of Jehovah, but not clearly.
And So what God desires in Christianity is that we would know the distinction.
Of the persons of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And God the Son manifested the glories of the name of God and His personal. So in Chapter 9 of Isaiah, verse 6. Unto us a child is born, unto us a 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.
Of the increase of His government and peace, there shall be no end. Well, they read those things. They were prophetic. They didn't understand clearly. And we cannot say ourselves really definitively that we understand clearly. But we can enjoy what has been given to us, and we can enjoy the character of the Lord as it's given in those different names in the Old Testament, and hear that He manifested, I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gave us, Me out of the world.
Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word.
Think of how he did it with the love of the Father too. Wasn't it just back one chapter? In the end of chapter 16 he says, verse 25. These things have I spoken unto you in Proverbs, But the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in Proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father.
Fit umm, at that day you shall ask in my name, and I pray not, I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loveth you that.
That's the wonderful thing, isn't it? Think of how the father has been revealed in that.
Love not only for the Son, but for those the Son died for he that spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. How shall we not with him also freely give us all things He tells us in Romans 8. And so this is what was declared to us, And what a wonderful thing to know the Father.
There's a nice connection here towards the end of the verse where it says Sal gave us them. Me, I think it's nice to make the connection with the Levites that were given to Aaron. Let's just look at a few verses and Numbers first and chapter 3.
Verse nine it says, And thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron, and to his sons.
They are wholly given unto Him out of the children of Israel.
There was not to be any exception.
And they were to be given wholly. And let's just look at another verse in chapter 8.
And verse 19.
And I have given.
The Levites as a gift to Aaron.
And go on to Chapter 18.
And verse 6.
And I behold, I have taken your brethren, the Levites, from among the children of Israel to you. They are given as a gift for the Lord to do the service of the Tabernacle of the congregation.
So that states the purpose there, doesn't it?
And so we have types in the Old Testament, but these types fall short and I think we get a little picture of what we have in our chapter from what we have in the Book of Numbers and.
00:25:00
It's wonderful to think that we have been given to the Lord Jesus, but then there's also a purpose to, isn't there?
That we should be to the praise of His glory.
So as we've already said in.
The really brings out the thought that the source of all of this blessing is the Father's heart. And so now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee, while the Old Testament Saints didn't know the Father. Have you ever thought when you pray? And it says, I think it's in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 20, it says giving thanks always unto God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Have you ever thought when you pray?
And you say father?
That you have a far closer relationship that even Abraham had. Moses couldn't pray and say Father, and so you and I can pray to the Father. But we know that the source of our blessing, the source of what we have in Christ is the Father's heart. And it's already been brought out in love with the Father. And so the Father we have been given to the Son as a gift. And it says I have been. I have given unto them.
The words which thou gave us, me, and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou did send me. So we not only know that we have that relationship with the Father and that we have been given as a gift to the Son, but that we have the words that have been given of the Father to the Son to speak to us, to communicate to us His love and His purposes, that we might not be ignorant in the day that we live in.
We ought to be intelligent as was brought before us in the meeting previous. We ought to be intelligent as to where we are in the Christian testimony, where we are in the world's history, and that we have been given as a gift to the Son. We have the word of God-given to us that expresses His love for us, His purpose for us, and that we recognize that the Son Himself was sent from the Father's heart, from heaven itself, to bring us into that blessing.
We have a Prime Minister in Ottawa where I live, but, uh, if I was to send him a gift, I, I wouldn't know what to send. He probably has everything that heart can wish, Prime Minister Harper. But he wrote to me a letter and said that he wanted to such and such for his birthday. Then I would know what to send him.
But God has done this for us. He has given us his word. He has shown us that which is pleasing to Him plainly in his precious word. We have it in our hands. And it's a wonderful blessing that God has given us his mind in his precious word, how much we should value it and live in and live in the good of the of the truth.
And seek to please the Lord down here. A little time that remains to us.
That's why John's gospel begins the way it does in chapter one. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
And so the Lord Jesus is the communication, God's communication to man to reveal himself.
And so God sent the Son, his Son, The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, yes, but he also sent him with the higher purpose, if I could put it that way, to reveal himself. Because in the Old Testament days they could worship a far off, They couldn't come into the very presence of the Lord except once every year. The high priest could come, but now you and I can come as those that are holy priests into the presence of the Lord.
To offer our sacrifices of praise and Thanksgiving to Him.
Without ceasing and without fear. And so here really in verse 8 speaks of communion. We're brought into communion with God.
We know the Father and we know the Son. We know the source of the blessing, and that's the Father, the Father's heart. How thankful we ought to be, how it ought to be expressed in our lives.
The appreciation that we have for the knowledge of the father, the knowledge of the son, to be able to walk in communion with those with the the sun and to know the father.
00:30:18
It has been said there's three onenesses here. The first one that.
We have here in verse 11, I suppose, the Oneness in communion. There's Oneness in testimony later on Oneness in glory. But notice that in verse 11.
The words Holy Father.
Are used there, and if I'm going to have communion with the Lord, I've got to put away from my life those things that are unholy.
Uh, we're called upon to uh.
To walk in separation from evil. I cannot have communion, I cannot walk with the Lord if I'm allowing something in my life that is contrary to His word.
Uh, that will, uh.
Will destroy communion with the Lord, so this is the first reference here.
We have Father, we have Holy Father, we have righteous Father, but here it is in connection with communion.
With the Lord in our pathway down here.
Uh, and it means that we have to walk in self judgment because we do have an old nature that allows too often manifests itself and, uh, hinders communism with the Lord. Or it might be the world that gets into our hearts and becomes.
An object we've been, we have been delivered from this present evil world, but it still attracts our hearts. So, uh, we have to be careful of our walk, walk circumspectly.
It's even, uh, I think.
Brother John goes beyond and I don't know, I'm not saying you were insinuating this, but it goes beyond just.
Avoiding certain things that may seem unclean or sinful.
Almost any occupation can become something that interrupts communion.
Umm before this he calls him the Father, but when his about to use the name as an instrument for sanctifying them, he says Holy Father, Holy Father, keep through thy name so.
It's the holiness of God.
Has manifested in that name, Holy Father, that is to keep them, to sanctify them and.
It has to be understood that.
The things that are in the world are not of the Father and.
I believe here he is praying that we would be kept, you know, again almost from anything, and it may not be the same things for you As for me.
The things that are not of the father, when, when the apostle John said the things that are in the world, he names three things that are really in US, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And you say, well, the things that are in the world, but then he says these things, these are things that exist within us. Well, that's because it's it's not a particular thing out there.
It's the things that 'cause our heart to depart from the Father.
Those are the things that he's praying that we'd be kept from.
Spoke to a sister recently who's.
Relatively young in the faith and she had been depressed lately and, and, uh.
And I've encountered this a number of times and.
Christians that are just feeling like they're down and they're not enjoying the Lord.
And you don't like to be critical or judgmental or try to.
Set them straight necessarily, but you call them on the phone and you can hear the television in the background.
I'm not trying to say, you know, right or wrong or this is right or that's wrong. But the point I'm trying to make is what? Well, you know, if you're, if you're spending time imbibing the world, what do you expect as a believer? You're going to, you're going to be in the joy of the Lord while you've been imbibing the world. You know, it's just, it's not that complicated.
00:35:19
And I would even say going beyond that, I mentioned television, but you know, nowadays on out on the web, there is no end to the amount of entertainment and fun and occupation you can have in front of that screen.
And, uh, it's troubling.
To think you know, we're told in the first chapter of Romans.
That God thinks the invisible things of God have been manifest from the foundation of the world by the things he created.
That's what Romans one says.
It says you can learn and you can know, at least in part.
You can know God through his creation.
And as believers, even though we've been brought into this intimate relationship, it does not, uh, take away the fact that we can learn things about God through his creation.
We it's another way it always it was his word that brought the creation into being. And so in a sense, the creation can be looked at in a sense as the word of God and it can be read. It can be enjoyed. Why would you not spend some time out there enjoying the creation even though tainted by sin and through the fall, the creation still reveals. And Paul says that's why no one has an excuse.
No one has an excuse. If they haven't been preached, the gospel hasn't been preached to them, or they haven't heard the word of God, or never read the scriptures, they're still without excuse.
Because the creation testifies of him.
So why would you spend so much time on the computer?
On some virtual reality or farce book and whatever else is out there.
Instead of spending some time enjoying creation and getting to know your God a little more.
I might just point it out in the 19th Psalm, maybe if we turn to it very briefly, we're given three revelations, 3 testimonies, if I could put it that way, 3 testimonies that God has given to man. And you mentioned the first one in the 19th Psalm, from verse one down to the end of verse six is the testimony of creation. And so that's the everlasting gospel.
And he says in verse 2, Day unto day utter his speech, and night unto night.
Short knowledge, There is no speech nor language. I'm going to read it the way it says Mr. Darby's translation. There's no speech nor language nor words, yet their voice is heard. And then it speaks of in verse 7 down to verse 11, the end of verse 11. You have the word of God-given. It's a special revelation from God himself. And the Lord Jesus came and he gave us. He says in our chapter, I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me. He completes the revelation.
Of the Father here he gives that revelation, and we know that the apostle Paul was used as well.
And the other apostles to complete the word of God, and then in the last revelation or the last testimony in verses 12/13/14 in the 19 Psalm is really the testimony of man's conscience.
But he needs the light of God's Word to give him the light to shine upon that his conscience, that he might have a full revelation. And so, as I say, the word of God is given. The Lord Jesus was sent of the Father, and He gave the words I have given unto them, words which thou gavest me, that we might be brought into the knowledge of our relationship with the Father, and in the intimate relationship that we have there, but also the blessings of Christianity.
Lord Jesus gave the seed plot of those the blessings of Christianity. We already went over that verse two. He should give eternal life. Now He gives the words in verse eight and then a little bit later on in verse 22. The glory which thou gave us, me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one. So He brings us into the dignity of those that are in the family of God and John's ministry brings us into the family of God, teaches us our responsibility in the family of God and the blessedness of that relationship.
00:40:16
He doesn't bring us into full Christian position the way the Apostle Paul does. He doesn't speak of the church and bring us into the UMM. He doesn't teach his connection with the one body, I should say. And so here he's bringing us into family relationship and that we know the Father and the blessedness of it.
Which is, it would have been correct to say that the oneness that John speaks of is the oneness of life, the oneness we have through sharing a common life. That is the divine light. And the oneness that Paul speaks of is the oneness that is, uh, that is created or formed by the Spirit and the indwelling spirit.
We should be clear on that. It's often confused. The two onenesses are often confused and.
And that leads to confusion in practice as well.
Might be good to read verse 21 in that connection.
That they all may be one as thou Father art in me, and I indeed that they also may be one in US, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And so he's really bringing before them the family relationship here that were part of the same family. It's really not. He's not bringing in church truth in connection with being members of the one body of Christ. That's really Paul.
Not ministry.
While we're left in a world that is, uh.
That is opposed to.
To our Savior and the disciples had the comfort and the.
Keeping of the Lord when he was with them, but now he was going to be separated from them and they were going to be left in a world that was opposed to God and to and to grace. And we live in that world today. We gather around a rejected Christ, brethren, not around a glorified Christ. Tomorrow morning the Lord tarry. We're going to remember the Lord in his death.
We gather around a rejected Christ, and so the Lord foretells of that rejection very clearly in this chapter.
Umm, he, he, uh, shows them that the same spirit that was against him in his wonderful pathway of perfect obedience.
That same spirit would be against them, would be manifest toward them, if they.
Were true representatives of the Lord Jesus and.
The same spirit which crucified Christ is in the world today. And if we're faithful, and I'm afraid that often I am not faithful, but we're faithful to the Lord, we're going to feel that that enmity toward the message and toward the Lord Jesus Christ. But remember that the Lord is there on high as our great high priest and our advocate, and he's living there to make intercession for us.
To strengthen us in the pathway, to give us the courage and the energy to go on in this Dark World and to be a testimony for him and to be an ambassador for Christ. We have the provision in a glorified Christ in God's right hand. What a what a wonderful truth that is.
I think it's nice how John brings in eternal security in his writings. And here in verse 12 he says when I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gave us, me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And so Judas we know is portrayed here is the son of Perdition. He was one who pretended to be a believer and he really wasn't.
He was really an enemy within. And so the Lord had been given those disciples and all those that were of faith. He had been given them and he's being you have been given to him. If you know him as Savior, you can never be lost. It's impossible for you to be lost. He says in John's Gospel chapter 10, it says in verse 28, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my father. My hand. My father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hands.
00:45:37
And so we have double security, as our brother Gordon used to often remind us when we were younger.
Is that the Lord has us in his hand. None of them shall pluck them out of my hand and then it's the Father's hand on top of the sons hand. None is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. We have double security. But here in this verse that we're reading in verse 12 of our chapter, the Lord is the Father has given them, given his disciples, given us to the son and it says none of them is lost.
None of them. They can't be lost. Your salvation has nothing to do with how.
Your performance, as brother mentioned this morning, nothing with your performance all has to do with the work of Christ. It's all finished. It was all finished at the cross of Calvary and were kept by the power of God. If there's any fruit in your life or mine, why that's a different thing. And so he it says in John's Gospel chapter 15 that in verse two that every branch in me that's a real believer that beareth not fruit he taketh away.
In every branch that beareth fruit, He purchased it, that it may bring forth more fruit. And so sometimes there is in His governmental ways those that do not bear fruit, those that will not walk in a holy way. Why, it says He taketh away. And sometimes in the governmental ways of God a life is taken of one is a real believer. That perhaps is, you might call it the recalling of an ambassador.
But when there's fruit for the Lord, there's a desire to please him.
It says that he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. And that's the work of the Lord with you and I. But it's not to be taken as a picture of whether we really have salvation or not. Why we're kept by the power of God through faith. And so the Lord is, he says, I have kept them and none of them is lost. None that are redeemed with a precious blood of Christ can ever be lost.
It's nice to see that we have a faint type of.
Internal security brought before us in the 25th chapter of Exodus where we have the table of showbread that's mentioned and it mentions in the 25th verse of that chapter says Thou shalt make unto it a border of a hand breath round about.
Well, that provided security, that border of hand breath, didn't it? So it's pointing to that which we have here not only in this chapter, but earlier on in John's Gospel as well.
Very solemn thing to think of Judas and his.
His.
And under the judgment of God, the son of perdition, the only person, I think, where it says that Satan actually entered into him.
To perform that, uh, awful act of betraying the Lord.
And it's remarkable that.
The disciples questioned who it was that would betray the Lord because nothing that.
The Lord Jesus ever did during his life would raise one suspicion.
Of any difference in his.
Feelings toward Judas, and he had beheld all his wondrous works and heard his words and, uh.
It didn't make any impression upon him. I suppose he did perform miracles too, but he was the son of perdition. He never had a divine life, and he went to his own place. But the Lord never betrayed any any suspicion that Judas would be the betrayer of him.
00:50:08
I should say he never, he never made any statement that, uh, the disciples would, would have, uh.
Would have concluded that Judas would be the betrayer.
Since he carried the bag, they probably thought he was most trusted.
If Judas had read the Old Testament, he would have found that there was one of the Lord's.
On that would betray him and he could have said, uh, I'm not going to be that person.
But he allowed Satan to take control of him, and covetousness was his downfall, and he committed that awful act. So the Lord calls him here the son of perdition.
Look at some of those Scriptures, John, It says in the Psalms, he's mentioned five times that I know of Indiana, the Psalms. Judas is in the 35th Psalm. He's mentioned in verse eight. So the 35th Psalm, verse 8 says let destruction come upon him at unawares, and let his net that he'd catch himself into that very destruction, let him fall.
And then if you look at the 41St Psalm.
The 41St Psalm, verse nine, Yeah, my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, have lifted up his heel against me. And then if you look at the 55th Psalm, another mention in verse 13.
But it was thou a man mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together and walked into the House of God.
In company, and then the 69th Psalm.
I can't remember where which verse it is.
He's mentioned in the 69th Psalm here.
Perhaps verse 20.
Reproach have broken my heart. I'm full of heaviness and look for some to take pity. But there was none. And for comforters that I found none. And then there's one more Psalm 109th Psalm.
And umm, verse 6.
We could read the few other verses, but verse six set thou a wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand.
When he shall be judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer come and become sin. Let his days be few, and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds and begged well.
The Lord mentioned Judas, as you say in the Old Testament, and in a sense there had to be a Judas, There had to be a betrayer.
But Judas was responsible.
And so he was lost. He numbered. He was numbered among those that were the disciples. He had the most favored place among the disciples of the Lord while the Lord was here. And he betrayed the Lord at the end of his life. He proved that he wasn't real. I hope there's no one here that is masquerading as a believer. Judas was a real pretender, but he's in a lost eternity.
Robert Towne, Acts, Chapter One.
Verse 20.
So that.
Peter's quoting there in Psalm 6925 is the verse.
What is written in the book of the Psalms? That his habitation be desolate.
So there's two ways of sanctification here that is brought before US1 is the truth of the Word of God. As we read the word of God will cleansed. That's the washing of water by the Word.
Our ways are corrected.
And it leads us to self judgment. Sanctify them.
Through the truth, thy word is truth. We need the daily washing of the Word of God because we live in a defiling world. The other point is, I might say here that sanctification just means separation.
00:55:04
We should be more sanctified from the world this year than we were last year. And here it's the thought of a progressive sanctification. Sanctification is is presented in the word of God in two ways. There's the absolute positional sanctification which we have through the work of Christ. There's no, there's no progress there. There's no change. That's the aspect that is brought out in Hebrews. The Epistle of Hebrews is positional sanctification.
We've been separated from the world once and for all, but here it's the progressive side. You get it also in First Thessalonians 5.
Pray God that your spirit, soul and body might be sanctified better. Look at that verse First Thessalonians 5 and 23.
Our First Thessalonians 5.
This again is the.
Verse 23 the the, the progressive side of sanctification, the practical side 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. So that's what we have in our chapter here. It's something that is.
Continuing on in our lives and the Word of God is the instrument that is used. But there's also another aspect. The Lord has set himself apart in the glory as an object.
Uh, for their sakes, verse 19, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
So the Lord has set himself apart in the glory as our object now, and if we're occupied with Him as our.
Brother has brought out if we have him as the object, that will have a sanctifying effect in our lives.
So when he was here, he sanctified himself. He set himself apart.
For the purpose that God had given him, to accomplish the work that his Father had given him.
And so it takes purpose of heart in each one of our lives to sanctify ourselves. And it doesn't just happen. There needs to be really energy of faith to do it and to look forward to that day, that future day. And the Lord is desiring in your life and mind that we look forward to that day. I might say that the apostle Paul speaks of only two days in his ministry.
One day is that day and the other is this day, and you have an opportunity to live this day and for this day, or you can live your life in view of that day. And so the apostle Paul and his ministry presents those two days in a nice way. And so sanctification really in his desire is that you and I would be sanctified, set apart by God for a holy purpose.
Is one of the little descriptions. We know that in connection with sanctification there are different aspects of it.
But here the Lord speaks and says in verse 19 that He sanctified himself.
That they also might be sanctified through thy truth. And so the truth of God should have a sanctifying effect upon us. We can't just read it, and it's a good theory for other people to live by. But if we understood and we knew the truth and we had bought the truth for ourselves, we're willing to lay aside those things that would hinder us from walking in it. Why we would walk separated lives. And that's really what a St. is. Saint means a separated 1.
We're separated. God has arranged that we would be separated from this world. We don't belong to this world, he says in verse 14. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. You have been separated by the work of Christ, forever separated from this world.
You're a child of God, you don't belong to this world and it hates children of God that live for Christ and live for heaven.
We don't know if you've ever noticed it before, but verse 20 is where we get included in all this.
01:00:02
It really is. Uh, it's a verse that should have parenthesis around it.
The Lord, in a sense, stops in the middle of what he's saying and says.
Not just praying for these ones here that are here with me now.
But for all those ones in the future who are going to believe on me through their word.
Through their testimony, that's what we have in our hands.
We have their testimony as as to all this truth was given to us in the Bible. We believe on Him through what we have in the Bible.
Which is their word.
And He prays for us here. It's wonderful. Ever wonder about it? All the things that He was praying for, His disciples then applied to those who believe on Him through their work.
It corresponds to 1St Epistle John in chapter one.
And yeah.
You get verse 3.
Well maybe read verse 2 for the life was manifested and we have seen it, and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which is with the Father and was manifested unto us, the apostles.
That which we the apostles have seen and heard, declare we unto you. How important that they would be one, as the Father and the Son were one. Well, they couldn't be one, as the Father and the Son are one in Trinity.
So it can't mean that.
But it's one in that all that the sun did and spoke was exactly what he'd been given of the Father. When the Son spoke, it was exactly the words of the Father. There was no difference. They were one in their thought. They were one in their purpose, they were one in their aim. And so how important that the apostles would be one as they were one. And we've received their testimony.
And it's one. It's one.
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, the apostles. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And so we have been brought into that circle of fellowship.
Through their work and the testimony of it is one. And so now we find all those things that apply to them apply to us. We've been brought into that same circle of fellowship and communion.
The Lord really is putting us in His own path.
He's going back to the father.
He's leaving us in this world, but He's putting our feet in His own path that He took through this world. He perfectly knew and enjoyed the Father and His love, and He manifested it, and He is manifested the Father to us. Now we know and enjoy the Father's love, He and perfection. We in our measure manifest the heart of God.
He's given us His word, says of the apostles. They've kept it all. He kept the Father's word, and he knew and enjoyed his love because there was nothing divergent in any way in the Lord's path of thought. His obedience was imperfection. And you and I, as we keep His word, we're going to know and enjoy his love in that way too.
In every way in putting our.
In his own path through this world was the world opposed to him that was already brought out? Yes, it will be opposed to us too, and everything we are in that new life that we possess. The world is against it. There's obstacles to overcome. He overcame it. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. And so.
In every way through this, it's putting our feet in his path, and so consequently in His path down here, as God manifests in flesh, He was one with the Father. And so now there's a unity manifested again He imperfection. We look within and we see failures, but that the truth is absolute. This is true of believers.
01:05:05
We need we need it for our conscience because our practice can come far short, but nonetheless, it's true. And this is as we walk in the good of it. There's a unity that's manifested as is brought out in in verse 11.
But they were to know the Lord in a different character. Now it was not in an earthly aspect one who would establish the Kingdom.
We weren't to no price after the flesh anymore. They were to know him in a heavenly character. Uh, he was returning to the Father and uh, the Spirit of God would come and uh, we would have, uh, an understanding of our relationship. Now we are, we, we know Christ glorified at the right hand of God. This is a very important point to, to, to grasp that now we know the Lord.
As a glorified man now, of course we.
Meditate upon his wonderful pathway down here in the Gospels of Mr. Darby said, don't get far from the gospel. That's the moral glory of the Lord Jesus fully exhibited for our for our instruction, our comfort. But now we know Christ as a glorified man at God's right hand, and there he is interceding for us. When we fail, he intercedes.
As our advocate, it's really his intercession that leads to our, uh, respiration. It's not our prayers that, uh, engage the Lord as our advocate. It's His work for us. There at God's right hand, He prays for us. He works in our conscience when we have failed and, uh, He washes us by His word and restores our souls. It starts with the Lord, but the whole idea.
Here is that we know Christ now in a heavenly character, and we've been brought into a heavenly relationship that even the disciples did not know at this time.
Could we turn together, please, to Jeremiah chapter 15?
Jeremiah, chapter 15.
And verse 62.
Jeremiah 16 verse 16 says Thy words were found, and I defeat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by thy name, oh Lord God, for those some instruction there for us.
Thy words were found, and I did eat them. I believe this is what the Lord is Speaking of in John 6 and.
And it really comes down to believing the words.
Now the words were given to us and the Lord says in our chapter.
Verse 13 these things I speak in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. And then in first John where where our brother took us to they said that these things. Verse four, these things we write unto you that your joy may be full and now related to the verse that was just read to us. The key to having joy.
From the words is believing them.
And believing them leads to obedience. So.
Really the key is believing. And there's a scripture, I'm not going to take time to look, look it up, but it says the Lord fill you with all joy and peace in believing. That's the key. They're not going to have any joy in the word of God unless you believe it.
And believing it is, is essentially that's what eating the word is, is believable.
18 in the back, 18 in the last.
01:10:12
A bottle of laundry feminine. So you have anything else also, but I don't know, but I don't know about.
That.
That we read a verse in John chapter 20.
Four weeks commit ourselves.
John's Gospel, chapter 20.
Verse 29.
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou has believed. Blessed are they that have not seen.
And yet have believed. Shall we pray?
Our gracious God, our loving Father, we.
I have no doubt from the meetings of this day that we stand in a blessed position because of Thy Son, even our Lord Jesus. We thank the Our Father that we've been able to take in much of what was given out this day, and we trust that it would work in our hearts, that we might walk in it, that we might be in some fashion a display of that Blessed One.
Who is no longer in this scene but yet.
Is very much attached to our hearts. So we thank Thee, our Father, for the enjoyment of these things that pertain to Him and to Thyself. And we look to Thee for Thy rich blessing to each one, that whatever portion it is we come away from here with that it might work to Thy glory. And his we look to Thee our blessed Father, in Thanksgiving and the worthy and precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It is the Eleventh Hour
Good Figs and Bad Figs
Haggai
Walking with your Elders
Luke 22:7-71
Six Times David Wept
Address—Rick Shower
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.
Five, brother, raise the tune, please.
Search search in my record.
And I am glad you.
Straight on her knife and she's never mind.
04 days in flesh.
Son of God, pray.
He needs to go to the rest and listen to him.
Did you come together and leave her alone? OK.
And then turn forward and.
Wrap around.
Uh-huh.
There's a few lines in this hymn that we sang that I've had upon my heart and I'll speak of but not directly refer to them. So if I read them now, then you'll have a little mindset maybe as to where I'll be going and what I have to say.
In the second verse.
He to rescue me from danger.
It's one of the thoughts I'll be looking at.
Verse 3.
Oh, to Grace, how great a debtor.
Daily I'm constrained to be.
Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to Wander, verse 4.
Yet thou Lord has designed to seal it with thy spirit from above.
Rescued us from sin and danger. Purchased by the Savior's blood, May I walk.
00:05:00
On earth, a stranger and a son, and an heir of God.
Just ask Lord's help. Our God and our Father, we are thankful to have another opportunity to open Thy word. We pray for Thy Spirit's leading and the Spirit's help. Thankful for the ministry that we've had here at the conference, and very rich and full. We're thankful, Lord, as those early verses were read at the opening prayer meeting.
They'll feed the people.
In David's time as they came together and there was much food and we'd have to say the close of this conference, there's been much food for thy people. And so we thank thee for this, We thank thee for the opportunity. Commend this little time to be in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, Amen.
What I'd like to do is I'd like to look at the life of David.
Not his entire life by any means, be too large of a subject, but I'm going to look at six times the David wept.
Six times, David wept.
You know, it was instead of David that he was a man after God's own heart.
And when we contemplate, just for a moment, the life of David, we wonder how that could be said of David.
A man who is a murderer, A man who did many things wrong. A life that was very up and down. Poor father.
Not the greatest king. There's a lot of negatives in David's life. Well, how is it?
That we could say he was a man after God's heart.
I think in looking at these six passages where David wept, we get the key in various times in his life as to why that was said of David, because you see, there was a key to David's life.
He had a life of discipline.
And he had a life.
They had tears in it.
He was a man that was corrected and disciplined in the things of God. You know, brethren, there isn't one of us in here that are exempt from the discipline of God in our lives.
Now the key to David is.
And the failure with some of us.
Is that? David always responded.
To the discipline in his life always, and I believe that's why the Spirit could say of him a man after God's own heart.
Repentance.
Repentance begins with each one of us in the day we come to know the Lord and we repent of our sins. But that's just the beginning.
Of repentance. And with David, I think we'll see some of those things.
Here's a man of God, but his life was characterized by many tears.
I think Joseph is the only one in scripture that wept more than evil.
Joseph wept 7 times.
David Wept 6 An interesting study for you young people.
Look up those times that Joseph wept.
Maybe compare them with the six we'll look at.
With David. So let's start in first Samuel.
First Samuel chapter 20 because we find that in David's discipline and he.
Didn't weep every time he was disciplined, but he wept.
And sometimes our discipline brings tears.
Sometimes they're inward tears, sometimes they're outward tears. You know, the apostle Paul said to Timothy that he was mindful of Timothy's tears.
Spirit of God doesn't see fit to record what that was, what the occasion was, but it just says that he was mindful of his tears.
And God is mindful of our tears.
00:10:03
They don't go by unnoticed.
Sometimes he is the cause of those tears.
But it's only for our good. So let's start with chapter 20 of One Samuel and verse 14.
No, I'm sorry, I'm on verse 41.
Little reversal here.
Good dyslexia.
Verse 41, we know I'm not going to take time on these occasions to read through the context because I think the life of David is familiar enough to all of us that we pick up the context pretty quick. But in verse 41, he says, and as soon as the lad was gone, David arose out of a place towards the South and fell on his face to the ground and bowed himself three times. And they, that's Jonathan and David kissed one another.
And wept.
One with another.
Until David exceeded.
This was a sad time for David. He was a very young man at this point.
He'd been anointed. Saul was still on the throne, but Saul was beginning to manifest his character, and David felt it.
Jonathan had identified himself with David, but now they come to a point where there's a need for their separation.
Mr. Darby, I believe it was said that often in the life of believers.
The Lord puts the hurdle right at the beginning to see if we will overcome it.
And so here early on with David, we have the separation from Jonathan.
There was much affection between the two.
But there was a need for separation.
And sometimes.
This separation is the hardest.
We have to do.
You see, Jonathan loved David.
And David loved Jonathan, but like the young man in the Gospels, there was something missing.
With Jonathan.
Jonathan wasn't willing to follow David into his rejection.
David had to separate himself from Jonathan.
And I think any of us that.
Gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus have run into that.
Though Jonathan himself was not connected with the evil of his father.
He was connected with his father. Sometimes we missed that.
In separation.
Ecclesiastical Separation.
Worldly separations. We miss the fact that there is defilement by association, and that's hard. It's not as overt, easily to be dealt with.
And often times the affections, naturally speaking are involved.
You know when we have to separate?
And I think.
Many have had to do that at somewhere along the line, even if you were born in the assembly, but for maybe some, like myself that came in from the outside, it's very difficult to leave some of those ones behind.
I think Robert referred to it when he had to recognize that.
He was in a division.
And he had to leave that division.
He had to go where the Lord had appointed the place.
He had to leave his friends behind.
Its separation.
And it comes right at the beginning of David's life. And he felt it with tears.
And how often we hear will your two religious.
00:15:00
Hereto wholly.
You think you're better than everybody else? You hear those comments?
And yet you realize that if you take up with those ones.
You're going to defile yourself.
It's a subject that's very.
Maybe back up. It's a subject that's never broached anymore. When I came in the assembly, the filement was something that was spoken of quite frequently, what caused defilement and what it took to recover one from the filament. But I I haven't heard anybody in public mention defilement by association or on purpose in years. Literally.
And it's a solemn thing. If you go back and look at the principles of the Old Testament, you know God's principles don't change.
His action is to their wrongness, but the principles don't change.
And you go back into the Old Testament and you look at what happened when someone or someone group was defiled, what it was necessary to transact to bring that person back into right relationship.
It wasn't done in a moment of time.
There had to be the third day.
There had to be the 7th day.
And so.
Defilement by association.
We have to recognize and we have to act according to God, and sometimes it hurts.
It hurts because maybe the others don't understand what why you're doing what you're doing.
Sometimes it hurts because they don't understand.
And you wish they would think of the book, and I'm sure some of you have read it here, The Step that I Have Taken by Edward Dennett. And if you haven't read it.
All the way through he talks about his exercise of coming out of the systems of men and being gathered to the name of the Lord.
And with him was a brother in the Lord. They were parallel, lock step, lock step, like David and Jonathan.
Until.
They got to the final step of separation.
And then his friend who he shared so many things with.
Wouldn't make the change. He felt that his flock, as he called them, he needed to take care of and he could not leave those ones because he felt it was responsible. Mr. Dennett said no, you're not responsible for them. God is responsible for them. You need to act on what you know of Scripture. Well, the end of the story is Mr. Dennett separated himself out from the systems of men.
And his friend, close friend, intimate friend who had gone through all the similar exercises of soul, stayed where he was. That's Jonathan and David.
And there were tears.
What a difference we had, Elijah.
And Elijah?
What a difference, they too went on.
Three times you get that that they too went on. The only separation for them was the one being taken to the glory.
The way it should be for us.
The only separation we should know from those going on from the Lord is when they're taken home.
But not so here with David.
It says that they wept until David exceeded.
He finally realized what he had to do, and he acted upon it. Jonathan didn't want the path of rejection.
Being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the one place, an expression of the one body of Christ in a locality.
You will find rejection.
Sometimes you find it from your own brother who will tell you what I just said. You're too narrow, you're too legal. That should be a broader path. We can do this and that and the other thing.
But if you go back to the scriptures and you make them the basis of your action, what do you find?
00:20:06
You'll find the answer.
So here with David and Jonathan.
The need for separation not because Jonathan was evil, it's because he, what he was associated with, was evil and he couldn't go on with that. What had happened if David had gone back to Saul's house?
And then there, the next time Saul decided to throw the javelin at him, maybe he wouldn't have dodged.
Maybe it had been more subtle. Maybe he'd have been slain. Of course, that's subjection. David didn't look at subjection. Excuse me? He just walked away.
He felt.
He wept.
2nd Occasion. First Samuel, Chapter 30.
Now Jonathan David's gone. He's a little older now. I think the space of eight to 10 years since the first occurrence.
And he comes into a situation. Let's just read chapter 30 and verse 3.
So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives then.
And David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep.
And David's two wives were taken captives, the Hinnowan, the Jezreelite, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal, a Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed.
For the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his son and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord.
David was in a wrong state here. You read the previous chapter.
He got off in the wrong direction, but as Hebrews 12 tells us, we have a faithful Father.
And if we go astray, as it is with our earthly fathers.
There will be, or should be, discipline.
And so it brings discipline into David's life here right away with the burning of ziglag.
And you know, brethren, sometimes the Lord hath to touch.
That which is closest to our hearts to get our attention.
Sometimes it's our spouse.
Sometimes he touches that one that we love and care for so much.
To give our attention.
Because he knows if he touches our spouse.
He'll get our attention.
You know, sometimes we can tough out, if I can use that word. Things that the Lord brings into our lives.
But when we have a real care and affection for someone, maybe you don't have a spouse. Maybe you have a brother or a sister in the family or a parent or someone you're especially close to. He touches that one. You know he might be touching that one for you. There's something for you in it. He's trying to get your attention.
And if you really have an affection for someone?
And they're hurting. You're going to hurt too.
And so he touches David's affections. Here he takes his wives.
Away from him.
He not only takes David's lives, he takes all the wives of the men that are left him.
And what's that result in?
A little heavier push on the poker in David because now those ones want the Stony. They speak of stoning you. And what does it say here of David? Dave verse six. And David was greatly distressed.
00:25:04
His tears, he wept till he couldn't weep anymore. I'm sure all of you have seen children do that.
Get really cranked up and start crying and yelling until they hyperventilate.
Can't do anymore.
Exhaust themselves. That's what David did here. And the men exhausted themselves because they felt it so much.
David was down pretty low here, but what did David do?
End of verse 6, David encouraged himself in the Lord. Someone said when you're down at the very bottom, you got nowhere else to go.
So you better look up.
You see that with Jonah, Jonah chapter 2, verse four, when he was down in the belly of the whale, where did he look?
He looked to the temple.
And he cried out his prayer in the belly of the whale. But look what it took to get Jonah.
To do that.
He was told to go forth. He didn't do it. He went in the opposite direction that God asked him to.
God brings in a storm.
They have to throw him overboard to save the semen on the ship. Then there's the whale that swallows him. One thing after another after another. Brethren, do we stop to think about the things that happen in our lives?
Are they just happenstances that happen to everybody else in the world?
No, He orders our lives.
And there's not a thing.
In our lives, that is not for purpose.
And so here with David.
Says he encouraged himself and the Lord.
But the tenderness of God is so great because look at verse.
Two of the chapter.
God already anticipated what David would do. God already anticipated David would respond to the discipline because it says verse two and they had taken the women captive that were therein. They slew not any.
The Lord knew what David was going to do, He knew the position he was putting David into, and he knew David would respond. And so none of the wives were touched.
None of the wise were touched.
And yet, in his faithfulness, he had to put David through this.
And David had to weep great tears.
Unfortunately, though David had changed, the Lord hadn't. And brethren, when difficulties come into our lives, we need to remember the Lord does not change.
Malachi.
I change not.
Hebrews 13.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. He doesn't change, but in His faithfulness, if we change in a wrong way, He will be faithful with us because He loves us.
Every parent knows what it is to have to discipline a child. And they may look at you and yell and scream and they may look at you and say you hate me, you don't love me.
And you know all the time that what you're doing is for their good.
Sidebar 44 years I spent in the classroom as a school teacher.
And the hardest thing for me to get students to understand was that when I would discipline them, it wasn't that I didn't love them. They would look at me and say, Mr. Schauer, you hate my guts.
And I would look right back at them and I'd say, Oh no, I don't. What I hate is your behavior. Fix the behavior and you and I will get along perfectly.
Some kids had a great difficulty with that because in their home they associated discipline correction with hate, and maybe sometimes that discipline or correction was given in hate, I'm sorry to say.
00:30:11
But usually by the end of the year.
They would understand that it was their behavior that needed correction. It's the same thing with the Lord when we err and we go in the wrong direction. And He desires that, you and I.
Correct. What's wrong?
And then he can flow out to us. His heart is not constrained. Then it's open and he can.
And we can enjoy communion with one another.
Second Samuel, chapter 3.
Jumping along here in David's life, we're probably 20 years between these two approximately.
Second Samuel, chapter 3.
Now this is a.
I was meditating on this. This was a this was a hard one, I will admit, because it doesn't fit sort of the other situations with with David.
And I'll share my thoughts and this is my own thought that this comes in here because David is now an administration.
Before he was being hunted by Saul, but when we get in here to Second Samuel, he's keen.
Falls off the scene and now he's in administration. It's a different time in his life.
A whole different set of circumstances if I can put this. And so we we come to verse 32.
Second Samuel 3 and verse 32 And they buried Abner in Hebron, and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept.
Well.
Like I said, I had to think quite a bit on this one, meditate quite a bit on this particular one and I would like to suggest this.
David here in administration we might, I would apply it to the Assembly and those in administration.
In this sense, Abner had been brought back. Abner before, you know, had been with Saul, but now he's come back to be with David because Saul's off the scene.
And Abner had something. Abner felt he had something that David needed.
So let's look over at verse 21. When Abner comes to David, he says, And Abner said unto David, I will arise and go, and I will gather all Israel unto my Lord the king, that they may make a league with thee, and that thou mayest reign over all that thine heart desire.
Abner felt he had something to offer.
And David kind of takes him up on this, and we know that.
Though he says he has all these things to offer, Joab comes in and slaves him.
Because Joab didn't want him there.
And I'd like to apply it this way that sometimes in.
The administration and those in responsibility in the assembly, there's someone that's.
That wants to be brought in, possibly back in.
Or into the assembly.
Who for different reasons.
Probably shouldn't come back in, but because they seem to have an advantage, maybe they're real good in the gospel. And so there are those who say, you know what? This brother came was restored or this brother was this brother is really good in the in the gospel and we should receive him. He'd be a real help to us in the gospel. Or maybe this brother's really well taught and he could he could be of a help in the readings and and so forth.
But you see, Abner came back with one thing lacking.
Repentance.
He didn't say to David.
I made the wrong mistake. I should never have sided with Saul.
I knew you were the rightful king.
00:35:03
I knew I should have given it up.
He didn't come back that way. He came back on his own merits and that was that. He had something to offer.
And I think there's been times when there have been ones who have.
Come into an assembly.
Should I say under the pretext of being a help to the assembly, but in the process?
Something happens when they get slain spiritually.
Now we come to the point where David weeps.
David had no animos anamostati against.
Abner.
But he wept.
Why was he weeping?
Because I believe there are circumstances that come into the assembly in which we, so to speak, have to identify with the wrong that's been done. You know, the slaying of Abner was a blot on the righteousness of David and his reign.
The people all knew that Abner had not been on David's side when he was within his rejection.
They knew who.
Slaying him.
And so the people are looking on, and here they see David weeping. Why? Not because David was guilty, but because David identified and as we sometimes hear said, eight, the sin offering. That is, he identified himself with what had gone on.
And they identified himself with what caused the blot on the righteousness.
Of things. And so he weeps.
And notice that his weeping has an effect on all the rest.
In the end of verse 32 it says in all the people wept.
They understood.
That it wasn't David that had caused the death of Abner, but he wept.
Because of the wrongness of it and that it had happened.
And sometimes there are things in the assembly in which.
We need.
To eat the sin offering, that is. Maybe we had nothing to do.
With the wrongness or what had happened?
But we feel so much the block put upon.
The assembly or the Lord?
That we eat the sin offering and identify ourselves with it.
Let me see if I can give you an example.
There was a brother in the assembly.
Who had been in the assembly for a while.
And she developed a very poor reputation in the community.
Not only as being dishonest, but also as being an alcoholic.
Drunkard, but the assembly didn't seem to be able to.
Deal with it. I, for lack of a better word.
They didn't feel they had substantial evidence.
To deal with the brother.
Until.
One weekend.
Myself, my wife, another brother and his wife were at a restaurant and we were leaving the restaurant and he came out of the bar.
Drunk as could be.
He was married, he had a girl on his arm as he came out of there.
And so.
We had to go back to the assembly and.
And explain to them that this had to be dealt with because it was a public matter. We have seen it.
And that.
This brother shouldn't be allowed to even come in the meeting room.
Because of his character.
He showed up.
Have a Saturday night. He showed up. Lord's Day to come to the breaking of bread.
And another brother and I met him on the sidewalk in front of the meeting room and I, we both just looked at him and said do not even think about coming in the meeting room.
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Not with what you have done.
Well, at that point it was pretty obvious.
But you know that brother been prayed for and prayed for and prayed for.
He claimed to be the Lord and yet he would wonder looking at his life. But when it came time for the discipline.
There were brothers that were weeping.
That somehow they had failed to recover this one, that somehow there wasn't a recovery with him and now they were going to have to take a permanent action in regards to it.
I believe the weeping is like the weeping of David here with Abner. They've realized the block that was on the testimony in our community because people knew he was connected with the meeting room, the assembly.
And they felt that what had happened.
And so they wept. Were they the cause? No more than than David was the cause here of Abner's death. But they felt it in that there hadn't been any kind of recovery and that there was a blot on the testimony and righteousness of the assembly. Like I would give that an example of maybe explaining here why it is that David's weeping over Abner.
David didn't intend things to turn out that way.
As Abner would be slain.
But it happened and when it happened.
He felt, he felt the wrongness of it. He felt maybe even that somehow he had a party. And I believe that the feeling of eating the sin offering.
Let's go to the 4th one, Second Samuel 12.
Second Samuel 12 is another time in David's life. A little farther down the road. David's a little older again.
Here we have a situation that brought him to great tears. Second Samuel 12 and verse 21.
Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done?
Thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was alive.
But when the child was dead, thou did strive and eat bread. And he said, while the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live?
Well.
There's a couple couple applications that come to mind here with this. David wept over the situation of the child that was struck.
And sometimes we weep and we pray until God makes it abundantly clear what the answer is.
I think of some dear ones that have suffered horrific.
Physical.
Diseases. Cancer.
Even children.
And you cry, and you pray, and you weep.
Sometimes it's because they're so young.
Sometimes it's because they were such a help in the assembly, sometimes it's because you have such an affection form maybe apparent.
A loved one.
And you cry, and you weep, and you don't quit until God makes it abundantly clear.
The end of the matter. That's what he did here.
We pray for those ones that are sick, especially the ones maybe that are closest to our hearts. We bear them up to the Lord and we cry out for them and, and, and hope just like David here in hope that God might be gracious.
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And then they die. The Lord takes them home.
He's spoken.
What do we do at that point? We do like David. We bow to his decision.
Most of the time, I'm sure that when we pray for ones that's sick, we always pray with the thought of recovery.
And that's the way it should be.
But sometimes God in his wisdom.
Doesn't give recovery.
Pardon the example that has been in my own life and that's why I meditate on these things, but a young brother?
Was.
Diagnosed with brain cancer, he was probably.
17.
Diagnosed with brain cancer all of a sudden out of the clear blue sky.
And the assembly and.
Ones that knew him cried out, and to the Lord Jeff met and wept, sometimes without words for this brother so young.
And so then he was to have an operation and they thought they could they could deal with all of it.
So we have the operation.
And the Lord was gracious.
All of the cancer was gotten.
He's married today, has several children, never been a reoccurrence.
The Lord was gracious, He spoke.
He heard the cry.
And he's free of cancer.
It looked hopeless.
When he was diagnosed.
But there's been other times.
Prayed for once.
Slowly watch them get worse.
And go down.
And it seems the more you cry out for him.
The more poor their health becomes.
Until he speaks.
And he takes home.
We can't always be assured that it's going to be the way we desire it to be, but that should not stop us from praying.
And feeling it and weeping with tears.
Says that we weep with those that weep.
And so that's what David was doing here, but after God had made it abundantly clear.
He got up and he went on.
Sometimes we don't know the 'cause sometimes we don't understand.
But we wait for him to make it abundantly clear.
Let's go over to Second Samuel 15.
Few more chapters over.
Verse 30.
David's in another situation. Previous one.
Is somewhat similar to this, and I'll say why in a moment. Verse 30, Second Samuel 15 and verse 30. And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet and wept as he went up and had his head covered. And he went barefoot. And all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up weeping as they went.
Well, we know the situation here. Absalom, a juicer, The throne from David.
What's David doing here?
He is bowing to the government of God in his house and on himself.
A little boy was working with his father's illustration before, but it's a good one. The little boy was working with his father, and you know, little boys like to try to help out, and he was being more of a hindrance than a help. And so his father gave him a a few nails and a hammer and a board. And he told him, now, son, take the nails and drive them down into the board. And he showed him how to hold it and take the hammer and tap on it till I got him in.
00:50:10
Well, he got the three nails into the board.
And he comes to him, he says, Dad, I got the got the nails in the board.
And he said, he said, good son. He says, OK, now he says, I want you to take the nails out.
And so the dad showed him how to take the claw and the hammer and get it underneath the nail and pry on it till you finally get it out.
Pretty soon.
A boy comes back and he says, Dad, I've got all the nails out of the board.
His dad said good, you did a good job. Now son, take the holes out of the board.
And the little boy looked at his dad.
And he goes, take the holes out. How am I going to get the holes out?
And his dad looked at him and he said you can't.
You see, son, it's like sin.
Sin comes into your life.
And you may take that sin out of your life, but the holes are still there. The scars and the marks of sin are still there.
That's the government of God and the life of a believer.
The Lord may forgive us of the sin. We may deal with the sin.
But because we have enough, we have offended.
The Lord.
We fall under the government or the ordering of things in our lives as a result. That's what happened to David here.
Hate failed. God had told him that the sword wouldn't depart from his house.
And that things were going to happen. And now they had absolutely taken over his throne.
And what does he do? Says he wept.
He wept. David responded to the discipline. This is government of God. The government of God can go on for a long time. It can be tempered.
God is gracious and often he tempers it.
As he does here.
And he puts David back on the throne.
But he had his head covered. That speaks of subjection.
He's submitting to what God has allowed in his life. He realizes that it's it's his own fault, it's his own failures that have brought this on, and he goes up barefoot. That speaks of submission.
Of his walk. And so he weeps.
Now the people that went up with him, they knew him as the king. I'm sure that they didn't realize that maybe it went back to the days of Bathsheba that this government of God has started and would continue on in Davis''s life. They may not have known all that, but what they saw in David was two things.
Humbleness and subjection.
And so they too weep with him when they go up.
He desires that we would respond to the discipline in our lives.
And so.
He tempers it for David, as he will in our lives.
Six one chapter 18, just over a little bit.
This is the last time David cries in the history of David.
But what weeping it is.
Chapter 18, Verse 33. And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept.
And as he went thus, he said, O my son Absalom.
My son, my son, Absalom, would God I had died for thee Absolute. My son, my son, how many parents have wept those same tears?
How many parents have prayed?
For that wayward son or daughter.
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And then the end comes.
And they have to say, would to God, I could have died in their place.
Because they don't know if they're saved. They don't know if they're going to see them in the glory.
David wept over Absalon. Yasid failed as a father with Absalom.
But he always held out hope, I'm sure.
But now.
God has spoken the finalities there and He.
Weeps great bitter, large tears.
You young people, is that what you're going to do to your parents?
Are you going to go out?
And you're gonna live the life that you want in rebellion.
Against the things that have been brought before you in the assembly, in your home, by those who have a care for you.
And I want to say it's not only parents.
Weep for young people.
I won't take time to turn if we're out of time, but.
In Hebrews 13 it speaks of those who have to give an account.
In the assembly.
For those in the assembly, because they are the elders and leaders of the assembly.
And they want to do it with joy, it says, not with weeping.
When these ones take another path out of our assemblies, these ones go off in rebellion.
Do we whose child it is not, do we weep?
We feel it.
I hope we do.
We should have a care for one another. We should have such a care that we feel it as much as if we were their parents.
And you and I know there's many young people.
In the last few years have taken a whole different course.
Some individuals, some young families.
And the bottom line?
Is rebellion.
The rebelling against the authority of God in the assembly, They're rebelling against God's authority in their family, or their rebelling against God authority over themselves.
Because once you take him as your savior, you're in a whole different relationship.
You're now sons and daughters.
And so he has a right over you.
To have you do the things that you properly should.
And many young people have gone out and there are many adults who have wept like.
David.
Oh, put the name in yourself.
Word to God.
That I could take your place so that you would never go in.
To eternity of hell where you would have a life.
Of untempered government by God.
Instead of the joy and the blessing that he has for you, I've got two more references. Turn over to Psalms, please, because I think in Psalm 30 we get David giving us the summation of of his weeping and his tears and the things that he's passed through as one corrected and disciplined to make a life of correctness.
Psalm 30 and verse 5.
This is David for his anger endureth but a moment.
In his favor is life weeping. We just read a six times. David wept. Weeping may endure for a night.
But joy.
Comma in the morning. How could he say joy cometh in the morning? Because David always responded to the discipline and he always turned to the Lord.
01:00:04
And that so delighted the heart of the Lord that he could temper whatever it was.
That he had to bring into his life and he could bring David back into the joy of it. And in connection with the joy of it, I think of the last verse of Psalm 16. Because to come into the joy of it, this is what's necessary.
In thy presence this is Psalm 16, verse 11. In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures ever more.
When David would get back into the presence of the Lord on each of the disciplines in each life.
Then he was brought back into communion and joy.
So when we want joy in our lives.
Don't we want to?
Have the Lord say you or a man or a woman after my heart.
Because you always responded to what I had to do to make you what I wanted you to be.
And for each of us, that's a little different.
But may our hearts.
Be humble and bow.
To Him, in each aspect of our life, let's pray.
Our blessed Father, we're thankful for this time and Thy word. There's so much instruction for us and.
Lord, uh, we're thankful for the faithfulness of the Heavenly Father.
Who would give us to want to walk in the light of a day to come, as was brought before us? Who would want us to respond to the discipline in our lives?
Would want us to be in the fullness of joy and communion with myself.
And yet because.
We have the flesh, and it often rises up, Blessed Lord Satan, so good at drawing us aside, causing us not to want to go the path that we should. And yet in faithfulness, as David said, Thou hast afflicted my soul.
But Lord, it's always for our good.
And so we're thankful that we have thee that we can turn to in the times of greatest need, and we will always find Thee there. We'll always find the faithful, and we'll always find how change is not so light our hearts and souls.
Desire to be in the good of thy things, He asked us in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.
Haggai, Walking with your Elders
Open—J. Kemp, R. Boulard
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Hello brethren. I'm not going to speak too long. I have a call that has settled in my throat, for one thing.
So I can't.
Proceed for too long a period, which is an advantage, but.
Been a wonderful privilege to be here over the word of God.
And to be encouraged in the things of Christ. But remember.
We're going back to assemblies.
I understand there's about 25 assemblies represented here.
We're going back to the same situation that we came from. We only have a conference once a year, 5151 weeks of the year we don't have a conference. So what is on my heart to present briefly is the importance of continuing on in the past that the Lord has marked out in His word for us.
We're living in difficult times. We're living in days when the truth has been assailed on every site.
When there's been a giving up.
Of fundamental truth.
And.
Those special revelations that we have in the ministry of the apostle Paul, such as the Lord's coming, which has been before us.
The truth of the Church of God.
The truth of the Body of Christ.
And the rapture and so on. These truths have been lost in the ecclesiastical rubbish that prevails in Christendom today.
And the Lord has gathered us out from the systems of men.
And.
According to the word of God, there's been a recovery.
There's been a restoration. It's very similar to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.
There was a remnant that had returned from the corruption.
That was in Babylon.
Not everyone came back to God's center, Jerusalem. Really, only a remnant came back.
Quite a few were were content to remain in the comforts of Babylon, but some had an exercise to return to God's center.
And, uh, there's been a movement.
In the last couple of centuries that is very similar to the days of Ezra.
You know, there's a great deal of ruin in the Church of God today. It's just like Jerusalem. The walls are broken down.
The stones have been buried under a pile of rubbish.
And here we are, part of the ruin ourselves.
We can't lift our heads very high, brethren, because we have to acknowledge that we have been unfaithful.
We're part of the ruin, but God in his grace has raised up a testimony to these precious teachings that are being given up in the camp today. They're not recognized and we have the.
Bringing in.
Wrong teachings so-called covenant theology or what what whatever you might call it, reformed theology, which is really.
Confusion and no recognition of the dispensational teachings of the Word of God. I just want to look briefly at the Prophet Haggai, chapter one of Hagee Island.
You'll remember that, Hegeia.
Had he was the Lord's messenger?
And he had the Lord's message too. We don't read a lot about Hagia. We don't know what tribe he was from, more much about his background.
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He was in Jerusalem.
He had come from the captivity, no doubt with Zerubbabel and uh, in Hagee aisle we have a man who reached the conscience of the people. Zerubbabel was there, but Zachariah is a little different character. In Zechariah he prophecies of the the coming glory of the Kingdom and the appearing of the Messiah, but not so much with Hagiah. Hagee Ayah was raised up at a time.
When things were in a very.
Lethargic state. There was a lot of self seeking among the remnant that had come back. A remnant had come back. They had started to build the temple, you remember, with the authority of the king. But then for 14 years they neglected.
The building of the temple and.
They were looking after their own interests, they were seeking their own comfort and pleasure in Jerusalem and the Lords House was being neglected.
It didn't have the importance that it should have had, should have had in their souls.
Umm, we'll read a few verses in the Book of Hagei Ayah chapter one.
The in the second year of Darius the king in the.
Six months in the first day of the month came the word of the Lord by Hagei I, the Prophet.
Undo Xerubable the son of Chile, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josadec the high priest, saying Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts. Saying this, people say, the time is not come, the time that the Lords house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Hagee, eye of the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye?
To dwell in your sealed houses and this house lie waste. All right, there was a neglect.
In regard to the Lord's things, they were in the right place. They had been brought back to God's center, no doubt.
But there was a lot of rubbish to be cleared away. The stones of truth had to be recovered. We find that in Nehemiah.
They had the Lord's authority to build the temple, and they commenced with that work. But then.
Self seeking came in self pleasing.
And they became.
And a state of apathy. And that's a danger, brethren, for anyone of us.
We are gathered on scriptural ground.
But Hagee Aya had a message for the conscience of the people here.
He wanted to exercise them about their ways.
What they were going on with.
Uh, their attitudes. Look here in verse 5. Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts.
Consider your ways.
Ah, you have sown much, and bring in little. Ye eat, but you have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways.
What should have had the first place in their thoughts was being neglected.
The Lord's things were secondary. They were occupied with their own interests.
And their own progress.
And the thing, the things of this world, and they did not have the blessing of the Lord in their lives. Well, I think this speaks to each one of us, how easily the world can come into our thinking, how easily we can live for the things down here as our brother brought before us. The fine gold can become dim and.
00:10:22
We don't give the Lord.
His rightful place in our lives, in our assemblies.
In every aspect of our life, whether it be commercial life or home life or assembly life or the work of the gospel.
I was reading recently.
The last words of our brother.
Andrew Miller, who you will recognize as being the author of Miller's church history and many other good expositions. And he mourned at the end of his life the apathy that there was in giving out the gospel because he had a real heart for souls. Though he was a very gifted teacher, he never preached the gospel without tears. That's why he saw fruit.
But he mourned at the end of his life.
That the gospel was being neglected? Well.
We have that wonderful opportunity to spread the.
Word of God in these dark days to hold forth the word of life.
We have that privilege, we have that responsibility, but here in the days of Hagiaya.
Covetousness was coming in, worldliness was coming in, Self seeking was evident there. Unholy things in our lives perhaps, that no walls can keep out.
We need self judgment, and this was the call of hagee ayah, self judgment in the lives of these people who are in the place of privilege and yet we're not answering to the mind of God.
When you read the book of Malachi.
You even see a worse state of indifference. Umm.
They were in the right place, but what a sad spiritual condition they were in.
Just read the 1St chapter of Malachi Well.
This is certainly a summons to self judgment. This is what Hagee I have presented. He was the Lord's message, the Lord's messenger, the word of God on his lips.
And the power of God, the Lord in his life, in his ways. And he stirred up these people. You know, we need to be stirred up, brethren.
Ye that speaketh, he that prophecy us speaketh unto men gratification, exhortation, and comfort. Edification is building up.
Exhortation is stirring up.
And comfort is binding up. We need those three things in the ministry.
And may the Lord help us to uh.
Apply these things in a practical way. There needs to be practical holiness in our lives.
How often trifles will keep us awake from the meeting. We don't attend the prayer meeting. Sometimes I think that attending the meetings is a matter of convenience. If it's all right and I don't have too much work, I'll I'll be present at the meeting. But if I have something else on, I won't be.
How often these things come into our lives and we don't, uh.
Put the Lord's claims first of all.
You know, everything that we have belongs to him anyway. I often say to the boys and girls, I say, who does this money belong to? Well, they said it belongs to you.
I was speaking in Brazil recently and I asked that question, Well, boys and girls, this money that I have in my pocket here, who does it belong to?
Well, of course they all said it belongs to you. I said no, you're wrong, it belongs to another man. I'm just a steward to use it here for his glory. Well, there was a real work in the souls of these people and in less than a month they rose up in spite of all the rubbish and the and the drought and the barrenness that was in their lives.
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Because they did not give the Lord his rightful place, they rose up as a company and began to build. And the last part of the chapter shows us Hagia giving them.
A cheer and encouragement, O brethren, may we continue on.
In that path the Lord has marked out for us. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Now, I know that's often applied to our joy, and I would not detract from that. We certainly have a joy in serving the Lord.
And the Lord can open doors for the gospel, you know, in a remarkable way. I was down to Brazil for five weeks with my Good Wife, Eleanor there recently. And we used to pass by a large high school there. I said, look at Eleanor, all these thousands of students that are pouring out of here. Is there any way that we can get the gospel to them? Oh, she said, you know, they're very restrictive in the schools now, and they have.
Introduced brought in regulations about preaching or bringing religion into the classroom.
Well, I said, all they can say is no, let's try anyway. So we pulled up the car in front of this high school, huge high school, I suppose a couple of thousand students during the day because they have three sessions. We parked the car behind a big bus that was standing there and I said, now let's have a word of prayer before we go in. So we had a word of prayer and asked the Lord to.
Direct our steps and if it was his will to open the door. And I opened my eyes and I looked on the back of the bus and it said with God all things are possible. So I said this is an encouragement my dear, let's go in here. So we went in and contacted the administration. The door was widely open. We visited every classroom in that school and preached the gospel in every.
Room.
And gave out these beautiful laminated texts that our sisters endorphy and other places labor so hard to prepare. They went out to every student anyway. The Lord can open the door if it is his will. Well, there was a response here and.
We find that there was blessing in the.
In the lives of these people and.
The leaders obeyed the voice of the Lord.
And the work was resumed.
If you look in verse 12 Then.
We're still in chapter one. Then Zerubbabel the son of Sheila Teal, and Joshua the son of Josadec the high priest, with all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God. And the words of Hagi the prophet is the Lord, their God had sent him. And the people did fear before the Lord, and spake Hagee I, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord.
What an encouragement that is the Lord is in the midst and this remnant was willing to work and in 24 days, less than a month after Jehovah had spoken through his servant Hagel.
They had commenced the work and.
There was blessing and.
God was glorified. Well, the joy of the Lord is our strength. But to finish what I was thinking along that line, we often apply that to ourselves. But I think that the main meaning of that expression is that the Lord finds joy when He sees His people responding to His love, obeying His Word.
Energetic, putting forth the energy of faith in the service of the Lord.
Or in the attendance at the assembly meetings.
We need to be aroused, don't we, brethren? We need to have that purpose of heart to serve the Lord, that that quiet determination that we're not going to depart from the things of the Lord and from the assembly where we are gathered according to the authority of the Word of God, where the Spirit of God is in the midst. As we read here, are we going to drift away from the gathering center? Many have done so.
00:20:31
To their loss I feel, but may the Lord stir us up as Hageaiah stirred up the people here to judge ourselves and.
To own the Lord's claims upon all that we have.
And all that we do.
If you're going to look at the 2nd chapter.
Of the book here.
You have the coming of the Lord brought before us, His coming in person.
Not only the Lord's presence by his Spirit, but also his coming in person. And it speaks here of a little while. And these people, their hearts were lifted above their circumstances and.
They had before them the hope of the Kingdom being established when the Messiah himself would appear. Well, these are just a few thoughts, perhaps feebly presented.
And I trust will be a blessing in encouraging us.
To press on in the path of faith and faithfulness. And the Lord blessed them materially too. They had a lot of barrenness and drought. Their money didn't go very far. When they only used it for themselves and they didn't think of the Lord's interest. Their money didn't go very far. They were putting it into a bag with holes. But when they gave the Lord his rightful place.
What blessing there was.
And what glory was brought to God in in the work that He had given them to do. May the Lord bless His word to us today.
Let's turn to the Old Testament again in First Kings.
Chapter.
19.
Just to get the connection of what I have on my heart this afternoon, maybe we could read chapter 19 from verse 9 down to the end of the chapter.
I Kings 19.
Verse Nine. And he came thither unto a cave, and lodge there.
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou hear, Elijah?
And he said I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts.
For the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain.
Thy prophets with a sword, and I even I only am left.
And they seek my life to take it away. And he said, Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord.
And behold, the Lord passed by in a great strong wind. Rent the mountains, and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord.
But the Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake.
And after the earthquake, fire. But the Lord was not in the fire.
And after the fire, a still small voice. And it was so.
When Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering of The Cave, and behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou hear, Elijah?
And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant.
Thrown down thine altars, slain thy prophets with a sword, and I even I only am left.
And they seek my life to take it away.
And the Lord said unto him, Go, return on my way.
To the wilderness of Damascus, and when thou comest anoint Hazel.
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To be king over Syria, and Jehu the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel, and Elijah the son of Shaphat of Abel Mahola, shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass that him that escape at the sword of his ail shall Jehush lay, and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elijah slay. Yet I have left me 7000 in Israel all the knees which have not bowed.
Unto bail, and every mouth which has not kissed him. So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaytat, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him, and he with the 12Th.
And Elijah passed by and cast his mantle upon him, and he left the oxen.
And ran after Elijah and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother.
And then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again.
For what have I to do? For what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him. And then just a couple of verses in second Kings.
Chapter 2.
Verse one.
And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elijah from Gilgal.
And Elijah said unto Elijah, Terry, here I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said unto him, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he said, Yeah, I know it.
Hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him.
Elisha Terry here I pray thee, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho, and the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he answered, Yeah, I know it, hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee hear.
For the Lord hath sent me to Jordan, and he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
And they too went on, and 50 men and the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off, and they too stood by the Jordan.
And Elijah took his mantle, wrapped it together, and smote the waters. And they were divided, hit her and thither, so that they too went over on dry ground. And it came to pass when they were gone over, that Elijah said, And Elijah asked, What I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee? And Elijah said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing nevertheless.
If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee, but if not, it shall not be so. And it came to pass as they went, still went on and talked, that behold their period. A chariot of fire and horses of fire imparted them both asunder. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elijah saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the charity of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more.
And he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces. And he took also up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him.
And went back and stood by the Bank of Jordan, and he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and smote the waters and said.
Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had smitten the waters, they parted, hit her, and thither and Elisha went over.
And the sun, when the sons of the prophets which worded you at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elijah, And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.
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Five, this passage before me, these couple little passages because we have here some principles in connection with how God raises up different ones young men and aligns them, if I could put it that way.
Educates them, trains them, and makes them useful in association with those that are older. It's always a principle with God that he never sets aside the old oversight and the assembly, if I could put it that way. And that raises up a younger generation to take their place and to.
Usurp their place. But there's a training that goes on. And here we find with Elisha.
That as a young man he walked with an old man.
It says that in verse 21, chapter one, Kings 19, verse 21 Says then he arose and went after Elijah and ministered unto him. And so we're introduced to Elijah. Now he had a little bit of a different character to his ministry than Elijah did. Remember Elijah, His ministry was to recall the people of God who had really forsaken the Lord and to recall them to the God of Israel.
To stir them up, even as Haggy Eye had stirred up the children of Israel or the children of Judah that had settled down in Jerusalem and really had become.
Apathetic, as our brother pointed out, and we're building their own houses. They really weren't too interested in the work of the Lord.
But in Elijah's day, the people of God and the 10 tribes had become idolatrous. They had no use really, if you could put it that way, for the God of Israel and God raised up Elijah among those 10 tribes, and he stirred them up. We know he was used mightily of God. But we read this afternoon here, beginning at verse nine, and we read about a very discouraged Elijah.
God had used them mightily.
And I thank God for the memory of my older brother. Some of them here.
And some that have gone to be with the Lord, and some of them perhaps had faced times of discouragement as they saw a younger generation and not grasping the truth and holding that fast which they had and the knowledge of the truth that they've been brought into and the treasures of.
The mystery of Christ in the church and all of the heavenly position, heavenly blessings that we've been brought into and living in a worldly way and really not recognizing the rights of Christ in their lives. And I think of how perhaps some of them might have been disheartened. But I want to say here this afternoon that it's the sovereignty of God.
That anyone of us is here, the sovereignty of God. That any one of us is saved by the grace of God.
None of us had anything to do with our salvation except that we were responsible. But in the sovereignty of God, He quickened you, gave you life so that when He spoke to you, you could hear His voice. And He gave you the faith to believe. You received Christ as Savior, and then by grace, the sovereignty of God. He brought you into the knowledge of the truth.
And in the sovereignty of God.
He desires not only to give us the knowledge of the truth, but a desire to buy it. And that's what Elijah had to do here. He had to buy the truth. He had to leave his occupation. It cost him his occupation to walk with God. It caused him his family. It cost him.
Those that one yoke of oxen, it says in verse 21, he returned back from him and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh.
With the instruments of the oxen, he burned his bridges. He wasn't going back to plowing.
He paid a price to follow Elijah. Really a type of Christ.
Well, you know some of those older brethren.
Saw a generation coming up and they wondered whether the truth of what it is to be gathered to the Lord's name would continue. They wondered perhaps as they looked at me.
As they looked at you, they wondered whether the world would have such an attraction.
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That we would be lost for the truth of God, lost to maintain the testimony.
And that the enemy would gain the upper hand. It's a sovereignty of God.
If you're gathered to the Lord's name, it's not because you're smarter than anyone else or.
I'm not gathered to Lord's name. It's this because of any intelligence or I figured it out. It's the sovereignty of God. And when you get to heaven and I get to heaven, we fall on our faces before the Lord and we recognize what He did in our lives by saving us in His sovereignty, in His sovereignty, giving us the knowledge of the truth and an enjoyment of it in some small measure, a desire to buy the truth in some small measure and gathered us out.
From the confusion of Christianity, all around us gathered us by His Spirit under the precious name of the Lord Jesus.
There's going to be a song of praise on our lips, in our hearts. There's going to be worship that wells up from within our hearts as we recognize we had nothing to do with it. And it was this sovereign goodness as grace, as kindness. Well, I just point this out in connection with Elijah. He was disheartened and discouraged and the Lord met him where he was. I trust there are no older brethren here that are disheartened, discouraged. I want to tell you as as I travel about the country.
About North America, God is raising up young Timothy's, He's raising up young people, young sisters that have a desire and exercise of soul to learn the truth of God and recognize the sovereignty of God in gathering out to the precious name of the Lord Jesus around himself. And they're desiring to go on for the Lord, while Elijah didn't see it.
He thought he was occupied with himself. He says. I have been very jealous in verse 10 for the Lord God of hosts.
For the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword.
And I, you and I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away while he was dead wrong.
He didn't see it, but there were 7000 that God had preserved in his sovereignty.
You know Mr. Darby made this comment in connection with some of his.
Writings in Genesis, he said that there are two things that went side by side a line of truth throughout the entire Word of God, and that is the sovereignty of God.
And the responsibility of man and they go side by side and it looks in the distance like a railroad track that they somehow merge, but they don't. They keep going side by side all throughout the word of God. Mr. Darby or Mr. Kelly made this comment in his writings. He said all would be a total loss in this world because of sin, apart from divine intervention, the sovereign intervention of God and so.
Marvelous to think of, how?
We can thank the Lord even today where you sit in your seat, for the sovereign goodness of God.
And even though we may not see all that the Lord is doing, why, we know that He is preserving.
The people of God, He's preserving the testimony that belongs to him and He's doing the work. He's raising up and preserving. While there were 7000, perhaps they were what you might call the sons of the prophets. I don't know if they were all sons of the prophets, but there were those that were being preserved. Elijah didn't see it. He didn't even know Elijah. It doesn't appear that he knew Elijah until the Lord pointed him out and he says in verse 16.
Elisha, the son of Shaytat of Abel Mahola, shalt thou anoint to be prophet my room.
Well, it was something that.
Perhaps in natural things you might say Elijah was growing to be an older man and.
His mission was pretty well over.
But there was a younger generation that he was going to influence.
And he was going to have that opportunity, that responsibility, that privilege of spending some time with Elisha. And I think this is nice that he goes right to where Elijah is. And Elijah was plowing.
All these little verses of Scripture, these little expressions that the Spirit of God uses.
Are very, very important. And Elijah wasn't just.
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Unoccupied. He was gainfully employed and God calls busy people.
He was plowing. He was a farmer perhaps, and it appears that he was a prosperous farmer because there was 12 yoke of oxen. Perhaps he came from a family that was well off.
But he was plowing.
But more than that, I enjoyed this is that he was in the 12Th yoke. He was right at the back end. And I'm not much of A farmer. I've only worked on the hay fields a little bit when I was a young boy and a young man.
I have allergies and the dust that would be kicked up and so on just gave me an allergy problem immediately almost. And I would just be struggling trying to breathe, picking up hay and with an old hay baler, pumping out those rectangular hay bales and dropping them on the field. And, and I'd be working on the stacker, trying to get those hay bales onto the stacker and into a stack that could be pushed off and in off of the end of the stacker and.
Sometimes throwing them onto a baler wagon. But to be at the back end was the dustiest, dirtiest work. That was the hardest work. And here Elijah, the Spirit of God records that he was doing the dirtiest work at the back end of this.
All these auction that we're plowing and he was working for his father. He's know, knew what it was.
To do a work of service. In a natural sense, he was busy. You know God called busy people.
David, as a young man was keeping sheep and.
God called a little a young boy, a shepherd and he was able to deliver the people of God. We know the story and he eventually became the king, but he was a busy young man and we know that the fishermen that were called of the Lord, they were doing the lowly work. I want to just say this as an encouragement to you that are younger.
There's a great movement to get a college education, university education, even for the sisters. Does that push?
And it's not entirely always necessary.
To have a view of that day, that future day, and what really matters.
In life.
If the Lord has given you the calling to be an accountant, and you need to have an education to be able to go to university to get that, that's one thing. But perhaps the Lord isn't calling you to that kind of work.
And it's all right to take up a work that is less demanding, perhaps in time, and to not to be immersed in the world of Pharaoh and all of his designs to take up our time. So this man Elijah was plowing and his work was going to be a work of manifesting the grace of God in a time when things were broken.
You know how Elijah was saying it? He says that.
He names different things. He says the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant. He was right. They throw him down 9 altars. That's true. Slain thy prophets with a sword. It's true. Well, he didn't have it right when he said I even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away.
Everything was broken.
Everything was broken.
And he looked about. He saw the ruin.
And he got his heart, and as he saw the ruin, and he forgot about the Lord, the difference was that the Lord desired to bless His people and desired desire to encourage His people, to strengthen His people. And in the sovereignty of God, His people were going to be fed. Now I don't have it. It's not my intention here to speak about the divine ground of gathering. I believe there is a divine ground of gathering. I believe the Lord Jesus is in the midst that He gathers.
We don't gather ourselves together. That's a wrong principle.
It's the Spirit of God that gathers. Nothing would happen apart from the sovereignty of God.
And so he gathers. But as a young man, I was brought up in a division among the Lord's people.
And I thank God for the reading meetings that I went to in that division. It was an imitation of the truth of God, that whole system that had been raised up. A man went out in division and he was a gifted evangelist.
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But I was saved in the sovereignty of God in that system.
I was fed in my soul at the reading meetings and I learned something of the truth of God.
And the doctrines of Christianity when I went to those reading meetings to make the system right. Why? Thank God for it.
And let's not despise our dear brethren that aren't gathered to the Lord's name, that are in those systems of men in some sort of an imitation. They don't have the real thing.
But uh, by grace, if they have something of the truth of God and God raises up different men in the camp that they might have food for their souls in a place in a world, in a Christian world that's all broken, Let's thank God for the whatever truth they have. Let's thank God that the gospel of the grace of God goes forth and that souls are saved. They might not have all of the truth.
But let's thank God for what they do have, and let's thank God that we have the energy, if there's any energy, to try to help and to strengthen the things that remain.
Well, Elijah here was plowing. He left the oxen.
Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. It was really a sign, perhaps an outward sign, to Elijah that Elijah was going to take over.
In that in fellowship with Elijah that he was going to.
Take up a work among the people of God.
I want to say what I say carefully.
I want to ask you young men here.
This afternoon it rejoices my heart to see you here, rejoices my heart to hear you talk about the Lord's things.
Rejoices my heart as I enter in a home and I see a couple of young men.
With their Bibles open.
It rejoices my heart when I see young men and I come into.
The situation where I see some books of ministry and they're reading something and studying the scriptures and desiring to know what the truth is.
Just rejoices my heart, but I want to ask you this, are you walking in fellowship with your older brother?
We are striving against your older brethren. You know, Elisha could have said Elijah, Why, you know, he just, he just made all kinds of mistakes here. He just, he just, he didn't have it right. He thought he was the only one and the Lord had to call him out on it. It wasn't all these miraculous circumstances that proved the presence of the Lord. Not the earthquake, the great strong wind. That was a small voice.
The Lord was speaking in a quiet way, and He will speak in a quiet way, but the point is here.
That Elisha.
He went, he rose, and he went after Elijah.
And ministered unto him.
And I just want to say this is an encouragement to you and I trust and encouragement to our older brother. And I say, older brethren, could I name a couple of names?
Those of you that are investor, do you come and you sit a little bit with brother Steve?
You said, those of you in Smith Falls, can you go and spend a little bit of time?
With brother Bill Wood.
With brother.
Bruce Wood.
Could you come in in Paul Meyer, Could you sit with brother Bill Maus role say, let's have a coffee. Let's let's talk about some of the things. I've got some questions. Could I could I just sit and talk and just open up the passage of Scripture? And I think this is the way it was with Elijah and Elijah because you know, after verse 21 here, you don't read about Elijah at all until chapter two of second kings. So there were some time spent alone.
And Elisha was learning something of the ways of God. He was with the man of God.
Really a type of Christ. I want to take it up in a practical way this afternoon and that is that.
Elijah went after Elijah. He spent time with them.
And God honors that.
Would you forgive me for just giving a little personal?
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Illustration.
I valued the fellowship of different rather than older brethren in past days, days past sometimes, and I can remember at a Dorothy conference walking around the ball field with Chuck Hendricks and discussing passages of Scripture that were a little bit perhaps difficult for me to understand or to enjoy. I can remember spending time in the presence of.
Brother.
Albert Hale, he skipped the meal so that we could just talk about things. I skipped the meal too, but he probably felt it more than I did.
Just skip the meal and we talked for a little while and he gave me some wisdom. We just didn't. We just enjoyed some of the things that got together that we couldn't enjoy in another venue.
When Gordon and Pearl got older, they would come to our home after breaking a bread and hammer Bay. They got to be a little more tired and they would perhaps come to our home, have a little bit of lunch and then lay down in our bed.
And then at 3:00, there was a meeting in the afternoon.
I still remember some of the things that we talked about.
I've never forgotten.
Oh, what a wonderful thing it is to see the young men walking with the older men and learning the truth of God and valuing the truth of God and recognizing the sovereignty of God, to maintain a little testimony of those that are gathered at the Lord's name, and to go on together without strife, just in sweet harmony.
To go on together and to walk together well. Elijah recognized that there was going to be perhaps a struggle with Elisha. Elisha says, you know, let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. He said unto him, go back again, for what have I done to thee? You know there are hindrances for us to walk in the truth of God.
There are hindrances, sometimes there are family hindrances.
The call of family, perhaps responsibility. We know that he offered this, doesn't say that he went back to his father and mother. I'm thankful for that.
In the things of God, similar to the natural things. You know what it says in the scriptures that social a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh, not one person, but one flesh, two people.
And I have observed.
That those young men that do not leave the mother and the father.
In Cleveland, to their wives, that there yet to be a little bit of difficulty sometimes. Strife in the family, strife in the home.
And they have to recognize that there is a new family unit, a new unit responsibility.
A new household that's responsible to the head and glory. And the man of the home is as the head of that home, responsible to the Lord for the order of that home. And it's the wisdom of God that the man leaves his father and his mother, and he cleaves unto his wife, and he honors his father and his mother, but he takes the responsibility of this home, and it's necessary in the things of God.
Not to allow natural relationships to interfere. And this is one of the things that was going to be a test with Elijah and he asked her permission if could use that term to kiss my father and my mother. Then I will follow these. You know, we all have an excuse for why we shouldn't go right now, why we shouldn't do it right now. Let's just turn to I think it's Luke's Gospel Chapter 9.
And.
Let's read verse 59.
Luke 9.
And verse 59 And he said to another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou, and preach the Kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit.
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For the Kingdom of God. I wonder sometimes whether he was referring to Elijah.
Doesn't say here, but you'll notice that little term me first.
No, nothing will be right in your life or mine, except it's Christ first, that in all things He might have the preeminence. And here Elijah wasn't going to tell him what to do.
And your older brethren are not going to try to run your life as young men. They're going to seek to present Christ to you. They're going to seek to present the truth to you. They're going to minister the truth in the assembly, and they're going to cry to the Lord that you have desire to buy it.
And to walk with the Lord and to walk in fellowship with the oversight that he has raised up in the assembly, and to go on sweetly and fellowship one with the other until the older brethren are taken to be with the Lord. And then more responsibility comes. Well, let's look at that chapter, chapter 2, Second Timothy. I'll make just a few comments. Or Second Kings, I'm sorry, Second Kings, chapter 2.
Elijah went with Elijah.
From Gilgal.
Now, isn't this quite an expression?
Wouldn't you write it if you were writing it? Wouldn't you say Elijah went with Elijah?
I looked it up in the new translation.
And it's written the same way. The Spirit of God says that Elijah went with Elisha.
From Gilgal.
Well, I think this is sweet to think of an older man walking with a younger man and the younger man as a servant.
Just walking in fellowship with that two of them together and the Spirit of God can record this.
That the older man went with the younger man.
They were of the same mind, they were going in the same direction and they went to Gilgal it speaks of.
Really, 4 little lessons here, maybe four big lessons that Elijah was going to bring before Elijah.
Just before he was taken to be with the Lord.
And the first one was to go to Gilgal, and we know that Gilgal speaks of self judgment.
Unfairing self judgment. And remember the first encampment of the Children of Israel when they crossed the River Jordan.
Was at Gilgal and it was very close to Jericho, but that was the first encampment.
And Elijah knew.
That Elisha's ministry among the people of God would be useless.
If it was done in the energy of the flesh.
In the wisdom of the flesh.
Wouldn't it would be useless?
And if we could just impart a little wisdom, a little instruction.
A little encouragement in the right way. Young men have a lot of energy.
Young men have a lot of natural energy and I'd like to get things done. I like to get things done right away, and they can see things that are broken and they want to fix them right away. And I'm no different, particularly when I was younger. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of time for the Lord sometimes to get things prepared so that He can fix them.
And so the flesh interfering into the things of God isn't going to bring profit. So Elijah had to join Elijah and they had to walk together in self judgment.
That is judging the flesh. You know the Lord Jesus said 4 words.
The flesh profiteth nothing.
And I said before that you're saved and I'm saved. It's not because we're smarter than anybody else. The flesh would have never, ever, none of the flesh in your eye would have ever reached out in faith to receive the Lord Jesus as Savior. It was an act of God that we're saved. Well, and then he brings them to Bethel.
N Bethel is really a place where God had blessed Jacob.
We don't have time to look back there, but he had blessed Jacob, and in sovereignty his desire was to bring the people of God into blessing, and it was also the place that's called the House of God.
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So he needed to learn that God was going to bless his people.
In that place, then he comes to Jericho.
Learned a little lesson there, and he encountered the enemy. He encountered opposition.
That's where the enemy opposed the Children of Israel as soon as they wanted to enter into the land.
And remember, Joshua, the book of Joshua is perhaps the new, the Old Testament equivalent to Ephesians. And so they were going to go in and possess the land, and Jericho was there, the city of the curse, a picture of this world. It's also a picture of the good life.
Jericho was the city of palm trees. You like palm trees?
If you like to see the.
Tourist magazines and they have palm trees and a couple of palm trees and a hammock swung between them both and people sitting there lying there and with a nice drink and it's great.
That's hysterical. City of palm trees, luxury vacations, luxury cars, luxury homes. Jericho.
That's a hindrance to the people of God. That's a hindrance.
To your life and mind, prosperity, Jericho, the good life. Then they came to Jordan really speaks of death.
Death to the world, there's a river of death and really they were going to cross that river and it's a picture of going across into death. I'm not going to get into that whole type, but.
They both died, if you will, and went across the river.
And Elijah was Elijah was taken up that chariot of fire.
My father, my father, the charity of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. He saw him no more.
Elisha had to come back, came back across that river and he was going to have knowledge that man risen, He was in the glory, and you and I have the Lord Jesus in the glory.
So we're still down here, we still have work to do, those of us that are here. And Elijah was going to represent really in type. He's a picture of Christ as well. But he was going to do a work among the people of God. And he had these four lessons that he needed to learn before he went to begin his service. One is that he had to exercise self judgment, connection with Gilgal, and he had to recognize in Bethel that God was sovereign. He was going to bless his people.
Because he is God.
And in sovereignty, he was going to do it, and then he was going to.
Pass through Jericho and recognize the opposition of the enemy. Then in Jericho or in Jordan, a type of death, really, a separation between the believer in the world.
And he was going to need to learn those four lessons to be of any use to the people of God. Then I want to just point out verse three, the sons of the prophets. You'll forgive me for mentioning them again here, but I think it's necessary.
Sons of the Prophets.
Those that knew the truth knew something of the truth. They knew that Elijah was going to be taken up. They said to Elijah, don't you know that?
Let's see verse 5. Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he answered, yeah, I know it. Hold your peace.
In a sense, they were going to hinder him, he says. Hold your peace. I know about this.
Don't bother me. Don't bother me with those details. I know they knew something.
But they would only stand far off.
And Jericho. And they would watch. They didn't go. They wouldn't walk as closely with Elijah as Elijah did. They are sons of the prophets.
Maybe they hadn't bought. If I could use New Testament terminology, they hadn't bought.
All of the truth for themselves. They knew some of the truth and they were. They did have some desire to walk with the Lord and Elisha has a relationship with them.
Their first mention in First Samuel in connection with I think Saul, King Saul has he ministered among the prophesied, among the prophets?
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But the sons of the prophets.
There are sons of the prophets here. They are daughters of the prophets.
There are those that have grown up in the assembly.
And they have a If I could say this, you have been brought up in a place of privilege beyond every imagination possible.
There are some first generation believers in this room, First generation believers at the Lord's Table.
And it costs something to leave the system that they were brought into.
Brought up in to leave that system and to come out to be gathered to the Lord's name.
Some of the things that you, perhaps that are sons of the prophets never ever had to experience.
And some of those that are had to come out of the systems of men and Baptist system, some some out of the Pentecostal system, some out of open brethrenism, some out of division.
Had to pay a price.
Let's say at lunchtime I was speaking with brother.
And remembering the time.
1969 that we came out of the vision.
And it was the most painful experience I have ever gone through. It wasn't. I don't know what a divorce is, and I don't ever want to know what a divorce is. But I liken it to perhaps the pain of a divorce.
It was difficult. It was there was a price to pay in friends.
And fellowship. There was a price to pay him, something that occurred during that time.
That is inexplicable, but a price had to be paid to leave that system and to come out and those I can look into your faces, some of you, and you know what I'm talking about. But there are sons of the prophets.
That are spoken of that have never paid a price. Perhaps I should say might not have paid a price to come out and to be gather to the Lord's name. Well, in the grace of God we're given that instruction in Proverbs chapter 23.
By the truth and sell it, not buy it for yourself. What is it that's going to hinder you? What could have hindered Elisha from following the Lord as a young man? Were those oxen?
He sacrificed those oxen and he took the instruments that were used. It wasn't like he could just get another.
Set of oxygen and use the same instruments. He burned the instruments. He couldn't go back.
And he decided he was going to follow God's man. He was going to go and follow Elijah.
And he did, and he was mightily used of God.
I just want to ask you this afternoon, what price did you pay to sit in the seat that you sit in here this afternoon? Did you pay a price?
Did it cost you anything to come to sit in that seat?
Have you been really before the Lord as to what it cost, perhaps your parents, perhaps your grandparents to be gathered to the Lord's name? I'll just close with one little illustration in that connection.
In Hammer Bay we have a brother, very quiet brother, Brother Ian Hurlbut.
And one year he was plowing my lane. He stopped the truck in front of the door. We went out and talked a bit and shut the truck off. And I said, Ian, I never heard about how you came to be gathered with the Lord's name.
How your family came into the assembly.
He said, well, my great great grandpa Clinton Hurlbut in Myrtle, Ontario, was walking by on the street in Myrtle, Ontario. He was walking on the street in the summertime, I believe it was. And he saw a door open and there was a Bible reading going on and there were chairs set like this. And he was a member of the Methodist Church.
As a young man and he went in, he, he wondered what this was all about. He went in and he sat down and he heard the truth of God, ministered some of the truth of God at a reading meeting.
And he thought this was very interesting and he went back again.
01:10:01
And very shortly after he discerned what it was to be gathered to the Lord's name and that he felt that it should take his place at the Lord's table. So he went to the minister at the United at the Methodist Church. And he said to him, he said, I have decided to rescind my membership at the Methodist Church.
And I'm going to take my place at the Lord's table. I want to remember the Lord in his death.
In the midst of this, minister tried to talk him out of it, told him it was just a sect and so on.
No, Clinton said. That. I'm determined. I'm going to remember the Lord in his death with these people. I'm going to take my place at the Lords Table.
So he didn't. He took his place at the Lord's Table and he was working in leather.
He was a Shoemaker as well as repairing leather goods and so on. And so the Methodist minister shortly after stood up in his pulpit and he said to his congregation, you know, Clinton Hurlbut no longer is a member of this congregation. And he said, we're not going to use his business anymore for leather repair or shoes and so on.
He said.
Let's just not frequent his place of business.
And so.
His business collapsed. He lost his business.
And a little later on, I believe he lost his house. He ended up having to move, start another business that cost him his business.
It cost him his home.
To be gathered to the Lord's name.
When I was a boy, I lived in a house that my grandma and Grandpa Hoole had built in the early 50s, and it was built in a Roman Catholic area in the Roman Catholic Quebec.
And the Roman Catholic priests said to the people, those people don't go to the Roman Catholic Church.
Don't go into their little business, their little convenience store and buy anything. They don't belong to our company and so.
They starve them out of business and the Roman Catholics started. Another Roman Catholic man started a business across the street, a convenience store that was prosperous even in the day that I lived in that house in the 60s, dear friends.
My beloved brethren, this afternoon.
To be gathered to the Lord's name cost something.
And if you occupy a position that you haven't paid for. If you play.
Yeah, if you are gathered in large name and you've never really bought the truth for yourself and I've never taken and paid something for it.
Set aside family relationships, occupation, whatever it might be, paid something for it.
You may be in danger of giving it up and setting it aside as something that's not valuable. I just plead with you.
To search your own souls, search your own hearts, and bide the truth as Elijah had to do himself.
God Gave Zedekiah A Change
Luke 22:1-7