Vestal Conference: 2016
Table of Contents
Ephesians 5:1-4
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00:05:35
Mr. God and our loving Father, we will give thanks once again this morning. We give thanks for thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank thee too, that as in the singing of these hymns, we are reminded in a, we are in a scene of confusion. We're in a world of sin and shame. But we thank thee though, that in another portion of the hymn there we are reminded of daisoon return for thine own and surely how blessed it is that we, uh, it can have that blessed hope before us.
Knowing that the dead in Christ shall rise 1St and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. So would you pray that I would keep that fresh thought in our hearts? But in the meantime, we're left here in the scene, uh, uh, for thy glory and for thy honor. So we look to thee for help. We recognize our weakness. We know how easily we can be discouraged, how easily we can be distracted. So we know we need to be independent.
Afonte so we pray one for another that I will continue to preserve that. Just help us to guide us and lead us in the way that uh, uh, walking in a way that is pleasing to thee. And now we look to thee when you think of the meeting to follow as we once again shall have the privilege to have thy word open before us. So we do pray that as another hymn writer would use those phrase, teach us more of the eyeblast way. So we commit this meeting into thine hand and we pray that the Holy Spirit.
May have three cores to teach us more of Thy blessed way. So we commit one another into thine hand, giving thanks once more in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We continue to ask the Lord for His help.
Our God and our Father we.
Thank you for our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus.
We thank Thee for that work on Calvary that has brought us brought us into the privilege and blessing that we enjoy.
We think our God of the singing of these two hymns.
And we find ourselves, our God, in a valley of conflict.
And we feel it very heavily. We've been singing of how we are beset with foes and snares.
And we feel that very keenly.
In our God, we, we just would beseech thee this morning.
That as we take up like precious word.
Adele's grant us to have a portion.
That would meet the need of each one of us.
We own our weakness and we own our failure. We know that that is have a portion in mind for us and we pray that we will be directed to that portion and that would be a time of real profit. Our God, we would ask this and the worthy and the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Brethren, very much in keeping with the hymns and the prayers, I've had a portion on my heart that I'd like to suggest for our consideration, and that is Ephesians chapter 5.
This chapter starts.
With our object.
Following God has their children and then as the object Christ himself who gave himself sacrifice and offering sweet smelling savor to God and then goes on to take off our individual walk in light of that and then later on goes on to family relationships. But all with reference to the thought of the darkness and the confusion that is around us. So I'd like to just propose that the President steel that would be profitable.
I think that'd be nice further.
Ephesians chapter 5.
00:10:00
Be therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling favor. But fornication, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as become a St. neither filthiness, nor foolishness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving a thank for this. You know that no ***** ****** nor unclean person man who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no man deceive you with being words.
For because of these things come with the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the in the Lord walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of these things which are done of them in secret, but all things.
Excuse me, but all things that are approved are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever does Ha does make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God lives. Submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands, and everything husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word.
That He might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord of the Church. We are members of his body, of His flesh, and of His bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I see concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Might be good just to get a little backdrop as to who the apostle was writing to when he wrote to the Ephesians. If you look at chapter 19 of the book of the Acts, you find there that there was a little company of believers. I always used to think that there must have been at least two or three hundred or three thousand or something at Ephesus for the mighty Apostle Paul to write to them, but we find that there was just a small company. In chapter 19 of Acts verse one it came to pass that while Apollo was a torrent, Paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus in finding certain disciples.
And we'll just drop down in verse five. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake with tongues and prophesied. And all the men were about 12:00. So it wasn't a very large company. And the Spirit of God was working and calling out of these Gentiles a little assembly for himself. And so you may come from a little assembly. And God is not concerned, if I could put it this way, with the large numbers. He's concerned with the person of His Son and what glorifies His Son.
And to be gathered through his precious name here this little company was, but we find a little bit of the character of the individuals told out a little further. There was growth in their souls in verse 17.
It says umm.
Let's read verse 16. The man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus, and fear fell on them all. In the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified, and many believed that believed, came and confessed and showed their deeds. Many of them also would use curious arts, brought their books together and burned them before all men. They counted the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
00:15:00
Well, we find that there was satanic activity. This was the capital city of the, the Asia Minor, and this was, uh, the stronghold of the enemy. And, uh, God had sent his man, the Apostle Paul, into the very depth of the darkness and the wickedness of the, the Gentile world. And out of that darkness called these dear Gentile believers. And so we live in a wicked world and, uh, we live in a place filled with darkness and satanic activity. We're maybe not as aware of it as we should be.
But these men came and once they were delivered from the power of the enemy, they burned their books that says the value of them was 50,000 pieces of silver with no small chunk of change. And so they were called out of darkness. Now they were saved by the grace of God. And he goes over the Christian doctrine in the first three chapters and tells them how we were blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. He goes through the magnitude of the blessing that was ours because we're associated with that blessed man, Christ Jesus. And then in chapters 4-5 and six, he goes over the practical effects, how it should affect ourselves.
Practically, this doctrine that he'd gone over before and so as our brother mentioned in his opening comments, he presents the relationships, the normal Christian relationships when things are going on well, how they should be. In this chapter, any presents the Lord Jesus here as one who offered himself to God as a sacrifice for a sweet smelling savor. And so you and I, each one have the opportunity to OfferUp ourselves, our lives.
As a living sacrifice and all, how the Lord delights to have us offer ourselves to Him in the day that we live in, in the wicked and seen all around us, to separate ourselves, to be sanctified, to walk for His glory.
We can be thankful for the ministry of the Apostle Paul.
In the beginning of our chapter it says be therefore followers of God as dear children. Let's just go back a moment to 1St Corinthians Chapter 11.
Getting with verse one.
V8 followers of me. He doesn't stop there, does he? Even as I also am of Christ.
Then going down to verse 3, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. So we go full circle there, don't we? And what an encouraging thing it is to.
Have this to remind us. Be there for followers of God as dear children.
And then the next verse points us or gives us instruction as to how we should walk, and that's in love. And again we're reminded as Christ also has loved us.
And has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice of God for a sweet smelling savory.
Here the possession of a divine life.
The Apostle.
Is speaking here of the practical exhibition of the divine nature, uh, that we now possess. And it's important to see that every exhortation of Scripture is on the ground of what we possess. It is never obtaining the thing by our own efforts. So the apostle has spoken of the sealing of the Holy Spirit in chapter 4. Uh, he has spoken of the our standing.
Before God, we've put on the new man, uh, created in righteousness and true holiness. We did that at our conversion. That's not an exportation. And now, uh, we have this, uh, this, umm, teaching of the apostle to manifest that wonderful relationship we have as children of God, something the Old Testament saying did not enjoy. But now through the Spirit of God, we have divine life, divine nature, new standing before God.
Consciousness of our sonship. All of this is brought out in UH in this epistle.
I'd like to make a comment with regards to the various times that the Ephesians Saints were addressed.
If we were to turn to, uh, our brothers turned us to the 19th of, uh, Acts. If we were to go to the 20th of Acts, which we won't, uh, we find there the apostle. He, he has the elders come together and he addresses some very specific things I believe that he saw on the horizon. And I believe he does the same thing here in this, in this epistle. And so we take up with, with what we've just been looking at. It says he followers of God as your children. And the very next comment is he stresses that they're to walk in luck.
00:20:19
And maybe we could just turn to the book of the Revelation for a moment to see what, umm, he addressed here, what he saw on the horizon, and then what the apostle John had to address in Revelation chapter, chapter uh, two, you'd have the, the comment that he starts off with. He says unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus, write these things, saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. And he lays out that which was very commendable. I know thy works.
Thy labor, thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them with your evil. Thou hast tried them which say they are fossils, and are not, and have found them liars. I was born, that was patience, and for my name's sake hast labored and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee.
Because.
Notice what he says here. It's the very thing he addresses in our chapter. That if they had taken heed.
To what he said with regards to walking in love, this would not have to be addressed. And so the Apostle John says, this is years later. He says, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast, you know, I've heard it say, I've heard people quote this and say they forgot their first love. They didn't. They left it and the reason they left it is because they weren't walking in it. And so the apostle here in our chapter, he addresses that which he saw was very needful for them to walk in love.
Mm-hmm.
I found it helpful too to see a bit of the division in these verses. Obviously we're starting right in the middle. The thought Brother Robert was already mentioning. This whole book is broken into half. The first half is the teaching of what the apostles being before there the Saints is the Christian position, and the second-half has to do with the practical application of it in the light. The beginning of that was at the beginning of chapter 4 and there takes up the collective side of things for the 1St 16 verses.
And the section that we're in really properly begins, as far as I understand it, chapter 4 and verse seventeen. There we have the individual walk, uh, all the way down to chapter 5 and verse umm, 22, where it goes from individual to the husband and wife, the marriage relationship, and then takes up other relationships as well after that. But here this part is also divided. So in chapter 4, verse 17.
It brings out that we are not to walk as other Gentiles walk. And the primary argument, it seems to me, is what we have in verse 22 and verse 24 that you put off or having put off the old man and having put on the new man is positional, as our brother mentioned. And because of that, now this is the way we ought to walk. This is what's consistent with having done that. And he takes that up and the rest of chapter 4.
Now.
In chapter five, he takes up pretty much the same line of things but from a different viewpoint. It's now taking up really what you have in chapter one. Chapter one and verse four says according as he have chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in luck. So these two things holy and without blame before him in love that is light and love and the two things are.
Very much the subject of these verses in the beginning of chapter 5. The light and the love walk as children of light, and we have here to walk in love.
The example then is given is Christ himself, God is brought before us, is the one to imitate as children, dear children. And so it's God's desire that we should walk this way. And before bringing out again the practical expectations from verse three and down, he brings out this example, this motive for the heart that we might see. What is his desire that we should look to the one, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who gave such a great example by giving up.
His own life. And so he perfectly exemplified all that we're called to do. And we already know that we've got the ability to do it. We have his life to do it. We have the Spirit of God. My brother was mentioning that's the end of chapter 4. And having been reminded of all of that, only then does he take on the exhortations from verses 3 going down. And these are things and that we have the ability to do, and it's something that our new nature wants to do.
00:25:20
I'll make a comment on the section of occasions that you're just picking up, Tim.
We have a repeating pattern.
10:00 times Harvey account, uh, where the apostle speaks in his expectation. Don't do this.
Instead do this and then a comment. So for example it says uh, let him or just say let him.
Well, for example verse 26.
Sorry.
I'll look, I'll look at the section that we're considering right now. 429 don't do this. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. Instead do this, but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto your hearers. And then we have comments. Uh, I grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you're sealed unto the day of redemption. So that's a a comment on don't do this. Instead do that and then a comment, uh, then in verse.
30.
One another expectation. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you. Don't do that and all malice. Don't do those things. Instead do this and be a kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Now comment and the chapter division here, uh, makes us miss the thought. Uh, but the comment has to do with those expectations that we just had before. There's a comment on what you're not to do and what you're to do. Be there for followers of God as their children and walk in love.
As Christ also have loved us and given himself for us and offering and sacrifice to God for sweet smelling savor. That's the comment on uh.
And as I said, it's the repeating pattern if you're looking from.
Four to, uh, 14 or 16 and, uh, to chapter 522, uh, you'll find that pattern repeated.
10 or 12 Times.
These things that, uh, our brother Paul has been married before us.
The things that we should not do.
Those things are what our whole nature do.
Our old natures can only do those things that we're being told here, not here.
The other hand are new natures.
Can only do the things that we're wanting in these verses.
It's black and white and I'm either living in.
The old nature operating in the old nature, which I should not be doing, but I often do.
I should be reckoning that old nature bit putting it off in the past in chapter 4 brought to our attention and walking in that new nature and the only way I can do that is to feed the new nature on the word of God lots of around us in this world which.
It comes into every day and it's fun Bars but uh, fees to be old man.
But our new natives need to be fed so that they will be operating.
And then that new nature can only do that export.
If I'm not feeding it, I'm not going to be very active even though it's there.
Obedience is so important and that's brought before us in the perfect pathway of the Lord given to us in verse 2 here Christ also loved us loved us when there was nothing in us that would merit that love that the strongest expressions of the Lord's love to his people were at times that you would least expect it. And the case of the the nation of Israel about to be dispersed and uh, sent to babbling. That was the very time the Lord said that yeah, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. His love did not change toward his people though they had wandered as the Ephesians did too and left their first love. But I was thinking in verse two. It's the.
Expression of the full devotedness of the Lord Jesus in his life and in his death. Sweet smelling savour. The burnt offering aspect.
00:30:07
Of course we can have no part in the atonement of Christ, but we are exhorted to the obedient children. If you look over in first Peter chapter one, this verse might connect with what we have in our chapter here one and verse 14 as obedient. This is first Peter as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. Exactly what the apostle is bringing before us in our chapter here.
So we are called to the obedience of Christ. We have a new nature now that loves to please God. Uh.
But are we, uh, are we keeping that all nature in the place of death and manifesting these, uh, characteristics of the, of the new man, Uh.
And we cannot be happy if we're not obedient in our, in our pathway, in our walking ways.
The other object.
And we have a positive object in verse two and a negative object the end of verse six. And there is specifically the children of the sons of disobedience. And so the Lord is presented as the opposite of that. He was obedient unto death. He loved unto death. He's our example. We have these two examples around us and they both can affect us. And so they're the two examples that are, I believe, prominent in this chapter.
Taken up where we ought to have our walk.
I was just thinking for a moment.
In the natural progression.
We stand before we walk.
And the apostle Paul in many instances in the Epistles gives us admonition in terms of standing. We have one in the sixth chapter, verse 14. Stand, therefore, having your loins gird about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.
May have mentioned this sometimes before, but I used to be puzzled by a portion in the first chapter of the Book of Judges that had to do with Adonai Bizac. And there were three score and 10 kings surrounding him, and they had their thumbs and their great toes cut off.
I always always used to wonder what the application was and I.
Believe it's this without the great toll, it's difficult to stand properly. Without the thumb, it's difficult to grasp anything. And so as we read along in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 16, it says above all taking that's using the hand, the shield of faith. So we have standing, which is very important.
And then we progress to walking. And what faithful admonition we have in the ministry of the Apostle Paul.
We present here this responsibility that we have to imitate the love of God in verse one, and then to walk in love as Christ did, as the Son of God who loved his Father and who obeyed his father and in his joy that was his to walk through the scene and do the pleasure of his father. And then he gives this sacrifice that was offered even the Lord and it's a sweet smelling saver. It's been mentioned. It's given to us in Leviticus chapter one, the whole chapter.
A sweet smelling savour, and it's what Christ sacrificed means to God, the sweet savour that it is to him offered in devotion and love to his father. But then he gives this contrast in verse three as to how the Gentiles live and they lived in a place that was characterized by fornication, all uncleanness, covetousness. And he says, let it not once be named among you has become a Saints. And so they had grown up and they had lived in this society.
That was characterized the very first thing was fornication is taking pleasure without any reference to God and to abusing the body. That was given that you and I know that our bodies are to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, but we live in a world that is desensitized to the morality of what God has presented for man's blessing in this world. And so the list begins with fornication. I'll just point out and I think it's Colossians chapter three. He has another list there, the apostle Paul and.
00:35:18
Chapter 3 and verse five he says mortify therefore, or put into the place of death therefore, your members which are upon the earth fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, which is idolatry. And so he begins this list as well with with fornication. And so it was what characterized the Gentile world and what really we live in a society that has lost its bearings in connection with morality.
And it's a good thing for us to read a little passage like this and to recognize that God's standards have not changed. The beginning of the head of the list of what God, as he looks down upon the Western Christian world today, would have to start with this very word fornication, as he would look down and have to condemn what this world goes on with, but what the Western Christian world goes on with. And so may we take this admonition that the apostle wrote so many years ago. Take it to heart ourselves and.
Judge our tendencies to think of this as very lightly, and the world thinks of it very lightly, but it's a great wickedness in the sight of the Lord.
I'd like to make a practical comment on the concept of saver.
When we think of Christ being a sweet saver to God, you think of the roast lamb, think of coming home to a Sunday dinner. The whole house is filled with a beautiful aroma and if you're hungry, it's extremely pleasing. And that's exactly what uh, Christ sacrificed was to God, something that was extremely pleasing and satisfying. But what we have in the next verse is, I think, uh, is illustrated by a trip we took from Woodbridge to a New Brunswick and we had to travel through the town. I recall the name of it correctly when I was 11.
Promise Ford Maine and it was before they figured out how to treat pulp and paper plants are all all the kids got violently sick when we hit Rumsford, Maine because of the smell of the paper plant.
And that's the concept of an abomination. And so it is with our lives. If we do what it says in verse 2, then God senses and smells the smell of a Sunday dinner. But if we go on with what we have in verses 345 in our lives, then it gets the smell of Rumsford, Maine, and it's not pleasant.
We think of the manna that was given to the children of God initially.
It tasted wonderful if I can use that expression.
But then what does it say later on it it tasted to them as fresh oil or as oil, so it became distasteful to them, didn't it? But nothing really had changed in terms of the composition of the mana. It was how they perceived it, and it was.
Their apprehension of it and their lack of appreciation which caused that.
To be said, you know, reminded that, uh, that all nature that we have is capable of anything.
The grace of God keeps us from these things, but, uh.
I have seen in my short experience that true believers who become careless, those evil desires are easily revived and there is much to minister to them. So how important it is to as we had more to fly our members which are upon the earth, because our bodies now can be used in one of two ways. Our members can be used for the glory of the Lord, preaching the gospel, reaching souls.
Ministering to the Lord's people.
Or they can be used in other ways to the dishonor of the Lord. So it is an exercise. We the Ephesians came out of this whole manner of life and we are surrounded by things that appeal to that whole nature. So how careful, how circumspectly the apostle mentions later on in the chapters, see that she walks circumspectly, carefully, often thought you ever see a cat walk along, uh, a, a, a boardwalk or a along a fence.
He walked circumspectly. He's very watchful that there might be, uh, some danger ahead. So we need to walk, brethren, in dependence upon the Lord, uh, hour by hour, circumspectly because there are dangers, there's temptations, and there's a response in our hearts how, how careful that we need to be.
00:40:03
The apostle Paul in Romans chapter 12 gives, you might say, a positive, uh, instruction in this way. He presents Christ as, umm, that living sacrifice over that, uh, sacrifice in umm, chapter 5 of Ephesians. But then in Romans chapter 12, he gives this exhortation, exhortation verse one. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world.
But be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So how does this begin? How do we do this? How do we offer our lives a living sacrifice? I believe it's necessary every day, every morning and that we have a little example of we imma imitate the life of the Lord Jesus as we wake up in the morning in Mark's Gospel chapter one verse 35. I think of it often times it says in the morning.
Rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed. Oh the blessed Savior, as he faced the opposition in the field, the corruption of this world, the religious world, even in the land of Israel, went into the presence of his Father and sought direction for the day. And you and I need it. We need to offer ourselves daily as a sacrifice for the Lord, that we might live a holy life and put these things.
Uh, set them aside, have a proper view of the filth of them and the world doesn't have a, a view, a proper view of things and the entertainment system of this world, the communication system has no right view of the wickedness of these things that are mentioned fornication, all uncleanness or covetousness. Let it not once be named among you has become a Saints. It's a very high standard, isn't it? But it's something because you have the very life of Christ. If you know the Lord Jesus as Savior, you're capable of walking to this high standard. You'll notice the words that the apostle uses here.
He says, let it not once be named among you. And so he's not saying, uh, in a negative way, as it as it were, Thou shalt not, as he would say to the children of Israel, the Spirit of God writing through Moses, but he says let it, He says, won't you let the Spirit of God have his way in your life?
Won't you just read the Word of God, have a word of prayer in the morning, and seek wisdom, seek the strength, the courage to offer your life just to sacrifice, just for one day at a time. And so we need to let the Spirit of God have His work, have His way with US1 moment at a time. Independence.
This third verse.
It's a problem.
It's a big problem.
It's a problem in this world, it's a problem amongst believers, it's a problem amongst the gathered Saints.
Let's not think it's not.
They Robert, you've just been bringing before us the strength.
Language that's used here. If we could, just for a moment, things were on this subject, on this first, let's look at Second Samuel chapter 13. Second chapter, Second Samuel Chapter 13 takes up with the thought that we have that Mister Darby renders in our chapter as unbridled lust.
So he starts off here. We won't read the whole portion but it says it came to pass after this.
Absolutely understand David had a fair sister whose name was Timar, and Amlon the son of David loved her, and Amnon was so vexed that he fell sick for his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and the Amnon thought it hard for him to do anything to her. But Amnon had a friend whose name was John Abad Jonabab, the son of Shimia, David's brother. And John of was a very subtle man. And he said, Why are thou being the King's son? Lean from day-to-day, wilt thou tell me? And Amhon said, I love teem armored brother abscond sister. And John Ebbs said, lay down in my bed and make myself sick. When my father cometh to see, they say unto him, I pray thee left my sister Tamar, come give me me undress the meat in my sight, that I might see it and eat at her hands.
And so on.
Now can't we won't read the portion, but T Mart comes in and we find, umm, that's the.
00:45:29
Problem there First Corinthians chapter 6.
Where the apostle having dealt with it in the previous chapter, he says here now.
First Corinthians chapter 6, verse 18 Flee fornication.
I had a brother ask me once, uh, So what do you think that means? I wasn't married? Umm, I thought I knew what it meant, he said, Well I'm going to tell you anyway, whether you know it or not. He said you need to run with great fear.
You need to run with great fear. And you young people, you're not, you're not faced with the things that I was faced with when I was younger. Rather if we could turn those things around. What's your face like today? Which is right in your face?
Is that was the apostle deals with here that we need to deal with in our lives because it's it's it's all around us and they're temptation sucks every one of us in such a way that without the fear of God and without what brother Robert has been breathing before us right now we don't have a hope absolutely no hope whatsoever. And we need to look at this expectation that the apostle we think why would the apostle need to to to give this expectation to the Ephesians. You go through the 1St chapter. You think why would why would fornication give a problem there?
Well.
As I said, outside the fear of God.
We're no different, absolutely no different. And that's a that's a hard thing. It's a very hard thing. And yet it's very real and a wonderful thing to be able to, as we've had brought before us, to walk in a manner that's consistent with the Word of God and to flee these things that are brought before us in these verses.
Joseph in the Old Testament.
On top of the first nine and then this is 39.
How exactly can I do this? Great day since I didn't start.
12 The end of verse 12, instead of the left, is running in her hands.
Example of what those days I've been singing before and this would be as you said.
The thought in each one of our parts.
If I could say so, it doesn't get any easier when you get over.
Together.
And the thoughts of our hearts.
They're counted like those. It was how can I do this great wickedness.
Two.
I'd like to take a moment. I, I agree entirely with what uh, Dave and Robert have brought before us. And Joseph, as you've been bringing forward is a, is an incredibly good example of what Proverbs tells us in the 4th chapter fleet. Avoid a pass, not buy it, turn from it and pass away. But there's a particular hazard in our society that I'd like to address looking in Matthew chapter 5.
And verse 27 talking about adultery, which is.
A subset of the larger term fornication.
You have heard that it was said by them of all time, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And the subject I want to address is a *********** because it is so available in our society. The beginnings of it is all through advertising. And the question that I have for myself, because I would agree that I also.
And tempted by *********** by these things that we've been talking about. What am I when I'm alone, when I'm sitting in front of my computer? Am I letting myself go to Matthew chapter 5, verse 28, where I can look on a woman and lust after her? That's what our chapter is talking about. Ephesians chapter 5, verse three. No, the *********** don't go there. And it's interesting, our brother days example.
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The young man who raped his sister.
That act cost him his life. And fooling around with *********** getting into it, destroying your own character when you're alone.
Can destroy your spiritual life.
And that's why Paul is saying let it not be named among you. So just turn away from it. You have to turn your computer off. Turn it on. If you have to get covenant eyes on your cell phone, get it on your cell phone. If you need help from somebody, get it. You can't fight it alone. You need the help of the Spirit of God. And, and we are in spiritual warfare that our brother Bruce was talking about. We need all the armor of God. And we're fighting against a very dangerous, very deceitful, very subtle fault. And that's one particular area where he is fighting a rampant, evil, violent battle.
That's ***********. Flea fornication.
Nice to look at Hebrews chapter 13 just to get the Lord's instruction in connection with Christianity and marriage. It says chapter 13 of Hebrews and verse four, marriage is honorable in all and the bad undefiled, but ************ and adulterers God will judge. And so I'll read it in the new translation. It says uh let marriage be held every way in honor, but uh, fornicators and adulterers, God will judge.
And so you know the Old Testament Saints.
They had a lot of light. The Old Testament, umm, those that had faith, they had the word of God. What advantage then had to do much in every way, because that under them were delivered the oracles of God. They had the word of God. They knew what God's standards were, but they didn't have the standard, the motive of love, the love to please the Lord Jesus as you and I do. As we have Christ before us, our desire is to please Him. And we also understand that the institution of marriage is a type of Christ in the church. Oh, how lovely it is to think of how you and I in this world have the ability to express before the heart of God.
The love that his son has for his bride and how as we go about in this world, in the neighborhood that we live in, and the husband loves his wife and he treats him. He treats her even as they try to treat her as Christ loved. The church gave himself for it. He gives and he gives. And it's a sacrificial relationship, if I could put it that way. But it's wonderful to think of how our attitude should be to hold the institution of marriage in the highest regard.
I'll say it again. Everyone of us should hold the institution of marriage in the highest regard. We should treat it with the utmost respect. And So what we have in the Epistle to the Ephesians is that these ones, these dear Saints of God, lived in a society where the institution of marriage was run roughshod over. It was disrespected. And we live in a world that disrespects and ridicules the institution of marriage. But God's standards never change, and his desire was.
That a Christian husband and a Christian wife would mimic, would manifest, would imitate the love of Christ for His Church. May we have that exercise apart and do it.
There are also other things, uh, mentioned in this passage. Uh, of course, uh, what has been brought out on the moral side is very important because we live in an immoral world. But, uh, the apostle mentions other things. He mentions covetousness, He mentions, uh, foolish talking and jesting, which are not convenient or suitable, rather giving them thanks. So how important to, uh, watch our tongues that.
Our conversation may be restrained, it might be, uh, according to, uh, God's desire, the you turn over to the Ecclesiastes the verse of chapter 10. Dead flies cause the ointment to of the apothecary to send forth a stinking Saber. So does a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor. And there are many verses in the Proverbs which speak of our tongue and our speech which are really an indication, an index.
Of what our hearts are, are dwelling on. So, uh, we just need to, we can turn to the epistle of James where he elaborates to a great measure on the tongue. And perhaps, uh, that is the hardest thing in our bodies to control, but it indicates what our hearts are occupied with. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So the the apostle is here reproving. You could use the term foolish talking.
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Talking, that is, uh, gossip, or whatever you may call it.
That is just unprofitable, not for even the education of a person, and it's easy for unclean things to come in there.
So we need to be on our guard, uh, that, umm, what we speak about, uh, is according to the mind of God that we might edify one another. What I say to you is going to have one of two effects. Either it's going to edify and build you up or it's going to draw you away from the things of the Lord. It's going to be unprofitable in regard to your spiritual progress and growth.
That's why Apostle Paul exorts us to bring his captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and so that we don't lust after another. You know, if, if, if our thoughts are in obedience of Christ, you won't do those things and prevent us to from entering into umm, who is talking or jesting and and those other things too as well. If if we it is a constant thing, we have to constantly.
Keep our thoughts.
It's a it's so there into the obedience of Christ that we won't fall into those traps because I thought so are the seeds of the things that fall. And it's so important we are always on guard of that.
I just want to add a point with what brother Robert by the Dave spoke about, umm, growing up in conferences with the younger brother, I hear umm, don't commit fornication, don't commit adultery. Those are very extreme. They seem I I'll never go there, but that's, that's really bad. But what leads to that? And I think, umm, as I said later on in chapter and verse, uh, verse 11 have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Maybe it's not fornication or adultery, but what about the TV shows or the movies or the music I listen to? Are they having that flavor of adultery or fornication? Is that gonna be something that.
Be easy down that path. It might desensitizing my conscience to what is wrong. And I think sometimes we can maybe say, well, I'll never go to that extreme, but maybe just this much or that much and kind of go down that path. And if you look at this chapter, there's a lot about what we talked about in communication are we and we could often have that influence on our friends, even Christian friends, the things that we watch, things we discuss. These can be things that can either bring us down a level more of the OR we can either raise the level morally in our conversation.
For now is our salvation here, than when we believe tonight is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in writing drunkenness, not in chamber and wantonness, not in strife and envy. I put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh.
I know a lot of these words are scary. They're scary to me. I've got young children and they were scary when I was young and I was tempted by all of them, I'm sure. But we're in, uh, Hudson, NH for meeting the other night and we were reading in First Peter Chapter 5. Maybe it's just a moment to read those and encourage everyone.
You know, sometimes with even a girlfriend or a boyfriend, any temptations come in and we don't know what to do. And as our brother said about *********** turn off the computers. Our brother said about our tongue, close our mouths, that we can't do those things on our own.
Doesn't say at first, John, that we overcome the world by ourselves.
So here it says in verse seven of first Peter 5, casting all your care upon him, great care for you. Be sober in our chapter later talking about drunkenness, backside wine. Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion walketh boat seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world, but the God of all grace who have called us on his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After that ye have suffered a while making perfect established, strengthen and settle you.
We need the comfort of knowing.
That God is with us all the time, that we can turn to Him. We need the comfort of going to Him when we're in these distresses and not trying to do it on our own because we will fail.
He needs his help.
Other, uh, items that do this list as our brother John pointer head with a company.
And well, it may seem that that might not be serious as some of the.
01:00:04
Morality issues that we've been talking about since.
Is really.
Anything that I desire and long to have that the work does not in his list of Givens.
And we are bombarded by that everywhere as well.
Advertisements on billboards and newspapers on our computers.
Everything is geared to make me wanna have that.
Vehicle which is better than the one I have now for that two way and there are all kinds of expensive toys. I can start naming things but.
Our little grandson loves to loves all the little toy cars that he has, but Satan has all kinds of bigger toys for all of us who are over that he would like us to spend our money on and our time.
And I believe.
That the doctors covered in this is listed here along with what we were.
Talking about this and probably think are more serious.
Maybe he wants us to deliver, not to use our money, our resources and our clients, but uh, might have more and more and more of this world's good, but we will consider valuable. But after we've had in the first, in the first chapter, after we read the 1St chapter and see all those Inferno clear souls lessons that are ours and we didn't have to try to get them after we read all those, why would we want to hide?
I think we're happy for a better car. I think practical way, but I need to need to tell myself that every day, you know, bombarded by the world trying to sell us things that we do not need to walk the life expleasing to the Lord.
In Second Timothy, chapter 3.
It says this. Know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. Well, brethren, I believe they're here. And again, some of the things that we've talked about.
Covetousness.
Men being boastful, and I don't think it requires too much of an imagination to see this in American politics today and around us.
Unthankfulness.
Then another thing that is mentioned is on holiness without natural affection.
Then it says despisers of those that are good.
Then in the next verse, verse 4, traders heading heading high minded lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Then it speaks of that form of godliness but.
Says by denying the power thereof from such turn away.
This is uh, is associated with idolatry also in uh, Colossians, uh, three, uh, verse five. It's mentioned again with these other.
Umm, unclean, umm, sins. Uh, it's mentioned as being idolatry.
And I suppose it can manifest itself in different ways, but if I'm desiring even a place among the people of God.
To exalt myself. Uh, it's, it's of the same character. Umm.
Covetousness can be the desire for more money, but it can be other things as well. And we can become involved in, uh, secular pursuits that just deprive our souls of the enjoyment of Christ and the things of God and get so entangled in the things of this world and in the, uh, progress and in the acquiring these things, whether it be education, music, what have you. It, it is, it is very all embracing term. I think it just goes beyond the.
Pecuniary manners be beyond money is not, is not not not right.
And when we were younger, most of us remember the times at Sunday school when the Sanger shot me softly. Here, what we've seen, we have a tenancy to think of that only as a time of being little. And it's important enough.
01:05:05
I'd rather not find it, but as I grow older this needs to be applied to us more and more and more.
Never escaped the father of, uh, what are high speed, what you hear, what we say. And as we grow older, I find that there are all greater, uh, temptations and difficulties that appear in our pathway that we need to apply this all of our lives, especially as we grow older. But yet again, it's important to learn it in Sunday school, but it's a principle that we need to apply to our hearts and lives.
This little stronger the very different types of humans.
Very important, but I don't believe it's enough. And the Holy Spirit himself takes up a different line of things at the end of the fourth verse, he says, but rather it's very emphatic. It's not enough to avoid evil. We have to have that which is positive. And so he brings that in the end of verse four, but rather giving of thanks, you might think, well, that seems a little odd just to bring out that one thing.
But we had in the beginning of the chapter that we are.
To walk in a certain way and to follow an example. And in so doing we'll be giving glory to God, and in giving glory to God will be living in a way that pleases him, and there'll be communion with him. And when we live in that way, it naturally results in this very thing that giving us thanks.
It's absolutely fundamental to the Christian life, and it's also the very point of departure.
That leads down into those other things you look at where the world itself departed from God. That's the point that was mentioned. In fact, let's look at that in Romans chapter one one and verse 10.
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
For 21, this gets to the point because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. We know God. We're called to glorify him as God and in our lives and our bodies. That's what we've been talking about. The next point says neither were thankful. They knew they had no excuse and they turned around and said no, we'll live for ourselves. And they refused to thank God for everything he had given to them.
And how much more for ourselves as believers? We don't just know the God of creation.
We don't know that God only who blesses us in life. We know that God who's blessed us for eternity. We know that God of whom the 1St 2 verses of this chapter is all about.
How much more do we have to be thankful for and as believers, if we are not going to live our lives every day before God in thankfulness for all that he has done for us, then we're going to slip. That's the first step and all the others will follow on from that. And so I think it's very important that we remember that it isn't about trying to avoid the wrong. That's important. If it wasn't important, it wouldn't be stated here. Someone says, well, let it not once be named among you, so let's not even talk about it. No, if that was the case, it wouldn't be in these verses. It means don't let it ever happen.
We have every resource that we need so that this never needs to happen in our lives, but.
But the first step is turning aside from God and not giving Him the Thanksgiving that He's worthy of every day in our life.
When he fell into adultery with Bathsheba, you might look at it and say, well, David, why were you looking on that woman and lusting after her? And, and by the way, Bathsheba, why were you out on your rooftop? That way? You know, she had sinned as well. Then you might go back a little further and say, well, was the time for kings to go out to war, to battle, and David stayed home. Well, well, that's the route. Well, no.
When Nathan the prophet comes and convicts him of his sin, he says, David, you forgot to be thankful. You forgot I took you from the sheepfold and put you on the throne, and that's why you fell into that sin.
Can you interrupt your brother? I just wanna say what both of you said in different words.
Uh, just to use uh, uh, personal illustration, I pardon to do it, but uh, a number of years ago, umm, I had an illness.
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And umm, went to the doctor and the illness was manifesting itself by certain symptoms. And so I, I, they gave me some medication to look after the symptoms. Umm, worked for a little while, didn't really wasn't really dealt with. Uh, it put me on some other medication and it looked after some of the symptoms in another way for a little while, but didn't really look after the problem. The problem was I had a cancerous tumor and they were giving me medication to look after the symptoms.
And one after another they worked for a little bit, but it didn't look after the problem.
And they did surgery and they took the cancer out and it was gone. But initially they were just dealing with the symptoms. And what we have here in this list are symptoms.
And what needs to be dealt with and actually what has been dealt with by the Lord's death on the cross. You know, I just last Saturday I sat through 2 messages from two young brothers who are here you can actually get them online that dealt with what we're having before us this morning. Beautiful messages. I would encourage you to look these messages up terrific. The concept of recognizing that sin has been dealt with by the Lord Jesus. It has been dealt with and if we, if we try to deal with the symptoms of these things in our life if, if I, if I start to talk in a in a foolish way if, if there's umm.
Uncleanness that manifests itself, if there if there's fornication that manifests itself, it's just a symptom.
And and we can, we can try to fix the symptom, but that doesn't deal with the problem. And what we have in the earlier verses and what's been just brought before us by TM and by by Steve is not just a dealing with the symptoms, but the problem itself.
Nsnoise.
Just noticed that this particular hem was written by a man by the name of Robert Robinson.
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Just recently I read an account of this man's life. He was a bright believer. But then.
He got away from the Lord and got far away from the board.
So much so that he even doubted his own salvation.
And on a particular occasion.
He came to a little gathering of people and one of the women there was a Christian and she didn't know who Robert, who Robert Robinson was. But in the course of the conversation she said I've just enjoyed a particular him. Let me quote the words of that hymn. And so she started to quote the words of that hymn.
And then she finally got to verse 4. Prone to wander, ward. I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Yes, our Lord has deigned to seal it with thy spirit from above.
He just broke down in tears and he said, that's me. And he said, ashamed to say that I was the author of that hymn. And the Lord used this occasion to bring him back again to the Lord. And I think two of those lines in verse three, that that grace Lord like a fetter. A fetter is a change. Some chains are strong. We've been talking about some fetters today.
In the meeting, some things are strong, some habits that are difficult to break. And I recall some years ago at a conference, our brother Thomas McMillan, some may remember him, he was a short brother that spoke with a very broad Irish accent. They told the story of a blacksmith in Ireland who used to go around to the county fairs and he boasted in his strength and.
He would have even.
Men put a chain around him and there was a contest to see how quickly he could break those chains. And he would examine those chains for the weakest point and see how that he would attack that in order to break those chains. But on one occasion at a County Fair, he looked at the chain and he said, I can't break this chain. And they said, why not?
He said I was the one that made that chain and I made it as strong as I could so that no one could break that. So what a lesson that is in connection with those things that have been brought before us this this morning.
Recommend ourselves, our loving God and our Father. We thank Thee for thy precious word. We thank Thee for the reality of the love that others have, the power of that love to break the chain, to spoil the strongman's house, and to deliver the captives from the ******* of sin. And so we thank Thee for thy love. We thank You that I love could never rest until we were delivered. And so we looked at Thee for thy blessing. Now as we have a meal together, we thank Thee for the fellowship together. We pray that our words might be sweet. We think of how.
Could be said of the never man speak like this man. And so we long to live and speak and imitate Thee, blessed Savior, and imitate thy love our God. As we interface with one another, so we look to thee for thy blessing this afternoon. Give thanks in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Church Growth and its Hindrances
Address—Robert Boulard
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We sing to him in Luke's Gospel, chapter 8, verse 14. We'll read verse 14 and 15.
Luke chapter 8, verse 14. And that which fell among thorns, are they?
Which, when they have heard, go forth, and are troped with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection, but that on the good ground are they. Which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit.
With patience.
Well, what we've had before us in the reading meeting this morning, in the prayer meetings, even the hymns that we've had before us.
Require not only to have heard the Word, but to have an honest heart, and a good heart to hear it, and to obey, and to with a heart's affection filled with affection for Christ, to go on in devotion to Him in the day that we live in. Let's sing #246.
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Lord S blessing in our meeting.
Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee that there is a mercy seat. We thank Thee for the love of the one who sent of the Father to come into this scene. We think of how thou has told us in my word, our God, He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? Always thank Thee for Thy love. We thank Thee for Thy faithfulness.
We thank Thee that thou art devoted to thy Church, Lord Jesus.
We think of how Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it. Oh, we thank thee for such love. And now as we open up thy precious word, we ask thee for clear thoughts. Leading of thy Spirit is to the passages of Scripture that we might turn to and any comments that would be made. We pray that there might be some fruit for the as a result of our occasion here in this meeting in this conference.
That there might not only be decisions for Christ in connection with salvation, the salvation of the soul.
Vation of lives, lives live for Christ.
Rather than wasted in this scene, so we ask you for thy rich blessing, our God and our Father. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
Let's turn to Philippians chapter 3 and verse 14. Just open up with one little passage of Scripture. I'd like to speak this afternoon, perhaps that we might say 9 little mini, uh, subjects. Maybe we could break it down into three things, uh, three things that, umm, really the church prospered under in church history. We have, we have it given to us.
And, umm, we have, uh, two the three things that, uh, the church suffers under currently.
In connection with a weak state of things. And then we have three things that hinder us individually and hinder the church. And I read these things, we're going to comment on them a little bit because, you know, we need to have an honest and a good heart in connection with the very day that we live in. We're just about to be called to be with the Lord. Do you believe it?
Well, if we believe that as we've been reading this morning in Ephesians chapter 5, why there should be some evidence of it. And our heart's affection should be taken up with that blessed man in the glory who's interceding for us in our weakness. And if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. If we sin, if we step out of character of a child of God and sin, why we have a gracious Savior. And so there may be one here this afternoon.
Who hasn't been living for the Lord? And as we read these little passages of Scripture, I'm going to ask you to turn to just various little passages. We'll comment a little bit here and there.
Let the Spirit of God have his way with you and turn to him. Our great high priest on high is sitting there, his hands uplifted in sympathy and love. He desires to restore, he desires to bless. Well I read I wanted to read in Philippians chapter 3 here verse 14. It gives us the.
You might say the mission statement of the apostle Paul. You know, you go into a place of business and you often times see a mission statement. It's a little sentence, maybe a very small paragraph. And in a very brief nutshell, it tells you what this business is about, what they want to do, what they want to accomplish. And Paul says in verse 14, maybe we should read verse 13.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do.
Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of a high calling or the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. Well, you know the Apostle Paul, he had one objective in life and that was he had a view of Christ in the glory. He had seen the Lord Jesus.
00:10:02
The glorified man. The risen glorified man. He'd seen him and he wanted.
Nothing more but to be with that man and to be just like him. And I trust that you as you sit in your seat and myself, you know, I'm not any different. We all need to re examine ourselves from time to time and examine as to whether or not we're living up to the mission statement that we have set for our own lives. And I trust that Christ is the one that has won your heart. What more could He have done to win your heart or mind?
But to go to the cross and to redeem your your soul to bear the judgment for your own sins individually. If you were the only Sinner that ever lived, he would have died for you. The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Well, let's look at one of these things that in connection with the apostle Paul and.
Chapter Acts Chapter 16 I'd like to look at one of the things that the church prospered under.
At the beginning of the Church period and even today, is persecution.
We have pain and persecution and poverty. I want to look at all three of those and perhaps they'll be interspersed a little bit.
But in Acts chapter 16, we have really the pain and the persecution perhaps connected here, verse 19.
Winter masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone. They caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace under the rulers, and brought them under the magistrate, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.
And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates ran off their clothes and commanded them to beat them or to scourge them.
And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely, who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stalks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. And the prisoners heard them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake. And so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Immediately all the doors were open.
Everyone's bands were loosed, and the keeper of the prisoner waking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword.
And would have killed himself, supposing the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, saying, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in my house. And then just hold our place there, and turn to Philippians again.
Philippians.
Chapter 4.
Verse 15.
Maybe we can read verse 14 chapter 4 of Philippians verse.
14 Notwithstanding you did well, you have well done that. You did communicate with my affliction.
Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me.
That's concerning giving and receiving, but ye only, for even in Thessalonica you sent once and again unto my necessity, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. Well, I read this little account in Acts chapter 16 in connection with the the Philippine jailer. He no doubt was saved that night, and that we could read a little bit further on. He was baptized and all those in his house.
And but have you ever thought of the birth of that little assembly?
You can fill a pie. There were two men that were taken before the Roman judges of that day really was Philippi was a Roman protectorate, a colony. But they were taken before the magistrates and they were scourged. The blood flowed, They were persecuted, they were afflicted, they were publicly re rebuked.
They're publicly shamed and dishonored.
And they suffered the blood flow, but there was a little assembly that was formed. And you know, Paul writes a lot of epistles. He wrote 14 epistles, if you count the epistles of the Hebrews as being one of those epistles, not told specifically. But he has little hints in that epistle that tells us that he wrote it.
00:15:15
But you know, he wrote the sweetest letter to the Philippians, that little assembly. We're not told how many there were there. We know that Lydia was there. We know the Philippian jailer, his household, perhaps household servants later that were saved. We're not told any details. But that little assembly was formed in the day that there was persecution. And we know that the apostle labored among the Saints. He was a tent maker. And it says that.
In Acts chapter 818 that he labored with equivalent Priscilla.
Because they were of the same craft, but there were times that he was in need. I want to just point out that this little assembly in Philippi was filled with poor Saints, those that didn't have a lot of money. They weren't like the ones in Corinth. They didn't have it made in the shade. They had very little. And they used the resources that they had in the day that they lived in to support Paul's doctrine. And Paul never forgot.
And you know the Spirit of God records in His Word.
In detail, that they thought about him once, twice when he was in Thessalonica and they ministered unto his knees practically. And in their poverty they sacrificed. That the Paul doctrine might go forth, that the gospel might be enriched in the day that they lived in. Oh, I would just ask you this afternoon. The church, you know, is flagging a little. We know we're going to talk.
Little bit about that, but there was persecution, and there are places in this world where the Church is being persecuted. We might consider India and perhaps other places where the Saints are saved by the grace of God, and then even to get baptized is a serious thing for them. They don't likely do it. They're persecuted.
I've noticed we don't suffer a lot of persecution. Paul says it all day that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution and to live in a pious way and a desire to live for the Lord often times will bring some persecution from this world. While we point out that there was an assembly form because there was person persecution, you know in Acts chapter 8. I'm just going to point this out and then move on to another.
Subject Chapter 8 of Acts, it says.
In verse one, Saul was consenting unto his death, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem.
And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
You know when the Lord allows persecution.
When he allows pain and suffering, there's a limit.
Accept the apostles. Have you ever noticed that all the Spirit of God there was a desire of the Lord that the gospel might spread beyond the realm of justice, Jerusalem and Judea, but go on beyond, into Samaria and onto the uttermost parts of the ends of the earth.
But there was a limit to the persecution and we were thinking this afternoon or this morning in connection with the reading meeting. Brother brought it out so nicely in connection with Thanksgiving. You know it says, and we're going to read it a little later on in chapter 5. Ephesians, if the Lord tarries, we get to it, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, when we were young people of Brother Gordon Hail used to minister to us and invite us to his cottage and hammer.
Or in Umm Otter Lake, who would invite us and there'd be 30, maybe 35 of us young people sitting around in his living room by his fireplace there. And we'd have our Bibles open and he'd be ministering something of the truth of God to us, reading these passages of Scripture and seeking to encourage us to go forth in the path of faith.
And, umm, oftentimes he would try to encourage us.
To speak to others and uh, in spite of what there might be persecution, there might be, uh, just a little bit of reproach for the name of Christ. You know what reproach is. Reproach is shame.
None of none of us likes to be ashamed, do we?
The Lord Jesus knew what it was to be reproached. He knew what shame was, but our dear brother would exhort us and encourage us to endure some little bit of shame and suffering for the Lord's sake. Well, there was these, there were these that were persecuted and then they left Jerusalem and they probably left Jerusalem in quite a hurry. So they didn't take a lot of stuff with them. But we know in the earlier part.
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Of the Book of the Acts.
I'm going to read chapter 4 and verse 34.
Let's speak about poverty. We've spoken a little bit about the pain and suffering.
Connection with Paul and Silas we could read other passages. We don't have time. We've read about persecution. The world persecutes, but now with poverty. We find that in verse 34, Acts 4, verse 34. Neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought bought the prices, brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down.
Apostles speak, and distribution was made unto every man, according as he had need.
And then if we.
Look a little further on in UMM, I think it's First Corinthians chapter 15.
Might be 16.
Yes, chapter 16, verse 2.
Upon the first day of the week, let everyone of you lay by him in store, as God has prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come, and when I come, whosoever I will, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, then will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem. You know the Saints in Jerusalem were poor.
My brother chapter Brown used to say, uh, you know, there's uh, nothing. It's not an oxymoron to say that there's a poor St.
It really should be a little more common that there's a poor St.
No, we live in a day of prosperity. But you know, the Saints in Jerusalem, they've been persecuted.
And they had to leave their homes. They'd have to leave everything. We know that equilibrium. And Priscilla, they were Jews when they were perhaps cast out of Rome because Claudius Caesar had demanded that all the Jews must depart Rome. And Sacks chapter 18 ver the 1St 2 verses. But then you find in Romans chapter 16 that equivalent Priscilla are back in Rome. Well, why is that? Well, now they were there as Christians. They were believers now and they were there.
In Rome and they have suffered for the sake of the Lord and let's just read that. I'm not going to quote it right. Romans chapter 16 and it says in verse 5. Now let's read verse 3.
Romans 16, verse three, Greek Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches. The Gentiles likewise greet the church that is in their house. Well, you know this dear couple, we don't know any of their children, if they had any children, but they devoted their lives as a couple to the things of God, and the little assembly was in their home.
I have thought this, and maybe you heard me. Some of you heard me say it. The church.
Testimony began in the homes. There were little homes.
The home of Philemon, the home of Gaius, the home of the Quill and Priscilla. We could name a few more. And here is a little gathering, a little home. The Lord's.
Desire to gather as people together by his spirit, and there was a little assembly gathered in that little city.
Classy.
And here in Philemon's house, there's a little assembly.
And in connection with Aquila and Priscilla in Rome, here's a little assembly and there's a Quillin, Priscilla. They have the assembly in their home. But you know, there's persecution. There was persecution and there was poverty and there was pain at the beginning of the church period. And the church prospered under that, those three things. And I believe perhaps the Lord is allowing a little more persecution in different places. Perhaps it's going to occur in.
If you could use that terminology, we may suffer a little more persecution, a little more pain.
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And, uh, there may be a little more poverty associated with it if we show our colors. In some parts of the world, there is poverty and the church is flourishing and there is persecution, pain.
And the church is flourishing. Oh, may we not look down upon our poor brethren that have very little and they're suffering. May we thank God for their suffering and thank God that He provides for them and look for grace to be able to take of what we have as Paul desired for the Corinthians, that they would lay something aside the first day of the week, and that they would provide for their poor brethren.
Well, let's look at another.
Three little subjects. One is umm, one of the things that has umm, really?
'Cause the suffering in connection with the Church of God we already referred to this morning in our reading meeting. Let's look at Revelation chapter 3.
Since we didn't specifically read.
This passage but.
Brother read to us in connection with.
Revelation chapter 2.
And he read a little bit of the 2nd Epistle to the Ephesians.
That second epistle was written by the Lord himself. The first epistle was written by Paul. The 2nd epistle to the Ephesians was written by the Lord Jesus in Revelation chapter 2, and he felt their heartlessness. But in Revelation chapter 3, it says they're in connection with lazy. I'm going to read it from verse 14 and under the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans, right? These things say at the Amen, the faithful and true witness.
The beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works.
That thou art neither cold nor hot high wood, nor cold or hot. So then, because our lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew the out of my mouth, because thou sayest I am rich an increase with goods, and have need of nothing, and knoweth not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked. I counsel of thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayst be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed. And.
Thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye cells, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him, and will Sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame.
And I'm sat down with my father in his throne.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Then just one little passage in Luke's Gospel chapter 16 and verse 15. Let's read verse 14.
Luke 16, verse 14 The Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things, and they derided him, And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in his sight.
Well, you know the Pharisees, they had a lot of light, they had the Old Testament Scriptures, and they knew something of the mind of God in connection with the morality and with one in respect with to sin.
And they had, as we quoted earlier, the oracles of God. They had something of the knowledge of the living God, that there was one God, and they were at the divine center in Jerusalem at the time that the Lord Jesus came. But you know, they highly esteemed their riches, their property, their wealth. And what we find in Revelation chapter 3 is that one of the things that the church suffers under currently.
And leads to a pitiful state is indifference.
Just who cares? Who cares?
Paul had a mission statement.
I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling, or the calling a high of God, of I'm not quoting it right. Forgiven.
I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
That was his mission statement. There was nothing more important to him than to live for Christ one day at a time.
00:30:03
Is there something more important for you or I than to live for Christ?
You know, it's interesting in the book of the Acts, we get the seed plot of Christianity there in Acts chapter 2.
I often times think of this in connection with Revelation chapter 3.
It says in verse 42.
Acts 242 They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers. Now what does that say to you? Was there anything more important than to be at the prayer meeting?
Was there anything more important than to be under the sound of the Apostles doctrine?
We're talking about a church that was persecuted.
An assembly where if they confess Christ, they said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he is the Messiah.
That has been rejected by Israel. They could well be taken out.
And lose their lives. There was a great persecution, but there was nothing more important to those early Saints than to be together at the prayer meeting, together under the sound of the word of God at the reading meeting, and to be found that the remembrance of the Lord remembering Him in His death, nothing more important.
Oh, I say this, the Church is suffering today.
Suffering because of indifference to the claims of Christ over us. Oh how He, His heart, desires a year and is to have you and I in His presence at all of the assembly meetings, and that He might be the focus of your life and mine.
That He might have our full attention, not just the leftovers. Oh, I speak to myself as much as to anyone of you. How often I've gone days, often at a time, looking after my own interests, but not seeking to look after the interests of the One who loved me and gave himself for me. You just think of it. The highest priority that God had.
Was to send his son into this world.
This filthy world.
Her brother out West used to say it's the most wicked place in all of God's creation.
The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, the one who never knew sin in Him is no sin, came into the most sinful, wicked place in all of God's creation, that He might accomplish the will of His Father, that He might answer the question of sin, and that might be banished from the sight of a holy God for eternity. And that your sins, the fruit of that wickedness and rebellion of man, might be dealt with. That was His priority.
It was inconvenient.
You can read about it in the gospels, how inconvenient it was.
To send the Son, the Father sent the son. Oh, may we just judge ourselves in connection with what we consider to be convenient and instead of lukewarmness, to have our affections stirred for the one who loved us and gave himself for us. Let's turn to Acts chapter 17 and look at another one of the things that the church suffers under currently.
Acts chapter 17 and uh, we'll read from verse 10.
The brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble, were more honorable than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed also of the honorable women which were Greeks, and of men not a few. But when the Jews of Tusselaik.
Acknowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul, of Berea. They came there also and stirred up the people.
Then we could just hold our place there and turn to a passage in Second Corinthians chapter 2.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 2.
And.
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Let's just read verse 11.
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices, or really say should say that we're not ignorant of his stratagems. I think that maybe Mr. Kelly's translation or in his notes, maybe Mr. Kelly's trans Mr. Kelly's translation, we're not ignorant of his devices, of his stratagems. Well, you know what happened in.
The early church.
We find here in Berea that these dear Saints, we're not told that there was a little assembly in Berea, but I think there was. We're not giving all of the details, but you know, they never heard the gospel before.
Then Paul went and preached to them the grace of God, the forgiveness of sins. You know what? You could be forgiven for one sin at a time. He went to the synagogue and you heard about a sin offering, and you heard about a little lamb and a little lamb, if there was a man that sinned in, that little lamb had to die for that sin.
The man put his hand upon the goat with a little lamb, and he identified himself with the sin, and that lamb was taken out, and it was killed.
Dying for one sin.
Well, 5 minutes later, a man sinned again. Always looking for another another lamb. He's looking for another goat.
Never had a purged conscience.
What if he forgot a sin?
Paul comes and he says.
He was preaching Christ and the forgiveness of sins. Let's read it in. Since we're reading in Ephesians, let's look at Ephesians chapter one.
Ephesians chapter one, verse seven, in whom we have redemption through his blood.
The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. They never heard such things. They said we could have our sins forgiven, all of them, past, present and future.
We gotta find out about this. And they searched the Old Testament scriptures. They searched them up and down to verify that this was possible.
I sometimes wondered what they searched. Then they didn't give up. Every day they were looking to see that he was telling them the truth. Oh, how they rejoiced.
Then he has to say to the Corinthians, Know ye not?
That you shall judge angels.
He has to say to the Thessalonians, and mind you they hadn't been saved that long, but he says I would not have you to be ignorant.
Ignorance is one of the things that the church is grappling with today and that is hindering fruitfulness for God. I want to ask you this afternoon, perhaps you've heard me ask it before, but have you read the word of God right from the front to the back?
You know how long it takes to read the Bible, don't you? From the front to the back.
It takes approximately 47 hours to read from Genesis 11 to Malachi, the last verse.
And then it takes approximately another 15 hours to read the New Testament if you took a week off young person.
If you took a week off, you could read the whole Bible.
And you could never claim ignorance. If a prophet like Hosea, you see Hosea in the glory, you'll know his name.
And umm, you'll talk to Hosea, you'll talk about to Obadiah. You say Obadiah, what was it like to prophesied against Eden?
Oh, he'll tell you what it was like.
You talked to Haggy I and he said, what was it like to go see those dear Saints of God in the day after they had just begun? They laid the foundation for the temple and then they gone to work on their own houses and everything. What was it like?
Well, you'd be able to talk with them about those things, but oh, how much more important it is to talk with the Lord about those things that you read in the Scriptures today. Not to be ignorant of what it is to live for Christ and that which He would have us to live. Umm, inconsistency with his character in a character of holiness, a character of righteousness in the wicked world that we live in.
Oh, I felt embarrassed this morning, if I could put it that way.
To have to speak so plainly about what we're Speaking of in first in the in the first few verses of Ephesians chapter 5.
To speak of fornication so clearly, to speak of all filthiness, and to speak of all these terms that the Spirit of God uses so freely, the church is suffering under because of indifference to the glory of Christ and ignorance as to His Word. And then let's look at one more here in connection with in subjection. Let's read.
00:40:23
Just read maybe one passage in Ezekiel chapter 33.
And umm, first 30.
Also thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses. They speak to one another, everyone to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee is my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them.
For with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness.
And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument. For they hear thy words, but they do them not. And when this cometh to pass low, it will come. Then shall they know that a prophet has been among them. Well, I read this little passage of Scripture because you know, we're responsible. We have the sovereignty of God. Two lines of things that go through the Scriptures, you know.
Sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. And you and I are responsible as we hear the word of God, Minister.
God doesn't tell us what we want to hear. He doesn't tell us what those soft words speak unto us. Soft words, it says in Isaiah, that's what the people wanted and they wanted to have a nice time, a fellowship perhaps, and a nice soft words. But you know, the Spirit of God tells us the truth.
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Oh, what do we need to be set free from? We need to be set free from the flesh, from the world, from Satan, from the influence and the pull and the draw of those three enemies are the children of God. We need to be set free and set into the liberty of the sons of God. You know God sent His Son into this scene to set you at liberty.
To live for his glory, that there might be fruit in this world, Mr. Kelly said. Apart from the intervention, apart from the intervention of God himself in this world, the whole of this scene would be a total loss.
But he has intervened and he's intervened in your life and perhaps allowing a little bit of suffering, a little bit of pain.
Are you growing by it? Are you exercised there by and growing thereby? You know, there's a brother out West, Midwest. We were just there. We visited. I'm not going to tell you his name.
But he's just had neck surgery.
Very painful.
I read his emails that I couldn't help but have tears in my eyes as I read the pain. As he told me of the pain that he was having. He said just to roll out of bed.
And a couple of days ago, he was able to roll out of bed and not cry out in pain because he just rolled out of bed to go use the restroom at night. And so he's coming to a little bit of relief. But he says, you know what I'm spending my days doing? He said I've never had the time. He's been doing drywall and plaster work all of his life is approximately my age. And he's looking up at the ceilings and, and all that kind of thing.
And it hurt his neck, so he had to have neck surgery.
He says. I haven't had the time, but I'm listening to Recorded Ministry.
I'm listening to Recorded Ministry and I'm profiting in my soul like I've never profited before.
Oh, isn't that wonderful, to have written ministry? Good, sound written ministry. I want to just say, young people, I wish somebody had said this to me when I was a young person, and I'll say it to you this afternoon.
You'll go to a hotel room, you'll spend $100, a $125.00. Think nothing of it, Just drop it. Walk away and you have nothing to show for it. Isn't that the truth?
But you come to a conference and you look at these books and you kind of look in one and maybe you don't even buy anything but make it a pro a priority to learn the truth of God, to search the scriptures daily and to search these different lines of truth that are given to us in the Word of God. Take $100 and buy $100 worth of books, $100 worth of ministry. Do something and then.
Favor it like a good steak. Read it and enjoy it.
00:45:03
You know, brethren, we have ministry that's rich. Ministry is not filled with air that we have in the camp.
And so we should be very thankful for.
Well, I just read this in connection with Ezekiel because of this tendency, the desire to hear the word, but not to do it really in subjection to the authority of the word of God in our lives. May it have that authority that we should have. Let's look at three things that.
UMM really hinder the church in the day that we live in. Let's look at UMM.
Galatians.
Chapter 5, verse seven. One is the hindrances having bad doctrine. Bad doctrine is a hindrance to us.
So it says here in verse seven, you did run well.
Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not from him that calleth you, not from the Lord.
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
You know, the apostle had to speak very pointedly to those that were his converts and, umm, those that were a part of the Christian testimony in the day that he lived in. And he said there was a hindrance and it was bad doctrine. And he said, I don't know who it is. Maybe he didn't know, but he wasn't saying, and the Lord knows what you're reading, what you're listening to.
I'm distressed.
Brethren, I'm distressed when I go into a home and I hear the Christian radio on, Oh, you say, well, maybe I like to listen to the hymns and so on, and I need to get the news too, and so on. But you know, we've been reading of the filth and the corruption of the flesh. That's what's in the news. I do check the news once or twice a day, once in the morning maybe sometimes, and then maybe once in the evening, just to see a little bit of the high spots of what took place during the day on the Internet.
But to be continually taken up with it is.
Is corrupting, It's a hindrance and oh how much better it would be to have to be playing some Christian CDs. If you want to listen to some music and then do what the brother out Midwest is doing, listen to some recorded ministry, you'll get the commentary that is a little more accurate and inconsistency with the truth of God.
As it's ministered. Oh, I just don't want to speak against our brethren in the camp in one way or another.
But I just say that it's a hindrance to us drug Trinity. If we listen to that kind of ministry, we're not going to get the straight goods even in connection with the coming of the Lord. Well, we have another hindrance in Genesis chapter 24. Let's read verse 55.
Her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide with us a few days at the least 10 after that she shall go. And he said under them hinder me, not seeing the Lord hath prospered my way, send me a way that I may go to my master. And they said, We will call the damsel, and inquired her mouth. And they called Rebecca, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man?
And she said I will go.
And they sent away Rebecca their sister and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men. Then they blessed Rebecca, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, and be thou, the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them. Well, isn't it nice that umm, even though there was a little bit of a hindrance from family and friends? And that's one of the other hindrances we want to speak of. And the day that we live in, we have.
In society at large, in the Western economy, this, uh, little expression, family first in the business environment, am I right? You go to work and uh, people jump all over up, up and down and say, you know, family 1St and you got to treat your family well and something comes up in the family. Take time off, all this sort of thing. But in the things of God, beloved brethren, family relationships can hinder us. And we have it in connection. I think it's in Chapter 11 of Genesis with Abraham the Lord.
Call them to go out of ur the calories. And as long as he had his father Tara with them, he just couldn't get to Canaan, couldn't get there. But then as soon as his father died, then he left where he was and Heran I think it was, and he came into the land of Canaan. He got a blessing, but his father was a hindrance in the things of God.
00:50:04
Perhaps he was an idolatrous man and never left idolatry. We don't know. We're not told.
But I just say this, beloved brethren, there are those family relationships that we are responsible to maintain and that we need to reverence. We're going to go over some of those in Ephesians chapter 5. But let's not have those relationships take precedence over our relationship with the Lord. You know, one of the qualifications of a disciple, a true disciple.
Is that he has one relationship that he values above all other relationships, and that is the relationship with the Lord Jesus.
And He delights to please Him above all others, in obedience to His word. Well, I would like to look at one more, and that is Weights and sins in Hebrews chapter 12.
Hebrews chapter 12. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a witness, a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which are so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and completer finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross.
The shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest we be wearied and faint in your minds. While these weights and sins a weight isn't particularly a sin. We might say you have in Nehemiah. We don't have time to go into it, but you know there are weights and sins.
God's word is very specific. A weight is like a rock.
Maybe a boat anchor. Sometimes, you know, we say this, maybe you'll pardon the expression, but sometimes we look at a young brother who married, and sometimes we wonder if he married a boat anchor.
Someone that isn't consistent walking is a consistent help meet. And maybe sometimes there's a sister, a godly sister that has a desire to please the Lord, and she marries and we sometimes wonder whether she married a boat anchor.
Young sister, are you reading some ministry? Are you reading a little bit of Christian ministry? Reading something of the truth of God, searching daily the Scriptures to learn for yourself Paul's doctrine?
Young man.
Are you looking to learn the truth of God? If somebody asks you, give me a little snapshot of Paul's doctrine, what's he talking about? Paul's doctrine? When he says my gospel, what's he talking about? What would you say?
I used to think that Paul's darkroom was as big as the Titanic. You could hardly walk from one end to the other. You couldn't possibly know every square into this. But no, it's given to us in the word of God. He gives us Paul's doctrine because we're heavenly citizens, and one of the things that characterizes a Christian is intelligence in the things of God.
Not like the Jews who didn't know, but weights and sins, you know, I was reading recently a little book on the umm, escape of General Douglas MacArthur from Corrugator, the island's corrugator. And he left the island, I think it was March the 11Th, 1942, and he was umm, ordered by FDR to leave.
That he might go to Australia and he had a three leg trip and the first leg of the trip he decided that he would take the PT boats there were.
Four PT boats, plywood with Packard engines in them and.
Umm, they'd been beat up the Japanese, uh, they were decently fast boats for the time and, uh, plywood with a little bit of canvas on the outside and, and he was going to escape cricket or, and he'd arrange that at night. They were going to meet and he said they're going to put something like 20 or 30 barrels, 50 gallon drums of oil of, uh, high.
Highly explosive umm fuel on the decks of these uh PT crew. Uh, PT.
Boats and he was to take the president of the Philippines off of that island and they were to escape through the.
Water is infested by the Japanese and try to escape detection and to get the leader of those free forces of the Western world safely to Austria to lead the battle from Australia, any Senate to the president of the Philippines and to his whole entourage, he says minimal. I don't want you to take anything. Absolutely nothing except maybe a change of clothes. That's it.
00:55:18
Well.
Don or The dust came and the sun was setting, and servants came down trunks, all kinds. They made a huge pile of luggage at the Wharf and General MacArthur there started to be a fight about who had.
Seniority and who had priority to get their luggage on board.
General Douglas MacArthur said. Men, we're leaving in 2 minutes, everyone aboard.
General MacArthur had his toothbrush in his shirt pocket, maybe a couple of little other items. His wife had a little overnight case. They walked onto that boat. They left everything behind. They left it all behind, every weight.
And they speed out of that corrugator that left that island in the darkness. Man, Mr. Bulkley LED them through and I understand, didn't sleep for 24 hours as he navigated through those infested waters with the Japanese and escaped. Well, I just say this.
The call, the midnight cry has gone out.
Arising depart, For this is not your rest, For this polluted. Should the story destroy you With a sore destruction arising into part, we're soon to hear the call. We're going to have to leave all the weight.
Not all the sin of unbelief, disbelief in the goodness of God. I'm going to have to leave it all behind. And it's going to be an expression. I wonder sometimes what the people in the neighborhood are going to see when they enter our houses and see what we really valued, all the weights that we left. And it might be different for you.
A weight. A weight eventually becomes a sin. So I just say this.
If there's a weight that is weighing you down, slowing you down, not allowing you to live for Christ, get rid of it. It's not worth having. Lay it aside. Leave it on the Wharf.
And live for Christ today is almost up. I know our time is up. Could we sing just nothing but Christ as long as we go #24 in the appendix?
Nothing but Christ at all.
I can't find it right so when I get my own time in the world.
The heartbreak is running around the heart of the heart of the world.
And ourselves, our loving God, our Father, we thank thee for such a Savior. We thank Thee that the Father sent the Son. We thank Thee for thy love. Lord Jesus, never dying love. Oh, we thank Thee that Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself. A glorious church.
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Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, always thank Thee, blessed Savior, for grace that those things could be written of us. We long to have our hearts taken up with Thyself, blessed Savior, and to lay aside the weights and the sins that those so easily beset us, and with patience to run the race set before us. Give us grace, we pray. Bless thy word, bless Thy people, we ask, and we give thanks.
Precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Ephesians 5:5-14
Reading
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Number 267.
Nsnoise.
I don't know.
If I don't know.
Something together.
Where's your mother?
'S phone number.
B&H, Wisconsin.
Blah blah blah.
Compass City both divorces and Sanchez and a service done unto him. Alas, my master, how shall we do?
And he answered, Hear not for they to be with us, or more than they that you invest, and only shall pray that Lord, I pray thee open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord open the eyes of the young man that he saw. And behold, the mountain was behold a horses and Chariots of fire round about Elijah training.
Father.
We would pray this afternoon for help and we would ask that our eyes would be open.
And we may see the the truth that we find in the scriptures. The things that we talked about this afternoon would be a reality in our heart, not only here but around these meetings, but in our everyday life. Open our eyes and see the Lawrence of this Christ and draw our hearts. After dinner we look for a classic and we pray for it. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Ephesians chapter 5, starting with verse 5. For this you know that no *********** nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God LED. No man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
00:05:13
Be not ye therefore partakers with them, for you were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are approved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever does make manifest is light.
Wherefore he saith.
Awake now that sleepeth, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
And be not and be not drunk with wine, whereas in excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body.
Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands, and everything husbands, love your wives. Even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to Himself. A glorious Church, not having fought or wrinkled, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish, so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord, the Church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Before we continue, umm, don't really want to go back as on uh, what we talked about in the previous meeting, but I was wondering if someone might be able to give a quick explanation as to what foolish talking and jesting means from verse 4.
Aurelia is the children of God, the privilege of inner communication reflecting something of the communication of the Lord Jesus himself. He was an example to us and it says never man spake like this man. And so we often times are let down our guard, we might say and speak out of character and instead of speaking in the dignity of those that are the sons of God.
We take up the same character speech that the world has and that's really not living in the character that we are the sons of God. And so we might even talk, umm, in connection with Justin, I would just say this that we should never speak irreverently of any little passage of scripture, not to make umm, scriptural jokes about a little bit of passage of scripture and, and kind of chuckle about a little bit about it. I know that that's a tendency with each one of us is to umm.
Try to share a little bit of a joke and so on, but.
The word of God is, commands our respect and has a dignity and ought to be taken with reverence. And so we should not be speaking with, uh, irreverence as characterizing our speech. We know that someone mentioned a little bit earlier that, uh, maybe didn't mention lot specifically, but it cost a lot the lives of his, what is his daughter and, uh, couple of daughters because.
As he gave a warning. I think it's uh.
Genesis chapter 19, verse 14. Lot went out and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law. So his mocking, his jesting and foolish talk cost him the lives of his daughters perhaps and his sons in law. So we need to be careful that we speak with dignity, with honor, and that we treat the word of God with utmost reverence and respect.
00:10:34
In connection with Lot, the problem was that.
His advice and his talk were not in alignment.
And.
That is a problem and has been a problem for a good number of years, and still will be a problem if we do not subject ourselves to the Word of God.
It was a striking statement made some years ago by Mahatma Gandhi, and I think we're all familiar with Gandhi.
And his role in the independence movement in India.
Revered by many today, he made a striking statement.
You said if it was not for Christians, I would be a Christian. So he had a he had the opportunity to listen to Christians and he had an opportunity to watch Christians.
And because.
What he heard from Christians did not match what he saw from them.
He rejected Christianity outright and so that's what we have to be on guard from, that our talk matches our walk.
It would be worth Scott taking time, not now, but on your own that anybody else that's interested look at Darby's notes on the translation of those two words. But the one thing I've observed in my life that when I tell a joke or if I use any language that's questionable, the people around me take it as permission to tell a worst joke or use worst language. And, uh, just that thing I've observed.
In the context of the passage that we have here, the apostle is really bringing before the Saints in Ephesus those that are unbelievers and what characterizes an unbeliever. And So what characterizes an unbeliever is foolish, talking, jesting.
He says, Warmongers, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ of God.
So he's not saying that we can lose our salvation, is he? He's saying that those that are characterized by these different sins are expressing publicly that they do not know the Lord Jesus and their living as those that are without God, without hope in this world. And so in connection with the Kingdom of Christ, we have an end of God. Really what the was characteristic of a believer who is.
Really, walking consistently with the Lord is going to live in practical Christianity, what we would call practical Christian. I just point out in Romans chapter 20.
Or Acts chapter 20, I should say the apostle Paul spoke of the three parts of his work, of his preaching.
In verse 24.
Just part way through verse 24. Acts chapter 20.
He says the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God, that's to all men. That's the salvation of our souls. And he was preaching the gospel to as many as he could. And then verse 25, he preaches really to the gathered Saints. And now behold, I know that ye all. That's the assembly and emphasis.
Among whom I have gone preaching, the Kingdom of God shall see my face no more. So that's the moral side of Christianity. They were saved out of hedonism and they needed to know how to live. And so he taught them what it was to be consistent with the life of a believer, how to live practically in righteousness and holiness and be therefore holy even as I am holy. Peter says. And then the third part of his.
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Ministry, he says, uh, verse 26 wherefore I take you to record this day that I am cured from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. And so now he's really speaking to the Ephesian elders, specifically those that umm, had been, he'd spoken to and, uh, the dispensational truth that he had given them and Christ and the church and, uh, the great mystery. And we know that, uh.
He delighted to just ex, uh, expound upon that, uh, ministry and to have them living in a heavenly way upon this earth because they were heavenly citizens. And so it's for us, if we live in character to those that are believers, we will magnify the Lord and will be characterized by righteousness, not by unrighteousness.
Verses three and four are the sins.
And verse five are the persons who commit the sins, but in particular, as our brothers saying, it's the ones who continue in those sins. It's what they do. Verses three and four are what any believer may do. We ought not to do even any of these things even one time. That's what we're told here. But it's possible for a believer to fall into these sins, uh, but not to continue in them.
Whereas an unbeliever is characterized by them and that's the difference. Uh, it's a warning to us. What are we characterized? What do we do? If you're a believer, I say you're not gonna continue in it. And we know this, the scriptures plain on this, uh, one of the places we often get this place, this question in Africa, people questioning your salvation based on these verses. But in Hebrews chapter 12, we have.
The reason why a believer will not continue in this?
And there it says in Hebrews 12 verse six, Whom the Lord?
Maybe I'll start in verse five. You have forgotten the invitation which speaketh unto you as children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor fate, when thou art rebuked of him whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. And then he goes on to speak more about that, and say in verse 8, if you, for instance, if you are without chastisement, where of all our partakers, and are you ******** and not sons?
And so a true child of God cannot get away with continuing on in these stands. We have a Father who loves us too much, and he won't allow that to continue. And so the warning comes as you have, say, for instance, in first Corinthians 11, another good verse on this subject.
Speaking about those who had come to the Lord's Supper and take of the Supper with on judge sin not having judged themselves, at the end of that chapter he says.
In verse 31, if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. That's what a loving father does who can't allow his children to go on in that way. And it says in verse 32, But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not.
Be condemned of the world.
That's what's going to happen to the unbeliever. That's what will happen to the person that this, uh, fifth verse is talking about. And the sixth verse goes on to say the same thing. Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Putting these scriptures together, we know that as believers, we do not have to worry about losing our salvation as many other verses that go along with that.
However, if there is someone here who's going on in these sins habitually in your life.
Then you do well to fear. Have you ever trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?
If you don't have the Father's hand of discipline on you, and yet you're going on these things that we've read in the chapter, then you need to get down on your face before the Lord and repent of what you are and ask Him to come in and save you. Because this verse says very plainly here that the ones who do this do not have any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and of Christ.
00:20:13
Ephesians chapter five were given many choices that we can make, good ones and bad ones. And so every one of us makes hundreds and some might say thousands of decisions every day or every week, and we reap the benefits or the consequences of those. We were to go over to the table and we were thirsty. We could choose a iced tea or water or lemonade or a coffee and our cup would be full. At least mine would. Others might only take a half a cup if they want, but we fill our cups every day. There's a words to the hymn.
Fill my cupboard, I lift it up. Lord, come and quench the thirsting of my soul.
We have choices, and we find here in Ephesians 5 it says in verse six, let no man deceive you with vain word from verse nine, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
So if our hearts are filled with goodness and righteousness and truth, then vain words will not have the appeal says in the book of Proverbs. A full soul loatheth and honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. And so the children of Israel, if they gather the man every day, they were full. But then they wanted the birds that God sent them, and they were so full they were sick. And so that we have choices that we can make in in the previous meeting and in our.
Our brothers talked. There were some allusions to these. I'd like to read them in Psalm One. And in Proverbs 4 and Psalm one it says, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the council of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law does he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.
And then in Proverbs chapter 4 it says.
In Proverbs 4 and verse 10 Hear, O my son, and receive my things, and the years of thy life shall be many. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom. I have led thee in right path. When thou goest, thy step shall not be straight, and when thou run it, thou shalt not stumble. Take past hold of instruction. Let it not go. Keep her, for she is thy life. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it past not by it.
Turn from it and pass away. So here there were choices that are made in Psalm One and in Proverbs 4. To walk in the council the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful, or to enter into the path of the wicked. To go in the way of evil men, to avoid it. Past not by it. Turn from it or pass away. But there is a remedy. And what is that remedy? But his delight is in the law of the Lord. Or take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go. Keep her, for she is thy life.
And every one of us, there are things in our house. If our house would burn down, what would be the first things you would take out of your house? Some people, maybe it's a photo album, some people would, some antique keepsake. We have things that are precious to us that are valuable. And if we take hold of things.
With fervency, and with passion and with zeal. Then when the foolish talking and when the vain words come, we'll cast them aside. So we're given hundreds, thousands of choices, and God has given us His peer. Precious word as silvery as Psalm 12/6. I'd like to read it in verse six. The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified 7 times. Thou shall keep them, O Lord, Thou shalt preserve them from this generation.
Forever the grass Withers, the flower fades, and the word of our God stands forever. So God has given us the precious resource to guard us. It's been said it's better to have a fence at the top of the hill than an ambulance at the bottom of the hill. And God has given us many guardrails. Many. His word is a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path. And if we take hold of the precious things.
Now to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet, but a full soul loathe and honey bones. So God has given us things to fill our souls. To the things that would harm us, that would destroy us, we will cast them aside, and we won't be deceived by the vain world which are so much about us.
I wonder if I could just, uh, make a quick comment. I'll stand up here so I can be heard. Umm.
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Why are verse five and six brought in?
I if I could just summarize it is to say that God cares about sins.
Umm And uh, just to reiterate what Brother Kim said, these verses are not brought in to make us doubt our salvation, but the keywords are the middle of verse six. These things. Umm, So what the Apostle Paul is doing is he's saying don't be confused about why unbelievers are punished forever in the lake of fire. Don't be confused about it. It's not just because they refuse the gospel. It's not just because they reject Christ.
Rejecting Christ is what ends them up in a lost eternity, but they're actually punished for the things they do. And So what he's saying is, don't you know that it's because of what they do that they're punished? And knowing that God is going to punish them forever for the things they do should make you realize how much he cares about these sins and how important this really is to him. And so he concludes in verse 7, be not therefore partakers with them.
Verse six, Perhaps we might say there this, these vain words, let no man deceive you with vain words. We might make excuse for things. And God is not going to accept an excuse. There are not going to be exceptions, so to speak. And the word of God is pure. Everything that he has said He will stand by. Man is going to be judged by the word that God has spoken. He's not going to make exceptions.
But there may be that thought in, umm, some individuals that there are some circumstances where we might be able to get away with some of this, uh, under special circumstances. No, he says, that's empty, that's vain. Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of the sons of disobedient. Be ye therefore be not ye. Therefore it should say, fellow partakers with them have no fellowship.
With that kind of activity, it's not consistent with a child of God.
Verse seven is one of those patterns Brother Paul was talking about this morning. But it starts with a reason why we shouldn't participate. It looks at what we were. We were the same as what they were.
We were in verse 8 here sometimes darkness, but what are we now We're light in the Lord and when you get hold of that and what it means what I was Christ died for me, made in me a a new creation.
Now I'm light in the Lord. That is incredible.
And that's the reason, the reason why we shouldn't partake with them.
In the second chapter of Ephesians we have the same thoughts brought out in verse two, wherein time passed. He walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air.
The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
And then it goes on in verse 11.
And I believe what we have between verses 11 and verse 13.
Brings up distance and nearness.
Says Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh.
For cold uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flash made by hands that at that time.
Ye were without Christ, being aliens from the common world, worth Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But we're thankful for verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus.
Ye who, who sometimes were far off, are made nigh or near.
By the blood of Christ.
It is important to see that this is our standing before God. We always are in the light as to our standing.
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Alas, sometimes our practice, our state, our spiritual condition is not up to that standing that God has given us in Christ. We are children of God. We have a.
We're accepted in the beloved even if we fail, still we are in the light. That's brought out in first John chapter one, that's why.
Sin in a believer's life is more serious than sin in an unconverted person because a believer sins in the light, so the relationship is not broken. If I sin, I'm still in the light as to my standing before God. However, the enjoyment of that position is interrupted. The Spirit of God grieved, and therefore I do not enjoy.
My position and my portion that I have in Christ.
In verse eight he mentions light and darkness, and God always divides between the light and the darkness, doesn't he? We find in uh, Second Corinthians chapter 6 that the apostle, uh, speaks of separation there practically in verse 14 to the Corinthians he says be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial, Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God has said. I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate, saith the Lord, And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.
It will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my son and daughter, saith the Lord Almighty. Now we know, as our brother has said, our standing is, uh, sure and certain. It's based on the finished work of the Lord Jesus. We're cleansed with the precious blood of Christ, but our state can vary. But we're exhorted in our responsibility before the Lord to walk in the light and to make sure that we do not try to mix ourselves with the works of darkness that are characteristic of those that are lost.
So it's a privilege, isn't it, to walk in the light and to know the Lord Jesus in that character of light. He's not only love, but he's light and and no wonderful just to be able to walk in a dark scene and to have fellowship with the Lord. That's the basis of our fellowship is walking in the light. That's John's ministry might turn to that first John chapter one just to get that connection first three.
That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship or communion with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things right we unto you, that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard of Him. And declare unto you that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
Well, in verse seven, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. So I say the blessing, the position that we have, the enjoyment of that position that we have, the joy, the communion that we have with the Lord is based on walking in the light and in communion with the Lord. You know the word here, fellowship.
There's one word that's used in the King James that's translated communion or translated fellowship, and I think it's around 15 or 16 times that it's used. It's the same word. And so to walk in communion with the Lord, we need to walk in light so that the apostle is giving this.
Exhortation to the ephesian Saints that they might desire to.
Uh, judge any attachment whatsoever that they had with the works of darkness. And you and I become very insensitive to how dark, how satanic the world is that we're living in. It's more satanic and it's more controlled by Satan than we think. And we see it in the, on the corner when you drive down and you see something that says, uh, you know, palm reader or something like that, you see something.
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A tattoo parlor. It's all satanic in its character, and the believer ought to be as far away from those things as you can possibly get.
Yes, we saw it in first John that says that we walk in the light and here it's actually a little different, he says you are light.
And both of these things are unchangeable. That's simply our position, what we are and where we walk. And all believers are there. But the verse also speaks here and gives the exhortation. Walk as children of light. And it wouldn't say that.
If we couldn't walk otherwise, that's the problem. Even though positionally we are taking care of by the work of Christ and believing on Him. We are simply children of light. Yet we can walk as these children of disobedience. We can walk as if in darkness even though we're not. And so the exhortation is is so important and we need it.
Umm.
You know, there's various things that can come in and change it, and you go to 1St Thessalonians chapter 5 and you find out there they were falling down and sleeping like others who slept in the night. It's a similar exhortation there. We can fall asleep in this world. Umm, just carelessness and indifference like their brother was mentioning in the last meeting. Another thing is to take up with the things that we had earlier in the chapter, and the Lord speaks of this in connection with light in Matthew chapter 5.
Just like, look at that for a moment.
I think it's it's really important.
There, there's something that we can't do.
If we're going to stay walking as children of light, that is.
We can't be divided, and so in Matthew.
I think I have the wrong chapter here. Matthew chapter 6 sorry. And verse 22. He says the light of the body is the eye, therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Now this is what we take in.
And then he's talking about morally what's formed within us, not what we are positionally, but what is the result. And so he says, if thine eye be evil, verse 23, and thy whole body shall be full of darkness, if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? And so he's talking about a an evil eye and an eye that's not evil. And what is the eye that's not evil? It's the one that's single.
The single eye is the one that's fixed on Christ. It's not divided.
And I is evil, and without exception it brings in darkness and a darkness so great that it can be greater than that of the one who's got the single life of the world, who's the children of disobedience, the ones who are children of darkness. It's important that we understand that we cannot, as the next verse tells us, we cannot serve 2 masters. So moral impossibility.
We are either going to have an IA single eye for Christ, or we're going to have a divided eye and the result is going to be gross moral darkness and we'll walk not as children of light.
I often wish that it was otherwise.
But it's not otherwise. The Lord has said this and we need to recognize it. And this isn't some great trial to overcome either. You go and try this in your life, to have a single life for Christ and realize the joy that is there and say why waste the time for the other. These are actually precious things. To have these warnings and then to take the warning, take heed to it, and then to fix the eye on Christ and enjoy Him and His fellowship in His company, and then walk this way.
In communion with him.
That single I will help us to walk circumspectly too, as we have in verse 15, won't it?
I was just noticing some of the verbs that are used from verses 10 on proving reproving.
00:40:08
Awakening.
Arising and walking.
And I don't wanna get on, uh, much, uh, beyond the verses that we're looking at right now. But in verse 15, I was just noticing that word circumspectly.
We sometimes hear of someone that's circumnavigated the world.
In terms of a maritime venture or circumvent?
Uh, which means to step away around or walk around something that has some danger connected with it.
Not too long ago, I was reading an account that occurred during the American Revolution.
The colonial army was trying to prevent the British from coming up the Hudson River.
And under the Colonial General Putnam, they had installed barricades in the river, and they were of an irregular nature, so that.
Under normal conditions, a ship could not sail through it.
But somehow a copy of Putnams instructions was smuggled out of the colonial camp and it reached the British Admiral who was in charge of the fleet. And the colonial army was on the bluff thinking that the British ships would be prevented from coming, and as they saw the ships coming up the river.
They would slow down, they would tack, they would change direction and they would go up a little further. They would do the same thing and within a short period of time they had.
Clear the whole barrier that had been set up to prevent their passage. Now what was necessary on the part of those British seamen? They had to consult the chart, they had to look at the map, they had to see where the dangers were and they had to take action to avoid those wrong steps that would have impeded their progress.
So I'm sure that that's some of the thought that we have expressed here in verse 15.
It's also in verse 10, isn't it? Proving what is that acceptable or proving what is acceptable or agreeable unto the Lord?
So if we want to walk as children of light, then we need to spend that time talking to the Lord and seeking to know from Him. Is this thing agreeable?
Very clear about some of these things that are wrong and for the general guidance is quite clear too. We had a parenthesis in verse 9 says for the fruit of the I think it should be light, not spirit. For the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. And so it's quite apparent that the the light is the opposite of the things that we've been looking at. But specifically, what should I do as a believer? Well, I need to take that to the Lord. I need to ask him proving what is the is agreeable unto the Lord. What does he want me to do?
What does he want from me? It isn't what is so often asked, is this OK? Is this something I can do? No, the question is what is agreeable to him? What does he want from me? And that's really how to walk his children of life.
It's interesting to notice that the apostle uses that same word agreeable in different places. I might mention a couple of them. One is we've already referred to in Romans chapter 12. He says there in the end of verse two that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now how much can you improve on that the perfect will of God and so we often think that.
We can do something and it's going to be acceptable to our brethren or be acceptable to.
Our peers, but really what we need to be concerned about is it acceptable is our conduct is our objective acceptable to the Lord and according to the wisdom of the word of God. Another one is in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 28. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace or a thankful spirit whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence.
00:45:27
And godly fear. So that would bring the forest the fact that it's possible to serve the Lord, but not to serve them acceptably. And so we need to be careful that we yet as a man not crowned except he strive lawfully. And so the Lord is the one that gives us the instruction as to how we might serve him in the day that we live in and serve him acceptably according to his instructions given in his word.
So it takes spiritual exercise, doesn't it, brother? In verse 10, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord?
Question I'd like to ask myself and others who decide how much light can be shined.
Uh, this place is quite laid out, very brightly.
Changed the walls here, including 40 Watt bulbs. We'd all be squinting to try and see what we're reading.
The same thing with their Christian life is the Lord that we read the word of God, the more light we have within ourselves and we project to others.
If we wear as bright as these lights are, you can't even look at them for two minutes and you'll have to look down because they're so bright. My brother, it's it's a challenge to my argument. How bright are we?
A shining forth, uh, in this uh.
In this world is amongst our assembly with our friends.
Perhaps, uh, we, we're all in the light right now because we have fellowship with each other and especially with the Lord. So we have.
All the brightness of the light that he can handle and and experience, but by far is that we might see this conference the shining brighter for the world.
Might be good to point out in verse 9 the proper rendering of the verse, and I'll read it in Mr. Darby's translation. The between the brackets there. For the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. So the Lord is light, God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. And so if we walk in the light, there is fruit, and it's going to be in the righteousness that we want.
Verse seven is tells us that we are not to be partakers of the person to do these things.
But then in verse 11, it's not just to not have fellowship with them, but not have fellowship with anything that they do either. It's the deeds themselves. In verse 11, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
And when we look at what is said in these verses.
Brother Bruce is mentioning about walking circumspectly in verse 15 and fell on it. Looks like they were proving it's primarily in the way that we walk. Walking as children of light, we might have an opportunity to say no, that's not right.
If you like John the Baptist, but primarily it's by living.
The light doesn't make sound, as it's often mentioned, doesn't make noise. It shines, and that shine reproves. And so we're to live out these things in our lives, and the very fact of doing that will reprove the darkness around us. Now we live in a day when the darkness is growing, and perhaps it seems like it's just becoming overwhelming, but we can still do this. And if the darkness gets greater, if we're going to walk through the Lord, the light should shine even more in contrast to it.
So it's not that we should be overwhelmed by it. We've got an inexhaustible source of it and the Lord himself and his in his word.
We need to go on doing this and having a single eye on Him so that those things don't have any effect on us. And who knows, the Lord may use us to be a blessing to someone else as a result. I guess we have brought in here to the thought of the self judgment because we need to bring our ways under the authority and light of the Word of God and if there is that which is contrary to the light, contrary to the holiness of God.
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We should judge it, we should put it away. That's the, the condition of communion with God because we do have this, uh, this evil nature and, uh, we must keep it in the place of death as we were, as we've often been reminded, we need to, uh, have the word of God cleanse our ways when we bring, uh, things into the light of the word of God and have God's mind about these things. Often it calls for self judgment in our lives. So.
We have a little example in the Old Testament. I'd like to turn to the First Kings chapter 13.
Those that walk in an unrighteous path oftentimes want you to draw alongside so that it eases their conscience. And so if they feel like they can convince you to come along with them, it kind of eases their conscience and things that seem to be a little better for them. So first Kings chapter 13 and verse 7, the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me and refresh thyself, and I will give the reward. And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me.
Half thine house I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place, for so it was charged with. Charge me by the word of the Lord, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou came is. So he came another way. He went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel. Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel. And then a little further on he said.
In verse 18, this old prophet deceived the man of God, who said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art, And an Angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. Well, we know that it cost this man of God his life. It was a serious thing to set aside the word of God, and it in Israel's economy, if they received a message from an Angel, it was a serious message.
But this man of God, he was deceived, there was a lie told, and it cost him his life. And so it can cost us our testimony to have fellowship. And that's really what it is, to go and to eat bread, to drink. And that sort of thing was really viewed as having full and free fellowship, but in a wrong position. And so here we're given this admonition and it says all things in verse 13 that are reproved are made manifest by the light.
For whatsoever does make manifest as light, wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, or from among the dead in Christ, shall give thee light, or shall shine on thee. You know there's the Lord. You're going to have the privilege. Every one of us has the privilege of walking in fellowship with the Lord, walking in the light of His countenance, and in sweet communion with Himself. Or we can be lower our guard and walk in fellowship with this world. That's not a very happy path.
And that man of God in First Kings chapter 13, as I say, he lost his testimony, he lost his life. And the Lord gives us these little indications in the scriptures to how serious it is to mix ourselves with those works of darkness.
The 1St 14 is a verse of great hope, isn't it?
Because it's talking to a believer. This is one who is a child of light, but he's fallen down and he's sleeping. It's really arise from among the dead. I think is is the translation. And he's like one of the dead, and yet he's not. It's a child of light. And that's the word. There's recovery here.
We can still come to the Lord, he says. Christ will give thee light.
He's always there ready to give that which is wanting again. We don't have to stay in that darkness. Yes, there might be terrible failure, the loss of testimony, but there's that offer from the Lord Himself, and it's something that we need to take. But I just want to go back for a moment. And verse 11 speaks about again the unfruitful works of darkness and not having fellowship with them.
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And he says, rather reprove them.
This is something goes back to what we had this morning.
These works of darkness are put out as entertainment.
Rampantly with us, we can't take it any other way. You can't go and get a movie and just go into the quiet of your room and watch that thing and not be completely defiled by it. You're doing exactly what it says here.
You're actually having fellowship with that work of darkness, and it says here that it's a shame even to speak of those things which are done with them in secret.
That was the condition in those days, the things were done in secret. Today it's not. Tells us that too at the end of the end of Romans chapter one that.
They not only I'm not going to quote it right. Let me look at read that first because it tells us exactly where we are today.
Chapter one and verse 32. Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death.
Not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. That's the character of the world today. There's no shame in sin. It's a grand thing and if you disagree with it then the wrong is on your side and you can get put in a very bad place at work if you open your mouth.
Or in many other places too.
We're in a world that is no longer got shame. Have things done in secret.
So given that that is so, how can anyone of us as a child of God go and take those things of the world and go ourselves?
Perhaps in secret and enjoy it.
Is it possible?
Of course it is. I've done it.
It's serious, though. It's very serious.
And for any of us who have done that, it's something that grieves the heart of the Lord like.
We can't even imagine, and it has a terrible effect on ourselves. And yet there's recovery. If you're doing that, if you're going and taking those things and you're the one spoken of, I'm the one spoken of, if I'm doing that in verse 14, the one who's among the dead.
He says wake up Christ, they'll give you light. There's still an opportunity. You don't have to stay there.
That's the hope for every one of us today. We're in this condition.
Daniel chapter one gives us an encouraging.
Story and encouraging account.
We have Daniel.
We have Hananiah, Michelle and Azariah mentioned in verse 11.
And it says, Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, 10 days, and let them give us holes to eat and water to drink.
Sounds like fairly Spartan diet if we could refer to it that way.
But what is? What is it in contrast to?
We see in verse 13 it speaks of the portion of the King's meat.
We see that the king consents to their desire. Verse 14. So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them 10 days. And at the end of 10 days their countenance appeared fairer and fatter and flash than all the children which did eat the portion of the King's meat.
Thus Malzar took away the portion of their meat and the wine that they should drink, and gave them pulse. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill and all learning and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
So the Lord blesses them for the stand that they took and for their faithfulness.
And may that same desire that was.
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Manifested in their lives being manifested in ours today.
The author of the book of Epistle to the Ephesians was Hall and Paula had some experience with light. We find that the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Well, there's three times I recall an act where he recounted his experience with the light. And I'll just briefly read them if you want to turn to them or know them. And Acts Chapter 9 and verse three it says. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus and suddenly there shined round about.
Him a light from heaven, and he fell to the earth. Suddenly there shine round about him a light from heaven, and he fell to earth. And then in Acts chapter 22.
Telling the story.
Acts chapter 22 and verse 6. Then it came to pass it as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon. Suddenly they're shone from heaven a great light round about one. So there's a mention of the light from heaven, and it was a great light. There's a sense of the intensity of it round about him, the same phrase round about him as from Acts Chapter 9. But then it's instructive in Acts chapter 26. He refers to it again when he's speaking to Agrippa.
Acts chapter 26 and verse 13 at midday, O king, I saw the way alight from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round about me and them journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, when it first happened, it's it's recounted as it were in third person. The second time we recounted and he realized that it was a great light. And the third time he noticed it was above the brightness of the sun shining around about him.
The first two times he mentions that he fell to the earth. The third time he noted that they all fell to the earth. And so in the light of God pierces our souls or the sense of humility, there's repentance. Where was the place of blessing in the gospel? It was at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the place of blessing. At his feet. Paul fell to the earth, those around him fell to the earth. And Paul's desire for those dear Saints and Ephesus was that they.
Receive the light, and that they fall to the earth, as it were, and be at the feet of Jesus to have that conduct that was consistent with the character of that perfect one. So Paul had much experience in the shining of light, and much that he could share with these dear Saints.
And just a a further word on this fourteenth verse.
If we turn to Revelation, we don't do that. But there's a word to Sardis.
And the work to start us was, Thou hast the name that thou liveth.
And are dead.
And I, you know, in my own soul, I don't know if I'm unique in this way, but there's sometimes in my life I just, it just seems to be a deadness there.
Just doesn't seem to be much like.
And.
I appreciate what it says here. Wherefore you stay up, awake, out, asleep.
And arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. You know, what we've had in these verses is in contrast to the earlier verses. And I think I just make a comment particularly to those who are younger. And it's not just those who are younger, but those of us are older too. The reason we dabble in things in the earlier verses is because we just don't get it.
That's, that's why we, we, we spoke earlier about umm, about serving some masters. You know, we, we can't physically take a basketball and, and put it into that basket and put it into that basket at the same time. We just can't do that.
And, and to try to, to dabble in these things in the earlier verses, it brings the deadness into our soul. And what it does is, you know, brother Robert, you, you brought before us just at the start of your, your address, that, that concept in, umm, in Luke's gospel chapter 8, right after that verse, it speaks about the candle. What do we do with a candle? Umm, do we put under a bed? Do we put it, do we put it under a vessel? Is it hidden? You know, one of the, one of the things that, uh.
That, uh, is part of our testimony. I, I is the light shining and, and, and, and I think I just made a comment that sometimes we just don't get, uh, the, the concept of, of, of dabbling in two things. It just doesn't work. And what it does is, umm, it spoils our testimony. And you know what we hear people, uh, looking at a believer and saying about them, I've had this happen where a person says, you know, I want to have what you have. And what is it that they want? It's the light that they see. Yes, the light approves the, the darkness that reproves some of the things that they do, but it's not just that it's attractive.
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And when the light shines, what does it do? It eclipses everything else. It eclipses everything else in my own life so that nothing else matters but but that which is of the light. But it also eclipses everything else so that it's attractive to people when they see the light. And you know, that's a marvelous thing because that's that's one of our, our greatest testimonies is simply walking in the light. And when there's a lack of that, as we had in Revelation, there's just a deadness there. There's a name.
There's a name that there's life.
But there's deadness and it's just it, it, it's, it's of no value whatsoever. What a marvelous thing. What an encouragement for us to to walk in the light that which is real. The apostle brings that to Timothy. The things that are really life, those those things that are life. Oh, what a wonderful thing to walk in those very things. Even the creatures of the night are attracted to the light.
Our God is light, and though we go across a trackless wild, our Jesus footsteps ever show the past for every child in 275.
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Nsnoise.
Gospel 1
Gospel—John Kemp
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Good evening ladies and gentlemen. We open our meeting tonight with number 50. Happy day that fixed my choice and be my savior and my God some brother would start it please.
Never let me know what the hell I don't know anything flowing along with my creative life and now it's all a crying through all the crowns.
We pray loving God into our Father. We thank Thee this evening for this another opportunity to tell forth the glad tidings of Thy grace to this company gathered here. We thank Thee for many that happy day has come that we can sing with joy.
And reality.
That we know our sins are forgiven, and that we have peace with God. But this is a gospel meeting our God, and we are dependent upon thee for the going forth of the message of pardon. Should there be one in the company who is still in his sins.
Without hope and without God, facing a lost eternity, that thy Spirit may work in the heart and conscience.
Before the door is closed forever, we seek Thy help. We pray that souls might be brought from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. This very night in this room, Christ may be glorified. So we look up and seek Thy help, asking and thanking in the worthy and precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
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Bring to sing another hymn.
#9 Come every soul by thin oppressed. There's mercy with the Lord. Shall we stand and sing #9?
Everybody stop and I'm gonna take it again and I'm gonna see if you've received a letter. I have a noise as well. I'll have to see you.
Tonight we have a message of pardon, a message of salvation for whosoever.
I assume that many in the room have heard this message, perhaps many times, but it never loses its freshness and its sweetness because it is coming from the heart of God. And perhaps that happy day has never come in your life yet. Probably.
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Maybe you are trying to find your joy and your satisfaction.
In the things of this world which cannot satisfy, Solomon had everything that the world could offer him, and he came to that conclusion all his vanity and vexation of spirit. My dear friends, God has a message for you from his great heart of love tonight.
He wants to bring you into.
A relationship he wants to save you from those sins that have.
Blotted your life. He wants you to have a happy eternity and have peace with God that will last forever. But you know God gives warnings.
And because there is judgment and.
Men and women are in danger of coming judgment. God in mercy He gives warnings. In love He tells people of the danger of neglecting their eternal soul salvation.
He points them to God's remedy for their deep need as sinners.
You know, in England there is a signpost there made of stone. It has arms pointing the direction of the town that it indicates. 17th centuries that stone signpost has been there pointing the way to this destination.
The words are a little blurred on it, but it's faithfully pointing.
To the right way. And that's all we want to be here tonight, dear friend, is a signpost to point you to the cross of Christ, to the one who bore the awful judgment of God to save you from a lost eternity, the one who can give deliverance.
Peace, assurance, forgiveness of those sins that have blotted your life.
And perhaps you would not like to.
Divulge what those sins are, but you're not too great a Sinner for the Lord to meet you in your deep need. The Lord is reaching out with a message of pardon tonight.
And Sal salvation for whosoever.
This week I visited the City of London, ON.
We had some opportunities to spread the gospel in that city among many boys and girls who need Christ.
I was to meet a man in London. It didn't work out this time. For some reason he was occupied.
But I want to meet this brother in the Lord. His name is Matthew Carapella. I've read the background history of this man and it struck me. It impressed me greatly. Here was a star football player at the very top of the team captain.
He had money, he had fame.
He had a penthouse apartment.
He had the respect and honor of many people, his classmates or his teammates. He was heir to a very prosperous construction business. He had the world at his feet. You'd say. What more did he need? But he had in his soul a deep thirst for something.
He didn't know what it was, but in some way the Lord met Matthew.
And humbled him and showed him that these things that he was living for giving his energy and time. He traveled worldwide. He had a reputation. You know, he said none of those things that I enjoyed really satisfied my heart. It was empty. But he said when I found Christ.
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When I yielded to the Lord.
When I bowed the knee to the Savior, acknowledging my guilt and my sin and my wretchedness and my misery, the Lord came and delivered me and saved me from a lost eternity. Well.
He wasn't very popular when he confessed Christ, as you would probably know. He lost the penthouse apartment and he's living, living in a basement, and he goes around the streets of London with sandwich boards and scriptures on them with a microphone announcing the glad tidings of God's grace. I'm looking forward to meeting Matthew.
Because I've done a little of that myself in the City of London. It's not easy.
But Matthew had something that really satisfied his heart. It overflowed and he wanted others to know that message and to be brought to the saving knowledge of the grace of God well.
We too, dear friends, have a message for you tonight and we want you to see the Lord Jesus.
The Son of God left. The glory came down into this Dark World.
Overcame. Vanquished Satan.
And delivers all those who through fear of life, death, were all their lifetimes subject to bonding. This man of Calvary has a message for you tonight. We want to know. We wonder, have you bowed the knee to him? Have you acknowledged your guilt to the Lord Jesus Christ?
Have you believed that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son?
And whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Henry Morehouse was a young man.
Who lived in England. He came over to this, uh, continent.
And he asked Mr. Moody, could I take the platform just to let me deliver a message for you? Well, Mr. Moody was a little skeptical about him. He says, I don't know whether you would be able to do that, but I'm going on a trip. And so I'm going to let you speak to the audience.
A couple of nights. Well he didn't. He spoke 6 nights.
In Chicago to a large multitude and you know, he spoke on John 316 for six nights.
And then he said, on the 7th night I look to the Lord and.
I thought if I climbed to Jacob's ladder and spoke to Gabriel and asked him what message should I give tonight, he would tell me speak on John 316 and he did the presentation that he had revolutionized Mr. Moody's preaching because he had always thought that God was against the Sinner.
With A2 edged sword ready to judge him.
But when he heard Henry Moore house unfolding from a full heart, the love of God, the work of Christ, the grace of God reaching out, he said it changed my whole manner of speaking. Now he spoke of God's grace and love reaching out to the Sinner in his deep need. Dear friends, that's the gospel we.
For you tonight, and we want you to.
To have those sins forgiven. And we want you to see by faith the Lord Jesus lifted up between heaven and earth.
Sufferings for your guilt and your sin. To believe in the finished work of Calvary, not in your own good works. God is not asking you to turn over a new leaf. It'll just get as filthy as the other one. Many have tried that. He's not asking you for reformation. He is bringing you a message of pardon.
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He is showing you there.
That blood stained cross of Calvary, where the Son of God loved us, gave himself for us.
And the heavens were opened. We should read that verse. Shall we look in Matthew chapter 3, verse 13, verse 16?
And Jesus when he was baptized.
Went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him.
And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him.
And law of voice from heaven.
Saying this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. While this is a remarkable account here because.
The Lord Jesus had lived 30 years. He had demonstrated in his walk his moral worth and excellence. And here we have the seal of the Father's delight in his Son. The heavens were opened.
And some people say.
We there's there's nothing about the Trinity in the Bible, but here we have the Trinity.
We have the Father speaking from heaven. We have the Son, they're baptized, we have the Spirit of God. There is the Trinity there.
And it expresses heaven's delight.
In God's beloved Son, who had glorified him in his pathway down here, who was going on to the cross, who set his face as a Flint to go to Jerusalem, the one who would accomplish the will of God.
This is not the voice of John the Baptist here, but it's the voice of God.
Speaking in honor of the person of his beloved son.
Dear friends, tonight we present to you that man of Calvary. I think often of that verse. How beautiful are the feet of him that announced this glad tidings of of the grace of God. How beautiful are those feet that walk to this weary world of sin and sorrow, the one who healed the sick, and cleanse the leper and raise the dead.
Those beautiful feet that Isaiah speaks of were wounded, pierced for you on the cross of Calvary.
And now God is offering you a full salvation. You know, when the Lord went back to the glory, perhaps the last thing they saw were those feet that went up through the cloud.
And he had such a wonderful welcome from the Father as he entered into God's presence as a man now glorified at God's right hand.
But you know it says, What are these wounds in thy hand?
And the Lord will have to say, those that I was wounded in the House of my friends, their wounds, they're not scarves.
And that work of the Lord on the cross is fresh in the memory of God tonight.
And he came into this world to reveal the heart of God. He came to heal the broken hearted, to open the eyes of the blind, to deliver the captives from darkness and death and sin. He came revealing what was in the heart of God. Let us look.
At another opening now in Luke's Gospel, chapter 4.
We have the Lord here in his public ministry.
Opening the book there in the synagogue of Nazareth where he had been brought up as a boy, and reading scriptures that we have in the book of Isaiah, verse 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach.
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He is anointed just a minute now He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted.
To preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind. To set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
What a wonderful mission the Lord had. He came from the Father's throne.
And when he entered this world, men were ignorant of Him. They didn't know of His coming. The religious leaders were not interested. But heaven was in an ecstasy As for the first time the angels saw their Creator glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. He didn't come to die for angels.
He didn't come to save them from the chains of darkness, but he came to save you, my friend.
If you're in this room without Christ, without God, the Lord wants to satisfy your heart. He wants to cleanse you from your sins by His precious blood. He wants to give you a new life, make you a new creature in Christ Jesus.
You know, I was speaking distributing the word in Brazil couple of months ago.
We were working in one of the towns in the state of Sao Paulo, on our way to some ministry and another assembly. We stopped to distribute tracks in this particular town and as we were working on the streets, I saw a man outside of a pharmacy.
And he was all dressed up in, uh, in a uniform.
And it was easy to see what kind of a person he was. He was a clown and uh, he was performing very well. And uh, I said to him, you are one of the best clowns that I have seen. If these people are not going to buy after you perform, no one else can can do anything. Anyway, I said before I leave, I want to tell you a story.
About another clown, another man. So he listened. He was a respectful man.
And I said one time there was a man who was.
Very, very depressed and, uh, unhappy. And he went to the doctor and the doctor, uh, examined him and, uh, found that there was nothing physically wrong with him. But he says, doctor, I'm so depressed, I can hardly live with myself. What can you do for me? Well, he says there's, there's no medicine I can give you.
But if you go down the street there.
There is a clown that is performing down there. If he cannot lift you out of your sadness and your depression, no one else can. Oh, he says, Doctor, that will not do. I am that clown. Well, we trust that the message got through to him, that the the vanity of this world.
Cannot satisfy the heart of man.
Anyway, the Lord here is is commencing starting his public ministry. And what a wonderful ministry it was, the gospel to the poor.
Uh, broken hearted, you preach to broken hearted people, you'll always have an audience because the world is full of them and they have no one to heal. Those broken hearts preach deliverance to the captives.
Oh, dear friend, if you're still without Christ, you are a captive of the enemy.
And he is a cruel master, a strong man, armed with all the entertainments of this world to keep you asleep in your sins, without Christ, without God.
My dear friends, tonight God wants to heal that broken heart. He wants to bring peace and salvation and forgiveness. We want you to look at the cross tonight and see God's beloved Son.
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Upon whom the heavens broke asunder.
Dying there, suffering in the hours of darkness and distance and anguish and agony that we cannot conceive of in order to save you from the judgment of those sins that you have committed. Because God is holy, He will punish sin. Someday the books are going to be opened. The book of your the history of your life is.
Going to be open there at the Great White Throne, and every thought and every word and every act that you have ever done will be recorded there, and the Book of Life will be opened. And if your name is not?
There, inscribed in that volume, will be cast into the lake of fire, boys and girls, if you accept Jesus as your Savior tonight.
He will write down your name in the Book of Life.
And no one can rub it out. It will be there for eternity. Not even Satan can rub it out. Or any Angel. Will you accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior tonight?
Well, the gospel has a warning too. You know, I go to India often.
And a few years ago, you remember the tsunami that, uh, went across the, uh, the Indian Ocean and, uh, struck the, uh, the mainland of India. But there was one mistake that the Indian officials did. They did not have a warning system in place.
They had three hours, they knew it was coming, but there was no warning system.
To tell people of the danger and it hit with a tremendous force. Nagapattinam, where I have contacts that I send material to. It went in there and washed away thousands of people into a lost eternity. No warning system in place, but God has given you a warning.
In love that you might escape a far worse judgment.
It says in that very chapter we were reading, Flee from the wrath to come. Dear friends, God in his mercy has waited 2000 years and he's waiting for you tonight. His arms are wide open. Those arms that were nailed to the cross, Our sins nailed Him there when He suffered.
Blood and died. God gives you a warning.
I've just returned from Halifax.
But you know, in Halifax in 1917, one of the worst explosions that is recorded took place. I think you've probably all heard of the the terrible.
Catastrophe that took place in Halifax December the 6th, 1917 when two ships loaded with munitions for in the First World War collided in the harbor of Halifax.
1000 people were immediately killed, every window within 5 or 10 miles was shattered and the fires broke out all over. It was a complete devastation of that city. 1917 John Coleman was in the train office in the train station.
Operating the Telegraph system.
And he saw the danger.
He knew that a train was coming, coming into Halifax with 300 people on board, and instead of fleeing for a refuge to save himself, he stood at his post and he gave the warning to the engineer of that train. Don't come into Halifax. There's danger. That was the last message he ever gave in his life.
Because he lost, he sacrificed his life. The train never came in.
It stopped well out of the region of Halifax and those 300 people.
00:35:05
I've never, never forgot the kindness, the sacrifice of John Coleman in staying at his post and giving the warning. Dear friends, God gives you a warning tonight and He loves you and that warning is given from the heart of God and this may be the last opportunity that you have.
To hear the gospel message.
I was distributing tracks in Ottawa a few weeks ago or a month or so ago.
At a shopping center and I saw a young man walking there with his girlfriend, I assume, and he had a sweater on and on the sweater were these words don't push me over the edge. Well, I said, young man, that's strange statement there. I've never seen that before. What do you mean? Well, he tried to give some explanation, but I said remember.
That if you're unsaved, you're already over the edge.
And God is waiting to lift you up and put you on those shoulders of strength and take you home to the glory. Well, He thanked me for the track and promised he would read it. Dear friends, you're in the horrible pit and God wants to lift you up. The amazing thing is that the Lord Himself went down into that pit. He, the holy, spotless, eternal Son of God, went down into the pit.
To bear my filthy sins in his own body, and to finish the work for God's glory.
And for your blessing will you bow the knee to him tonight as this may be the last meeting. There's many other openings we could speak of if we had time. Here we have an open book, a note here that the Lord did not finish that verse to to declare the acceptable year of the Lord. The rest of the verse is the day of vengeance of our God. But.
Isn't it remarkable and wonderful to understand that the Lord stopped there? The day of vengeance of our God has not come. God is still long-suffering, impatience, not willing that any should perish, because it was the day of grace and mercy and forgiveness. The day of vengeance is coming.
The great White throne, the books will be opened, the heavens will be opened again, and the Lord, who has the right to this earth, will come forth from heaven with His Saints, with the armies of heaven, to execute judgment upon all the ungodly in this world.
But tonight is the night for you to open your heart to the Lord.
And you have that opportunity because remember, like the foolish virgins, the door will be closed.
And if you're outside, you'll be outside for all eternity. I think of Lydia in the book of Acts. We won't take time to look at it, but to read it. But to remember, when the gospel for the first time entered the continent of Europe, it entered by means of a prayer meeting. There wasn't a great campaign with a lot of announcements.
Paul did not know where to go, but he found some women who were.
On the Riverside, in a prayer meeting. That's how the gospel began in Europe. And that's very important for us to remember that it is going to be blessing in the gospel. There must be prayer, and that's where we fall down, myself included. But anyway, she had a heart that was opened. She was a quickened soul. She was anxious, she was an earnest Inquirer, and she heard the message from.
The lips of the greatest preacher outside of the Lord Jesus. And she, she responded to it and she opened her heart to the things that Paul spoke of. Then she opened her house to the evangelist too. And so, dear friends, as we come to the close of our meeting, we do point you.
To the Son of God.
Who gave his life on Calvary's cross?
And bore that storm of judgments.
00:40:02
Stroke after stroke, as God's wrath awoke, poured out unlimited fury of God upon the eternal Son of God, who was bound there by the chords of the altar, the the fetters, the chains of love held him there for you.
And he's now inviting you to come as a Sinner to Christ.
I've told this story before. I'm going to finish. Yes, the time is almost over here.
Tell you the story of, uh, an evangelist that I have a lot of respect for. I've read his history. I've read his biography. Maybe you have too. Richard Weaver lived in England.
He was a tough character if ever there was a drinker.
A coal miner. Rough, tough he would. He was in fights every day.
And he would come home bruised and bleeding his face.
Bathed in blood and his dear mother.
Would gently bathe his wounds.
And uh.
Quote John 316 to him.
And said, remember Richard, in the hour of your greatest need, you can call upon the Lord and he will hear you, while he didn't listen very well, but those words.
Lodged in his heart and soul and this sort of life just filled him with misery and shame and he was terrified. Maybe I've sinned away the day of grace. I'm such a vile character. Is there any possibility of me being saved?
But God had his eye on Richard Weaver and.
Satan also had his eye on him. He had beaten up many, many of his comrades. He was a good fighter. But this, this last fight that he had was greater than any that he had before because he was in the death grips with a more terrible adversary than any human being. Satan was bidding for Richard Weaver's soul.
They're in a sand pit where he was agonizing.
Tormented by 1000 doubts.
In his soul.
Supposed to fight with a man the next day, but this was the the greatest struggle he had ever had in his life. Satan was there. He's a strong man and he's armed. But you know where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And there in that sandpit.
Richard Weaver yielded his soul to Christ. He believed that verse that he had heard from his mother's lips night after night. And he said, I knew that I was one of those whosoever's and I believe the message, God saved me and delivered me from all that wicked way of life.
Drink and all the violent, corrupt way of living.
And brought him to Christ. Many souls were saved through Richard Weaver. He was a bright and a shining light. And many were brought from darkness to light. Well, as we close our meeting, we would sincerely invite you, as God Himself has, to come to the Savior just as you are.
Because.
The Lord Jesus came into the world, walked in love and grace.
For one purpose, to tell out that good tidings that were in the heart of God.
And we're on the very threshold of the Lord's return. Will you bow the knee to that Blessed One?
Who is now offering you a full and a free?
And an eternal salvation we cannot promise tomorrow. May God bless His word to us tonight. And if there is one who is halting between two opinions, may you have the grace to bow the knee in true repentance. Repentance, the teardrop in the eye of faith. Repentance, taking your sides with God against yourself.
00:45:13
Acknowledging what you are in the presence of a holy God and then trusting in the finished work of Christ. May the Lord bless His word to us as we sing in closing 1 short hymn here.
Number.
21 Joey. Standard thing #21.
Good evening.
Nsnoise.
Shall we pray our loving God and our Father? We do pray for the message that has gone forth.
Uh, in weakness, but we thank Thee that Falcons touch hearts and draw needy souls to Christ our God. We pray for the outgoings of grace, those beautiful feet upon the mountains, and each one of us who know Thee as Savior can have those beautiful feet that take out the message of pardon and salvation.
To a lost and perishing world.
While there is still time. So we seek Thy blessing on the message here tonight and wherever it goes forth. And we pray that there might be joy in heaven over one Sinner that repenteth, that we may realize the urgency of this matter, salvation from a lost eternity when hell will open.
Its its mouth to receive those who in this day of grace have rejected that offer of pardon salvation.
Well, we pray for souls and we give thanks for this privilege in the name and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Three Stones
Children—Ted Allan
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Well, good morning. There's plenty of seats up front if there's any children who are sitting shyly in the back rows up here.
OK, this is Sunday school, so we're gonna start by singing a few hymns. And I think it'd be nice if perhaps some of the children, if they had one, they would like to sing. Maybe you'd like to raise your hand. There's songs in the very back of the sheet that you each should have. And, uh, if you have one, you can just raise your hand and I'll ask you which one. Does anybody have a favorite? Benjamin 32?
Somebody could start that, I'd appreciate it #32.
OK, does anybody else have one they'd like to sing?
45 Thank you.
Too little eyes to look to God. OK, if somebody could start that.
All right now.
So that's the word for them.
Uh-huh.
00:05:07
That was a very nice one. Thank you. That's the last two lines really are a prayer and I think really a wonderful prayer. You know, I think it would be good for each one of us to pray that prayer. Take them, Lord Jesus, and let them be always obedient and true to Thee, whether it be our hands, our feet, our eyes, our ears.
That we would use those for the glory of God. OK, who has another one?
46.
Nsnoise.
OK. Does anybody else, Laura?
41 Thank you.
Around the throne of God in heaven will many children sing. That's true. I think they'll be so many, probably even far more than we even realized. So #41.
Around the throne of the throne of the throne of the.
And we'll have a call on everything if you don't wanna go.
Forward and give them to me on the head of the heavens on the screen. And glory and glory and glory and glory and glory and glory, glory and glory, glory, glory if you're in a lot of time.
In the shining world.
What a great end to that world.
Is going to cry everywhere.
In the Children's Day.
OK, well sing one more.
34.
OK #34.
Nsnoise.
00:10:19
Nsnoise.
OK, maybe we'll ask the Lord's help.
Our father, we give thanks for every boy and girl who's here today.
We just pray, Lord, that each and everyone of them might be found that day at that throne surrounding the singing praise and honor to the Lamb. We know, Father, it will be because of that precious blood of Jesus that each and every one of them will be there in that day. But if there's one here, Lord Jesus, who has never given their life.
And their heart to be that they would do so today. And we just commit the next half hour into thy hands. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Well, this morning to talk about something, I'm holding in my hands. What am I holding?
What do you think, Trip? Yeah, it's a rock. We're gonna talk about stones today. I realize the word is somewhat synonymous with, perhaps a rock.
Rocks are mentioned really throughout Scripture and you know, as a little boy I had a lot of fun with these, perhaps like many of you. In fact, where I grew up in Nova Scotia, I used to spend hours over at my friend Jonathan Dickey's house out in the back. They had a little Creek and we would put rocks there and try to divert the water and build dams and we just spent so much time there.
Playing with rocks and stones and you know, rocks can be used in many different ways. And this morning I thought we would talk about 3 different ways. There's more than that in the scripture in which rocks are used. OK, so we're going to turn to the first thought I was thinking of and.
It's found in First Kings chapter 5.
First Kings chapter 5 and I'm not going to read the entire passage because of the interest of time.
But I'm going to read 2 verses, verses 17 and 18.
And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and huge stones to lay the foundation of the house. And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew them and the stone's cores. So they prepared timber and stones to build the house. And then I'm gonna read one verse in chapter 6, and it says in the house, when it was in building was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither.
So that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building.
So what we're talking about here was actually the temple.
And they went and got rock from a place called a quarry. I don't know if anybody knows what a quarry is, but they went and cut these rocks out of a quarry. And these were big rocks. A little bit later, it says some of them were 10 cubits in span. That would be like 15 feet, I'm guessing blocks. So these were very sizable. This is not like a stone I'm talking about here.
But a couple things I want to note out of this. In these particular verses I'm gonna refer to stones that were used.
In construction, OK, these were stones that were used in the construction of the temple. It refers to them as great stones and costly stones. It would have required a lot of effort for somebody to go in and cut those out in that quarry. They would have had to use many different tools at that location. But you know, they did all the refining there in the quarry and when it was done.
They transported those rocks over to where the temple was being construct constructed and put them.
Into place.
00:15:01
So why do I mention this?
You know, we are all like those stones in a certain sense.
You know each one of you children are like stones that are costly.
And you are costly because there is somebody, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave his life for you, each and everyone of you. And in that sense we are costly. You know, there's a verse in the Bible that says for ye are bought with a price.
And that's found in Philippians. It says for your buy with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods.
You were bought with a price. You know, there's a song I used to think about when I was a child and it said this.
He's still working on me to make me what he ought to be. It took him just a week to make the moon and stars, the sun and the moon and Jupiter and Mars. You know, I used to sing that song. And there was another song I used to hear on many of the trips my parents took. And it said, this kids under construction, maybe the paint is still wet.
I don't know if anybody's heard that song, but I will say this, that there's more than just children.
Who are under construction and the paint is still wet. And what do I mean by that? That God is still working on not only you, but me and those who are older in this room. In fact, I overheard one of the brothers last night mentioning that God was still working on them. And that's so true.
I speak primarily to children this morning who have given their life to Jesus.
And children, God is working in you right now.
Have you given your life to Christ and he will not stop working on you? It says in another place in the Bible. It will continue until the day of Jesus Christ.
He is working on you.
You know, my prayer is that as he works on you, that you would be receptive to when that hammer and chisel is applied in your life.
And that you would be obedient unto him.
He is working on you because he cares for you.
But you know, a little bit later it talks about the fact that when those stones were completely cut and refined, they were brought to the temple. And it says once they were brought, there was no, it says stone or uh, I'll just read it says neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house when it was in building.
Those were man made tools.
But when it came to the actual construction of the temple, none of those tools were heard. They were not being used.
And what I take of that is, you know, in a certain sense, we'll talk perhaps a little bit later about it first, Peter but talks about us being as living stones, as being part of the house that God has constructed, a spiritual house, God's house. And in that house there is nothing of man represented there. It is all God's doing.
Remember, boys and girls, it is God that's working.
In your life to shape you and refine you. You know in today's society we hear a lot from various preachers that talk about the fact we need to improve our own life and do certain things to make us better. But the fact is that it is God that's working in you and through you in your life.
And when he is doing that?
Maybe like that little hem said when I was a child and I often think about.
That we would say, make me a servant.
And that you would be receptive to when the Lord is working in you and through you. OK, so that's the first one. Stones that were used in construction. The second one I want to talk about is a very well known one. And First Samuel 17 with respect to David. So let's turn over to that.
First Samuel 17 I'm going to read 3 verses starting at verse 38.
00:20:01
It says in Saul arm David with his armor, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head. Also he armed him with a coat of mail, and David girded his stone upon his armor, and he has saved to go, for he had not proved it.
And David said to Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them. And David put them off him, And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag, which he had even in a strip, and a sling was in his hand, And he drew near to the Philistine.
So I'm sure we're all familiar with the story of David and Goliath.
The first thing I've note here is that he was offered to take armor and use it, but he had said that they hadn't tested them, he hadn't proved them, and so he didn't want to use them. What was it that David was comfortable with and using?
Ben.
What he had.
And what did he have?
A sling on some stones? Yes. David was a shepherd boy. He took care of sheep and he was very comfortable using a sling.
I'm sure brother Tim here could probably tell you more about this, but I was hearing recently, uh, from the president of Compassion International. He was raised in Africa and he talked about boys in Africa that still use slings to this day. In fact, he said that he used to use them on baboons.
And he used to laugh and said.
He didn't think actually what David had done was any amazing thing. They used to cut a little piece out of a tree and they used to hit the bullseye right out of that tree with their sling. And he said that Goliath was actually the stupid one, that he would get that close to a boy with a sling. But David was very skilled with his slang.
And a stone so we know the story well. He goes to the brook and he chooses 5 smooth stones.
David obviously had courage. It says that he had a few things really here, It said. He had a staff.
It says that he had a shepherd's pouch, he had his fling, and then he had these five smooth stones.
Now this stone I referred to as a stone that's used in battle.
OK. And for this particular stone, it obviously required a lot of courage on David's part to go in front of that giant that was close to 10 feet tall.
He was 9 cubits I believe in a span. He was very or six cubits in a span. Sorry. He was very, very tall and uh, he used these stones.
This stone I think we've probably heard, but if not, I think it could be likened to the Word of God in Scripture. In fact, I've heard it at one point in my life that the five stones could represent, in part, the first five books of the Bible.
In Ephesians it talks about using the sword of the Spirit, it says, which is the word of God.
It's a good thing, boys and girls, that you become acquainted with the Word of God in your youth.
And not just to read it, but to memorize it and study it.
It's amazing to me. Umm shouldn't be amazing, but how often verses come to mind.
Throughout life, and it's not necessarily because you're thinking, oh, I need to think of a verse. The verse just pops into your mind and it can be used at just the right time.
You know, in the book of Hebrews it talks about, and I'll read it here because I'll probably misquote it, it says the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And that's in Hebrews 4 verse 12.
When David was out on those fields watching the sheep.
We it's very clear from the book of Psalms he spent a lot of time thinking about God.
And he was very much acquainted with God himself.
You know, when the time came, he knew by experience from taking on a lion and a bear that he could take on that giant.
00:25:03
And he came before that giant, and he spoke with boldness and courage and basically set in effect, How dare you defy the living God?
David had courage because he was acquainted with the God of this universe.
Boys and girls, don't wait until you're a teenager or the age of your mom and dad. You can become acquainted with God even at your age. The age of trip here, or Zach or Benjamin or Laura. The age of the boys and girls here, in fact.
You know, later in David's life, I think he lacks some of that same courage that he had in his youth.
And he was afraid to deal with the issues that his son caused them.
And in fact, it talks about another man later that would come and throw rocks at him and kick up dust at him.
And he learned through life's difficult experiences.
Perhaps.
Had he?
Had he spent more time thinking about the God who he loved in his youth, perhaps he wouldn't have made those same mistakes later in life. But in any case, back to what I'm talking about. The stone that he used on Goliath that day was the stone that was used in battle, and it was used for victory.
So, boys and girls, the point I want to make is become acquainted with the word of God.
And study it and memorize it.
And it can be done at any age, at my age, the age of four or five can be done at the age of 507080. But it will benefit you for your entire life.
And it can be used in victory.
To help you defeat the enemy who wants to really ruin your life.
You know, in Hebrews it talks about it being A2 edged sword.
And perhaps just as much in my own life.
As I thought about it in connection with the things that I faced, I have found it to be two edged because it speaks to my own heart and my own soul.
Just as much as it can be used for others.
So this is the stone of battle. The third one I want to talk about is over in the book of Joshua, the book of Joshua chapter 4, and I'm going to read 5 verses here. Chapter 4 verse 19 says and the people came up out of Jordan on the 10th day of the first month and in Campton, Gilgal in the east border of Jericho.
And those 12 Stones which they took out of Jordan did Joshua pitch and Gilgal. And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask your father's in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?
Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land, for the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you until you were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea.
Which you dried up from before until we were gone over, that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord.
That it is mighty that you might fear the Lord your God forever.
So we considered first stones that were used in construction, stones that were used in battle.
And this one I like to think of stones that were used as a memorial.
Just a bit of backdrop. What happened here? They traveled through the wilderness land for 40 years. They came to the Jordan River.
Has it been many years since they across the Red Sea and God instructed that there would be 12 men that would go and gather 12 Stones out of the Jordan and they were to take it where they were going to camp when they crossed the Jordan River in a place called Gilgal?
And they were to set up 12 Stones there.
It seems also clear that they took 12 Stones and they put it in the midst of the Jordan River, where the feet of the priests also stood, who carried the ark.
This was a great miracle that God did in the parting of the Jordans so they could walk through this river.
00:30:01
It is estimated there was well over a million people that traveled from Egypt into the wilderness land. Quite a number of them died in the wilderness, but I'm sure it was still a quite a large number that crossed here at the Jordan River, given at least the children who were born in the wilderness and so on.
These stones were there because when the children would come across these stones in Gilgal later and ask their parents about it, they were to remind them what God had done at the Jordan River.
And parting the waters there.
You know, stones are used as a memorial sometimes today. Umm, it's kind of tradition in our house that we go to Mom and dad Hadleys at Thanksgiving and we often take a walk through a, a graveyard actually at the end of the road. And there's one place they actually have a bench that's constructed of stone. And they often have the person, whoever died there, one of their children, I presume, comes and sets a stone each time they come and visit. You often see a single straight line.
Just to acknowledge that they had been there.
Stones are used as memorial and other lands like Nepal and stuff today.
But this was to be a memorial to remember what God had done at that place.
It is a good thing, boys and girls, to remember, especially as you go through life and you experience God's ways and what He has done with you, to remember His goodness, His faithfulness, and His wonderful works.
But I want to talk a little bit further.
In less than an hour, there's going to be another memorial that will take place in this room.
Commemorate the greatest work that has ever been done on the face of this earth.
And on this table, there's going to be set a loaf.
Of bread and a cup of wine.
I think sometimes as parents, we may take it for granted that children know what that represents. But I remember I was probably 9 or 10, asking my brother Danny, asking what? What do those people do when they close their eyes, when they take the bread? I didn't fully understand. I knew that they closed their eyes, but I really wasn't sure the significance of what was going on.
The significant boys and girls is we are going to come together in a short while.
To remember that God sent his Son into this world.
And he came and he lived 33 years on this earth, and that it brought him to a cross.
And that he gave his life to be a ransom for many.
The greatest act, as I said, that has ever been done in the history of this universe.
And it says in the night of which Jesus was betrayed, he sat down with his disciples, and he instituted that of which we will do here shortly.
The bread that signifies the body of Jesus that was broken for us.
And the wine signifies his blood that was shed for us.
And we are never to forget.
What happened that day just outside the city of Jerusalem?
The disciples, it was their practice to do it on a weekly basis on the first day of the week.
And it is our privilege to do that.
There are many Christians who don't do it on a weekly basis. Some do it once a year, twice a year, maybe not at all.
But it is our privilege, boys and girls, to remember what God did for us that day.
Have you thought about it?
You know Jesus said this do in remembrance of Maine. Perhaps there's a young person.
Somebody has been thinking.
About taking their place at that table and remembering him and his death.
00:35:04
It's a good thing, it's the right thing, and God has asked us to do it.
So these were stones of remembrance.
And they were to recall that to their children for many years to come.
You know, there's other stones that are mentioned in Scripture and we just don't have the time to turn to them. But I'll just mention them briefly in passing.
There were stones that were used in judgment.
With respect to a can, he was the man.
Who stole that which did not belong to him? He coveted some Babylonian garments, silver and gold I think it was.
And Israel lost the battle at AI because of it. And God instructed them that they were to take stones and it said all of them, and they were to stone a can and his family there.
It's an uncomfortable story.
My children just asked me recently about it.
Stoning actually happens in this world today.
In Muslim lands.
It's a brutal way to die.
But boys and girls, young person, older one.
To die a death of stoning will be nothing than it would be like for you to hear the things that you hear in this place and reject the gospel of God's salvation.
The judgment that you will endure will be far more severe.
Akin he coveted, he saw, he took that which did not belong to him.
Some in this room are guilty of stealing.
I know I have stolen my life.
Taking that which did not belong to me.
I deserve to die, but the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death.
Stones that were used in judgment and then the last one just in passing.
In first Peter chapter 2.
It talks about a stone that was rejected of man.
Does anybody know who that stone refers to?
Laura, the Lord Jesus.
Look at that stone on that table.
First, Peter talks about Jesus referred to as a stone that was rejected of man.
But chosen of God and precious.
Is he precious to you, young boy? Young girl?
To follow Christ in this life, there will be rejection.
There will be suffering.
And hardship.
And Jesus knew what that was like.
If he was chosen of God, disallowed of men.
He was precious.
We could consider a lot more with respect to this topic.
But just remember that there was that stone that was disallowed of men.
For us who are believers.
Referred to as living stones in first Peter chapter two-part of that spiritual house. I trust that you are each and everyone of you, boys and girls, is a living stone here today.
God has a great plan for your life.
Life has a way of taking many twists and turns, some for the good, some for the not so good.
But you, as a Livingstone, remember that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
And he loves you and cares for you and wants the best that is for you.
But if you choose to follow him, it's not necessarily going to be an easy path.
If you've never given your life to the Lord Jesus, I invite you to do that right now where you're sitting and just say, Lord Jesus, I invite you into my heart and in my life. I yield my will to yours, and I seek to serve you and follow you.
00:40:15
It's important to acknowledge your sin, confess your sin to him, and remember what He did for you at Calvary's cross.
So again, 3 stones primarily. I wanted to talk about the first one, stones used in construction. Lord's not finished with you, He's not finished with me.
It is God's doing #2 stones that are used in battle. Get acquainted with the Word of God. Study it, memorize it. It will benefit you your entire life and help you to gain victories like David did.
The third one is the Stona Memorial, those 12 Stones that stood in Gilgal. One thing I didn't mention, it's interesting that I was in Gilgal, the place where they were circumcised. And as those stones were there for memorial was the place where they had to cut off the flesh. And those who are older, as we come together, it's important we judge those things in our life that are dishonouring to God.
Stones and memorial.
And then the other ones I mentioned in passing stones used in judgment.
And finally, the stone that was rejected of men.
But precious to God.
Let's pray.
Our Father, we do thank Thee for this time this morning.
We thank thee for that one who is precious to thyself, who always did that which was pleasing unto thee.
We know, Father, that we are often like wayward sheep, doing our own will.
But we know there was that one who was perhaps or we know, rejected of men, but indeed precious to thee.
We pray that He will be precious to each and everyone here. We think of the boys and girls. We just trust and pray that they have given their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would follow Him.
Not only in the good times but also in the hard times, we pray for our young people and those who perhaps may be going through a very difficult time. We just pray that they would turn to Thee and follow Thee while there is still time left. We thank Thee that thou start work, still working in US and through US, Lord Jesus, and Thou will continue to shape and refine us.
We know it is not of man's doing, but it's all of thy doing, and we praise thee for it.
And thy precious name we give thanks, Lord Jesus Christ.
Finishing Our Course
Address—David Mearns
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I wonder if we could open our meeting this evening with singing. Uh, we've already flung this hymn before, but we'll sing it again. It's #278.
278.
I'll teach us, so the power to know.
A risen life with thee not we may live well here below, but Christ our life may be. Somebody please start for me #270.
5.
Uh-huh.
Alright, yeah. May I know that?
You.
Uh.
Hello.
Nsnoise.
Turn with me, please, to Luke's Gospel Chapter 14.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 14.
Uh, labeled as an address to believers.
And I trust, with the Lord's help, to take up the thought of finishing our course.
Now here in Luke's gospel verse chapter 14 and verse 25, we read. And there was a great there were great multitudes with him. And he turned. And he said unto them, If a man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yeah, and his own life also he cannot mean by the sight pole. And whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
For which of you intending to build a tower and sitteth not down 1St and count at the cost?
Whether he have this is our subject now, whether he has sufficient to finish it, lest happily after he had laid the foundation is not able to finish it all that behold it begin to mock him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going to make war against another king sitteth not down 1St and consulteth whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that come up against him with 20,000.
Or whilst while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassador and desires conditions of peace so likewise.
Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not, all that he hath cannot be my disciple. Let's ask the Lord for his help.
00:05:08
Our God and our Father.
We thank Thee most of all for the Lord Jesus.
We're so thankful for the time that we've been able to have together over Thy precious Word. Thou has brought many things before us, hard even to add to what we've had, but we pray our God that Thou grant special grace this next few minutes.
That our time might be for real profit as we look into these blessed pages once more, and to hear Thy voice as Thou desire to speak to us one more time before we separate and go our several ways.
So you would think of each one here again, of us with different circumstances, different trials, by the way.
Various things that stick to come into our lives to interrupt our communion. We just would pray our God for Thy blessing now as we would look into Thy precious word, that it would be for real profit for us, and we'd ask it as we give thanks and the worthy and the precious name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
Just had a birthday.
My wife always gives me a.
Ministry book for my birthday.
Umm, I usually ask for that. She says all these books and you want another ministry book?
So she keeps giving me ministry books and I'm so thankful for them.
Umm, this year, however.
Uh.
She gave me ACD.
It was a a CD of Beethoven.
Joshua, at least the team will have to cut me a little slack here as I hopped in the van and stuck the CD in a Beethoven.
Umm, my early days, I was instructed. Umm.
In music, and I came to appreciate many of the conductors that.
Compose various and sundry. Umm.
The tunes, in fact.
We are indebted.
The Beethoven for some of our tunes.
I'm not sure he'll appreciate the way we think some of them.
But, umm, it's wonderful to stick in ACD and you know, you hear these various things also. Oh my #223 and I, I enjoy that. But one of the things I thought about.
As I was listening to this CD.
Something I picked up when I was in school, before I was married, as we were in school, uh, the uh, Conservatory of music in at McGill University in Montreal.
There was a piece that Beethoven.
Composed.
At the end of his life, he didn't live very long.
And it was a concerto. It was a Piano Concerto. Now what a concerto is, it's an orchestra that plays.
At the same time as a single instrument. So actually the orchestra accompanies the instrument after the concerto is. And there's violin concertos, there's piano concertos, there's horn concertos, there's there's flute concertos, there's cello concertos, there's all kinds of concertos. And what they are is an orchestra, full orchestra accompanying the single instrument.
So at the end of his life Beethoven, he composed this Piano Concerto.
And what was interesting about this piece on its debut when it was first played?
The the orchestra played and he played the piano, but not only did he play the piano, he also conducted the piece. So you just picture him on the piano playing and conducting at the same time. Occasionally that happens. Takes a lot of skill to be able to do that. Went through the whole piece, 40 minutes of it.
And, umm. The audience gave a standing ovation. He got up from the piano, he stood before the crowd, and he bowed.
And they kept on clapping. I'm gonna add one detail. It's gonna change this whole picture for you.
He was stone deaf.
00:10:01
He didn't hear a note of it. He didn't hear one note of it.
He's directing with his eyes and with his hands. When the first violence came in, when the horns came in, when the flutes came in, when the cellos came in. Pounding away on his piano, not hearing one note.
Sometimes, brethren.
We have a difficulty.
Deciphering what is a door that the Lord is closing.
And what is the adversary seeking to discourage us?
When I think of this story and it was a it was a great disappointment to him to to come to the point where he started to lose his hearing. And I understand that there was panels around his house and the strings were all broken from his pounding away on these notes and not being able to hear anything. But in his mind he heard it all.
You know, sometimes we get when we have this afternoon the the concept of the sloth and the slug, the slothful and the slugger and and sometimes it doesn't take very much to discourage us from our pathway.
We we've just read a portion in connection with building a tower.
And then a subsequent portion. Let's look at it. It says verse 28. Which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down 1St and counteth the cost whether he have to sufficient to finish it?
And then it goes on and says in verse 31 or what king goeth maketh war against another king sitteth not down 1St and consulteth whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000. We look at that and we think, well, that's a no brainer. We're just not going to do it. But you know.
The name of the Lord is a strong tower.
The righteous run up into it and his faith if we have that strong tower behind us, and that's why we hear, we read about the tower first. If we have that strong tower behind us, it doesn't matter how many are in front of us and we go with a few men, there's going to be victory.
I enjoy the order of this portion, it's beautiful what king goes to make war against another and sitteth not down 1St and consult us whether it be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000 or else while the other is yet a great way off. You know that doesn't matter if there's a strong tower that's been built.
The name of the Lord beautiful to consider that. Well, I'd like to look now at, uh, just for a, just for a moment at Acts chapter 20, Acts chapter 20. If we could do that for the apostle Paul, He makes a comment here.
As he calls the elders of the church.
Verse 24 But none of these things move me, neither count on my life dear unto me, so that I might finish my course with joy.
Don't we like that wording?
Isn't that attractive? Finishing our course with joy, You know there are so many.
And have a good start.
And have a poor finish.
And I'd like to look now if we could turn to the.
The Book of Zechariah for a moment in the Book of Zechariah.
We'll look at the UMM at the 4th chapter.
So I want to look a little bit at the just touch in on a few portions in connection with Ezra building.
And we have here.
Umm in Zechariah chapter 4.
The Angel talking with me came again. Wake me as a man that has wakened out of sleep. We've had that before us, haven't we? Verse five. The Angel that talked with me answered and said, No, thou nought with these beasts, speaking about the two old olive branches. The answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but my, my spirit saith.
The Lord of hosts in verse 8. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of the rubble have laid the foundation of this house.
And his hands shall also finish it. Thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things? Now let's turn over to the book of Ezra, The book of Ezra.
00:15:02
The 4th chapter When the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God of Israel, then they came to Zerubbabel and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build you, for we seek your God as ye do, and we do sacrifice unto him. Since the days of Vaser Hayden, king of Asher with brought us up, hit her but the rubble. And Joshua, Joshua and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, You have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God, but.
We ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the King of Persia, hath commanded us.
You know, the enemy of our souls, he doesn't want us to finish our course. Well, he doesn't want to do that. And it's been really striking, uh, for me to read what transpires here. It says in the fourth verse. Then the people of the land, they weakened the hands of the people. That's the enemy's work. That's what the enemy wants to do with each one of us so that we don't finish.
Our course with joy and then it adds something it says and they hired.
They troubled them in building and they hired counselors against them. Notice this next phrase that really struck me when I read that. I'm actually looking at Ezra in my personal reading right now, and it says there to frustrate their purpose.
Tim said we looked at the concept of purpose last weekend and Dorothy and we did. And here what does the enemy do? He wants to frustrate their purpose. They had a purpose, they had a purpose and it was a fixed purpose.
And they wanted to make sure that that purpose was accomplished. And the enemy too. He saw that they had a purpose. And So what did he, what did he do? He comes in to frustrate that purpose.
So without going through the portion, let's look at the end of the chapter.
Verse 24. Then cease.
The work of the House of God, which is at Jerusalem.
So it's ceased.
Until the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia.
That's a sad commentary, isn't it?
For the people of God to have purpose.
To have that purpose frustrated.
And the work ceased.
Done.
I was thankful for what we had in the open meeting, how we had brought before us that God's thoughts are not gonna be frustrated.
But often in our pathway there are things that are obstacles.
That frustrate our purpose. You know, if if I was a composer and all and I went deaf, I'd say well.
Uh, this is, uh, kind of a silly work to compose a piece of music and then not only that, but to, to conduct it and to play the piano. I can't hear a thing, no.
Beethoven had a purpose and, uh, it wasn't frustrating. And I, I there, there's so many things that come across our pathway and we, we see them come across our pathway and we think it's a closed door and it's not what it is. It's the enemy seeking to frustrate our purpose.
So we don't finish.
Let's umm, let's go to umm the umm, the 5th chapter.
And we redeem the prophet's Hagiah and the prophet then the prophets Hagia the prophet Zechariah the son of idol prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them. And then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Chiaofiel, and Joshua the son of Josadec, and began to build a House of God which was at Jerusalem. And with them were the prophets of God helping him. If he went back to, to Zechariah, we'd we'd find and we went to Hagiah. We would find how they, how they.
Sought to exercise these ones to pick up and to work again and they did the, the prophets. They just didn't tell them to do it, though they, it says they worked with them. We see that right here. It says, umm, the, the end of the second verse. The prophets of God were helping them at the same time. And I just, I'm so thankful for those that have encouraged me in the pathway of faith when I've sought to throw the towel in and I've and they've gone alongside of me and sought to encourage me to, to, to carry on with the work and to, to seek to finish my course with.
You know.
A number of years ago when I was in grade school.
00:20:03
Remember being in grade 7?
And, umm.
And they had a a winter carnival at the school.
And one of the things in the carnival was they had a skating rink. There was was a race with the Grade 7 and.
At that point there was a number of us that had signed up for the race. There was a dozen of us and we were supposed to do 3 loops around the around the rink. Well the whistle blew and the 12 of us took off and umm, back then I could skate and umm I got a fair piece ahead of everybody and was going around and around and when I got to.
The last lap and I looked behind me, I was like half a lap ahead of everyone else. I had this in the bag.
And the finish line, as it came up, I, because I had it in the bag, I thought I'm just going to coast. And I coasted towards the finish line and everybody started to cheer and I thought, oh, this is great. They're all cheering for me. What I didn't know was there was a guy behind me who was steaming up behind me. And as I coasted up to the finish line, he zipped in front of me.
You know there can be a tendency.
In our lives, at whatever stage.
Particularly after there's a victory in our Christian pathway.
To coast.
Nobody ever coasted into the Kingdom.
You don't coast upstream.
It it doesn't happen.
You need fins and scales to get up the stream.
And that's the concept we have of the apostles. They sought to finish his course with joy. It takes energy. We've had so many things brought before us this weekend and I'm so thankful for them.
Let's turn, if you could, with me to, umm, to Second Timothy.
You know, before we go there, let's.
Let's turn back to, uh, second Chronicles.
I just want to look at a number of people that has been have been very exercising to me. Second Chronicles. Let's look at the 13th chapter.
I want to look at a few kings here, not in detail, just to point out two points in each of their lives. Second Chronicles, chapter 13.
This is King Abijah.
Verse four and Abijah stood upon Mount Zemarean.
And he says in verse 10, As for us, the Lord is our God, we have not forsaken him.
Verse 12 Behold God himself is with us for our captain. Now just keep your finger there and go back to First Kings chapter 15.
Just keep your finger in First Chronicles. We'll spend the rest of the time in First Chronicles. First Kings chapter 15.
Where we read of the same king and it says in the third verse he walked in all the sins. First Kings chapter 15 verse three, he walked in all the sins of his father which he had done before him and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God. Now back to Second Chronicles 13.
Here we have a king.
He had a good start.
Get a bad finish.
Look at Chapter 14.
Let's look at ASA.
Chapter verse two of Second Chronicles 14 And ASA did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.
Now turn to Chapter 16.
Chapter 16 and verse 12.
An Acer, in the 30 and 9th year of his reign, was diseased in his feet until his disease was exceeding great. Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians.
Good start.
Bad finish.
Turn the page.
Chapter 17.
Verse 3.
Jehoshaphat And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first wave of his father David, and sought not unto Balaam, but he sought to the Lord God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel. Verse six. And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord. Now flip over to chapter 20.
00:25:15
Thinking.
Verse 35.
Second Chronicles 2035 And after this did Jehoshaphat king of Judah, join himself with Aziah king of Israel, who did very wickedly, And he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in the Zion keeper. Then he lies there, the son of Dorava of Mirisha prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou has joined thyself with Aziah, the Lord hath broken.
And the ships were broken. They were not able to go to Tarshish.
Good start.
Bad finish.
Turn the page. Chapter 24 Josh.
Josh was seven years old when he began to reign.
He reigned 40 years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Abaya of Beersheba, and Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.
1St 17.
Now after the death of Jehoiada came the Princess of Judah, and mayor obeyed since to the king.
Then the king hearkened unto them, and they left the House of the Lord God of their fathers, and served Groves and idols. Verse 22. And Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father, had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The Lord, look upon it and require it.
Same story, good start.
Bad finish.
Next chapter.
Chapter 25.
Verse 2.
He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.
Verse 27.
After that time, Amazon did turn away from following the Lord.
I need to sound like a broken record. Good start.
Bad finish.
Next chapter.
Chapter 26.
Isaiah.
Verse 316 years old was his eye when he began to reign.
We're in 50 and two years in Jerusalem.
His mother's name also was Jekyll of Jerusalem, And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah did. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding and visions of God, and as long as he thought the Lord God made him to prosper for 16 But.
When he was strong.
His heart was lifted up to his destruction, and he transgressed against the Lord his God.
Good start, bad finish.
Isn't this striking?
Like we're not talking one or two.
One king after another, with a good start and a bad finish.
You know, it's not unlike.
A lot of believers.
And I would say this, you know what, what's what was very searching to me was when I was going through the life of Jehoshaphat.
It was last year. I had just turned 60.
Josh got a wonderful life to be more profitable, perhaps, to go through his life and look at all the wonderful things. But it just struck me, this subject of so many kings that had a good start and a bad finish, and when Jehoshaphat turns 60, it all went South.
And I would like to encourage my peers that, you know, I'm so thankful for those who are younger here with real purpose to go on. It takes purpose to go on no matter what age we are.
And we see that with the kings, they'd lost that. And you know what, it's just that that statement that we have in in in the in the book of Ezra, where, where the people were building and things were going were going well. But the enemy comes in. What, what do they do? He he decides he's going to frustrate that purpose.
So then we'll throw the towel in. So we coast the rest of the way. You know, it's just a sad thing that I can see it in my own soul, the desire, you know, live my life and I can coast. We can't coast ever. We can never coast. And we see that with these ones who had a tremendous start and had a bad finish.
00:30:17
There are those in the New Testament. We could take up the life of Demas to think. Marvelous start, but a bad finish. What does the Lord want for us?
You know he writes there to those dear ones in acts Paul does.
But he might finish his course with joy. That's what the Lord's desire is for us. You know when my dad passed away?
I was with him when he took his last breath. You know, those last few days, I couldn't bother him about anything other than that which was before him and he, he felt bad that I wasn't going to. I thought, wow, I'm just not there.
Man that finished his course with joy I went into.
On his last day, I went into his room and tried to wake him and I couldn't wake him. And as I'm trying to wake him, the nurse goes by outside and says is there a problem in there? I said, yeah, I can't seem to wake my dad up. She said, well, he sure was awake last night. He wanted to know if I knew the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior nursed us, not the Lord. The last words he probably said.
Finished his course with joy.
Let's turn to Second Timothy. They want to turn to before.
We're the apostle running to Timothy. You know, we could look at, you know, the, we don't have the time, but I've enjoyed how the desire was for the apostle to, to write to the Corinthians. He wanted them to finish their course. And he, he sends Titus along to, to complete that which, which, uh, which was started there. But here we find in, in second Timothy and the 4th chapter.
Gives these things to Timothy. You just appreciate, you know, Timothy is he writes to Timothy.
That's interesting you write Timothy a little differently. You write Titus. It's Titus, my son is Timothy, my dearly beloved son. Both of them are different character. Umm, Titus had a work to do in, in Corinth that perhaps Timothy couldn't do Uh, Titus had the the apostle had confidence in Titus to, to, to send him to Crete. Umm, he probably could have done the work himself, but he, he see here's a younger brother that's probably more in tune with, with, with what's going on there and crease. He points at the difficulties, but you know, if this brother he's.
Able to do better than anybody else. And he sends them there. But here he writes to Timothy and he says here.
Uh, let's read from the first verse. I charge the therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and His Kingdom. Preach the word, the infinite, season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables. But watch thou in all things endure afflictions.
Do the work of an evangelist. Make proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered. The time of my departure is at hand. I have finished. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. Finished my course. I have kept the faith. Is that what all those kings could say? Had a great start.
A lot of people here had a great start. What does the Lord desire? He wants us to finish well. That's what He wants. He wants us to finish well.
Dear ones, may we finish Well, Let's sing a hymn in closing, I'd like to sing.
Maybe number?
311 We've had such a wonderful time.
Maybe as we depart we could have these thoughts before us #311 while to several paths dividing we are pilgrimage pursuit.
#311.
00:35:35
Our God and our Father, we thank thee for. Our Lord Jesus, we thank thee for thy precious word, and we thank thee for that which we've had before us. And we just pray our God.
That our purpose would not be frustrated.
That we would have fins and scales.
And we would count the cost.
There would be a tower behind us as we would face perhaps.
Odds that are overwhelming.
Help us to be mindful that our table and our God that we might be found finishing our course with joy. Give U.S. special grace as we would leave this place, our God that has been such an Elam for us, such a haven. And now, as we face the various situations in our lives without us tarry, we pray for special grace to go on that we might finish our course with joy.
So we'd ask these things, our God, and as many are traveling, we just would pray for thy mercies, and we'd ask it, giving thanks and the worthy and the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus.
Amen.
The Man Who Will Come Back With His Bride the Church
A Blessing to David for His House for Ever
Dealing With Symptoms or the Root of the Problem
Ephesians 5:15-33
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
00:05:11
Ephesians chapter 5, starting with verse 15.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, whereas in excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God.
Wives, submit yourself, and to your own husbands is unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church, and he is the Savior of the Body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with a washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to Himself, a glorious church.
Not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So what men to love their wives as their own bodies? He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. Let. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife.
And they too shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
We've backtracked just a verse here in the 14th. I was thinking.
The last reading meeting, although it was time to close that we have an example of uh.
Who fell from the third story when Paul was preaching there at, uh, Proaze fell down to the level of the world and to all, uh, outward appearances, he was dead.
He looked completely unresponsive.
Uh, of course he was restored through Paul's intervention.
But, umm, he got tired of Paul's doctrine, Paul's teaching.
What a wonderful opportunity it was for him to hear the greatest teacher since the Lord lived.
But he wasn't taking it in. He was, he had his eyes on the world. He thought he could, uh.
Look into the the in the assembly and look out on the world at the same time. He was in a vulnerable position and no one came over to him and said you took us.
You're in a dangerous position. Why don't you come over and sit with us? There's a lot of pastoral care there. And so poor Utica's, We fell down from that eminence right to the level of the world. He looked like the world.
And that is a danger for the believer to.
Uh, lose his enjoyment of Christ, enjoyment of heavenly things, become tired. In particular, Paul's doctrine, uh, if we wanna put it in the dispensational context. And he fell right down to the level of the world. And as our brother mentioned in his talk, a dead person and a person that's asleep, it looks the same.
And that danger is even in the life of the believer that he can become so enamored with the world, taken up with it.
Entangled with it that he loses his interest in spiritual things, and he acts and looks like the world, dresses like the world, talks like the world, and he loses his spiritual discernment. So the apostle gives an exhortation. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from among the dead. That's not our place.
00:10:13
We are not part of the world anymore. We're in separation from this present evil world. We're not to go on with its character and it's, umm, it, it's whole entertainment. Uh, uh.
Material the whole entertainment scenario of the world and become like it in our thinking and in our actions and in our associations and in our fellowship, and we lose.
Uh, spiritually, the enjoyment of those things which are eternal. So the apostle exhorts here to wake up and not become less lethargic and, uh, drifting into those things which separate us.
From the Word of God.
If we looked at, uh, first Corinthians chapter one, we find there that there are two different kinds of wisdom. There's natural wisdom, the wisdom of the fallen man, and then there's the wisdom of God himself. And so in chapter one of First Corinthians, it says, umm, let's read from verse 20. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God.
The world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe for the Jews require a sign and the Greek seek, seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified under the Jews, a stumbling block and under the Greeks foolishness. But under them, which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. And then if we looked back in the Old Testament, in the book of Proverbs, there's much that's spoken of in connection with wisdom. And it's really divine wisdom that's spoken of in the chapter two of the book of Proverbs. And we'll maybe just refer to, uh.
Let's just, uh, read verse 6.
For the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous, his buckler to them that walk uprightly. Well, we find here in this portion that we're just taking up versus 15 and 16 that there's umm the fallen foolishness of man and there's the wisdom of God that are contrasted and man at the fall when man fell into sin, he lost his ability to see things straight and to.
Walk in wisdom and you and I that are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ and we have new life. We have the very life of Christ. We have the capacity to walk in wisdom, and that is to appreciate the wisdom of God and to assimilate that wisdom and to walk in the light of it. The wisdom of man. I think his brother Harry Hale used to say years ago, it wasn't the wisdom of man. Wisdom of God wasn't an improvement on the wisdom of man.
It wasn't in any way. The wisdom of God is directly opposite to the wisdom of man in every facet. And so here we have this exhortation. See that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools. This world is filled with foolishness because it doesn't walk in the light of the truth of God. But we're to walk as wise, redeeming the time or seizing every good opportunity, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise?
But understanding what the will of the Lord is. And so we need to acknowledge the Lordship of Christ, and we need to recognize that the wisdom of God is far greater than anything that man claims as wisdom and knowledge.
And knowing the will will of God, of course, it has an application to our individual pathway. Uh, we cannot discern the will of God if we are not in a proper spiritual condition. It's not like a computer. You can put the data into a computer and it'll fill out an answer to you, but that's not so in spiritual matters. You cannot divorce guidance and knowing the will of God.
From your spiritual state.
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But I think it has a wider application too, because in large part of Christendom they really do not know the will of God in regard to the truth of separation, truth of gathering according to Scripture, the apostles doctrine and fellowship, the pattern we have in the Word of God, the heavenly calling of the church, the position of the believer now is separate from the world, members of the body of Christ, and and so on.
They don't under this is the will of God for us now to understand this and to walk in, uh, inconsistency with Our Calling. I think this is all included in knowing the will of God today.
Just wanted to say something about the redeeming the time.
Umm, we had verse 15 walk circumspectly or carefully. That's really a summary of what we have in those other verses above. What not to do. We need to be very careful about that. And he says, but as wise and the wisdom now is in these next verses, 17, uh, 16 and 17. And the first thing, even before understanding the, the will of God, the first thing that's mentioned is redeeming the time.
And that's because.
As I understand it anyway, we may get all of those other things right.
And we may keep all of the wrong things out of our life.
And yet see, in knowing that we'll try to completely fill up our lives.
With legitimate things, there may not be any of the wrong things that were mentioned earlier, but with work and all the things that we may deem are necessary just to live our lives. And this is a tremendous challenge, especially for those who are younger and getting up to the time when you're going to be entering in the workforce. And now what is it that I'm going to be doing? Or perhaps you're already in the workforce and you're feeling these pressures already, or there's a young family and to your husband and it's very difficult maybe in their society to earn.
Enough for your family on a single wage, earner income or perhaps whatever. Maybe the two of you are working, but regardless, it's difficult to find time. There's not the time to open up the word of God first thing in the morning. There's not the time to get to the assembly meetings. There's not the time to have a family reading. There's not the time for those things that are important. Yes, you've avoided the bad, but you failed it instead with.
That would still distract from what the Lord desired.
My brother Dave was speaking to us last weekend about.
Purpose having purpose in our lives and.
I was so glad he did. It's so important that we take that seriously. Redeeming the time is something that all of us have to do, otherwise it gets away. It means that you've got to go with energy and take it.
Or it'll get taken away from you on things that aren't wrong.
And say, how do I do that? Well, as we have four times over in the word of God that just shall live by faith. Why does it say that? Because it's true. The only way we can live the Christian life is by faith. And by faith we take up God's on his promises. He says, this is what I want. This is the kind of walk that I want.
And if it's so, if He wants me to be together with those, not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, if He wants me to spend time and communion with him, is there a way that can be done, that those things can be done? The answer is yes, We can redeem the time. He made an absolute promise in Matthew 633.
Seek ye first. The Kingdom of God is righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Let's not get that backwards. We get it backwards. We'll never redeem the time. Redeeming the time means put the Lord's things first. Do whatever it takes to put the Lord's things first and let him take care of the rest, and that time will be redeemed.
Well, there's the apostle that's here about the excitement of nature. Uh, you're not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.
In contrast, he says the filled with the Spirit.
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Well, uh, we know a person who is intoxicated.
Uh, we know it by their walk and we know it by their talk.
So the apostle says, don't allow the things of this world to, uh.
Lose out on spiritual realities and you get excited and, uh.
Filled with the things of this world.
Which may not be inherently wrong, but they are not.
You're they are not helping you spiritually in your pathway. They are not for the glory of God. They are weights that are holding you back in your progress spiritually.
In the understanding of the truth, the enjoyment of heavenly blessings now be filled with the Spirit. Now we're never told, and there's no exhortation to be sealed with the Spirit.
Because we are sealed with the Spirit when we believe the gospel, the death and resurrection of Christ.
Some Christians make the mistake of.
I I Speaking of a another baptism of the Holy Spirit that is doctrinally not correct. The baptism of the Holy Spirit took place only once.
At Pentecost, although there was a second installment in Samaria and with Cornelius, the baptism of the Holy Spirit does not take place again. When a person is saved, they're not baptized with the Holy Spirit. They are added into an already existing body. They're sealed with the Holy Spirit for security. It's the mark that God puts on that individual, that he has believed the.
The death and resurrection of Christ he has been brought into.
The family of God. He has consciousness of his sonship and his position. He is sealed. He is added into a body that already exists.
It is, it is not another incorrect incorporation of the body, but that individual, by believing in Christ and the finished work of Calvary, has the assurance of salvation. Sealed with the Holy Spirit was the earnest of the inheritance. But here the exhortation is to be filled with the Spirit. I have a room. There's all sorts of cupboards and tables and everything. If I want that room only for one thing, I've got to get rid of all those other.
Objects, tables and side boards and what have you. I only want chairs in that room. So everything else has to go. I want chairs only in that room. In our lives, there's a lot of rubbish, to put it plainly. And, uh, if you have a, uh, a glass and it has all sorts of rubbish, paper and refuse and stones and earth, how can you put any water in that glass?
First of all, you've got to get rid of all that those extraneous materials. It has to be thrown out. Then you can fill the glass with water.
And so in our hearts and our lives, there's those things that hinder the Spirit working in our souls. Maybe grieving the Spirit could be sin, but it could be other worldly things that just detract from the person of Christ. And uh, to be filled with the Spirit is to allow the Spirit of God to control every part of my being.
I have a visitor in my house but he has his own room.
He occupies that room, but I'm leaving the house for a period of time. So I say I have confidence in you. You're a reliable person here. You can have the use of the whole house. You don't need to stay in that room anymore. The whole house is yours. Then he fills the house, doesn't it? And he has access every place in the house. Do we allow the Spirit of God to have access into all those corners of our hearts?
That perhaps we uh.
We keep things in there that we don't like to expose. There's the hindrances. Being filled with the Spirit is an exhortation. And uh, it is important that we allow the Spirit of God to control our lives. That as our brother Robert mentioned, the Lordship of Christ comes in here. But the Spirit of God is the divine guest if I am careless.
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Uh, if I grieve him?
Will he leave? Look in chapter 4, verse 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.
For fear that he may leave you.
And not come back. That's what it says. No, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. So he's never going to leave you. Go to the theater.
Go to some other worldly place of entertainment you take the Spirit of God with. You can't leave them behind. And he's grieved by you being in that place and partaking of its activities and you won't leave you. So don't grieve him. If we have grieved him a lack, which we do too often, then it requires self judgment.
Confession and restoration. The day of redemption spoken in that verse does not refer to the redemption of the soul. It refers to the redemption of the body. So if the Spirit of God is controlling us, it is going to be evident in our talk and in our walk as the contrast with a person who is inebriated.
I'd like to make a comment to to just bring this what you've been bringing before us, John, together with what our brother Tim brought before us.
In connection with redeeming the time.
Because, umm, time is something we struggle, umm.
I, I don't speak to people when I'm speaking to people at the meetings here and saying, you know, I just exactly have the right amount of time to do what I'm supposed to do.
I don't hear that, not what I hear. And yet the Lord Jesus, when he was here in a 24 hour day, he had exactly the amount of time that he needed to do what the Father wanted them to do. I, I don't do too well with that.
And umm, we have a tendency to go one of two directions with this.
Now there there are two my brother brought before me. There are two creatures in the word of God that are not characterized by great speed. One is the sloth, the other is a slug.
But they're brought before us in the word of God, in this way, the slothful.
And the sluggard?
As we go through the word, you go through it in the proverbs, you go through with many places. Uh, he has a problem with time and that he looks outside and oh, there's a lie in the street. I better not go out today or it's, uh, better not plant today. It's too windy as we had earlier, or it's too wet or it's too cold or it's too hot. Umm.
It's too dry. There's There's always a reason not to start a job.
And So what that does is puts us in a position where we're not making good use of time.
I don't usually have that problem. I have the problem with the slothful.
It speaks about the slothful he roasteth, not that which he takes in hunting.
He goes out, he shoots a deer and it lays there and it rots, goes and shoots another one, catches fish, leaves them to rot, doesn't do anything with them. And I have that tendency, not that I'm a hunter or Fisher, but I have the tendency to start lots of jobs and to don't get them finished.
And and that's that's the other extreme.
We can either have a difficulty with time where we don't start anything and nothing gets done, or we start a whole pile of things and don't finish them and nothing gets done.
And if you just look in your own life, I'm just going to ask a question, how did, is there anybody here that has the project they started that they haven't quite finished? Or is there anybody here that has some products, uh, projects they'd like to start, but they just haven't started? You know, we can identify with that, that we can identify with that. And that's what, what the, the Spirit of God is bringing before us in connection with redeeming the time, because there's one of two extremes that we can fall into, you know, I, I enjoy.
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Us and just previous that to to this it's speaks of, uh, of walking circumspectly. You know John, you brought before us the thought of a cast, uh, earlier.
We have a brother in our assembly, umm, Phil Bierkoff. He's older now. He's in a home now.
But he was an avid gardener.
And umm, he didn't like the squirrels in his garden. So what he would do is he would get all these boards, just one inch boards, any nail nails through them.
So that when you, when they, you put the boards in his garden, all these nails were sticking up through the boards and you have them everywhere. And it, it, it, it kept, Varman said. But I was working there once and I was watching a cat try to go through his garden with all these nails sticking up everywhere. And let me tell you that cat was walking very, very carefully trying to manipulate his course through all these nails sticking up.
That's what this means. Walking circumspectly working.
Walking very carefully and making sure that we don't fall into one of two ditches with time, either not being able to start something or having the tendency to start lots of things and nothing gets done. And as John Spring brings forth, if we're filled with the Spirit, let me like the G, uh, like the Lord Jesus, who had just the right amount of time in a day to do exactly what he was supposed to do. He was never in a rush. He never needed 25 hours.
Never needed 23 hours. I I don't do well with that, but it's possible for us to do that if we're filled with the Spirit.
Might be good to turn to Luke's Gospel Chapter 9 right at the end. We'll see. Uh, a couple of people that felt like they didn't have enough time to get done what they needed to get done.
And their approach?
In verse 58, Luke 9, verse 58, Jesus said unto them, Foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my Father. And 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 plough, and looking back as fit for the Kingdom of God. Well, we know that in the Epistles Paul says that in all things he might have the preeminence.
You know, the flesh is deceitful in each one of us and we all think that we have something that needs to get done before we give the Lord his portion, but it's not. So nothing can ever be right if the Lord doesn't get his portion first. And I believe that that's what we have brought out in teaching in connection with the what the Lord Jesus said to these two different individuals in Luke's Gospel Chapter 9. He said in essence, if we could put it in a nutshell.
Nothing's gonna be right if I don't get my part first. And you remember when Elisha went to stay with the widow woman and uh, uh, there was a little bit of a meal in the barrel, He said, uh, make me a cake first.
And she made him that cake first out of the meal that was in that barrel and the meal, the barrel of meal never wasted. She had enough her entire time of that, umm, salmon that was, uh, in the land. Well, I think brethren, we have this, uh, you might say, well, in verse 18, it says be filled with the Spirit. Well, how, how can I do this? Well, one of the first things that is so necessary is that we give the Lord Jesus the 1St place.
In our lives and were consistent in it.
And if we do that, the Lord will see to it that our were filled with the Spirit.
But that's not the only ingredient. He goes on to say that in verse 17 that we need to understand what the will of the Lord is. We need to recognize his Lord's, uh, Lordship, his desire to direct our activities. And we ought to, uh, ask him to be able to understand what his desire is. And umm, then he says, uh, really in verse 18, don't be filled. Don't be intoxicated with what this world is intoxicated with. It has all kinds of pleasure. Wine speaks of natural joy.
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And if we're intoxicated with the natural joys of what this world is taken up with, there really won't be time for the things of the Lord in the way that we should have. And then in verse, uh, nineteen, he speaks of the singing, uh, speaking unto yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart unto the Lord. And then he speaks of giving thanks, having a thankful spirit, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So here we have a little bit of instruction given to us as to how we can walk, how we can be filled with the Spirit. Give the Lord Jesus his first place, the place that He desires in the heart 1St, and then these things will fall into place.
There was a time when I was in the military and, uh.
The guys used to enjoy going and getting inebriated.
You could always tell when somebody had had too much to drink because it generally showed in their speech and in their walk. Here it says be not drunk with wine. We're in this excess. Being filled with the spirit and being filled with the spirit should be as evident as a drunken person. You can tell that they're in that case. So here's one. If he's in the spirit, he's going to be doing those things you just read in verse 19.
He's going to be trying to be an encouragement to others, speaking to yourselves and psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. He's going to be giving thanks. He's going to have that kind of an attitude. That's evidence that we're filled with the spirit. And just to give an example to of the redeeming time, uh, there was a time when I brought a load of firewood, uh, home from a trust plant at home. My boys were little and, uh, they coming from the trust mill, they had been cut off from all the pieces of lumber. And so they were all kinds of interesting shakes there.
And my younger son was fairly young at the time, and so I had the boys. We need to unload the trailer here, so let's throw it all off here in the wood pile. My younger son saw those interesting shapes. And there was nothing wrong with the interesting shapes. He wasn't doing anything bad as our brother Tim brought before us, but he started filling his time with building interesting things with these shapes.
And my other son and I were, we were throwing the wood off and pretty soon my younger son started looking around and he said, but I wanted to help too. But he had not redeemed the time. He was busy. It wasn't bad. I wasn't going to give him a spanking for playing with blocks, but he had wasted his time. That's not redeeming the time as we just had a an exhortation. So just an example there. It might make a smile, but it's real. We do that in our lives all the time. We play with interesting things. We say there's nothing wrong with this.
Well, maybe there's not, but has the war got his place in our life?
Don't think that, uh, feel that more time when you retire. Uh, just retired seven years last week. I knew how much time was allowed for me for feeding.
And you say, well, now I'm going to fix a month and years I've spent all the time, but I have more things to do, more interruptions when I'm retired and when I was on the schedule before I went there.
So a wise word is thick with the schedule that you were able to do that way.
You are getting production, so that's private center, same thing like oh we haven't had our receipt with.
Probably verse 19 gives us the fact that we have a joyful spirit if we are filled with the spirit. And so we can speak unto ourselves. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Well, he gives the distinction between the types of songs that we sing. And so these songs are really hymns that we might sing it even in the, uh, Little Flock hymn book in connection with wilderness experience.
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We all know what it is to go through the wilderness of this world. And so we can sing of those wilderness experiences and we can understand them and umm, then we can sing of these, uh, spiritual songs. We can, umm, really, uh, he brings us out as well. And uh, the epistle to the Colossians, it might uh, be good too, to look at that. In verse 16, it says that Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16. Let the word of Christ well in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing.
One another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. So these hymns really, we sing for worship and we address the, the Father and the son in connection with our hymns. And then we also have spiritual songs. So we might, uh, sing songs, spiritual songs. And I don't wanna minimize the spiritual songs, but uh, we sing spiritual songs even in connection with the gospel meeting, don't we?
Can we sing spiritual songs in the Sunday school hymn book and so on. We can be refreshed as we sing those songs. And there are times where we could perhaps feel a particular burden in our souls. And so we sing a song. We sing a spiritual hymn that reflects upon the wilderness experience that we're passing through. So the Spirit of God gives us these three different types of hymns that we can sing and that we can instruct ourselves, as it says here in.
In Colossians teaching and admonishing one another. And so it has a sanctifying effect upon us. Not only do we sing joyfully, but we can sing those songs that are worth singing.
Because they have Christ at the center and perhaps some work, some aspect of the work of Christ. You and I have the blessed privilege of being able to listen to songs on spiritual songs, spiritual hymns on the CD's and so on. Those that are doctrinally accurate are better to listen to, and then we can also sing. It's evidence that we're living in the good of what we know.
And they can. Those hymns and songs, spiritual songs, can instruct us, can refresh us, can encourage us, and can encourage those that hear us singing.
I was thinking the, uh, in giving thanks unto the Father, Sometimes that's a difficult process. Uh, things come into our lives where we, we cannot see there's any good in this.
Why has the Lord allowed it? But you know, in the darkest time of the Lord's experience down here, when the nation rejected him, the leaders, the common people, you'll see it in Matthew, uh, I think it's Matthew 12 where the Lord said, uh, I thank the old Father. This was a very dark hour in the Lord's experience. It's in the Matthew chapter, UH-7.
Verse UH-25 at that time.
Jesus answered and said, I thank the old Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, hast revealed them unto babes, Even so far so it seemed good in thy sight. What a marvelous submission and example for us in the Lord's pathway down here. We're coming down to the end of the chapter, which we're not going to get to I'm afraid. You have two things brought out here. You have authority.
And submission.
And both are important. The board has, in the natural relationships of life, there is such a thing as authority. And we must recognize that. There's a breakdown of authority all around us. And man is, uh, doing his own will. It's lawless. Uh, he doesn't want to submit to anything. It's in the school system, it's in the, it's in the, uh, families can be in the assembly.
So submission is the healing principle of God.
Now we don't, uh, compromise with sin, but submission to authority is so important. Nearly all the divisions among brethren.
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Have stemmed from that point. There has not been submission to authority. Nearly all the divisions which have been widespread, uh, and have caused much separation have basically flowed from that point. They did not submit to an assembly action there. It comes in in, in the collective sense, but there are submissions also as the apostle brings out here.
Lives to their husbands and the to the secular authorities too.
Between 19 and 23 is it?
21 and 22 They're submitting. Well in the Scriptures, in the New Testament, there are very few references to singing, but one was, and I think the Gospel of Matthew says having summoned him, they went to the Mount of Olives. So they sung him and then they went to Mount Olive. In Acts 16, they were in prison and they saying, Praise is unto God. Jesus said, I thank thee, Father, without his hidden these things from the wise.
And revealed them on debates in Matthew 23. And then he said, not my will, but thine be done. And Paul had preached and a demon had been cast out of a woman. And they were put in jail. And they submitted and they sang. He gave thanks. So each one of us, maybe we don't feel like singing. Maybe we come home from work or school or a trip and we don't feel like singing. Perhaps we're in verse 414. We're among the dead. Or perhaps we're in verse 15 and we're.
Seeking to walk circumspectly, and maybe we're not. Perhaps we're in verse 16 and we're just not getting anything done. We're not redeeming the time. Perhaps we're in verse 17 and we're maybe being unwise and we're not understanding what the will of the Lord is. Perhaps we're in verse 18 and we're socializing with the wrong people and imbibing the wrong things. Instead of being filled with the Spirit. There are roots, there are sources, there are traces, and the Spirit of God can convict our conscience.
And illumine our eyes to give us to seek. What is the hindrance?
It was a difficulty, the spirit of butts, and it's a we're there's a hindrance in my life and my heart in my walk. So singing and giving thanks and submitting, they're connected. And when we find it hard to sing, they're hard to submit. God can produce by this Holy Spirit a work in our soul so that we can be able to submit to His will and to one another and be an encouragement. It's God that has to do the work.
The umm.
Uh, just been looking at this, uh, 20th verse.
Uh, it it's a challenge.
Like just think of the implications here.
Giving thanks always for all things.
Uh, I'd, I'd, I'd rather go keep on going on rather than spend some time there, but.
That's umm, you know, he writes to the he writes to the Philippians similarly, but he adds a little detail that that's very helpful for me. Let's look at Philippians chapter chapter 4, Philippians chapter 4 and verse 11. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am.
Therewith to be content again the same thing. Do you and I realize the implications of this?
This is written. This is written from a Roman self.
The apostles freedom is not, it's not there anymore. Like even the concept of writing a letter to the Philippians and naturally speaking, having it get to Philippi is almost bizarre. And yet, of course, the Spirit of God is over everything. And not only did it get the Philippi, but it's here. We have it for us. But there's a little detail here.
That that I've appreciated says I have learned.
The Apostle Paul, when he was saved, he didn't come equipped with this.
It was a process, he says I have learned. And so he portrays that to the Philippians as he's writing to them in the grave circumstances he's in. And so as we look at our verse.
Giving thanks always for all things unto God. We realize, you know, when that seems like a real challenge for us. Let's realize that the apostle, even the great apostle, these things of contentment. That was a process that the Lord brought him to where he was able to be content with everything that came across this pathway. You know, we asked for something and if the answer was yes, he just say yes, that's great. But if the answer was no, he could say the same thing. Yes, that's great. That's the implications of of this portion.
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And, uh, I'm afraid I'm not there, but I, uh, I, uh, I'm intrigued by it and I'm, I'm just, uh, I'm, I'm so thankful that it's here for me. And the apostle could say what he says here.
Plus, evidence in verse 21 That a spirit of submission is not only in connection with natural responsibilities as he brings out here, but umm, the submission to the will of God, to submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God. Everything was right.
And, uh, he had a subtle disposition, uh, in that Philippian wrote in the Philippians there. But, uh, it's evidence that we're walking in the spirit, isn't it? If we're walking in the spirit, we submit to what the Lord has laid in our lives. It's a very difficult thing to submit to some things that, uh, and it seems that the word, uh, the will of man is opposed, our wills are opposed to certain things and we don't want to suffer.
Anyone here want to suffer? No, we would rather not suffer. We'd rather really avoid that kind of thing, but the Lord that it might produce fruit in our souls, fruit for him for all eternity that might glorify him in our lives that we might redeem the time often times does allow suffering and what is the proper stance in our our response is to submit to it. And so there's a the Lord just gives us this. The apostle inspired of God gives us this to be filled with the spirit to sing to be a of a joyful spirit.
And to give thanks to God for all things. But notice it's in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He recognizes the lordship of Christ and he gives us instruction. And then there's submission, the.
Thought of submission here and then he brings in the natural relationships and how we can walk in the spirit in those natural relationships in a spirit of submission. And you know it says in James that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
And so we need to recognize that our will, sometimes the Lord has to correct our wills. There are two things that we, umm, are corrected with, if I could put it that way in, in Scripture, the Lord deals with us in discipline and on two counts. One is he will discipline us and correct us for disciplines.
And the second thing is that He will discipline us and correct us for our spirit.
And so we received discipline because of our disobedience, and we received discipline because of our spirit, or we might say today's language, our attitude.
And so because He loves us, He desires to correct our attitude as well as to deal with this governmentally in connection with disobedience. What a loving Savior we have and what is the process is to submit to it. And that's what we have in Hebrews chapter 12.
There's a headship here brought before us. We've spoken of the assembly and the the need for submission. I as again I say that a lot of the divisions, perhaps not all, have come from that.
The erosion of that principle of submission to the action of an assembly where the authority of the Lord is located.
But in the latter part of the chapter we have the Church of God brought before us a marvelous revelation to the apostle Paul largely misunderstood and christened them today, and misconstrued and.
Things thrown into confusion because they do not see the Church of God as a distinct entity.
Uh, in the past and present and future presented here that which is.
Nearest to the heart of God is presented in different ways, the body of Christ, the House of God, the Candlestick, the bride. But it's the Church of God formed at Pentecost by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. By the way, baptism is always a collective thing. It's never individual baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, those believers united into.
00:55:23
One body, but the church has never spoken of as being in Christ. That's an individual thought. The headship of the church is, uh, is to Christ. My hand is not in my head, but it is united to my head. It is directed by the intelligence of the head, but it's not in my head. And so we don't speak of the Church of God as being in Christ.
But it is united to Christ in the first chapter of Ephesians.
It speaks at the end of the first chapter. Hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, not head over the church, but head of all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all. So we are united to Christ in the glory. It's not, it's not the individual aspect when it's when we're spoken of as in Christ. It is individual, but the headship of Christ.
Is a collective thought and we are united to Christ in the glory as his body. And the Lord is nourishing that body. He is caring for it. He is cherishing it. He is washing it with the water of the Word. There's a sanctifying process going on. We're having it this weekend when we're over the word of God, we're having our feet washed. The Lord is is washing his.
His church here in that sense, and then it's going to be presented to him without spot and wrinkle and the his portion for all eternity, although the body of Christ or correctly speaking.
Is something that is here on earth.
Uh, we met this morning as members of the body of Christ.
But uh, the body of Christ, uh, 200 years ago did not have the same members in it that there is now.
The members are are different in the in the body today than they were 203 hundred years ago, but it's the same body really. The body of Christ is an earthly aspect.
Some, uh, transferred into eternity, but it's more the bride of Christ that is in view and eternity.
Uh, and so the apostle speaks of the past, redeemed, the present, the washing, the sanctification and the presentation in the future. Maybe someone can add something to that. And.
We're, we're all kind of disappointed that we're not gonna get the husbands and wives here. I realize, umm, but maybe I could make a comment that would bring both together, Umm.
We've had before us submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God.
Umm, this, this is gonna be for both of us who are husbands and wives. Umm, we don't typically submit to something that we agreed to.
Otherwise it's not submission. There's a difference between submission and subjection.
Here we have submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God, and then right on the heels at it, He takes up with wives. Submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
I'm just gonna turn to a portion now in, in, in first, Peter, which will help us with this first.
I I'm not a wife.
I'm on shaky ground and we're not gonna hear from 1:00 today.
But in First Peter 4.
He takes up the thought of Abraham and Sarah, and then he says in the seventh verse, likewise he husbands.
Dwell with them according to knowledge.
Giving honor unto the wife.
As unto the weaker vessel.
And as being heirs together of the grace of life.
In the measure that we as husbands.
01:00:02
Dwell with our wives according to knowledge, and that's a whole address in itself. But in the measure that we do that, it's going to be very, very simple for our wives to reverence their husbands and for our wives to submit to their husbands. But the verse doesn't stop there. It goes on and says that your prayers be not hindered.
You know, it's a marvelous thing. My husband's wives are able to pray together.
And because there is this, umm, this union that we have where?
Uh, husband recognizes that the the wife is the weaker vessel and does everything in his power to dwell with them. According to knowledge, the wife is able to submit to her husband in a marvelous way. And what's the result? The prayers are not hindered.
No, no, no.
Uh.
The last verse of 298.
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She pray their God and their Father, we thank thee so much for this and time that we've been able to have together over thy word and.
We just confess again that we so need these things.
For in ourselves we have no strength at all. But we thank you that we know that One who is all strength and that He has shared with us, given to us his very life. And we pray that that would help us to.
01:05:03
Walk in that life and to give Thee glory and honor in our lives, redeeming the time and being taken off with those things that are of they and to live our lives joyfully and thankfully too. We pray that these things would go with us after these meetings and remain with us until that day when the Lord Jesus.
Comes again and we will all be together again as we just sang, hopefully long for that moment, especially to see the face of our Savior. And so we thank Thee once again and His most precious and worthy name. Amen. Amen.
Open Mtg. 6
Open—G. Covell, M. Allan, T. Stewart
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#166 Lord, Thou hast grown us after thee. Now let us run and never tire. Unchangeable by gracious love, our earthly path has ceaseless views, 166.
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00:05:16
OK, you have a good time.
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Hello.
So so.
Loving God and Father, we thank Thee for the reminder that He's hymns of who Thy Son is, what He is to us, how we ought to live while we're waiting for Him. We think these Lord Jesus, Thou hast the plan for each one of us, that we can be useful and active in that place here toward others. Thank You for that Word that tells us how to go about it. We thank You for time to be together over the Word. Now Thou knowest where we are.
As gathered Saints and individually, and we thank you for this opportunity. Now that our needs might be addressed, we ask you to guide how to thy Spirit. We thank Thee for thy love, Lord Jesus, for giving thyself for us. We pray thy precious name, Amen. Amen.
Good afternoon. Could you turn with me please to the 18th chapter of Genesis, Genesis chapter 18, and we'll start reading at verse 17.
And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?
Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I know him that he will commend his children and his households after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham.
That which he has spoken of him.
And we can also turn to the First Epistle of John.
The first epistle, chapter 3.
Verses two and three is what I have in my heart, but let's start at the first verse first. John chapter 3, verse one.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.
Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
And every man that hath his hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Each one of us this afternoon.
Are part of one of the greatest plans that was ever put together.
And the plan is for you and I.
To be united with a man who's already in glory. We read that verse this morning in John chapter 3, verse 13, that there is a man, the Son of man, who is ascended already in heaven. He's gone before.
00:10:10
And some of the dates that you and I would do well to remember, that that man the same Jesus which has gone into heaven, and shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
This man, Christ Jesus is coming back, and he's going to come himself.
And there's another day that he wants us to put a note.
And it's about a day when he's going to also come back, but he's going to come back.
With his bride, with the church, with the ones that he gave his life for. And so if we take a look at this verse 2.
It says.
A few things about the plan that he has ahead of us.
It says that we're going to be.
Like him?
And so he's given us a few scriptures about what this place and what this plan is going to be like.
You know, I had the privilege from time to time to try to build a house on a country lot.
Some people have a difficulty perceiving what the house is going to look like. They even had one particular client unfortunately couldn't make it. But his wife was able to send them pictures because he in an automobile accident. He was paralyzed and he told me he says, George, that looks like a beautiful lot.
And when she took a picture of with all the trees, well, today when we were finished building that house, there wasn't one tree left on the property of where we built the house. There was on the back of the property, but nothing at the front. And I thought you and I, you know, we're very short sighted. We don't understand God's plan. Things can look very nice around us and we get our.
Agendas filled up and we get our purposes, what we think are important, filled up in life.
But the Lord has a purpose for us, one of the greatest man in the Old Testament that God decided to share his heart with with Abraham. We read it. And what did our God say to Abraham? Shall I hide from Abraham that which we shall do?
You know, God had a heart for Abraham. He wanted to bring Abraham into his heart. And God has a heart for you and for me today. Yes. We started off the conference singing a couple of those hymns. How this world is.
As much to distract us, and it does have sin.
But we sang those last verses of 225 at the start of the conference, and it's all about him. And beloved, God thinks much of His Son.
His son is all his delight, and it's the same one that he could find all his delight. And so he says, he that spare not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not also freely give us all things?
And then we've been taken up. Ephesians 5.
You know, to walk in love as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us.
This is the relationship that our father wants for you and I, and he doesn't wanna hide his plan from you and I. That might take place tonight. Today. It might take place today before Mr. Trump has another opportunity in this country to have a voice of opinion. We might hear the Trump and we'll be gone.
And the rest of the scene will be left until we come back again with the Lord.
But what is it in this verse two that we have? We shall be like him. Romans 8 verse 29 says we will be conformed to his image. How about?
Philippians chapter 3 and verse 21. Who shall change our vile bodies, that it might be fashioned like unto His body of glory?
You know when we come back with the Lord Jesus.
We're going to be united with ones that have gone before.
Ones who enjoyed Christ.
And had the faith and also pointed us to him. We're thankful for those that have gone before, but we're going to be back and we're going to be with that same Jesus. We're going to be like him.
And we're gonna speed, it says. We shall see him as he is.
00:15:04
The father has a plan for you and I this afternoon. It's a wonderful plan. He didn't keep it to himself. He gave it to us in his word. And you know we're on the threshold of moving in. Are you excited about being called home? United with him? He's coming himself. He won't leave it for anyone else. We're too precious. We were at great cost. He's coming for us.
Well, why?
To God decide to share that plan with Abraham. What was it that Abraham deserved to share that plan to be shared that plan with?
It's the grace of God.
And for you and I to have the word of God. For some of us, we've had an A heritage. We've had parents that have known the word of God and have thought to bring it before us. You know, we have much. It's like the Lord has put so much hedge around us to bring us to himself. It's a living book. It worked in Abraham's day.
And the very day that Abraham was told that God wanted to show him the plan.
Perhaps he was 99 years old.
And he hadn't had a son yet.
But God promised him that he would have a son.
Perhaps for a couple of minutes we could just take a look at Abraham and Sarah.
You know, we have told that Abraham was a man of faith.
And if you were a Pharisee?
If we were part of the Pharisees when the Lord was here and answers, they would speak very highly of Abraham.
Young people.
God wants you to know.
That he knows your heart. He knows your heart.
And it's not because he looks at it with judgment, but he looks at your heart with affection.
You know he knows if you're alone today.
Because when Hagar left Abraham's house.
He followed her.
And when she got down to despair, it said.
You're a man, you're God that ever liveth. Let's just look at the passage, the 16th chapter and verse 13.
And she called the name of the Lord that spoke to her, Thou God seest me, and the margin it says, the well of him that liveth and seeth me.
And so there isn't a heart that God doesn't care about.
And I'm not quite sure the full intent of what God said to Abraham about his children and about his household.
But I know a few things.
And one of the things is that Sarah and Abraham believe God.
Sarah is mentioned in the Book of Peter.
As a wife that looked and was able to walk with her husband and God gave Abraham a wife to walk with. Yes they had some failure and we have failure. Young people, you have parents that have failed and will continue to.
Don't forget your parents give accounts to themselves, to God. Don't look at your parents, but look at the faith that they have. Look at what they hold that liveth the word of God.
Which liveth and abideth forever.
You know Abraham and Sarah, although they failed in their dependence on the Lord, to bring a past His promises.
Yeah, we see the Lord's grace in their lives. The Lord never gave up on Abraham and Sarah.
And today you and I, by the grace of God, have a Bible on our lap. If it wasn't for the grace of God, we probably would have failed and not have come back. And so the reason that we're here today is by the grace of God about the man that has a plan from a path before the foundations of the world, before the foundations of the world.
You know, we think about a plan and building. We had that this morning. The Rock.
But when the Lord Jesus saved us, he took us from a horrible pit and out of the miry clay, and set our feet upon a rock, and that rock is Christ. And it says in Matthew chapter 16 when it comes to His church, when it comes to His people that He purchased with His own blood, it says the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Our God has the strength.
00:20:17
And the ability.
And He's going to bring us home. The Father is going to hold us, it says in John chapter 17, until He can present us. And now we're going to have it in the next reading meeting. Lord willing, He's going to present us as a glorious church without having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. That's what we're going to appear when the Lord comes back on this earth together with us and all our loved ones that have known him gone before. What a.
And that was to bring a wife for their son.
Abraham and Sarah left the choosing of a spouse with the Lord.
What a great decision they did, one of the greatest decisions they ever did. They left the choosing of a spouse for their children with the Lord.
You know God's purposes will never fail us.
They're great, they're strong. One of the greatest things that we can have this side of heaven is a wedding. It's just a little bit tight of Christ coming for us, for himself. And so in this passage, the apostle John.
I don't know.
A lot of details about John.
But it's quite possible that this man had been carrying the word of God alone.
For some time he didn't have fellowship of believers. Perhaps he did. We know in the Book of Revelation he didn't.
But the Lord was with him.
And I want to say to the young people and to older ones here, there's many of you.
That have been an inspiration to me.
The character that Christ has formed in you through some of the circumstances and trials He's brought you through, has brought forth blossoms that can't be hidden, that we see this time of year. You know Christ is coming. Christ holds us their names in the palms of his hands. It's a wonderful plan He's got, and He has it crystal clear. Perhaps we don't see it, but He does ask us to have faith.
Abraham and Sarah didn't see the whole plan.
But we see that Abraham looked for a city which has foundations whose builder and maker with God. That is the plan. Are we content enough to leave the plan with God?
We can never hold it if we do try to hold something together.
Will be like as a with the arc.
The Lord, let's just turn to it in Hebrews chapter 3, is in charge in Hebrews chapter 3. I'd like to read verse six, but we're also start at verse 3.
For this man was counted worthy of more glory.
Inasmuch as he who buildeth the house hath more honor than the house, but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are we? And here's the two things I want us to lay hold of this afternoon. God has given us his plan. He has told us where we're heading, where we're going to spend eternity, a life where there's no death nor immortality.
A life with Christ.
That's where we're heading. And he says if you hold faster confidence and rejoicing of hope, and if we look at the Darby translation, it says with boldness and boast of the hope. Romans chapter 5, verse two, you read the same thing, both of the hope. What was it that gave Peter and John something to talk about in Acts chapter 4?
When Christ had just gone to heaven and they sought to tell the multitude about.
Jesus obnoxious when they sought to tell their people, God's people, about a man, they gave us life and had a plan for them. It says the people perceived the boldness. Beloved, do you really trust God? Do we really trust him that he's given us a promise that he's coming forth, that he's going to give us the instruction for the circumstances that he and trials that he will allow in our lives until he takes us home?
00:25:05
Do we really have our confidence? Do we others see that we have boldness, these trials? I speak for myself.
I sometimes wonder.
When he knew how difficult I would be to grab a hold of things that are eternal and things that are absolute, and yet it allows something in my day and it seems like my whole day.
Is all of a sudden up in the air.
I can read with my family in the morning.
And within an hour I could be almost questioning.
Him, you know, my face is small, but beloved, the one who saved us is now our faithful high priest who will keep us. He's the one has brought us to himself. And you know, he doesn't want to let us go. He wants to walk with us. And he's a faithful high priest. And so it says that we can have boldness.
And boast of the hope. What a what a privilege to be able to talk to our neighbors, to talk to our family, to talk to family members.
About our Lord.
You know, Abraham, the Lord said by his grace that he was going to be able to give knowledge and bring up his children and his household after him.
You know God put us in families.
He put our children and our families.
God never made a mistake.
And some of us in my age group since afternoon.
We have siblings.
We have maybe a sister-in-law, her brother-in-law, her nieces or nephews.
We have family that God has allowed in our lives.
And in this 18th chapter that we read in Genesis.
We read very clearly.
That when a man of God is given a work by God.
He will have a heart to intercede for family members.
And so the last half of Genesis 18.
In light of God's promises that he gave to Abraham early in the chapter, Abraham could have said, wow, I'm finally going to have my son and it's going to be happy hereafter. But no, Abraham had a heart like God, and God wants you and I each have a heart like him. And So what did he do? He interceded for his nephew Lot.
Beloved, it does as well to find out where our family members are at because they're all precious to the Lord.
And when the Lord calls us home and we all come back, we're going to come back redeemed, asked in his image. And there isn't one redeemed, one that's not coming back with him. Each one of us are going to be back with him. And so if we have a relative or a family member.
Let's not forget in this life to have a heart like Abraham and plead with them for the Lord. You may not be able to have full fellowship with them. You may not be able to have full communion and activities with them. They may be too far away.
But you know.
Thank goodness.
But many of us have had the privilege of having many fathers and mothers in our lives.
And I think Abraham was like a father to his nephew Lot. He had a heart like Christ. So I just leave with these few thoughts that we might realize that God's plan, it's a wonderful plan. It's going to finish in perfection. And let's take a look when we make our plan tomorrow or this afternoon in light of God's plan, it's a plan and His purposes.
Is it going to be building on his foundation?
Is it going to be letting him be the designer and architect of our decisions?
He did it all for us and he's going to bring it all home. Nothing's going to be missed.
It's going to be a perfect plan.
Can we have boldness to trust him for it as we wait for his show?
00:30:04
I'd just like to add a few thoughts to what George.
Has shared with us along the very same lines something that I just just a little detail that I enjoyed on the way down here in the van. George talked about Abraham and how God made a promise to him and brought blessing and what I was thinking about was David and how God made a promise to him and his family and brought blessing. I'd just like to turn.
For a couple of minutes to second Samuel Chapter 7. This chapter is where David wants to build a house for the Lord. And the Lord said no, because he had been a bloody man. And the Lord promises David that he would build him a house. I just would like to read that in verse 12. It says, And when thy days be fulfilled, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his Kingdom.
And he shall build a house for my name.
And I will establish the throne of his Kingdom forever.
I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he committed iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the children of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee and thine house. And thy Kingdom shall be established forever before thee, and thy throne shall be established forever, according to all these words, and according to all this.
Vision did Nathan speak unto David. So here David is given a promise of his household, a blessing that would last forever, unlike what had happened to Saul when Saul had failed, he, George, brought out grace. And that's really what I wanted to bring out in this little detail that was I appreciated so much this week, he says. But my mercy shall not depart away from him as I took it from Saul. So what happened? I just would like to turn over a couple of chapters.
And there's complete failure with David.
Chapter 11.
This was referred to yesterday by Stephen Stewart and I appreciated the little detail there that it was a lack of thankfulness that the Lord pointed his finger on Chapter 11 verse one, it says it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth. The battle that David sento ABB and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbit and David Terry still at Jerusalem, and it came to pass in an eventide.
That David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the King's house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself.
And the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and inquired after the woman, And ones that is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. And David sent messengers and took her. She came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness. She returned unto her house. And the woman conceived and sent and told David.
I am the child.
Here David fails.
He falls into the things that we talked about in Ephesians, adultery. It ends up causing murder.
So what of God's promise to David?
This set, in course, a horrible path in David's Kingdom. You know the story. I'm not going to read all the details of it, but Nathan comes and speaks to David.
And uh, actually why don't we just read that? Because it was mentioned yesterday in chapter 12, verse one.
In the Lord sends Nathan unto David, and he came to him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city, one rich, the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing save 1 Little you land which he had brought and nourished up, and it grew up together with him and with his children, and indeed of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom.
And was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveler under the rich man.
And he spared the take of his own flock and of his own herd, and to dress for the wayfaring man that was coming to him, but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come into him. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that has done this thing shall surely die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and because he had.
No pity. And Nathan said to David.
00:35:01
Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. I anointed thee over Israel. I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee all the House of Israel and Judah.
And if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in His sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and has taken his wife to be thy wife, and has slaying him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house, because thou hast despised me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
Very sad story, isn't it? Here we have David, a man after God's own heart, and he falls into sin. So does that mean that God's promises?
No longer of effect.
You know if we read through this story, we read the story that Dave Burns referred to yesterday of Amnon and Tamar. That story ended up with his death. Absalom who jockeys to take the throne, it ends up with his death. Later on we re divided Nigel who also is trying to take the throne and it ends up with his death and this little child.
Four lives taken. The very judgment that David had had said should come to this man the Lord brought on him so to that end.
God's promise to David, No, it didn't. You know, it's beautiful even in this story. And it's nice to see this and I hope this is what the attitude of our hearts, what my heart should be, is that when we fail.
That we would turn to the Lord and confess and cast ourselves on Him. He loves us. He wants to bring blessing in our lives. His promises Never, ever.
Fail. You know it's beautiful even in this story, the little child that was conceived.
Die But in verse 24 of chapter 12 it says, And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her. She bare a sign, and he called his name Solomon, and the Lord loved him.
And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and he called his name Jedediah, because of the Lord. So here the Lord you see a little bit of grace that comes in, and this son Solomon is born.
And it says the Lord loved him.
This was the product.
Or a result of our follow on of that sin.
And you know, Solomon grew up. I don't know exactly.
Umm, what it would have been like to have lived in the situation where people would have known what have happened. But what I wanted to speak about briefly was the House of Bathsheba. I'm not planning to get into the details of it. I've heard this spoken on before. But I've been impressed with the details of of Shiba. You know the results of this was sin. Her husband, Uriah Hiday was a mighty man. He's listed in David's Mighty Men in chapter UMM 23 of of.
Samuel Umm at the end of the chapter.
You know, Toshiba's grandfather.
A. Hitherto he saw this happen.
And we're not given the exact details of what happened with Ahithophel, but we know that when all of this craziness was happening in David's Kingdom as a result of this sin, Hithophil used it to plot against David knowing.
What David had done to his family and he tries, he gives counsel to try and have David killed.
And David?
Umm, the Lord, of course, had promised David that he would keep him in the Lord's fares. David and Hithaful ends up dying. Why don't we just turn to that? Umm, quickly you flip over a few chapters.
I'm not planning to go into the details of this, but in Second Samuel 17 verse 23.
So hit the full excited with Absalom when Absalom took the throat or took the throne and David was chased out of Jerusalem.
And uh, he gives council the Absalom and David sends a man back who shei to defeat Ahithopol's counsel Counsel ah hippophole was.
His, his counsel was so good that it was like the word of God, who actually, why don't we just back up umm and read that because it's helpful to see it in in second Samuel 16.
Verse 23, it says, the council of Ahithophel which he counseled in those days was as if a man inquired at the Oracle of God. So was all his counsel, all the counsel of Ahithophel, both with David and with Absalom. Then over in chapter 17 and verse 23, it says, And when I hit the full saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his *** and arose and got him home to his house, to his city, put his household.
00:40:26
Order and hang themselves and died and was buried in the sepulchre.
Of his father.
Well here we have this man who is affected by sin and it caused bitterness I believe. Doesn't directly say that, but it would seem like that's what happened and it ended up with his life.
Ending And you know, there's a tendency in our lives when there's sin, maybe in our families.
And you know, as I get older, I realize how sensitive I become.
To the impact of things that happen in my family.
Ahead of full.
Saw what had happened and he became bitter. He didn't look to the Lord in the way that he should. He turned away from David, who was God's chosen king.
Despite the fact that David had sinned and it ended up with his life being ended.
I mentioned that because, you know, with the sin around us, the wickedness, all of what had happened, what what we had in Ephesians is happening around us. It's happening in the assembly, it's happening in our families. It's happening and we can become bitter.
If we're not careful and it can destroy our usefulness to the Lord.
But I'd like to go on from that just briefly. And this was spoken on by Bill Prost a few years ago, I believe Thashiba's father, of which we have very little detail.
It would seem that he didn't become bitter, but he remained as one of David's mighty men. I just would like to turn that to that you mentioned in Second Samuel 23.
Verse 34.
There's a list of David's mighty men.
Halfway through the verse.
Helium, the son of a hippophole.
Mcgillite and actually just go down to verse 39, Uriah the Hittite 37 you know, here were two members of a family that had been destroyed by sin.
Yet they remain faithful.
To God's anointed King in a time of failure.
I can't imagine what it would have been like for Ilium to see what had happened to his daughter and her husband, particularly when Uriah. I don't know the timing of the mighty man, but he probably knew him, probably knew the details of what had happened in the battle, how he was killed, and yet he there's no mention of him being bitter over those situations in his family.
I say that because there's a tendency in all of our hearts when we see things that seem unjust to get angry enough.
And yet behind all this, God was working to bring that promise to fruition that He had made to David.
Ultimately in the Lord Jesus Christ, and ultimately in the blessing of everyone here who knows the Lord Jesus Christ.
As their savior.
So we can look at this story and Solomon was born.
And he was going to be set up as king. And we see Bathsheba acting in faith in the beginning of umm, King Solomon is set up as king. And you know, the enemy would have looked on at that situation and he would have said.
He would have known that promise to David and he would have done everything in his power to destroy.
What God was doing, and he did. What happened to Solomon?
He fell into the same lust.
As his father and married.
The wives and concubines and his heart was stolen from the Lord and he ended up defiling.
Or setting up false alters that carried right through to Josiah that before they were destroyed, the enemy just attacked that promise to that family to the point where later on, and this was mentioned last year with a lie, Kim and Joy Kim. Joy Kim and how they were so wicked that promise said no one would sit on the throne. You know, it would almost seem like.
00:45:03
There was no way God's promise to this family could ever come true. But the Lord has a plan, as George mentioned, that goes beyond anything that we can imagine to always bring about what He sets out to do. This morning Teddy spoke about the Lord working on us. He will complete that which He started.
The detail of this story that I hadn't noticed and I would welcome.
Umm, feedback on this if, if I'm off in any way, but there were actually four children born to Bathsheba by David. Umm, actually if you flip back umm, in Samuel.
Chapter 5. Second Samuel 5.
It just mentions their four names.
Here Second Samuel 5 says, These are the names of those that were born unto him in Jerusalem, Shamua.
And Shobab and Nathan and Solomon doesn't say who their mother is there. Umm, if we turn over to umm Chronicles, First Chronicles in verse 5.
And these were born unto him in Jerusalem. Shimia and Shobab and Nathan and Solomon four of Bashua, the daughter of Amiel doesn't give us hardly any details of this at all, other than that these four were born in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem specifically mentioned is where they were born in. In multiple cases where this is mentioned. I'd be interested in people's thoughts on that. But.
They're born to Bathsheba and you know, I was there were four who died because of.
Davidson And yet there was four. We were born to Bathsheba here.
The Lord, of course, brought tremendous blessing through Solomon, but what particularly struck me was just this one little detail.
Of God's grace, and that is, if we go to the New Testament in the genealogy of the Lord in Matthew, it follows it through David, through Solomon, and through the kings which the enemy attacked. And you know that Joseph himself was just the legal father of the Lord.
And yet the Lord still brought blessing. But if we turn to Luke, which traces his genealogy through Mary, let's just do that. Luke chapter 3. Actually, I'd like to start a verse.
22 just because this morning we had.
The Lord before us, that's where this starts the Holy Ghost descended in the bodily shape of a dove like a dove upon him in a voice came from heaven which said thou art my beloved son in thee I am well pleased and Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age, as was supposed the son of Joseph, which is the son of Eli that if you go through this down inverse.
31 it says which was the son of.
Malia, which was the son of Minan, which was the son of Matthew, which was the son of Nathan.
Which was the son of David.
David had his son, Nathan of Bathsheba, and that was the other genealogy of the Lord. You know, I don't, we don't know any details about this at all. None. I'd be interested in any, if anybody had any, umm, other mention of this. But just to see how at a time of complete failure in Israel's history and in this family, and while things just seem to be falling apart at the seams, the Lord was working in the background.
To bring about his purposes of blossom.
Beautiful to see that to me, you know, God's grace is beyond anything that we can begin to comprehend. You know, as I go about my daily life and their struggles at work and their struggles in the family and their struggles perhaps in the assembly or whatever they may be, you know, the Lord is behind it all. He's in control. Absolutely everything to bring.
About His purpose of blessing those blessings that we see in Ephesians that we have already.
Nothing can change them. You know, it's beautiful to me as we look at the story of David to see how God worked in blessing in that family to keep those promises that he had given in a time when there was all of the things that we see in the world around us today.
00:50:03
And as George has said, his coming is before us. His coming is just around the corner. We're about to hear the sound of that Trump and be caught up to be with him for all eternity. And his desire is to bust. You know, it is so easy to look at our.
Personal situation that maybe most people don't understand.
But the Lord can bring blessing not not only can. He will if we trust him. Oh, I hope that I can be.
Have such a state of soul that even if I fail miserably, I can turn to the Lord in repentance and cast myself on Him and realize His desire for blessing in my life. It's beautiful to me to see the details of this story and to see how God worked in blessing in Abraham's life despite his failure, How the Lord worked in David's life despite his failure, how he worked in the the household of Bathsheba. It was completely messed up.
Because of what had happened here. Well, I just share those things because I appreciated a little bit.
Just by picking up those couple of details about that family of how the Lord works in such tremendous grace.
What I have before me is along the same line. I thought that the other two fits in mall with our chapter.
So we've been going through in the reading meeting.
I much appreciated uh comment our brother made about what we've been going through in our chapter, especially the early part of the chapter, in dealing with the these different sins.
And he said these things.
Their symptoms. Their symptoms of a problem.
Their symptoms of a state.
And we can address the symptoms and we can try to fix the symptoms.
And he brought out how he had taken some medicine for some symptoms that he had, and they came back.
And they kept coming back and eventually the medicines didn't work anymore and he had to go into something deeper and they found what the real problem was and they had to remove the real problem. And I'd like to look at a chapter here.
That is very much parallel to the things we've had in the early part of the chapter, uh, in Ephesians 5, very parallel. If you look at them, they line up very closely. So.
Umm, if we could please turn to the uh, Galatians chapter 5 and has a little bit of a background. Uh, Galatians chapter 5 is very similar to the 7th chapter of Romans and the 7th chapter of Romans. You have someone who's been born again.
And has come to a realization that.
There is a God, and that God has standards and.
That is, this one in Romans Chapter 7 is trying to live up to the standards and finds that it can't be done.
And he comes to the point where he wants to do one thing and he does another and he realizes that it's not himself that do it that's doing it, but there's a power behind it. And so if we could turn to Galatians chapter 5, this is a very similar situation, except this is something that I found myself in and many believers in this room have found themselves in and that they are a born again Christian. They not only have.
The light, but they also have been sealed with the Spirit. And yet we find ourselves back in that position of someone in Romans Chapter 7 where they're in a struggle. And I want to present this as it was presented very capably last week and Dorothy, that this is not normal Christianity. This is not what God has for us. He has for us that we can walk to please him here today.
And not have this struggle in our life so if we could.
In Galatians chapter 5 and.
I'll start in verse 16.
Galatians chapter 5 and verse 16. This I say then walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would.
But if he be LED of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these?
Please, uh, put your finger there and just as I read them, kind of compare them to the things that we have in Ephesians, uh, chapter 5.
00:55:04
The works of the flesh are manifested. Which are these Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness?
Revelings and suchlike we could say, etcetera.
We know the list.
In Ephesians 5.
I said ye were sometimes darkness.
Before we were given new life, these were the only things that we could do.
And this one in Galatians 5.
Is seeing these works of the flesh, and they are being manifest in the light.
And the difficulty is we can.
Sit there and not realize what God has done for us, not be thankful for His work on the cross that has been brought out. And we can sit there and struggle in the situation and try in our own strength to walk a life pleasing to God. And in effect, we've put ourselves back under the law.
The second, sorry, the uh, third verse that I read in the 5th chapter of Galatians says.
If he be LED of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. The Spirit is not confined by the law, because a life and the Spirit does that which pleases God.
We had a verse in our chapter in Ephesians I'd like to read and I think it's a similar situation.
Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 14 Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, or as we had, as from among the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
Someone who's sleeping.
If there was someone sleeping on that table across the room, someone was sleeping on that table. I've been looking here and not one of the others of you looking here, looking at that person could tell if that one has life or not. There's no distinction from this distance. If there's life or if that person is dead, you can't tell. They're motionless. There's no reaction.
And we can find ourselves in this situation.
The sad thing is in Romans Chapter 7, there's someone who has life and they realize the fault that they're in, but they have no power to do it. But in Galatians 5 there's someone here.
And if you read down further on it says in verse 24 and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
One with life realizes.
That one without life.
Pardon me, one with life.
Realizes that sin is wrong.
And if you were in Christ and says you have crucified the flesh, this is something that has been done. You have realized that the flesh is wrong, it does the wrong things and it says.
And have crucified and the affections and the lust thereof. And we realize that these things are wrong. And not only do we realize that we're wrong, we've condemned them and we've sentenced them to death. And they're hanging on a cross. And we're saying that's wrong, that's evil.
When we get to that state, which I have and is not normal to Christianity, where we are walking after the flesh.
We've come to the place we are walking down a path of death.
It says when send one of the finish brings forth that.
That's not what God has for we see a conflict here in Galatians 5, what appears to be a conflict, and many struggle that it appears to be a conflict in the Christian life, but it isn't.
In verse.
17 The flush lust US against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other to the that you cannot do the things that you would.
It's presented as a contrast, but it's also the solution.
If we're stuck in these things with the flesh, the solution is to walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
01:00:03
I had it explained to me quite clearly yesterday that, uh.
Walking after or walking in means a whole lot more than just.
Following someone.
But for an example, for now, if someone was walking down this aisle in that direction and someone was walking in the same aisle down that direction, you couldn't follow both people. And if you try, you're stuck in the middle and it seems hopeless.
Perhaps we seem like we're in a hopeless situation in our life.
God doesn't want that. I've enjoyed from the 103rd Psalm if we would turn there briefly.
This is a list of things that.
Uh, it's a sum of that goes over our benefits.
What God has done to us.
I've enjoyed this song many times in my life, especially.
After times where I found myself back in Galatians 5 or similar state to Romans 7.
And we have to come back.
To what I might say is 103rd Psalm.
Occupation with Christ and what He has done for us on the cross.
And beyond that, as we had before, what He is doing for us, what He has planned for us, what is eternal councils are occupation with Him and His things. And so Psalm 103 is directly looking at what the Lord has done for us.
And so we look at these things here. Psalm 103. I'll read the 1St 5 verses. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, Who redeemeth thy life from destruction.
Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies? Who satisfyeth thy mouth with good things.
So that's our youth is renewed like the Eagles.
I I'd like to think a little bit about this youth being renewed like the Eagles. A a brother mentioned to me some years ago about this many kinds of birds, all birds will molt their feathers. Their feathers get old, they fall out and new ones grow in. And there's some kinds of birds like ducks that when they're going through their molt.
They lose their attractiveness, they aren't so pretty, they don't look good.
And they also, they can't fly because their wings aren't the feathers on their wings aren't developed, they have no heavenly character.
The Lord is providing things that will satisfy our mouth so that our youth is renewed like the Eagles. The Eagles.
It is dependent on its flight to survive. It doesn't just eat things from the bottom of the of the river or the pond, It has to fly around in order to be able to capture food.
And the eagle, in God's provision for it, has provided a system where when they mold the wings, the the feathers on their wings that they're used for flying, they fall out one at a time and regrow in one at a time so that they always have a heavenly character.
God has provided His word for us, may we be occupied with it and realize its goodness so that we can continue in our heavenly character and not appear as though we are sleeping.
I'd like to like to look at two other, uh, situations, and.
Comparison to this.
It has to do with, uh, a door and, uh, state of sleeping or not knowing what condition we're in. One is in Revelation chapter 3, which we're going through.
In our uh, reading meetings and Dorothy.
In Revelation chapter 3.
And the last of these seven epistles to the angels of the churches, Umm, and to everyone that has an ear. I see a lot of people in this room that have ears, so let's hear.
These ones in Lotus here, I won't for the sake of time go into it and look at all the different situations.
But.
I'll, I'll read verse 17 because this kind of, uh, shows the characteristic that they had of.
01:05:07
Umm, their own short sightedness and not realizing the situation that they were in. Sort of like one that is sleeping, Uh.
Verse 17. Because thou saith, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not with our wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked.
Well, Lord, give him some counsel here, but I'd like to look at the 20th verse.
And when we've got to these situations where we have left the Lord out of our life.
And we've sought to do our own thing, what the flesh desires to do.
The Spirit attempts to present the Word of God to us, and the flesh attempts to take everything it can get, and they're opposed to each other.
And so the 21St it says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him, and Sup with him, and will Sup with him, and he with me. The Lord desires communion with everyone.
And it says, Behold, if any man hear my voice.
Do you know that one installation 5 is so similar in?
In so many ways to the one in Revelation 7, even though, uh, sorry, in Romans 7, even though they have the spirit, they're not walking in it.
There's no outward testimony that that's the condition that they're really in. And the answer is the same thing. We have to open the door to the Lord's knocking and allow him into our life that we can have communion with him and be occupied with Him.
And the Lord desires to bring us into tremendous blessing.
I'd also turn to Song of Solomon.
Chapter 3.
Sorry, chapter 5 and here is one that is in the.
Condition of sleeping. She's laid down in her bed.
And verse two I sleep, but my heart waketh.
Perhaps your heart is awakening right now. Perhaps you realize, wow, I've gone a long way off.
It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh.
Do we realize that the Lord is desiring communion in our life now?
That he wants an intimate relationship.
And he says open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled.
Have we?
Listened to him when he was asking for his proper position in our life. Are we willing to grant the Lord the place in our life of priority preeminence in our life that everything that we do is I like very well. The question was presented yesterday. If we're asking is this something that is good or not? Is this something that.
I can do or assist him.
If we're asking that question.
We're asking the wrong question.
We need to be answering the question, is this what the Lord has for me? Is this what the Lord would have me to do?
If we have something to say, is it for edification?
And, uh, it's interesting here.
In this place that the man would say my undefiled.
We've been given a new position in Christ. We are not seen by God as being in the flesh, it says. We know no man after the flesh. We're seeing in a new position.
And her response was so sad. And that's been the response of my heart so many times, she says. I've put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I've washed my feet, how shall I defile them? And sometimes what we have in the world, we value too much to give up for Christ.
I hope this isn't our case.
I hope that we can realize.
There's the things that we have that are temporal, like our brother brought out the trees in that front yard of that property and the man said, oh, those look like some nice trees and didn't realize that the trees were not at all what his blessing was. His blessing was going to be a house that the trees were in the way of.
01:10:05
Are we allowing the things of this life? Maybe it's.
So many different things. Maybe we maybe we like to watch movies or.
Be caught up with comedians or whatever. Maybe. There's so many different things.
That would just seek to distract our life from Christ.
Do we value them too much that when the Lord says I want the 1St place that we say well I have these other things?
I'd like to make a little room for them.
I'd like I'd have to give up this. I'd have to give up that. It isn't worth it.
And finally the response is.
This man has to put his hand by the hole in the door.
I don't know how doors were designed back then. Perhaps you had to put your hand in to flip up a latch or something.
But if we look at the hands of the Lord Jesus.
See what he's done for us on the cross.
We see what he's like, what he's laid down for us. Is there a response?
Is the response.
May there be a response?
If there's life, there should be a response.
And when we're occupied, when this one goes out of this room, she goes around and she's seeking that one. And they ask her, what is your beloved above another beloved? And she's just entirely occupied with him.
Each one of us feel like that. And when we're occupied with Christ.
We are not in a position where we think that the flesh and the spirit are fighting against each other.
In our life and they're having an effect and they're getting us lost because we're occupied with him.
And just looking, uh.
I'm sorry, Second Corinthians, chapter 5.
And verse 14.
For the love of Christ.
Constrainitha.
May we be drawn to Him by the chords of love and seeing that He died for us so that we can walk an acceptable life before Him and not go back and put ourselves in the situation where we are trying to meet a certain set of standards or trying not to do certain things because that is not the position we've been brought into. We've been given all things that pertain to life and godliness.
And may we have Christ always before US1 More Verse.
In.
I believe it's first Peter.
Sorry, second Peter.
Chapter 10. I'm sorry, Chapter one and verse 10.
The computer one and verse 10 Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.
For if you do these things, ye shall never fall.
Sometimes we just have to believe what we believe.
And we will be kept.
Nsnoise.
01:15:19
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Nsnoise.
Commend ourselves.
Our God and our Father we thank.
Before our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus.
We thank you for this time that we've had before us.
The prophets have spoken.
Two or three.
And our judgment is we have heard by voice.
We asked by blessing.
On that which we have heard.
That we would be like Abraham.
We look for a city with builder in Maker, Wisconsin.
We would be like David.
But despite great failure.
His hope our God was in thee.
And our God give us.
To walk in the Spirit.
To not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Father, be on our weakness.
And we just will pray for Thy blessing on these portions to our hearts.
We give thanks to the worthy and precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.