Address—C. Buchanan
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.
The first scripture we will read is one verse.
In One Corinthians.
Chapter One.
And it's verse 9.
God is faithful.
By whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
We have doctrine here.
Doctrines.
Are the pillars of a discourse an address?
Illustrations.
Are the windows that let the light in.
God's word is so very wonderful.
I recommend we all read it every day and enjoy it.
Now he said doctrine.
Can anything be more succinct, more blessed than those first three words? God is faithful.
Invariable. Unchangeable.
Absolute always.
God.
Is faithful What a base rock?
For his children to rest in.
It doesn't stop there.
Goes on and says, by whom? By that faithful God.
You were called. Now if you'll notice the address.
In this epistle, it's the largest that we find in any epistle.
Everyone who makes a profession of Christ is in this little word ye.
With all that, in every place, call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Verse two is true.
In 1989, as it was when it was written.
Now it's the faithful God who is called us.
Called you what?
Unto the fellowship of his son.
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Going back in thought.
To the way the scriptures open up the heart of God.
As to his desire to have creatures.
With whom he could commune fellowship.
Communion are the same word in the Greek. We use them interchangeably.
This is what we are called into unto to enjoy common thoughts with God.
Years ago when I was young.
Heard this statement.
I won't quote names here today. Some will know who it was that made it.
This statement that God is sufficient in himself.
For everything except objects upon which to display his love, and then.
He made us.
For that purpose.
We read in Colossians all things were created by him and.
For him.
At the end of time.
In that eternal day, all will be for him, in accord with him but God.
Does not want to wait until time is over and the day of God comes to enjoy communion fellowship with you and I. We are called unto that right now.
This is doctrine. Let's turn now to.
A few verses in John chapter 8.
00:05:01
Which will point us back to the.
First illustration we want to read about in Genesis.
In John 8.
Verse 56.
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it.
And was glad.
Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou?
Seen Abraham?
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you.
Before Abraham was I am.
What an opening up, an enlightenment.
Of the Old Testament we have in the new.
That this one who is Jesus here in the Gospels?
Says before Abraham was I am.
The ever existing Jehovah.
Who met up with Abraham?
Showed His glory to Him at least seven times.
Is none less than Jesus, the Savior of the New Testament.
Now let's go back to Genesis chapter 18.
To see.
A picture of a home.
That the Lord visited in those days the.
All of us.
Come from homes.
We live in a house.
We have a dwelling place.
There are lessons for me as to my home.
Or US to your home.
As to letting the Lord come in.
And having fellowship with him in your home.
Here's Abraham in chapter 18, the first verse.
With the Lord appearing to him, saying, And the Lord appeared unto him.
In the plains of Mamrie, as he sat in the tent door.
And the heat of the day.
And he lifted up his eyes and looked and loathed three men.
Stood by him.
And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Let a little water, I pray you be fetched, and watch your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, and I will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort ye your hearts after that.
He shall pass on, for therefore are ye come to your servant.
And they said, So do as thou hast said.
Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said.
Make ready quickly 3 measures of fine meal.
Need it, and make cakes upon the heart. And Abraham ran under the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man, and he aged it to dress it.
And he took butter and milk in the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them.
And he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.
One of the most charming scenes in all the Bible.
We have here in this first book in the Bible.
The man whom God had chosen Abraham and called out.
From Mesopotamia.
And given promises to and appeared to him five times before this.
Progressively leading him on.
00:10:00
Now he comes this sixth time.
And the intelligence of Abraham.
As he looked, there he was. He sat.
In the tent door, in the heat of the day.
Three men approached.
Abraham spoke to one.
He says, my Lord.
The other two we learn about in the next chapter as being angels.
A charming scene.
Here was Abraham called. He had no.
Certain dwelling place he lived in a tent.
The promises were given to him.
They are still given to him.
They are still not accomplished. They are still not fulfilled. They shall be in His seat in the millennial day when this one who came to him at that time.
The same Jesus.
Will have set in order through judgments.
Much of the.
Outward condition of the world and brings in blessing.
Through the seed of Abraham as a company on Earth in the millennial day.
I say they will be accomplished.
But Abraham had received nothing. He was walking by faith, claiming nothing down here.
Down in the Latin countries.
El Salvador.
Guatemala, Nicaragua.
And any of those hot countries, they have a good custom.
They will have a siesta.
The stores will close up from the noon hour until 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon because of the heat of the day.
In that climate, it's very good.
But the picture here is Abraham.
There, in that heat of the day.
Waiting, and the Lord came.
And he ran to meet him.
And bowed himself to the ground. The attitude of worship.
Always becoming first, becoming to us in the presence of the Lord.
But the Lord had come to commune with him.
And.
Abraham speaks. My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee.
From thy servants. Well, he didn't pass away. He had a communion to take up.
And the end of the chapter.
When Abraham plead with him.
Six times also.
About.
The revelation that this Jehovah Jesus.
Gave to Abraham about coming events.
But here we're looking at this part of the scene and he says, let a little water, I pray you be fetched and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree.
He made them comfortable after their journey.
A host that did what he should do.
And he says, I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts. After that ye shall pass on.
For therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So doest thou hast said.
Now Abraham calls his wife. Here's a home that is in order.
I trust our homes are in order.
Abraham was at the front door.
Sarah was in the back.
Tending to the duties of that simple home, the tent.
She was there at the call of her Lord. She called him Lord, and you'll find that in the book of James and.
She was ready to do what her husband bid her do.
And.
Notice that at the end of verse four it says rest yourselves under the tree.
And verse into verse eight, he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. Now in this scene we have man, a mere man, and Abraham.
00:15:13
We have Jehovah Jesus, the one he called Lord, and we have angels.
Resting in communion under the tree. That's the cross.
In the type and that's the only place that God.
And man can meet in perfect peace. Are you under the tree? Are you sheltered under the cross? Is your home in order should Jesus come in?
To converse with him.
About.
The protection of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Where you can have peace and the angels standing there listening to it.
Reminds one of the Transfiguration scene.
In the Knights of Luke, you get it.
Where they speak of his deceased, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
The subject of the Cross.
Will be the subject of eternity.
It's figured here.
Where man and the Lord could meet and have common thoughts.
And the angels there.
To the.
The rest of the chapter I commend to you to see the power.
That Abraham had in his conversation with Jehovah Jesus.
That day.
It stands out very high in the life of Abraham. Now let's go to the New Testament.
To pick up a scene there.
In the.
12Th of John.
Where we have in the days when the Lord was upon earth.
Another home.
That he entered into, and where they prepared him a supper.
We noticed.
That Abraham and Sarah.
And the young men his servants worked to prepare.
Food for Jehovah that day.
Seems like it ought to be turned around, doesn't it?
The Lord prepares so much for us.
Like we anticipate in these three days to sit at His feet and hear His word, to feast in spiritual things.
And the goodness of the mercies that he gives to us.
But God's thoughts are always ahead and higher than our thoughts.
Do you remember that?
In the fourth of John.
When the woman had gone away into the city.
And the disciples came back and found Jesus there.
And they said to him, Master, eat.
He says I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
He says my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work.
Jesus.
In his ministry, it seems, got a supply.
For his soul in the enjoyment of giving to others.
But here Abraham in the Old Testament was ministering and giving.
Jehovah Now what are Mary and Martha and John doing?
John 12 verse one. Then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany.
Where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
There they made him a supper.
And Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.
Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard. Very costly and anointed.
The feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then said one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him. Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor?
00:20:13
This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag and bear that which was put therein.
Then said Jesus, let her alone.
Against the day of my burying, as she kept this for the poor. Always ye have with you.
But me have not always.
Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there.
And they came not for Jesus sake only, but that they might see Lazarus whom he had raised.
From the dead.
Like when I was in the New Testament, we have a parallel scene.
We learn from.
Luke Chapter.
Ten, I believe it is that this home belonged to Mirtha.
Back there, she was cumbered about much serving, but it's a different scene here.
And the order in the Bible is always perfect and always has a meaning.
Chapter 11 we get Lazarus.
Raised from the dead.
A type of the resurrection that is yet coming for the Saints of God, I believe.
And.
Well, we'll go on with these verses here. There is an order here. We'll get then said Jesus.
Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, that is.
The cross was yet coming.
And it was only 6 days away.
So here is a supper made and Martha served. She is in her place.
Any to take up this service that is committed to us.
I believe in these three.
In this home.
With the Lord there we have.
The three privileges that are granted.
To Saints of God today.
To serve, to commune and to worship.
Are you, am I enjoying each of those?
Possibilities for us to serve while we're down here.
Not us to wait, but to serve, and certainly to worship.
But Lazarus was one of them that sat at table with him.
What is so precious, though, is that they made.
Him a supper, and he sat down with them.
In Acts 20, we read it is more blessed to give.
Than to receive.
Who was in the more blessed place here?
According to that, it was these three and he was accepting it.
He was receiving, they were giving to him, and he was.
Receiving it.
In Luke.
Chapter 9 I think it is no Chapter 12.
Let's turn to that verse because I want to get that thought accurately. Luke chapter 12. There is a future scene put before us.
Where the Lord?
Puts us.
In the place of receiving, and he is in the place of giving.
Now remember, in relation to Acts 20, it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Thinking of it that way, Mary, Martha and Lazarus were preparing a supper for the Lord, and He was receiving and they were giving in Luke chapter 12 and a future promise to those who are watching.
00:25:04
Notice verse 35. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves likened to men that wait for their Lord. Now This Is Us today.
Waiting for the Lord. But it doesn't stop there. When he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto Him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching, not just waiting. A special alertness.
What's the promise to them?
Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to come to sit down to me, and will come forth and serve them.
Now this is a promise that's coming and it's almost too grand for me to receive, but we must receive it because the Lord takes the more blessed place and serves and gives to those who are watching. Let's be watching, not just waiting. If we'd follow it on, We'll read two questions if we follow down on Luke 12, because I think they're very instructive. Peter asks in verse 41, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? Now that's the question.
The Lord answers with a question, and the Lord says, Who then is that faithful and wise steward?
We need to take, we need to take this to heart practically in the time of our stewardship down here now.
Whom is Lord shall make ruler over his household?
To give them their portion of meat in due season. Blessed it is that servant whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. So there are three things in Luke. They're waiting, there's watching, and there's doing. He's coming.
In the scene back in John 12.
So beautiful.
Here where Martha here was Martha serving and Lazarus was sitting at the table and then Mary comes out in verse 3. Then took married a pound, Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
The greatest, the most blessed.
Here is Mary anointing him.
Before.
Is burial.
And it says the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
You and I are the ones today.
Who are to look back and to remember?
The Lord's dead, she was anticipating.
And we believe that the worship that goes forth.
In this present age.
As we remember.
The Lord's death.
Produces an ointment or a sweet saver in heaven.
Even as this house was filled with the order of the ointment.
So we have turned to Ephesians chapter 2.
And read a verse Chapter 5 and read verse.
Two Ephesians 5 to get the practical side.
We read verses one and two of Ephesians 5. Be therefore followers of God as.
Dear children.
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.
Hath given himself for us an offering.
And a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.
So that this fragrance today, we believe, ascends.
As we bring the person of Christ.
Out in praise and worship as we remember him in his death. But the thought about communion?
God is faithful.
By whom he recalled under the fellowship of his son.
00:30:03
Is the privilege of us today. Abraham enjoyed it.
Back in Genesis.
Mary, Martha and Lazarus enjoyed it in John. Now coming down in the practical sense to the home you live in, to the home I live in, Is Jesus a welcome guest there?
When he comes, and he will come.
We will look at a verse in Revelation 3.
A promise there.
I think it will explain it. It will state it.
Better than I could.
And it's the last phase of the church's history as they are given to us.
Prophetically in Revelation 2 and three and we come down to Laodicea.
And there is a wonderful promise.
In verse 20.
Of Revelation 3.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If any man hear my voice.
And open the door.
I will come in to him.
And will Sup with him, and he with me.
God still remembers his thought of communing with man. It was interrupted.
Marred by sin.
At the earliest, God made a provisional remedy that there might be communion in clothing our first parents with animal skins.
Death coming in in the figure so that God could take up.
That communion which had been interrupted, marred and spoiled. You see, God had come down.
Do you visit with Adam and he was hiding behind the trees?
Men are still hiding from God.
We need to be out in the open, in the shelter of the cross.
Resting under the tree.
As God in the person of Jehovah, Jesus and the angels and Abraham.
Rested there in the heat of the pressure, and this is an age of pressure.
The days are darkening. Someone was matching that yesterday.
The world is getting to be a most horrible place.
In even a favored land like this.
The power of the enemy and dragging souls down and the darkness that's there.
But still there is a path and there is a place.
And there is a home that you can have.
Setting it up in your own responsibility to bring Jesus in every day and commune with him.
This is the promise in the days of Laodicea, at the very end of the prophetic.
Picture in these two chapters, he says I stand at the door and knock if any man.
Will hear my voice. How are you going to hear His voice? How are you and I going to commune with Him? It is in the revelation that God has given us.
For the Lord is made known in the Bible.
This book is from God. It's a revelation of God.
And the Old Testament shines brightly when we get the new.
And understand the New South that we can bring forth old store because.
Of the new This communion is precious to us, but it is what God wants.
I'm going to read another verse in John 14 to bring that down.
To us into the love of communion, and then our time is up.
In John 14, we get the promise to those who.
Go by the book who keep the word that this communion we're speaking about.
This which God has made provision for, this which he has called us unto, might be enjoyed by you and I to day. Verse 21 Says of of John 14, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them. Obedience comes in in order to enjoy communion. It can't be any other way. He is that loveth me. This is a proof of love. Obedience is a proof of love.
00:35:10
And he that loveth me shall be loved to my father, and then he says I will love him.
And will manifest myself to him. Verse 23 Jesus answered and said unto him.
If a man loved me, he will keep my words.
Proof of love is obedience, then the promise my Father will love him.
And we will come unto him and make our abode with him right now.
During 1989.
Not just waiting till we're cold into the presence of the Lord.
When communion will be perfect and uninterrupted. But to give the Lord that what she wants in His heart, that fellowship that he looks for from His creature.
And a higher enjoyment can't be found down here by anyone. Let's sing in closing.