Walla Walla Conference: 1995
Table of Contents
Ephesians 4:1-3
Reading
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The Holy Land of God, and fix and root us in Thy grace as those redeemed by blood.
Teach us more.
Holy.
And make them run.
I'm afraid.
And.
And we made it.
Honey cream.
I love.
Consider Ephesians chapter 4.
If someone would read it for us.
MMM.
And the bond of peace.
There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called, and one.
Hope of your calling, 1 Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God, and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all.
But unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captives and gave gifts unto men.
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Now he Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lowest, the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.
And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and to the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro.
And carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men.
And cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth and love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head. Even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working, And the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind.
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man.
Which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
And that you put on the Newman, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man's truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
Neither give place to the devil.
Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands, the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that need it.
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use.
Of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be ye kind, one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
I'd just like to say, brethren, that I feel that it's very important how this is introduced a subject that's in this chapter. Our brother read a portion of it this morning, and it's interesting, Before bringing this precious truth so dear to our hearts, of the one body and the gracious provision that the head has made for the needs of the body, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, he speaks first of all.
With all lowliness and meekness and long-suffering forbearing one another in love. In other words, the spirit in which it is done is so important. It has been said that the prodigal had to judge wrong actions, The older brother wrong reactions, and very often our actions might be right, but our reaction to situations is not very good and we cause a great deal of problems because of our reactions.
And it has struck me, brethren, that the three epistles that deal especially with what we might say, correction, that is the epistle to the Galatians, he ends with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit, because the Spirit in which things are corrected is so important. Then we find the same thing in Second Timothy, where he speaks about having to separate from the vessels to dishonor.
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Again he closes the epistle by bringing in that same thought, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with thy Spirit, and then in a personal matter like the one in Philemon.
Where there was a personal matter that must have caused some distress to Philemon, we find he closes with the same expression, and as far as I recall, those are the only three epistles that close in that way.
Well, I say again, brethren, I think the truth brought before us in this 4th of Ephesians is so very important indeed. It is the laying out by the Spirit of God of the provision that is made for the church and the way in which we assemble.
But it's so important that that we hold these things in the right spirit and speak of them in the right spirit. I say this for myself and for all of us, because we all tend to get carried away at times, and we need that grace that the Lord can supply.
3 chapters.
Were doctrinal, and they're so needed. But now we have the instruction how to live in the good of what we have in the first three chapters, the practical aspect. And that is what's needed as well what we have in our earlier chapter Speaking of the mystery of Christ in verse 4.
And of the gift of the grace of God, and of the unsearchable riches of Christ.
And the fellowship of the mystery. And those are precious.
Doctrinal truth of one body and all. But now we're getting into something that we have to really realize. We need this exhortation. We need these instructions in order to go on together as an assembly, the body of Christ in the first three chapter Principles.
It's helpful to notice that the 4th chapter begins just like the third chapter.
Chapter 3 For this 'cause I called the Prisoner of Jesus Christ.
For you Gentiles, and then chapter 4I. Therefore the prisoner of the Lord, that is, he takes up.
That same subject again. So the whole of the third chapter, with the exclusion of that first verse.
Is a parentheses. You'll find it that way in the new translation. And when he exhorts them, that where of course he's developing in the third chapter the truth of the mystery, and how it consists of Jew and Gentile, and so on. But when he says that she walk worthy of the vocation, the calling wherewith you are called, that takes us back to the second chapter.
And in the second chapter we have two prominent truths brought out. The one is that he has reconciled both Jew and Gentile unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And he's made in himself of the Twain June Gentile, 1 Newman so making peace that Newman being.
The members on earth united to the head in heaven.
One Newman, and then at the end of chapter two, we are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. And then it says in the end of verse 22, it says in whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. So we have these two great truths that have to do with our vocation or Our Calling. We're called to be members of the one body, and we're called to be the habitation of God by the Spirit. Both of these are collective.
And in the first chapter we are called into an individual blessings that are for us to enjoy individually and then the collective ones. But I think, and he, he, he mentions all three aspects in verse 12 of our chapter. For for the perfecting of the Saints is what we have individually. And then that works into the collective thing with a view to the work of the ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ. We'll come to that.
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But the first is the perfecting of the Saints individually and then the collective thing. But I believe that in particular this calling that we've been called to has to do with our collective path together. I'm not excluding the individual, but I think it includes all. But in particular, it isn't just the individual, it's collective, isn't it?
In John chapter two he tried to get his own to understand these things, I mean the Jews. And in verse 15 then answered the Jews, and said unto him, What sign show us thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, 40 and six years.
Was this temple in building wealth? I'll raise it up in three days. But he spake of the temple of his body. And so that's the basis of of really Ephesian truth, isn't it? It's that we are the temple of God, the assembly.
His body here.
But in John Two, he was talking about his own body. He was talking about his own physical body in which he was going to die. He spake of the he said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.
He was talking about himself, and he did raise himself. Only a Divine Person could, so speak the Eternal Son.
We know God in the Trinity. The first time I believe that he is fully revealed in the Trinity is in Matthew 3 when Jesus went to John.
And was baptized of John, identifying himself with that Godly Remnant, and when he come up, when Jesus came up out of the waters of baptism.
The Spirit abode upon him, and heaven was opened.
And a voice fake. And he called that man his son. Now there's the Father up in heaven.
Looking down at Jesus as the Son and the Spirit of biting upon him.
What a beautiful scene that is and justice thinking that maybe in addition to our relationship as in the body of Christ, and are being built together in the habitation of God by the Spirit, We could include in the first verses of the epistle where it says in the second verse, grace be to you and peace from our from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he hath, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children. There it is God wanted children if he'd wanted servancy to make some more angels.
But he brings us into a higher relationship as children of God. And so we now are charged, I believe, to walk worthy of God as His children, and walk as being members of the body of Christ, and to walk as being the habitation built together.
As the habitation of God by the Spirit, What a high calling we have to seek to walk worthy of.
Second chapter of Ephesians.
Just to follow on with what Brother Clem was telling us, verse 19. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God. That's that's where there is children, aren't we? We're in the household of God. That's the line you were talking about. And then we're also the habitation of God by the Spirit collectively. Household of God we're in that individually, and then the habitation of God by the Spirit collectively.
And of course, the one body is collective truth as well.
Point to understand and especially for the young people.
Where this might be, perhaps not that well understood, is there could not be a body of Christ. There could not be There is the mystical Body of Christ. There could not be a House of God until redemption was accomplished and the Lord Jesus was ascended.
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And then sent down the Spirit by descending down of the Spirit. This unity was formed of which you and I are part. If we have been saved, you know we are part of the body of Christ through the indwelling of the Spirit who was sent from a glorified Christ. And we're also part of the House of God. As living stones are built up. It's developed in other passages as well.
But that's a tremendous truth that we are linked by 1 spirit.
To our glorified head in heaven and to every member living on earth, you know, and we form that body, we tend to think in terms too narrow when it comes to the body of Christ. Every blood bought St. of God is part of that body of Christ. And even if we do not walk with them, and cannot walk with them practically, then nevertheless.
Members of the Body of Christ, we might have personal contact with them also in the family aspect.
You know, they're all part of the family of God. I love to think of a lady that said goodbye to me after I had provided her with a prosthesis. She was safe from a world of sin, but brightly saved. She said, See you in the father's house. That was her goodbye, you know. And what a wonderful thing that is, to meet a child of God, and perhaps to be able to labor even with such, with whom we cannot practically walk.
You know, perfection has already been mentioned to the perfecting of the thing. Of course, we think especially of our coming together in assembly, where the Spirit of God is present, the Lord Jesus is present. But certainly in our personal contact with individual believers we can labor towards that end. Perfection. There is not sinless perfection, but to reach spiritual, full spiritual growth.
And labor towards that end by bringing all the truth of God before them. You know the mystery and all that.
Is true of our position in Christ, and to bring that before soul, so that they will mature, that they will develop normally in their Christian growth.
If one does not know his eternal security if one is not.
Perfected as an individual that is spiritually mature.
In the understanding of where the work of Christ has placed him, that he is in Christ before God, that he has the Spirit of God dwelling within him, and he's redeemed and reconciled and justified and made the child of God, has divine life, has eternal life in the sun.
All of these individual truths, If he hasn't come to that, don't talk to him.
About collective truth, he needs to be established first of all individually in the truth and then you can deal with him more in the collective line. I think we make the mistake of speaking so much of collective truth when individual truth is is not really that the soul has not been established individually. I talked to one person, he says while he is sound except he doesn't believe in eternal security.
Well, someone that doesn't believe in eternal security is not sound in the faith. That is very basic. He's basically under law. He thinks that his salvation depends something on himself and not altogether on Christ. And so he's under law. He's under the principle that he has to hold on or do something in order to gain acceptance or to keep his acceptance, and all that's false.
He doesn't really understand what grace is. The grace that has saved us picks us up when there's nothing in us that is good. We're totally depraved and lost. And then God works and he imparts divine life and faith. They come at the same moment. When the message is received by faith, life is there, and then the Spirit is given when we believe the gospel of our salvation.
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And were led on, and when the soul has been perfected, that is brought to the full mature understanding of his acceptance in Christ.
Then he is ready to receive the collective things. I remember reading a letter by Mr. Darby once, and he was laboring up in Canada and he'd been there laboring for months, and he said I haven't touched church truth yet, that he had just been establishing them in the truth of the gospel.
In connection with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I think it's well for us to see the way Scripture presents it too.
It is always in the thought of the collective. By 1 Spirit we are all baptized into one body.
I say this because many in Christendom believe the gospel, as you have just been mentioning.
Then they think they must wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the Bible is never an individual thing. As the truth is presented, it is a collective thing. So the Lord told the disciples previous to the day of Pentecost.
He gathered them together and said that they should wait. They would be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
And there were about 120 in that upper room, and they were baptized by 1 spirit into one body. I just mentioned this because much of Christendom doesn't see it's a work of the Spirit to quicken souls and impart life, and that person is made part of the Church of God by believing the gospel. But it's well for us to see what our brother has just been saying, that everything rests upon the work of Christ.
We don't have to wait for some experience to complete the work. It's completed the moment the soul passes from death unto life, while the truth of it may be used by the Spirit of God to be revealed to the soul, and he's led into the enjoyment of it.
All this individual truth that is so important is taken up in the first three chapters of our epistle, particularly 1St and 2nd, so that we are in Christ, we are in the fruit of redemption, we are sealed by the Spirit of God, and we're brought into the one body.
And now we are into that portion where we are united late to give expression to the truth into which we have been brought.
It has been said and correctly stated, and I emphasize, that the unity that was formed when the Holy Spirit came as the unity to which we are to give expression. The one body was formed when the Holy Spirit came, and now our energies must be expended so that we meet together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in such a way as to give expression to the truth that there is one body. And we can say this without fear of contradiction.
That just as much as the truth of the one God was Israel's responsibility and the principle.
Testimony committed to them. So the principal testimony given to the Church of God is there is one body.
And just as Israel's failure to maintain that testimony and falling into idolatry, so the assembly has failed to maintain the testimony and has fallen into sectarianism, so that the enemy, by bringing in many divisions, negates or seeks to annull the truth that is principally committed to us to keep in this state. So as we peruse this chapter, we need to examine what is it.
The Spirit of God is saying to us to do and how do we do it? We.
Keep the unity by giving expression to it, meeting together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, on the principle that there is one body and we do it in the uniting bond of peace going on together with our brother and meekness and loneliness and love and in peace together.
Sometimes the question is asked, Question is asked, what is the ground of gathering? Well, the ground of gathering is the one body.
How can that be denied? There's two ways that ground of the one body can be denied.
It can be denied by having a national church like the Church of England, where all Englishmen can be members of that church, whether they're members of Christ or not, whether they're saved or not. Now that's a fellowship which is broader than larger than the one body because it includes unsaved ones. That's one way the truth of the one body can be denied. And the other way is what is called sectarianism has already been mentioned.
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And that is having a narrower sphere.
A narrower circle than the one body. The one body embraces all the Saints, all blood bought, redeemed ones that are sealed with the Holy Spirit and brought by the Spirit into that one body.
Every member of the Body of Christ has a place at the Lords table.
And I feel we are in great danger of violating that principle sometimes. Let me finish what I'm saying before you get upset.
I don't mean to say that every member of the body of Christ can be we can walk with everyone, because we are also the House of God, the dwelling of the Spirit of God amongst us. And so that place has to be kept holy. But.
Member of the body of Christ has a place at the Lord's table. They may, for one of three reasons, disqualify themselves from occupying that place. They may have wrong doctrine as to the person of Christ, or the work of Christ. They may go be going on in an immoral way, such as the man in First Corinthians 5. The wrong doctrine would be Galatians 5.
And to both of those the Spirit of God says a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, and then wrong associations or evil associations. One could be an association with a system or with a company that refuses to judge evil doctrinally or morally.
So those are the three things that might exclude one from being practically received amongst us, but it's not because they are not of us.
That we have a sectarian communion, and you have to be a member of our Church in order to break bread or to be accounted one of us. The only membership known in Scripture is the membership of the body of Christ, and if one is a member of that he is, he is positionally. Let me put it that way at in in the place of fellowship.
But then there's the practical walk. As we've mentioned, there's the thought of the House of God, the order, and that which becomes the House of God That has to be considered so when some are denied it a place at the table. If they make application, the only scriptural basis for denying them is their doctrine is wrong, their morals are wrong, or their associations are evil. And if those any one of those 3 is not true.
Then how can we refuse them if they're a member of the body of Christ and going on in a godly way?
So if we do, then we make ourselves a sect and our communion is narrower than the one body.
Unless there's a scriptural reason to exclude them, we must recognize them and receive them. That's what it is to be on the ground of the one body.
When they're Speaking of Our Calling, go ahead.
It seems like there are simple.
Measurements or standards of conduct for this, and a couple of them right in our chapter.
And the third verse being one of them.
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Now that's a.
Measurement or standard of behavior, Paul wrote to Timothy, said. If I tarry long that thou mightest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the House of God.
Which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth we need to know.
What the measurements are the standards of conduct and one more in our chapter. That's simple. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Now grieving the Spirit of God is the allowance of the flesh. Then another one is in First Corinthians 5, where it says quench not the Spirit. These all are concerning the Spirit endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Now, in keeping the unity of the Spirit, that seems to me is a conduct that agrees with the word of God, and it's been said that.
A child of God.
Walking according to the word of God.
Guided by the Spirit of God is one who is keeping this unity of the Spirit, because he agrees with the Spirit that dwells in the house.
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Not have to form a unity.
We have to recognize that it exists.
We have not only to do with the divided state in Christendom in general, we also have to do with the divided state among brethren.
Those who all at one time were gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, and there is a popular movement.
Among so-called brethren, which has been called the ecumenical movement. Among brethren, where by compromising and mutually recognizing each other, is gathered to the name of the Lord at the Lord's table in their divided state, This is just an impossibility. You cannot give expression to the truth of the one body.
When you're in a divided state, when you're in division, and those who are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit are not on the ground of division.
They are gathered by the Spirit around the person of the Lord Jesus. So let me reemphasize.
We keep a unity that already is made. We do not make a unity.
By compromising and recognizing each other on the basis of compromise. This is very important, especially when we think of the recent division that has occurred among us. It's wonderful when souls are exercised to come back to the ground of the one body, but.
Compromise is not the basis.
There is no such a thing in scripture as amalgamating and reuniting, but there can be individuals received back to that place that they have left. Just like it was in Israel's case when the 10 tribes rebelled against the House of David and left the divine center, there were those who humbled themselves and came back to the divine center.
You cannot have divided centers. There can be only one center.
So keeping the unity of the spirit is really giving practically expression to a truth already existing. Chuck already has mentioned two points, how it can be denied by making it larger, accepting unbelievers or by excluding those that should be received. But we have to be on our guard against the spirit of ecumenicalism that is affecting so-called brethren.
And to try to use compromise as a basis for coming together, we ourselves had to come to realize. And there are others here likewise, although we were with brethren, grown up with them, learning much truth there, we had to realize that we were not at the divine center, that we were not at the table, that the table that had been set up was a practical denying of the truth of the one body. You cannot be at the Lord's table when they practice.
And that which forms the fellowship is a denial that there is one body. And if you have a group of believers that exists of previously 8 divided group of brethren who now mutually recognize each other, it's not the ground of one body. It's the ground of many bodies being the basis for their fellowship. I hope I make myself clear, because these eight groups were divided and recognized each other in their divided state as being at the Lord's table. That's just nonsense.
You can't have that. You know it's a denial that there is one body. It's really the basis of fellowship is there are many bodies. You can be divided 8/10/20 times in divisions and all still supposedly on the ground of the one body. That's an impossibility and we have to be on our guard because it is so appealing to hear people say, don't you like to walk with other brethren who in their individual lives might be more faithful.
Then we ourselves sometimes, and it's a very appealing thing, but we have to look at the basis of their fellowship is really a practical denial that there is one body. The basis is that there are many bodies equally gathered before they are together.
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Well, there can be no unity apart from the spirit of God. All other things are union Oregon systems of men coming together. That's not of the spirit of God. But endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit would be according to truth, because the Spirit will never lead us contrary to the word of God and not just man's thoughts of the word of God, but truth. And that's the precious thing.
And you know, we just had, as you mentioned, a good example. It was a very simple example made complicated by men's reasoning, but it was a simple, basic example. We are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ according to truth, and without that in in Revelation 38, it's first kept my word, not denied my name if it isn't according to the word of God.
They can say his name, but that doesn't bring them into the truth of the ground of gathering. But in each assembly where the Spirit is and the Lord, the authority is, and the authority is local in each assembly. And it's simply if an assembly silence, a brother is bound in heaven, that's it, because the authority is the Lord in the midst, and all assemblies in the world who are gathered.
Name of the Lord Jesus Christ are likewise bound, and we go on by keeping the endeavoring to keep the Spirit of God.
If we do not acknowledge that we are not keeping endeavoring to keep unity the spirit, that's simple, isn't it? But it gets very complicated.
In verse 2.
Suppose we get into the place. I hope we all find that, and do seek to walk worthy of that calling in that place of the ground of the truth of the one body with all loneliness and meekness. We have not one thing to boast of in that place.
Accept the Lord himself and the cross, and if we can go on that way, we might not rub some of our brethren quite so badly. Loneliness and meekness.
Long-suffering, just going on. Bearing and love suffered, long forbearing one another in love. It's love that makes this thing go on and work and it is a continuing thing. Endearing is just going on every day with this knowledge that there is one body and others are there, and it is the place that gives true expression to the truth.
And the unity is already formed. But the endeavoring to keep that unity just the one according to the spirit of God who has formed it, wonder if we could look at.
Matthew 18, That portion that speaks about authority.
Matthew 18 read it from verse 15.
Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee.
Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone, if he shall hear thee, Thou hast gain thy brother, But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee 2 Take with thee one or two more.
Than the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established, and if he shall neglect to hear them tell it to the church, But it be neglect to hear the church, Let him be under thee as a heathen man and a public. And very not seeing you, what city shall bind on earth should be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth is touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven, for where two or three are gathered together in my name.
There am I in the midst of them.
That which characterizes this.
Group.
Is that they hear. First of all, they have heard the Spirit of God, they have agreed.
That if two of you shall agree on earth, that is the Spirit of God has come in.
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And it's brought in there. They have heard. They listen. Go to the assembly, go to the church. Witnessing to the fact not of the original offense. They did not witness that. They say this man just will not hear.
So what it is we've been brought by the Spirit of God as gathered under the name of the Lord Jesus.
You know, it's one thing to stop the mouths of everybody. The law does that. The law was given to every mouth might be stopped.
It's another thing to have your heart won over by the love of God, finding everything in Christ that not only has the mouth stopped, but my ears open. I have nothing more to say. He's everything. If that's where he is, that stops everything from me.
And I believe it's the thought, as we've heard, if the devil can keep us.
Still talking and not listening.
We will never find that place because this is where it is a place. It is a work that the Spirit of God has done.
And is to be acknowledged if not he don't fit there if.
Those that hear that belong there have enjoyed the other side of it. When there are those who hear what the Spirit of God has said, and he brings them to honor the Lord Jesus in his absence, that would be one thought. Anyway as to gathered unto his name to maintain his name on earth, God hears. He enters into this with us. My Father will hear. If there are two of you that agree, my Father will hear.
And he brings us in to that which he has for us, and that which is underlying all of the position that we occupy by grace. And it is a valid, real position.
Is that God will hear and that he will make it real to us and make it valid, and then this authority that we've given.
What's there? We shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven. Then we can handle that for him.
Because handling that for him is connected with unto the name of the Lord Jesus. What would the Lord Jesus do? I'm here to uphold his name. What would He do in this case that requires the assembly to speak? What would He do with that authority for where two or three are gathered together? The Lord has done a work in this verse. It exists and is to be acknowledged.
Oh, the blessing that the Lord has.
Joy that he has.
I have enjoyed the thought that.
When he could say us?
When he could say us he that is not.
Against us, said, Thwart Reed.
For us when you can include in his own thoughts.
Those he is saved, those he had gone to have in glory for himself, while we're here below the joy in his heart, to be able to say us and brethren, if you think it makes anything of us.
We don't understand yet what his heart is toward us. If we could fill this room, I thought it often. If we could fill this room with the love that fills the heart of God right now, for every one of his children, we'd be different.
Would be different. We wouldn't have any problem walking in this first two and three in our chapter we.
Know where we were before him and before our brethren.
About peace.
In the bond of peace that goes on here in this end of this third.
Verse in the bond of peace. Look at the second verse of the epistle.
We've already read it, but first chapter in the second verse, grace be to you and.
Peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at the next to the last verse of this epistle.
Chapter 6 and verse 23.
This is.
God's desire for us, brethren, what is it peace be to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. God is never the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the Saints. Well, this is a standard for us to go on in in that uniting bond of peace, enjoying what God has done. There is one body that's an absolute We have nothing to do to keep that.
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That is kept it's formed by the Spirit of God. But endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit is to go according to what the Spirit of God has written in his book, The truth of God, and in that uniting bond of peace together.
Look at Colossians 3. You've got a beautiful formula that ends in peace, and it's the only way verse 12 of three put on. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved boughs of Mercy's kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness and long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if any man have a strife, I believe is the better word against any.
Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye, and above all these things.
Put on love divine love, which is the bond of perfectness and let the peace of God rule in your hearts. So it's it's really ends in peace every time we go on according to the spirit of God in love.
I'll be glad to, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body. Be ye thankful.
Important in learning the truth of God to that it humbles us. I was thinking of First Corinthians 8 and verses one and two. There First Corinthians 8 now is touching things offered unto idols. We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edify us, And if any man thinks that he knoweth anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know it.
There have been much precious things and truth wrought before us here this morning, truth that we need to know and be established in. But I believe, brethren, if in learning the truth it doesn't humble us, we haven't learned it in the right way. And so it says here, if any man thinks that he knoweth not anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know it. Because as we learn of the wonderful love and grace of God and his grace in not only saving us, but teaching us this truth, and gathering us to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Instead of being proud, it ought to make us the most humble people on earth.
That God should have made these things known to us, and I feel that this is an important thing with us and this is really what produces peace.
It's because so often we allow the flesh to work. We want to set ourselves up for something that we know a little more than someone else.
Well, it's blessed if God has taught us many precious things of his truth. But I I think this verse is very important. If any man thinks that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing, yet as he ought to know it. How true that is, when we think of the wonderful grace that has picked us up, and we know God's love that has saved us as sinners. And then he would have taught us these things, and what the Lord's table is, and to be gathered to His precious name.
Well, may we walk in it in all humility of mine, and I believe that will.
Produce what we've been talking about the peace of God, peace in our assemblies, peace in our personal dealings with one another. Well, I I just mentioned that first because I feel that sometimes we spoil Speaking of the truth if we ever get into a boastful spirit.
I just mentioned along that line John 7, and we often quote 17, but not 18, and I'd like to just read both John 7 and 17. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh from himself, I believe, is the way it ought to read seeketh his own glory.
And that's the really the cause of all problem getting in the way of the spirit of God. You know there the Spirit of God is the one that keeps the unity and we just look to the spirit of God. It says endeavor, but that's how we do it. We let the Spirit of God have his way. And I'll just give one simple example in both the division of Shrewsbury, so-called, and this sifting of of Perth, all these things.
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The four sisters on the Isle of Wight were bombarded as many here with letters, men speaking from themselves. And you know, the spirit of God kept them. They have no brother there. He kept them. And one time I wondered, you know, just how they they decided all of this. They said we began to read those letters and when they were accusing our brethren, we said this is not of the spirit of God. We set them aside.
So they were troubled, like a lot of them here who thought they ought to examine all those letters.
We don't need that. We've got the word of God, and it's sufficient. And if we look to the spirit of God, you know, Satans work is to accuse brethren. And when letters like that, the simple souls of just the sisters, discerned right away by the spirit of God.
One another in love. How often do we fail in that forbearing one another in love? And our brother Bill already referred to Matthew 18, one of the things that we learned from Matthew 18. If there are problems amongst the gathered Saints, the circle in which it is to be dealt with is the smallest possible circle.
First of all, the two you know one goes to the other. If he doesn't succeed winning him back, he takes two others with him. If that doesn't succeed, the circle becomes larger. But what was characteristic of these problems among us is things were spread far and wide. You know it should be. And unfortunately there are times when there are things occurring amongst the Saints of God which is very humbling, but it should be dealt with in the smallest boxable circle, and it is Satan's work.
To spread problems all over the continent and worldwide that is not.
God's way as we find it in God's Word. But there's another important point, and that is that the authority is vested in the assembly that the twos and Three are gathered to His name. That authority does not exist anywhere else. Now, this is not a proud statement. This is a statement.
Based upon what we learned from Matthew 18 and the Lord is in the midst, and His presence gives the authority to deal with matters in His name, and therefore we do not really accept actions of those not on that ground. Of course, if somebody comes from a group of Christians and has had problems there, it certainly is wise to investigate whether these problems.
Were of a serious nature and whether it is just an escape for that individual to leave that group and come amongst the gathered Saints, you know we have had, have we not bad experience in that way, but we do not recognize.
An action of those not gathered to the name of the Lord, as done with his authority, but when it occurs among those gathered to his name, with the Lord's presence, which gives the authority to the assembly to deal in his name.
We bet about to it, for we do not keep the unity of the spirit.
It's a little bit of the spirit of the apostle in these things in as was referred to Chapter 3 of Ephesians and verse one connected with chapter 4.
We won't.
Go into how the apostle got in jail.
He should looked at from the practical, faithful side of a faithful man on earth. He should not have been there.
But chapter 3 verse one says for this 'cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. He does not say the prison of you Gentiles for Jesus Christ.
He's living above it. He's living above.
He sees the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is before his soul. He's living his life from Christ. He's got his priorities right. He sees Christ first. That's where whatever comes or goes to us, whether and we have the Lord Jesus.
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And with him, he's sitting there, and now he's got the sense, as we've heard, of less than the least of All Saints. He had nothing in his heart that would restrict it from contemplating All Saints.
And yet he is less than the least of All Saints, living in the light of glory.
In a path that we might say was of his own making.
But he doesn't come down to that level.
You know, I was just thinking, as we've been Speaking of first John, Chapter 2, I'd like to see if I can bring a thought out there.
One John, Chapter 2.
Beginning with verse 3.
And hereby we do know that we know him.
You see, we have knowledge.
And then we need to know that we have that knowledge. If you were to ask me do you know brother so and so I say yes. Do you know that you know him? Would seem a little strange, but we have a life to live that takes in knowledge.
But that knowledge needs to have another knowledge with it. That is, we need to know that we know.
Hereby we do know.
That we know him if we keep his commandments.
That's walking under his authority.
It's been said that commandments of the Lord Jesus for us are the details, those things in which He gives us the the instructions for the details of life with His own authority.
He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments. The liar and the truth is not him, but whoso keepeth His word.
In him Verdes the love of God perfected, now keeping his word, as we've been taught, is knowing Him.
And I'll Renita a specific commandment about a detail in life, as knowing him, I just know what would please him.
Now, brethren, I would suggest a danger for us.
That unless we walk and measure ourselves by Christ himself and not by each other.
We will have an assumed familiarity with the word as it's presented here. That will give us, as we think, a little liberty to deal with the Commandments according to our own thinking.
That is.
See ourselves as growing as grown. And now is some wisdom entering into the word of God here, in such a way that we feel a little liberty to either add to the commandments or take from the commandments, which are those specific instructions for daily life, the details of life.
And in so doing, and we do, by the grace of God, have a measure of wisdom, and thankful for it. My what a wonder thing it is to know God to sit at his feet.
But if that produces in us the thought that we have some liberty with the commandments as set before us in this verse, we're in grave danger of reducing Christianity down to what we think it is, as opposed to what God says it is. And when we get it down to that level where it's my wisdom and your wisdom.
That's when we will not walk in love one to another.
We will not do what the apostle says. And he didn't look at those Gentiles who might well have mistreated him that very day he wrote this. He didn't look back at the brethren in Jerusalem who could have come to his assistance and testified for him. He looked back any of those things. He just sat and looked up at Christ and said, I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ, but I'm here because God is going to give a blessing to you Gentiles. That's love living in the presence of Christ for the benefit of my brethren. And that's where he starts this exhortation. He seems to have to stop as he says that.
When he's brought us up to the high level of his state of soul, he has to stop and bring out to us the the unmeasurable, that is, that which exceeds knowledge and passes all that we ask, or think and be immeasurable, unsearchable. Christ has to bring our souls into the light of those things before He would exhort us in our chapter to walk worthy of this vocation where we were called.
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Just to bring us back again a little bit to what are we to walk worthy of? What is that calling?
We're we're to walk consistently with and worthy of the truth, that we're members of the one body, and that we're of the household of God, and we are the habitation of God by the Spirit, and that place is a holy place.
Doesn't say we're to endeavor to keep the unity of the body, but the unity of the spirit.
And He is the Holy Spirit. Any unity which is not consistent with holiness is not His unity.
Separation from evil is the principle of unity, and so the unity of the spirit excludes evil.
It excludes error. It excludes wrong associations which are defiling.
So with a walk in company with a divine person on earth who has formed a unity.
Of his own making, and that is the one body all members united to one another and to the head in heaven called in Ephesians 21 Newman.
That Newman is Christ in the Church, given the name of Christ.
As the in the body there are many members and all the members have not the same office but.
We're all baptized by 1 spirit into one body, and that that one body is called even, So is the Christ. We're given his name united to the man in the glory. And one of the great signs of weakness is when we get occupied with ourselves as a testimony and not with a head. We're to hold the head. We're not to hold the body, we're to hold the head. We're to have Christ before our souls.
And not be occupied with ourselves. We're a pretty poor failing testimony, all of us. Together or individually. We can say that I believe. I know I can. But he is the one that we are to exalt and glorify in the Spirit of God, magnifies Him. It doesn't draw our attention to ourselves, doesn't make anything of ourselves but everything of Christ. And when we get occupied with ourselves and we talk about the testimony, and we even talk about the assembly.
Using that word, assembly referring to us and the Church, all the other Christians. Totally wrong. Totally wrong. The assembly is just another word for the Church. The assembly doesn't mean the gathered Saints. It means the whole Church of God. It means all those that are members of the body of Christ. And when we start to think in terms that we are that.
We're not. We're just a remnant that is privileged to give expression as a remnant to what the whole church is in the mind of God. And if we start thinking of ourselves instead of Him who we're here to represent, to magnify, we've really, we're not keeping the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace in that case.
To emphasize just the remnant in that way, didn't you? We are a remnant by God's faithfulness. What a wonderful thing that is.
That in Matthew 1820, where two or three, I mean. Here the authority is the Lord in the midst, and he goes to the smallest lumber of plurality. No, we don't want to minimize that precious truth. It's called a little flock, and the remnants always been small.
And very precious to the Lord. But what characterizes the true godly Remnant is that they embrace.
In their affections, in their thoughts, in their prayers, all the Saints of God, all of them gathered, scattered, and when we only pray for the gathered Saints, and we never pray for the those that are scattered.
I think there's a great danger of getting into what is called sectarianism in spirit, in spirit. There's only two tribes that Zion, Jerusalem, Judah.
How many loaves did they have? 12 loaves. That's really the principle.
Funded trust failed by the profit. It was 12 Stones. You know another testimony of the truth. And God refuses to see his people other than as one.
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And that loaf on the table, Lord's Day Morning, is not a picture of us, the gathered Saints. It's a picture of the one body, all the Saints, sadly. And we ought to weep over it. We ought to feel it not with the thought of we are we are superior to them, but they ought to be there too. We all ought to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. That's the only ground of gathering. That's the only center of gathering.
And the only ground is the one body, and they're members of it and our brethren that have departed.
We should feel that, and yet feel the evil that Satan has ensnared them in and stayed clear of it by the grace of God.
Verse in Genesis 49 typical that expresses much of what's been said, and it's so beautiful to see it.
Shiloh was a place, we know. But here the place is a person. The 10th verse of Genesis 49. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh calm. That's a person. Then what unto him shall the gathering of the people be? There is a place, and brethren, it seems to me that the place is the person.
Somewhat of the authority.
And certainly he, the Lord Jesus Christ, has replaced this.
Physical place that existed when Israel was God's testimony here.
Mr. Darby's translation of this verse is to him Shall the obedience of the people be gathered to him, We submit to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst.
Not not right. Connected with the assurance of knowing that by God's grace I'm gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that I am where he is in the mirth. And if it is a matter of pride, the Lord will come in and humble that because he won't tolerate that kind of thing, that kind of spirit, because grace is.
That which has saved us.
Grace is that which has gathered us, but when that remnant returned from captivity.
And came back to Jerusalem. They did not hesitate one moment to say we know that we are in a place where the Lord has said His name and beloved. This must become a personal matter of faith with every one of us. And if you lose this precious truth, the enjoyment of this precious truth in your own soul, you'll be like a ship without a rudder.
You know and you have no more direction. Why are you where you are?
If it isn't for him, and if brethren is what brings you to where you are, they will. They will disappoint you. But Christ never will. We have to be where we are, beloved, not because we grew up there and our parents brought us there. We have to be there out of personal conviction, personal faith, and to have that assurance in our souls.
That we are where he has promised to be in the midst.
And it will have such an effect on our individual life. Beloved, we have to be hanging our head. You know, when we speak of these.
High truths and the high privilege of being so gathered. And then see how little in our practical everyday life we show that we know that we are where he is.
And, you know, isn't it sad that we have to admit that some of our fellow believers?
Who are not so gathered put us to shame, their devotion, their godliness in their individual life, how many times it puts us to shame. And it ought to stir us up to have a sincere desire to walk pleasing to him, that our life really will count for him, and the assembly life will experience a revival, if I may use that word.
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You know there will be.
Effects of our individual war seen in our collective path.
Be gathered by the Holy Spirit. And unless it's by the Holy Spirit, you're not gathered anyway. But being gathered by the Holy Spirit is so precious it should humble us. We're really not worthy. But he's gathered us to this precious name of the Lord Jesus according to his word. And it's so wonderful now, there's no boasting in that. You know all pride is wrong. All pride there's pride of race and there's pride of faith.
And pride of grace. But the worst is placed pride of place. But when those that left the wonderful precious place said the reason is we say we're the only place. I have never heard any of us say that. They say we say that without putting the caution our brother put there, that we can't boast in it. It's all marvelous grace of God and if he doesn't keep us, we're not kept.
And if they're going to come back and we've seen them, isn't it wonderful? It's the same spirit that will bring them back because of Christ, and it'll be brought back in repentance. I know you've all experienced it. It's so precious. But we've had one recently and she came back just in tears. And when she was talked to by the brother and the brothers, all were in tears. That's repentance and that's real.
Well, no use going in more than that. Everybody's having these precious experiences.
Could we emphasize this word in chapter one?
Prisoner.
In verse one, chapter 4. Excuse me, verse one, I therefore the prisoner.
Of the Lord.
You know, beloved, if we have not been captured, taken prisoner.
By the love of Christ.
You see, the apostle could say this and he really was in body of prisoner and he knew the weight of those words.
But all around us in this day of Laodicea, there is that which affects us, the spirit that's moving, that is behind the the systems of men and and these spirit affect us and the fact that we're here doesn't mean we're going to stay here.
It's grace that brought us here, and grace is going to keep us here.
But if I see myself at the feet of the Lord Jesus as a prisoner, I don't have any options.
Except to disobey the day I said yes to the Lord Jesus. I gave up all my options and all what a happy thing it is when I live in the good of that I have nothing but him. That's what my heart should say, that's what faith will say. And to be a prisoner of Jesus Christ. But that's where he is. If that's what it is, then that's all I have. That's nothing there. If the world has nothing that I want, If Christendom has nothing that I want.
They can't negotiate with me. And here a prisoner is one who cannot say what he's going to do tomorrow or what he's going to eat tomorrow, who's going to wear tomorrow. He's a prisoner. And the character of the Apostle Paul, as he writes this epistle, as God has brought him to the level of in his own soul of the presence of Christ before his soul as he writes this, it would do us well to to contemplate that one other thought.
When we say I am saved and I have no doubt about it.
And if you don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are not saved.
Does that make us boastful?
Do I not understand that the grace of God has chosen me when I didn't want him?
I was running as far away as I could from him, but he loved me and said I'm going to have that one and against all my arguments, he saved my soul. And that's how you're gathered, how I'm gathered.
Sheer grace. God that says I'm going to gather that one. That's why we're here. The same thought we should have. No, no, No Fear of saying, Well, I'm gathered and I'm sure thankful God did it, as well as saying I'm saved and I'm sure thankful and God did it.
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#17, I believe was given out.
I can't say the end of the world.
Where all.
Is there?
A name.
First Things, Genesis 3:6-8, Isaiah 59:6
YP Address—R.F. Bauman
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Even flow in answer to thy constant things all teach me quickly to return and cause my heart afresh to burn 46 in the appendix first two verses.
Be all recording heart in heart.
And from my heart.
Alright, Grandma.
Dare.
Grammarly.
By farming cause.
When my day made my favorite meal.
Where I had my.
Grand.
In Genesis, one verse one is a very simple verse.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
That's a beginning.
It's creation and then if you'd look at first John one and one and you'll see another. This one here is the 2nd that I was going to mention at the beginning first John 11.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life, that's incarnation. And then there's another beginning, which is in John 11, John's Gospel 11.
In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God.
Well, the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him. Verse four in him was life. Now in that first one, it's creation. Genesis 11, the beginning of all things here.
And that second one, first John 11 is incarnation. That's how new creation.
Came about from him who became a man, the Son of God eternally. And the last one was John 11. That's beyond imagination.
It's it's creation, incarnation, and beyond imagination. You can go back as far as your mind will let you, and He always was.
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That's John 11. That's precious, that's the I am and it's wonderful. Well, you know I want to turn also to.
Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes, Chapter One.
And verse.
9 The thing that hath been is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done. There is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new.
It has been already of old time which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things.
Neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come, with those that shall come after no new thing under the sun. That 11 That 11TH verse really says what many say in a mundane way. History repeats itself, but man cannot learn by former things, and that's why it's again and again the same things that happened.
Well, my thought is not the beginnings, because I've given you the three and there are no other that mean anything. But my thoughts are first things and you know there are first things and then they repeat themselves and go on. And it's not.
So much the beginnings of God, but it's the things that man does, and some will be of God.
And so I'm going to look at the book of beginnings, Genesis, for the 1St, and we're going to see the 1St in these ways.
They can teach us Genesis first of all, chapter 3, and I'll read from the middle of verse 6.
She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also under her husband, whither and he did eat. And the eyes of them were both both were open. They knew they were naked. They sold fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Genesis means origin or beginning.
And here we have a beginning. It's really one of the first.
In Ecclesiastes 7, I think it's the last verse 29.
Solomon said God has created man upright, but he's the creature of many inventions.
Or devices, as is the other translation. Man makes things in order to make things a nicer down here, and this is the truth that commenced at the very beginning upon sin coming in.
Now this was fig leaf aprons. You know it's clothing, A piece of clothing to cover themselves.
Man's first invention or device?
There was a necessary reason for it, but there was number need for a patent. There was none to copy it and it didn't work anyway. And so that's the first thing I want you to look at. Isaiah 59, just for a verse. It's better to have it that way than me to say it. Isaiah 59 and verse 6.
Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity. Their webs shall not become garments. So Adam and Eve first thing they did upon sin was tried to cover themselves. The Lord maketh the devices of man of none effects. Psalm 3310. The Lord makes the devices of man of none effect.
What do we read here? It says in verse seven, they knew they were naked, they knew they were negative.
Sin brought that in. They knew they were naked. What happened? They disobeyed God. That is sin. They did their own work. Will. That was sin. And they were both naked. We read in 225 the last verse of two chapter two. They were both naked, but they were not ashamed. They were not ashamed. You know what that is? That's innocent. And so when man sinned, he lost something.
00:10:17
He lost in those sons, but he gained something. By the goodness of God, he gained that conscience. And so I can say man is God conscience.
And I can also say man is sin conscious. Your conscience of both. God made sure of that. Now there are devices and there are inventions today that really seek to make man more comfortable down here and more comfortable about God, their creator. That's what many of those inventions are. And there's others that just entertain or occupy your time. And many devices and inventions to ease man's conscience do in the sight of God.
I would say all religion of man is that it's just a device.
To ease their conscience in the presence of God. And you can't do that, of course.
Now turn to Acts 17 along that line, Acts Chapter 17.
The.
Verse 23 Paul speaking. For as I pass by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with the inscription to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship him, declare I unto you God, that made the world in all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worship with men's hands.
As though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things.
Verse 29.
For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think.
That the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device.
That's one of men's devices also to bring an imitation of God or an imitation of something to whom or which they can worship, making their conscience feel better. But you know nothing of man's making, nothing of man's hands, nothing of man's device.
As to worship is acceptable to God as the Lord said to the woman at Saikar, true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father teaches such seeketh such to worship him.
Adam and Eve, wearing the fig leaf aprons, were still naked before God. For the all see and all knowing God, they were naked, you know, it says in Hebrews 4. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in God's sight. All things are naked and open before the eyes of whom we have to do. There's not one thing you can do to hide it.
But you know, in Titus three. I'll just turn quick to it. Titus three and verse 5. Not of works of righteousness, which we have done. It's according to his mercy he saved us. Ephesians 29 you Although for by grace are we saved through faith, that's not of yourself. It's a gift to God, not by works, lest any man would boast. So the first device was to cover their sins.
But they were naked. There's no way you can cover your sins apart from God's way. And of course, he clothed Adam and his wife with coats of skins. It took the shedding of blood of an innocent animal a type of the real way to be cleansed. And that's the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son. Now we'll turn again to Genesis and chapter.
Let's see chapter 3 again, verse 9.
And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? He said. I heard thy voice in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. We have here another First, it's the first recorded utterance of man to God. It's the goodness of God that brings a man to repentance. And that's what this utterance is. It's a confession, you know. No use at all. The fig leaf aprons.
00:15:03
And nor either the trees that they were behind. Nothing man can do would ever hide his sinful condition from the eyes of God, who's holy.
In Jeremiah, let's see 23. I'll turn quickly Jeremiah 23 and verse.
23 Am IA God at hand, saith Jehovah, and not a God far off. Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him, says Jehovah.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place.
Beholding the evil and beholding the good. And so you can't cover yourself. You can't hide yourself. You can't make yourself fit to worship God or to be in his presence.
Everywhere. And you can't hide behind trees, you know, those trees could speak of anything.
They could speak of a certain group that you join in order to present something to God and hope to appease him or to get his pleasure. It doesn't work. You may hide behind other things, but you can't do it. They do not take care of it. The reason is Psalm turn to Psalm 139. The reason really is Psalm 139 and I love this Psalm. I needed this long ago and I needed all the time to be reminded.
139 verse 7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven? Thou art there, If I make my bed in hell, Behold, thou art there, If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there? Verse 11 If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me.
Yeah, The darkness hideth not from thee, Adam.
We're ourselves. That's the light coming in, Adam. We're ourselves. Adam came out from behind those trees, but he was in his fig leaf apron and he was still naked, and he confessed it to God. And it's the goodness of God that brings one to that point of repentance. Now, that's the first recorded utterance of man to God, and it's a precious one we need to remember. And I was afraid. The first thing he said, I was afraid.
Everyone in their sins is really has that sentiment. They don't like to admit it, but they're afraid.
Of what? They don't know. They're afraid of a God who they do not know, his Father. Why? Because I was naked. I hid myself. And so that that confession was true, and it was his real condition in the sight of God and what he did. Like the prodigal Luke 15. I perish, young people, I hope you remember that word. I perished.
What brought him to that point? It was the goodness of God, wasn't it? He went his own way, doing what he wanted to do, riot this living. And he spent all and he feigned, would have eaten of the husk that he fed the swine. And then the goodness of God came in. What was it? A great famine, you say that goodness, all things work together for good. We had this.
Yesterday, I think, is a prayer meeting, but at any rate, great family. Then, he said. He came to the end of himself. I perished. I'll go back and I'll say.
I've sinned against heaven, and in thy sight I'm no more worthy. That's the thought. Then he could be clothed with the best robe, and he was. And so that's the first recorded utterance of man to God.
I like to look quickly at the last with only reading it. I could probably recite it and I could recite it, but let's turn to it, the last verse in Revelation. This is the last recorded utterance of man to God.
I'm going to only read the last words of 20th verse. Even so come Lord Jesus.
What a contrast from I was afraid and I hid myself to Even so.
Come Lord Jesus. And you know what the difference is? It's faith.
And that new life that delights in God and delight in him as Father. Notice 17 first part of that verse. And the Spirit and the bride say, come, Even so come Lord Jesus. You know the thought was the Spirit. We would never have that thought apart from the Spirit of God in us. But the words were the bride, and we have the privilege of those words that the Spirit puts on our hearts.
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So we must remember the last recorded utterance was the work of the Spirit of God.
Well, we'll go on now.
Back to Genesis or back to Psalm 39?
Man in the state of innocent living in paradise.
And a God-given help meet, and with the Creator coming down to walk with him in the cool of the evening, could not be satisfied. He could not be satisfied.
That's solemn, isn't it? And so he took of that fruit and he did eat.
And that brought in all the others Clactogenesis 4 back to Genesis 4. We'll get another here now and verse 17.
And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch.
And he builded a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son.
Enoch. This is the first reference to a city in the Word of God.
You know, Cain means fabricator or builder.
Devices of them, really. He built the first city and he called it after his son, Enoch. Enoch means dedicated. Now there's two significant Enochs in Revelation, and this is the first. The first Enoch was dedicated to this earth. Earthly.
The Second Enoch was dedicated to God in his heart, and so heavenly. And the first Enoch.
Pleased himself and the second Enoch, we read.
Before he was translated, he had this testimony. He pleased God.
There's the difference. You see the city ones who dwells in this earth, in this world, that's the city. Typically city means that where people dwell.
You have that in Ecclesiastes 9. I won't turn to it, but it says there was a little city and few within it. And you know the story of that. But the city speaks of where men dwell in this world.
Enoch, please God, you know that's the reason you were born. Especially speak to the young Christians. You know why you're here. You know why you were created. You know why you were born. You had nothing to do with it. But God tells us why. That revelation.
For verse 11 to give pleasure to the Lord. That's why you were born, that's why you're here.
You know, you could, and I hope none here well.
Having been conceived in sin and born in sin, and live a life of sin and die in sin.
And then spend eternity in your sins.
Never having given one ounce of pleasure.
To the Lord, the reason you're here. That's a solemn thought, isn't it? That's a solemn thought. Enoch gave pleasure to the Lord. He pleased God. All earthly minded people in the Old Testament are characterized by this Enoch. That's it. This first city, the 2 1/2 tribes you know that stopped short of the promised land in Canaan.
They saw something that was more suitable to their liking because it was land for cattle and they had much cattle.
And they thought more of cattle, perhaps, and even their families, because they left their families in peril.
Because of their cattle and they never did come into the promised land. That's another story.
But you know, I should go right back to that because this speaks of Cain here naming the the city after his son. Because Jay Air and I think that's at #32 Jay Air, the son of Manasseh took small towns and in the wrong place and he named them after himself Hovath Jer. And then Nobath went and took knife in the towns of Kenyatta.
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And he called it nobody after his own name. That's a worldly custom. That's a worldly. That's a worldly way. You know, the soundness. Maybe you better turn 4911. I shouldn't just sleep. Sound 4911. The Psalmist there brought it out very clear.
Verse 11.
Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue forever.
And their dwelling places to our generations, they call their lands after.
Their own names. That's the thought of the first city.
It refers to a dwelling place here in this world, and the First Enoch found his dwelling place on the earth. The second Enoch thought his in heaven, where we seek ours. And so with all men of faith turn to Hebrews Chapter 11. Just to show one of the thought I have here, Hebrews Chapter 11.
I know sometimes people ask me when I first meet them, Where are you from? And I'm not being sarcastic. I tell them I'm from above. I sojourn in Ohio. And that's a good answer, by the way, to remind yourself we're not people of this world. And 11, verse 22.
No, I don't think.
Oh, I'm at 12. Pardon me, Verse 13. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and we're persuaded and embraced them, and confess they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country, and truly, if they had been mindful of that, from whence they came out.
They might have an opportunity to have returned, but now they desire a better.
That is a heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city, a dwelling place for men in glory. What a wonderful thing it is, you know. You have to ask what characterizes you? What characterizes me? It's one or the other. It's Enoch, dedicated to this earth, or earthly minded. Or is Enoch, who's dedicated to heaven heavenly minded?
And he pleased God here.
The spirit behind the building.
Of the first city lingers on in this world. It continues and continues.
To make a place for themselves down here. It's ultimate goal was that Sheen are that's the ultimate goal and at Shenar which means change a city.
Genesis 11. I think I'll just read those few verses. Genesis 11.
And verse 2.
They said one to another, go to let us make brick and burn them thoroughly.
And they had breakfast, stone slime had they for mortar. And they said, go to let us build us a city, a tower whose top may reach under heaven, and let us make us a name. What God said no.
Fables. They couldn't go anymore. Confusion.
Confusion of language.
But that city of Babel?
Is really the beginning of all religious confusion in this world.
And we know what Babylon was, even to the children of Israel when they're interactive.
They wept. In Babylon, it was confusion. And anytime you get into this world, I don't care what part of it, you're going to have confusion. Remember Solomon? God made man upright, but he's the creature of many inventions or devices and I think the city is one of the worst. Don't get your tent stakes in so deep that you become an earth dweller.
That's it. Well, we'll go back to Genesis for another.
These things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto Abraham, And he said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou loveth, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. We have a first reference here.
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To love.
The first reference to love and its divine love.
It's not natural love. Natural love is a jealous love. Natural love is seeking something for itself. But divine love is selfless. He's a jealous God, but his love is selfless. It just reaches out not because of the creature to an unholy or ungodly creature, because of love. That's his nature to bless. So here's the first reference of love, but it's love of the Father for the Son.
The first reference and in a beautiful to think about it.
You know, in Mark 12 it says, having. Yet therefore one son is, well beloved. He sent him and they killed him. They crucified him. But think of that love, the love for a bride for his son, that would lead him to send his son into this wicked cruel world, and let knowing what his creatures would do to him and what God would have to do in three hours of darkness.
So that's love. God commendeth his love toward us. You know, here in his love.
Not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave his Son.
Of appreciation for our sins. Divine love. I think it is a precious thing.
And as Jesus hung on that cruel tree, don't forget his tormentors, his creatures.
Sat down comfortably to watch him suffer and die.
He not only heard what they said.
He knew what was in their heart before the thought came into their mind.
And yet you know what? He cried. Father, forgive them.
Father, forgive them. That is divine love.
It passes all knowledge. It's the love of God. This is the first reference of love, because this is the only love that means anything. And the second reference of love is at the end of 24. I'm not going to take to do it, but it's the love of the sun for his bride, the love of the Son for his bride. I don't know if I should turn to it. I won't turn to it. It's the same love first, the love of the Father for the Son.
And then, at the end of 24, the love of the sun for his pride.
I want to turn to John 15, just for that love. It's so precious. John 13.
I'm sorry, 15, John 15.
And verse 9 as the Father has loved me.
So have I loved you.
Continue ye in my love.
You cherish that verse, that blessed truth, that you are loved by Jesus as the Father has loved Him on Lord's day. That's the only reason that we can be there boldly in the very presence of a holy God, because he sees us and loves us as in all the preciousness of his Son. Think about that. That's our standing as as the Father has loved me.
So have I loved you, one of his chosen earthly people.
In Deuteronomy 7, the Lord did not set His love upon you, He said, nor choose you because you were more in number, but because He loved you. It's a wonderful thought, this love that we're getting here. It's the But how about Malachi? The burden of the Lord to Malachi?
What's he to tell the people I have loved you?
Isn't that lovely? I have loved you. What did they say?
Wherein hast thou loved us? Malachi is comparable.
Or like June today, our time, It's the same nearing apostasy.
Wherein hast thou loved us? It's an awful thought, but that's the heart of man apart from Christ. And then how sad the indictment of Jesus.
Against the apostasy itself, against Chrysanthemum at the end.
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Well, I shouldn't say that. I'm not going to say get into that against.
Ephesians, I should say, in the 1St century Christianity.
Thou hast left my first love. That's sad, isn't it? Thou hast left my first love. They didn't lose it. You don't lose it, but you leave it in the good of it. But then I have one other thought. And instead of going to.
To Revelation, we can just think about Timothy, second Timothy, lovers of self rather than the lovers of God.
That describes the last days lovers themselves rather than lovers of God. We can be thankful for everyone here who's going to sing that song in Revelation 1/5.
Unto him that loveth us, washed us from our sins in his own blood. To him be glory. That's what we need. I was thinking of I'm going to read Little Flock, one of my favorite verses. 142 yards to turn to it. 142 Third stanza.
No tongue can teach love that no thought can reach no love like his.
God is its blessed source. Just near can stop its scores. Nothing can stay its fourth maxless it is well. We've had that little incident there of first love turned to Exodus to watch what time here Exodus and chapter.
15 I'm going to be quick on this. Exodus 15.
And when I read this the verse first of all.
I find it quickly in chapter 14131413, Moses said.
Unto the people fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, and the Lord shall fight for you. Verse 14, verse 31 of chapter 14 And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians of the people, feared the Lord, and believed Jehovah, or believed the Lord And his servant Moses then sang, Moses and the children of Israel this song under the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord.
Triumphs gloriously the horse of his writer as he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song. He's become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation. My Father's God, and I will exalt him. That's the first recorded singing.
In the word of God, it's victory. It's the singing of victory.
And you know how precious it is, because only the redeemed have a right to sing.
Angels don't sing, angels say.
Will be the ones who will be singing in glory, the redeemed, and they will rejoice in that song, but they won't sing it, you know it's sad because very shortly after this they were murmuring. And very shortly before this there was nothing but cries of anguish and despair in *******. That is sad to think of the murmuring that came on. But this song is comprehension comprehensive. It's the song.
Of victory. And it's the song of the victor. We have the song of the victor to add to it. In Revelations 15, it says they sang the song of Moses. That's the victory we just read about. We have it. And the Song of the Lamb, that's the Victor. We know it. And so we have that wonderful song to sing, that whole song. And I want to turn now. Let's see. My time is up. I think this ends at. I think it ends at 3, doesn't it? Yeah.
Some of you.
Enthusiastically, let's see.
Which I don't mind. I wanted to think about one thing here. May I just?
There's many more, but may I just turn to Daniel one minute? I think this is the same thought I had when I read it earlier yesterday in Daniel.
Chapter one and I'll just read these verses.
Verse the 16th Daniel went in and desired the king that he would give him time.
That he would show the king the interpretation, and then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to his three brethren.
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And that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning the secret that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret revealed under Daniel in a night vision, then Daniel lest the God of heaven.
This is the first prayer meeting, and I love the prayer meeting. You know, Daniel just asked the king for a little time. That's all he needed. But he realized he wanted his brethren to pray with him. If two of you agree as to anything upon earth, it shall be granted thee of my Father in heaven. And they had that sense in their soul. And the Lord answered the prayer quickly. And then Daniel.
Did he, right away, when it was revealed to him, go to his brethren?
No, he didn't. Did he go to the king and tell him right away? No, he takes the place.
Of a thankful worshipper. That's what he does. And that's a grand object really of of all revelation. Of God to us is he once worshippers. He wants those that are thankful and we need that prayer meeting. I had some others but I will leave it. I was thinking of the prayer meeting in Acts 12. They were all together in John Mark's house praying for Peter.
And the Lord answered that prayer.
You know, I believe all but Rhoda were praying in unbelief.
But Rhoda was praying in belief and he answered that prayer, I really think because of Rhoda, because of Rhoda. Lovely, isn't it? Well, I just mentioned all these things are important. But the prayer meeting young Christians is so important. We need it. It's what keeps us together.
All meetings are important. I just mentioned the worship meeting is precious, but it's the privilege meeting breaking of bread, then the reading or open is wonderful.
It's a provision meeting how the Spirit can teach us by the word. But the prayer meeting is the responsibility meeting. And I would beg all of you be at the prayer meeting. Let's sing the last, the last verse of that 46 in the back, the last verse of 46 in the back of the book.
Be thou the object price and fair.
Satisfy the heart, my hope to be the in the end.
I never.
Wore from the coup.
Large that I may on distracted thee.
To follow her and wait for.
Thee that I may on.
Distracted thee.
Follow Sir, and awake for.
The.
Ephesians 4:4-10
Reading
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Head of the church.
I.
Cry great.
Sweeter the same thing.
That could make.
All my eggs all day.
My heart.
I love you.
My God.
He's free and unto us.
And.
When the Lord and pray Lord can't hear, you can't hear no doubt.
I'm not believing.
Ephesians chapter 4.
Verse 4.
There is one body.
And one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, 1 Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all who is above all and through all, and in you that are in us all but unto every one of us has given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
Now that He ascended, what is it all but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might feel all things.
And he gave some apostles and some prophets, and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints.
For the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie and wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love.
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May grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplier, according to the effectual working, and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body under the edifying of itself in love.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work, all uncleanliness with greediness, uncleanness with greediness.
But ye have not so learned Christ.
If so be that you have heard Him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.
That ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
And that you put on the Newman, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil.
Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands, the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needed.
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed under the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.
Permitted to give a few additional thoughts on the keeping of the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond peace, and I trust it will not be perceived as lacking in love, as we have been admonished in this chapter to hold the truth.
In love or speaking the truth.
In love, there is such a thing as independency.
Independency would be that when an assembly has acted in the name of the Lord, that we have the notion that we can in other places rejudge the matter. That's independency.
Or that we would not break bread of either side when there is a division that's also independency?
And we don't have to think very far to realize when these things have manifested themselves among us, then there is such a thing as neutrality.
Both of these principles deny the unity of the spirit. Neutrality would mean here there is a division occurred and we act as if no division has occurred. We take a neutral position and receive from both sides.
This is how my relatives, my grandparents and my beloved brethren on the continent got off the line ground.
So this kind of thing touches me personally very deeply when I see this same notion manifesting themselves amongst gathered things over here. Now we might make mistakes, beloved brethren, but then let's confess these mistakes and not act as if we have not made mistakes. Keeping the unity of the Spirit would keep me or anyone else.
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Individually or any assembly to act independently of any assembly.
Gathered to the name of the Lord in any other location. And it also would keep me from neutrality, because in both cases I would ignore the authority that the Lord has vested in the local church. So I thought I would be permitted to add this to the thoughts already expressed, keeping the unity of the Spirit, now the verses that we have read.
Give us.
Three circles.
And you have the inner circle inverse 4. Then you have the sphere of profession which is larger. That includes everyone. That name is the name of the Lord, everyone who professes to be a Christian. And then you have the universal circle. And we have to recognize these three circles because our conduct in connection with those in these various circles.
Is very important to understand how we conduct ourselves and what our responsibilities are when it comes to the inner circle, which has to do with the truth of the body of Christ and then the truth of the Christian profession and God.
As the source of everything, Who is the God and Father of all, that includes all mankind, but it concludes with the statement.
In all of you there is all of the believers.
It's important that we recognize these various circles. There are responsibilities connected with each one of them for us.
Make a few comments.
To sometimes the way we present the truth, it almost comes across as though an assembly's decision is infallible and unchallengeable. Well, that's pokery.
And assembly is not infallible. It has authority. I, as a father have authority.
But I'm not infallible and I've made many mistakes.
And so each one who's a father here can admit that the government has authority over us, but it is not infallible and it does make many mistakes. So how does a wrong decision on the part of an assembly get corrected? Well, I think the the fact that we are one body.
Supplies the answer. We all have an interest in what takes place.
Every assembly and for instance, if an assembly should decide to receive to the table those that denied the eternal sonship of Christ.
Would we be bound by that? That's that's a wrong decision. We would have to remonstrate with that assembly and point out how they had violated the Scriptures. The final authority, of course, is the word of God, and if they held to it.
The end result of that exchange of correspondence and visitation or whatever it is, would end in another assembly. Disowning that assembly is no longer being a true expression of the Church of God, of the House of God. And so I just wanted to bring that side of it. And I also wanted to mention too, maybe some others can make more comments that when an assembly makes a decision, it does so not only for itself.
I think this was the error error of Shrewsbury. They made a decision to protect themselves and then they left it up to other assemblies to follow suit. Whereas the principle that we see from Scripture since that we're just all one body is that when an assembly makes a decision, that decision binds all other assemblies. But then comes the question, as we I brought up, is what happens if?
It makes a very wrong decision. Well, there's ways. There are resources within the body and in those of us who are part of the House of God, and to remonstrate and to ask them to to review and to present scripture to them, and seek to awaken the conscience if if they have done done wrong, which is possible. Mr. Darby takes that up in a number of his letters, many of his letters.
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But the resource is not, as Heinz has just brought before us, for me to independently and individually rejudge the case myself, or at a distance and on my own authority, set aside what the assembly has done. That's independency, and that is not the way it should be handled. The responsibility lies with the assembly that has made the decision. If it's a wrong decision and that's been pointed out to it, it is responsible.
To rectify the wrong decision and to correct it as a as a parent. If I made a decision once I disciplined the wrong child because I had didn't have sufficient information. And so I went to the one that I had disciplined and apologized. They said I made a mistake, I shouldn't have disciplined you. It was the other one. So I was not infallible. And if we make a mistake, I think the way we presented, sometimes it sounds as though that decision is.
Irrevocable only if it's according to the mind of God, and that's not for me to judge at a distance. But if it's done something that is clearly a violation of Scripture, then that should be corrected. We should not remain in fellowship with no one evil. And if an assembly decides to refuse to rectify a very obvious wrong decision, you can see it from Scripture.
Maybe it's a doctrinal issue. Then that assembly may have to be dealt with itself and disowned. So there's there's there is a remedy for a mistaken action on the part of the assembly, but it's not the the unscriptural one of each one independently judging. But I think we have to be careful that we don't set up the idea of every assembly being autonomous and not having to answer to any other, any other assembly.
You get that principle in Israel. If you hearsay that in a certain city they have gone after other gods, then thou shalt search and look diligently. And if the thing be certain and be true that such an evil has been committed, then that city is to be to be judged. So there there are principles that we get from the Old Testament as well as the New that to help us on these matters. Sometimes the way it's presented, it sounds as though it's just so cut and dried.
But there are resources now in connection with, say, the last division at Nepean. A letter came from another assembly and they said, quote, nothing will satisfy our consciences but the judgment of another assembly. UN quote, that's wrong. That's wrong. Another assembly has no authority to come in and overturn the judgment of an assembly. They can appeal to that assembly, they can present their concerns for what they've done and so on, but it's still up to that original assembly to say.
Well, we made a mistake. We'll change it or we stand by the decision. And if they stand by it, unless it's positive wickedness, I'm not talking about that in this case. It had nothing to do with that. It was a question of judgment on an individual, a very simple judgment. It was just the silencing of an individual brother, and it wasn't a question of something that was fundamental. And So what do we do? We bow to that. We bow to it. Whether we agree with it or don't agree with it, we submit and bow to it.
I hope that's helpful to.
To distinguish between that kind of thing, that an assembly is responsible to deal with and fundamental error or fundamental evil, or say an assembly has no one adulterers in its midst and will not deal with it. Are we going to remain in fellowship with that? We would have to look into that and and judge it if they refuse to judge it themselves.
Might be helpful also to make one other observation is the difference between.
Putting evil away and separating from evil.
To put evil away, you need authority.
To separate from evil, you don't need authority. An individual does not need authority to separate from evil.
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An assembly can put evil away, remove the wicked person from among yourself, but individual can't do that. He separates from evil.
And in the case I was thinking of an assembly that refused and it was a clear issue of say we'll use something denying the term sonship, we just separate from them. There's no authority to put away.
An assembly. One assembly putting away another. But there is the simple instruction of scripture to separate from iniquity.
All these additional thoughts, so no assembly has authority to administratively deal with a matter in another assembly and.
That is contrary to Scripture. What happened in the recent problem is that not only did they want to question an action, they wanted to prevent an action that was under consideration.
To my knowledge, I never heard of such a thing amongst readers, that there was ever such a case where people wanted to stop an action that was under consideration, and that there is no scriptural support for taking over responsibilities, administrative responsibilities in another assembly. But if that assembly allows evil, and they do not judge that evil, then they can no longer be recognized as in fellowship. But that cannot be done.
By an individual, It has to be done by another assembly, as it was done in Bexhill in England. That was exactly the way the matter was handled. But the independent spirit is so rampant amongst Christians and it's really open brethrenism that every assembly sits down and judges any disciplinary case. And then they might side with the assembly that has acted. Or they might.
Not side with the assembly that has access, but that principle is open brethrenism to rejudge a matter that occurs in another assembly. We don't want to have anything to do with that. That's not supportable by the word of God. And let's beloved brethren face these things squarely and realize that that has been the issue. And unfortunately, in some local assemblies they took an independent position.
Would not break bread with anybody. And then eventually they decided themselves to be back on scriptural ground. How an assembly can take itself out of fellowship and then by their own action put themselves back in fellowship is beyond me. But, brethren, we have to be faithful with each other to point these things out. Because we make these mistakes. Let's acknowledge them as mistakes and confess them before the Lord that we get delivered from that kind of a principle.
And the whole idea that another essentially has the right to rejudge things, Let's refuse them, because if this continues to fester among us, at least to further trouble.
Mentioned Brother Heinz, you had mentioned the Open Brethren. I'd just like to. I don't think many either. I think many here do not know what their principles are.
It's very simple. They at at Plymouth, England, they had a man, DW Newton, that taught very fundamental wrong, evil doctrine on the person of Christ. It was so serious that George Mueller, who was one of the leading pastors at at Bethesda.
He said that if that doctrine were true, Christ would have needed a savior himself, and it was a blasphemous doctrine. Bethesda took the position that they should condemn anyone that came with that doctrine, but if they came from a meeting where that doctrine was taught and preached and tolerated like Plymouth, as long as that individual that came hadn't imbibed the doctrine.
Himself He was not leavened, and he was to be received.
That's the principle of Bethesda, that they received one that came from a meeting where evil practices or false doctrines were taught and held. But they said, as long as the individual who comes hasn't imbibed it himself, he is not defiled by his association with that evil teaching from the meeting that he is at those known as Exclusive Brethren.
00:25:05
That's the name that these others gave to us and we didn't mind that title because.
It means to exclude evil. And that's the principle that those known as Exclusive Brethren acted upon. They refused anyone that came from 11TH meeting. They said that they are leavened by that. And the Open Brethren principle is you're not leavened by it until you have personally imbibed the teaching. For instance, in First Corinthians 511, Little leaven leaveneth the whole Dutch lump. The Open Brethren teaching is that you have to become a fornicator yourself.
Before you're leavened, as long as you're in fellowship with one and you don't fornicate, you're not leavened. And that's wrong. That's a wicked principle. The principle of indifference to being in fellowship with that evil is worse than the evil itself. It's worse than the evil itself, the principle of indifference to it. And that's Bethesdaism. They were indifferent to that which touched the glory and person of Christ.
And they said you could have fellowship with that. Does that happen amongst us? I'm afraid that there are some that read ministry that denies the eternal sonship of Christ and they still are in fellowship. And that shouldn't be you should not read that which is fundamentally evil. What you say, you might say. And this was the argument of Bethesda. These, these brethren are sound in the faith and they know all these truths and they don't hold that evil truth.
But they come from connection with it and if we read that.
And even though we don't believe it ourselves, we are very dangerously close to being in that very position where the the leavened one from Plymouth was. We should not, the scripture says touch not the unclean thing. I remember speaking on this once and I spoke to a young girl that was in the front row and I said here's 100 chocolates. One is deadly poison, the others are all good. Have one.
She said no thank you.
And that's the principle. We don't read ministry. We shouldn't read ministry that contains, or the author of it has written to deny fundamental truth, like the eternal sonship of Christ. I won't touch that. I might have some of those books in my library locked up so no one can get to them. So if I have to refer to them, I will. But I don't read them because they've got poison in the. And I think that's something we should be very careful about.
I was wondering, could you read Hagee Eye 212 and 13?
Haggai, 212 and 13.
Now he wants me to read it, because I've got the microphone. Haggai 212 and 13. If one bare holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage or wine or oil or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priest answered and said no. Then said, Hey, guy, if one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priest answered and said it shall be.
Unclean. And here we have the principle that association with evil defiles.
Only one side of open Bradronism, the association with evil, does not defile. The other side is that they reserve the right to judge for themselves matters that have been adjudged in another assembly, and that's characteristic of them. And we will not accept, and should not accept that principle.
That's the principle of independent, autonomous meetings. Each one answers to God, to the Lord, the head, but not to one another. But we answer to one another. So when an assembly takes an action, it does it for the whole body, doesn't it? And if there are objections and they voice those in a scriptural way, that assembly should respond and gives scriptural answers for why it's acted as it has, but still it has the authority to maintain or to change.
Its decision no one else has.
00:30:03
The number we have right here sometimes is 1 and when you do what open brother, do you go to 2-3 or two or three thousand? It's division.
I still did.
Now, yeah.
The number we have read here 7 times is 1.
That's unity. There is one body, and so on. The principle of open brethren, as we have just heard, is this assembly can do one thing, that one can do another and that one another, and that is division. That's more than one. We have one Lord. He doesn't say one thing in this assembly and another thing over at Aberdeen. It's one Lord.
These things that are being said are extremely important.
And understanding Christianity. I hope that everyone, especially the young people, young men especially, are listening to what's being said and not resentful for anything that is being said, as though it's not important. Listen. And if you have let your mind wander, I suggest you get a tape and listen to it at home.
Brother Hendrix, you mentioned the house God. Would it be helpful to explain the difference between the house and the body?
Gordon will help us out.
Well.
Well, I was just going to say in the beginning, I expect there was no difference because there was reality, and so the House of Profession and the body of Christ would have been the same. But when Profession came in, then it became, as it's described in Second Timothy, a great house where there were vessels to honor and vessels to dishonor. And so when we come to Second Timothy.
All those in Asia had departed from Paul. That doesn't mean that they had given up Christ.
But they had given up Paul's doctrine, and so Paul has to say the Lord knoweth them that are his. He was not saying they were not in the House of profession. They might have been real believers, but separating from the vessels to dishonor was separating from their evil teaching, which was attacking really the foundations of the faith, saying that the resurrection had passed already. And so in the body of Christ there's only reality, and that's what we have in our chapter here. There is one body.
That's the fact that's always true, because everyone who has received the Lord Jesus as his savior.
Had received the Spirit of God is baptized by 1 spirit into one body, so that's untouched. It's always true. But the thought of responsibility comes in, in connection with the house, and so when it becomes a great house, there is responsibility as to who we associate with and that's what our brethren are bringing before us. I also was thinking too in connection with what is said. Some may think that's a matter of pride.
It's a matter of submission. It's not a matter of pride. I believe it's pride to exercise my own will.
It is submission to act and obedience to the Word of God if I decide to act contrary to the Word of God.
Saying that my will is more important than what God has said in His word, and I think we need to realize this because.
Sometimes there is the feeling that, well, I don't want to be proud. Well, I am proud if I make my own will, the guide of my conduct. I'm submissive if I make the word of God the guide of my conduct. And God requires that of us. Let's turn to a passage in Second Corinthians.
00:35:03
I think it's the 10th chapter.
Two Corinthians 10.
And verse 5.
Might just read the first one.
As it is in the margin, casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, So we have to have our minds subject to the word of God. That's the path of blessing The human reason is always trying to find a way of avoiding.
The path of obedience.
But that is not what brings blessing or is to the glory of God.
Attempt to answer this question, Brother Gordon, about the difference between the body and the house. In this way, Brother Gordon has brought out some differences already. But what I feel the difference is, is that the body has to do with our edification of building up ourselves in law. Discipline is not so much the function of the body.
That is the function of maintaining order in God's house. It's his house. Holiness become a sign house for God forever. So discipline and oversight is connected with the house aspect of the church. We wouldn't alienate or separate that aspect from the body of Christ because we are one body. We recognize whatever has been done for the glory of God to maintain order in any local assembly. We recognize it everywhere.
But I believe there is one distinct difference that when you, for instance in Timothy read of the House of God in order you have oversight there, you know you have the elders there. They take the lead in disciplinary matters. They watch over the souls they're responsible to answer to God. That is connected with the house aspect, not with the body. You see, the truth of the body of Christ has been used, misused in this recent trouble to justify interference.
That we say that we do not want and recognize members of the body of Christ. But it was a misuse because the body function is primarily for the edification, encouragement and comfort of the Saints are building ourselves up in love. And the gifts have to do with the functioning of the body like we have here in the 4th chapter, those 3 gifts that we still have that's in connection with the body truth.
Of the Church and the House of God. Since it is His house, since he is holy holiness, become a thine house. Discipline has to be exercised in that aspect of the truth of the Church.
15X15 We have a good case to call our attention to, and that is these Jews. Some Jews came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and they said, except you be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses, you cannot be saved. That was doctrinal error trying to put the Gentiles under law. Now there were two apostles up at Antioch, Paul and Barnabas. There was a competent assembly there gathered to the Lord's name.
It could have decided the issue there, but it didn't. Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem, the very place from which the error had come, and it was decided at Jerusalem that maintained unity in the early church. Had it been decided at Antioch, a Gentile church, the error came from Jerusalem, a Jewish church, a division would have come in.
And you would have had a Jewish and a Gentile church. God prevented that by this decision being made down at Jerusalem from where the error had come, and it was decided in the power of the Holy Spirit. Another case in point is when the Samaritans heard the word of God was preached and they were in John and Peter went there.
And preached to them they did not receive the Holy Spirit. The Samaritans didn't until.
There were those that had come from Jerusalem and laid their hands on them. That is, God prevented A Samaritan church being separate from Jerusalem, the Jewish church, and that there was enmity between the Samaritans and the Jews, and he prevented that. So two apostles went from Jerusalem to Samaria and the Samaritans when they received the Holy Spirit. They couldn't say we received the Spirit independently of Jerusalem.
00:40:12
Nor could those at Jerusalem say they are an independent church. There was that fellowship that was expressed by the apostles going there to Samaria. So how careful God was to maintain unity in the early church? These are examples that we should take heed to in in in the decisions that are made, so that unity is maintained and division does not result.
We were told this morning that there is one body with an absolute.
The antithesis, or the opposite view of oneness is, as we've had pointed out this afternoon, many bodies.
In the first chapter of First Corinthians, where sectarianism is taken up.
In verse nine it says God is faithful by whom we were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ. That is the one body.
And now we have in verse 10 the highest authority that can be named upon us.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
I beseech you, brethren, that by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you speak the same thing, that there be no division among you, that you'd be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. So if we bow to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ invested in the local assembly, we are going to avoid the sectarianism and the division that is a result of man having his own way in passing his private judgment.
On that which an assembly has done, the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ called upon us to speak the same thing. And if we do not speak the thing, same thing, we have missed the mind of God.
We have these three circles then here don't we endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. And there is one body that's reality as it was mentioned, and one Lord, one Faith 1. Baptism Profession 1. God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all that is in the sense in which it is found in Acts 17. It says in Acts 17 for we are also his offspring. He doesn't mean that unsaved people are in a relationship to God as their father.
But it's the thought of God being the source of life to mankind. He's not the He is the source of life to the lower creation. But he has never spoken of as being in relationship to the lower creation. But he is in relationship to man. God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. And so man has a God conscious part to his being.
His life is from God himself and he is God conscious. That's what it means here when it says one God and Father of all. But then when the verse ends by saying in you all, when we are born into the family of God, no God is our father, then it says in you all that's only believers that it's talking about in the latter part of the verse. Because by the Spirit of God indwelling us we can say have a father.
We can know God as Father. I've also enjoyed this little thought. I just mentioned it in connection with these three verses.
That it's beginning an introduction of what follows. The testimony that God has raised up and the provision that he has made is in relationship to these three circles that we read of. That is, there are those who are gathered to give expression to the truth of the body of Christ. There is the mass of profession, and then there is all mankind. And God has made provision. He has laid the foundation of the truth.
He has given apostles and he has given pastors and teachers. He has also given evangelists and the Lord Jesus said, go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And so I think it's very beautiful the way it's brought in here, bringing us these relationships which we can know and the responsibilities connected with them, but also the testimony to the truth of God.
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In this whole world, whether it be to those who know who are really in the body of Christ, have a measure of truth what their actions should be. To those who are in the sphere of profession, what their responsibility is, because that everyone that name is the name of Christ depart from iniquity, and then the responsibility of those who have the knowledge to spread it and spread the gospel that others might be brought in, I think there's a beautiful.
Unfolding here that.
Shows us what the Church really is in the world and its response.
Many spirits, many hopes.
They all say 1, Lord.
Many faiths, different baptisms.
How that would contrast with what we have here. It's still true. There's only one, as Clem was saying before.
One is repeated over and over and over again, and that's how we can test what we see around us, the confusion that has come in.
Into the House of God.
Not the Great House. There's no such an expression found in Scripture as the Great House.
The House of God has become like unto a great house. It's still the House of God in Second Timothy, but it's become like unto a great house confusion. Whereas in First Timothy it's the House of God in order, in Second Timothy it's the same house in disorder, and it's like to a great house. We had that before us last year when we were here.
Lord loves these people.
And he's given what's necessary to go on and walking according to the vocation with which we are called. So he says in verse 7 Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. He doesn't give a gift, and then not give grace to use it rightly.
Not only does he not give grace.
Give the gift without giving the grace. The gift itself is an act of God's grace. Who are we? We are those that were nothing bankrupt 500 pence debtors and had nothing with which commend ourselves to God. His grace picked us up. So if one has been given.
A line that is helpful to the Saints of God. It's God's grace that gives it to him, and that's the character in which that gift of grace should be administered.
And, I might add, if my heart is in communion with the heart of the giver, I'm going to rejoice in the gift.
Regardless of who it is and where it's exercised, communion with God's heart rejoices in the blessing of God amongst men, regardless of through whom it comes.
God has called us to do something well, He'll give the grace to do it.
And that's why it says no man goes to warfare at his own charges. I've always enjoyed the thought not to ask ourselves, can we do it? But does the Lord want us to do it? Because we might measure our own strength and say, I think I can do this or that and utterly breakdown if we're trying to do things in our own strength, but if God has really called us to do something?
He's not going to say I want you to do it, but I can't give you the grace and strength to do it. He is going to supply that, just as when one joins the services, immediately he becomes the charge of those who have taken him to be a soldier. Isn't that a lovely thing? So to every one of us sitting in this room, whether brothers or sisters, we can ask ourselves, what is the place that I have been given to fulfill in the body of Christ?
And if the Lord has given us that place, He's going to give the grace needed to fulfill that place in a way that honors him.
Whatever the service may be, difficult or otherwise, he's able to give the grace that's needed to carry out that service.
00:50:06
That makes us dependent on him and rely on him. Keeps us from boasting, keeps us humble because we know we can never do these things if God didn't supply the grace needed to do them.
This instruction about using that gift.
From brethren we get it. From Christ he is the head.
And he's the one that gives a gift and the grace to use it, and we are to go to him.
For the place that we are to fulfill.
Being sent forth by the Holy Spirit went forth. The assembly does not send anyone out, it's the Spirit of God that does.
Ask the Lord about John. What shall this man do?
He just said, if I will, that he tear till I come. What is that to thee? Follow thou, me, Peter. You don't need to have to. You don't need to know what John is going to do.
Think that when Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem already the scripture referred to in Acts 15 that they got their marching orders from the church. But Bill War here corrected me on that some time back, he says. We never find that anybody gets marching orders from the church. We don't find that in Acts 13. You know they were sent out by the Holy Spirit.
And we do not really read.
That they were sent by the church in Antioch to the church in Jerusalem and from Galatians chapter 2.
We know that Paul went up to Jerusalem by revelation. You see, he got his marching orders from the Lord. You know, by revelation he went up there, and we read that they went up to see the apostles and elders.
And he took the matter up with the apostles and elders in verse 6.
Not with the assembly.
In other words, not everybody in India simply is supposed to get involved in the argument. That's for those whom God has raised up to be in the place of lead and responsibility. Now the assembly is not kept out of these matters because we read in verse 22 That it seemed good to the apostles and elders and the whole church. When exactly the church was brought in is not clear, but from verse 22 it is clear that the church was brought into.
The situation and the important point I want to stress is that the matter was not taken up by the church, that was taken up by the apostles and elders. You read that clearly that they were going there to see the apostles and elders, and it was taken up in verse 6 by the apostles and elders. So this democratic idea that exists in Christendom has been picked up, unfortunately sometimes among those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, and they think that everybody has the right to give his opinion.
And it leads to a lot of confusion and unprofitable discussions. And they even think sometimes that it is spirituality to have hours and hours and hours of discussions with everybody there. That is, I do not believe in order that we see in the word of God. It's the responsibility primarily of those who God has raised up in the position of oversight. And although we don't have official ones today, we still have those.
Who serve in that capacity? And you can see how that use is used by the enemy. Unestablished babes in Christ get thrown into the conflict. No wonder that they're being scattered far and wide. It's the enemy's suggestion to bring everybody into the discussion of these matters. That is not godly order.
But then when the decision is arrived at the churches involved, it says.
In Acts 1522, then pleased at the apostles and elders with the whole church.
To send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas surname, Barsabbas and Silas chief men among the Brethren, and they wrote letters by them. After this manner the apostles and elders and Brethren send greeting to the Brethren, which are of the church Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Celestia, and so on. So the assembly is brought into the decision, but it isn't involved in all the details and the making of it.
00:55:25
Right. We also have, though that the assembly does not teach right. It doesn't add its authority to the truth of God.
Say though that the ones who went out there, Barnabas and Paul, it says in the 13th of Acts, and when they had faster than prayed they and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost. It's true they were sent forth by the Holy Ghost, but they received with the laying on of hands the fellowship of their brethren in what they were doing.
And so in the end of the 14th chapter, when they returned, we can see that again.
Acts, chapter 14 and verse 26. And these are the same two persons, Paul and Barnabas, and sent sail to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.
And there a bold day. There they abode long time with the disciples, so they went out with the fellowship of their brethren. And when they came back it says that they had gone forth being recommended by the brethren. So there's no such thing as independence in the things of God, is there? It's a great and important thing that we should walk in harmony. As long as the truth of God is maintained, of course.
It isn't the unity of the Spirit if there is any sacrificing of the truth of God.
But we see a godly order that God has established, even as to those who go and serve in fellowship with their brethren in their work.
Together, you know, we do not all preach.
We do not all preach the gospel or teach and give ministry to the Saints, but in having the fellowship of our brethren, we are laborers together, You know, We all have fellowship in what the Lord is doing.
Through whoever he raises up.
Very important that we emphasize that the Church does not teach.
To tie a tire of the Lord's complaint is thou sufferest that woman Jezebel to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, sacrifice to idols. There was a wicked woman system there which teaches we we often hear. What does your church teach? Well, the Church doesn't teach, it is taught. It is taught by the gifts that Christ gives through the word of God and the authority.
When you talk about the authority of truth, it is the word of God. That's the authority of truth, that the assembly is the pillar and ground of it. It is to maintain the truth as it is taught the truth by by the Lord himself, the head of the Church. He teaches to gifts that he gives, and then the Church is responsible to maintain that truth and to uphold it, and to exercise discipline where necessary, where that truth is violated. But the Church does not establish what the truth is. The Word of God does that.
I think it's important what has been said about.
Going out committed from one place like Barnabas and Paul.
Because.
Those who go out, they might have as evangelists, save souls. And where are they going to lead them? Commonly in some big parts of the house, it's it's taught go to the Church of your choice. Well, that's contrary to the teaching of the Spirit of God.
So God's order is to, as we have here, the gifts to be given from the ascended head on high to go out from a local assembly and if there are converts, they can bring them back to that local assembly. It's very important principle, I believe independency would say, well, you just go where you please after you're saved. But that's not, that's not the keeping the unity of the spirit at all.
01:00:28
Nothing. To have one foot in an assembly and then you can go where that assembly is exercised and help. But just to go out yourself, I don't believe. And as you say, then they can be brought in and into the truth. The Lord may send you on a longer trip and you may have opportunities, but you don't deny that. But still, when the real work is done, it's.
We're responsible to an assembly, but I don't like to work without an assembly or out from assembly. Just had our brother John Kemp with us, and I'll say that I look upon him as an evangelist with the feel of the whole world, and I like that. But he used a simple illustration. He said in a drawing class in your school, your children will have a compass, and when they want to make a circle, they put the point in one place and the other thing goes all the way around the full circle.
That's what you're saying. One put in the assembly and the world is the field.
For the evangelist, and then to bring into that assembly and in the assembly.
Be nourished and cared for by the pastors and teachers that are there. And in this list we have 5 gifts which we will have until the Lord comes. But the first two we only have. I refer to the the apostles and prophets. We only have them in the New Testament writings. There are no living apostles and prophets as such.
The prophecy we have in a different basis but.
The apostles are gone and the writers of this book are gone, but they have laid the foundation and pull himself, says I, as a wise master builder have laid the foundation. Now Christ, who is the builder, saying I will build my church.
Doesn't keep on laying the foundation. He has got that work done. That's basic.
And then you have falling down the left evangelist, and that's a worldwide work, but connected with the local assembly. Then when souls are brought in, you have the two succeeding guests, the pastors and teachers. This is.
Christ's way, building the church and nourishing and cherishing it. It's very simple if if you want to study the model of the Tabernacle.
And I recommend it to everybody because it is true, typical teaching.
And that building was made of boards that were stood up on.
Sockets of silver.
Now the boards were covered over with pure gold.
And they were placed on 2 sockets of silver. It's a it's a good figure of everyone of us.
Who have been cut down from the world like those trees were, and give it a new standing. And it's on the basis of redemption that we are able to stand at all. And in this book stand withstand having done all to stand, but not alone, because those boards had on each side 5 bars and you study it out. There were two bars at the lower part of those boards which correspond to the apostles and prophets who laid the foundation.
Now you study out the wording of those bars.
And the middle one was the one that went all the way through the sides.
Each side had them, and everyone of us has been touched by an evangelist.
Whether we realize it or not, by reading the book, I just delight and I've often found.
People who have been saved by just reading a Bible. But where did they get that Bible? Somebody printed it and then somebody sold it or gave it to them. And there are those who preach too. And every one of us have been touched by an evangelist. That bar went all the way through the whole side. Then up at South of that building with the boards, there were two more bars there, the pastors and teachers, and they're the ones to teach the teachers and the.
01:05:06
Pastors to shepherd so that these five gifts is sufficient. We have the three that are living.
I was thinking as in our verse 11 you're mentioning the evangelists and pastors and teachers and so on.
In Acts 11 it's interesting to see the order there, and this goes on in verse 20 of 11. Some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake under the Grecians preaching the Lord Jesus.
Now these are evangelists. This is the gospel preaching. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned under the Lord. And then the tidings of these things came under the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch. And now we have the follow up work. You know, it's nice to see that happen. Some when the seed is sown, follow up that word.
And then it says, Who, when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. Now we have the pastor's work right here, purpose of of the work among the Saints that are saved. And then it says in verse 25. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul. Now we're going to have the teacher.
The work of the Teacher coming in and verse 26. When he had found him, he brought him under Antioch. And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the assembly or church and taught much people and the disciples were called Christians, first at Antioch. And so then you have all of them involved in this, first the Evangelist and then the I like the thought of follow up work.
And the pastors and the teachers and finally prophets are brought in.
Which is a gift which passed in that sense, but the prophecy today.
I was wondering if we just noticed a little bit about what went before there in that passage. When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. We know that there is a teaching that when the Lord Jesus died, he went down and took the Old Testament Saints out of Hades and brought them into a place of blessing. But that's not the point in the passage at all, is it? He thought is that the Lord Jesus went into death?
And I was if we turn to Judges, we see in the 5th chapter of Judges the mention of this. I'd just like to notice a couple of verses.
Judges chapter 5 and verse 12.
Awake. Awake. Deborah. Awake, awake. Utter a song. Arise, Barack, and lead thy captivity. Captive thou son of a Benoit. And then if you would turn to the 68th Psalm, you would find.
Where the IT mentions this in the 18th verse of the 68th Psalm.
Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast captivity captive. Thou hast receive gifts for men. Yeah, for the rebellious also that the law, that the Lord God might dwell among them. And could we turn to just one other Scripture in Hebrews chapter 2.
And verse 14 For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood.
He himself likewise took part of the saying that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death.
And deliver them who through fear of death, where all their lifetimes subject to *******.
I believe this is what the spirit of God is taking up here. First, it's applied to barracks. The children of Israel were in captivity under this king who was oppressing them. And then the Lord raised up Barack and Deborah, and they went out and delivered them. And the very man who was keeping them in captivity was himself taken captive and put to death. And so the people were delivered.
01:10:06
And this is applied to the Lord Jesus in the 68th Psalm, that he led captivity captive, and then it's extended he gave gifts unto men. We can see the thought in this, I believe, from the passage there in Hebrews that Satan was the one who kept men in captivity. He got Adam's ear in the garden of Eden, and he kept manning captivity through his lust. And when he presented himself to the Lord that he said, all the kingdoms of the earth are mine and dooms whoever I will, I give it.
He was the one who was holding men in captivity. But the Lord Jesus went into Satan's strongholds. He went right down into death. He bore our sins. He rose triumphant. And now isn't it wonderful who was going to proclaim the victory that had been won in Israel? That they might know that the one who held them in captivity was himself taken captive and was banished? He was dead. Why?
Unbearable with this song and tell the people that a victory has been won and they could all rejoice in the liberty that was theirs.
I think it's very lovely the way this is taken up in Ephesians chapter 4, where he shows that the Lord Jesus has has gone into death. He's risen again, he's at the right hand of God. And who has he provided to proclaim his victory? Rebellious sinners like you and I, saved by his grace. Now he has given that and not only the evangelist could tell of salvation.
But everything to tell the results of that victory, the apostles and prophets who laid the foundation, the teachers, the everything that is necessary, the shepherding care. This is all from the person who has won the victory. And he has raised up gifts to rebellious people like we were saved us by His grace, like he saved the apostle Paul. And now we have the privilege of proclaiming this victory. I think it's lovely, the context in which that comes in, in our chapter, because.
Before introducing the gifts that we have been speaking about. It tells us how all this was accomplished through the one who has gone into death. And now we're not afraid of death. Death is ours. It belongs to the believer. We'll never meet God as a judge. Our sins are gone. What a place of blessing we've been brought into. Well, the Lord would have us to know and enjoy these things, wouldn't he?
Question I'd like to put forth it. Brother Buchanan, you mentioned that the.
Evangelists, the pastors and teachers remain, but the apostles and prophets do not. And in First Corinthians chapter 14.
We have that expression verse 29. Let the prophets speak two or three and the other judge. Maybe you could help us there to understand the difference.
Yes, it's quite important.
Profits in First Corinthians 14.
Is identified what they do in verse three, First Corinthians 14 Three the prophecy we're talking about in this chapter 14 is this. He that prophecy us speaketh unto men through edification, exhortation, and comfort. And we have this prophecy today, and it's telling forth, rather than foretelling and laying a foundation that ought to be clear to us and.
Rest the supply that we have.
From the pastors and teachers and prophets.
In First Corinthians 14, whereas the.
Prophets and apostles that we're talking about in the 4th chapter of Ephesians are found in Ephesians 3.
Ephesians 3.
Beginning to read with verse 3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery that Christ in the Church, as I write, wrote a four and few words, whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge. And the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known under the sons of God, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
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Now, these are the writers of the New Testament. They're not Isaiah and Elijah and so on.
But they are apostles. The Lord chose 12 of them when he was on earth, and then he chose Paul from heaven to bring us the Church truth so that we're clear on the apostles but the prophets.
In my own thinking, might be Luke and.
James and Jude who were not.
Apostles. At any rate, the foundation is the New Testament writings which we have which.
Which Paul was really the last of the apostles and completed the subject matter of the book. Let's go to Colossians chapter one and see how.
Paul was really the last of the apostles. He had to be because he says he feels full the word of God. There's no more subject matter to write after Paul.
And so in Colossians 125, Paul says we're of I am made a minister or a servant according to the dispensation of God, which has given me for you to fulfill or to fulfill the word of God. So going back to what we were saying in Ephesians 4 with these foundation gifts, they were the apostles and prophets.
Who completed the word of God and they don't run on. Someone commented about the fathers in first John Two that maybe we should turn to that you can't go beyond Christ and Christ is fully revealed.
First, John two and verse 14. I have written unto you Father, because you have known him that is from the beginning. The full revelation of Christ that God has given is complete by the New Testament writing. And that's foundation truth, and it's not to be added to but on that.
The evangelist goes forth and brings into that foundation.
And the foundation is.
Lee and the Great House that.
A great house has been mentioned, seems to run beyond the foundation. We must stay on the foundation. But Christ in his goodness on that foundation which is laid in the New Testament writings, uses evangelists, pastors, and teachers to nourish and cherish the Church.
That from Ephesians 220. You may have read it and I missed it, but are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And that's the same ones you read about in the third chapter. And whenever the prophets are mentioned with the apostles it's a foundation gift. And like you mentioned Luke and James and Jude, they with the other apostles wrote the New Testament. That's the foundation. But in First Corinthians 14 you don't get any apostles ever mentioned.
The prophets there are of a different character than foundation gifts.
It might be also helpful to compare, or to at least distinguish between the nature of the gifts here in Ephesians 4 that they are to the entire Church of God where the gifts recorded in the 14th of First Corinthians function within the local assembly.
Could we also say in one John four and verse four we have what you've just been Speaking of in connection with the authority connected with the ministry of the apostles and prophets, First Corinthians, first John four and verse four. We are of God. He he that know of God heareth us. He that knoweth not God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. There's no brother or sister here that could say that of himself.
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But the apostles minister the truth of God, inspired by the Spirit of God.
It has been written down for us and we receive it with divine authority. To reject it is to reject the authority of God, isn't it?
Saw that what is spoken of in first John four and verse six, these are the apostles and prophets. We hear them. That's the word of God to us, the New Testament foundation of truth. But today, as in First Corinthians 14, as our brother has said, we're thankful for those who minister the truth, but they only do it on the authority of the written word. We have no personal authority.
As apostles and prophets today.
Thing in First Corinthians 14 that we do not have today and that when anyone received a revelation, the others had to be silenced and had to be given precedent. In other words, they didn't have the word of God complete in those days and things were communicated to the church by revelation and we don't have that today.
And knowledge we still have, like Paul says in First Corinthians 14, If he wouldn't speak by revelation or knowledge and so on, he couldn't be of any profit to them. Now this is important for us who do not have revelations. You know, we have to familiarize ourselves with the truth of God. We have to take the truth in for ourselves and thus gain knowledge of the truth of God. And then at any given time the Spirit of God can use that for blessing.
To others.
So if we want to be of help to our fellow believers, and especially when we come together to have a reading over the word during midweek meeting, if we don't know that scripture, that is going to be up for reading. We better familiarize ourselves with it so that we have something to give. Because sometimes we have the mystical notion connected with the leading of the Spirit, as if the Spirit can open things up to us that we have never.
Occupied a mind with and have made a diligent effort to familiarize ourselves with. And this is important for us to understand. If the Spirit of God wants to use us or should use us. He can only use us if we have made the truth of God our own so that we can pass it on for blessing to others. And that doesn't necessarily mean that we read ministry before the reading, but at some time in our life.
We have had to be in that passage in order that we can expound it and pass it on for blessing to others.
Could we could could we just say too that in connection with these gifts that Christ gives these gifts to men and so these men are gifts and so would it be right to say I just like the correct crap? One thing I think it's important to see that to have the fellowship of the assembly is nice, very nice, but not necessary. God the defended Christ gave these gifts.
They were not dependent upon the assembly to send them out. They were responsible to Christ and Christ alone, and I think that's important to see.
Assembly doesn't send them out. The assembly can have fellowship with them in their service, but they they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost. But it is nice that we have the fellowship of our brethren and we see two things. I think that showed that they had the fellowship of their brethren in Acts chapter 13. That is, it says they had already approved themselves. There was in the assembly, not as there was in the assembly. That was at certain prophets and teachers.
And we find that Paul and Barnabas were 1/2 of these. They had shown that they were fitted by how they had exercised their usefulness in the local assembly. Their godliness had been shown by their what now? The assembly is happy when they go.
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And they have fellowship with them, but they don't send them out.
Necessary, but it's nice.
But this way we are not the servants of the Church, but we serve the Church. If led by the Spirit, we become their servants, but we are not hired by them. We don't receive our marching orders by them. We are not the servant of the Church, but we serve them if we are led by the Spirit and by the Lord Jesus to provide spiritual needs to the same.
And I believe someone has made this distinction and that might be helpful for some to understand the difference between the.
Teacher, the Shepherd and the Prophet.
The teacher directs himself to the intellect.
To the spiritual intelligence of the person, the shepherd directs himself to the heart.
And the prophet to the conscience, you know, prophecy.
As we have it today, deals with the needs and conditions of God's people and gives ministry food in season. That is, I believe, the way we have to understand prophecy today. That has to do with the condition and needs of the people that is being met by the prophet. And it might be correction, you know, but it also might be encouragement and comfort, you know, and it might be and we.
Certainly know from Scripture that the fool despises correction. We already need that at one time or another that we need to be corrected, and the profit is the most difficult gift to exercise amongst God's people today. You know, a teacher might come and teach in an assembly certain truth, not so much meeting the needs of local conditions and local needs.
But the Prophet, I believe is discerning the need and gives meat in season and it is not popular because many times he has to expose a worldliness and spiritual needs that exist among God's people. And we should not suppress prophecy, you know, we should accept it. It's not a popular thing, but it is a very needful thing. But these gifts mentioned in Ephesians.
Are men that are given as gifts to the church by the exalted Christ. Their sphere of service, if they have such gift, is universal. You know we find more the local church functioning in Corinthians. Not that we do not have more than the local church, but primarily the local church functioning in its spiritual manifestations within the church. But Ephesians 4 gives us gifts that have the.
Sphere of.
Ministering wherever the Lord leads them in any assembly. Now that is even important for the shepherd. Just imagine a shepherd coming to an assembly and has the gift of a shepherd and how he can help individuals in that assembly without taking over the administration of that assembly, but He can help them in their spiritual needs. What an important gift that is.
The teacher linked together in this portion.
That really these two things belong together, but they are not necessarily together in the same person. But Paul certainly had them all. You know, he was an evangelist, he was a shepherd, and he was a teacher. But I think we all readily admit that what we need more than anything else is the shepherd. See is really discernment by the Spirit of God.
It doesn't mean you know the needs of the problems, but many times if it is prophecy of the spirit of God, there's a suspicion that someone told you, which isn't true, but that's the way it is and someone told you the problems and it's it's good that we do not know all the problems, but the spirit of God does. That would bring in prophecy doesn't to meet those needs and touch their conscience, can we sing #256?
Lord, Lord, or keep us pleading to thyself, and still believing till the hour of our receiving promised joys with thee, #256 Parades the Savior.
Ephesians 4:11-12
Reading
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And joyful.
Please.
Trouble and sorrow and pressure.
Judges Chapter 9 and verse 21.
And Jotham ran away.
And.
Fled and went to beer and dwelt there.
Steer man had experienced.
Terrible tragedy and the massacre of his.
Generation of his family.
And he went up to Mount Griazam to give perhaps one of the richest.
Parables that we have in the Old Testament.
And.
Mount Griazam was appointed to Joseph to stand upon with five other of the tribes.
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The amount of blessing. The other was Mount Ebo. That was a mount of cursing, and we might have thought that he would have selected Mount Evil to pronounce a terrible curse upon those that had brought in the tragedy.
Instead, there's a message of grace and truth given from Mount Goryism.
But what has touched one's heart is to the place that he fled to. He had to hide himself before the massacre because he was a prudent man, foreseeing the evil hid himself, and now he must hide again. So if we turn to Exodus 21.
Our numbers 21.
The children of Israel had passed through the experience of the fiery serpents.
And we read in verse 16 And from thence they went to deer, That is the well whereof the Lord spake unto Moses.
Gather the people together, and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song, sprang up Oh well, singing unto it. The Princess digged the well. The nobles of the people digged it by the direction of the lawgiver with their staves.
Well, as this dear man Jotham anticipated as to where he should hide himself, I don't believe he could have chosen a better place to go where the Children of Israel were refreshed after.
Very sad exposures of their own hearts, their bitterness because of the way and so on, and I believe that we can say probably spent three happy years there.
At this well, and I suppose we've wondered what it must have been like for the camp of Israel to have been there.
But it just tells us that they put their staves into the ground. I don't believe that they have to dig deep holes to get water.
But just push the stave into the sand, and up came the artesian springs. Well, it's not three years for us here. It's three days. But to think of being the Lord's hidden ones, and to be able to enjoy the artesian waters that are given to us of the Spirit of God with praise, Ask him for his blessing.
Or verse 11.
And he gave some apostles and some prophets, and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.
For the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and to the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
But speaking the truth and love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head.
Even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplier, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, make us increase of the body under the edifying of itself in love.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not, as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. Who?
Being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greedious with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ. If so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
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And that you put on the Newman, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying? Speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needed.
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace under the hearers.
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed under the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.
It's important to remark that these gifts that the Lord gives these apostles that He establishes here.
It's a it's an entirely different Commission.
That they have, they are associated with a glorified Christ. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all things, that he might fill all things so.
It's the ascended Christ that now gifts men, gives men as gifts. And just to make this come he gave some comma apostles. Take the comma out. It's not that he gave to some apostles and to others prophets, and that he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. So the comma that should really shouldn't be there.
It obscures the thought, but these apostles.
Are not necessarily the same ones that he commissioned in in the in the gospels he sent them out with a Commission to Israel. It's true that the 12 were also recommissioned by the Lord from His glorified place, but he also selected Saul of Tarsus to be the apostle, and Barnabas is called an apostle. So there were others that were apostles besides the original 12.
And their Commission in the Gospels, and entirely of a different character than what we have here. Here we have it. We read it yesterday in the the third chapter of Ephesians, verse 5, which in other ages was not made known. He's talking about the mystery of Christ in the church was not made known under the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
That was not revealed to them. When the Lord was on earth, those apostles that he commissioned to go to the 12 tribes of Israel or to the to Israel, now it's revealed to them so that they can understand it. Paul was the one that brought it out. They understand when it was brought out. Says it was altogether new truth. It wasn't something that like the Bereans, they could search the scriptures to see whether these things were so. They could not find the mystery. They could search all they wanted in the Old Testament. They wouldn't find the mystery.
Christ in the Church, they would find the principle that the Gentiles would be blessed subordinate to Israel. That's in the Old Testament. But the Jew and Gentile united together into one body by the Spirit. Absolutely not a trace of it in the Old Testament except in type. It was hidden God.
A mystery, a secret that when God finally divulged so those apostles that were the foundation apostles for the Church, particularly the Apostle Paul.
They were commissioned by Christ in Glory. I think it's very important to see that it's a different Commission altogether, A Heavenly 1.
There was nothing on earth.
Even that he could remake.
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That would do justice to the glory of Christ. He had to have a new thing.
Because there's a man in glory now.
And I believe we get this. Yesterday I was thinking we had a lot of the walls, the things that would determine within and without.
And here we have what's within.
In the umm.
Book of Ecclesiastes, it says.
It's better to go to the House of mourning. That is where death is.
In the House of feasting, but the Lord Jesus has made the House of mourning where death is.
His death, House of Feasting.
And outside it says outside that house. It's fools. It's the ********* of the.
Thorns under the pot.
And so there is a House of feasting in a world of fools. And that's what we're getting. We're getting his provision.
For us in this House of feasting, consequent upon his victory, it's part and parcel of his victory, He ascended up on high, and what could on earth properly represent that truth? The wondrous victory of Christ. It's a new thing that God has set on the earth. It's his church.
Not feel that the apostles include both the ones who were commissioned by the Lord.
And also the apostle who received his Commission from the Lord in glory.
Because it's important that we understand the purposes of God in connection with the blessing of Israel.
And it's the putting together of the blessing of Israel as an earthly people, as we have in Ephesians one and 10, that he's made known to us the mystery of his will, not only the blessing of the church, but the gathering together in one of all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are upon earth.
Even in him. And so we see it. I think it's beautiful to see the apostle Peter, who was the apostle of the circumcision, working happily with the apostle Paul, who was given the heavenly truth. And all are brought together. And we by the wondrous grace of God, have been brought into the understanding of the counsels of God, not only in connection with the blessing of the church, but also the blessing of Israel and the nations upon the earth.
And so that the apostles and prophets that we have here, I would say would bring before us.
The whole revealed truth of God and the putting together of these councils of God, which was not understood, it's true in the Old Testament, but in now in the light of Christianity, both are brought together and one fits in perfectly with the other. You turn to the end of Romans Chapter 11, I believe it is.
Well, the apostle Paul, led by the Spirit of God, brings these together, the 25th verse of the 11TH of Romans. For I would not brethren that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own conceits. That blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles become in and so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written. There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And then in the end of the chapter in the.
32nd verse.
God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all all the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are his judgment and his ways past finding out for who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor?
Or who hath first give them to him, and shall be recompensed unto him again. For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever and forever. Amen. I believe in this portion. The apostle Paul sees the bringing together of the blessing of Israel, and all those promises made in regard to Israel fulfilled, and the blessing of the church now in this present period.
He sees that's the completion of the counsels of God, and he sees that it's all founded upon the work of Christ and upon grace alone, and that there's only one way in which Israel is going to be brought into blessing. Not by keeping the law, not because of their own faithfulness, but they are going to be the objects of mercy. I think Mr. Darby makes this clear in his translation. They are the objects of mercy, even as we are. And so I would suggest that the apostles.
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That are mentioned here, include both and bring before us the fulfillment of the counsels of God.
As revealed and I think it's beautiful to see that in Galatians where Paul and.
And Peter, they he's the messenger of the of the circumcision. Peter was Paul of the Uncircumcision. And they are both working together for a common purpose to the understanding and entering into this wonderful fulfillment of the councils of God now made known to us to know and enjoy.
As to the Apostles who were commissioned by the Lord when he was here.
Just a few verses and in the Luke 24.
And verse some. 33 They rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the 11 gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, the Lord is risen indeed. And then down in verse 44 And Jesus said unto them, These are the words which I speak unto you, while I was yet with you.
That all things must be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses.
And the prophets in the Psalm concerning me then opened he.
Their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them.
Thus it is written, and thus it behooves Christ to supper, and arise from the dead the third day, And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, humming among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with the power from on high. I believe that's the thought. He opened their understanding.
To a degree or to an extent, at that time they were not indwelt by the Spirit of God. But when that happened, those apostles were able to bring forth these wonderful things from the Old Testament even which which once Paul's doctrine and the mystery was revealed, that could be revealed as well.
I've enjoyed the thought in the the vast glories that belong to the Lord Jesus.
He will head up all things as we read and has been referred to in chapter one.
We enjoyed the thought of all the creation, everything around him.
That has come in under redemption and the value of his blood and.
There, as it were, various choruses of praise forever around him who is worthy. But there's one voice in all these choruses he's listening for. He wants to survey the the vastness of all his glories and pick out. He's got one voice he's listening for, and I find that in the end of Ephesians 3.
Unto him be glory in the church.
Oh, he's producing a note of praise in his church.
That nothing else will be like cannot be duplicated.
And that's what he's going to listen for.
All the glories that will be his.
Be that which he would delight the fullness of his heart. He loved the Church, gave himself for it. And that's where we find a kind of a central point. The Queen is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but they're at his side, his bride, his wife.
In Colossians chapter one, we have something too of this. We just turn to it.
In the This was read yesterday in the 24th verse.
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the Church.
Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill or to complete the word of God, even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his Saints.
00:25:16
It's a striking expression here in this 24th verse, that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. The Lord Jesus was the minister of the circumcision to confirm the promises made under the fathers were told in Romans he suffered from the nation of Israel, but the Apostle Paul suffered in bringing out that which had not been revealed until Christ was in glory. That is the truth of the Church.
And so as the Lord Jesus suffered, because he was rejected by that nation whom he had come to bless.
Paul suffered in bringing out that revelation that came from Christ in glory. And now that's why he says about I am made a minister and completing the word of God and then going on maybe read these verses 27th verse to whom God would make known. What is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Whom we preach warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man, perfect or full, grown in Christ Jesus. Where unto I also labor striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. For I would that she knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love.
Unto all.
Riches and the full assurance of understanding of the mystery of God, of God, and of the Father in Christ. And I want to notice that third verse, in whom or wherein are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. It was a great burden of the heart of the Apostle that the Saints might understand what true Christianity is, and that there's a great mixture, as we know and Christendom of Judaism and Christianity.
And so we see the two often mixed together in the systems of men.
But isn't a very blessed thing that now God has given us to distinguish between the blessing of Israel is God's earthly people, and the blessing of the church associated with Christ in glory, and that expression wherein are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge? And may I be bold to say that there is no Christian that can really understand the Bible and the revelation that God has given who doesn't see those two things?
Christianity doesn't in any way negate or set aside the blessing of Israel.
And we see that time drawing near and what is happening in the Middle East, but we who have the wisdom of God through His Word.
We understand and we see that we're not to expect this blessing. There's great movement in Christendom to save the nation and all that kind of thing. This world is going to come under the judgment of God. And brethren, what a marvelous thing that God has made known to us, His will.
And unless we see those two distinct purposes of God, we'll never be able to understand what God is doing in this world and how He is accomplishing His purposes. Oh, how blessed that He's brought us into the knowledge of these things. And so the Ascended Christ has.
Provided the apostles and prophets to lay the foundation, but then as we go on in the chapter, we'll see He's also provided.
Teachers, he's also provided pastors. He's also provided evangelists, so that the message might go out and that we wouldn't be carried about with the winds of doctrine of which Christendom is full, because he cares for his church and he wants us to enter into and enjoy what is in his heart.
And his purposes of blessing, and to understand them by the Spirit.
But it's helpful, but it's helpful.
I already pointed out that two distinct lines of truth the Church and Israel. And in Christendom there is.
A teaching which explains the mystery in this way that all the mysteries about is bringing the Church into Israel's blessing.
00:30:12
And there is no further.
Blessing for Israel. All the promises made to the Fathers are fulfilled in the Church and that era because the promises made that have not been fulfilled.
If to Israel, that is, if they're not going to be fulfilled, what assurance do we have that our promises will be fulfilled? God does not go back.
On his unconditional promises that he has made to his people Israel, he could not fulfill them because it became a conditional thing at Sinai.
The fulfillment of unconditional promises given in the Old Testament to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were unconditional, not depending on any faithfulness on their part that changed at Sinai. That's why they couldn't be let into all that God had for them. But that has changed now, you see.
The new covenant that he will make with both the houses of Israel is new not only because it follows the first of Sinai. It's new in character. It's no longer a conditional thing. It's grace. All based upon the finished work of Christ and their promises are going to be fulfilled. But there are those things connected with Christ and the Church.
The mystery and out of Jews and out of Gentiles, some have been brought to be fellow heirs, fellow heirs with Christ, and that's the church. Ephesians 3, verse 6. And these things are important for the young people to get a hold of because these covenant theologians are gaining influence, you know, and they're really setting aside dispensational truth.
Undermining it. You can't understand the word of God unless you understand dispensational truth. And presently God has set his people aside, the earthly people, and He's gathering out of the nations of people for his name, and that's the church. And when that work is complete, he will take up again with Israel and will fulfill these promises. And there is going to be a Millennium.
And it is not only that Israel will not lose out and not receive the promises given to them. That Millennium is going to be the day where he will be glorified. In the scene where he was rejected and despised, he will have his day of glory. He would lose out if there would be no Millennium. He is the King of King and Lord of Lords. He's in the King of the Church. He is our head where he's our bridegroom.
We are not in that relationship to him, but we certainly with joyful anticipation look forward to the day when he will have his day of glory here where he was rejected and crucified. But what a wonderful blessing it is to be part of the Church of God in that intimate relationship to the blessed Lord Jesus, and to be his bride, to be his body, be a member of the body of their Christ. What a privilege It is no thing.
In any previous dispensation or in any future will have that place of nearness.
That we have in Christ. But beloved, if that's all, what should that do for us? How should it affect our life? You know, we should walk worthy of that calling because we are so honored and so blessed and all based on grace, not on us fulfilling anything like it was in the Old Testament. It's all based upon the work of the Lord Jesus, and sovereign grace had given us that place.
We might read that verse. It was referred to in chapter one of Ephesians because it seems to tie it all together.
Ephesians one and verse.
789101011 is the one I was thinking of.
00:35:00
In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.
Wherein yet abounded toward us in all wisdom, and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery.
Of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times this is the Millennium, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him.
In whom also we have obtained inheritance. It's his grace he desires to bring us into his confidence.
As God spoke of Abraham, well till I hide from Abraham what I'm going to do because I know Abraham.
By telling what I'm going to do, he'll keep my word. You'll guard it.
So there is a confidence in this these verses that God and his grace is rests on us and he tells us.
These wondrous things. And he says that there is a center point of all glory.
Is Christ himself in Christ? Not in the church? He's going to head up all things. And the brother asked me one time, well, where's the church? He says in heaven and earth. Where's the church? And I said well in heaven. He says no, that's wrong, it's in Christ.
So we have the vantage point. There is not a university in this world that will tell you these things. They never reached that far. They never partake of this wisdom. I mean the grace that comes to us in the form of wisdom, where he would tell you and me all the wonders of the mystery of his will.
And place us in Christ to survey from that vantage point all that he's going to do and rejoice in the glory of Christ. Because everything we see of His glory in a day yet to come will just thrill our hearts as we're seated there with Christ in Him in whom we also have obtained an inheritance.
And our path, then, is to reflect the wonder of these things in a daily life here on earth from within.
The vantage point where we survey inside, we have the full provision and that's where our chapter is. Bring us to the provision he has made for his own. We don't need to draw.
From the world, even the Israel, even Israel. We don't need to draw from that. We wonder at it as we behold God's dealings with Israel. But we have a vantage point that they will never have. And he is producing in you and me. I repeat a note of praise for his own joy that will not be produced anywhere else that is in the church. You'll be glorified ages, about ages, without Him. And that's our place, by the grace of God.
In verse 11, where we began, he gave some apostles.
And some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.
He gave those from the glory.
Commissioned them from heaven.
Some of them were the same ones that he had already commissioned on Earth.
And I used to wonder, and what what Gordon said before put it all together for me, that it says in the second chapter the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
Jesus Christ being the cornerstone.
The Foundation truth.
Christ is the foundation and they brought out. We learn who He is. We learn the truth of His person and the truth of His work from these men who are here called apostles and prophets. It's their ministry. It's the New Testament ministry. We learn a few details of of Christ in the Old Testament, but the.
The fullness of it is brought out here. That's foundational. But only only the apostle Paul brought out the truth of the mystery. You don't get that in any of the other writings. Peter didn't, John didn't. The truth of the mystery. Christ in the church being one. Even when Peter said in Acts 15 that we may be saved even as they.
That is, he's saying, we Jews are saved just like the Gentiles.
Very extraordinary statement for a Jew to make. He still didn't enter in.
Fully to the truth of the mystery, He did realize that God was bringing the Gentiles in, but that they would be united in one body by the Spirit. That truth was brought out by the Apostle Paul. And Peter does say in his second epistle our beloved brother Paul in his epistles There are some things hard to be understood. Be very hard for a Jewish mind to understand the truth of the mystery. Christ in the Church united together.
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And the Church composed of Jew and Gentile.
As it says in chapter 3, verse six, this tells you what that mystery was, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, joint heirs with the Jews.
And of the same body, a joint body with the Jews and joint partakers. I'm quoting from Mr. Darby's translation of his promise in Christ by the Gospel that never entered the Jewish mind that these promises in the Old Testament they took for themselves. Now he says, the Gentiles are joint heirs with that the joint heirs.
Joint heirs and of the joint body and joint partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. That's the mystery that Paul brought out. And.
It and I used to wonder, and why it said in chapter 3, verse 5, which in other ages was not made known, the mystery which in other ages was not made known under the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. They didn't bring it out, but it was revealed to them by the Spirit, so that when it was brought out by Paul, they didn't charge him with error. They didn't say show us that in the Old Testament.
It's not there, no. It's a mystery. So it had to be revealed to them so that they could say Amen when he did bring it out.
Two brothers, Galatians 2 Says, what you're saying might just look at it, what you mean there in Galatians. 2 Paul says. Then 14 years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. And he says I went up by Revelation and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles.
But privately to them, which were of reputation.
Lest by any means I should run or had run in vain, that is.
All checked out the gospel that he had given been given from God with those that were apostles before him. But they learned that revelation through Paul, and they they accepted it. And as Gordon was bringing out before us, the apostleship to the circumcision was committed to Peter.
And that's verse 8 of Galatians 2 He's at wrought effectually and Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision. The same was mighty and me toward the Gentiles, so that the the apostles beside Paul had to learn this mystery from Paul who had got it from heaven. Is that the way it is?
It might be added to what has been said relative to it being difficult for the Jewish mind to conceive these things. It's equally as impossible for the Gentile mind to conceive them apart from the revelation of God. And so these gifts that we have brought before us in verse 11 are given in order to bring both Jew and Gentile into the understanding of this new thing that God has brought about. And so it's referred to as the perfecting of the Saints, the bringing them into the maturity of Christian understanding.
Of this mystery that is New Revelation.
If the evangelist and pastor and the teacher are still with us today and these gifts still have the same purpose, but.
Someone might ask, are there these the only ones that can contribute to the edification and encouragement and comfort of the Saints? No, we have not commented too much on verse 7.
But unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Then further down we have the statement that which every joint supplier. I believe. This clearly shows that everyone who is a member in the body of Christ has received some gift. There's nobody that does not have received a gift, but.
We do not all have the gift of teaching. We do not all have the gift of shepherding. We do not all have the gift of evangelization. But we all have something to contribute. You know, it's beautiful to see that this truth of the body of Christ, of a body, is presented to function as a body. You know, the church is not an organization. It's an Organism.
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And every member in that body has a function to perform. And it is not impossible for every in the assembly, you know, if we leave it up to only one or two brothers.
You know we will develop our own system of clergy. You know, we have to realize that we are all functioning members in the body of Christ.
Let's not try to do something for which the Lord hasn't qualified us, you know He has given us.
To everyone of us something it's grace that has bestowed it, and we can function there for the glory of the Lord Jesus and for the blessing of all.
It was mentioned yesterday, though, that in the 11TH verse there is no comma properly He gave some apostles, he gave some prophets, and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. That comma has been inserted. You know, in other words, in this particular passage the people themselves are gifts that the ascended Christ has given. That is, he gave the Apostle Paul a man whom he raised up saved, on the road to Damascus.
And gave him these revelations and I believe he raised up at going to speak in this way.
Mr. Darby and men like this, they were gifts to the church. They were man whom God gave. Then what we have in Corinthians is the other side, perhaps, that every one of us have some enablement from Christ in glory. We wouldn't take the same position, perhaps, but there is a naval man, and every one of us contributes. And so as it was mentioned, we have in the 16th verse, this was also mentioned, but.
From whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body under the edifying of itself in love. So there may be as there was, I believe, Mr. Darby Kelly, those men whom God raised up, who were special gifts to the Church. But every one of us have some enablement, and we have in the.
Parables. The Lord spoke of the talents that are given, and also in Mark's Gospel it says perhaps we could turn to it. I think it's the 12TH or 14th chapter.
The 13th chapter of Mark and the 34th verse.
For the Son of Man is a man taking a far journey, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the Porter to watch. So every believer has some function, brother or sister, in the body of Christ. But there are those whom God has raised up in order that the truth of God might be clearly given forth and maintained. And I believe we should be thankful for those gifts that God has given.
They are people whom he has raised up. I believe that's the thought in the passage.
Thinking of the way you mentioned the road of Damascus on the road to Damascus.
Thinking recently of the three hours.
Of blindness.
Of that man, Saul of Tarsus.
What a preparation to enter into these things, to leave one sphere of God's work.
And enter into another sphere of God's work.
And to go from one to the other.
He brought he was brought to three hours, 3 days of blindness.
And I think, you know, whenever he was there in those three days of blindness, and it dawned on his soul.
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That the very best efforts that the flesh could ever do, even instructed by what he could see in the Old Testament, he could see in the Bible.
Ended up being against Christ.
And not only was it his own personal failure inside or within a good system, he had credentials given to him by the authorities in the system itself to go and kill Christians.
What a stunning, sudden stop for a man who had lived his life with a good conscience, seeking to please God when he finds out he's going exactly against the will of God.
And I often think if I could have been there in the room.
In those three days and listen to the groans.
Of that man who desired to please God.
And when he found out that all of his efforts.
Even seeking to do the very best he could and the knowledge he had of God.
Was against Christ.
What a preparation it is.
To go on beyond that point, beloved, I think sometimes we want to go beyond that point without.
Getting there, we want to go on into that which is new, and we want to carry something from the old, something from man, something from outside, some wisdom of man, as we've heard of the so-called covenant theology.
They haven't seen, they haven't been there those three days and sat down and seen the end of that old Covenant, even in the hands of a man who wanted to do it right.
Everything has to be Christ, any movement.
From our side will only be against Christ.
He has to be everything and he knows that. Therefore he hasn't left us to come up with anything from our side of the fence in this pathway.
Know the Apostle Paul.
He said, not having my righteousness.
I've connected that with what it says in Ecclesiastes. Be not righteous over much.
How much righteousness is righteous over much?
Any righteousness from our side is over much.
Be not wise in your own eyes. How much wisdom?
Is too much.
Any wisdom from our side is too much.
That we could have seen left behind as an enemy of Him who loves us So leave it all behind and justice. Have Christ and listen closely to what he says as understanding that is only from him and to Him that our life will be safe and to his glory and our joy. And to walk in fear of again picking up anything that's the other side of those three days of blindness.
May he give us a little sense of what it is to be brought to Christ, brought to God in Christ, and the wonder of all that it is according to his own heart, beyond everything man could ever have thought or produced, or anything about the dreams of men.
Would be the first thing that's that's mentioned in verse 12 and you you kind of missed the full force of it because the in our King James translation they they render 2 distinctly different prepositions by 4. I'll I'll read it as it is in Mr. Darby's and look at it in verse in verse 12 for the perfecting of the Saints. This is why these gifts were given he's he gave these gifts for the perfecting of the Saints with a view to the work of the ministry.
With a view to the edifying of the body of Christ. So the main purpose of the gifts is stated first the perfecting of the Saints and then you might say the secondary purpose is the the work of the ministry. How can we work together in the ministry everyone, every joint supplying something that is needed, every member having a gift and and working together for the good and blessing of all if if you as a member.
Are not established in the truth of the gospel yourself. If you don't have, for instance, eternal security in your own soul, how can you help someone else? You're not even clear yourself on the gospel. So the perfecting of the Saints is first. That's the main purpose, that we know who we are and and what we are in Christ. We're established in Christ and we have eternal life. Our sins are all forgiven, we're justified by faith and all those precious truths, and then we can function properly in the ministry.
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One with another, and that will result in the building up the edifying of the body of Christ.
So that's these last two the work of the ministry and the edifying. The body of Christ, our our, our collective and the the perfecting of the Saints is being brought individually into the full understanding of Christianity and our position in Christ and that we're heavenly citizens and we're not earthly. That's why what we've said earlier in this meeting about dispensational truth is so absolutely essential to the right understanding of scripture.
I don't know that I'm a heavenly person, Brother said recently. We are to be, to be righteous people. And another added, and heavenly that's the distinctive truth that ought to be rendered in this day. And that's what's being denied by the bulk of Christians in Christendom Today is our heavenly calling, our heavenly hope, our heavenly citizenship are being united to a heavenly man.
Instead, they're promoting that the earth is an earthly institution, the church is an earthly institution.
And it's to set right the wrongs of society and so on. Well, that's wrong. That's not what we're called to. We're called to bear witness to this world that it has crucified our Savior, our Lord, and seek to rescue souls out of that and you and bring them into association with a heavenly man. That's Christianity.
It's an interesting expression here. The unity of the faith too. We never find the word truth in the plural in the Bible.
Nor the word faith. We know in Christendom why we speak of people having a lot of truth or certain truths. But in the Bible it all stands together and the faith, it stands together. And so whether it's the blessing of Israel, it's by faith that they're going to be blessed. And whether it's the blessing of the church, it's by faith. And the truth of God is the whole revelation that God has given. So in the Old Testament, a certain amount of revelation was given.
Those who believe that entered into what God had given to them at that time.
But now since the work of Christ and the Lord Jesus has gone up on high and sent down the Holy Spirit.
More of the counsels and purposes of God have been revealed, and the Christian well taught of God.
Knows the whole truth of God, the unity of the faith. It's a very lovely expression, I think, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. He was known by those in Israel as their Messiah, and those who received him acknowledged him as such. But isn't it very wonderful, now that we have the knowledge of the Son of God, all his purposes made known to us, and so that we come to that which the Scripture calls the perfect manner of full growth?
Knowing these councils entering into them the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, well, God wants us to know these things, and our conduct cannot be properly carried out unless we understood it. If I was the heir to the throne, we'll say the son of the King. I'm the heir to the throne. If I don't know that, I don't know how to act. If I know that, I then can learn what my actions need to be because of the position that he's mine.
And so that's why doctrine comes first, because God would have us to know where He has placed us.
Not here, as it's been remarked, to improve the world, but shows us what our position is.
So we present the gospel to sinners, tell them what's in the heart of God for their blessing, and how gracious and full the provision is. We meet one who has been saved. So we bring him a little further on in the knowledge of the Son of God and, as I think was mentioned yesterday, ministry. If we're really in communion with the Lord, we see the need of a soul. If it's a Sinner, he needs Christ as Savior. If it's one who knows Christ as his Savior, he needs to know the standing into which he's brought.
And the conduct that is due to that standing. And so it's to me, it's very.
Lovely. And This is why the gifts have been given, so that Saints instead of floundering around.
Would be brought to the knowledge of the Son of God, the unity of the faith and.
The blessed truth that is now made known of the Church as the body of Christ. I think the expression, the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God is so precious in this verse.
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Plan read at the beginning today in Matthew 5, and we are the salt of the earth and we are the light of the world. Now some young people might say, in the light of what has been said, that we are not here to set the world right. And they might think of those verses and they say, well, how does that fit in well?
The Earth.
In the Word of God.
Refers either to the.
Prophetic world or earth Israel and those nations round about or it refers as it does in Matthew 5 to Christendom. And so it says we are the salt of the earth. Salt is a preservative. Before there was refrigeration, how were things preserved? You know they butchered and then they put the meat in salt. Salt is a preservative and.
So this is.
How we are a preservative in the world by.
The way we are living by our example and we see in Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians 2. There's a good example that the man of sin cannot be revealed until that which hinders and he that hinders is taken out. That is the Spirit of God and the Church. Taken out before the man of sin can be revealed. It shows that the presence of the Spirit of God and the Church on earth is hindering.
The full display of evil and wickedness. But then we are the light of the world. That is a larger scope, you know. And by the gospel and the truth of God that we bring before men, we bring in the light of God in the darkness that exists in the world. Satan's world, you know, it's the world in general. And in that way, dear young people, we are the salt and delight.
It does not mean that we join an organization to fight homosexuality or any of these evils, abortion and all this kind of a thing. By our life we are a preservative. We are an example and we live the way God expects us to live. Or a brother once said. Although the Lord isn't here yet reigning as king, our life should be such as if he was here.
You know, and so that is beloved Saints of God, how we can be the salt and the light and not by joining organizations and to become a political force that is out of character. You know, we know that the only one that has the answers for all the problems in the world is the Lord Jesus himself. And there has been good men in government that have tried.
Very much to try to write and things and so on.
Impossibility. You see, God, the God and Prince of this world is Satan.
And if you see that, we can see that our position is outside of it. You know, we're not part of that system.
Taken out of the world, but then sent into the world to be a light and to be a preservative to evil.
Pretty mostly on verse 11 and those that follow, but we have to remind ourselves these are gifts to and for the church.
Generally, these are gifts that Christ says, provided it's men, that he's provided for the good of the church. But there are things, as we've been mentioning, gifts to each one, and we should at least acknowledge that so others don't feel they have nothing to do but be fed. They have things to do, and it's nice just to bring that in shortly.
And I'll be short in First Corinthians 12, the Body of Christ chapter.
And it does say in verse 12, for as the body is 1, and as many members and all the members of the one body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. For by 1 Spirit we're all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit for the body.
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Is not one member but many. And then it says the foot can't say I have no need of the hand. And so on. Notice verse 18. But now half God said the members, every one of them in the body, as it has pleased him. Now these are the joints we were talking about and they have purpose. Verse 27. Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular.
Each one set as it pleased God in the body. Now there's many gifts told to follow. And they're not all apostles. They're not all prophets. They're not all teachers, but one among them is helped. And that's very precious. And you know, everyone has a gift and they're so needed. We have not official deacons or elders today, but we have deacons and elders today.
And well taught ones as you go around from assembly to assembly.
And ones who are behind the scenes, and they're perhaps the Deacon Rule. It's a gift.
It's a gift that perhaps you and I can't exercise, but oh how it's needed and how it really brings about the perfection in an assembly. So each one of us have real purpose where we are. And I'd like to just mention deacons. I'll just finish with that on the Timothy, First Timothy where the church is in order, and verse 12 of chapter three, First Timothy 312, Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife.
Ruling their children in their own house. Well, for they that have ministered the office of a Deacon well purchased to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. These things I write unto you. You know, we do not look down on those different gifts. We thank God for those different gifts. And I'm away from my assembly more I'm there and many others.
But when we get back, we see it's going on beautifully sometimes, most of the time. But there are those who are looking after things that must be taken care of that are sort of behind the scenes, but.
They're really acknowledged in God's heart and they got a good degree in His heart and the Lord's. So we all have purpose, we've all been set in the body as it please. The Lord we might mention in in connection with these things that have been said in.
14 Verse 23 It says, And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed, and that was the apostles Barnabas and Paul. They ordained them elders, and in Titus in Titus chapter one verse 5 For this cause left ID and Crete, that thou should have set in order.
The things that are wanting and ordained elders in every city. As I had appointed thee, Titus would be what is called an Apostolic delegate. He was delegated by the Apostle to appoint elders, elders which are bishops and deacons. They're not gifts, but they are.
Appointed by the apostles for their local charges is what they are.
And they are appointed. Every local assembly had them not. I shouldn't say everyone had them. The only one that that's recorded that had them in the New Testament was the Philippians, the the elders and deacons that were there and others no doubt had them. But it's we shouldn't confuse gift which is given by the ascended head in heaven, which is for the whole body of Christ. It's not confined to a locality. One has the gift of a teacher.
He has that gift that can exercise it wherever he goes in the body, but if he's an overseer at Walla Walla, he's not an overseer at Spokane. They have their own, but he's an overseer at Walla Walla or a Deacon at Walla Walla. That's the difference. And they're they were appointed. The reason we don't have official ones is because we don't have Apostolic authority to appoint, so we do have the qualifications for such.
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And we can recognize one that fills those qualifications and fills that office. But that's different than gift. And what we have in Ephesians 4 is gift, isn't it?
Do you have any efficient in Ephesus we have elders, remember, in Acts 20 and what is significant, there's never just one elder in one assembly. And there were apparently quite a few elders in Ephesus, a large church. And there's an interesting statement there in Acts 20 that the Holy Spirit had made them overseers.
So that is still with us today. The Holy Spirit still can give someone the charge of oversight. They are responsible for the spiritual needs of the Saints to look after the spiritual well-being of the Saints. That's their responsibility. And also in First Thessalonians 5 there had been no elders officially appointed, but.
Paul admonishes them that they should know them, that take the lead among them. That was the responsibility of the Saints to recognize those who in an unofficial way would serve in the capacity of an overseer. Also in Romans chapter 12.
We have rule mentioned there had been no apostle ever in Rome, that the assembly developed or came into being.
To laborers of others than apostles. But there were those who were in a position of rule. And in First Corinthians 12, the verse that our brother Bob has read helps and government helps refers to deaconess, service and government to those who take the lead in the local assembly. What is interesting to see in First Timothy that one of the things that are mentioned.
For an overseer is apartment to teach.
He didn't necessarily have to have the gift of teaching, but ability to apply the truth of God that he himself.
Had come to understand in connection with the spiritual needs you can see.
That this really makes the office of an overseer effectual.
That he can bring in the truth of God and help the Saints in their spiritual needs by bringing in the truth of God. And there are those beloved that are in that position in the assemblies today, not officially. And we have to recognize them and we should esteem them worthy of double honor that says in First Timothy.
Timothy 5, especially those who serve in Word and doctrine.
So there were those who were overseers but also served in Word and doctrine. They didn't have to be able to do that, but it was desirable that they would. So these are things that are helpful also to see that there might be those who do not claim to have the gift of teaching, but have ability to teach, you know. And this is where we fall back on in many assemblies where there are no distinct teachers.
But there are brethren who have to faithfully going on with the Lord.
Come to understand and appreciate the truth of God and have a measure of ability.
To apply it and minister it to the Saints and these are helpful things and encouraging us people might be discouraged when we overemphasize gift. They might be discouraged and might say well we don't have gifted teachers in our local assembly. Well you'd still have those hopefully that have the ability to teach. You know able to teach who can who can bring the truth of God before the thing and can edify the same and even in their.
Dealing with individual souls. Because shepherd care is connected with oversight, you know they can't bring the word of God to bear and thus help things. Let's look for a minute at Romans 12 Though, just to read how it reads in Romans 12 verse 6.
Having then gifts differing. He's talking about gifts now, he's not talking about office.
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Gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. Whether prophecy let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith or ministry, let us wait on our ministering. That would be the that would be a very similar thing to that of of a Deacon similar function, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorted on exhortation. He that giveth and do it with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Now their ruling is spoken of as a gift.
In fact, everything in this list is having gifts differing.
So it's one might have the gift of rule that could be used not just locally but in in other places too, to help the Saints to know how to conduct.
Matters matters in their assembly if they if they are not.
You might say they know they have very little of that in in assembly, where many of our assemblies are very small and weak and feeble, and one that might have the gift of rule. He could come there and be a help to them.
So there is such a thing as the gift of rule, and you mentioned in First Corinthians the gift of.
Governments. That's it. That's a gift.
Two, when you mention apartment to teach and these other things that accompany one who takes a lead or has the lead, we must remember the only teacher is the spirit of God and he's in the assembly. And that's where we receive the ability to give forth the word of God. Whether you're a gift to the church, which we're getting in that Ephesians 4 or able to teach now in in.
Corinthians 12. It just read one thing. It says.
4 To one is given by the Spirit, the Word of Wisdom, etcetera, Now that nothing can be but by the spirit of God. And I don't say they're gifts as a person, but they can be used that way in their assembly.
Read the scriptures that support what Chuck has said, that there is rule beyond the local assembly but it is not connected with.
Oversight in the local assembly and that is in Hebrews 13 verse 7.
Remember them which have to rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. So here we have rule or leadership, if we may use that word, which probably conveys the truth more correctly, those who lead by bringing the truth of God before the Saints.
Is this not what is taking place?
At a conference like this, and in years past, there were those who brought the truth of God before the Saints of God, And by doing this they let them in the right way. They were leaders. And but then later on, now they have gone evidently according to this verse. 7 But we still remember what they have taught us, and by remembering that we still can be helped today.
And we do not do wrong in quoting Mr. Darby, Mr. Kelly, or.
Old Brother Hejo, and men like that, chapter Brown, based on this scripture, we remember what they have taught us, and they helped and leadership that they have provided. But now in verse 17 obey them that have the rule over you, or take the lead among you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls.
As they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grieve.
For that is unprofitable for you. This is obviously local oversight, you know, it is such a thing. And we have in Peter five that the young brothers are admonished to obey the older ones and submit to them. And we have again in the end of Hebrews 13 salute all them that have to rule over you and all the Saints you know. We have to recognize beloved Brethren. Of course, the danger is.
That those who are in that position do not rule well. That's why Paul tells Timothy, Those who rule well should be counted worthy of double honor. And the danger is that they rule as if it is their possession. In Peter Five, First Peter 5 That's the danger for those who are in that position, that they do it in humility and independence upon the Lord, realizing that isn't my flock, that isn't their flock, It's the Lord's flock.
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And if he honors us to give us a position of helping the Saints, we can only do that.
As we are dependent upon the Lord and do so in humility, and many times I'm afraid we haven't done that and it has done harm to souls.
Speaking Heinz, I was thinking of Mr. Darby as an excellent example of one who is not an overseer. He was not an elder, he was not married, he did not have children, he could not fulfill that office. But he was certainly a leader, and he certainly had the gift of rule to guide the Saints. And on the all these difficult things that came up as you read his letters and you see the attacks that he went under and so on, he was a real leader, most remarkable.
Thinking of this verse in Hebrews 1317.
There are those who watch over me.
And they have to give account.
But not to me.
They have to give account to the Lord.
Not for my soul.
But for how they've watched.
And with me.
I am to see that and say that brother is going to have to give account to the Lord for how he's watched.
And I certainly don't want to cause him any problems.
I want him to watch over my soul with joy.
And love would submit.
And Love would say, well, I don't want to 'cause that brother any problems. He's got to have going to do that with joy. He has to give account to the Lord and if he doesn't do it for to the Lord's standards, so to speak.
He won't have his joy.
Love is the is the motive for the submission that I see here. Understanding his responsibility and the fact that he can have problems and love would not want to cause him that problem.
Really love is that which would motivate him properly to watch over my soul.
In such a way as he would before the Lord, he would be take a place before the Lord and and and watch over my soul as from the Lord and answerable to the Lord that would love would motivate him into that position or into that place of leadership. And love would also motivate into obedience. But I wouldn't want to cause him any problems, I would want him to do his work with joy.
In respect to the gifts having been given to the assembly.
If we recognize where the assembly is in her history.
We must surely realize that many of these gifts that were given.
Have been scattered as the sheep have been scattered.
Zephaniah tells us.
That God would leave in Israel of poor and afflicted people.
Recognizing where we are in our history. That's what we are.
And so we're going to have to realize that there is a delusion of gift so that we may have to be satisfied with one who is apartment to teach.
We may have to be satisfied with one who does the work of the evangelist who is not an evangelist.
This is where we are, isn't it? We're in the end of our history, a poor and afflicted people.
But the window of opportunity is still with us.
To carry on in the way that the Word of God prescribes an Adequate abilities have been left to enable us to function in the very way that the Scripture prescribes that we should function. And we can indeed lead our beloved brethren and go on together to reach perfection so that we are no longer children. We are not misguided sheep.
That do not hear the voice of the shepherd. That we must realize that the giver of the gifts, the head of the assembly, is going to maintain his sheep in the capacity that he enjoins here of growing up to the unity of the faith, so that we become mature Christians, not long, not children, but those going on in the pathway that is still available to us, even though we are not.
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Overwhelmed with gift, as it were.
Number one.
Isaiah 58:1-3, 6-12, Philippians 3:8-16, 1 Corinthians 4:16
Open—L. Smith, B. Warr
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58th chapter of Isaiah.
Cry aloud, spare not.
Lift up thy voice like a trumpet.
And show my people their transgression.
And the House of Jacob, their sins.
Yet they seek me daily.
And delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God.
They ask of me the ordinances of justice.
They take delight.
In approaching to God.
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Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou see us not.
Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?
This is written in a day when Israel.
Was.
Turning away.
But notice their condition.
They delight in approaching.
To God.
Habits.
Of going to the temple.
Of rituals.
Maybe of eating together?
Various things.
They had this delight in approaching to God.
They fasted.
But to them, it seemed like he didn't see anything. Thou seest not.
We've afflicted our soul.
Now take us no knowledge.
Behold, in the day of your past you find pleasure.
And exact all your laborers.
We live in a day of pleasure.
Lots of it. People entertained continually.
To where the voice of the Lord getting through to the individual soul.
Is a difficult thing.
Are you and I content to?
Wait in.
To hear the voice of the Lord.
And exact all your neighbors.
The greatest system of battle and the great.
We're all ensnared in, aren't we?
We have jobs.
Certain amount of pay per hour taxes.
Tremendously developed system.
I hope.
We're able.
Still to give of ourselves.
2-3 years ago when I was in El Salvador, I was impressed that one brother had to wait for to come back from the.
Sugar cane cutting.
We got $2.75 a day.
Hard work.
But he helped his neighbor finish cutting his lot.
Not the amount you have.
That brings forth the abundance of the heart, is it?
But here they fasted verse four. We fast for strife and debate.
And their difficulties.
Amongst God's people.
Have you ever passed it?
Did you fast?
To prove your own point.
Where did you fast?
To be low before God.
Be still and know that I am God.
We live in a world that's in such a world, it's pretty hard to be still.
We've asked for strife and debate.
How's that up with? How's this add up with? They take delight in approaching to God.
And to smite with the first of wickedness.
Ye shall not fast as ye do this day.
To make your voice to be heard on high.
You know, beloved, there's one great heart in all existence.
That desires.
To be understood.
And it's the heart of God.
I don't think there's anything the human heart creates more than to be understood.
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What about the heart of God?
There's five. Is it such a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bull rush?
And to spread sackcloth and ashes under him.
Without Call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord.
How much of these actions represented?
The heart that desire to be understood in Israel, this nation.
Was the only nation on the earth.
Whose very central point?
Was the place of his name.
The living God who dwelt among them.
Verse 6.
Is not this the fast I have chosen?
To loose the bands of wickedness.
For the sake of time, I'll just go over these few thoughts as we go through this.
But think of the Lord Jesus.
As he crosses over to Gadera.
And there's that man possessed for the Legion of demons.
And by the command of our blessed Lord Jesus.
That man sent into our world to tell out the heart of God.
He had commanded those demons to come out of him.
He loosed the bands of wickedness.
That's in the Lord Jesus ministry.
You can find it in more places than that.
What about the church?
The early church.
Paul writes in the Corinthians and he says.
And such were some of you, but you are washed.
You're sanctified.
All the power of the gospel, he could say. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God under salvation to everyone that believe it.
To loose the bands of wickedness. To undo the heavy burdens. What the Lord Jesus say about the Pharisees?
They just stacked one thing and another on them, didn't they? They gave tithes of mint and rue and anise and.
They went on in their religion was the heart of God and.
No, no.
By their traditions, they negated the word of God.
And God, in the fullness of time, sent forth his Son.
To bring.
The very display.
Of his heart.
Out.
Those heavy burdens, we had that verse before us.
Take my yoke upon you.
And learned of Maine.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Preceded by Come unto me all you that labor, and are heavy laden.
To undo the heavy burdens.
And I will give you rest.
To let the oppressed go free.
You know when Nehemiah said the exact, usually everyone of his brother.
And so there was such a *******.
They couldn't pay off their debts.
Remember the widow who had to sell her two sons because the creditor was come and he lie she stay.
Why did all those debts come about?
Who were not told.
But we know that the Lord gave deliverance in that day.
And he still gets deliverance. The heart of God is a delivering heart.
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And that you break every yoke.
There are many different yokes.
Do you and I place the yoke on ourselves?
That the word of God does not set forth.
Do you place a yoke on our brethren?
Let the word of God does not set forth.
Says that you break every yoke. The Lord could say at those Pharisees.
They bind all this on others and they don't even lift a finger.
You could say also you put themselves down in Moses seat.
Do as they say, not as they do.
Let ye break every yoke.
Verse seven Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry? Remember how he.
Had those 5000 around him and he takes 5 loaves and two fishes.
The heart of God is to feed His people.
Marvelous.
That he has made himself known in his son.
What about in the church?
It's repeated there too, isn't it?
Wherever there's the knowledge of the true God, his heart is brought out.
In Christ and in the Church.
And in you and I, that's our privilege.
I was thinking of Paul as he went to Jerusalem, found in his spirit to go there.
He had a heart for his Jewish brother. He desired their blessing.
But what happened? He ended up.
In bonds.
Let's look at Psalms.
Chapter 120.
6.
Verse 5.
They that sow in tears.
Shall reap in joy.
He that goes forth and reapers bearing precious seed.
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
And I believe Paul.
Took in his heart many precious seeds who went up to Jerusalem.
But it was in his own spirit he went.
And he was an apostle.
But he was warned not to go.
The Lord stood by him when he had failed.
Said he'd have to appear at Rome.
Maybe you and their brother, their sister, have sought.
Earnestly to serve the Lord in something and it just seems like it was like a lost crop.
Like he had sewed something of the seed of the word of God and instead of it producing.
Brought it in the ground, so to speak, and nothing came of it and you just feel defeated by it.
Well, that's kind of a thought of this song.
The spare seed had been sown and it was crop failure.
But then it becomes precious seed, because what you'd saved for your food to get you to the next harvest, you have to take some of that.
And plant that and it's very precious seed.
But it says, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, I believe, Paul.
Though he failed in his desire to go up to Jerusalem.
Believe from that he writes the epistle to the Hebrews.
With no signature.
For their cry had been.
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Way with such an one from the earth not fit to live.
What Hebrews bring out Jesus?
Better.
Greater.
And so that was the bread he had Isaiah 58 seven to deal to the hungry.
It was something that had been made very precious to his soul. And if you've sought to serve the Lord and feel your failure at it.
As I have done to.
Perhaps we all learn this lesson.
The then what we get in reality before him becomes very precious, and says doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
That they'll bring the poor that are cast out to thy house.
Think of it, the Lord Jesus says.
The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have mess.
Son of the man, Son of man hath nowhere to lay his head.
But he also says.
My father's house are many mansions.
We're not, so I would have told you.
All beloved Saints of God.
If you feel the poorness.
To an outcast of this world.
There's a home above.
What about the church?
The apostles could say, the apostle could say having no certain dwelling place.
And as he was in those bounds, for Christ's sake.
His eye was on the glory to come.
There's a home above.
But what about you and I?
There may be poor in this world.
That we could, at the direction of the Lord.
Bring to our house.
The Lord will reward you, dear brother.
Dear sister.
I can look back in my life and bless the Lord for some that took me.
Our opportunities are here to show forth the character of God in our ways.
And.
They're only here.
The rich man and Lazarus.
There was this man lying at his gate.
And this man had plenty of money.
He could have given him what he needed.
But that rich man did not show the character of God.
And there was the man with barns. There's so much. She didn't have enough to hold him.
And according to the Old Testament, he could have given to the poor and shown forth the character of God. But instead he says, I'll tear him down and build greater, and I'll say, you know, take thy knees.
Awful, wasn't it?
An opportunity to show forth the character of God.
When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him in Luke 10.
We read of a certain.
Man, that went down.
From Jerusalem to Jericho. And he fell among thieves, and they stripped him and left him half dead and.
Scantily clothed, along comes a Samaritan.
He binds him up.
And he pours in oil and wine, and he puts him on his own beast, and he takes him to an inn.
And he pays for his Keep all the heart of the God you and I have come to know.
Then in the church.
Well, how wonderful. The Lord Jesus could say that he'd done these wonderful works, but later he shall do greater.
For the spiritual aspect of things reach further, didn't it?
And.
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He takes us who were unclothed before God.
And it gives us a robe of righteousness.
How marvelous.
We live in a land of extreme plenty.
Compared to the rest of the world.
Famines.
Are very great in many places.
We need to be before the Lord.
As to how we spend our funds.
Whether to aggrandize our own nest or.
In some way set forth.
God's character.
That thou cover him.
You know.
We're going to be caught up any moment.
And we won't be found naked. If we've trusted in Jesus, we'll be found.
Closed upon.
Christ and glorious position.
Place before God.
These verses are God's fast. Amazing, isn't it?
Verses 6 and seven, we've seen them a little bit and you can take it further in the life of the Lord Jesus.
And in the early church.
But they're in contrast with the first few verses.
You might ponder this portion.
The little.
Other things that happen between man and man.
And the things that happen between man and God.
When God's fast characterizes your life and mine.
Then what's it say in verse 8? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning?
And thine health shall spring forth speedily.
And thy righteousness shall go before thee. The glory of the Lord shall be thy rear reward.
Oh, isn't that lovely?
That when his character is that which is set forth.
In our ways.
There's light.
There's hell.
Righteousness and the Lord, The glory of the Lord shall be their rearward.
Can you remind you little Abraham, doesn't it?
Lord says fear not Abraham.
I am thy exceeding great reward. Could you have a better presence?
Never.
Will you have more than that in eternity? No.
You'll be free from the presence of sin, but it's the same blessed God.
Whose heart he would have set forth in this world. And that's our privilege as believers.
Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer.
In Genesis we get such lovely conversations between God and men.
This shows he desires that still.
That sense in your soul that the Lord is answering your prayers.
Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.
All the God.
Whom we've come to know.
Once his heart.
If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke.
Are you or I?
Putting requirements.
On our brethren.
That are not of God.
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But putting forth of the finger.
And speaking vanity.
Is that possible?
In the church it was possible in Israel.
Happening, and God was grieved by it.
Did it change the truth? No.
Was there not a divine center at Jerusalem? There was.
Did Israel go into captivity? They did.
Did it eliminate the divine center? It did not.
Truth remains the truth, but the God you and I have come to know thy faith in the Lord Jesus.
Desires that his heart be understood.
And it's wonderful to have some principles.
And he would also have our ways.
Adorn all the sound principles.
If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry.
Is that something that moves you?
To provide where there is real need.
God's soul is drawn out to the hungry.
And satisfy the afflicted soul.
That's how God's heart is.
Then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as noonday.
That's bright, isn't it?
Couldn't have it better than having his presence.
And his spirit and His heart in our ways.
And the Lord shall guide me continually.
And I'm satisfied by soul and drought and make fat by bones.
Oh, that's a wonderful thing, isn't it? When everything dries up around and you still have his presence. Elijah felt that he went and dined at the book cherub.
With Ravens bringing him flesh.
That dried up, then he went and stayed with the widow.
And the barrel never got full, but it never got empty.
There was the presence of God and provision.
Even though there was drunk.
And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a stream of water, whose waters fail not.
All this thought is often in Scripture, isn't it? And they that shall be of the.
Shall build the old waste places.
That's something that comes into the next generation, isn't it?
Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations.
Thou shall be called the repairer of the brooch.
The restorer of paths to dwell in. You see when his heart and his character fills the soul.
And enjoy.
The children pick it up.
His heart set forth.
They know who you're enjoying.
Here the next generation.
Picks it up, building old waste places. How often we had before us those verses about.
Restoring the old paths.
Dwelling in the old pan, but this is how it's his heart known, enjoyed and set forth in our ways.
Yes, sound principle of being it, but our ways must adorn those principles.
The repair of the breach.
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Some years ago now, I visited the Alamo in Texas.
It's kind of a mission with extended boundaries around it, but.
When Santana's men came.
They finally entered that mission by a breach in the wall.
Here's a repairer of the breach.
Notice the benefits that come as a result of knowing the heart of God and.
Setting forth that heart, oh, he desires to be understood. This is Isaiah.
So we get it in the Lord Jesus.
Far more, don't we perfectly in that blessed Son of God.
He would have seen me at scene.
The Father Order man delights and desires to fill your heart and mind.
That we might consider and set forth his ways the restorer of paths.
To dwell in.
That's for the blessing.
Of all now just these few words.
And the Lord bless them.
A few scriptures.
Connection with what's been said.
Philippians, Chapter 3.
Brother referred to Paul and his.
Trip to Jerusalem at the end of Acts.
Philippians 3, verse 7.
What things were gained to me? Those I counted lost for Christ, They doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them, but done, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness.
Which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith.
That I may know him in the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable.
Unto his death, if by any means I might attain the resurrection of the dead.
Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I'm apprehended of Christ Jesus.
But, and I count on myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth, are those things which are before I press toward the mark of the prize of the high column, God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if anything, you be otherwise minded. God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, where aren't you? We have already attained. Let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing.
I think of.
What's in this passage is dung and death.
And you know, we've been brought.
To God and to God's things, as we've heard, the heart of God would be manifest.
And the apostle Paul.
Here the problem he would enumerate for us is my righteousness.
And I'd like to just follow a few steps.
In his path.
About this verse, this expression, my righteousness because.
I believe that once we've been brought to where God's mind is manifest on earth and the liberty of the Spirit of God and Christ is exalted.
One of the greatest dangers, if not the greatest danger with us is.
My righteousness.
You know the in the Old Testament.
When they went to war, they had to carry with their Armory, with their arms.
A shovel.
To remove the dung from the presence from the camp.
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And you know that word shovel? There is really the word. It's clear in Spanish. It's the word for tent. Pen is the same word used as the tent peg. And when they set up a Tabernacle, it's that which indicates firmness.
And here the apostle.
Shows that firmness. He counted and he still counts it.
He had not accumulated over the past.
History in his walk.
He had not accumulated merits before God. He wouldn't have that.
And yet I think of how he is seeing.
This is the This is the one who is serving.
Let's look at the hearer first in First Corinthians chapter 4.
Remember, we are talking about those who are benefited by the mind of God hearing what God has to say.
And in the institution that God has set up on earth for this very purpose.
That we might.
Have communicated to us the wondrous things that God has given to us.
Chapter 4 and verse umm.
Six of one Corinthians.
And these things better than having a figure transferred to myself into a policy for your sakes, that you might learn in us not to think.
Above that which is written that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.
For who maketh and I'll read this so different for who maketh the to differentiate.
Puffed up. You can't be puffed up for one without being puffed up for another.
And puffed up is that which comes from having learned some things of God.
But not having walked in the presence of Christ with them, knowledge puffeth up. We had it yesterday, I believe.
Knowledge. Puff it up. The one that knows and love edifies the one that loves.
And here we have those who thought they could differentiate.
They thought they could differentiate between Paul and Apollo. I prefer a policy. I prefer Paul. They thought in their own level of righteousness, my righteousness. They thought they could distinguish the better of the two.
That's the hearers. We all fall into that danger of preferring or differentiating instead of leaving God to speak at His own level, to say what He wants to say. Because when I begin to differentiate between speakers, I am only looking for an escape hatch, not to have to bow to what's said to me by God through that person.
I can discount what he says because of him.
My righteousness.
My righteousness, may we never drop down our thinking brethren, the level of us.
May we live in the good of what God has given to us as we've heard His heart manifested to us.
Now for those who the speaker, the leaders, I'd like to just walk a few steps in the book of Acts.
Beginning with Chapter 18.
Brother mentioned Paul's journey.
18 Acts 1818. Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed fence under Syria, and with him pursuing Aquila.
Having shown his head in century before, he had a bow, and he came to Ephesus and left them there, But he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
When they desired him to tarry longer time with him, he consented not, but bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh.
In Jerusalem.
But I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus. Here the apostle Paul has lowered his sights.
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Down to a level where he is sailing away. Trouble where he's acceptable.
You know there is a thing in I believe it's Zechariah Chapter 11, spoken of as the Flock of Slaughter.
I look at that as a flop of shape passing through a village on their way to the slaughterhouse.
And someone who would watch. And there goes this flock of sheep passing down the road in front of their house, going to the slaughterhouse. That's the flock of slaughter.
That's where God started us out, brethren.
As far as the world is concerned, when the world looks on this House of mourning, that's what Ecclesiastes would tell us.
There is wisdom. The wise are found in the House of mourning. The world looks on the assembly.
It is not acceptable in the world. They look at it as a.
Odor of life unto life, or death unto death. It is a place of death. The world looks on the church.
And if we seek to make it acceptable to the world and lower it down to that level, and here it's the level of religion in the world.
We would say in our day it's lowering it down to the level of Christendom to make it acceptable.
We're going to do like him. We're going to have to sail away from Ephesus.
Wondrous things that we've had before us in the meeting, we have to go away from that.
To be acceptable.
Where really before they had tried to kill him.
I believe it's chapter.
Umm 19 Another thought I had on this.
Verse 19 of chapter 19.
Many of them also, which use curious arch, brought their books together and burned them before all men and they counted the price of them and kind of founded 50,000 pieces of silver.
You know I want to apply this.
Have we counted our losses, brethren? Do we count our losses so we can know how much we've lost for God?
To accumulate a little merit before him in his presence.
How dangerous it is not to still count it as dumb.
To count the laws, the apostle he just said I counted all as done here. They counted up. If we were to follow example in this and start counting up our losses.
So we would know how much progress we'd made. Maybe, Huh.
Now, brethren, let's don't look back, he says, forgetting those things are behind.
The path of faith down here we see it does not accumulate to us.
Merit. It does not make us any better in ourselves. We need Christ just as much today as we did.
The first day we believed even as we heard the Apostle Paul.
And fall in this trap of his righteousness.
Chapter 20.
Verse 16.
For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus.
Because he would not spend the time in Asia, for he hasted if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.
You see that same thing Berlin.
There's something has come in that he's lowered his sights.
He is not looking at Christ.
He's got some something else before him.
He starts talking about himself.
You know, in Second Corinthians Chapter 11, he's so embarrassed to say anything about himself. He says, well, you, you've made, I'm talking about a fool. You've made me talk like this. And then he starts talking about himself here. He doesn't say it that way.
He just says something like this.
Verse 18 And when they had come to him, he said, you know from the first day that I came into Asia after what manner I've been with you in all seasons, serving the Lord without humility of mine, and with many tears and temptations.
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Now his whole tone is lowered.
Verse. Verse.
22 And now behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there.
Bound in his own spirit, as we've heard say, that the Holy Ghost witness, witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
But none of these things move me.
Ah, beloved brethren, my righteousness.
When I can decide a path?
When the warnings of the Spirit of God don't move me.
His righteousness neither do I, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry.
His righteousness.
I believe, brethren, that having walked with the Lord for a while, we have a tendency to think.
That we know enough.
Not to listen.
My righteousness, this is the first step down out of Ephesians is Philippian error.
And the next step is Colossians, of course.
The first step down is me and my things. I have no one, he said. Everybody was preaching the gospel, but he couldn't. No one that cared for the Saints. Everybody works, cared about their own things.
Apostle included in that my righteousness.
And here he has his righteousness. He feels that it's righteous, the right thing to do to go to Jerusalem and the warnings of the Spirit of God don't move him. Just think of it him with all his messages of the the word to go out to the nations and gather out of people for the namesake names, Christ namesake and the Spirit of God is saying you're going to be in jail.
You're not going to be able to do that anymore.
None of these things moved me.
Well, if we don't walk in the presence of God and the presence of Christ with that which He's given to us, we will become hardened to what He says to us.
Last verse of the chapter soaring most of all, whenever he's going to leave.
Sorry most of all for the words which he spake that they should see his face no more.
They were sorry to lose. Paul didn't seem to touch him with the truth. He had been telling them that from their own selves men would arise.
Now he began to lose the weight of what he was saying to chapter 21 verse.
4.
And finding disciples, we tarry there seven days. Who said to Paul through the Spirit he should not go up to Jerusalem? Clear, very clear.
But he was beyond hearing because of his righteousness.
Chapter 21 in verse.
26 Then Paul took them in.
He was following the counsel of those there in Jerusalem Who?
He should never have been there fallen our counsel. Then Paul took them in.
And the next day, purifying himself with them, entered into the temple to signify the accomplishment of days of the purification, until that an offering should be offered for everyone of them.
He was going to offer an animal sacrifice. He was going to offer an offering.
Verse 27 And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews, which are of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him. God wouldn't let it happen.
The over ruling of God, you know we read in Two Corinthians chapter 2, I believe it is about a time when he went to Troas. Was it there? Was it for the preaching of the gospel?
And he couldn't stand. His heart was so burdened for the Corinthian Saints. He just, the door was open, the gospel and God gave him a job of doing. He just couldn't do it. He just failed and faded out.
But thanks be unto God, who always leads us in triumph.
Brethren, we do have a God that's able in Christ are the is the yeah and the Amen to the promises in Christ is the grace that exceeds or excels excels what excels me and my failures.
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To get the will of God done, he will overrule.
But just a warning for us.
We don't accumulate any wisdom by the walk by which I can decide my path. We don't accumulate any wisdom in our path by which I can decide which brother's going to speak to me. I can differentiate.
We don't accumulate any of that. The Apostle Paul says. I counted it and I do count it.
And one thing ahead, he said just one thing. Oh, to reduce life to one thing. Pressing on to the prize of the hike on. Don't think we've arrived. We have not arrived at any level where we don't need Christ at every breath. He is our only hope. He was our only hope. He will be our only hope. May God preserve us from lowering down the tone of our Christian path to our level and may keep us not with our righteousness.
But with His righteousness, with that which is His, to do what He wants me to do.
One thought about that is that I might arrive at the end of the path not being able to say, look, I did what I knew was best to do.
But to say I just did what I was told to do.
Ephesians 4:13-32
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Oh.
My.
Favor.
May holy way.
We worship.
And be.
Lord.
Ephesians chapter 4.
Verse 13.
Until.
We all come in the unity of the faith.
And to the knowledge of the Son of God.
Unto a perfect man.
Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro.
And carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplier according to the effectual working and the measure of every part make it increase of the body.
Under the edifying of itself in love.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over until lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if so be that you have heard him.
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And have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus.
That you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the Newman.
Which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needed.
Let no corrupt communication pro ceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed under the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
I'd like to read that 13th verse in the new translation. It's very helpful.
These gifts were given by the Ascended Head.
For the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, until verse 13 we all arrive at.
The unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God at the full grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ.
It's I think very helpful to see the.
That it's that we it's not come in, but that we arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
The purpose one of the purposes of this these gifts.
Is that we come to the to the full knowledge of the Son of God. He is the foundation. Peter confessed it. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And we know from Matthew 11 no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. There is that in the person of the Son, God and man in one person, he is inscrutable. Only God the Father understands the union of the divine and the human in his person we don't there's that which is beyond this, but in so far as the creature can come, can arrive at this, this unity of the faith.
And of the knowledge of the Son of God I think this.
The thought here is.
The purpose of gift of these gifts is to bring us to that.
And it's also they'll be given and available to us until we arrive at that point, which is when we get home.
And until we arrive at the measure at the full grown man.
Mature, fully grown, and understanding all that he would have us to understand, and until we arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ.
Which seems to be the an expression that that embraces the truth of the mystery, Christ and the Church.
Christ in the Church, the fullness of the Christ.
That's what he talked about in the first chapter.
Where in verse?
Verse 10.
For the administration of reading the new translation again. For the administration of the fullness of times to head up all things in the Christ.
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Things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, in him in whom we've obtained an inheritance. When he heads up, that's the mystery of his will. He's going to head up all things in the Christ, and that's Christ in His church, Christ in His church. We will reign with him. And when he reigns and everything will be placed under his headship, we will be seated beside him as it were, reigning with him. And I believe that this that is mentioned here in Ephesians 4.
Till we all arrive at the.
Measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ. It seems as though these words are just beyond our ability to explain them.
They're so full and rich and deep, but.
These are some thoughts that we can consider.
As long as you have that open, it might be well just to read the 14th verse in the other translation.
In order that we may be no longer babes tossed and carried about by every wind of that teaching which is in the sleight of men, in unprincipled cunning, with a view to systematize error.
Would it be correct to say that the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ would be an entering into that which was revealed when Paul said it was given unto him to complete the word of God?
The purpose of all ministry is the full growth of the those who are members of the body of Christ. They wouldn't remain children. We know how that Paul was grieved, because when he wrote in the Hebrews he said when for the time he ought to have been teachers. You have neither one teach you again what be the first principles of the oracles of God. God's assembly is to be the pillar and ground of the truth. It's the place where the truth of God is held and maintained.
And through the gifts it's taught, it isn't. As if Brother has mentioned before, the church doesn't teach.
Brethren as such, don't teach. The word of God is what teaches. But the ascended Christ has given gifts in order that the truth might be ministered and given out. And God is not satisfied any more than a parent is satisfied to see your child's growth stunted and he doesn't fully develop. It's their desire that their children should come to full maturity, and God's desire is that every Christian.
Should come to a full maturity, not just knowing his sins are forgiven.
Not just knowing that he's going to heaven, but that he might know and enjoy.
All the full revelation of truth that God has given to us in Christianity.
And the Ascended head has made full provision for this through the gifts that have been given. But there's also in this portion that which shows an individual responsibility now that is the joints and bands. So the truth might be ministered, but we need to watch that there isn't any hindrance. We could start talking among ourselves and hinder the growth of some child of God. We make a reflection on a person that.
Maybe hinders that?
So a lot of gifts are from the ascended praise for the Ministry of the Word, that there might be full growth, that those who are perhaps not in the position of evangelists, pastors and teachers, nevertheless have a great influence, just as in our human body.
You might have the development of some wonderful things in the human body, have the strength of your arm and the strength of your mind and so on. But if you're sick, there's a hindrance to the use of those things. A very strong arm, good muscle and everything. The person gets sick, then he's weak again. And so, brethren, each one of us have a contribution as the joints and bands. And so it goes on to tell us that the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body under the edifying of itself in love.
Oh wonderfully, God has set things up to function for the good and blessing of the church that Christ loved and gave himself for.
The Eagles were dull of hearing, and it was because of what they had in their own minds or their thoughts from the past system that they were in. And that can really cause many of us to cease or not to grow as we should if we keep any of those things. And as we are brought out, Paul just considered all things as done, religious or not. And of course the Corinthians were carnal.
00:15:22
And that hindered their growth too. And Paul had to say, I have to speak to you as unto babes carnal. And so either way flesh coming in, and it it hinders the growth. And of course the system of ties there, or concession can do it as well. That's why the verses follow in this chapter the whole exhortation as to our conduct, because even though we may have laid hold of the truth and been established in it.
If our own conduct is not as it should, it hinders the enjoyment of the truth, and it hinders the testimony to to others. And so this chapter is very practical, showing us the full provision has been made by the ascended Christ, the gifts have been given, everything has been set up to function in a way for the blessing and good of the members of the body. But he has to carry on these exhortations, and so we can sit in these meetings and lay hold of these things.
But if I walk out and I have an unforgiving spirit toward a brother, I'm not going to function as I should in the.
As a member of the body of Christ, if I'm allowing something in my life that's not pleasing to the Lord.
It's going to hinder my enjoyment. All has been given to us in the word. The full provision has been made through the head, but each one of us are responsible that we don't allow those things, just as in our human body that would hinder the proper function of the body, so that all might be for the good of the body and with of course Christ is the head and it It's important too that we see that love is the lubricant, isn't it?
Not in the New translation. It's not speaking the truth in love, but holding the truth in love. I believe, brethren, if we hold it in love, we'll speak it in love. We're really conscious of the wondrous love that has been shown to us. The grace that has been met has met us in all our guilt, that love that is constantly toward us. Then when we speak of it, it'll be for blessing because we're walking in the enjoyment of it ourselves.
And I think that 15th verse really means the way it reads. It seems like it's saying that speaking the truth and love that we should be speak it very graciously and kindly and so on. Which is true. But I think the real force of the verse is in your love. Be truthful, the thought is truthing holding it in love, but in your love, in your expressions of love.
Maintain the truth, and the truth should characterize.
You at all times. And that's what he's really saying, that we don't. We're not carried about by every wind of doctrine. But as we walk in love, we walk according to the truth. Truthing in love is what it literally reads may grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. I think the in our love, to be truthful, there's a system, there's a false pseudo love that's out there.
In Christendom today, which casts truth to the winds and doctrine to the winds and and it's it's a it's a big movement to just throw your arms around everyone that's another that's a Christian and and forget truth. This is saying just the opposite to that. So then your love, be truthful.
Hold the truth.
Hello, Jeff.
The body won't function properly if the head is not functioning as it should, and the head always should, because the head is Christ. But there may be the hindrance in the members of the body, so that instead of the truth flowing out as it should, there's a hindrance because we're not following the directions of the head. But the head is Christ, and there's always perfection there.
00:20:28
Bob was referring to Hebrews.
And that that was clinging to the old.
Order of things hindered their growth. They were stunted in their growth. Now someone might say, well that's not a problem for us, We were not Jews, we were saved from Gentiles. But that is really not discerning the conditions in Christendom because.
What you have in Christendom is really that they have pattern themselves after the Old Testament order. And whenever you go along with that kind of system, it has an effect on stunting the growth. Take for instance the clergy system. Where have they gotten that from? They have gotten that from the Old Testament.
You know, and even when there are Christians that speak of the universal priesthood of all believers, the system where most of them find themselves in doesn't allow them to function as priests, you know so.
You have the choir singing the musical instruments and which is all making an appeal to the flesh, and that is not to be any part of the worship of Christians.
Even the lack of understanding that we do not have an earthly sanctuary.
That we have a heavenly sanctuary. They speak of a certain corner in the church as the sanctuary, but that's all Jewish in their thinking. Wearing special robes when they minister or when they perform in the choir. That all comes from Judaism. And so if we go along with that kind of a thing, don't be surprised if the spirit of God cannot teach you and help you in your growth. And there are even things that are worse than that, and that is.
Idolatry. You know, they're in Christendom. Things have been introduced which to very, very plainly put, it is idolatry. Christmas, Easter. The very word Easter comes from Ashtaroth, you know, And these practices that Christians fall in line with. Well, if you want to be remaining a babe and stunted in your ghost, you go along with all of this. That's a sure way of not growing so.
These things have to be removed from our hearts and from our minds in order that we're ready for the truth.
You know, so it is not a pleasant thing to expose these things, but they need to be exposed so that hopefully we learn to churn these things and stay away from them and not to play along with that. And so that there be the possibility that the Spirit of God can use these gifts to teach us so that we grow. And then the carnality, the worldliness that we have in Corinth.
You know, looking to man and following a man instead of following the Lord. You know this is not what is to be characteristic of a servant of the Lord to draw people after himself, and many times it isn't that person that is as false, that is the people making something out of that individual that should not be according to the teachings of the word of God.
We ought to follow the Lord and ought to be attracted to Him. And so we grow to Him, you know, become more like the Lord Jesus and entering into the things that He has for us, so that we become full grown, mature Christians that do not have to be led by the hand all the rest of their lives that they can, as it were, spiritually speaking, stand on their own feet, you know, and.
Can design.
The things that are of God and that are not of God.
00:25:02
All these things have a way of feeding the flesh, but it also has a way of supplanting Christ. And that's the terrible part about it. It brings it out in Philippians 3.
Verse 2.
Beware of the concession. That's just a partly cutting off of flesh. But we are of the circumcision, a complete cutting off.
Of the flesh which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. And that's really everything of religion is really exalting flesh. It makes much of man and we need to exalt Christ and make much of Christ. And I just mentioned in Acts 27 when.
The Counted.
You know, Chrysostom counts. They like numbers. But the simple thing is, the more the truth, the less the number. And the less the truth, the greater the number. They like numbers. Well, they're in that ship. When they counted themselves, then it said they cast out the wheat. That's Christ. And when you are occupied with numbers and just felt and people, Christ is set aside.
And passed out May even. And the next thing is they knew not. And so those are three verses that really speak to me. And we don't need to be occupied with numbers. We can rejoice that there's this many here, but that's not the important thing. A small conference. We have as much of Christ as the large conference, too. It's Christ.
Then we can say that Christ is the truth. He said so himself.
And he also added in the 17th of John's eye word is true.
And he came to bear witness to the the truth he told Pilate.
Peter makes a nice remark at the end of his.
The very last word to be last epistle, but grow in grace and in the knowledge.
Of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the truth, we add then he adds. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. So how wonderful that you and I have in our hands the blessed word of God, which is the truth.
And we're reading about Jesus in verse 21 as the truth.
Is in Jesus. It couldn't be otherwise. I like the way that Luke begins his gospel. It's rather tremendous, for as much as many have set.
Have taken in hand to set in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, that that word declaration really tells us a little of what truth is.
As a definition, we've heard it said that.
God. Truth is not what he is, God is what is, and truth is a declaration of what is. So John's Gospel begins.
In the beginning was the word.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Further down, the Word was with God. And was God well, that's Christ, the divine Person.
So Christ comes. He is a manifestation of God.
And that way he is the truth. He is a direct declaration of what is.
Now, another remark that we've heard from our youth is that as they're holding these things.
We've had that nothing but the truth can hold the truth. If I take one step out of it, I no longer have the truth as such. And John and 1St Johnny says no lie is of the truth.
But it doesn't set aside the truth.
In the end of Second Corinthians it says we can do nothing against the truth that is.
The truth.
Abides a lie, doesn't change it.
How wonderful it is. We have this positive thing now. Don't we want it? If we want it, we have to hold it. If we step out of it, we no longer have the truth as such. It's the whole deposit that's given to us. It's what has come in the New Testament that we've talked about is coming with the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
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Remember that our adversary uses the word of God, but never the truth. He denies the truth. He's a liar, but he's he's working now through religion, I believe, more than any other way, and through the word of God, but without the truth. And he can use it in sinister ways, and he can change it too. And it's an awful thing that's happening today.
But we have to have the truth and you know, a little simple. I don't want to get into all this on the translations, but a simple change of of Matthew 1820, where two or three come together.
In my name I shall be with them, or I will be with them. Now that's true, but it's not the truth, brethren. And this is the deceit of Satan. We have to be careful of the the many modern so-called translations. We have to be very careful.
Very often half truth in the kings in the Old Testament it says some turn to the right hand, some turn to the left and saw in trying to escape one ditch he might fall into another. So we need to have the whole truth of God. And the whole truth of God will keep us walking in the middle of the road wanted. It will keep us from going extreme and taking one thing to set aside another. Even people who have fallen into error might confess that the Lord Jesus lived a perfect life.
But they don't believe that he's God. Well, it's true that he lived a perfect life, but that is only half the truth. If they deny that he is God himself in manhood, by then they only have half the truth. And I believe we see also two things here. The truth brought before us, the truth as it is in Jesus, but also the conduct that accompanies the truth. And so he shows the danger of being carried away by the sleight of men and cunning craft. He does.
Wrong doctrine. But then in the close of the chapter he shows that our conduct effects these things too, and we can be ever so clear about the truth of God, and not watchful as we should be as to our conduct. But in the Lord Jesus it speaks about what he began to do and to teach always in perfect harmony. Everything He did and everything he said was perfect. And the two were one complete testimony of God, Two men He that have seen me have seen the Father, the Lord Jesus could say.
And he's the perfect pattern for us. And provision has been made as we have in this chapter.
To establish us in the full truth of God, but also to exercise us that our conduct would correspond to the truth we know.
Dentists walked into vanity of their mind. Now these Ephesians.
Came from among the Gentiles, and we have the danger of.
Christendom. And we might be in danger of that ourselves, that we only take half a truth, but the Gentiles walking in the vanity of their mind, they had no scriptural truth.
You know, and yet they had religion, but it was all the imagination of their minds and we have to be on our guard that we do not allow that in our lives Here They were Christians now and had come from their background and they had to be on their guard that they do not allow their mind to imagine things. And so on and so forth.
The word of God wants against that you know the mind is a placing of the devil.
We couldn't apprehend any truth if we wouldn't have a mind. And yet that mind has to be a tool that the Spirit of God uses, and to help us to apprehend divine truth. But the Gentiles had no truth. The Jews did, you know. And so we have to be on our guard that we do not.
00:35:10
Follow the things that are presented, or let our own minds go wild. You know we have to be.
Directed by the Spirit of God. And he has to use the mind as a tool to apprehend divine truth.
Deuteronomy 13, chapter 12 Rather Deuteronomy chapter 12. Now from from 12 to 16 you get 21 Times, but at the place the Lord thy God has chosen, the place his name at there you offer. And that's not the thought. The thought I had is in verse 30. Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them. Notice that thou inquire not.
After their God saying how do these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so. We don't have to even inquire. We don't have to even know what they're doing out there. That's a dangerous thing to even inquire. I think probably the worst subject in college is comparative religions. We don't need to know all the false things that are going on.
It's good to be aware of what may be affecting some of our group on the outer fringes, or the young people or yourself. It could happen, but we don't need to get and say, how do they do that? We know how we do it, and that's going the word of God. And it's a dangerous thing to go into a Christian bookstore and just grab off the shelf. You'll get things that will tickle your ears, which itch at times, but it'll lead you astray in your thoughts.
We have excellent ministry that I doubt if I've been. I've been on all of it some. I may have read 12 Times and I'm still getting wonderful things out of it, but I haven't read all of it yet and that we need to feed on.
Thinking of the way that.
The scriptures graphically present to us.
The Gentiles and their minds, they the dog turns to his vomit. They vomit up and then eat it. That's all they have. They don't have anything from God.
But thinking about Ephesians 3.
And the prayer.
As underlying our entering into these things.
Beginning, I guess, with verse 14 For this 'cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven earth is named, that he would grant you.
According to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in the heart by faith.
See, it's the he's provided for us in the gifts he's provided for us. The Ascended Victor the Conqueror there wanted to share all his victory with us. He's he's he's provided everything for us as to that which is external, coming to me and ministering the truth, but in my heart.
He's also provided for that.
That Christ may dwell or be at home.
In your heart, you enjoyed the illustration and used it, I think. I don't see it right. Somebody else was telling me the better way that it really was I I heard it repeated. So it was a man who recently saved and a knock comes on the door.
And in this allegory he he goes and opens the door, and there's the Lord Jesus.
I always says you've come to visit with me, said yes, I'd like to visit with you. I'd like to have some time with you. And he says, well, may I come in? And the man stops him in it. He says, just a minute, just a minute. He closes the door and goes into his living room and starts hiding some things that he knows the Lord was not going to be pleased with. And then he comes back. He goes, oh, yes, come in, come in, come.
And this goes on through the whole house, that is that the Lord Jesus would be at home.
That there would be nothing there that would be offensive to him.
Is the word I believe in this, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, and then it goes on out into the vastness.
00:40:05
All that he has for us, high grit, length, depth as he loves us and puts his arm around us and surveys all the wonders of glory with us as we enter into the love of Christ that passes knowledge. So you see it's not that which is external to me and God may provide the best of ministry in the assembly.
And if he doesn't, I should covet earnestly the best gift for the assembly. I should not just go away complaining and and be satisfied. I should be exercised before God about it, that the assembly have what it needs to feed and instruct and encourage. But if I don't have this from within Christ, dwelling at home, in my heart, the center of my affection, the source of my affections for the things of God.
They won't be available to me, the Corinthians.
Had the best teacher in the Apostle Paul, but he said he couldn't tell it to him.
And So what we have is Christ in the heart, Christ and glory before us. It's all centered in him to the fullness of the Christ is entering into the song that we sang at the beginning of the meeting. I had that before us, all that God has for us in Christ.
What may it be Our heart's desire. May our affections be touched, and we lay hold of these things so that we no longer children. You. You come up to a man who knows he's saved, and you start talking to him about, you know he needs to do this or that to be saved, but he's not going to pay one bit of attention to you. He's not going to be blown about by any wind of doctrine. He knows where he stands. Well, may we know.
Our affections have linked up with the man in glory, and we know where we stand with him and be not children.
All these things are ours, but do we want them? May we have that parrot takes the power of God, But grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened. It is not a cheap thing, and you cannot get it, unless Christ be the motive and the object that takes all the riches of the glory of God for that strength to be given to a poor Sinner.
That Christ can dwell there and be the object before the soul. It's not the truth in Jesus though, the truth as to the new man. And so it says the truth that is in Jesus is something that's new.
And so he was the example on this earth, and we come into it after he rose from the dead. And so this is a Christian position that the 22nd verse says that you have put off.
The old man, that's a fact. That's my standing in Adam, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. That refers to the daily life of the Newman. Now the new man is in the next is next verse and that you have put off it should be or have put on the Newman which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
And so the truth as it is in Jesus is this position that we've been brought into in Christ, so that we have a new light. We have the Spirit of God which gives us to walk according to.
What the Lord would have us walk. Someone has outlined it, and I think this is helpful to the young.
The first we talked about the three circles. We talked about the circle in the fourth verse, which was real, spoke of the assembly, and then we got instruction from the seventh verse to through the 16th verse as to that position and what is provided for us in that position. Now the next circle takes up the Lord, so those who own him as Lord.
These things are brought out from the 17th verse.
To the fifth chapter and through the 21St verse.
And then in the next circle where God those who earn him as God you get these natural relationships and that carries you down to through the 6th chapter and the ninth verse. And then of course there you get on the armor that that we have. But Ephesians is sort of taken up with going into the land and so we had this morning the 2 foot rule.
00:45:09
It's all ours. It's all ours. But we only get that to enjoy that we put our foot on. Now the enemies in the land were different than they were in the wilderness. The enemies in the land here are says line up one to another. But brother remember that when they were at Gilgal in self judgment, cutting off the flesh, they were not taking the land.
And so it really assumes that everything is cut off in our lives, that we're keeping short account, that these things are judged, and then we're enjoying these truths. And this is a provision for it. I think the truth that is in Jesus is the truth of this, that we have the new man. We've been brought into a new position, given a new life, the spirit of God controlling that life.
There's a verse in First John Two that corroborates and supports what our brothers just been saying.
Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you. We are brought into Christianity in connection with Christ. You you have not so learned Christ.
Sets him before us as a man glorified at his right hand, and here we have the new commandment which is true in him.
And in.
With so many young families here, especially with children and all, Brother War brought up a very wonderful point.
It's not so much the question does Christ dwell in your home? It's a question, is he comfortable in your home? Would that be a setting that he'd enjoy? And I was thinking of Proverbs 23.
Christ being wisdom.
Verse three, though wisdom is in a house builded, through wisdom is a house builded, and by understanding it is established, and by knowledge shall the chambers, every room, be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. Now that's the thought, and you know it's it's what?
What is your home like? I'm not not searching your hearts, but I have the privilege and so many others of being into Christ like homes. And it's a real pleasure to be in Christ like homes. You know, there was a little congregation that was sort of falling apart and backsliding and all that. And they, they got a new preacher pastor, and he started out by that week visiting every home personally.
And when a man came home and his wife said the new pastor, the new pastor was here.
He said. What did he say?
Well, he said. Does Christ live here?
Well, what you didn't you tell him he said that we're members of the church here and have been for these many years, and he didn't ask me that. He's, he said, does Christ live here? Well, didn't you tell him that we pledge and never fail and I'm on the committee, you know, for this and that? He didn't ask me that. He has just asked does Christ live here? Well, you know, let's search both of them because he wouldn't have been comfortable in that home. And that's the thought.
Is he comfortable in your home now? I'm. When you point the finger, there's some pointing back. I know. We all need to be exercised, don't we? But it's it's not that he won't or it doesn't. It's Does he enjoy living in your home? He didn't enjoy being in Bethany, the home of Martha, the first time. The second time he took care of it the third time.
Enjoyed it because that sweet incense filled the house. The odor of that incense, they were all thinking of him. So that's the question. And it's good for young parents to ask themselves that is this every room such that he would enjoy and feel comfortable.
To add to what Brother Bill said, the affections for Christ is certainly the first important point, but I would say that that in itself is not enough.
00:50:00
The example of that is in Jonathan.
In the Old Testament, would anyone question the love and affection that Jonathan had for David?
No one would question it. Maybe there was nobody in that cave of Dalam that joined David in his rejection that had as deep and genuine affection as Jonathan. But Jonathan was not with David.
So our love and affection is certainly the most important part, but it would make us to be where he is, to share in his rejection. There is a life that proves.
That we love him. Jonathan could have proved that, you know, when it was evident that there was no room for David in the King's palace, and that the king was bent on killing him, His place should have been with David. And so beloved, this is what I'm trying to exercise my own heart within yours is there is to be dead in our lives. That demonstrates practically that we do love him.
Obedience to the word of God, how do I dress? You know, and all of these kinds of things. You know, a husband is to please his wife. The wife is to please the husband. If she knows that the husband doesn't like a certain type of dress on her, she wouldn't wear it, would she? My husband doesn't like that. She proves by that, that she loves her husband. And so these are practical things and better. And that's where we break down.
In our lives.
The stress affections. But we do not stress sufficiently the result that should be coming from that affection and how we act, how we live and what we do, what we even aspire to, you know, do we want to have the biggest and fanciest home in town, you know, and devote all our energies and times to get it.
And we don't have time for the things of the Lord that would be useful for him, his interest in the scene. All of this would be a practical proof that we love the Lord and that is what he's looking for. You know, talk is cheap. The world says you know, talk is cheap. Prove it.
Of the abode. That's the problem, is it? I mean, I stayed in some nice large abodes and I told my brother, isn't it lovely? The Lord let you enjoy these things and he lets me enjoy them too. You know, it's one man built a mansion in France and he put that word above in French. I must leave it.
Let's don't let that abode. If the Lord gives you a larger or for your family be the problem. It's Christ you want there in that abode and he's letting you use it. That's a lovely thing. I I just don't feel the large houses condemn anybody for a large house. He didn't mean that to say that. But the danger is that we reach out for these things and use all our energies to gain these things, and the Lord loses our faith much. There's very little in our lives.
That really counts for eternity.
Our brother Clark was ringing before us the basis of it all, and that is that we have put off the old man and that we have put on the Newman. And what encourages me is I meet a Christian, is that he has within him the very life of Christ. And as I said before him, that line of truth that is developed here and how Christians should walk there is within him a life that responds to that.
Because we have learned what our position is.
And it's not put forth by effort. Well, I have to do this to please the Lord, the Newman says. The good pleasure of thy will, O God, is my delight. And that, I think, is so lovely that always has encouraged me. When you talk to a worldly Christian, you know that no matter what worldliness or those things that you see in his life that you know are displeasing to the Lord, he knows too. But you know that also within him.
There is the Newman, and that's what the apostle is developing here. The Ascended Christ has given gifts so that we might know the revealed mind of God. We might know the position that grace has placed us in, that Christ is the head of the body, the church, and that we are heavenly people. But he's done more, if I might speak in that way. He's given to every true believer in this room a life that wants to please the Lord.
00:55:25
And if that life is stirred up by occupation with what God has done for us.
And his boundless love that has been manifested in Christ. The affections are awakened, and the desire is there to please the Lord. So we're not talking to people who have no response. If we were talking to unsaved people, we would be talking to people who had no response. They'd say, Oh well, you're putting me under law. You're trying to get me to do things I have no desire to do. But when you talk to a true believer, you should always be conscious.
That that believer has within him the very life of Christ, that responds to all the desires that God has for him and the truth that he has revealed in his word. And I believe that's the point, brethren, the truth as it is in Jesus. And so as he brings in these exhortations, he is talking to those who possess that new man who have within him, within them the very life of the Lord Jesus.
Christ himself is the believer's life.
I've enjoyed the thought that the illustration of.
The new man and I personally see it as different from the nature.
The new man One day the Lord Jesus was talking to Simon Barjona, son of Jonah.
And he says to him, Thou art Peter.
And I think of that as maybe 5 minutes later someone walking up. Let's say I'm looking for Simon.
He says, well, I'm not Simon, I'm Peter.
Well, you look like Simon to me. Yeah, I know. And I feel like Simon, but I'm not. I'm Peter. Well, how do you? What do you mean, you Peters it? He said. I'm Peter.
It's what God says about me.
A new man?
That's what I go by. What God said about me and my feelings and my failures and all within do not cancel that. God said I am a new man. I have a new man put off and put on.
It's interesting to see that.
Thinking of it in the sense that.
Peter begins his first epistle by.
The word Peter.
That's the first word in his first epistle, and Simon is the first word in his second epistle.
So we are walking as a Newman Peter, but we have that old nature, Simon still there that we do have a new life.
But again, I say that position is mine because God said that is true and I believe it.
And he, the old man was crucified with Christ, but I'm afraid he left some of his his feelings and desires around. But the old man was crucified with Christ.
If I lay hold of that because God said it, and live it by faith, then I am living before God in a new position, a new man.
To enjoy what is in that new life as it lives its way out in a Newman. And when I fail that the the I don't link the two together. When I see when something is going on inside of me that I have to call sin, it has not taken me out of that position of Peter or Newman.
Before God.
That is there from that platform of a Newman.
That we make our steps godward.
I like to think of it this way. The old man is the aggregate of all the evils that have been committed from Adam onwards, all summed up in one man. And that's the old man.
And the Newman are all the moral virtues and excellencies of the life of Christ.
Of Christ himself. That's the Newman.
Two men, the old man and the new man, Adam and Christ. The whole Bible is about these two men. You're either in the one or you're in the other. And we've put off the old and we've put on the new. So that's that's where we are. That's the way God sees us, and that's what he's looking for from us is all those moral qualities that flow from the life that we have of Christ.
01:00:28
That Newman has now taken the place of the old man.
And to death 24th verse, please. And that we put on and that ye put on, or having put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
In righteousness and true holiness. So this is what is to be characteristic of this new man, and it will manifest itself in the believer.
To emphasize again in righteousness and true.
Holiness. Holiness is delighting in good and abhorring evil.
That is what is characterizing the Newman.
To find that that's not just a theoretical position that we're in, but we have gotten something through that. We've gotten the very life of Christ, and we've got the Holy Spirit to give us the power to work in that life. So it's not just a matter of a position. I didn't mean to say that.
Yeah.
Verse 21 Again, if so be that ye have heard him.
And have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. The truth is in Jesus. And then he explains what he's talking about, that you have put off the old man and have put on the new man. The old is done with and the new man is put on. That's the truth as it is in Jesus. We saw that. We see that lived out in Jesus as a man down here, that new man, and we've put him on.
And God wants to see now in you and me those same moral qualities that were exemplified in him.
You ought to burst.
To tie onto that says that we have it in first John 2.
Verse six he that saith the abideth in him bought himself also to walk even as he walked, that is putting on the new man beloved.
Walking as he walked. In the practical sense we have, we have put it on. But in the practical sense it is manifested as we walk in the, shall I say, the character of that new man. And we have the power by the Spirit. But I think it's well for us to see that every believer possesses that new man. That's always been an encouragement to me. You talk, I say again. You talk to a very worldly Christian.
You know that if he is really saved, the new man is there. And if you minister Christ to him, the new man will respond to the claims of Christ. And I guess we've all had the experience. We come to a meeting like this. Perhaps the world has got quite a place in our lives and there's something that stirs up that Newman within us and that Newman has responds and we return home. Say, I want to please the Lord in this. There's something that's in my life that isn't just right. And so we have learned that we didn't.
Shall I say get the Newman at the conference. We already have the Newman, but he now is responding to the claims of Christ.
And the Spirit of God is doing that work within us, and I think that's very.
Important for us to see much of the effort in Christendom is to try and stir up something in man as though he didn't already have it. But the Christian has it, and there's no use trying to stir it up at an unsaved person. He needs to be born again, he needs to have a new life or he won't respond to those things at all. He'd say. Well, I don't want any of those things. They don't interest me until God does the work and imparts a new life, and then he'll go away.
Even the very day he saved, like the Apostle Paul, immediately he wanted to please the Lord. He owned him as Lord.
To Can we say that all the commandments of the New Testament are addressed to the Newman? You're not addressed to the Old man. If I rebel against something that someone brings to me or something that Christ would have me do, it's because it's meeting the flesh in me. The new man delights to do those things. It's like telling me it's telling my child to go out and get an ice cream cone and saw the commandments of a New Testament. They're all addressed to the new man. And if a new man is an operation, practically.
01:05:24
I don't like to do this and met his death at the cross. Our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin should be annulled that henceforth we should not serve sin. Romans 6 The old man was crucified where? With Christ on the cross. So that's the end of it. So how could any of those injunctions be addressed to that man? He's ended, he's finished.
We have to reckon that because he's actually in these bodies and will be as long as the body is here.
The old nature is within, but I don't call that the old man. I think there's a difference between the old nature and the old man and the new nature and the new man. But if you want to call it this that way, yes. But I make a difference between the old nature, the flesh that's still there, and the old man.
Which is really representative of what we were in Adam, all the ugly things that you see in the first man.
We could look at that verse you referred to in Romans 6.
Romans chapter 6 talks to us about.
Verse six has to do as we've just heard knowing this.
That's important, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him.
That the body of sin might be a null is the first word. I believe that henceforth we should not serve sin. The old man here, I think.
Is seen as a channel for the expression of the body of sin. The body of sin, as we've been taught, is like a solar system within each one of us has all of its working parts.
And his sin.
And it finds its way out into expression by an old man.
Now the old man was crucified with Christ. The body of sin is annulled. It has no way to express itself now.
Unless I give it there away.
And it's there and it's working. This body of sin, it's the law of sin that's working there.
But it's like an automobile. And it's running, but it's an automobile has got the most powerful motor in the world just running away. But it's out of gear.
Now responsibly, my responsibility comes in what I do with the gear shift.
God starts me off, as it were, out of gear, and he gives me another.
Nature, The very life of Christ and the power to go with that, the Spirit of God.
And that's where I that's the gear I should shift into in a practical way is to enjoy the liberty of the power of God in obedience.
Stand fast. In the liberty in which we were made free, we stand fast and that which he's given us. So it's like whenever I see something that I want, and it's not in the mind of God, but there's something in me that wants it.
If I just count myself as dead, reckon that I died. There's my liberty in death. Not only that I died. It even says that I have died to sin.
You know how many do not understand that second verse of Romans 6?
For we.
For far be the thought we who have died to sin, how shall we still live in it? You know I don't have to kill sin within.
I have to reckon that I have died to sin in the death of Christ, and that truth is a tremendous truth to get ahold of. And therefore I can live this new life. I am not only when I come to the Lord Jesus.
01:10:13
Delivered from the penalty that my sin should bring me, the judgement I'm also delivered from the power of death. Sin. I've died to sin.
Wonderful truth to lay hold of by faith.
When God said I'm I am now Peter and I believe that and I walk as Peter because God said that's true. The same thing as our brother is telling us that I believe what God said about my being dead to sin.
And over and above how I feel from within. Sometimes I believe what God said about it. And I believe he said I died to sin and now I'm alive to God because he said so. That links my daily life. Every step I take to faith in what God says, not in what I want or how I feel. It doesn't fluctuate. It's what God said. And I lay hold of that.
And there is where we.
Can we say our responsibility meets what God says? My side of it meets entrusting what he says, not only about my position, I am now Peter because he said so, but also I am dead to sin and alive to God because he said so. And I reckon that to be true, But when you leave it, he gives you the proof by the indwelling of the Spirit, you know?
And there is the flesh wars against the Spirit. I mean, we know that we have a new life and we know the old nature is still there. It's not just that he said it, we experience it.
So you could say after that change Bill, don't act like Simon anymore, act like Peter from now on.
Do any more good though, than to tell no, it's like brother says.
The verse that was read in second in one John two says the true the darkness is passing that is in US and the true light now shineth the spirit of God is power within on the basis of my believing what God said.
Because it's by faith my salvation by faith. My walk is by faith. I believe what God said. Immediately the Spirit of God comes to make it real to me on the principle of faith.
And that is where we have our liberty and the grace of God to walk today. I enjoyed it, the difference between standing and state, because we know that there are people who think that the old mine is actually gone, and we wouldn't be told to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God if it was actually gone. As to our standing before God, it doesn't exist. It came to its end in the death of Christ.
But as to our practice, we have to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.
For sin, that's the old man shall not have dominion over you.
And so we take God at His word, as you say. We see that it came to its end in the death of Christ. But as to our state, we have that experience. And it's mentioned also in Galatians. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other. I'm just saying that because I don't want anyone to think that we believe that that old man is positively gone. We have the conflict.
Of constantly having to reckon ourselves dead, indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.
That when we get our glorified bodies then we won't have that old man to reckon with at all.
Because it's connected with these bodies that are down here. And when we get our glorified bodies, there won't be any old man to hinder our progress, and they won't be a desire to do a single wrong thing. We won't have that reckoning process in heaven. We'll only have a desire to live to please the Lord without any hindrance whatsoever. I I just feel that for those who are younger that we need to understand the difference between our standing before God.
Which is perfect and in Christ and our state, which is a thing that we have constantly to deal with in our everyday life.
01:15:09
Just one word to add to for old and young, at least for my own experience, the flesh lusts against the spirit.
I better leave it that way. The spirit against the flesh. I better not get involved.
Obey.
The flesh is not me, it's in me. The spirit of God is not me. It's God himself who dwells within. If I get in and try to correct the matter, I won't lose the battle.
Doesn't say the flex listening is me.
I don't disobey and let the spirit of God handle it. He dwells within to take care of these things and that's why I think sometimes, brethren, we set a set of rules that we going to follow. That's really not what he's doing.
And we just walk with Christ before us. Christ is motive. Christ is object and understand where we stand with God and walk in the good and believe what he said as we just heard. Take God at His word. There is our Christian liberty. And we can walk in liberty as Christians and be happy and just go through this world and just singing a song. And as the apostle, Paul could sing in jail or we can go through it as those who are just the most miserable because we know there's something better and we can't find it.
Give for the benefit of the young, especially a demonstration in the life of a believer in Brazil or fracking ourselves dead. Osby was an astrologer, well known astrologer and.
He got saved, you know, it didn't take long. And he knew that that long hair that he had, that had to come off. He could hardly distribute tracks with that kind of a hairdo. So off the hair came and then not long after, somebody came.
And wanted to make use of his services as an astrologer. You know what he said? That astrologer died.
That astrologer died. There was number more. Any of this going to be in his life, you know, he reckoned himself dead.
But.
211 was given out I believe.
Jesus Christ.
The Savior.
We only.
Love.
Thailand thy loving.
Our soul, God, Liberty.
Luke 1:1-4, 10:25-28, 18:9-14, 16:19
Gospel—E.S. Tonn
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Is the savior of sinners.
Savior of sinners like me.
Long I was chained. Then sends darkness.
Now by his grace I'm free. Once was blind, but now I see, another man wrote.
Let's sing together #4 please.
Christ is the Savior of Sinner.
Stay there for me.
Baby, I'm still in the night.
They were making her, not staying at my queen shedding. It's not like my grandson.
This is a stranger for me.
That's why I was erasing.
Love is greatness. This is frustrating for me.
There are sinners like me.
Change this life of my grandson.
This is the savior for me.
We will pray and ask God's help and blessing.
It's been my delight.
Since being here.
To.
Visit with some of the dear boys and girls in this room.
Beautiful children.
Boys and girls.
Your fathers and grandfathers were praying for you just a few moments ago.
And we are praying many of us in this room, now that some precious little one will understand how the love of the Lord Jesus Christ is for you too.
And understand what it is to trust him for salvation and the forgiveness of your sins.
The young people were prayed for.
Possibly there's one here in a Christian home.
Whose parents are at the Lord's table.
Who knows? The gospel of God's grace has heard it many times and for some reason is still waiting.
The will has not yet bowed to the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for you.
And others.
And so we are here with the gospel of God's grace.
My brother in this room gave me just a few months ago a delightful statement that I never really heard before.
And I'm going to repeat it before we sing another song and before I open the scriptures.
00:05:01
It simply said this the gospel is not a message of something to do.
It is a word to be believed.
Of a work already done.
And so we are proclaiming a finished work tonight.
Finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ at the Cross.
In order that you might be saved tonight, dear Sinner friend, let's sing together #38.
Excuse me? That is not Yes #38 #38, and many in this room can say exactly what this first line says. We do not know why God's wondrous grace to me He has made known, but how glad and happy we are that He reached us when we ran our sins. By the gospel of His grace, the love of a Savior brought us himself in full blessing #38.
I know not my God's wondrous grace to me.
I am delayed.
The prophet Isaiah said.
Come now.
Let us reason together, saith the Lord.
Though your sins be a scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, and though they be red like Crimson, he shall be as wool.
It is our joy.
Dear boys and girls, to tell you that the love of the Lord Jesus Christ is enough.
To save you.
The center of the deepest die, though his sins be read like Crimson, shall be made as white as snow.
We have just.
Sung the testimony of one who had committed his.
Heart and life to the keeping of a perfect Savior. And the apostle could say, I know whom I have believed, and it is the one that the apostle knew that we want to tell you is the Savior for you tonight. And he was persuaded. And we can tell you with the authority of God's Word, and on the testimony of many in this room, who for many, many years have committed themselves to the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:10:23
He is able to keep that which has been committed to him against the Day of judgment. That's surely to come.
Would you please turn with me those who have Bibles and want to look on to the first chapter?
Of Luke's Gospel.
The Gospel.
According to Luke.
Verse one.
For as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order.
A declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us.
Even as they delivered them unto us which from the beginning.
Were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.
It seemed good to me also.
Having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first.
To write unto thee in order most excellent Theophilus.
That thou mightest know the certainty.
Of those things, where now has been instructed.
You might be absolutely right.
If I were to tell you that I had perfect understanding in anything.
But here is a man by the Spirit of God, who wrote that he had perfect understanding of these things about which he was great.
And he writes in order that you, that I, that this excellent man, to whom he wrote, might know the certainty of these things.
Peter tells us that he has not, that we have not followed cunning, devised fables, cunningly devised fables. This book is the word of God. It is not a story with a moral impact. It's God's message to your heart, To my heart.
And he wants you to know of certainty that what he says in this book.
Is true.
God said let there be light and there was light.
It happened.
Because God is light and in him is no darkness at all the.
And so when God spoke.
It came to pass. He has spoken many things that have not yet to come fast, but they will.
God said to Adam.
The day in which thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
I think it was something like 965 years and happening, but it happened.
Methuselah lived 969 years and the word of God says he died.
Because the wages of sin is death.
Thank God that's not the end of that story.
And that's what we're here for tonight is to tell you how a Sinner like me, a Sinner like you, a little Sinner.
A middle sized center or a big center?
I spoke to a dear young man in Miami, FL in 19/20/1945.
Of his being a Sinner.
And he said, oh, I'm a Sinner all right, but I'm not such a bad Sinner.
We read of glory heaven where does not enter anything that defiles or makes a lie.
If you, dear boy and girl, have ever said, I will do as I please.
You're a Sinner.
If you have ever thought that your mother or father.
You were not going to obey your mother and father.
You're a Sinner, and so from the very least to the greatest.
The Apostle Paul, we were reminded yesterday, I believe it was referred to himself as number one in the sinning department.
00:15:04
Felt it in his soul. We want you to feel in your soul that whether you are not such a bad Sinner or a real bad Sinner.
That you need a savior. And so we have.
A sure word here.
The Apostle Paul spoke of the Thessalonians receiving his word.
As it was not the witness of men.
But as it is, as it is in truth, word of God.
The Word of God that will bring blessing to your soul when you rest in faith simply upon what God says.
We said.
When God said to Adam, thou shalt surely die, He died.
Wherefore, as by one man.
Sin entered into the world.
And death by sin. So death is passed unto all men, for that all have sinned.
Some of you, dear boys and girls, learned that verse.
That says all have sinned and come short.
Of the glory of God.
And so we want you to realize.
We want you to understand that as having done your own will, having sinned against God.
You are under the sentence of death. We are going to look.
At some instance in the book of Luke, where the certainty of things is brought before us, that we might know the certainty, Isn't it a wonderful thing, boys and girls, young people, to have something as we say that you can sink your teeth into?
Something that you can believe, something that you can rely upon, something that you can trust. And so when we turn in this precious book, the word of God, we are speaking to you of that.
In which you can absolutely believe.
It says of the Lord Jesus Christ he is able to save completely.
All that come unto God by him.
So let's look at Luke chapter 10.
And we have.
A certain.
Individual in chapter in verse 25.
This certain individual happened to be a lawyer.
And it said verse 23. Excuse me, verse 25.
Behold a certain lawyer we said that this book was not.
A storybook with a moral impact.
This man lived. This lawyer confronted the Lord Jesus Christ when he was here.
A certain lawyer stood up and tempted him. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you imagine the wickedness of a man's heart that would try to trip up the Lord Jesus Christ?
The one who is the truth. And so here he is trying to ensnare.
The Lord Jesus Christ thinking that he can make a proposition that the Lord Jesus Christ cannot answer.
And so he says, What shall I do that I might inherit eternal life? And he said unto him.
What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answered, and said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and thy strength, and with all thy mind, thy neighbors thyself.
And the Lord said, Thou hast answered, right this do, and thou shalt live.
There was another person that came to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Wanting to know what he could do to inherit eternal life.
Has anyone in the room ever supposed that there was something you must do?
To be saved.
We said at the very beginning that the gospel is a message, not of something to do.
Not by works. The Word of God says by faith.
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Trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior is the only means by which individuals can be saved, for there is none other name given under heaven among men whereby you must be saved. Nothing to do, we sing in the little gospel hymn. Lay your deadly doings down down at Jesus feet until you stand in Him gloriously complete.
Dear little boy or girl, the Lord Jesus Christ did the work. Nothing to do.
Nothing to pay. The prophet Isaiah says come and buy without money and without price. How can God make such an offer as that?
We are talking about eternal life here and this lawyer is talking about what he can do.
That's what the law said. You know this do, and thou shalt live what it says this do and thou shalt live.
The sad truth is.
There is not one that doeth good. No, not one. God looked down from heaven to see if there was any good.
And listen to this dear young person. God himself came down from heaven.
To see if he could elicit or bring out a man some good.
We read in Matthew's Gospel chapter one of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is Emmanuel.
God with us.
And God himself came down in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And tried to cultivate some good out of man.
Is anyone here in doubt as to what the results of that test?
Were after the Lord Jesus Christ was here.
In his matchless love and grace to men.
Not one.
Bit of response in man's heart to God.
After the Lord Jesus Christ had been here.
The symptoms that they passed upon him was he's worthy of death. He was here in Greece. Greece means that God works in the midst of evil out of the goodness of his own heart for blessing.
And so here is the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this.
Not imputing trespasses to them. He did not even charge them with their guilt.
And at the very end they said away with him, crucify him. That's the result of the task.
I was a teacher for 27 years.
And I had a young student one time.
That took the final exam.
I'll bet there's a boy and a girl here that can guess what that young man did.
He failed it.
His average was 110th of a point from passing.
He got close, didn't he?
But the tragedy of that young man's history was he didn't turn in a third of the test.
And he still missed it by only 110th of a point. That's not much.
Well.
If anybody in here is a school teacher, they know how teachers try hard to help students if they try a little.
But I looked this young man in the eye. He was an eighth grader or then he 8th graders here. I bet there are God loves 8th graders too.
Sometimes when they get to be 9th graders, if you're a teacher, you wonder. But really?
I looked him in the eye and I said, because you didn't fry, I'm not giving you that 10th of a point you flunked. Oh, it's motive. Well, we worked out a deal and he was able to get that 10th of a point by working. But you can't get salvation by working and there won't be any almost getting to heaven. There is a man who made a statement in Scripture that I think is one of the most sad remarks in the word of God.
And he said this.
To the Apostle Paul almost now persuadeth me to be a Christian.
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Unless that man.
Turn to God in his heart before he passed out of this scene. He went into eternity without Christ.
Almost thou persuaded me. Have you ever been young person near to accepting Christ?
Have you ever thought I should do that now and put it off another time? The word of God says Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for a man knows not what a day may bring forth.
I was talking to a man.
Last spring.
Six months ago, Maybe winter.
And I simply ask him this question. Have you settled the issue of where you're going to spend eternity?
And he said quote.
No, and I'm not asking for any.
Information. And that's the end of the conversation. Those are his exact words.
Dear souls, that man. That conversation took place Thursday at noon.
Monday morning, they found him dead.
You must not.
Delay deciding for Christ because almost persuaded to be a Christian.
Might wind you up.
Lost forever, so this lawyer wanted to know about eternal life.
And so he said, I have done all of this something out of fact willing to justify himself.
He said. I want to. I'm ahead of myself here, beloved. Forgive me, 27.
Verse 27 And he answered and said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with thy mind, strength, and neighbor as thyself, There we are. And he said unto them, Thou hast answered right this do, and thou shalt live.
Willing to justify himself. We're going to talk about another man in a few moments who was willing to justify himself.
I ask you, boys and girls, you think this man could justify himself? What does it mean to be justified?
Well, simply speaking, it means that one.
Cannot be charged with sin anymore.
It is a legal term and we won't try to explain it beyond that, but it's just a man trying to say I've done what I'm supposed to do.
You think you've ever done what you were supposed to do?
I talk to people sometimes and they say, well, I think if you do the best, you can treat your neighbor right.
Everything will be all right in eternity.
Does that sound right to you?
I talked to a man in Emporia, KS, and that's exactly what he said to me.
He said. I know one thing.
You can't be saved by giving money to some preacher, he says. That's what I hear all the time.
But then he got serious and he said, well, he just thought, if he did everything, treat your neighbor right and did right all the time, can anybody say they're done right all the time?
So this man willing to justify himself.
Wanted to know who is his neighbor? Who are you going to treat?
Kindly your neighbor.
So the Lord Jesus gives us a picture here.
Of many a Sinner.
He told him that he shows him who his neighbor is.
Jesus, answering in verse 30, said a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves.
You ever had anything stolen from you? That's a sad experience.
Have you ever stolen anything from somebody?
That's a sad experience too, because that will take you to hell.
Jesus said a certain man went down and fell among thieves.
The word of God says The thief comes.
Not except to steal and to kill and destroy.
Who is the thief?
You know who the thief is.
The serpent came to Eve.
And he said, has God really said that you will die? You will not surely die.
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He is a master thief and he would gladly steal your soul and take it to hell with him.
But the thief comes not but to steal and to kill and destroy.
So when this poor man comes among thieves, what do you expect to happen to him?
They stripped him of his raiment.
And he was dead while he lived because he rejected.
The true king.
If one in this room does not have affection for the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God says, let him be accursed at the Lords coming.
This poor man's neighbor was dead while he lives. This man was only half dead. Neighbors history is a sad history.
This man's history is a bright one.
Just as your history can be bright if you realize that you have sinned against God.
And turn in faith to him who alone.
Loved you enough to pay the penalty of your sins at Calvary Cross.
God is not.
Unrighteous.
Neither is He what we say. Arbitrary. God is holy. We read in one of the minor prophets that He's uphold your eyes and to behold iniquity and cannot look upon sin.
And so if.
You have San against God. You are indeed grave peril. Well, I said this man's history was a happy one, and yours will be happy too. This man's history is happy because there was a certain Samaritan. Here we have it again, the certainty of the ability of the Lord Jesus Christ to come into your circumstances and meet every need of your heart.
It's a delightful thought, beloved, that the grace of God is adequate.
To meet the need every heart.
Center or Saint of Light when they turn to him? Well, there are many things that could be pointed out in this story.
Those who represent the law and religion could not help this poor man. He was in the ditch.
Beaten and bruised and naked.
And they came by and they ignored him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan in verse 33 says as he journeyed.
It says that the priest and the Levite if he passed by, but the Samaritan.
As he journeyed, here is one who had purpose.
He was journeying. The Lord Jesus Christ took a journey.
He came from Heaven's glory.
To the world his hands had made.
And the word of God says He came unto his own, and his own received him not. And here's this Samaritan who is a good picture to us, a despised and rejected one. That's a Samaritan. That's our Lord Jesus Christ.
Says of him, He was despised and rejected, and we esteemed we esteemed him smitten of God and afflicted.
And so here he comes.
And he comes to where he was. Where was he? In the ditch. Where are you and your soul tonight?
Young person, if you have not yet received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
You're in the ditch. You're perishing.
How many boys and girls know that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish? God is not willing that any should perish Here this man is about to perish in the ditch, but the Lord Jesus Christ came into the circumstances of this man.
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And the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, and he came to where we were.
And he had compassion.
The love of the Lord Jesus Christ led him down from heaven's glory.
To this sin sick.
Earth that lies under the curse of sin.
And so he came into man's circumstances.
And he bound him up.
All we, like sheep, have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way.
And the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.
Here it is.
But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
Chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
The Samaritan came into that man's circumstances who was bruised and beaten.
And he healed him. He bound him up.
He had compassion and went, and he bound, his wound, pouring in oil and wine.
It was the cause of War, Jesus Christ.
Himself.
Paid the penalty of sin that we can proclaim him to you tonight.
As a savior of sinners. And so he came right into this man and his love.
Had compassion and he bound him up.
And he set him on his own beast, and brought him to the end.
I said a moment ago that God.
Was not, as we say, arbitrary. He does not do things.
Just to be doing them.
He has a righteous basis.
For being able to offer to you forgiveness of sins, and that is.
He who knew all of the sins of the believer.
Laid them on the Lord Jesus Christ, and stroke upon stroke of judgment, the Lord Jesus Christ bore in order that he could save sinners.
The Lord Jesus in the picture that this Samaritan sets before us came right down to where the man was.
And his loving heart went out to the poor Sinner, and he picked him up.
And he put him on his own beast and took him to the end.
The point is really a simple one, beloved.
He had to go down underneath.
Load of his of our sins in order to pick us up out of the mire.
But that's the very picture that the psalmist paints.
He picked me up out of the Marie clay.
To pick me up, he had to be underneath, and so he went down, down, down under God's judgment and bear.
In his own body our sins on the tree. And now God can say whosoever will let him take.
Of the water of life freely.
I said we were going to talk about another individual who.
Thought to justify himself.
In Luke 18.
Verse 9.
And he spake this parable.
Unto certain which trusted in themselves.
That they were righteous.
And despised others.
What a pitiful state that is trusted in themselves.
00:40:05
We read in the 7th chapter of this book. We could read.
It says that the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected as to themselves the counsels of God not being baptized of John's baptism. Here comes the prophet preaching.
Old generation of Vipers who have warned you to flee from judgment to come.
Republicans and sinners agreed with that, and they submitted to the baptism of John confessing their sins. Not so the Pharisees and the lawyers, they said. We're not like that.
They were willing to justify themselves, they rejected As for themselves the council was gone and so these are willing to justify themselves and despising others.
And So what does the Lord tell about here that the Pharisees stood and prayed?
With himself God, I thank thee that I am not as other men.
Extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even this publican Despising, you. See.
Talking down about this man, this publican, I fast twice in the week I give tithes of all that I possess and the public and standing off Well, we'll talk about the public in a minute, but here is this Pharisee willing to justify himself to make himself acceptable to God.
The word of God tells us.
That we are all together unprofitable.
There is not anything in the natural.
Sinner born into this world.
With which he can commend himself to God.
What does the poet say? Nothing. In my hands I bring simply to thy cross. I cling. That's it.
But this man wasn't that way. He was willing to justify himself, make himself look better than others. And so he despised the poor Republican. Look at the publican.
It says.
The publicans standing afar off.
Would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven and smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to Me.
The center. Have you ever taken that place, place of needing?
The mercy of God because you are a Sinner. Every Sinner needs the mercy of God.
And so this publican realized that here is the problem, right here in my heart.
The word of God says the heart of man is deceitful above all things.
Who can know it?
And as to justifying oneself, it says that all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
Are you proud of your filthy rags like this publican? Oh, he had good works.
But they were wicked. Works. Dead works. Works that could not bring.
Him to God works that could not justify him.
And so we have the publican realizing that the difficulty lay within his own bosom. He wouldn't even look up to heaven. He took the place of the Sinner. And that's the beginning of blessing. Dear boys and girls, young people.
The beginning of lesson.
Is to take the place of a Sinner and cast oneself.
Upon the mercy of God, we read of a dear woman.
In Scripture, who appealed to the Lord Jesus Christ for help for her child?
And the Lord said, it is not meat that I should take the children's bread and give it to dogs. She was a gentile.
Oh, what? No blessing for her?
Yes, she said. But the dogs get the crumbs from the master's table.
00:45:05
Are you ready to take your place as a Sinner and trust simply the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ? There's blessing when we take that place in this poor publican.
Smote his breast and plead for mercy, and the Lord says of him.
He went to his house justified.
Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
And that you may be justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. If there were a law given by which life could be communicated, the Lord Jesus Christ died in vain.
Nothing to do but simply trust the Lord Jesus Christ like this poor Republican pled for mercy.
And was justified.
Well, there's one other certain.
Pair in the word of God here in Luke's Gospel.
And many of you know the story well.
I will bet there are some boys and girls that know about the rich man and Lazarus.
Says a certain man.
In the 16th chapter of Luke.
There was a certain man, verse 19.
A certain man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.
That means that he had plenty to eat and it was good.
He had anything his heart desired. He fared sumptuously. I had a doctor tell a lady in my presence one time. Your problem is you eat too good a food and living too good an apartment. That's what this man's problem was. He lived in that manner, in independence from God. He lived sumptuously. He lived to suit himself. If you, dear boy and girl, are just living to please yourself.
You're heading down the wrong Rd.
Certain rich man.
There was a certain beggar. See, these are real people. And that's the reason that we are speaking tonight to your heart is because God is interested in you. And so the Lord Jesus takes these real people and sets before us these principles whereby you can understand the love of God, the issues of eternity and cast your luck.
With God's people by trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, certain rich man who lived like he.
Like a king, we might say, every day without a thought of God.
And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which laid at the gate full of sores. What a pitiful scene that is.
He wasn't living sumptuously, was he? He just desired the crumbs.
Well, that's what this poor Zara Phoenician woman desired with the crumbs and taking her place as a Sinner, she got the crumbs from the rich man's table. But that was the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the rich man. We read of a man in Scripture who was a mighty man of wealth and power. Picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our precious Savior. And so this beggar desired just the crumbs from the rich man's table. Well, the crumbs from the rich man's table.
Compared to the crumbs that we mentioned a while ago. And it's sad, but looked at that.
Moreover, the dogs came and licked his swords. That is a pitiful, pitiful condition. And he came to pass that the beggar died. Well, that doesn't surprise anybody, does it? Scripture says it's appointed unto men wants to die.
What about after death?
What it says. Some of you, boys and girls know that all back after death. The judgment.
And that's one of the realities, one of the certainties that we want to press upon your souls is that you must have to do with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We read in the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on a great white throne of judgment.
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There won't be a believer there.
Every soul present at that throne of judgment will be looking into the record of their sins.
That's what it says. Well, this rich man, this beggar died.
And if the Lord doesn't come, which he very well could do before this address is done.
It's appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
And so Christ the rest of that quotation, So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.
One of the brothers in the prayer room prayed that the gospel was out unto all.
Isn't that wonderful? Whosoever will let him come and take of the water of life freely?
The rest of that verse is but upon all who believe.
Unless you.
Believe the word that is being preached not as a preacher's testimony, but as it is the word of God.
It will not be made good to your soul.
So the beggar died and he was carried into Abraham's bosom, that is, he went into blessing.
Now here is a wonderful thing, beloved.
That a righteous soul goes into blessing.
It says in the second Epistle to the Corinthians that to be absent from the body is to be present to the Lord. Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and receive the forgiveness of their sins go immediately into the presence of God for blessing. That's what happened to Lazarus. He had a miserable life here below. And if you, young person, pursue a life of sin, there are those of us in this room who can personally testify.
It's going to be a hard Rd.
What a miserable life Lazarus had, was what a happy eternity he went into Abraham's bosom conscious bliss.
What about the rich man?
He also died.
The common law, isn't it? The righteous and the wicked die and he was buried. That's proof that he was really dead. It's true of every soul born in the world. He's dead in trespasses and sins.
We're talking about here after one dies physically and passes into eternity.
You do not have to remain in the sinful state, through this man is preached unto you.
The forgiveness of sins through the Lord Jesus Christ. But it also says.
That God is appointed today in which he shall judge the world in righteousness by this man.
Whom he had appointed the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this rich man died like Lazarus, and they put him in the grave.
And it says.
In hell.
Lazarus and Abraham's Bosom.
Rich Man in Hell lifted up his eyes. That's the reality that we're talking about. That's the certainty if one passes from this scene into eternity without Christ.
Where is hell? Somebody has said at the end of a Christless grief?
Spurn the mercy offered in the precious Savior, God the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. What is the portion of one who neglects? What shall? How shall we escape if he neglects, oh great salvation?
Rich man in hell being in torment.
One of the descriptions of that awful place is the.
The fire is not quenched.
The love of God and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, it said, is so vast that many waters cannot quench God's love. Well. The fire in the police, where the unrighteous go, where the sinners go, is not quenched, and the worm dieth not. Can you imagine and think a little bit to be in that awful place in torments, and think I didn't have to come here?
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God has made a way whereby you may be.
Eternally blessed and glory in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ like his Son.
Neglect that salvation, how shall we escape the rich man?
In hell, being in torments lifted up his eyes, pleading for one drop of water.
No relief in hell, None.
I'm sure there are others in this room have heard people say, oh, I'll have lots of friends there.
It says it's the blackness of darkness forever. No relief, no compassion, no pity, no friends, only for men.
So we are speaking to you of the certainty of eternity.
And we are speaking with the absolute authority of God's Word.
And it's so simple, nothing to do.
Nothing to pay. The price has been paid. The work has been done.
Here the precious Savior on the cross with a loud voice, crying. It is finished. What is finished? Every stroke of judgment had been born, and He knew.
In full possession of his mind, and in the vigor of infinite energy he cried with a loud voice. No more strokes to be laid on. It's done.
So beloved dear boy and girl, young person.
Husband or wife who may not be saved.
The work is done.
And the perfect witness that the work is done is the Lord Jesus Christ is the right hand of God the Father.
Declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection of the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness. There he sits, pleading for your soul tonight.
Come unto me all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
He said to some whither I go. You cannot come if you die in your sins.
Ah, but listen to this precious verse. All that come unto me. I will in no wise cast out, never a Sinner turned away. Isn't that marvelous, precious, loving savior?
Appealing to your heart, to your conscience, to your soul, come.
And take of the water of life freely. Let's pray.
Voices … Noises
Children—D. Lunden
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.
Children.
Let's start with singing a couple of hymns in the back of the hymn sheet.
#40 Jesus loves me.
This I know.
Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible. Tell me so.
There's someone to hear me love. Here we are so big.
Yes, he's a fluffy.
Yes, he's a lovely.
Jesus Christ.
My sweet so.
Sleeping well, stay close beside me all the way.
If I trust him, should I die, he will take me over my mind.
That he's not flat with me.
Yes, please. I love sleeping.
Yeah.
So.
Now let's sing the next one we sang about. If I trust him, #41 is round the throne of God in heaven. Will many children sing? Now the question today is, will I be one of those children? Let's sing 41.
Around the throne of God in heaven will never.
Get.
Glory.
Glory.
Glory.
To God.
Glory.
Glory.
Glory.
Let's ask the Lord's help. Our gracious, our voices. Voices. Sometimes you might say they're just noises, but we'll start with the loud ones first. The loud noises, and we'll go on down to the ones that just barely can hear. Some of you came by jet plane. I know. I talked to a man named Lindsey who came from.
00:05:11
Way off in Brazil, 1/4 of the way around the world by.
Jet jet airplane Boeing jet airplane. I hope and.
How long as you travel along? Most of you have ridden in a jet plane. There's all that terrible racket and Boeing over where I used to work for a long time. They spent millions of dollars trying to get rid of that noise and they got quite a bit more quiet. But it's still a racket. I remember in the old days at 2:00 every afternoon, all the jet engines were stopped because mothers had put their babies down for naps around Boeing field. Then well, they don't have to do that now. They have different ways of running, but they're still awfully noisy. But as a good American, I have to say that noise is power. And we Americans, we like power, don't we? We like to see boats going by fast with a lot of noise and cars going by fast. It's a it's a sign of power.
But sometimes, you know, it's a sign of power out of control, like when something explodes. Someone was telling me yesterday about a big pile of cars, they they just went up in flames all at once with big black smoke. So we want to talk about noise and loud noise first.
And we hear that noise with one of these little things. Ears, let's go back to Exodus.
Read about a few things in Exodus first of all.
Go back to Exodus 3. Remember when the Lord would take his people out of Israel? He first he called a leader and the man's name was Moses. He specially prepared vessel to lead the people.
Well, Moses had kind of forgotten his calling, his remarkable floating around in that little bulrush arc. And then he went out in the desert. Now the Lord had to call him back to his job.
So he saw this burning Bush and he went aside to look at it, and the Lord said, no, you're Moses. You're the man I want. I just want to talk to. I have a job for you. And Moses said me, I can't speak. I'm not eloquent. Now notice his words in I'm sorry, the 4th chapter of Exodus.
Moses said, Oh Lord, I'm not eloquent. Eloquent means a gift of speaking out.
And the Lord said unto him.
Notice his reply. Wonderful reply that it did argue with him and saying Oh yes you are.
Because maybe Moses was speaking the truth, I don't doubt. But what He wasn't very eloquent.
The Lord said unto him, Who made man's mouth? Well, who did this boy right down here? Who made man's mouth?
God made him so. If a man isn't able to speak, you think the Lord could give him speech or eloquence or unction? That's just a big people word for meaning, the ability to speak forth. God's word. Who made man's mouth? Now go on. Who made the dumb, or the deaf, or the OR the seeing, or the blind? Remember in John we have that beautiful story of the blind man. Have not I the Lord Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth.
Well, what about the ear, children? You want to be very careful, these ears. The Lord only gave you two. You could get by with one. A lot of people don't have my I have a son. One year just doesn't hear. You can shout in that ear. And he hears around the around his head that ear is dead.
You want to be very careful, a man was telling me yesterday at meeting, he said, oh, these ears I worked so long and noisy shot. I have trouble hearing. You make a lot of noise. You're in a lot of noise. You lose some of your hearing. And the Lord has made these things so sensitive that scientists tell me that you can hear 1 quantum of sound. That's the very smallest teeny bit of sound that you could possibly think of a quantum of sound.
In the right conditions, if you haven't heard a lot of noise, you can hear 1 quantum.
Teeny tiny bit. Have you ever been in a place so quiet? You know, we Americans live in Most of the time, we live in noisy places.
I hate to say sometimes we kind of like that, like the big fast planes going by, but have you ever been someplace for a whole day? But it was so quiet. You could hear your clothes, I have you breathe and you could hear your clothes wrestling.
00:10:07
And your ear can pick that the Lord made your ear very scented, like your eye. Your eye can pick up 1 Quantum of optics of of light.
Now over where I worked, they have big jet planes and they make lots of noise and they spend a lot of money to make them quieter when you fly along like our brother from Brazil did, you have this roar of Thunder behind the airplane every all the while you're going.
You're making that loud noise.
And it impresses us with the power of it. But sometimes the loud noises aren't really the message we're supposed to hear. Now there's another one that goes with big jet airplanes, and that's Thunder. I was hoping last night we'd get a a show. Sometimes we come to Walla Walla conference. We get a show of thunderstorms over where I live in Tacoma. There aren't very often have them. And you hear the Thunder. What makes Thunder? Let me ask somebody else. Let me ask this girl here, Amy, what makes Thunder?
What's the first thing that causes it?
It's lightning. It's electricity going down through the air. Let's turn to that. Now the Bible doesn't say much about electricity.
Let's turn to Exodus. Let's turn to that when the Lord was dealing with Pharaoh through Moses. Let's turn to Exodus.
The 9th chapter.
Remember how the Lord dealt with Pharaoh first with little, just to get his attention? We started out with little things and it got worse and louder and worse sometimes. You know, we don't listen. The Lord is speaking to us and we're not listening. Remember how the Lord talked to Pharaoh with frogs?
I'll have to tell you a frog story.
The Lord sent frogs all over the land of Egypt, and you would have thought that if the Pharaoh saw that he was said, All right, Lord, I give up and held up the white flag. But he didn't.
But I'll tell you a story of a frog story. There was a little girl named Eleanor that started running away from home. I knew that little girl. She's a big lady now. And her parents, they chided her and they scolded her and they even spanked her and she still would run away. Not very far. She'd run two or three blocks.
So one morning, very early on Sunday morning, there was no traffic. Her father got up. Her father's name was Dave, and he took a little Eleanor by the hand. They went for a walk and they walked out and they went to the right in the middle of the road. There was no car. They walked right down the middle of the road. Pretty soon Dave stooped over and he pointed to something on the road. It was a frog. It was springtime and there were frogs hopping around.
Some of them got run over by cars and he told you the story how the little boy frog ran away from the mommy frog and got hit by a car. Now he was just about that thick. Can you see how thick that is, that paper? Can you see? You can't see it? Can you so thin?
And they walk down the street a little farther, and they came to the second frog black, run over by hundreds and hundreds of cars.
Little Eleanor started to cry for that poor little frog that didn't stay home with his mother and they got to the third frog and about the 4th frog they'd had enough when they came home. Here was Dave. He was in tears too. I knew him well. I often saw him weeping at the breaking of red and his little little daughter, she was weeping and she never ran away again. Well, there was a case of a little girl that listened to the frog story and.
She wept. And it.
Changed her life. She didn't run away again, but here we have a man. He was the most powerful king on earth. Egypt was the ruling monarchy of the earth and he was so hard hearted he wouldn't listen to the frog's story.
What are we going to be like? Are we going to not listen to the Lord when he starts with frogs? It's almost funny, isn't it? You know, the Bible doesn't have very much humor in it because it talks about serious subjects, but sometimes there's almost like it's almost humor. Frogs, frogs in the kneading troughs, frogs in the bedrooms. Do you think Pharaoh would have said I give up Lord? But he didn't. The little Eleanor, she listened to the frog story and it changed her life. You know, weeping will not save me.
00:15:00
It moves us, but it won't save us. What we hear in the conference here, it's got to.
Change our lives, doesn't it? Well, let's go on about electricity. The Lord doesn't talk much about electricity.
Let's read in the 10th chapter of Exodus.
In verse 22 and the Lords have got that I'm sorry at Chapter 9, not ten Chapter 9 of Exodus, verse 22 And the Lord said to Moses stretch forth thine hands toward the heaven that there may be hail now remember hail.
And lightning and Thunder all go together. Clouds rushing up vertically. They call them elevators. Most clouds they travel horizontally, like ships sailing on the sea. But elevator clouds go up this way, and the big Boeing jets fly into them. They might crash. So the man that flies the Boeing jet has a a little radar that looks out through clouds and it says fly this way and he flies around and he avoids the danger.
Most of the time. But still, airplanes get hit about once a year by lightning. We were sitting in a plane when it was hit by lightning. Kaboom. And of course there's a big stroke.
Boulder lightning is The Lord speaks of it. Here Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent Thunder and hail and fire ran along the ground. There's the lightning. There's about the closest that the Bible comes to talking about electricity, because I don't think those people would understand about electricity way back then.
But there's electricity. It's lightning. It's electricity out of control. Oh, it's under the Lord's control. But I mean, it's not in our control.
So what they have to do at Boeing, when they build airplanes, they have a big lab. It's not quite as big as this, but it's a big high place. They make artificial lightning and they make sure that all the wing tips of the airplane and all the extremities, because that's where lightning hits right out on the tips. They make sure that when lightning hits it won't cause any damage. There have been a lot of planes went down because of lightning. You're up there right where the lightning is and you have to be careful and as careful as you are.
The lightning and Thunder.
Doesn't hurt the airplane, but the lightning does. So over there, I used to work in there and they'd have a red light go on and a little voice would say stand by for lightning stroke and pretty soon kaboom. You go in there and you'd see where there was a lot of damage or something was broken and they'd work on it again and fix it. So when you travel, you're pretty safe. You're pretty safe.
But you still ought to be trusting the Lord even if you stay. Keep your feet right down on the ground.
Well, that's the.
Sound of Thunder and lightning? It's out of control for us. We can't cause lightning. People have thought for years if we could just harness lightning it would light up our cities. Never been able to do it with the Lords in control of it. Now let's get into the next town. Not so loud in Exodus 15.
Different kind of a voice.
Everything has a voice. You know, Chickens and birds and dogs, they all have a voice. Your friends have a voice. Have you ever thought how remarkable it is you talk to someone on the phone that you haven't?
They call you up and you haven't talked to them for two or three years.
And you just hear just a little snippet of their voice. You say, hi George, how did that happen? How did you know that it was George?
Remarkable in everything, the Lord has given just about everything a voice. Let's read about these happy voices in Exodus 15. Then sang Moses. 15 verse one, then sang Moses.
And the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, they tell me. This is the first mention of singing in the Bible.
Way back in Genesis, remember in about the 22nd chapter, we had the first mention of love. Here's the first mention of singing. When do people sing? When they're real sad. When they lost everything and their wallets ended up when they sing? No, of course not. We sing when we're happy. And of course, these people had been redeemed from years and years of building bricks. Building bricks for pharaoh. Not the same pharaoh that wouldn't listen to the frog story.
Different Pharaoh, but they still call him Pharaoh. Remember, Pharaoh wasn't a name. It was sort of like we say, president. Different. Different people are president. Different people are Pharaohs.
00:20:02
They escape from Pharaoh by the mighty hand of God, and they say, oh, I would love to have heard that.
I wonder how come they all said the same words at the I think they had hymn books out there in the desert. I think they all had the same hymn book. How did they know what to sing? You ever wonder about that?
You've all been to a Symphony, haven't you? Most of us, maybe the little people haven't, where all the people have their instruments in a big room like this and.
As a man stands up and he kind of waves this funny stick about that.
And they all do the right thing.
Well, that's the way it's supposed to be in the assembly, you know, Except that we can't see the conductor, the man with the stick.
But that's the way it's supposed to be. And I have to tell you that a lot of times it's just like that. Thank the Lord the man with the stick isn't visible. But you see him calling up the tuba here and then the xylophone there, and then all the violins here, they seem to play on queue and we can't see the conductor. Well, that's children. That's beyond our. So we're talking about voices here this morning. Happy voices. What a joy it is to hear happy voice. I'm. I have to tell you, you know people in the back row that.
You're singing this time has moved me.
Like never before.
To hear a 500 or 1000 redeemed voices.
Singing.
Happy sounds to the Lord. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel, this song unto the Lord.
But I'm sorry to say it didn't last very long. Let's go on just over Leaf. Just turn about one page and you get to the 17th chapter.
Now let's listen to these kind of remember, these voices are all different voices that we hear in the world. We have to ask ourselves, what's my voice like? Chapter 17 of Exodus.
Verse three. And the people thirsted for water. Remember the Lord had led him through water and stood it on its edge.
Like water never stands, so they could walk a dry shot. Don't you think he would have given a glass of water if he made all that water stand on its edge?
Why, of course he was. But they said no. The Lord is going to leave us here. He's forgotten us. The people thirsted there for water, verse three, and the people murmured against Moses.
They were really murmuring against the Lord, weren't they? Moses was just the helper, they murmured. Someone said, You know that it's it's all right to groan but not to murmur. They groaned in Egypt and the Lord heard him. You know the Lord has ears too. He's given us ears. He can hear it too much better than we can.
The people murmured.
Now the next voice, it's not in the Bible. The voice I heard a few months ago back in Illinois is the sound of beep, beep, beep, beep, electronic voice.
There was an old.
Soldier for the Lord. He sat on the front row here many years, 40 years or so, helping out with hard verses and his time had come to leave this world. It seems like nowadays in the United States you can't leave this world without electronics. You can't live without electronics. We have it in our cars and it seems to be like a handyman all around and you can't leave this world in a hospital without that beep, beep, beep. So there I stood, this old soldier was laying there breathing his last and you look up there on this electronic the aisle and hears this WAVY line.
His heart going wild up and down and gradually fading out to a flat line.
And the beep goes on. Beep, beep beep. Have you ever taken piano lessons? I took them once. I tried to learn how to play the piano. There was nothing wrong with the piano, but the big biggest problem of learning the piano is the metronome. You remember that little funny thing that goes back and forth just like beep beep. That's what stopped me from learning how to play the piano, because it keeps going and it won't stop and I couldn't keep up with it. And that's somehow the way life is, isn't it?
It just keeps going on and finally we run out.
Were played out and the Lord takes us home.
Well, I'm glad to see that the Lord takes away 1 soldier.
But he replaces them. So we have other helpers in the front row helping us with hard verses at conferences, and then we know the Lord is faithful.
00:25:00
It takes away 1 soldier and he replaces him with maybe two or three more. That's the beeping sound. Now the next one, let's turn.
To to the Book of Kings.
You know how to find kings. It has all those hard stories about kings that neglected the Lord. And then they died, and then they neglected the Lord and then they died. A lot of sad stories in the book of Kings.
First King's 19.
This is a story about voices.
Starting with.
The loud voice First Kings 19. Here's Elijah in the New Testament, I think he's called Elias. Remember that little eye turns into AJ. If you draw write an eye, you go too far below. The line turns into AJ, and that's kind of the way it is. The Romans never could keep straight, whether they were writing an I or AJ. So it's Elijah or Elias and he goes and stands among the mountain. And verse 19. He was really discouraged, he thought.
I'm the only one left, everybody else giving up.
So let's start in the living in a cave in the ninth verse, he said. And the Lord says to Elijah, what are you doing here, Elijah, Verse 10. We're we're in First Kings 19.
He said I've been very jealous for you, Lord. I'm the one that's standing up for you. And the Lord says go stand on the mountain where verse verse 11 and behold the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind, My goodness, I we had a big thing close to a hurricane in Tacoma. It blew down houses and barns and blew down trees way back in the 60s. I was there.
Tied down the roof of a building to a car so it wouldn't sail away. A great and strong wind with all the noise that goes with it.
And a great and strong wind rent the mountains and break in pieces of rocks before the Lord. Much stronger wind than I've ever been in.
But the Lord was not in the wind. The loud voice of the wind gets our attention.
But the Lord wasn't in it. And today, children, there's all kinds of voices.
By this be like this, be slender like this. Be rich like this. Go to school and get a degree like this. All these voices clamoring for our attention. But the question is, is the Lord in it now? Next.
But the Lord was not in the wind at the end of verse 11, but after the wind, an earthquake. I was a little boy in the 33 earthquake in Long Beach. How shook? But it was a wooden house or nothing broke. But I remember looking out at night, seeing the sky all red toward Long Beach fire. Almost always when you have an earthquake that's followed by a fire. I remember that.
But notice what it says. The Lord was not in the earthquake, all the things rattling on the shelves.
It gets your attention real quick. Some of you Californians were in that one down in Van Nuys a few a while back. It gets your attention real quick. Now is the Lord in it? Well, I think that earthquake in Van Nuys turned quite a few people to the Lord. But in this case it says the Lord was not in the earthquake verse 12, but after the earthquake of fire, that the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire still.
Small voice, still small voice. Do you ever hear the still small voice, like somebody reads you a verse? And it won't just won't go out of your mind. You don't. You don't try to remember it, but it just sticks there all day. Or a ****** over him, Just one line over him and it just sticks there. Well, we mustn't ignore it, because the Lord speaks to us sometimes. Not with a loud noise, but with just a little teeny noise, a little voice.
There was a little wisp of a lady I read about once, not much taller than this. She had eight or ten big strapping Suns, and somebody asked her, how do you ever make yourself heard in a house full of big guys like that? And she had a wise answer, she said. I whispered.
I whisper.
After the earthquake of fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small voice. Now I got to have some help. Did Emily come up and help me here? Because we're going to listen to a still small voice and we'll get Zach up. Zach and Emily are brother and sister, and we'll we'll see if boys or girls are better at doing this. I have a a record player here. I brought my own record player, and I wasn't sure if you have electricity here in wall walls. I brought one that didn't need electricity, but it needs.
00:30:18
A motor. You're going to be the motor today. OK, we'll see. Because what we need here now is, is a little strength, but we need it controlled, just the right speed. So here's the record player, and I'll tell you the story about this as soon as you hear it. This is the record player. You see, there's no electricity. This is the record. Old fashioned record. Not the, not not the tape like we used today or CD. But this is a record.
Medium sized record and goes right here.
And now the motor. Now the motor part. That's where you kids come in. We'll see whether boys or girls have the steadiest hand. Now you remember, it has to go the same speed all the time. And I'm going to try to.
Stay close here with this.
With this mic and it goes like this. I'll do it once for you. Put the pen in here.
Kill us over your nose.
Where Unaface run up in flower.
Not English.
I'll let you try it now, the one side says this is in Spanish, Cuomo says how to be saved, and the other side is Jorge Jesus Vino.
Why the Lord came, We're going to ask that. We answer that question in a minute. Let's play this side why the Lord came.
OK, we'll put this down here. The record player, not Polish. Mahogany, you know, But it still works. And you put that right in that hole.
I'll hold it for you. Let's see how steady you can go and make it sound like real voice is.
Thank you.
You real steady even like a motor would do it.
A little faster.
A little faster.
Thank you. Thank you. OK. I think they both did pretty well, but we get tired after a while doing that, wouldn't you? Well, thanks kids. And I'll tell you the story behind this.
There was 2 ladies that went up to way up in.
Almost to Alaska, way back in the 1940s. One lady's name was Joyce. I don't remember the other lady's name. And they were out way up among the Athabasca Indians by a slave lake. And they came upon the fact that stunned both of them, that these people didn't know how to read. They did not know how to read. So how could they read the Bible? Remember, faith cometh by hearing. That's true. Most of the early preaching was.
Was spoken word because most of the parishioners didn't know how to read. But Paul says to Timothy till I come give attendance to What's the last word.
The last word is reading.
How do we read the word of God if we don't know how to read?
Does a man's eternal destiny depend on him knowing how to read?
So these two sisters, they all the way back to Los Angeles, that was the topic of conversation.
What about those Athabasca Indians? Now I must say that the Canadian government has gone out of its way to have Indian schools up there.
But a lot of the old timers, they just didn't have time for school. I'm afraid a lot of us old timers, it's hard for us to learn.
Here was all these Indians, or natives. Perhaps natives the better were Native Americans didn't know how to read and they thought to themselves, how can we make records for people that don't know how to read, particularly if they have a language that nobody knows how to write. Now of course Athabaskan, I think now is written, has been written down, but and of course Spanish is our Spanish brethren have lots of things they can read. Most of them know how to read. But if you look worldwide, about half the people in the world don't know how to read.
00:35:04
At least in 1940, when these sisters were looked into this, so they said, let's get somebody to go to these different tribes and talk to them about bread and water and houses and the ordinary things that the Scripture is full of. Remember how the Lord always was talking about, He said Consider the Lily.
Loan me a penny. Remember that? Show me a penny. The Lord talked about ordinary things except that corn of wheat. Well, everybody knows what a corn of wheat. Even us city slickers. We know that the farmer has to put some in and he has to wait and everything goes right. He gets back 60 or 30 or 60 or 100 full. We all know that the Lord talked about ordinances. They said let's go to these tribes and talk about ordinary things and then we'll take that back and piece it together without.
Without word, without written words, and we'll send it back to them.
And so they that was the beginning of this what's called gospel recordings.
With a simple little thing that costs 5 or $0.10, this is the record player. It's got the little needle here.
I have to tell you a story at the end. I see my time is almost up, but I have to tell you a story that's very touching about that. There was a man that I knew in Pasadena. He had big, burly Marine, great big fella. Semper Fi was in Marine Corps in World War 2, and he ran across these natives in Papua and New Guinea. You children that know over your maps, you know where that is way down, just north of Australia. And he said, when I go back after the war, I want to preach Christ to these natives.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. You know how to read it all your children. You don't know how to read or you're learning, aren't you?
That he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. Supposing you didn't know how to read, and nobody around could knew about it either, how would you ever get ahold of it? So Joyce and her helper started sending these out. And this big burly marine, he took one down to the middle of Australia, Not out in Australia, way in the interior. They call it the Outback.
It's dry that you walk miles and don't find water. And the people that live there, they call themselves *********** I think. I think even the girls are called ***********. That's what they call themselves, very primitive people. And he went out there to preach Christ to the blackfellow and he took him one of these. And of course he had to sit down and talk to him about horns of wheat bread. Father children, the things the Bible is full of, that the Lord develops in a spiritual way.
Because we all know what fathers are. We all had one. You know what a house is. These black fellas didn't have a house, but they had it in their walkabouts. They walk around in this country looking for food and buy food. I mean, little grubs, things like that certain season, that's all there is to eat. But they still have a soul and the Lord loves them. So he brought these records to them that made-up in their own language that nobody knew how to write, and he came back a few years later.
Here he was. There was a campfire way out in the middle of Australia.
You've read about it. Some of you might have been there.
To Ayers Rock, that big red mountain in the middle of Australia and the stars shining No lights, no electricity, no Safeway stores, no highways, no car, no nothing that you and I take for granted.
Sure enough, he heard the sound of one of these records.
That charities hard, he said. Well, at least they're listening. Still, here was years later. So here he comes up and here with somebody, one of the black fellas sitting around the campfire, you have this thing up.
And he had a little stick, and he was turning this thing around. Don looked at it and he thought it was smooth. He'd be completely worn out.
Completely. When you see this one, if you look carefully, you see the shiny places. They never made the little scratchings on it, but in the middle, it's where it's rough, you know, there's little fine lines that has the talk there. They had played it so many times that it was worn out flat. Smooth. Well, where was the sound coming from?
Who is coming from the people?
They had heard it so many times that they'd committed it into their heart. Now, just why they had somebody turn the thing, I'm not sure. I suppose that was their musician, I don't know. But they had transferred everything about the love of God from this thing right into here.
00:40:04
And they were repeating it over and over again. Say, next time at your house, you might hear somebody It wouldn't be you. But maybe your little brother might say I'm tired. I don't want to go to meeting. I'm too tired to go to meeting. Well, next time you hear that in your house, if you if you should hear that, you just remember the black fellas. No Bible.
No electricity.
Know him. But this is all they know about the Lord. A handful of these, and they wore them smooth.
So their way of going to meeting quite different from ours, but they had committed to their heart.
What they knew wasn't very much. It wasn't Paul's doctrine, I'm sure of that. But it linked them with God in heaven, and they believed it. And that reminds me of a verse. I wonder if we could all say that. I'll say it to you a couple of times, thy word.
Have I had in my library? Is that what it says? Anybody remember? Did I? Did I start a verse that you remember thy word? Have I hid in my heart?
Why that I might not sin against thee. That was a boy, a shepherd boy named David. He believed that. And these black fellows in the middle of Australia, they believed.
Thy word have I had. Not very much of His word, but enough. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. I wonder, what about all the little people in the front rows here? We've done that.
Have we done that? Let's all say it together.
Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee? I hope so. The Lord knows that when we're little we get squirmy. When we sit in chairs with big people talking, some of the some of the big people in the front row, they talk about things that are hard for us to understand.
But we hide it in our heart. And later on, the Lord years later, he says, Remember you were sitting in Walla Walla in 1995. Oh, I know. So we put away things, don't we? We put away things in our drawer that we're not going to use for a while. Someday I'll use that. And that's the same way when we go to conference, that we hide it in our heart so the Lord can use it. Let's thank Him, shall we?
Our Grace.
Your Path of Faith
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Tune my heart to sing Thy Grace streams of mercy, never ceasing Call for ceaseless songs of Praise #5 in the appendix.
Come the.
I'd like to start by looking at a verse in First Samuel chapter 12.
I'll read the two verses before, that is particularly the 24th verse I had in mind. First Samuel 12, verse 22. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake, because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. Moreover, As for me.
God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way only. Fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things He hath done for you.
Well, brethren was particularly that expression. Consider how great things he hath done for you.
We're very forgetful people. We know what to the Lord has done for us. But as we get involved in things that go on about us, and perhaps in our family life and business life, we forget what the Lord has done for us. But isn't it blessed that as Spirit of God is the remembrance there? The Lord Jesus said, when the Spirit of truth is come, he shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you and Peter writing by the Spirit of God.
Said to those to whom he was writing that he would tell them of the things though they once knew them and had been established in the present truth. And So what I may speak about may be very familiar to some of us, but I hope that it will touch our hearts afresh. We eat the same things over and over again, and if they're dishes we especially enjoy, we don't mind having them quite a few times, because they're specially nice to us. And how can we think of how richly we are blessed in Christ?
00:05:23
Without being encouraged in the path of faith. Well, brethren, with the Lord's help, I'd like to just speak of these things.
And notice that verse again. Consider how great things.
The Lord has done for you well, He has done great things for us, not only in that glorious work that He accomplished on the cross of Calvary, but even since we have been saved, has He not proved himself to us over and over again? And as we learned more of His truth, He became increasingly precious to us. And so I would just like to speak a little of those. Perhaps we might say simple things. I wonder if we could turn first of all to Acts, Chapter 13.
And verse 38.
Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
And by Him all that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. Well, it's a blessing and glorious thing to know that when we receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we can rejoice that our sins are forgiven, says that whom we have remission or forgiveness through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. It's something that we possess and I hope every person, young and old in this room can say.
I know my sins are forgiven. God is the only one who can do that and he does it righteously. He doesn't pass over our debts. I heard of a judge and it was near the festival time of the year at the end of the year, and when a number of traffic cases came before him, he said, well, this is the festival time of the year, so I'm just going to let you all go and you won't have to pay any fine today.
Well, that seemed very kind, but it wasn't righteous. But if that judge had put his hand in his pocket and he said, I'm going to pay everyone of these fines for you, that would have been righteous as well as kind. And that's what God has done. He didn't pass over any of our sins. No, the Lord Jesus paid the debt in full. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. He paid the full penalty. We know that.
But we need to be reminded of it. It's what we're going to sing about for all eternity in the in the glory above, it says thou was slain and has redeemed this to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. But this passage in Acts 13 goes a little farther than the forgiveness of sins, because God delights to add up the blessings. We might say that to know our sins are forgiven is like the very starting point of Christian life.
To know that they've all been blotted out in the precious blood of Christ. But the word justified is a very precious word too. And it says here by him all that believe are justified from all things. Now there are many people I believe who have a mistaken idea of justification. I've heard people say justified means just as if I'd never sinned. But you know, if that's all God did for me, I would be in the same position as unfallen atom.
He hadn't sinned, but he was capable of sinning, and he did sin, and he forfeited everything.
So justification must go in Christianity farther than just be in the position of unfallen atom and his very beautiful expression in the 5th chapter of Revelation, a fifth chapter of Romans that says justification of life, justification of life. For when your sins are forgiven and God justifies you, he places you before him in a life that never sinned and cannot sin.
Tells us in Colossians 3 when Christ, who is our life, shall appear.
Then shall we also appear with him in glory, It tells us also in John's epistle.
00:10:02
That we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. In 2nd Corinthians 5 it says He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And just to show, perhaps my little illustration, how much more it is to be justified justification of life.
Than just to have our sins forgiven. Let me suppose such a thing as this.
Now that I had stolen some money from you, perhaps a large sum. And you and your kindness, You forgave me. You forgave me, you said. Gordon, I forgive you everything. Well, I I'm sure I would be, I trust most grateful for what you had done and forgiven me. But I'm going to tell you this. I would never feel thoroughly at home in your presence. I would think, down in the bottom of my heart that perhaps every time you looked at me, you said, Well, I've forgiven him.
But I look upon him as a forgiving thief. I wouldn't trust him. God's forgiveness is not of that character.
When God Forgives, he places you before him in the very life of praise. Who is your life and sees you as though you had never done that deed. Isn't that a wonderful thing? I can lift up my eyes and my heart to God my Father.
And say he's not only forgiven me, but he sees me the righteousness of God.
In Christ he sees me in that precious position.
That as Christ is before him, with all the judgment behind him, so are we in this world. I hope that every young believer is in the enjoyment of this. That'll give you great peace in your soul To know this. It's blessedly true. It's what God says it. It may be very simple, but some of the blessed things in life are very simple. The complicated things aren't always quite as enjoyable. It's the simple things in life that are often the most precious. And so.
We are forgiven and we are justified. And So what a wonderful thing that is that we are justified and then God has done more. He has also given us His Holy Spirit. And now if he turned with me to for Second Corinthians chapter one.
Verse 18.
For as God is, as God is true, our word towards you was not yay and nay for the Son of God Jesus Christ, who has preached among you by us, even by me and Sylvanus. And to Bothius was not gay and nay, but in him was yay, For all the promises of God in him are yay, and in him a man unto the glory of God. By us Now he would establish up with you in Christ, and hath anointed us is God.
Who also has sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in my in our hearts. Moreover, I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto corn. Not that not for that we have dominion over your faith, but our helpers of your joy. For by faith you you stand. I'd like to just mention that last verse, not that we have dominion over your faith.
And So what I'd like to bring before you is not that I am trying to have dominion over your faith, but I would like to help your joy. Because I believe our joy increases in the measure in which we lay hold of these great things the Lord has done for us. Well, a new nature. The new life that He has given to us is the very life of Christ. I could read in Colossians one. I'll just quote it though. It says when Christ, who is our life.
Shall appear. Then shall we also appear with him in glory, so Christ himself.
Is the believer's life, and that life has a certain character.
What was true of the Lord Jesus? He did no sin.
In him is no sin. He could not sin well you and I.
Are partakers of the divine nature. It tells us. It tells us whosoever it is born of, God does not commit sin, and his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Do you know that the new life that God has given to you when you receive the Lord Jesus as Savior is, as we said, the very life of Christ and cannot sin? But you know we also need power.
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And.
Just before the day of Pentecost, the Lord Jesus was talking to the disciples, and he said, Ye shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me. So we need power. And what is the power? That we have the Holy Spirit of God. After that she believes you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance.
Until the redemption of the purchased possession. So we have a new life, the very life of Christ. And we have power because the Spirit of God indwells us, and it tells us in John's Gospel, chapter 3, God giveth not His Spirit by measure. Our translation adds the words unto him, but you'll notice through an italics, and they're not in the new translation, Mr. Darby's.
And so God doesn't give his Spirit by measure, because the Spirit of God is a person.
How would it be possible for him to give us? Shall I say apart? The Spirit of God is a person. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God. So you have the power. Never say I haven't got the power to please God. I'd like to.
Yes, the Newman would like to please God, but never say I don't have the power because we have the power that is given to us and how wonderful this is. You know the reason we fail. I might have a very good car and a very powerful engine under the hood, but I could stall on the hill if I don't step on the gas. I could come to a steep hill and just stall.
And it's not because I don't have available for me all the power, but I'm not using the power.
That's what so often hinders us in our Christian life, is that we are not using the power that has been given to us. Well, I just like to read these verses here again it says our word towards you is not yay and nay. I believe what he is referring to was what took place when the children of Israel entered the Promised Land. There were two mountains. One was a mountain where there was to be blessing.
And the other where there were to be curses and the blessings depended on the people.
It said the blessings were consequent upon them keeping God's holy law. The curses were If they dissipated, well, our blessing is not dependent on us at all. And So what Paul is saying our word toward you is not yay and nay. All the promises of God in him are yay and in him Amen. Or let it be established to the glory of God by us, because if man could keep God's holy requirements, he would have something he could glory in. He'd be able to say, I did it, I did it just like the rich young ruler our brothers spoke about.
Who wanted to know what he would do? And if he were able to do it, he would have boasted and said, I did it. But it says by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. But in the gospel it's not yay and nay, because it all depends upon what Christ has done. And in order to make all these things good in our souls, God has given to us that divine guest your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
And I'd just like to notice these little points that are brought out in the 21St verse. It says, now he which establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God. Well, I believe in Scripture The anointing has spoken of in two different ways. That is, in Acts chapter one, it's spoken of as the power he shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you in John's epistle.
It's the capacity to understand the things of God. You know God has written the book that cannot be understood unless he gives to the one who's born again the Holy Spirit of God to indwell him. That's what it means in First Corinthians, where it says what man knows the things of a man, say the spirit of a man which is in him. Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.
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Now we have received not the Spirit which is of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things.
That are freely given to us of God. If you hand this book to an unsaved person, he'd say, well, nobody can understand that book.
But after you are saved, you have the capacity by the Spirit of God to understand it. Now our wills may hinder our hindering into it, but we do have the capacity God give us, not His Spirit by measure. So we have the power and we have the capacity to understand God's precious word. I'd like to say to those who are younger, if you come across a verse that you don't understand, we'll just ask the Lord by His Spirit to show you.
You may be very surprised how soon he'll open up that verse to you and make it clear and precious.
You have the anointing and he teaches us all things and then it says.
He has sealed us. You know, if you have a piece of property and you have a document that says it's yours, it's not an official document until it has a seal on it. And the seal makes the document official. And so, you know, when God gave us this rich inheritance, the unsearchable riches of Christ, it says he has sealed us. He's we have the seal, thy spirit, to the present seal of all the Father's love dwells in our hearts and does reveal.
His glorious rest above. So the ceiling is the fact that it actually belongs to us. And if neighbor says you don't own that property, you say, Well, I can show you my official document. It belongs to me. Isn't that wonderful? We God wants us to be sure. He doesn't want us to have doubts, and He wants us to know His mind. If there's any hindrance in knowing his mind, it is never on God's part. If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.
I've heard people say, well, if such great man as Mr. Darby and Mr. Kelly did not agree on certain things, who are we to understand them? I'm nobody, neither are you. But the Spirit of God is willing. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. God on his part is willing. But you know we need to have broken wills to this man. Will I look to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit.
And it trembles at my word. And so there's something. You read a verse in the Bible, and it makes you a little uncomfortable. Maybe it's because your will or my will is at work. God is willing. We have the anointing. We have the ceiling. We have the earnest. What is the earnest? Well, I think we all know in business dealings. It's really the pledge that a deal entered into is going to be completed.
And isn't that wonderful? God has given the earnest in our hearts. And if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, God has given you the pledge or the promise that he's going to complete what he has begun. That was not a sure answer for those who deny eternal security. And I would just mention too a verse that they sometimes try to spoil is in John 10. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall.
Never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand, but sometimes they will say that you can pluck yourself out.
But did you ever notice the verse has a double assurance? They shall never perish, is one thing.
Neither shall any man pluck them out by hand, is the other.
And then my father and me are one. So God wants us to have the assurance of eternal salvation through what Christ has done. He's given us this earnest. And what a wonderful earnest. You never heard of a person going to buy a piece of property and putting down more earnest money than property was worth. You're going to buy a piece of property for $50,000?
And you put down earnest money of $100,000. Well, everybody know you don't intend to back out of the deal when you put down double what it was worth. But you know that to assure you that you're going to be in glory, God has not given you any less earnest than the Holy Spirit of God, one of the persons of the Holy Divine Trinity, to indwell your heart. Oh, you know, Satan wants to get doubts into our minds. There may be young believers. He's trying to get you doubting, looking in for feelings.
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If your neighbor says I don't think you own this property, would you say I feel pretty good? I think I must be mine. I enjoyed it so long. No, you'd say I can show you a piece of paper that shows it belongs to me. Never rely on your feelings, but rely on the word of God. It's given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
And so it says.
Not that we have dominion over your faith, but our helpers of your joy.
For by faith he stand. I think that's a beautiful verse. I don't have dominion over your faith. If I told you what to do, and you just did it to please me, it would have no value before God. It's what you do to please the Lord. And if this afternoon your heart, and my heart too, is stirred up in affection for the Lord Jesus and a appreciation for what he has done, then it won't be because I told you you should do something.
I believe the response of your heart will be, Lord, what will thou have me to do? What will thou have me to do? So he's given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. And so we have the Spirit of God indwelling us. But he has also given us. As I say, we are partakers of the divine nature. But I just like before we end with this portion, I'd like to go on to the end of the.
3rd chapter.
Perhaps I could read here.
The sixth verse.
Of the two Corinthians 3 who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, Lot of the latter, but of the Spirit.
For the letter Killeth, but the spirit giveth life, then going on to the.
17th verse. If you have a Darby translation, you will notice that from the seventh verse to the end of the 16th is a parenthesis. And so I'll read that sixth verse again, who also has made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter Killeth. But the spirit giveth life. Now the 17th verse, now the Lord is that spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with open face, beholding the glory of the Lord, beholding us in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Here's how the change takes place in our lives.
He brings in in this chapter I won't read all the verses how that Moses received a law written on tables of stone and the people broke that law. But he said Christianity is not writing upon a table of stone but on the fleshy tables of the heart. Why was the law written on tables of stone? Because stone is cold. It doesn't respond and telling the people what they should do.
Didn't create any response in their heart. Telling you what you should do won't create a response in your heart. But if it were possible to write something right into your flesh, then there would be a feeling associated with it. And that's what he is showing. That when the Lord makes his desires known to us, He's writing upon the fleshy tables of the heart. I trust everyone here can say he's won my heart.
He died for me. He's my savior. And now writing on the fleshy tables of the heart.
Creates a response and Paul is saying we're not sufficient of ourselves.
But our sufficiency is of God, and so he brings before them the secret of Christian growth. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. We don't do things in Christianity because we have to do them. We do them because we want to do them because we have the very life of Christ, created in righteousness and true holiness, the life of the Blessed One who said I do always those things that please him.
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And then we have the power by the Holy Spirit of God, and So what he is saying, occupation with Christ in glory will make us like him down. Then he came to the Jordan, the river of death, And when they had passed over little picture of the end of the first man in the death of Christ, he passed over. Then Elijah said to Elijah, what shall I do for thee before I am taken from thee?
And Alicia said, I pray that a double portion of thy spirit may be upon me. He said, I want to be like you when you're gone. I want to be like you. You've gone up there, and I want to be like you. And when you're gone, a devil of you, if you want to put it that way. And he said, if you see me when I'm taken up, it shall be so. But if you don't, it shall not be so if we lose sight of the Lord Jesus.
We won't be like him down here. We need to have him. We love our brethren, but the object before our souls is to please the Lord and dear brethren and young people. I say, if you get your eyes on your brethren, or me or anybody else, you may be disappointed, you probably will. But if you have your eye upon that perfect man, your beloved Savior, it will be so. And that's what he's telling him, he says. Here we all.
Be holding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image.
And so after he had seen him go up, he, you know what he did the very first thing? He took his own garment and rented in two pieces and picked up the garment of Elijah, his mantle that fell from him. It was to me as if he said that this is the end of old Alicia, Alicia. But I want to be like the person that's gone up there. And he put on his garment, and this is what we'll see in connection with the new life.
That God has given to us. And I'm quite sure that every real believer in this room wants to be more Christ. Like, I believe that when you go home from these meetings, if your heart has been touched, as I'm sure it has in some little measure with the thoughts of what the Lord has done to for you and what He means to you, there's going to be a desire to be like Him. And so he says, if you see me when I am taken up, I'll be like him. But you say.
I have within me.
An awful urge to do what's wrong sometimes, and I can't understand, I do love the Lord Jesus, but that is within me, you know? God takes up that question too. And I'd like to say a little bit about we spoke briefly of it yesterday. Perhaps we could see in Romans chapter 6 what God has done about that.
Fallen nature within us that has that kind of an urge.
You know, there are many Christians that rejoice and know that the Lord Jesus bore their sins.
But they don't see that his death was the end of the old man of our position in Fallen Adam, and I believe it's good to see that.
Perhaps you've read the story of John Bunyan called Pilgrim's Progress and this was a comment my father made about John Bunyan's pilgrims progress. There's a lot of good and helpful things that I'm not saying this to discourage anybody from reading it, and I have enjoyed many things in it myself. But he said John Bunyan when he was going to the cross with that load of sins on his back.
And he came to the cross and saw the Lord Jesus dying For him his bundle of sins rolled off into the sepulchre.
And he knew that his sins were gone, but he didn't see the end of John Bunyan. And he had a sad time the rest of his life because he didn't understand that his old man was crucified with Christ. Not only his sins, but the very nature that produced those sins, came to an end in the death of Christ. And he used to say, if he'd rolled into the Sepulchre himself, sins and all, and come out a new man, he would have been a happy man.
Because he would have seen what Christ had done was not only accepting the question of his sins.
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But the question of the nature that produced those sins, and that's what we have in the 6th chapter of Romans. Let's notice this.
Verse 6.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed.
That henceforth we should not serve sin. Verse 11.
Likewise, reckon ye all see yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. That's the nature, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield you your members as instruments of right unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness.
Unto God.
The death of Christ was not only.
Putting my sins away, it was the end of my Adam standing before God.
And God gives me the privilege of wrecking myself dead, indeed unto sin.
And now he tells me, these members, these hands, these feet once were, shall I say, controlled by that fallen nature within me. I did what the old nature wanted to do, wanted to do something. Well, who's going to stop me? I'm going to do it. I want to do it. I'm going to get some pleasure in it. There are pleasures in sin, and so go ahead. But God says I put an end to that old man at the cross. Don't let him reign in your body.
But let the Newman reign in our body. Heal your members.
Saw here my hands are to do what's pleasing to the Lord, and He's given me the very life of Christ. For Christ is my life that wants to please Him. And he says, don't let the hands do what the old fallen nature likes to do. Don't do those things that the old fallen nature wants to go perhaps, but heal your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
And as those that are alive from the dead, and your members of instruments of righteousness unto God.
What a wonderful thing that we have this privilege. Now. If we turn to the 7th of Romans, we see the conflict that is described by one who does not understand this wonderful truth.
And I'd like to just point out some little things that are developed in the end of this chapter in Romans 7.
It says here in the 18th verse for I know.
That in me that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.
But how to perform that which is good, I find not. Perhaps there's some young person who's in this conflict. I was in that conflict, so I think I perhaps understand a little bit of it.
He says here I know that in me that is in my but to will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good? I find that you say, I really want to please the Lord, but I don't know how to handle this because I find those impulses constantly wanting to take control of my body.
Well, isn't it good for us to see here this one thing God did not improve the flesh tells us in the 8th chapter and the UH.
Third verse, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Because if one doesn't understand the truth of these two natures, the old man and the new man, they don't understand that they can't understand how after they are saved there is still the desire to do what's wrong. But I won't say. Again, God himself didn't attempt to improve the old man. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
Can't be improved in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
Who said that? The beloved apostle Paul. He had that fallen nature and there was nothing good in it. The flesh profiteth nothing. It says in another place, and it's good for us to get hold of that. And so maybe that explains why you say, I thought I wouldn't have any more of those desires. The old man has not changed. It came to its end of the death of Christ, and we're to count that that is the truth of God.
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And live in the enjoyment of it. And so he says how to perform that which is good. I find that he doesn't realize that God has made provision in connection with that old man. So I want to say this.
To any young Christian here, you say, well, I find that continually I thought after I was saved, those impulses would be gone. No, that which is born of the flesh is flesh in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, and God is showing us the way of deliverance here.
Then he says.
In the 20th verse. Now if I do that I would not. It is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me sometimes. This chapter you'll notice that in one breath he seems to call the old man eye, another breath he calls the new man eye, as though he were acknowledging the old man which has been crucified with Christ. But he says here it's no more I could. I put it in a very simple way so you'll understand.
Maybe there's something that I did in my unsaved days, and a friend comes along to me and invites me to come to something or someplace to practice those old things that I used to do. And I say, no, I'm a Christian. I don't want to go there anymore. But after my friend is gone, the enemy says to me, Gordon, you didn't want to go. You said you didn't want to go, but you did really did want to go.
And there's a great conflict that is set up well. No, I didn't want to go because I don't recognize the old man at all. And the new man could I use the expression. The new man was answering the door. Did the new life want to go? Did the life of Christ within me want to go? You didn't tell anything. False. The old man, of course, wanted this deal. It hadn't changed. It was still corrupt according to deceitful lust.
Always answer for the Newman.
The Newman does want to please the Lord. The Newman has created in righteousness and true holiness. What a step, not expecting anything good from the old. It hasn't improved since we're saved. And then that we have this new life, the very life of Christ. And we can say it's no, the old man is no more I. It's sin that dwelleth in me. It has come to its end before God, in the death of Christ.
Isn't that a wonderful deliverance? Not a grand thing to know. You didn't tell a lie, but you let the right man give the answer. The new man did want to please the Lord, but then he goes on to say in the 22nd verse, I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind. That's what it says in Galatians. The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other.
So that you cannot do the things that you would bring into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members, O wretched man, that I am Now notice who shall deliver me. He looks outside of himself. That's very important. He didn't say what, but who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Maybe some of her views this illustration, but perhaps it bears repeating both and I was going to build a garage on my property and I have a pile of lumber that I've been storing for a while, hoping to use it in this garage that I'm going to build. And I hire a Carpenter and I ask him to build this garage for me and I say I'd like to use that pile of lumber out there. And he goes out and he looks the pile over and he says, well, I guess I have bad news for you.
That pile is all rotten. We can't use that lumber. I say, well, that is bad news. I was so counting on that. And now you tell me it's no good. But he said I bring good news to you today. Also, he said I've brought a new pile of lumber. Every piece is sound, and it's good lumber. We'll use that. It'll cost you nothing. We'll build it out of that. Oh, you see, I feel so badly about the old pile. I thought it was so good.
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He said you're just making yourself unhappy for nothing. Why aren't you giving thanks for the new one instead of making yourself unhappy because the old pile is rotten. Just reckon this is what I said. It's rotten. And just give thanks for this sound pile of lumber. Well, after he's gone. That's what it means. God sending his own Son and in in the flesh condemned sin. In the flesh the Lord didn't attempt to improve it, He did just what the Carpenter did. He condemned it and he put an end to it.
And baptism. Beautiful figure. Puts it right out of sight. Because in baptism it's under the water. It goes out of sight. What a wonderful deliverance. Can't you see the difference? He's a wretched man. In the next verse, he's giving thanks, just like I was wretched when the man told me my pile of lumber was rotten. And I'm giving thanks when he tells me that there's a new pile and we're going to use the new pile. Dear Christian. And you made yourself wretched about that bad plow.
Well, let's go a little further in the story. He goes home.
And I say to my wife, I can't believe that. I think there must be some good pieces in that.
And he's gone. He isn't there. So I started pulling the pile apart to find. I say to her, if I could just find a few good pieces, I'd feel a little better. And I start pulling it apart. And the Carpenter comes by and says, what are you doing? Well, I he's. I said I just didn't like to accept that there's nothing good there. You see? You're making yourself miserable for nothing, putting yourself to a lot of trouble. It's no good. It's rotten. Why don't you just live your life giving thanks?
And that lovely brethren, I got a pile of rotten lumber inside, but I can sit at the Lord's table. And I reckon that old pile of Lumber's dead. It came to an end in the death of Christ. And I sit there giving thanks that I not only have a wonderful Savior who bore my sins, but took care of that fallen nature inside and gave me a new life that wants to please him. And I want to say to every true believer.
You can sit at the Lords table and justice, rejoice that you have that new life, the life of Christ within the Holy Spirit of God, and don't make yourself wretched about the old man. But now you say, what if I do let one of those pieces get into the building? Wasn't after he's gone home I I take a stick that I think looks pretty good and I put it in the building. Well, I have to tell him I'm sorry, don't I? Well, dear friends.
We have also, because it was on my heart to speak of what we have in Christ. We have the priesthood of Christ and the advocacy of Christ. What is his priesthood for? It says, let us come boldly under the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The enemy does come try and stir us up. Things happen. Temptations come. Someone says something unkind.
We get stirred up, and the Lord says, I'll give you all the help that you need. You don't need to let that old man act. If you find that principle of sin stirring within, you don't have to give way to it. Ask me for help. His name is Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace. He's living there 24 hours a day, all the help you need.
Oh, you say that I failed. We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And when we have failed, it doesn't change our standing. We have an advocate with the Father. God still my Father. And He's righteous in taking up my case because he paid for that. Samuel. I like that. It doesn't say if any man confesses sin. We have an advocate, but it says if any man sin, we have an advocate.
And before you have ever confessed it, your advocate is before the Father saying, I paid for that sin of Calvary. You'll never lose your perfect standing. It's always in Christ. You are not restored until you confess it. But we if any man sin. But in the other, the chapter before it says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins as governmentally. When we confess it, we are restored.
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And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So isn't that wonderful, Brandon? We have a new life, Life at Camp Sam. We're forgiven. We're justified. God's taking care of that old man that I was born with. And he it came to its end. He nailed it to his cross. It all came to an end in the death of Christ. He gives me the privilege of reckoning myself dead, indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. And he shows me how when these temptations and tests come, that he can give me the strength.
And instead of constantly condemning myself, I can be giving thanks that he's given me the very.
Life of Christ within me. And then when I do fail.
He's my advocate when I need help. He's my high priest. Brethren. How wonderful. No wonder if Samuel could, say, consider how great things he had done for you. Surely we ought to consider how great things he's done for us. But then he's done more than this, too. He's invited us to his table. Isn't that a wonderful thing? He says. Now I've done all this for you.
And I want you to find your place at my table. I just like to turn to 1St Corinthians 10.
1St Corinthians 10 verse 15 I speak as to wise men. Judge ye what I say.
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
For we, being many, are one bread, one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread In our meetings. We've had quite a bit to do in meetings about the truth of the one body of Christ. And perhaps you have noticed that in First Corinthians 10 the subject that's taken up is the Lord's Table. In First Corinthians 11, it's the Lord's Supper. And that's why in the 10th chapter, the cup comes first.
And then the loaf. In the 11TH chapter, the order is reversed. But in the 10th chapter, the cup comes first. What gives me title to the Lord's table? It's His Precious Blood. So it says the cup which we bless. Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? That's what gives me a title. But I come there, and if I can put it in this way, I don't break bread merely as a forgiven Sinner. That's wonderful.
But I break bread in the nearest possible place, as a member of the body of Christ, and at low from the table is symbolic of every true believer. We, being many, are one bread, one body. We're all partakers that that one bread, and so that loaf is a symbol of the one body.
And I say again, I am a forgiven Sinner, but I break bread as a member of the body of Christ.
And may I say to you, and especially you, dear young people, you will never really enjoy the Lord's table.
As you should, unless you see that your position there is so near so dear it could not be dearer. Perhaps if I use a little illustration you will see the point.
Rahab was a harlot. She had lived a bad life, but she put her faith in the God of Israel. She hung the scarlet line in her window, and she was spared when judgment fell upon the city near. And she was she was delivered.
She doesn't. She didn't come under that judgment. But there's more to the story. We learn from First Corinthians chapter from first chapter of Matthew that she was brought into the royal line. And just to show you what I have in mind, supposing the time comes she just married, she sits down at the table with her new husband and she looks across the table and says it's wonderful to be a forgiving harlot.
He says. Well, it's certainly true, You're forgiven, but that isn't the way I look at you.
I look at you as the bride of my choice, and you will never really enjoy the Lord's table like you should unless you sit there and see that that loaf represents you and every other believer as a member of the body of Christ. I break bread in that blessed truth because God has taken up my case. He's not only He's not only put away my sins, but He has received me and I'm in the nearest possible relationship.
00:55:06
Could God have governed more? Would his love do less? No, He couldn't do more and his love wouldn't do less. It's going to take all eternity for him to show the exceeding riches of His grace. But he wants us to know these things. If you know these things, happier if you do them. I just liked it Before I close. I'd like to look at 2nd Corinthians 5.
2nd Corinthians 5.
Verse 14 For the love of Christ constraineth us.
Because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all that we as they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them. And rose again. What is it that makes us want to live to please the Lord? Is it because we're under law? No, we're not under law, we're under grace. But it's because when we consider how great things He's done for us.
And that his love tortoises ever the same. Doesn't that touch your heart? I've often compared this verse to some nails here on the table. And I have a magnet in my hand. And I don't say to you, now listen, this magnet should move those nails. I don't put in the word. Should I just say this magnet knows nails. And the Bible doesn't say the love of Christ should constrain us. It says it does.
Why aren't those nails moving?
If there's such power in the magnet, why aren't they moving? Well, it's just because they're not close enough to the magnet. And I bring down the magnet and I don't. I'm not saying, you know, this should happen. I bring down and say, what's what's going to happen? And then you see them begin to get close. The nails start to melt. Where do they go? They don't make a choice. They go where the magnet takes them. And that we should not live unto ourselves but unto him who died for us and rose again. And the Scripture doesn't say the love of Christ should constrain us.
And if it doesn't constrain me brethren, it's not that there isn't power in the magnet.
Is not that I am not a child of God. Praise his name, I am one of his children. But it's easy to do. Like dear Peter, he followed a far off and he didn't feel the pull of that love, but when he got close and the Lord looked on him.
Mighty, mighty change took place in His conduct because He wanted and He spent the rest of his life living to please the Savior, who had done so much for him. Well may the Lord encourage us. He has done great things for us, brethren.
And what will make us water? You can lay down a coat of rules, but quote of Paul said not that we have dominion over your faith. We're helpers of your joy. And you'll never find a real Christian who feels the love of Christ. Who knows where grace has placed him. Who would tell you that he didn't want to please the Lord? That would be just the natural desire of his heart. We do fail, brethren. God has made provision for that.
Or where would any of us be? But what we need to do is just get back close to him.
And get restored. And he hasn't changed. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not be, are not consumed. It wasn't for his grace. I wouldn't be here. It wasn't for his restoring grace. I wouldn't be here. But He does. He does, and he will. And he is.
The captain of our salvation, bringing many sons to glory. May he lead us brethren in the past. That's pleasing to him, and give us to understand, perhaps in fuller measure, the great things he's done for us.
Could we sing that little hymn love Divine, all praise Excelling?
I think it's 296 is it?
He has 296.
Joy of heaven to earth come down. Bless us with thy rich indwelling, all thy faithful mercies Crown 296.
2 Corinthians 4:6, 7, 3, 4, Romans 7:1-4, 22, 23, Galatians 5:6
Open—C. Buchanan, H. Brinkmann
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But after him, Father and God.
Is a place where he is not.
Wrong, and it makes out beyond the whole.
Everything else shall I rest me.
Grand holding. That's right. We stand down.
And let joy of him love them, where my life in the midst of the President shall thrown.
And now it's been all thy name glory we see.
Corinthians chapter 4.
Verses 6:00 and 7:00.
For God.
Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts.
To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
In the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God.
And not of us now back in the fourth verse.
Third verse. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not?
Lest the light now the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
00:05:09
Brother Walter Potter, whose book Gathering Up the fragments.
Said to us.
God has worked twice in creation.
The old creation and the new creation.
One day.
Two brothers who knew themselves, each of them very, very well.
Met on the street.
When I'm said to the other Are you saved?
And the other brother said I'm half saved.
Well, they both knew what was meant In these bodies. We did grown, being burdened.
You and I.
All of us are walking about in the old creation.
And here we get the.
Old creation implied in this verse God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
Now that's the first command in the Bible. Let there be light.
And God the Son is the Creator.
Well, that old creation broke down, and some of us feel it very much. In these bodies we do grown being burdened.
But this?
Treasure that we have where we go on in this sixth verse. A little bit further have shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This brings us into the light of salvation.
And the old brother meant well. I have the salvation of the soul, but I don't have the salvation of the body yet, and we want to look into that a bit. But the wonderful thing for all of us is that we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
The ministry that is indicated in chapter.
3 is what we have in earthen vessels.
In these chapters 3 and four, we have, especially heading up in Chapter 3, the ministry that's committed to us.
The Ministry of Reconciliation.
The ministration of righteousness it is called.
That's given to us right now, while we're still walking about.
Possibly it's right to say an unredeemed bodies. At least they're not.
The new creation. But they will be it is these bodies.
That will be changed and be made like under that body of glory that the Lord Jesus has.
And that is one of the greatest comforts that I know of.
That there's going to be a change one day and brother and I think we're getting.
Very close to it.
Now the Lord is the beginner of the old creation.
And I believe he's the beginner of the new creation. In fact, I'm sure of it. Let's turn to.
The words in.
Revelation Chapter 3 that are spoken to the last church that Laodicea. How that?
The one who appears in the midst of the candlesticks.
Now he does appear.
In Revelation 3 verse 14.
Unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans write these things, saith the Amen.
So let it be.
The faithful and true witness.
Oh, yes, he ever.
Is that now this last statement, the beginning of the creation of God?
I think we could put that as the beginner of the creation of God as well as the beginning of the creation of God. Now let's look at that in John chapter 20.
The first time.
The new creation was ever seen.
00:10:00
Is in John 20 to marry?
And here's the verse.
Well, we read a few verses.
Mary verse 11 stood without the sepulchre weeping.
And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre.
And see if 2 angels in white sitting the one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain.
And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away, my Lord?
And I know not where they have laid him.
And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus.
Standing.
Now, that's the first time.
New creation was ever seen.
I believe it's right to say that Jesus is the beginner and he is the beginning of the new creation, the creation of God, which can never ever be spoiled because more or less the old creation began with Adam.
And he could be spoiled, and he was. He fell in sin and dragged down the whole of the old creation with him. Now God is never defeated. It looks like it doesn't every time you go to it.
Burial, it looks like. It looks like defeat. We know for the believer it's not.
Its victory, but it took this man to show it to us.
So we'd have the joy and the absolute certainty of the.
Full result and not always be half saved.
Another old brother.
Said this, I have everything I'll have in the glory, except two things.
There I won't have the old body, I'll have a new one and I won't have the.
Old evil nature as we heard that died at the cross in Christ. So Christ is definitely the beginner and the beginning of the new creation. And here he shows himself for the first time to marry that woman out of whom he had cast 7 demons who showed such tremendous devotion.
She came to the sepulchre early.
And the Lord was pleased to show himself to her first reading, the Gospel of Mark.
He appeared first to marry, so here is the new creation, Jesus.
Standing There are a few more precious things here that we might pick up in as much as we read this.
She knew not that it was Jesus.
There are going to be some demonstrations of the power of that new creation that we will look at.
As yet, Mary didn't recognize him. He was in the.
New creation standing there.
Well, I guess she hadn't turned around yet to look at him, but he was there.
And Jesus said unto her, Woman, Why weepest now verse 15, Whom seek us down Now what she says is astonishing. She's supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. This is her love and.
Faith and devotion that would do anything possible.
To get that body of her precious savior to find out what had happened to it.
Now Jesus said unto her, Verse 16 Mary.
Ah, she turned.
She turned herself and saving him Rabbuni, which is to say Master or my master?
Immediately, recognition comes to her when she hears her name pronounced.
But she had thought he was the gardener, the one that kept that garden.
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my.
Brethren, now we have had new creation. Now we have a.
New name, my brethren, the Lord.
00:15:01
Announces that go to my brethren, and say unto them I ascend now this is new position.
This is Jesus saying I ascend new possession going up.
To where the heavenly creation.
Will be and where he is new position.
Unto my Father and your Father.
That's a new relationship. The first time this has fully come out is here that the Lord says, my father and your father, my God and your God. So we're getting some new things.
Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, that he had spoken these things to her.
The same day at evening. Now the day was the 1St.
Day of the week. And so that's what it says. It was the day of the resurrection.
Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week. Now we get a new day for observance in this period of time that has followed since the resurrection when Church truth has come out, and we have spoken of that as the Lord's day, because it was the first day of the week. There are some new things. Now we've got a new day.
What else have we? When the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered, were assembled. Now we have a new assembly.
For fear, the Jews came Jesus. Now we have a new center. These things fit.
The Church Period.
He stood in the midst and saved them them peace be unto you.
A new message piece. How wonderful these new things are that go.
With the new creation and the new position of the Church for the Lord appeared three times here in John Will just state that the first appearance was for the Church for the formation of the Church.
We'll go a little further. Maybe we'll get some of that.
I would say though that.
The doors were shut.
And Jesus came in.
That power that belongs to the new creation.
Jesus coming in in new creation with the doors shut. We're going to find out as we look at some of these things that there are no limitations in the new creation. We can't understand that neither time nor distance nor barriers hinder new creation in any way how marvelous new creation is.
And when he had so said, verse 20, He showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord?
Well in time, brethren, we have seen the Lord by faith. This is true.
Church position.
Even with the doors being shot here for fear of the Jews.
But it's the Lord in the midst of his people and speaking peace to them.
Reading on in verse 21, then said Jesus unto them again, Peace be unto you, he says it twice.
As my father has sent me Even so send I you. Yesterday it remarked about the.
Disciples that they were commissioned.
In the early part of the Gospels, I think it's Mark 3 where it says he chose 12 That they should.
Be with him and that they should go for it.
Now that's the difference between a disciple and an apostle.
The disciples took the place of being apostles.
A disciple is a follower, so that in principle you and I.
Need to follow the Lord before he can send us.
Be a disciple and then there will be a Commission.
Yesterday we heard about a recommission. I suppose that's what this is. Verse 21 again. Peace be unto you. As my father hath sent me Even so send I you. We believe there were ten there. There weren't the 12, because Thomas wasn't there and Judas wasn't there. Nevertheless, here he gives them a special mission.
00:20:15
Sent into this world.
Just as the Father had sent Jesus who was.
Getting ready to leave, to ascend up to where he had been before having completed the Redemption's work.
So he has these, and says, as my Father has sent me, Even so send I you. When he had thus said, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye Holy Ghost.
He doesn't give it by measure. When God gives the Holy Spirit, he gives the person.
Think that's probably the right reading? Receive ye, Holy Ghost?
And then a new power to go with it. Whosoever sins ye remain, they are remitted unto them.
And whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained.
Now let's go on.
Passing over the case of Thomas, although that's very interesting, but we should mention in passing.
Now there are two appearings of the Lord in chapter 20.
And we believe typically the first one was for the formation of the church.
And Thomas is a.
The representative of the Jews who will believe when they see the Lord in the last days.
So it's the second appearing.
And interesting, you can read it when he came in the second time.
He said the same message, but it doesn't say anything about.
The doors being shut for fear of the Jews. I believe the company had gotten that piece and they didn't care whether the doors were shut or not when they have the Lord in the midst sees everything.
So we'll say that the appearing the second time was for the Jews that will believe when they see Jesus in the last days.
Now there's going to be a millennial company.
And it's going to be a heavenly company and an earthly company.
Do we read a little bit in this 21St chapter because it takes up another company?
Who will be in the millennial blessedness after these things? Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.
And on this wise showed he himself.
There were together Simon, Peter and Thomas, called Didymus and Nathaniel of Kenan Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee and two other of his disciples.
That makes 7 in all here. Is the leader of 6 followers here.
Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing.
They went forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing.
And when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore.
But the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
Began to reveal himself yet, but it was Jesus.
He could hide his identity when he wanted to, appearing as.
If the man on the shore that was fixing up something for them.
Then Jesus said to them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him. No, he said unto them, Cast the net.
On the right side of the ship, and he shall find they cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it.
For the multitude of fishes.
Therefore the disciple whom Jesus loves saith unto Peter, it is the Lord.
Peter recognized him by the power that he had displayed.
In closing, in the net a great multitude of fishes.
I better stop and remark that we can understand this symbolic.
Prophetical action here and apply it because.
In the 5th loop.
When the Lord called Peter.
And told him to cast down the Nets. He only put one down.
00:25:03
And he enclosed a great multitude of fishes there but the net break, and they couldn't get all of it to shore, a symbol of the lack of gathering, all for the blessedness of the Millennium, when it's committed to man. And even the Lord's work didn't Gather the Jews, he said, weeping over Jerusalem, the 23rd of Matthew. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. How often would I have gathered thy children together?
As a hand gathered her kicks under her wings. And ye would not that his man won't be gathered in grace.
Even if the Lord is doing it, and even if it's Peter that went on in his further ministry to gather, and 3000 souls were preached, were saved when he preached there on the day of Pentecost, and many have been gathered, but not all but here.
It goes on and says.
We'll read it.
Decatur verse six, he said unto them. Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find they cast therefore.
And now we're not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loves, saith unto Peter.
It is the Lord now. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he gird his Fisher's coat under him. For he was naked, and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as it were 200 cubits dragging the net with fishes, as soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish.
Laid.
There on and bread.
Saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up, and drew the nephew land full of great fishes, and 150 and three. Now this statement for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Now this figure is the Lord gathering, the remnant of Israel, and the spared.
Of the nations for the Millennial Company on Earth.
And he's going to send out his brethren. It will be a fast work at the close of the tribulation period to have a company for the Millennium on earth. So in the Millennium there will be the heavenly company, and there will be the earthly company composed of the Jews at the center and the spirit of the Israel, the 10 tribes and the nations brought together.
Around Israel.
On earth to enjoy that thousand years of blessedness of the millennial reign. Interesting that we have this in a prophetical picture in John 20 and 21 and the net doesn't break. It is successful because it's power, with the Lord acting to finally gather a people through judgments of the tribulation period.
But to be brought into the millennial scene.
And.
It will be the time when the Lord again rejoins his people to have communion with them because he prepares food.
And.
As soon verse 9, as soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there.
And fish laid there on.
The Lord had left them in John's Gospel at supper in the 13th chapter and taken a new position at their feet to wash their feet, A type of the high priestly service of the Lord Jesus during all this interval between the.
The working with the Jews on earth and him going up to heaven.
And serving His people from heaven to wash our feet.
And he's going to come back. He left them in Galilee, and he's going to come back to Galilee.
And apparently he's going to eat with them, because in verse 12 Jesus said unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples asked him, Who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord?
00:30:11
Then cometh Jesus, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. Now this is the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples. After that he was written from the dead. It seems to me that another power in the new creation is that we will be able to commune together.
Eating is suggesting of that, we're quite sure of that. But let's get a few more thoughts about the power of that new creation turning back to Luke 24. You know new creation was seen on the earth for 40 days and then Jesus went up.
And there are some very precious things that we learn about the new creation in Jesus.
That man.
He came and was born as a babe. He grew up as a man. He died as a man.
Now say that when the Sadducees charge the Lord about the doctrine of baptism in the 20th of John, he replied to them and said, You know nothing at all. And in that world they neither marry nor given in marriage, but are equal to the angels, neither can they die anymore.
The Lord took a life that he could die in. He died in it. He rose still a man in new creation. He ascended as a man. He is a man in the glory. He will always be a man. And when he comes it says Christ the first fruits, Afterwards they that are Christ at his coming. Before we read in Luke 24, I'd like for you to turn to Philippians chapter 3 to get something of the.
Wonders.
Of that power that belongs to that man to set us into the same position.
As He is in new creation as to the body.
When you get old, these truths are very precious. They ought to be precious to all of us, and especially as we are here in looking at a 1995 calendar that's about half gone, and expecting the Lord in any moment when we shall actually get this new body.
Our conversation, verse 20. Our manner of our our citizenship. Not manner of life here, it's citizenship.
Our country to which we belong verse 20 of Philippians 3. Our conversation is in heaven.
That's where we belong. That's where the Church is going to be taken.
That which the Lord took up the very Resurrection Day and came into that company a figure of the Church.
He's going to take that company to heaven. Here, it explains a little bit about it.
From winter also, we look for the savior.
Now here he is the Savior that's going to completely save us. We are half saved. We have new life. We have the Spirit dwelling within us. But we groan in these bodies. We're not always going to do that.
Who shall change Our Body of Humiliation? Is the best translation, not vile bodies. These bodies are precious to Christ and to God.
That it may be fashion like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able.
Or aren't those words grand?
Jesus Christ, who is able what to do even to subdue all things unto Himself, and make these bodies your body, my body, like His glorious body, which had no limitations could appear.
There suddenly to marry and suddenly to those on the shore. And now let's go to Luke and see how he appeared there on those two for those two going down to Emmaus.
In Luke 24.
We're going to have to read a little bit to get the picture right.
00:35:03
The subject begins in verse 13.
Two of them went that same day called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem, about 3 score furlongs. That is, these two who loved the Lord, genuinely loved him and felt like they had lost him, had turned away from the divine center at Jerusalem, very, very disappointed.
They were talking to one another. Verse 15. Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
But their eyes were holding that they should not know him. Now here's the power of the new creation to appear as just a stranger, and that's what they called him.
Their eyes were holding that they should not know him. He said unto them, Verse 17 What manner of communications are these?
That ye have one with to another as you walk in, Or sad. And one of them, whose name was Cleopas answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem? The power of the new creation could appear, however, was necessary for the occasion.
And has not known the things which are come to pass there in these days. He probed. He said to them what things they said unto him concerning Jesus of Nazareth. That's the title that was over the cross.
Which was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people, they just called him a prophet here.
But they had more in their mind. And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death. I have crucified him.
Here's what they had in mind before. But we trusted that he had been that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. Beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Certain women also of our company, made us astonished, which were early at the Sepulchre. And they found not his body. And they came, said they had seen a vision of angels, and that he was alive. Certain of them, verse 2624, which were with us, went to the Sepulchre and found it even as the women had said.
We have an empty sepulchre where the Lord lay. We have a.
Living Savior and a loving Savior.
Then he said verse 25. Now here's one of the biggest revelations in teaching that.
Anybody ever got, I believe.
But he starts at old fools of slow heart, to believe that's us too, all that the prophets have spoken. When that's written in God's Word, we better believe it.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory the Lord?
Tells them the Christ is going to enter into his glory. Then you know that.
Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
They drew near under the village. Whither they went, he made as though he would have gone further.
And they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, the day is far spent, and he went into Terry with them.
We see the wisdom of the Lord in working to get into their homes.
And to get into their hearts to restore them. Oh, let's listen when the Lord is dealing with us.
He wants to get into our homes. He wants to get into our hearts.
They reunited the village whither they went, and he made as though he would have gone further. He tests them. Are you going to invite me into your home?
But they constrained him. Yeah, the love of Christ constraineth us. We've just heard that.
And they were constrained, saying abide with us. Isn't this nice? They didn't know yet who they had invited.
Some of them entertained strange girls under strangers unawares in the Old Testament, but here it was the Lord because he had withheld his identity as the head of the new creation.
He lets them see it in the proper time.
And he went in to carry with them, and it came to pass as he sat at meet with them, he took bread and blessed it and break it and gave to them. And their eyes were open. How wonderful to get their eyes open.
00:40:03
They had opened their home.
Opens their heart and now he opens their eyes and they knew him. Then what happened? He vanished out of their sight, Power of the new creation.
I won't take a whole lot more time.
But I would like to turn.
To Paul in Second Corinthians.
Chapter 12.
For he was.
Caught up.
To the 3rd heaven.
To Paul.
Was given this special.
What shall we call it?
View of the Lord and of the glory. Let's read a little bit.
Verse one of chapter 12, Two Corinthians. It is not expedient before me. Doubtless to glory I will come divisions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ.
Now if we would have read.
In Two Corinthians 5.
17 It says if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. But the translation that we sometimes compare is there is a new creation, a man in Christ, the new creation.
I knew a man in Christ, he says above 14 years ago. Whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell. God North.
Now Paul, in trying to write to us, he gives us a little bit more information about the power of that new creation.
And he can't explain it very well.
He says. I don't know.
Whether that man was in the body or out of the body.
I can't tell you that. God knows.
What a large picture is put here of the absolute lack of any limitations of this body.
Your body. No limitations whatever Paul had, and he says it over again. Such an one caught up to the 3rd heaven. I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body. I cannot tell. God knoweth how he was caught up into paradise.
The paradise of God, and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful.
Not possible for a man to utter of such, and one will I glory.
Yet are myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. So Paul had this experience.
Of new creation, we'll have to say, and through it we have a further.
Manifestation of the power of the new creation, that body.
That we are going to get when the Lord comes, so let's.
Cheer up, we're getting very close to that new creation.
Look briefly.
And recognizing to have limited time in Romans 7.
And also Galatians 5 we have heard during these meetings.
Much about the new nature and the flesh.
The old man.
And we.
Had already reference made to 1St Romans 7 and.
What is helpful to see?
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That in Romans 7 we have.
Two husbands, the principal spelled out.
In other words.
We cannot have two husbands.
When we belong to Christ.
The first husband is the law. The second husband is the reason Christ.
And this chapter, not being understood by many Christians, has thrown them into confusion. What we really have in Christendom is spiritual adultery committed by Christians, in which way they belong to the risen Christ, yet take the position of law.
Here they have a new nature.
Yet they try.
To please God and the principle of law, by their own doings, in their own energy.
And then we find that there are two laws.
And this is, again, oftentimes not understood.
Verse 22 For I delight in the law of God after the invert man this is.
The believer speaking now here because of his new nature that he has, the old nature, is as much alive in the believer as it ever was.
And that's why this nature manifests itself in wanting to do evil. And yet the new nature delights in the law of God wants to do that which is right.
I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind.
And bringing me into captivity by the law of sin.
Which is in my members the law of my mind is the new nature that we have, and that nature delights in the law of God.
Rhoda Lambeen communicated this to us and I put it to memory. The divine nature gives me capacity for divine things.
I can now enjoy divine things because I have a new nature.
But that nature does not give me any power.
I need more.
Then a divine nature, and that is not mentioned at all.
In the 7th chapter we have it. In the 8th chapter the deliverance comes through the indwelling Spirit, and it is found in another, not in ourselves. We are not in our own strength, able to gain the V1 has won it for us, and that victory is who shall deliver me.
The Lord Jesus is the one that delivers me. But the power to live a life that the new nature delights in is the indwelling Spirit beloved, and you and I have it. If we are Christians, we have more than a divine nature and a desire to do that which is right. We have a divine person in dwelling. We have heard that already during these meetings.
This divine spirit.
However, Divine Person is the Spirit of God. That is the power. So what you and I have to do, beloved, is to let that spirit to control us. Here in Romans, the conflict is between the divine nature and that law that is within the divine nature.
And the law of sin. And there is defeat. There is no victory, because the soul.
Depends on his own energy, upon his own strength. Now let's turn to Galatians.
Galatians, chapter 5.
Verse 16.
This I say, Then walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill.
The law of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to the one, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. But if he be let of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifested, Which are these?
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Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry.
Witchcraft. Hatred, Varennes Emulation, Wrath, Strife.
Seditions, heresies, envying, murders, strickenness, revelings, and such like of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, the day which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, but the fruit. Notice that singular of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness.
Goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
I should add that in Romans Chapter 7 you see the two eyes.
Nature that would desire to do well, and then the nature that wants to do evil. And these natures are in the believer. It is true that these natures are judged, the flesh is judged, and the old man has been put to death, but the nature and the flesh is still in US and can take control.
But the secret for Christian living is given in verse 16. Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The conflict here is between the spirit and the flesh, not the nature that desires right.
That is the Spirit of God, and there's this conflict between the Spirit.
And the flesh. And all we have to do, beloved, is let that spirit take control.
And this spirit will bring before us the person and work of the Lord Jesus and that which will feed our souls.
You know, we have to be careful, beloved.
And may I put it this way, There is such a thing as spiritual self preservation. What do I mean by that?
I know if I look at bad things, if I listen to bad things, if I walk in the company with wicked men, that it will stir up within me the flesh. It will present things to me to which this flesh will respond.
I therefore knowing this.
Helped by the Spirit of God, will turn away from vanity, will turn away from that which the flesh would want to feed on.
Why don't I have a television in my house? Why do I not have filthy magazines in my house? Why do I not allow people to tell me dirty jokes?
Because this is what stirs up the flesh. It's not a legal attitude that I say I do not dare have this and I must not have it like under the law. No, I know that if I allow it.
That will feed the flesh, and it hinders me in my spiritual life, in my growth and development.
You know, so I recognize evil for what it is, and then ask the Lord for help by his Spirit to help me to turn away from these things and to feed on that which will strengthen the divine nature.
You know which feeds this divine nature and it will get strong. That's the simplicity of Christian life.
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It's just like we look at that glorious person. We're having Corinthians.
And we are transformed from glory to glory by being occupied with the person of the Lord Jesus.
You know you can't at the same time be occupied with him and then watching a filthy movie or reading a bad book.
You can't. You have often told the story that when I first came to this country, I didn't know a word of English.
And then we were living with relatives. We didn't have our own home yet, and they had a television. And I said to myself, this is a good way to learn English, and it is a good way to learn English because you see what they're talking about and what they're doing. But you know, what I found out is.
I didn't have the energy to be occupied with the Scriptures and with the things of God.
You cannot mix oil and water.
You see, you cannot feed. And then it feeds the flesh, and then expect that you have spiritual exercises and that you grow strong spiritually. We have to, beloved, recognize the dangers that exist for us, and there is in all of us there which responds to evil because of that nature that we still have.
So we have to recognize that, and let me repeat, that is spiritual self preservation, to turn away from that which hinders me in my Christian life. And I have the power to do that. You have the power to do that. By that indwelling Spirit, he gives us discernment as to what is good and what is right, and he would want to occupy us with the person of the Lord Jesus.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest.
And here we have a list.
And it's plural. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, and all these things that I mentioned here. A friend of mine told me that his children were in school and they had scheduled a meeting to discuss.
Sex education in high school.
So his children being of that age, he went there and wanted to hear what their plans were and he listened for some time and he finally got up and said, ladies and gentlemen, I have the feeling that you're enjoying the subject. Goodbye. He left.
I think he had the right discernment, you know well.
We certainly should ask the Lord for grace to turn away.
And to let people know where we stand.
You know that we are not willing to listen to dirty jokes and this kind of a thing. I've been told that.
Brother Smith, years ago, was going home on the bus late at night and there were only a few people on that bus.
He was one and the driver and another man and they were having.
Their talks and boasting of their sinful life. And he had to listen to that. Finally he got up. When he went out, he looked at these men, looked into their face and said, gentlemen, ************ and adulterers, God will judge good night. He recruited their wickedness. And you know, isn't it true that we have all more or less at one time or another experienced it that.
When we were in the company of unbelievers, or we were walking into a room when they were discussing things that were unseemly, that they changed the subject because they knew it was not a tolerable subject for a Christian. And in this way I believe this is an example. You made comments about being the salt of the earth.
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You know, by our life and our testimony people.
Will be hindered.
In displaying sin to a greater.
Extent as they will when the church is taken out of this scene when the Christian is not around.
But how wonderful to read these wonderful things. The fruit of the Spirit. These are the things that should be manifested in you and my life. Now how is it possible for me to manifest love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance? Against such there is no law.
Where do we see it perfectly displayed?
We see it perfectly displayed in the Lord Jesus.
We all have to confess that at times we fall short.
But in him, these virtues that are mentioned here are perfectly displayed.
And as we are occupied with that blessed person, we are transformed. You know, there is a change taking place. You know, have we not witnessed that sometimes that to get married, you know, and there are two different individuals, but you know, they make adjustments, you know, and they start acting in a way that would be pleasing to their married partner.
And.
This is a weak, weak, simple example as we go on in communion and fellowship with the Lord Jesus.
These things will be displayed.
Joy is one of the things.
You know the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy. And the Holy Spirit. You know there's such a thing as being happy and joyful in spite of whatever circumstances the Lord might allow us to go through.
You know, a legal person is not a joyful person. Of course, the joy of which the word of God speaks that is manifested in the believer, is not to be jolly and this kind of a thing. But it is joy that in spite of whatever adverse circumstances we might be passing through, we can enjoy the things of the Lord Jesus. Like Paul and Silas in prison they were singing.
You know they prayed first.
But then they were singing. I've been occupied of late with Psalm 84 and that wonderful verse there going through the valley of Baker.
It turns into a well, a source of blessing.
Have you not experienced that at one time or another, that the most painful experiences in our life have been the greatest source of blessing?
And we feel drawn closer to the Lord. We need to be closer to Him. We feel it. And He uses oftentimes these circumstances to draw us closer to Him. And in spite of the adverse circumstances, we can rejoice in the Lord Jesus, the one that never changes.
That always abideth the same.
And he can be leaned on in all circumstances.
And peace.
Long-suffering, you know, These are things, beloved, that are not natural to us. Now, we might have natural love, but I don't think that Paul is speaking here of that kind of love, you know, it speaks here of that love which we see perfectly displayed in the Lord Jesus and in God himself for his love, that he can love objects that are not worthy of his love.
You know, is it not possible, beloved, that we can love someone although that person might have grieved us and harmed us?
Yes, I believe that's possible. I'm not saying that I've always been able to do that, that I've not failed in that. But that is nevertheless what the Spirit of our God can produce, Beloved in us, if we walk in fellowship and communion with the Lord Jesus.
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Gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness. Well learn of me. The Lord Jesus said we had that, did we not? Someone read that verse in Matthew. Learn of me if I'm meek and lowly in heart. Well, these things can be learned in the company of the Lord Jesus as we walk in communion with him, and the Spirit of God will help.
To produce or reproduce these things in US so that it can be seen.
In us by others.
And they did not. Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lost. I don't think this means here that this flesh is put to death. But they have crucified it. They have recognized it as totally unuseful, you know, and have recognized that what scripture says the flesh profits nothing. And I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good.
Thing. And that we do not in any way seek in the energy of the flesh, even to do things for God.
You know we are enabled to do things for God in the power of the Spirit, as the Lord enables us to do things for him. But all credit goes to him, because he is the one that worketh in us to will and to do.
You know, and he wants to accomplish that in everyone's life.
It is good that we become exercised about these things when we're young.
You know, we don't have to be old people before we become exercise, that these things might be manifested in our lives. Now, I'm not going to work on this, and this is not the way of God in our lives. In other words, I'm going to work now on the principle of love, and I'm going to try to show love, and then I'm going to try to show any of these other things.
No, I believe these things will automatically unfold as we go on in communion with the Lord Jesus, led by the Spirit of God every day of our life. You know, Christianity is not just something that we practice on Lord's Day when we go to meetings. You know, this meeting going.
Christianity is not what we find in the word of God. Christianity is something for every day of our life. You know we can live as Christians when we go to school, boys and girls.
You know, we can practice to be Christians in school, and as we get older, we can practice to be Christians at work, and then we can practice to be Christians in our family. You know, to act like a Christian husband, like a Christian wife.
You know what a difference it makes in our lives to let the Lord help us, even in these relationships and duties that we face every day of our lives? No, marriage is not an easy thing, as many of us have experienced.
But how wonderful to have the help of the Lord Jesus, to have the help of the Spirit, even in these relationships. You know, for the sisters, this is not always easy to submit to the husband. Neither is it always easy to submit to the parents for the children, because they might sometimes have a different judgment and opinion about matters. And that's what submission means, that I submit in spite of my perhaps having different ideas.
And different thoughts. And if I walk with the Lord Jesus every day, he helps me in that.
You know, it's not easy at work to say yes Sir, because I'm sure it is happened in your life and my life that we were asked to do something and we knew that it was not the best thing to do.
That it was a better win thing to do it, but you know, the boss says you do it this way and you're going to do it that way because he's the boss.
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And don't you think if we learn to do this in our everyday life, to say yes Sir, to submit, that would also help us in our spiritual life?
To accept orders from the Lord Jesus you know if you don't learn to accept orders.
From our employee, employer or from our parents?
It's logical to conclude that we have a hard time accepting orders from the Lord Jesus.
And to be directed by the Spirit of God.
Well.
Every honest Christian will admit that we have much to work on, You might say, or the Lord has a lot of work to do yet with us to bring about these things in our lives. But do we not desire, Beloved, that these things be found in US? And remember, turn your back and make a decided stand against anything that will not help you spiritually. You know, don't be governed by your natural lives.
And by what would please your flesh? There are things that please the flesh, which are not wicked necessarily, which are not immorality. But it might still be something that pleases the flesh, and we ought to recognize that, and ask the Lord for help to take a stand against anything that might hinder us in our spiritual life.
No, this life is such a short life, you know. I'm sure if you ask Brother Gordon, who is well past 80 now, if he thinks that he has lived a long life, I'm sure he'll tell you. Where have the years gone? Where have the years gone?
And we are not going to be here very long. And this is the only time, beloved, that we can live for God in a world that has turned their back against God. And don't you think when he looks down upon this world and see souls who have a sincere desire that they want to please God, not to please themselves, but to live for Him and to live for the one who has done so much for them?
Redeem them and to make them his. You see, he didn't only redeem us so we wouldn't go to hell. He redeemed us That our lives might count for God, but we have to put our lives under the control of that person that God has given us to help us to live for him. And that's the Spirit of God. He will produce these fruits in our lives that you and I can never produce in the energy of the flesh.
And Sonic squirrels must not play any.
Bloodlessly long to prepare.
Now right in what I can find.
Here is the glory Suns in nursing stars.
Walrath in our joy is giving us life.
And bearing his presence up with.
Grass where he breathed on the soul.
Watch my joy to my voice.
Where we're healthy and sleep ever.
N.
Genesis Chapter 45.
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And verse 24 the last part.
And he said unto them, See that ye fall not out.
By the way, shall we pray?
Three 'Musts' in Scripture
Address—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Gospel chapter 3. I'd like to look at 3:00.
Must tonight, and we find the first one at the beginning of the Gospel of John chapter 3.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
The same came to Jesus by night.
And said unto him, Rabbi.
We know that thou art a teacher. Come from God.
For no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
Jesus answered and said unto him.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee.
Except a man be born again.
We cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit.
He cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flashiest flesh.
And that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must.
Be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, and canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is everyone.
That is born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel?
And no, it's not these things.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak, that we do know.
And testify that we have seen and you receive, not our witness.
If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not.
How shall ye believe if I tell you?
Of heavenly things.
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
Even so, must.
The Son of Man be lifted up.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name.
Of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light that his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Well, two of the three must that I want to speak on a little bit tonight are in the passage that I have read.
To Nicodemus, this religious ruler, this Pharisee.
This master or teacher of Israel.
He came to the Lord as a teacher. We know that thou art.
A teacher, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher, come from God, and he drew correct deductions. He says no man can do the miracles that thou doest except God be with him.
And then the Lord immediately.
Addresses an issue which was far beyond.
The thought that was in Nicodemus's mind.
He said to Nicodemus. Verily, verily, truly, truly, whenever you read those two words together.
The following words are of the utmost importance. Those verily, verily should arrest our attention. If anything does that should arrest our attention to listen carefully.
He said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus.
He was a proud man.
A Pharisee, a religious man, and it's instructive, I think that it's to the religious man that was trusting in his own works, in his own religious activities, in his religion.
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He could say we have Abraham for our father.
And he could make a boast that the Gentiles couldn't boast of. The Gentiles have no.
Past history that they can boast of, but Israel had, and here was this leader of Israel and he was going to be taught, he came to the Lord as a teacher and he was going to be taught depths of truth that he had never thought of.
And that.
Tremendously arresting statement. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God with all your religion, with all your good works, with all your ceremonial activities, with all the system that had been set up and established of God in the Old Testament, which a man like Nicodemus was keeping religiously, faithfully the Lord.
Stops him short and he says accept a man, be born again.
He cannot see the Kingdom of God, much less enter into it. He can't even see it.
It's a spiritual thing and a new birth is necessary in order to communicate a new life. He's telling Nicodemus that life that you have, that religious activity of your flesh will not do.
You need to be born again.
And Nicodemus didn't understand him.
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? A very absurd and ridiculous question. It wasn't a natural birth the Lord was talking about.
Talking about a spiritual birth.
I want to ask you a question tonight. How many times have you been born?
You've only been born once the natural way.
And you haven't been born again the spiritual way. You're still lost.
In spite of the fact that your parents are Christians, your brothers and sisters may be Christians, you've been brought up in a Christian family you've come to meeting, you've been under the sound of the word over and over again. But have you ever experienced personally, individually? For this is an intensely individual thing.
This is not a collective thing. Everyone individually has to come to grips with this.
Have I been born again?
Do I have a new life?
Without it, you'll never see God.
You will never be brought into the realms of the Blessed above.
You may have enjoyed and experienced all of the nice things of Christian fellowship, a Christian family, and Christian training and teaching.
But if this hasn't happened to you.
As an individual, no matter how young or old you are.
The word to you is you must be born again.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
And then Nicodemus asked him this silly question, and in verse 5, Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee again, notice that verily, verily, listen to this.
Except a man be born. He is amplifying out of the word born again now he says. Except a man be born of water.
And of the Spirit.
He cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
And he tells us all through the New Testament that the water speaks of the word.
The water of the Word Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
And Peter tells us, being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. What is the incorruptible seed? The word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. So the water is symbolical of the Word. It's that which cleanses.
And when the word of God is applied by the Spirit of God to a soul.
And that soul comes to faith.
In the testimony that God has rendered to it, there's life there.
They come together at the same instant. I do not understand it.
You don't understand it.
It is one of those immense truths of Scripture that we accept.
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The soul is born again.
He has both life and faith.
At an instant it's the work of God, sovereign act of the Spirit of God.
Notice he's been talking to Nicodemus.
He says in verse 5 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, that singular he was talking to Nicodemus, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. The water is the Word, the Spirit is the person that uses the word, person of the Trinity that uses the Word to produce faith and impart life.
Then he says that which is born of the flesh is flesh. It will never.
Be trained into anything but flesh. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
You can train it, you can educate it, you can sublimate it, you can give it every possible privilege and advantage.
Send it to universities. But the flesh is flesh. It partakes of the nature of its source, that which is born of the flesh.
Is flesh.
And that will never enter the Kingdom of God.
But then he goes on to say that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. It's a new life.
It partakes of the nature of the Source, and that's the Spirit.
That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
So it's not an improved flesh.
It's not.
An educated and educated flesh. A trained flesh.
It's something altogether new.
The impartation by the Spirit of God, using the Word of God, of divine life.
To the soul.
And then he says a very instructive thing in verse 7.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, still talking to Nicodemus.
But any changes from thee the singular, to ye the plural? And he says ye must be born again. Who does he mean?
If you had a modern translation that rendered both of those words, you.
You wouldn't see this, it would read Marvel. Not that I said unto you, Nicodemus, you must be born again. And you would assume, of course, that the second you met him.
But it means more than him. He's saying to Nicodemus, a representative teacher of Israel, You Jews need to be born again.
Your first birth.
Claiming Abraham as your father and Moses as your spiritual leader, the lawgiver, and so on.
That won't do.
You need a new birth.
A new life.
The first must.
That's the first must. That's not gospel. That's not good news. It's the statement of an absolute necessity.
There must be affected this transaction in your soul individually or you don't have life.
You must receive the word of God.
By faith at your part.
God does his part. He imparts divine life when you do that.
And it comes at the same moment.
He goes on to explain the unknowable about this new birth.
And I'm not going to go into that.
In verse 13 we'll pass on we go come to the next must. No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, this goes back to the time when Israel was passing through the wilderness. In Numbers 21 I believe it is.
And the fiery serpents were sent amongst them, because they murmured and complained, which was quite common with this people Israel.
And the Serpent's bit Many.
And they were poisonous snakes.
And the people died.
They were dying.
It's a picture. The serpent is a picture of Satan.
And everyone in this world has been bitten by that serpent.
And everyone in this world is dying.
The wages of sin is that you serve that master sin, you serve Satan. He's the.
You might say the most absolute personification of sin, sin personified would be Satan.
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The picture of sin.
And God instructed Moses to make a serpent of brass.
Just like those serpents that were biting the people.
And they were dying.
And put it on a pole.
And he lifted that up.
And he said, Whosoever looketh.
By faith looketh on that serpent of brass lifted up on the pole shall live.
Shall have life.
Now what we learned at the beginning of the chapter, ye must be born again, but it doesn't tell you how you can get that. How do you how are you born again? How does it come about? Now we learn how Christ lifted up on the cross, pictured by the serpent, lifted up on the pole, made sin for us as we were singing Behold the Lamb of God on the cross here his overwhelming cry, Eli Lama Sabachthani on the cross when he was forsaken.
Of God.
A holy God forsaking him, the one who always did his will, the one who always pleased him to the utmost, never more pleasing to God than when He was on that cross bearing the judgment of our sins, though that pleasure could not at that moment be expressed.
Instead, he cried out. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
And that serpent lifted up on the pole is a picture of sin. Christ was made sin on the cross and bore the penalty for that. He took my place. He took, you can say, if you in faith look up there on that cross and see Him dying, you can say He died for me. He took my place. He bore the judgment that I deserved.
I deserve that place and he took it as a substitutionary sacrifice for me.
And so he says as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That's the cross. They lifted him up on a cross, the most ignominious death that man has ever devised for one of his fellows, and they gave that death to the Son of God.
The Son of God and God sent him into this world, knowing the treatment that he would receive from the hands of his creatures.
And God looked down and saw what they were doing to His beloved Son.
You remember at the Jordan, and again at the Mount of Transfiguration, the Father's voice was heard. This is my beloved son, and whom I am well pleased, and whom I have found my delight. And now he looks down upon that scene at the cross street, crosses the Lord in the center, and two thieves on either side.
What a scene.
There's nothing like it, since the creation to this time never will be anything like it again.
When God the Incarnate Maker died for man, his creature sinned.
He died for me.
Died for you?
To the infinite expression of grace.
For ye know that grace.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That though he was rich, rich in glory.
Yet for your sakes, he became poor.
That ye through his poverty, how poor did he become?
Even to the death of the cross.
He gave all he could give. He could not give more.
Blessed be his name forever. He would not give less.
Less would not have done the job. Less would not have done the work. Less would not have accomplished atonement. He had to go all the way.
His obedience.
Never faltered.
Never hesitated.
He expresses in the garden the awfulness, the holy horror to his soul as he contemplates what it would cost him to be made sin.
And he says all, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
Nevertheless.
Not my will.
But thine be done.
And so on the perfection that was always his, he submits to the will of his father.
And he could say, because he did that, he could say in John 10, therefore doth my father.
Love me because I lay down my life.
That I might take it again.
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No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. And then he closes that precious verse with this commandment.
Have I received of my father? He did it in obedience to his father's commandment. He went to the cross because his father said go.
And he went.
Jesus coming forth.
Met them with lanterns from the garden, with lanterns in torches and weapons.
Whom seek ye?
Jesus of Nazareth.
I am literally.
I am the name of Jehovah.
That's his answer. And they all went backward and fell to the ground. If He seek me, let these go their way. I told you I am He.
And they took him while I was daily with you in the temple. You stretched forth, no hands against me. But this is your hour.
And the power of darkness and the divine restraint which had always kept them to their from their purpose.
For they have tried to get rid of him many times.
You remember in Luke 4 they took him to the top of the hill when he spoke about Grace going out to the Gentiles, and he took him to the top of the hill with the intent of throwing him off.
And had they done so, and had he allowed them to do that, he would have walked away unharmed at the bottom.
But he didn't choose that method of delivering himself, It says he passing through the midst of them went his way.
Another time when they took up stones to stone him is when he said I and my father are one.
Blasphemy.
Blasphemy, they said.
He's claiming equality with the father. Yes, he was.
And that's why they crucified him, because they say in John 19 he made himself the Son of God.
What they meant by that? He said that he was the Son of God. But in John 19 it's put He made himself the Son of God. The truth is he never made himself the Son of God. He was always the Son of God.
He made himself a servant.
He became a man.
He emptied himself.
And he entered his own creation, the Creator.
Becoming a servant. Stupendous, stupendous truth.
Stupendous thought.
Do we know what grace is?
The grace of the Lord Jesus, the rich one becoming poor.
That we might be rich.
Have you received his bounties?
Have you received of His blessings?
Well, let's go on here.
Verse 14. I'll read it again. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That was the cross.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have eternal life.
For God, Southern loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son, who did he give his only?
Begotten Son.
The only one of his kind.
He was one with the Father, the only begotten of the Father.
That's the one he gave, the one who was the darling of his bosom from all eternity.
That's the one he gave.
He gave all that he could give.
Could not give more.
Would not give less.
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish.
But have everlasting life.
That verse contains in our English translation 25 words.
The center word.
His son.
And all that goes before is what God has done.
Loved the world he's given his only begotten son and the latter part of the verse.
Is man's responsibility to receive that gift?
I want to ask you, have you received it?
Have you received the gift?
Of God's Son, eternal life is yours.
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Then you can be sure I've been born again. I've met the first must because God has met the second must.
He must be lifted up.
He had to die. You see, the salvation of God is not something that he could have chosen one or two or three or four or five different ways of saving man.
The only way.
That could there could be salvation. The only way there could be salvation for man is that one of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity had to become a man.
Had to come into his own creation.
He became a servant.
And he is God and man in one person.
The Father never became a man. The Spirit never became a man, but the Son did. That's the mystery.
Of the incarnation.
The mystery of eternal love.
That God loved us so much.
That he came to where we were.
Nothing else would have done it.
He had to be in order to be the mediator between God and men.
He had to be God so that he could lay his hand upon God, and he had to be a man so that he could lay his hand upon man.
There's no other way he could bring man to God.
Because man was at such a distance.
And the only way he could effect this would be to go to the cross, and as man, bear the judgment of man's sins.
On that cross.
Remove it. Remove those sins forever from before the face of a holy and a righteous God.
So that now God in grace, God can deal with us in grace now.
Because His Holiness has been glorified.
By the sun, become a man.
And that's the serpent lifted up.
In order that all we have to do is look.
Look can believe all the bitten Israelites dying of that poisonous bite had to do was to look at the serpent of brass lifted up and he that looked lived and the Israelite that refused to look that said he reasoned upon, he said that's ridiculous. How can a look save me? How can a look heal me?
But faith responded to Moses command and those that had faith, they looked.
And they were healed.
And the only way you'll ever come into the family of God and have eternal life and the new birth, the only way you'll have that is by that look of faith at the one that was lifted up.
On that center cross.
For you.
And for me.
But there is another must we must look at, and it's in the next chapter.
John, Chapter 4.
When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John?
Though Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples.
He left Judea, departed again into Galilee.
And there's a lot of children here. Judea was in the southern part of the land of Palestine, and then in between was in Galilee was at the northern part, and in between was Samaria, a strip of land claimed by the Samaritans that was a mixture of Jews and Gentiles.
There was great.
Strong national feelings against the Samaritans on the part of the Jews. The Jews were up in Galilee, they were down in Judea and in between with the Samaritan group.
That they had no use for. They didn't talk to them.
And they would always walk around. They wouldn't walk through Samaria. A Jew would walk around it. It was a longer way around, but that's because of his intense hatred for the Samaritans.
Well, the Lord Jesus verse 3 left Judea and departed again into Galilee. And he must.
Needs go through Samaria.
That must doesn't mean that there was not another route that he could have taken.
Because they did it all the time. They avoided going through Samaria.
But he had to go through Samaria. Why?
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Because there was a precious soul there.
There was a precious soul there that he was going to bring into blessing.
For one soul.
He went against that strong national feeling the Jews had to have anything to do with the Samaritans.
And he went to that despised place.
He must needs go through Samaria.
He was constrained by love.
He was driven by love.
Not by Jewish prejudice. He was always above that.
He never had the fear of man.
Before him.
They would say things to him that to most men, would intimidate them and cause them to back off, not him.
Not him.
Never man spake like this man.
He must needs go through Samaria, then cometh he to a city of Samaria verse 5, which is called Sychar.
Near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, you see this place.
The Samaritans could claim it as having quite a bit of history to it.
And.
They thought it was.
A holy place.
And it has history near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now Jacob's well was there very historical place, historical well.
Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, for He was a true man.
Blessed man.
He sat thus on the well.
And it was about the 6th hour. This was a time.
When?
One of the character that came to the well.
Wouldn't.
But she would be there at this time because this wasn't the normal time.
Drawing water.
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.
A woman of Samaria, she had a checkered life, a sinful life.
She comes at this time. Lord meets her there.
He knew she'd be there.
I love the expression we find it in the Gospels. Jesus, knowing all things that would come upon him, went forth.
He knew.
Being who he was.
He knew everything.
So he sits wearied with his journey on the well and it was about the 6th hour.
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.
Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
We don't ever read if we continue with the narrative, and we will, we don't ever read that. He got that drink.
But he did get a different kind of drink.
Not that physical water that he was asking her for.
But his soul was refreshed.
By the blessing that she received.
Jesus says to her, give me to drink.
For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat.
And then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, she was amazed that he would a Jew. He would even speak to her.
Let alone ask of her a favor.
How is it that thou being a Jew?
Ask this drink of me, which I'm a woman of Samaria.
For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
Now he doesn't take up that subject of.
The hostility and the.
Strong feelings that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans. He doesn't get engaged in that.
Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God.
And who it is that saith to thee? Give me to drink? Only knew who I was, he says.
But he doesn't say it that way. He says who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink. He had just asked her for a drink. He only knew.
He only knew God as a giver.
The gift of God. The free giving of God. God is a giver, God in grace.
Oh, they knew the law. They knew the thunderings of Mount Sinai, and so holy was the mount that if one, just by mistake touched it, they would be killed.
Thunderings and the lightnings and the voices.
Mount Sinai.
Terrible mount.
God's righteous requirements on man.
00:35:02
10 commandments.
Written on 2 tables of stone.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shall not make a graven image of anything in heaven or earth and bow down to it to worship it.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
They were not to work on the Sabbath.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee that thou mayest live long on the earth.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Thou shalt not covet.
Covet thy neighbor's house, or his *** or his oxen, or his wife, or anything that is thy neighbor's.
Want something that isn't yours? Have you ever done that? We've all done that.
That last commandment brings us all in for guilty.
We don't pass the test.
Perfect moral code.
10 commandments.
The thunderings, the Lightnings, the terror of Mount Sinai.
If you were at the place you didn't keep your child in tow and they ran away and touched them out, they're dead.
So fearful was the sight.
That's not what we have here, he says to her. If you knew the gift of God.
We just read of that in the 3rd chapter. For God so loved the world that he gave.
His only begotten Son.
You only knew God as a giver. Thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Just like Nicodemus didn't understand what the Lord was talking about when he was talking about being born again.
How can I enter the second time into my mother's womb and be born? She doesn't understand it either. When he talks about living water, he thought she thought he was talking about this water that was from the well.
Talking about spiritual truth.
The well is deep. That was nothing to draw with. The well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water?
Art thou greater than our Father Jacob? Was he greater?
Infinitely greater.
She did not know to whom she was speaking.
Nicodemus didn't either.
He came as a teacher to a teacher and he was taught.
Profound depth of truth that he and all the Israelites needed to know.
You must be born again.
Art thou greater than our Father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, He doesn't answer her question directly.
He speaks in another place of Solomon, in all his glory. I behold the flowers of the field.
Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed as one of these, and yet he said.
Greater than Solomon is here.
And so it was. But he doesn't answer her that way. He says Whosoever drinketh.
Of this water shall thirst again.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him.
Shall never thirst.
On a statement.
These statements of the Lord Jesus, especially in the Gospel of John, they they they tell us of the person of the eternal Son of God.
They tell us of the person of the I am.
That Jehovah the I am, that I am the one who is the same.
That name of his essential existence, the I am.
Who lives in an eternal present?
And the New Testament expression for that is he who is and who was, and who is to come.
That's as close as you get in the New Testament to the word Jehovah.
And that's Jesus.
Art thou greater than our Father Jacob?
And he says, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him.
Shall never thirst.
This is soul thirst he's talking about.
Men were living in the 20th century, almost going into the 21St and in my lifetime.
In my lifetime, not 70 years old yet in my lifetime, there's been the development of.
Cars and airplanes and radio and television.
00:40:05
And satellites.
And shots to the moon all in my life.
Tremendous increase.
In technology, and it seems as though as technology improves, the moral state goes down in inverse proportion.
That's where we are today.
Right at the end of man's day.
God will not.
Sit idly by much longer.
Allowing man to.
Spit in his face, as they did to the blessed Lord.
That's what they're doing today in this country of ours, which has been so blessed.
With gospel testimony ever since its inception.
So blessed there's never been a country in this world. So blessed is the United States of America.
And there's never been a country so guilty.
So guilty.
Of despising the grace of God.
Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
Nothing worse than that.
Nothing worse than that.
2000 years of gospel testimony. I want to ask you how many times have you heard the gospel?
100 a thousand 10,000 times There are millions of souls on planet Earth today that have never heard it once.
Never heard it.
I was 19 years old, living in the United States of America, right outside of this huge city of Chicago, and I didn't hear the gospel until I was 19.
I didn't hear it till I was 19.
I'm not saying it wasn't presented to me.
I don't remember.
But I didn't actually hear the gospel.
Until I was 19.
And thank God when I heard it.
I received it. Have you done that?
Whether you've heard it once or twice, or 1000 times or 10,000 times, are you born again? Do you have a new life? Do you have eternal life in the sun?
Have you seen Christ lifted up on the cross, bearing the judgment that you deserved?
You know God is a giver.
You know God is a giver. The Lord must go through Samaria. He had to go there because there was a soul there that needed this water of life.
Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water.
Bringing up into everlasting life.
The woman saith unto him, Sir.
Give me this water that I thirst not neither come hit her to draw.
He had awakened the desire of her heart. He had reached her heart.
He had offered her living water.
Something that would be a constant source of refreshment to her soul.
And her life was so checkered that hadn't come out yet.
And then he says, now go.
Call my husband.
And come hit her.
How did he know she had a husband?
He knows everything.
He knows everything you've ever done or thought or even purposed doing.
He knows you're down sitting and you're uprising. He understands your thoughts afar off. The darkness and the light are both alike to him. You can turn the light off and think you're doing something in secret that he can't see.
Oh no.
Darkness and the light are both alike to him.
Go call thy husband.
Now she hides behind a technicality.
The woman answered and said I have no husband.
That was literally true. She wasn't then legally married I think the way it reads.
Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband. Right away he lets her know, I know all about your life.
For thou hast had five husbands.
And he whom thou now hath, the man you are now living with, is not your husband.
In that sense, thou truly.
00:45:02
He's reaching the conscience because of the conscience isn't reached. There's nothing, nothing wrought of God in the soul.
The light has to come in through the conscience.
Man's state has to be laid bare before God, before he can be blessed.
He had offered her this living water, and it would have been so nice if she could just get it without having her conscience reached. But no, that's not God's way.
Not only is God loved, but He is light.
And so the light of God's truth must reach the conscience.
And every time the Lord deals with the soul, every time you can trace it through, it's a wonderful study.
It's always light and love, always light and love sometimes in the other order, love and light as it is here, but the two are always there because he always manifested God.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Only a prophet would know.
All these things about me, you've never seen me before, a total stranger. And you know, you know, I've had five husbands and the man I'm with now is not my husband.
She was a sinful woman.
And then she gets religious.
Our fathers worshipped in this mountain.
And you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
I've seen that first hand. I for years preached the gospel at Skid Row in Chicago.
I remember one time speaking on the Prodigal Son.
And I was amazed to see, I thought that the men down there would, would relate to the story and would would receive it and they would realize, they would realize that they were they were pictured by that prodigal.
But I was surprised when they came up to me afterward and they said.
Oh, you think you're so good?
And we're the prodigals.
They understood the message.
But they resented.
The fact that they were being depicted as prodigals, exactly what they were.
Many of them.
Drunkards.
Living in sin.
Prodigals away from God.
But the last thing to die in man is his pride.
How many times they have come up to me and they've got liquor on their breath and they're reeling under the effects of it and they extol their virtues. I'm good to my wife and my children. I bring home a paycheck every week and I take care of them and this and that. But I don't mention about their habit of drunkenness.
And the other sad effects that it brings into the family.
Lasting to die in man is his pride. And if you don't, come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Before you leave this scene, what will keep you from coming to him is pride.
Pride. And that's the last thing.
To die.
In man, that's why a proud Christian is an enigma.
And an anomaly, A contradiction, because in order to become a Christian you have to give up your pride.
You have to own. I am lost. I am utterly bad. I'm.
Incorrigibly wicked.
You have to come to the I remember telling my secretary at work until you come to the point where you say before God, I am vile, you won't be saved. And she said I'll never say that I'm not vile.
Now that's he was being truthful, that's the way she felt.
She hadn't come to seeing herself in the presence of God.
So she brings up this.
Subject.
Verse 20 Our Fathers worshiped in this mountain.
And ye say you Jews say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
And ** *** was trying to get him to get off of her case.
And get on to a general subject of a religious discussion.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me.
The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this.
Mountain.
Nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.
He talks about worshipping the Father, a totally new thought to her.
Who is this that he's calling the father?
Ye worship, ye know not what, in that one sweeping statement, he says.
He disowns the Samaritan worship. He says he worship ye know not what.
And then he owns the worship that Jerusalem he says.
00:50:03
We know what we worship, speaking representatively as a Jew there for salvation is of the Jews.
God owned Jerusalem, not Samaria.
But then he says, but the hour cometh.
And now is when the true worshippers.
Shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
Night neither at Samaria nor Jerusalem, but the true worshippers is looking on to the Christian dispensation.
Which we're living in now.
The true worshippers. He's unfolding this depth of truth of worship to a poor Samaritan woman. If I was writing this, I would have had him unfold this truth to Nicodemus. He's someone that could understand it.
All he says to Nicodemus is you must be born again.
You need a new life. You've got to start with an altogether new beginning.
You have to come to the realization that everything you've trusted in and valued and put your.
Your value upon.
Is not good.
You need a new life.
That's what Saul of Tarsus had to come to. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
Touching the righteousness which was in the law, he was blameless.
But when it pleased God, he said, who separated me from my mother's womb to reveal his son in me.
Light flooded into his soul. God said let there be light.
And that religious Jew, Saul of Tarsus, had the light of God flood into his soul.
Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. And now he makes the connection between Jesus, the one that he had heard Stephen crying to. Lord Jesus lay not the sins of their charge.
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Solved Tarsus. He was keeping the clothes of those that stoned him, and he heard those words and now?
He personally is encountering the Lord Jesus from heaven.
To art thou, Lord, I am Jesus. And then the light floods into his soul.
He passed from darkness to light, from death to life.
Lord.
Wilt thou have me to do? Immediately? He called Jesus Lord.
You do that.
Jesus your Lord, if he isn't, you're not saved.
Not enough to save your Savior? Is he your Lord?
Is he Lord?
Well.
He says to this Samaritan woman.
Ye worship, ye know not what we know, what we worship. For salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh. And now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh.
Which is called Christ.
When he has come, he will tell us all things.
Wonderful Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee, and he.
And he there's two people in John's gospel he reveals himself to at this woman.
Of Samaria and the Blind Man in John 9.
I would speak unto thee and he. And upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he spoke to the woman, Yet no man said, What seekest thou, or why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her water pot. She becomes an evangelist now. And she went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? She was driven.
By a new found light and love that had entered her soul.
Because he received her.
He revealed himself to her. Can you relate to that? Can we relate to that, beloved Saints?
Can we relate to that? Can we enter into the heart of the Savior?
Ephesians 4:4
Naaman
Address—H. Brinkmann
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.
A head sheet.
In #6.
God in love.
Greater division.
Right now.
That we're here to blame the ************.
Blow the flowers.
Around.
Every month.
See, you drop crying. It's like a fall.
We pray.
Maybe we can still sing another song Hymn #10.
You know, I sang that song as a boy in Germany.
We had that obviously translated from the English There's a savior.
On high in the glory, the Savior who suffered on Calvary's tree as Savior is willing to save. Now as ever, His arm is almighty. His love, great and free, will come now to Jesus. The dear loving Savior receive him this moment and peace shall be dying.
00:05:08
There is a savior.
Our world is great.
I really do.
I love you. I love you.
Here you are crying.
As long as you are praying.
God and I will not be.
I go. I am.
00:10:10
In my day.
In my heart.
I like to preach the Gospel tonight from an Old Testament story, and I hope you will see as we go along that this story is a beautiful story that can be used to preach the Gospel we read in Second Kings Chapter 5.
From verse one on, now Naman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper.
And the Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captives out of the land of Israel.
A little maid. She waited on Naman's wife.
And she said unto her, Mistress, What God, my Lord, were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of this leprosy.
And one went in and told his Lord, saying thus and thus set the mate, that is of the land of Israel. The king of Syria said, go to go, and I will send a letter on to the king of Israel. And he departed and took with him 10 talents of silver, and 6000 pieces of gold, and 10 changes of Raymond.
And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is cometh to thee, behold.
I have therewith sent Naman my servant, to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God to kill, and to make a life that this man does send unto me to recover, a man of his leprosy? Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel.
Against me. And it was so when Elisha, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes.
Then he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there's a prophet in Israel.
Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the House of Elijah.
And Elijah sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan 7 times, and I flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But mayhem was wrong, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
Are not Abana and Papa rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel?
May I not wash in them, and be clean. So he turned, and went away in a rage, and his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, my father, If the Prophet had bit thee to do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much, rather than when he says to thee, wash and be clean, then when he down, and dipped himself seven times.
In Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God, And his flesh came again, like under the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And he returned to the man of God he and his company, and came and stood before him. And he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore I pray thee, take a blessing.
00:15:23
Of thy servants But he said, As the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. And Naaman said, Shall there not then our clay thee be given to thy servants to mute burden of earth? For thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord.
In this thing the Lord will pardon, pardon thy servant, that when my master goes into the House of Raymond to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the House of women, then I bow down myself in the House of women. The Lord pardoned thy servant in this thing, and he said unto him, go in peace. So he departed from him a little way, but deja.
The servant of Elijah, the man of God, said, behold, my master has spared me a man, the Syrian. It's not not receiving at his hands that which he brought, but as the Lord liveth, I will run after him and take somewhat off him. So he's I followed after Niemann, and when Niemann saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him and said, is it all well? And he said all is well.
My master has sent me saying, Behold, even now there become to me from Mount Isaiah two young men of the sons of the prophets. Give them, I pray to your talent of silver and two changes of garments, And Niemann said, be content, take two talents, And he urged him, and found two talents of silver in two bags.
With two changes of garment, and laid them upon two of his servants, and they bare them before him.
When he came to the Tower, he took them from their hands and bestowed them in the house.
And he let them the men go, and they departed, But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elijah said unto him.
When cometh thou said his eye? And he said, Thy servant went no whither. And he said unto him, Went not my heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money and to receive garments?
And olive yards and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants, The leprosy therefore of Namen shall plead unto thee and unto thy seed forever an event out from his presence, A leper, his wife, and snow.
Well, I think the children here all have heard the story of Naaman at one time or another, and I really have this story on my heart, mostly for your benefit, because we like to hear that story again, don't we? It's a wonderful story in the Old Testament.
And what touches me, especially in this story, is the place that that Little maid played.
In Neiman's life.
And I have sometimes thought, what would I have done?
If I would have been that little maid, you know, here the armies of the Syrians come to the land of Israel and they take captives and they kidnap that little girl. She couldn't have been very old.
She was a little girl.
And she ended up in the House of Naman, the captain of the host of the Syrians. He was the supreme commander of the army of Syria. That's how we would call him today. He was quite a great man.
And I'm afraid if I would have been that little girl.
I would not have had in my heart such kind thoughts and pity as this little girl manifested. You know, she really manifests a Christian spirit, doesn't she? You know, under the law, it was eye for eye and tooth for tooth. You know, she could have been angry with the Syrians for taking her away from her family. How would you like to be taken away from your dad and from your mom?
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And perhaps never to see them again. You nowadays and all day we get into the car and we drive hundreds of miles in one day.
Or we go on the plane and we fly across the United States in 4 hours, or maybe six hours from the east to the West. You know, that took a year to travel for the early settlers, that great distance. You know, when they undertook a journey in those days, they might never see their relatives again. And she certainly had no promise from those Syrians that they would ever turn her back and give her back to her parents.
They wouldn't even know where she came from, you know, to take her back there.
But he or she meets.
This master, this new master, and she finds out he is a leper, and she pities him.
And she desires that that man would be healed of his leprosy.
You know we some of us here in this room that know the Lord Jesus.
Have a similar desire in our heart for you.
Because you might not have leprosy.
But you do have a disease.
Of which leprosy is a picture. Leprosy in the Word of God speaks of sin.
And Agent One in the world that is not Sinner.
Everyone is a Sinner born into this world.
Of sinful parents, a Sinner by nature and by practice, and the word of God says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And if we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar. The picture tonight at one time was a Sinner.
And.
Was guilty before God.
This deadly disease of sin dwelt within.
And controlled my life, you know, I was even singing that him that we sang tonight in a choir before I was saved.
I remember singing to him, almost persuaded.
Before an audience in the choir and I myself had no assurance of salvation, I had not come in personal faith to the Lord Jesus. I was like this name and.
And you are like that, Naaman, if you have not come to the Lord Jesus to be cleansed of your sins.
How wonderful.
This little girl desired the blessing of this man.
And what pain did this maid have if he only knew about the prophet of God?
You know, she was not very old, but she had heard of the prophet of God.
You know what a prophet of God is?
A prophet of God is a man that speaks.
For God to men.
Messenger from God.
And she knew him to be such a man, and she had faith that if this man near, men would come to their prophet.
His prophet could heal him of this disease.
You know it is not by chance that you have come to this meeting tonight if you are not safe. I believe that God has directed you and your steps so that you would be in this audience tonight, that you would hear the gospel of the grace of God. But there are certain things that you have to accept, just like Nehemiah had to accept. First of all, isn't that a wonderful fact?
That this little girl had a lot of credibility with her Master and her mistress.
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That they would even pay attention to what this little girl said.
I'm sure this little girl did not only have pity and mercy for her Master, I believe that she conducted herself in that home in such a way that when she spoke of their prophet that lived in her homeland, she was believed they believed her.
Now I would like to ask you tonight.
Don't accept anything because I say it. You might not even know me.
But except what I read to you and what I call to you from the word of God.
You know salvation comes by hearing.
Hearing the word of God.
At this time.
There was a prophet to whom God would speak.
Now today we have the word of God, the written word of God, And when we read this word, it is like God speaking to you, and you have to come to realize that you have to do with God. It does make very little difference what you think of me, of any other question in this room. What makes the difference is what you think of the word of God, whether you accept the word of God as the word of God.
And the spirit would.
Desire to accomplish that tonight in your life.
But then.
The king heard about this.
The king was interested in getting this useful mighty man that headed up his army healed of that disease. You know, leprosy at that time was an incurable disease. I understand medicine has been able to arrest that disease with many today, but not at that time. Celebrity in the word of God is a picture of an incurable disease.
Some of us here have had the privilege of visiting in India, where there are many lepers.
You know, it's a real pitiful thing to see them sitting there.
With the fingers gone, the feet gone open, sores leprosy, and it keeps on eating.
And destroying the body, you know, until finally at least to death.
And this is what is true of sin. Sin eats away in a spiritual way, destroying you.
You know the devil uses sin and deluxe.
To lead you into deeper and deeper sins, destroying your soul.
But God is not desiring the death of the Sinner. He desires that all be safe, that thought desire.
And that they come to the knowledge of the truth.
But this Naaman and the king of Syria had to learn that they had to go to the right place.
In order to find help for Naaman, you know they sent to the King of Israel.
And expect that he would cure this man. They must have not quite understood what this little girl was saying. They must have thought that the king was the one that the girl was talking about.
And.
Here the king is in distress.
You know, this king of Syria is only looking for an occasion to go to war against me. There will be more problems for my people and for myself.
Am I God?
He says yes, only God can heal the sin that is in you and in me, or in this case leprosy. Only God can heal it.
God has to cure.
So here he comes to the king. The king can help this man.
But the Prophet hears about it, hears about it, and he sends to the king.
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And then Niemann comes to the House of the Prophet.
But Neiman had to not only learn that he had to come.
To the right place and his thinking.
You know, he had his own ideas and that's what we find in the world today.
People say there are many ropes that lead to Rome. That's true. But there is only one Rd. that leads to heaven. And the Lord Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
The Sinner has to give up his own thoughts and accept God's way of salvation.
He was insulted that that prophet didn't even have the courtesy to come out.
And then do what he thought he should do.
Well, that man had to learn that he had to come God's way, that he had to accept the word of God and submit to the word of God in order to be healed.
And he had to also learn they had to get off his high horse.
You know God is no respecter of person when it is a question of sin, everybody is equal before God. God doesn't make any difference whether somebody is the Chief of Staff of the Army of the United States.
Or whether it is a pauper, a beggar.
You know, we had a happy experience with a Gordon needed his car fixed while he was in Mozambique, and we went to a man that fixed the car very quickly for him. And then he took us for a ride in that car and he asked what brought you here to Wisconsin and why are you, where are you going? And so on. So we told him.
He's a servant of the Lord and he's on his way to a Bible conference in Walla Walla.
And he'll go ahead and we will follow later, but we'll meet there again, he said. I have to tell you a story, he said. I used to be on Skid Row. Do you know what Skid Row is?
For the Chuck used to preach there once a week, you know, Skid Row.
That's where the bums are.
You can't get very low or very much lower than being a bomb on Skid Row and his man was saved.
And he gave the credit to the Lord. It doesn't make any difference.
Whether you are a bomb on Skate Roll or whether you are one of the Princess or the generals in the world greatly honored, you have to come as a Sinner, you know, and the Lord Jesus is able to make the vilest of sinners clean.
You know, it's a wonderful thing if there are people in this audience that have not been on Skid Row and have not lived immoral lives.
And have been.
Leave it living as decent citizens in their communities, but they're still sinners, still sinners, and they have to come like that. Farm and skate, roll to the Lord Jesus for salvation.
He's the only one that can cleanse from sin.
We had the privilege of visiting a cousin of mine.
In Berlin on our recent trip to Europe. He's my age, a month older than I am. He's not saved, and it was one of our exercises to go to Berlin to see this cousin and speak to him about the Lord.
And we had an opportunity to speak to him about the Lord.
And he said at first he said, yeah, he said, I know the Lord Jesus died for all of us, but, you know, he said I lived a pretty decent life and I believe he did. He had a high position as a police officer in Berlin and lived a decent family life. He didn't follow in the mire. He said, I know the Lord Jesus died for us, but I live pretty decent and I believe he will accept me on that basis.
Well, I said to him, he won't accept you on that basis.
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There's no hope for you on that basis, Well, he said. I think I'm quite satisfied.
It'll do for me. Well, we had an opportunity to read the scriptures to him the morning we left.
And read Ephesians 2. By grace are you saved through faith?
Not by works, lest any man should boast.
And in tightness where we read not by works of righteousness, which we have done.
But by his mercy he saved us, and I pleaded with him. I said, please don't take that round of standing before God on the basis of your decent life. It certainly is good that you haven't been on Skid Row following in the mire, but God cannot accept you that way. There is no hope for you, one sin of eating from a tree that was forbidden eating of that fruit.
Plunged Adam and the whole human race into position of sinners.
And he was driven out of the garden.
Away from the presence of God, he didn't permit murder. He didn't live an immoral life.
But he was disobedient to God. He ate of the forbidden fruit. I believe he was touched. You can pray for him. Secret is his name. But how sad this is where a lot of people are.
They trust in their decent life and yet.
If they're honest with themselves.
Is there anyone who can say I have never lied, I've never done anything wrong?
Well, the holiness of God cannot accept anybody, even if he only has.
Committed one sin that alienates you from God and you will be separated from him for all eternity.
Well, Niemann.
Had his own ideas.
And people still have their own ideas how they think they can be acceptable to God.
But God cannot accept anything from a guilty Sinner.
You know, a Sinner cannot atone for his own sin.
Just think those who don't accept the Lord Jesus are going to be cast.
Into the lake of fire and are punished for sin for all eternity.
And never come to the point that they will pay for their sin or make atonement for their sin. It's only punishment for sin that they will endure for all eternity. Only a sinless victim can become the Sinbara. The one who knew no sin was made sin for us.
Sin for me so that I might become the righteousness of God.
In him.
Why wonderful truth, that is to be able to present to guilty sinners that God has found a way how sinners can be brought back to him, how they can be made whole. You know the Lord Jesus is not only going to.
Bear your sins so that you don't have to go to hell. He will also deliver you from the power of sin, from the power of the devil.
And enable you to live a life pleasing to God.
After USA.
Well.
Naman was angry.
He didn't want to do what the word of God had told him. You know, when this prophet was speaking to Nehemiah, that was really the word of God that was given to Naomi.
But Naman didn't accept it as the word of God.
And he had his ideas, you know. He knew how dirty that river Jordan was and how much better some of the rivers in Damascus were in the land of Syria.
And why should he go there into that dirty water? And why couldn't he bathe in one of those rivers that he mentions here?
Well, the Jordan in the Word of God is a picture of the death of the Lord Jesus.
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That's what the Jordan speaks of.
You know, and we have to, as it were, appropriate for ourselves by faith, the work of the Lord Jesus accept that except his person and His work, in order to be cleansed.
You know why I can tell you that? That Jordan is a picture of the death of the Lord Jesus. You know when those children of Israel came out of Egypt into the Promised Land, that Jordan was one of the places that they had to go through, just like the Red Sea.
You know, and the stones were put into the middle of that river, 12 Stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel where the ark had stood. And 12 Stones were put on the other side, You know, that spoke of those 12 tribes of the children of Israel. You know, they were, as it were put out of God side as sinners, and they were, as it were new creatures in Christ on the recollection side.
The River Jordan, that which speaks of the death of Christ, is what was given to this man as a way for cleansing his sin. There is no other way for us today but the death of the Lord Jesus, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.
And let me emphasize from all sin, from all sins, you know, we bought our first house in Mosinee from a former school teacher and she became later on our renter. So we had quite a bit to do with that Lady and.
She was a dear soul and she said, I know the Lord Jesus died for my sins, but there are some sins that I have to atone for.
That's what she was taught by the system.
Into which she had grown up, and we poured at the Bible to her.
I don't know how many times the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sins.
You know there isn't a sin that that blot cannot cleanse and it will cleanse the violence of sinners.
You know, we might think that the violence of Sinner is the fellow that lives on Skid Row lives an immoral life, has murdered somebody.
No Paul who could say of himself.
That he was found blameless as far as the law is concerned.
Speaks of himself as the chiefest of sinners. Sinner #1, why he had persecuted the Church of God.
And how Solomon is?
Not to accept the work of the Lord Jesus and the work of the Lord Jesus only for the cleansing of all of our sins. But now this man comes to this river after his servants pleaded with him. Now isn't that a wonderful thing? That's what we like to do tonight. We like to plead with you if you have pushed it off and belittled.
God's way of salvation.
Please listen to the word of God, just like these servants pleaded with their masters who we would like to plead with you except what the Word of God says. Go God's way, not your own.
You know, in Romans we read of the obedience of faith.
You know, we see that twice in the book of Romans, at the beginning and at the end. Yes, there is such a thing as obedience of faith to accept God's word and act on it. That is what secures salvation.
So he goes to that river.
He listens to his servants.
But what did he have to do?
Like I said already, he had to get off his high horse. He had to take that uniform off. You know, you have seen sometimes how these generals are decorated, you know, and when you think of how they were.
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Dressed during World War One, You know they don't don't have their uniforms quite so glorious anymore as it was in the past, but they still.
Make quite an impression when they stand there with all their decorations and honors.
But he had to take that all off.
You know, he had to go into that river just as a guilty Sinner would, without expecting God accepting him because of any position that he had in life.
So let's read some verses in the New Testament that.
Show that God delights to bless and to save those that are esteemed little.
In Man's Eyes First Corinthians chapter.
1.
Verse 26.
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.
You know Queen Victoria.
I believe came to know the Lord Jesus and she was so glad that the word of God.
Did not say not anything it said. Not many, you know, their salvation available for even those who are high born in this world or in high positions, just like this man was. But they had to come as guilty sinners. God could not accept them and gave them a more favorable treatment because of who they were in this world, you know.
The gospel is a leveler of all men. Puts the mall on the same grounds before God.
And they have to come God's way. They have to, in humility, bow down and accept.
God's way of salvation. And God desires that they do get saved, and so he climbs into that water.
And he goes down.
One time.
2 * 2 * 3 times Was he clean? No, only after he had dipped down seven times.
You know, and his flesh was even better than before he got this disease. Like a little boy's flesh. You look at the flesh of a little boy compared to a man that is 50-60 years old. Well, how wonderful God's grace can cleanse and make us whiter than snow. The word of God says how wonderful.
We have the Savior of God.
But we have to accept his word. We have to come his way.
You know, he had to learn something else.
And that is that he.
Could not.
Buy could not use money.
And clothing to earn anything or gain anything.
That was all free.
You know the Prophet did not even speak to him. He sent a messenger out to him when he came to his house. But after he was cleaned he does come out to him and.
He speaks to him and he makes it clear.
Not silver or gold we sing has wrought our redemption. Not by anything that we can pay can we be saved.
You know, isn't this what people tried to do? You know, reform all kinds of societies and do good to the poor and things that that is something that God can accept for them. I used to work at a hospital, Jewish hospital in Chicago, and they had formed a club, Jewish club for crippled children. And it was certainly a very noble thing they were doing, but it was all based on doing something.
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That would make themselves acceptable before God.
We cannot by works, nor by money.
Gain salvation.
And how sad is that his eye?
Goes after this man. He was covetous.
And he spoils this perfect picture of the Gospel in the Old Testament by asking for silver, asking for Raymond Flying to get it.
Isn't that a painful thing to see, this man being associated with the Prophet of Jehovah?
A servant of this prophet.
And then to spoil his life by covetousness.
How sad.
I believe that is a very solemn lesson.
That we have in the servants of the Prophet.
Elisha.
I believe that if he would not have fallen in that way, he might himself in due time has become a prophet of Jehovah.
But we find later on in his life in the 8th chapter.
That this man, although he was a leper.
Is in the court of the king of Israel and entertaining the king with the works that he had witnessed.
Done by Elisha.
Yet he was a leper.
You know, according to the law, he wants to be outside. You know, calling unclean gives you an insight even how unscriptural the king of Israel behaved in allowing even this man in his court.
You know, isn't it true that people entertain?
People by using things from the word of God.
You know, they even invite people to come to the churches because there is a jester there who will clown around using the word of God. A comedian, a Christian comedian. Well, that's the kind of thing that this man was doing. But how solemn the leprosy of Neumann was on him and on his seat forever.
But what a wonderful character this Neil Man manifests. He did not only get cleansed from leprosy, he came to know the true and living God.
You know, the gospel is not only to make sure that you get rid of your sins and that you're not going to go to hell. The gospel also wants to familiarize you and make you to know a God of love, have a personal relationship with that God.
And he had attend a conscience, you know, he had a conscience about bowing down in an idle temple.
You know, and he was the servant of that king, and it was apparently part of his duty that he had to.
Support the king. Maybe the king was an old man, you know, and he had a conscience.
Now isn't it wonderful that the prophet doesn't say don't do this and don't do that? He sees a conscience, a tender conscience in name, and he says go in peace. I'm sure the Lord took care of Nehemiah. Maybe he never had to bow down in the House of women. Now isn't that nice to see that this man not only got cured of that which is a picture of sin, but that he also comes to know the true and living God?
You know, we come to know God through the Lord Jesus in a more intimate way than any Old Testament ever knew God. No Old Testament Saints could ever speak to God as his Father. He was not in that kind of a relationship. But we can. We are all the sons of God to faith in the Lord Jesus. The scripture says we have an intimate relationship to God.
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When the family of God where heirs of God and fellow heirs.
With Price, is that wonderful that God wants to have children and wants to have a family?
And he has decided that those who at this time during the day of grace accept his Son, the Lord Jesus, will be part of the family of God, be into that, be in that intimate relationship. To know God as Father, to be able to say ABBA Father. You know, we have had the privilege of being in the Middle East a number of times, and I tried to familiarize myself.
To some extent, with Islam, with the religion of Islam. And you know what they say.
They believe that it is.
Blasphemy.
To say that God wants us to be his children.
They say God wants us to be his slaves.
That's the teaching of Islam. How wonderful to have a God through the Lord Jesus. No, a God that is a God of love, a God of grace, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ and he has made known the Father and that you can come to him like a little child would come to his Father.
In confidence.
Being that close to him, don't you want that for yourself?
To have a Father like God and have God as your Father. He has a Father's house for us, where we spend eternity with the Lord Jesus.
Oh, I trust there's nobody in this room that will be so foolish.
Of turning away from that which God in his grace is offering today.
Today.
The only way you can come to know God and to know your sins forgiven and to know to be underway to heaven is by coming God's way by accepting his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and the work that he has done on Calvary's cross.
He alone.
Can make atonement and has made atonement for sin. And you can know tonight that your sins are forgiven when you by faith accept the Lord Jesus.
God is just and the justifier of him that believeth on Jesus.
You know God cannot go back on His word word. He has said that if you accept the.
The Lord Jesus, you will be cleansed from all His guilt. You will be justified from all things.
Oh, how wonderful the gospel message is. I hope there is none in this room tonight that will.
Passed up the opportunity and will not accept the gospel message except the Lord Jesus. You know today is the day of salvation. Today when we hear His word harden up. Your heart is what the Word of God says. It's a very solemn thing to reject God's message of mercy and God's way of salvation. The only way is to Christ, the Son of God. Let's pray.
Our Restoring Shepherd