Walla Walla Conference: 2018
Table of Contents
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Reading
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Then that we could take up First Corinthians 12 and perhaps.
Touch on chapters 13 and 14 as well. I'm not just sure how far we'll get in four reading meetings, but if we can remember to move along, perhaps we can give a overview. It deals with the subject of the one body of Christ. We are living in that time frame when there is one body.
It sometimes is confusing and I think it is helpful just to go over those scriptures.
In South America, where the Lord is working in a marked way, it is precious to my soul to see how they are laying hold of these truths. And it is a joy to see so many young people here, and I suggest that we go over that.
What do my brothers say?
Chapter 12.
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as you were led. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord, and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God.
Which worketh All in all.
Of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all, for to one is given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom, to another the Word of knowledge, by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit.
To another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh at one in the self same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
For by 1 Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit.
For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body.
Is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him? And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body?
And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee.
Nor again the head to the feet. I have no need of you. Nay, much more, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honourable. Upon these we be still more abundant honour, and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness, for our comely parts have no need. But God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Where one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular. And God has set some in the church. First apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps governments, diversities of tongues.
Are all apostles, Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret, but covet earnestly the best gifts? And yet shall I unto you a more excellent way.
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It's been mentioned that in chapter 12 we have the body presented.
In chapter 13 we have the oil that makes it function smoothly and in chapter 14 we have the body in its function as in verse 23 of chapter 14 it says if therefore the whole church.
Become into one place. That's what we call an assembly meeting.
So I just present that as a brief overview. I also like to mention that you'll notice in verse one the word gifts is in italics, which means that it was added by the interpreters.
The translators and Mr. Garbage translation. He puts it spiritual manifestations.
It's the same in chapter 14 and verse one. Follow after charity, love and desire, spiritual manifestations. It's not so much of the gifts, It's not wrong the word gifts because the Spirit manifests his presence through the gifts. But the point is spiritual manifestations.
And he goes on to say that they were gentiles and in the gentile world they were carried away to these dumb idols.
In chapter 10, we find that behind idols are evil spirits.
And they were carried away and there were spiritual manifestations in the heathen world.
It's quite interesting that some that have gone to Africa and been in heaven areas.
Find that the phenomena of speaking in tongues is practiced by people who have never heard of the Lord Jesus. It is a phenomenon. It's a spiritual manifestation of the presence of demons spirits. So he's speaking here of spiritual manifestations and.
In this case, in this chapter, it is the Holy Spirit we're talking about in verse three and forward it's always with a capital S and in verse 13 by 1 Spirit we are all baptized into one body. So it's interesting the.
Taking it in that context, spiritual manifestations.
Does it start with the 12Th chapter? Does he and so?
The subject in our chapter, the manifestation of spirituals or the effect of the Spirit of God.
We read in chapter two of First Corinthians.
And verse 2.
We have more of what he had presented before then before he developed on other topics and he says in verse two of chapter 2.
For I determined not to know anything among you.
Save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Reading a little article recently in a calendar and it referred to was a meeting place in England and they had a verse on the front of the building. It said we preach Christ crucified.
And the building wasn't well kept and so it was a vine growing and it just grew and grew and grew. And it came over the sign and it hid the word crucified. And it said, if you went by, you can see we preached Christ.
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And then the wine kept growing and growing and then it hid the word Christ. And it said, if you went by, it says we preach. And then it kept growing and finally you couldn't see anything. And so.
What's missing?
And much of christianity's discourse they often read first Corinthians chapter 12 I was involved with a young man recently he'd been involved with other Christians who.
Are Speaking of gifts and tongues and manifestations and all these things and.
You might follow their discourse. That's right. That's verse. That verse is there. That verse is there. But the the thing that's missing.
Is that second verse of chapter 2?
The person of the Lord Jesus and his work on the cross, it's all based on him and his work. So before the apostle Paul could develop anything, he wanted to make sure that they they were, they were settled on that Jesus Christ and him crucified. You don't have that. You don't have anything.
In this chapter, we.
Being by the Spirit of God through Gentiles and they had had previous experiences before they were saved. They had had previous spiritual experiences before they were saved. And I wonder if this verse 2 is not reminding them or or warning them. Don't borrow from where you came from. Don't think that the spiritual impressions that have been made on on you will be similar to how the Spirit of God works.
And I think this is a real danger today. We live in a day where many gatherings of Christians, many leaders in these organizations, are desperate to keep the people still coming. They've got budgets. They've got and love for God's people, too, trying to keep the people. And they are employing strange methods, bringing things into God's people.
As you've alluded to that belong in hedonism and and and by the way, just not to be contrary, but to just for the sake of clarification, what happens in in the heathen world that was mentioned as tongues is not the same as the Scriptural.
Gift of tongues. The phenomenon may have a certain similarities. The phenomenon may look outwardly something similar.
It is not the same and in these leading verses here in this chapter, the Spirit of God is making it very plain. Do not confuse where you came from in heathenism with or how demons work and what the influences felt like to how the Spirit of God works. And sad to say, there are many Christians today that are looking for an experience. They are looking for a subjective impression.
To be made physically and emotionally in their beings that they are being told is in evidence of the spirit's activity and this is extremely dangerous. Extremely dangerous under Eugene Peterson, the message and all of that movement, so-called spiritual formation, spiritual theology, that line of things is mixing in Transcendental Meditation to get the experience.
These are dangerous days.
That we're living in. And so you know, the ye were Gentiles, not Gentiles anymore. They are now the Church of God. That refers back to chapter 10, verse 32. But they were carried away unto these dumb idols. Even as you were led, so they were led.
By demons, and we'll find in the next few verses that what they were led to and to express.
Is exactly the opposite the way the Spirit of God would lead his own dear people.
So you have two distinct.
Tests in verse three of the Spirit of God working, it says wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed. In other words, if it is the Spirit of God that is leading, it will not lead to anything derogatory toward the person of our Lord Jesus.
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And then it says, and that no man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
So that it is by the Spirit of God that the Lord Jesus is given His place of Lordship. We recognize him as Lord.
B They could say that, couldn't they? But this is really talking about somebody who is under this influence. When they're under this influence, they whatever they're speaking and and they would not be able to say Jesus is Lord. It's not just that.
Commonly speaking, they don't say Jesus is Lord, but when they're under the influence of this spirit, they cannot say that Jesus is Lord.
The testimony of a young man who went to some of these meetings and there was definitely a power there. And when it came on him, he felt like he was floating. And like Wayne said, it was an experience. But in between the meetings he felt an emptiness in his soul and he couldn't explain it.
And one day he read this verse three of our chapter.
The end there that no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost.
As I said, I'm going to test that spirit that's there. And when he went the next time and felt the presence of that spirit, he said he tried. For an hour and a half, he swept in his efforts to try to confess Jesus as Lord. He said I couldn't do it.
He says, I got up and I left and I never went back. So these are tasks and the Spirit of God is here to exalt the person of the Lord Jesus. And even though we are in weakness in our meetings, sometimes, brethren, these are the characteristics of the leading of the Spirit of God, the manifestation of His presence.
As Christians we have to be aware of aren't there? And the Epistle to 1St Corinthians is primarily a corrective epistle because all these errors were manifested Corinth. And so just to give a brief outline to the book, the 1St 10 chapters by and large address moral laxity and worldliness, and I hope that all real Christians are concerned about those two things.
Moral laxity and worldliness. God's standards about worldliness and moral laxity have not changed. And so he addresses that in the 1St, 9, 1/2 or 10 chapters. And then in Chapter 11 Through 14, we have a second error that's often ignored by Christians, and I think it's important to recognize, and that is what we call assembly disorder or ecclesiastical error. Many people don't understand the position of the assembly assembly at all.
Which we find throughout the New Testament, and they think that's not important to Christianity, but it is. And the Spirit of God, according to Scripture, is recognized as the one who directs in the assembly, sometimes called the president in the assembly. And again, that's widely ignored in Christendom. So what we're looking at in these three chapters has to do with ecclesiastical error or assembly order.
Recognized by its disorder. Oftentimes we learn truth by the disorder. And so that's what the Apostle Paul was teaching them here. And then in the 10th chapter, we have the third fundamental error that we need to be concerned with, and that's doctrinal error. They had error regarding the resurrection of Christ. So I just mentioned those things because we find them throughout Scripture. And when we search for truth, we should recognize that we need to search on that basis.
Is there moral laxity and worldliness? Is there? Is the assembly recognized? The Spirit of God's place recognized in the assembly? One of the early articles that Brethren wrote was looking at the clerical system as the.
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As the modern day sin against the Holy Spirit, some people find that strange perhaps, but.
If the President of the United States were here, we'd all respect his authority and expect his lawyer, respect his order. And so in these chapters we're going to see that the Spirit of God is the one who is to direct in the assembly and how important that is. And so the clerical system per Southeast is a modern day sin against the Holy Spirit because it displaces him with man's order. So I just mentioned that there's those 3 great errors in Christendom.
I shouldn't say imprisoned him, but abroad. And we're all prone to each one. But what we have instruction about here is not only assembly order, but the proper place of the Spirit of God directing in the Assembly of God.
So here in the opening verses then he's addressing an issue that is very prevalent around us and that's imitation. You know, there are 4 chapters in Second Timothy and each one of them the apostle deals with some particular departure from the truth in chapter 3. It's imitation. One of the ways that the truth is undermined is by imitation. Something that looks like the truth, something that looks like.
A scriptural practice. But when you get beneath the surface, that's not what it is. And I think we could say too, that in the Epistles we have doctrine and instruction relative to Christianity. In the Epistles we see the history of the the formation of the church in the Acts of the Apostles and the Jews rejection of that truth, but the doctrine.
For Christianity and for the church we get in the epistles, and there are two epistles I'm thinking of in particular, Ephesians and Colossians, that we could say are ecclesiological. They asked, they answered the question, what is the church in the mind of God? What is this mystery that God has revealed? But in the Corinthian epistles we have what we might call ecclesiastical truth. How does that church, once we understand what it is, what does it look like here on the earth? How does it function?
What do the members do? And when we come to deal with that subject, we have to realize that in the world in which we are, we have such a thing as imitation. What happened in the garden right at the beginning of man's history, somebody slipped in there and had a word that undermined something that God had said. Well, we could say, well, that's an imitation.
In one way or another, and it was used to turn them aside.
If you sit down and think about it, I'm sure that each one of us can think of any number of things around about us in, in the Christian profession today. Many like you say that are, are, are coming in and being embraced that may at first have just a little bit of, of, of error. It may just get off the track just a little bit. But when you go down the track, you know, for for decades or a few 100 years or so, that which God has given might be almost unrecognizable.
And that's why it's very important that we heed the word of God, that each one of us here, we, we make the word of God our own. We spend time in the Word of God. We learn the different character of these epistles and the different books of the Bible so that we have some sense of what it is that God has revealed to us in its purity. And that's what Paul is getting at here. The Corinthians, this is not Ephesians.
Where he can take the mystery and he can lay it out for the people of God in Corinth. Corinth was a byword in the Roman Empire in Greece. And you see chapter after chapter as you use the word corrective, there's something he has to take up that they needed to gain clarity on so that they could move on. And it's very interesting that these things that have to do with the function of the assembly and gifts.
They're later in the epistle because in the 1St 4 chapters.
He has to set their minds straight regarding men. They thought too highly of men.
The best of men are but men at best. And then we have moral issues. And then some of the issues that you mentioned they they were, they needed to be instructed on the issue of marriage. Is that apropos today? Absolutely.
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Everything in God's order has a place, and the Christian needs to understand the place that those things have. And he talks about the table, the one body, and he talks about the Lord's table. He talks about the place of the man, the place of the woman. It's only after he deals with some of these things that now he says, all right, we have to deal with this thought.
Of the spiritual manifestations, what are the character of them? So this is a warning about the dangers of imitation, especially as you brothers have said that the background that they came from, the things that they knew for all of their lives, it was all around them in the Pagan religion and philosophy.
They had embraced something new that came from the Lord, that came from the holy and the true, and they needed to see the difference.
On imitation we have two Corinthians 11 in the same line of thought, brother, 2 Corinthians 11.
We find 3.
3 words connected generally with the truth of the Lord Jesus, Verse one of Chapter 11 of Southern Corinthians. Second Corinthians.
With the God, he could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me if I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy.
Who have espoused you to one husband that might present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
There's imitation, but I fear lest by any means, as a serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if you that come and preach it another Jesus, that's another Jesus whom we have not preached. Or if he received another spirit, there's a spirit which ye have not received, or another gospel which ye have not accepted, you might well bear.
With him. So there's the Lord Jesus, his name Jesus and the Spirit mentioned and the gospel, but it's way different, way different than what we have revealed to us by the Spirit of God and the Word of God about the Lord Jesus.
Christened them. And I like to just clarify that when we use that word, we're talking about everybody that professes the name of the Lord Jesus. That's right, isn't it, Eric?
And it doesn't exclude us. We are included in it. And so these principles apply to us as just as much as to anybody. And I think it's important when we speak of this, I find that sometimes people that are not really seriously into the word tend to start looking at people and groups. You can't do that. If you want to see the truth in its clarity, you have to look at the person of the Lord Jesus. You have to look at His word.
And this is for all of us to be exercised about. Now we come down to verse 4-5 and six and you'll notice.
That in each word verse, verse four, it's diversities.
Verse 5 differences, it's really the same word, it's just that they used a different English word and Verse 6 diversities and So what we have in these 3 verses and what's the truth of the.
Church or the body of Christ is unity and diversity.
To me, it is a most beautiful thing to see in the body of Christ. Is there one brother exactly like another brother? Have you ever seen a brother exactly like Dave Newbie?
I've never seen anybody. He's totally different than all the rest. But is there unity? Yes. And that's the way God works. He takes from the diverse and he makes unity. And it's beautiful to see. In verse four, it's the spirit. In verse five, it's the Lord. In verse six, it's God. So the whole Trinity is involved in this work.
Beautiful brethren, to enjoy it that there is one body and so there is diversity of gifts. No one has exactly the same gift.
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All different measures. It may be the gift of teaching in several brothers here, but it's not exactly the same in any one of them. But it is the same spirit. So if we are guided by that same spirit.
There's not going to be contradiction. There may be a brother that will help clarify a little better something by a comment later on and this is the value of the reading meeting brethren, where the Spirit of God is at liberty to use one and another that are different, but it is the same spirit verse five. There are differences of administrations or we might say ministries.
What the Lord has given to you may not be the same as He's given to me, but it's the same Lord that directs that. And so there's not going to be contradiction. And verse six, there are diversities of operations. The way I operate may not be the same as you operate, but it is the same God which worketh. All in all, I think this is so beautiful to appreciate.
In the body of Christ, how God works, brethren, he's working in the world today. And so there are there is diversity and there is unity at the same time.
Secret of the Trinity, isn't it? There is one God, but there are three persons. That's a mystery we can understand entirely, but that's the secret behind this unity and diversity. Now, if we go to the world of Islam, we find there's no diversity. It's only one God. Where is the love in that? Where is the affection? Where is the diversity? There is none. It's a monolithic structure and it excludes that diversity that we have.
And so it sometimes said that God came in time. He came out of his essential fulfillment. God didn't need man, but he chose man. But in the Trinity, God was complete in himself. That's not true of Islam, is it? Where they claim there's just one God. And I might mention that one God is not the true God. If we look at history, we see that that one God was simply.
The the one of many demons that became predominant and he exercised authority and finally had enough followers that said, well, we're just going to claim this one God as the God of overall. So it's not the true God. Let's not be fooled about that. When people say that the God of Christianity is the same as the God of Islam, that's patently false. He's simply a demon that was exalted above other demons. But the true God is a Trinity.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit as we see here, and yet one God.
But we have the word distinctions here in the new translation in the King James, you have diversities and differences. It's just the one word here, the same word as distinctions. And what you're saying, Eric, shows that the thought of distinction God is a God that makes distinctions. And it goes back to the distinctions of the persons in the Godhead.
And we live in a day where the move is toward sameness, homogenization, making everything the same, getting rid of the thought of gender or whatever it might be. That shows some distinction that God has made. But what God has done in his activities among men is to recognize the beauty of the distinctions that God has made.
Not every member is the same, and we learn in a chapter like this that every member, distinct from something from the other members, has their own particular function that contributes to the profit of all. If a member does not exercise what they have for the profit of all, then the collective we miss out on that.
So we have a unity.
Diversity within that unity, and God has designed it in that way for a particular function. And we see if we go to the gifts in the Ephesians chapter 4, that everything is for edification. We have that in chapter 14 here, and everything is for the building up of the body in love, that we might come to that point where we grow up under Christ in all things. He is the center and the focus of the whole purpose.
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Of God in the assembly.
He wants to draw us near to himself.
One another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
I believe that attitudes necessary to keep the unity of the spirit of loneliness and weakness and long-suffering with our brother and forgiving him. When you read on, there is one body, one spirit usually.
One Lord, 1 faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, true all, and in you all.
But unto everyone of us is given grace according to measures, the gift of praise.
We go down to verse 11.
And he gave some.
Pastors some teachers to the perfection of the Saints, for the works of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ.
So we come in the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God.
Then we go to university.
From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint suppliers according to the work.
Every part of Nikki the entries to the body under the edifying of the self and love.
Lord has an individual work for each one of us.
Working together to identify the body and I like reversal. Cut in Colossians 2.
In verse two, that their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding through the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and the Father of and of Christ, and whom our head all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. May our hearts be knit together in love, not our desire to know more about the war, and that's where that should be.
What we have in verse seven of our chapter, what you're saying, Brother Matt, that the manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone, not merely man, but every woman as well, that is a member of the body of Christ to profit with all. And this is something to be exercised about.
Young brother and sister.
Your sisters scripture is clear that you don't take part in speaking in assembly meetings, but doesn't mean that you're not there for profit. And I must say, in my travels around, sometimes I see meetings where the sisters are more evidently awake than the brothers.
So we need everyone.
And so it is the Prophet.
This manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone to profit with all. So if you're not exercised in your place, brother or sister, this is goes for the younger brothers too. Then the prophet that God means for all is not going to be evident and God wants it that way. How important it is then we tend to exalt one person or another.
Or tend to look at them. The Lord deliver us, brethren from that. Let's look to that man to whom we are united in glory, the Lord Jesus. It's through him that the Spirit of God directs in his body down here in this world. And even though we live in a world that is totally disarrayed as to the public manifestation of the oneness of the body of Christ.
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Still, the truth remains and we are responsible to act accordingly.
The gifts and Ephesians chapter 4 is something.
If you're a teacher, you're always a teacher. If you're a prophet, always a prophet. Go on these manifestations with spirit, the word of wisdom and what we call these things. Is the Spirit of God working in certain situations different. We need to. We just need to recognize that.
The thought was the same, that God that is given for the benefit of others.
Let's just read it verse again quickly.
And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.
For the perfection of the things.
The gift is for the 1St.
It's for this purpose of edifying.
Similarly with the Spirit of God. It is given to every man who profit. The ball is given to the blessing of others. Let's not get selfish and.
I had this gift for that gift, but let's let's recognize that.
Are for the purpose for the edifying research, for the benefit of the benefit.
Of those around.
Make the comment, again just to emphasize the importance of what we've been speaking about, that the assembly order or ecclesiastical order, which again I say is often diminished or not recognized by many dear believers, is actually based in the Trinity, in the Godhead. So that order comes and is based in the Trinity. And so as you mentioned, Bob, starting with verse seven, we have the order now of the assembly, but where did that order come from?
It comes from the very essence of who God is, a Trinity and one God. And so it's not an insignificant thing. Many people say, well, that brother is a nice brother. Why can't he break bread? Well, does he recognize the authority of God in the midst? Those are important questions, aren't they? Does he recognize ecclesiastical order? Is that important at all? It's not insignificant. It's based in the very nature of who God is.
And so, as you mentioned, beginning with verse 7, now we have that assembly order begun, but the foundation is God himself, the oneness and the diversity of God himself. That's not insignificant. There could not be anything more significant. And so ecclesiastical order is extremely important, and that's what we have here.
It's manifest in the one body, isn't it? We mentioned Christendom, which is really the House of God, isn't it? That includes all professors.
That's what we had really in the 1St 9 1/2 Chapters of First Corinthians. But now we have the one body and that's only those who are real believers and sealed by the Spirit of God, isn't it?
Patient leave out to every man and at birth.
Through each it says and because I think it includes men as well as.
Our sisters as well, don't you think?
They are just as much members of the body and useful.
As the brothers.
Same with Ephesians 4:00 and 12:00 we read before.
That we understand that God had given in the 11Th verse. He'd given men, you might say to the prophet, the whole body and their activity at Ephesians 4 and 12 for the perfecting of the Saints, not just the brothers and sisters also. So these men given to the church in verse 11 for the perfecting of the Saints and the Saints being perfected for the work of the ministry, for the work of the service. It's not limited to those mentioned in the 11Th verse. He's perfecting the Saints through these ministries.
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In view of all the Saints being active in the service for the work of the service, for identifying of the body of Christ, So everybody's active. There are main actors, you might say, helping the others, forming them, instructing them, and they are active and the result is the edifying of the body of Christ as we read later on verse 16.
You have those different manifestations of the Spirit and the verses that follow. Verse to one is given by the Spirit, the word of Wisdom, to another the word of Knowledge. Interesting distinctions.
I've noticed, brethren, if it's a question of.
Knowing It's important to know, brethren, and there are those that give a word of knowledge in its proper way.
But wisdom is not exactly the same, even though it's related.
Wisdom is taking knowledge and making it real in our lives. So their brethren that may have given, been given the manifestation of the Spirit in a word of knowledge that may not have real wisdom. There is a distinction there. And so God uses one and another. That's why we need each one of us. Brethren, I need you.
You need me. We cannot be isolationists to another faith by the same Spirit. And I take it this is a special manifestation of the Spirit? Just to give an illustration that helped me understand. Because faith is something that is common to us all, brethren, and it is the gift of God. That's why we're saved by faith. It is the gift of God. But here it is a special manifestation of the Spirit.
Remember, in a certain area the brethren were concerned about a certain situation and there was one particular brother that said, brother, I think we can count on the Lord and go forward. And it was because of the impulse given perhaps by the Spirit of God and that brother that they carried on. And that may be an illustration of what it is. Faith is given.
As a manifestation of the spirit to another gifts of healing. So you have the miraculous gifts here, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, diverse kinds of tongues, another interpretation of tongues.
It was a help to me. Our late brother Jimmy Smith gave an explanation of why in the book of first Corinthians you have the miraculous gifts listed. You don't have that in the other two places where gifts are mentioned. In Romans chapter 12 you have them mentioned and in Ephesians 4, as we've heard, but.
It's in First Corinthians that we have the miraculous gifts. Why the difference?
And he took us back into Acts chapter 18, where you have the apostle Paul in Corinth. And he went, as was his custom, into the synagogue of the Jews. And when the Jewish people started contradictory, contradicting why he separated the disciples in verse seven, it says he entered into a certain man's house named Justice.
One that worshiped God, whose house joined hard was right next door. It really means to the synagogue. So the assembly meetings were held right next door to the synagogue. And I remember our brother Jimmy Smith suggesting that because it was right next door, perhaps there were Jewish people that came in to hear the word in the assembly meetings. And since these miraculous gifts were signs to the Jewish people.
At the beginning of the church's history, God gave them, and perhaps even in assembly meetings he gave these. But there are things to regulate their use. Chapter 14 we read about the question of tongues.
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And if there was nobody to interpret the tongues, then they were to be kept. They were to keep silent. So I think it was helpful to me to see. That's why you have in this list in First Corinthians 12, the miraculous gifts.
Turning knowledge, I was thinking of a verse in Second Timothy or First Timothy chapter 6.
Knowledge falsely so-called knowledge that popped up and knowledge that doesn't and so verse twenty of first Timothy six, he says, oh Timothy, keep that which is committed that I trust avoiding profane and vague babblings and oppositions of it says science, which knowledge falsely so-called. There's things that are called knowledge, but they're not knowledge. They're ignorance really, because God has revealed things to us.
We have the things revealed to us in the scriptures and we have a verse in First Corinthians chapter 8.
It's a revelation of things that God has given us to know and understand.
And I'm sure we appreciate.
Knowledge of all sorts of aspects of the truth, knowledge and prophecy and knowledge and all sorts of things connected with the person of the Lord and church truth and whatever. So First Corinthians 8 and verse.
One it says now is touching things offered unto idols. We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puff it up.
But charity edify it and so it's a concern that we need to have because we are natural men in the flesh. We do have the Spirit of God.
And we can have our minds taken up with sound knowledge.
And it's going to puff us up because we're like that. We're subject to that. I know so much, you know, but there's not knowledge that does not puff up. And we have that in second Peter, chapter one.
I.
Second Peter One.
And verse three, according as his divine power given us unto us all things.
That pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him.
That called us to glory and virtue.
The knowledge of him, I wonder, brethren, is it possible?
For the knowledge of Him not to sink down in our hearts and move us and make us humble and make us appreciate every aspect of truth He gives us to understand. But connected with the personal Son of God and who He is and what He's done for His Father, what He's done for you and me, His virtue and His glory, the glory of that person. How could we ever think of being an apprentice of the Lord Jesus with any measure of pride or thoughts towards ourselves?
And so knowledge is a good thing, but if it's separated from the person, it's a dangerous thing. And don't we have to recognize that it's been things that have happened among us? It's not that we don't know. We know, but we divide in the name of the Lord. How can that be? That's because I believe there's a lack of connection between the heart and the mind. And so may the Lord help us that we would have the knowledge of him, his virtue and his glory. And if it makes us like Him, then how we're going to be kept from from ourselves too.
I can think of three men who knew.
And they serve as a real object lesson for all of us. They had knowledge, Balaam.
And Judas Iscariot.
And Caiaphas solemn lessons, something that we can take up on our own at home and learn some very edifying and and profitable lessons from. They had knowledge, didn't they?
Ecclesiastes 712 Says this wisdom is a defense and money is a defense, but the Excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it. Something to chew on, brother.
00:55:05
Going back to the signed gifts a little bit, the signed gifts are common at the beginning of a dispensation, aren't they?
Think of when the Israelites came out of Egypt. They were great sign gifts up through Sinai. But then once in a once a dispensation is established, the word of God becomes the authority. Now the time may come when the word of God is rejected categorically. We call that apostasy. And then oftentimes signed gifts come back. We see that in the apostasy of the 10 tribes and Elijah and Elijah.
They they undertook many miracles because the authority of the Word of God was completely rejected.
But in Christianity now, the signed gifts have were established at the beginning, but then the Word of God, these epistles and the other parts of the Word of God, they were completed by the apostle Paul and the other apostles and prophets. And so the Word of God takes that place and gives authority to what they said originally that wasn't there. We know that they stood in the face of a religion that was almost 2000 years old.
How could they contradict Judaism, which they traced back to Abraham, while the signed gifts gave authority to what they said? But then the Word of God was established as we know and completed in the 1St century, and now it's a question of obedience to the Word of God.
We can say that God can heal even today, can't we? No question about it. But it's not a gift to heal. Not a particular person that does that.
Just to follow up a little bit what you're saying there, Eric, it's a very profitable study to notice that the different junctures of history in Scripture where you had miracles and so forth, First of all, with Moses and Joshua, God was doing something different, something new.
And then as you say, with Elijah and Elijah, he was working among the 10 tribes and calling them back to himself. And then thirdly, Christ and the apostles. And then the last time, I think we can say is that the inauguration of the millennial Kingdom where the prophecy of Joel will be fulfilled completely. In each of those cases, God is doing something new and bringing in, you might say, a new dispensation speaking.
Conventionally he's doing something new, rendering some particular testimony to himself, and he's using those, but they aren't the run-of-the-mill at all times.
Matthew 16. Just a comment there, I know it times up.
Matthew 16 and verse 20.
To justify.
Sign gifts and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following.
Oftentimes what we have is we have the use of the words to confirm the signs. It's the opposite. So we have signs and we go in the Scriptures and we say this is what's happened over there. That's not the way it worked. It was confirming the word. And so when we have the word, as you were saying, we have the word of God, I don't need to see a miracle. I know what happened. The word says it happened.
Lazarus was risen from the dead. I don't need to see a man being raised from the dead because the Word of God gives me a witness to that. And my faith is based on what I what I see is in what I read in the Word of God.
For a close I'd like to touch verse 11. All these that had been listed there worketh that one and the self same spirit dividing to every man or everyone severally as he will. Spirit of God is in the Church of God.
He is in the body, and here it is that divides severally as He will. How important it is to recognize His presence, brother, and in our midst. Again, I say, I find that so often we tend to look at human instruments. Are there human instruments? Yes, there are. Don't look at them. They're just human instruments and they can fail to be looking to the Lord Jesus.
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He is the head, He is the one that gives through the Spirit these gifts, these manifestations of the Spirit. I should never be jealous of another man's gift. Could Christ give them? I think there's a nice, nice illustration of that, verse 11. And the Tabernacle isn't there? There were the wood boards that were covered with gold and founded in the the silver sockets. A picture of individual believers.
But there were bars on the outside that held those together, as well as rings on the top. Those are pictures, perhaps of the gifts that God gives. But then there was a rod that went all the way through the middle and held the whole thing together. And that's the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31
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First Corinthians chapter 1212.
For as the body is one and half many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by 1 Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body?
And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body.
Is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him? And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now were they many members, yet but one body and the eye cannot say into the hand I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more of those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary.
And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable upon Thee, we bestow more abundant honor, and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness, for our comely parts have no need. But God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked. That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Now you're the body of Christ and members in particular. And God has set some in the church. First apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, After that miracles and gifts of healings, helps governments, diversities of tongues.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers or all workers of miracles?
Have all the gifts of healing, Do all speak with tongues, do all interpret, but covet earnestly the best gifts. And yet shall I unto you a more excellent way.
This is really the body of Christ takes in every born again believer who is sealed.
Upon the face of the earth at one time.
So we're talking not about a local assembly, but we're talking about the body of Christ universally. But what this is specifically telling us is that how the Spirit of God uses the members of that body to minister.
So we really we need to realize that these gifts are not.
Let me put it this way. There is a complete number of gifts in the body. There's there's adequate teachers, there's adequate pastors, there's evangelists. And they're scattered though, in the day in which we live.
So.
We're deprived of many of these gifts.
And when we break bread.
That one loaf.
Represents the whole body of Christ. So we're not some denomination. We recognize that. We gather on the ground of the one body. And what we're seeking to do, if I understand it, is to carry out in practice this truth of the one, that there's one body. We can only do it in a remnant form.
Everyone's welcome.
If there's not something.
Deteriorate, preventing them in their walk and their in their doctrine. But all all of the body as has a place there. But it could only be carried out in a remnant form because not everybody wants to do it.
Correct me what I.
I don't know what to correct brother.
But that's why I think it's important to see the difference between what we have here in our verse 12 as the body is one and have many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body. So also is and the new translation is the Christ.
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Christ the Head in heaven, We, the members of his body here on earth, form what is called the Christ.
Or by 1 spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether it be Jews and Gentiles, whether it be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit?
And in verse 14 for the body is not one member but many. So we have that word 1 used a lot.
The thing I think we need to distinguish is the present testimony might go into the center of Walla Walla and ask the people in the streets.
Are Christians in Walla Walla all one? What would they say? No. There's some that meet over here, and there's some over here and there's some over here.
There are multiple groups.
That's the present testimony, which is in ruins sometimes. I've said, brethren, where was the ruin of Israel more evident in the Old Testament? Was it in Babylon or was it in Jerusalem, the divine center? It's evident. It was in Jerusalem. It was evident. It wasn't evident in Babylon.
Why did they have to command that the doors of the gates of the city not be opened until the sun was hot? That wasn't necessary in the times of David.
No, but it's necessary in the times of Nehemiah because.
Of the ruin and the enemies that wanted to encroach. And so we have to distinguish between what is the testimony. But the truth remains in spite of all the ruin, in spite of all our failure, brother. And there is one body, precious truth, and it's precious to God. And the Lord Jesus died that the children of God would be gathered together in one.
He gave his life for that. Should it be important to us? I think it should be.
Interesting verse in Exodus chapter 28.
The connection with the body of Christ, you know we have that verse in Colossians, it says that not holding the head and so the importance of the head and we have in Exodus chapter 28.
In relation to the garments of the high Priest.
And verse 31.
And thou shalt make the robe of the effort all of blue, and there shall be an hole in the top of it in the midst thereof, and it shall have a binding of woven work round about the whole of it, as it were the whole of a hard begun. I don't know that's how it is pronounced that it not that be not rent. I have it in my in my French Bible. It's that they would have an opening for the head.
And then all that hole was knitted all together, so when the head went through.
It wouldn't be torn and.
There's holding the head and there's having an opening for the head. You know, if we claim to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, there has to be an opening for the head. It has to be room for the head to exercise His direction, his authority. And so we can have conformity as to the form that we meet in and we can match that with the instruction of Scripture and say we're meeting according to the instruction.
Found in the word of God, the sisters are in silence or covered and there is liberty and ministry, but there is that dependence of saying we have to leave an opening for the head and I think we do that when we do let the Spirit of God have liberty in leading us. And so I just enjoyed this in connection with the government that they it was knit closely together around that opening for the head that it would not be rent. And so if we have an opening for the head in our minds and our collective gatherings.
00:10:06
There will be no rending because the head, he died for us to be one. How can you make us to separate and be two? So going back to our brothers comment about the body of Christ, the body of Christ is one, but the Lord doesn't have authority in many Christian circles because there are other authorities. You know, the Pope claims to be the head of the church. He's deserving the place of Christ. He claims to be the representative of Christ on the earth. He's deserving the place of the Spirit of God.
And he's called Holy Father. He's a serpent.
The Father here's a man that's herping the place of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and millions of people are subject to his headship. Well, we have headship in the Scriptures, and no one who's the head is the Lord Jesus. So we do things in conformity to the Word of God, and we have an attitude that allows for the Lord to do the leading.
And so as the human body, it's a it's a reality, it's a fact, and it's not a concept. The human body is not a concept, and neither is the body of Christ. It's a reality.
And someone has said when we understand the reality of what the body of Christ is, then we can act appropriately. And this is very important to us. And so the as we go into verse 14 and 15 and so on, we're, we're coming up against a bit of a problem that we don't have in the human body.
So if the human body is used here as a bit of a model.
It doesn't discredit some members of the body. There's no inferiority in members of the body. And so we could say the verse 14 through verse 19 is treating and correcting because we said earlier on that this is a corrective epistle. It's correcting what we believe was possibly a tendency at that time to discredit some of the members of the body.
And so you could say that it's a bit of an inferiority complex that is really an error. And then we move further on verse 20. There's another problem that we find in this chapter, and this is where one member wants to take over someone who said that's a superiority complex. These are two things that have plagued the functioning.
Of the body, the inferiority complex and the superiority complex. Why is it that there are some gifts here that can do a lot better than some of the rest of us that are silent? Maybe that's the problem. Why is it that some take more than what they should? Maybe it's the second problem. And so the rest of the chapter could be maybe divided up somewhat like that. And then as we go into the 13th chapter, we find that there's a motive to do this.
And as we.
Brother reminded us in the last meeting that this is not a it's not about we ought not to be selfish about this. We have a purpose and we are to function for the benefit of others. And so here the body in these verses is is to function for its own benefit, for the glory of God.
Like to mention in verse 13 it speaks about being baptized into one body. This shows the purpose of the baptism of the Holy Spirit was to form that one body. For by 1 spirit are we all baptized into one body. This is the doctrine as to the baptism. Sometimes people think that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is.
To speak in tongues that was sometimes accompanied.
The baptism and was a manifestation of that, but it was not for that purpose. The purpose of the baptism of the Holy Spirit was to form the body of Christ. If you go to the book of the Acts, I want to show two places where it mentions the wording the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
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1St in chapter one and then this mention in chapter one is in reference to what happened in chapter 2.
On the day of Pentecost.
The Lord Jesus is with his disciples and.
He says verse four being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water. That's John the Baptist, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. And So what we have in chapter 2 is the historical.
Record of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, when the day of Pentecost was fully come. Where? With all, with one accord, in one place beautiful. Those mentions of the Word one. That's what God does, He unites.
And one. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like a fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak.
With other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance, there we have the baptism of the Holy Spirit to form those that were together into one body.
Later on in the 8th chapter of Acts, we find that the gospel goes to Samaria. But it's interesting when they were baptized, when they believed by Philip and Peter and John come from Jerusalem and lay their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
But it does not mention the word, the baptism of the Holy Spirit there.
But if you go over now to the 10th chapter, you have the apostle Peter preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, Cornelius and his household, and it says in verse 40.
Three, the end of his preaching, he says to him, to the Lord Jesus, give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words.
The Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the word. They have the circumcisions, which believe were astonished.
And as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out, the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now in Chapter 11, Peter, when he comes back to Jerusalem, is called on the carpet, and he gives an accounting of what happened. Notice what he says in verse 15 as I began to speak.
The Holy Ghost fell on them as on us as at the beginning.
Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. For as much then as God gave them the like gift, as He did unto us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I that I could withstand God? So there we have the baptism of the Holy Spirit to form Jews and Gentiles.
Into one body and that's why it says in our verse 13 for by 1 Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles. So they were both included. Beautiful, wonderful reality that the Spirit of God is working in this world, saving souls, attracting them to the Lord Jesus and when they believe the gospel.
They are sealed with that spirit, but we can't say today.
That it's the baptism of the Spirit of God because the body of Christ has already been formed. It is. They are added to the church today through the power of the Holy Spirit.
00:20:04
This chapter, the assembly is looked at really in three ways, isn't it? I should say the body. The 1St is that universal which we mentioned, which includes, as Vern was saying, every believer from the day of Pentecost, every Christian from day of Pentecost through to the rapture is is identified in that verse 13 and the end of verse 12, isn't it? That's the universal aspect of the body of Christ. And then later on.
In our chapter, it speaks about suffering, for instance, and schisms. Well, there's no suffering or schisms in heaven. So that's speaking about the aspect of the of the body of Christ as it's on the earth at any one time, the standing army, if we can put it that way. Sometimes people use the term the church militant and that's not necessarily a bad term because it's those that are on the earth at any one time includes all those on the earth at any one time. And then in verse 27.
The proper translation is Now ye are leave out the word thee. Ye are body of Christ and members in particular.
That's the local representation of the body of Christ in any particular area.
So we see the body of Christ seen in three different aspects here, the universal, the militant, if we can put it that way, and then the local aspect.
Does that.
One the last version, but that's the only word places have a look at like that, right?
Yes.
The only other place besides this?
Because we have the universal aspect here as well, right?
Yeah, verse 13, end of verse 13 and 14.
I'm sorry, end of verse 12 and 13. The baptism took place once.
The church has been formed, as Bob said. Some people speak about the baptism of the Spirit of God taking place today, but that's not true, is it? So that's the universal aspect of the one body.
But then there's the militant aspect. Every sealed believer on the face of the earth at anyone time.
That suffer and their schisms that doesn't happen in heaven, but it does happen on earth and then the local aspect. It's not the body of Christ in verse 27, but ye are body of Christ and members in particular. That's the local representation of the one body. Is that right?
There are parallel with verse 13.
With First Corinthians 3.
In verse 16.
He had the Pentecost, it filled a house, and it filled the believers.
He filled the house and he filled the believer. I should say verse 16, know ye not that ye are the temple of God, the collective, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you, and that the personal. And so we had in our 13th verse, we were baptized into one body, whether it be Georgetown, that's collective and have all been made to drink into one spirit that's individual. So I thought of the baptism with immersion.
So the spirit came, and they were all in the spirit because that it filled the house. They were in that house where the spirits filled it, and every one of them who knew the Lord as their Savior, they were themselves filled. They drank of that same spirit was in their body.
So the baptism of the Holy Spirit happened one time on the day of Pentecost, is that right? Or the what? What did you files were brought into in the 10th chapter? But that's finished one time.
And that's part of that. That's the sum total of the baptism of the Spirit. And since then, every person who believes in Christ and is sealed with the Spirit is added to an already existing body, right?
That body is seen in its universal aspect, as you mentioned. It's also seen, as you say here, as a functioning Organism on the earth that has its local manifestations.
00:25:09
And that's where you have the function of gift. Now gift if if a person is a gift from Christ.
To the church.
A gift functions within the church at large. That's not a local office, so that's a different thing in.
In First Timothy and Titus, you have local offices enumerated, such as elders and deacons. Those are those. Those are our local, you might say administrative functions in the assembly. That's a different thing from gift. Sometimes we might hear someone say, well, a pastor and an elder and so forth. That's all different functions of the same office. No, it's not.
A pastor, teacher, evangelist, apostle.
Where where you have gifts spoken of, he tells you that they're gifts. He speaks of them as gifts and and office a local office in an assembly. You may be an elder or a Deacon in a particular assembly, but when you go visit in another assembly, they have their own there. I mean, in the days of the apostles, we don't ordain or we don't appoint elders officially today, but those are local functionaries.
You might say where a gift is a gift to the church.
There is no such thing as the pastor of a local church. There is something of a pastor of the church.
So again, there is no such thing as the pastor of a local church, but there is something of.
A pastor of the church? A pastor or a shepherd? Yes, Ephesians chapter 4 and so forth is a gift that the risen Christ has given, one of the gifts that the risen Christ has given to the church.
At large.
We need to.
Brother, and when we contemplate these wonderful truths, remember that many have not gotten this teaching clearly and you need to be patient and not critical. I trust what we're saying is not in a critical spirit, but it is important that it be clear these the doctrine of these things for our young people especially.
But.
I've had that teaching and there's areas perhaps we haven't had teaching. So we need to be patient and and and seek to be in any measure that we can a blessing to each believer that we need. That is a member of the body of Christ. If he is given you a gift or if you are a gift to the assembly, it is to the whole body of Christ the exercise about that.
Is that right, Dave? And there's a third thing too, isn't there? And that's priesthood.
So we have gift, we have office, and we have priesthood, and priesthood is local as exercise in the local assembly, isn't it just as oversight is? And gift is something, as you said, that may go beyond the local assembly, although oftentimes it's limited to the local assembly. But we have to distinguish 2 Not to get too far away from our chapter, but I'm afraid we might have been confusing a little between the House of God and the body of Christ. The temple that we were speaking about is the is the is the house.
And the house is a broader circle than the body. The body is made-up only of those that are baptized by the Spirit of God. That is, that happens when a person, a person comes into the good of that, when he's sealed. He has to be real to be a member of the body of Christ. But the house is what we call Christendom, isn't it? That includes all who profess Christ as the head. And Christ is king, even it's Christian profession. So when it speaks about the temple of God.
Collectively, I know sometimes it's individually as well, but when the scripture speaks of the temple, that ye are the temple of God collectively.
It's Speaking of the house aspect, and the house aspect has to do with our conduct in the assembly. Particularly, how do we conduct ourselves in the assembly? The priesthood and oversight have to do with the house aspect. The gift has to do with the body aspect. So it's good to keep those things in mind. I know sometimes people use the expression body as if it were.
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Equivalent to the term the House of God. That's not correct.
The houses of broader term it's all profession, Christian profession, whereas the body is strictly those who have been sealed by the Spirit of God.
When it comes to thinking.
Exercising our gift, two things that come to mind. One of them is that we might be afraid that we might make a mistake, we might screw up, we might ruin somehow God's work. I remember when I was younger, the thought was brought to me, Well, if you don't mention the gospel to this person, they might go to hell. And honestly, we're not that powerful. God has a plan and it's going to happen. And in Esther chapter 4, verse 14.
It says, For if thou altogether hold thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance rise to the Jews from another place.
But thou in thy father's house shall be destroyed, and who knoweth whether thou art come to the Kingdom for such a time as this? Mordecai was saying to ask her that she needed to stand in the gap. And dear beloved brothers and sisters, we have the opportunity to serve and use our gift. It's given of the Lord, and he wants to reward us. And if we say I'm not going to do that, he will use someone else to get his work done.
He will use us, but he does not need us.
And when we resist that, when we quench the moving of the Spirit of God in our hearts, we lose the blessing of being used by God in His work.
This is beautiful and verse 13.
Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, no national distinctions. I must say, brethren, it is a privilege I enjoy so much, is to go into other countries and meet with believers that are evidently of that same body. They're not the same nationality. They might have other customs.
But they are that same body, whether they be bond or free. Some of them are of the poorer of this world. And I have to say, even though there's a lot of poverty in Bolivia, those dear brethren have taught me lessons that I feel invaluable to. I feel indebted to them for the simplicity.
Of their faith, they don't know how to defend themselves as somebody would attack them.
Doctrinally, but they know where they stand and it has been a real lesson to watch them interact.
And God uses them. They are members of that same body. Brethren, let's pray for our dear brethren at large. Let's have a heart for all God's people. And I love the end of this verse have been all made to drink into one spirit. You can tell sometimes when you meet with people, there's something special. There's something different about them.
They are the Lords they are. There is a different spirit there. Remember being in a big.
Store in a shopping mall and I saw this family over in one corner and there was something markedly different about them. I It was so marked rather than that I went up and asked them if they were believers and yes, they were believers in the Lord Jesus. It was evident not only their dress but.
Their spirit, and I think that's what it means, they have been made to drink into one spirit. It's the same spirit that is leading our brethren in South America, that is leading here today. I trust we're trying, we are seeking, we are exercised to give Him liberty in our midst.
Just make another comment on gift is our brothers have been mentioning here about it being universal and so on. That doesn't mean that every every person necessarily has a ministry that's universal. We had early.
00:35:16
Over it, but versus.
4-5 and six verse four. There are diversities of gifts, so perhaps one's a pastor, one's a teacher, so on.
There are differences or diversities of administrations. That's the the ministry where someone works. Someone may be an evangelist in this area and someone may be an evangelist in that area.
And there are different operations, there are diversities of operations.
And I'll use the example here of an evangelist.
We know.
Jim Highland, he's an evangelist, and he can stand up in a big in front of a big crowd of people and preach the gospel so clearly and with such force that it rattles in your seat.
And there's John Kemp.
And we'll go around with his gospel tracks and have fun trying to sneak past him on the street without getting the gospel to act.
I can't tell you how many conferences I've been where he's been there and, and you're either sitting with him or you notice that he's exercised about something and he takes calendars and he gives them to every single one of the staff members that are there. That's a different operation yet, but the same gift of an evangelist. And then I have a friend in Palmyron, Maine named James Amston.
And he has in the past worked at a grocery store for many years, and he's drawn alongside these ones that he's worked with and he's lived Christ before them. And he sat down and had heart and heart conversations and brought Christ to them in that way.
It's the same gift as a different operation. It's a different administration. But the work of Jim Hyland and John Kemp and James Amston, however different they are, they all have an effect on the entire body.
The spirit that guides the three. So they're not going to be contradictory to each other here, are they? I think that's what it means.
Says in Ephesians 4, He unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. The measure is not the same in each one, but they are real gifts.
Versus 14 through 19.
It's been said that we have diversity and unity, whereas verses 20 through 25 we have unity and diversity. So there's a distinction, isn't it? But again, as we mentioned in the Godhead, there's both unity and diversity, and that's the basis of the functioning of the assembly. So we have, first of all, we have that diversity and unity in verses 14 through 19, the different members of the body, and then each is essential in its own place.
And then 20 through 25, that unity and diversity, which excludes independency, SO1 excludes the principle of clarity as it's been mentioned the first one, we're not all to just sit and listen to one person or a few people all the time. Gift is one thing, but what about priesthood and office? And then again versus 20 through 25, we have unity and diversity.
Which excludes independency.
But Brother Wayne brought out earlier too that this first part.
Is the inferiority complex and you might see a brother who is very gifted and you just feel cowed in his presence. You just you're like not doing anything that is inferiority complex. Whereas the other from verse 20 on is the verse 21 The I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee. That's superiority complex.
I say, brethren, those complexes take a hold when we're not occupied with the head, the Lord Jesus, and any measure that we're occupied with the head, Those complexes just don't have any place there. The Lord help us to not get hung up in these two ways. The foot shall say, because I'm not the hand.
00:40:21
I am not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body?
The hand is out here in the open, always active, doing something. My foot's down there in that shoe. I don't see it most of the time.
Is it important when it comes to walking down the street? I don't do that with my hands, I do that with my feet and it's very important. So everyone has an important place in the body and just because ones outward and evident and visible doesn't mean that it is.
A more important than another part. So the Lord help us to keep our focus. That's why, brother, we cannot compare ourselves among ourselves.
The Corinthians did that and Paul had to tell them. Those that do that are not wise. Don't do that. Don't be caught up with that. You may feel that way, but don't let that get you down. Be exercised in the presence of the Lord Jesus. I've been amazed at how the Lord has some really useful servants that maybe never take part in public meetings.
I say they should be exercised there, but maybe their place is to do it in an individual way. Lord used Andrew.
And Andrew was the one that brought Simon Peter to the Lord. And you find in other places of the Gospels where Andrew was occupied in bringing individuals to the Lord, you never find that Andrew preached a big sermon in front of a bunch of people to get saved.
Peter did. But who brought Peter to the Lord? It was Andrew. There was a real important place for Andrew.
And there was an important place for Peter, but I don't think there was any competition between the two.
Hey there.
There is a danger.
To maybe even we're guilty of it. Maybe a man is an evangelist and we want to make him a teacher. A good thing to remember. Encourage a man and his gift. Never encourage him beyond his gift.
He'll he'll be a family.
Happens sometimes in times of ruin. Don't that we feel our need and we tend to push people forward and the Lord help us brethren to not do that.
Another thought here that I gleaned from my brethren in South America that I want to pass on to you in verse 16, says, If the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the hole were hearing, where were the smelling? You have three members mentioned there. The.
I the ear and the smelling and the brother down there said, well, there's things that are very evident and visible.
There are other things he said, that are not visible, but you can hear them. And then there's things that you don't see and you don't hear, but there's another member here.
On your face, your nose, that says, uh, something's not right here. And so we need all those members, every one of them. Sometimes we tend to despise members.
And the Lord help us, brother, and to not do that.
In connection with what you're saying, Brother Vern?
As you mentioned that these gifts were for the body at large, and we do recognize that we suffer.
We are penalized because a lot of gifted Saints are not with us and we're not hearing from them or benefiting from their gift. And so we might be in a small assembly and perhaps there's no teacher among us and there's no gifted evangelist. But somebody has to say something. Somebody has to act. And the brethren are the ones to do that. You know, if you were in a plane, I mentioned this to young people a while back, you were in a plane and the pilot dies.
00:45:21
And nobody can fly that plane and say we do, we have a volunteer in here somewhere.
We'd like to try. We'll put them in contact with the tower and you'll tell you what button to push. And OK, somebody has the courage to go forward and receive instructions. I'm going to do my best, you know. And so the Lord says of one sister, she did what she could. And that's all that the Lord expects from us, to do what we can. And so we can read our scriptures, we can read ministry, we can fill our souls, and then we can be useful to the brethren. And if you're timid, well, the Lord can help you overcome your community. So when we come together.
We might not be of those wonderful gifts that are spoken about in Ephesians 4, which is normal, ordinary brothers and sisters. And so, but the Lord is able to supply us through his spirit with grace that there would be profit from us being together. And so we need to be exercised about that and say, well, I'm not a I'm not an evangelist. I'm not I'm not a teacher. I'm not a media pastor, but you might not be a pastor. Maybe I'm not a pastor either. But we should sure look look out for one another and take care of one another. What the pastor's do is that they take care of the sheep. Just mention is that we would be exercised no matter what gift we have or do not have.
That there are needs out there and the needs are a call to do what we can help the states. That's a good balance. That's good balance. I don't know what I want to get on that plane though, brother. I say though, that I think what you say is is good that there be exercise with our young brother and because gift is something that is developed with the use. And I remember our our late brother Chuck Hendricks.
Encouraging some of the younger ones and he used that verse in John chapter 2 where Mary said to the servants at that wedding feast do all that he says to you that do and I I thought that was a good thing to be exercised the Lord lays on your heart something do it and in the course of time gift is something that's developed. I want to.
Go to First Timothy chapter 4 because Timothy was a timid brother.
Evidently, and Paul writes to him to encourage him, and this is what he says in chapter four. First Timothy, neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Now there's quite a bit there to think about. He says don't neglect it.
There was a tendency of him to not put importance, and he probably thought, man, I just don't rate against the apostle Paul. And Paul had to exhort him, don't neglect your gift which was given thee by prophecy. I take it that Paul discerned in that young man a gift that was useful, and so he gave prophecy as to it and.
It was with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery or the elderhood.
In that time, as we've been hearing, there was appointed elders that now we don't have appointed elders, but it was with the fellowship of his older brethren that he did what he did. I think that is important too. I remember Brother Eric Smith when I first started to travel with him a bit, he said when you're going to serve the Lord.
Obey the Lord, He is the one. We follow directions from him. But listen to your brethren. I tell you brethren, that has been a big help to me. Our brethren are there to help us, to keep us in balance and we need that. Now look at Second Timothy, chapter one. And as has been said, Second Timothy is.
Time of the ruin of the public testimony.
And this is what he says to Timothy in verse six. Second Timothy 16 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands here doesn't talk about the hands of the presbytery. No, the ruin was so such that it was Paul said, I'm giving you my fellowship, Timothy.
00:50:24
Stir up that gift that's in the and I honestly believe that there's a lot of unused gift amongst us brethren that is just sitting there dormant in the Spanish. It's wake up the gift of God that's in you and I think because it's dormant sleeping use it someday we're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and the Lord's going to say I gave you a gift.
Did you use it for me? What are you going to say? Are you going to say the Lord? I didn't even know what kind of gift I had. Are you going to say that? The point is, you might not know what gift you have, but be exercised all that He says to you, do it.
Judges, Chapter 9.
This is when Gideon's one son killed.
Killed.
All 68 of his brothers on one stone and the little one escaped and said this.
Verse 7.
He went and stood at the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto him, Hard company, ye men are checking unto you.
The trees went forth at the time.
The point I think over them and they said I'm the olive tree bringing down over us.
What the answer was?
But for all of you, he said unto them, should I leave my Baptist, or with my name, they honor God and man, and go to seek the Lord over the street.
There were three different types of trees that you mentioned here.
And each one.
Have their own special.
You might say death or the tree would need to do a certain kind of fruit and if they left that to go be king over the other or hate trying to take a different position.
They would lose what it says here.
The fact is, we're with why me? They honor God and man. The proof was to God and the proof was to other men.
They tried to take a different position. They never do it. The second thing was the.
The answer was, should I perceive my sweetness and my good fruits to go to be promoted over the tree?
The third one was to buy on verse 13. Should I leave my wine with pure God and hand?
So in one sense the.
Guided by the spirit of Shaw and.
Proved in that.
The other one came with us.
The big tree being fruitful where it says sweetness and good fruit and the gospel work like an evangelist.
And the last one was a.
The wine that you have gone in them to be a very dinner comforts.
And so this, the last one was the Bramble that said, sure, I'll take your job. I'll be in charge of everybody I'll rule over. And verse 15.
00:55:08
The gravel set under the trees if in truth need a point, anything over you.
Then you come and put your truck.
She thought, no. Do you trust in my shadow a landfill, and if not, let the fire come out of the lake. Devours appears your father.
In other words.
I don't want competition. I don't want to look bad, burn anybody that.
Maybe better than I am if we leave what?
Give you the God and given God that kind of blew over somebody else, which is a position that we can we never made to do.
We have in this, in this portion here that we're looking at, we see the Apostle Wayne, as you mentioned, he's using the human body and its functioning parts. We all know that the human body has a diversity of functioning parts and he's using this by way of analogy to the body of Christ.
As this illustration, the human body has a diversity.
Of functioning parts, and each one of those parts has its own.
Particular function that the body would miss out on if it wasn't there. So the body of Christ is, is one, but it has a diversity of functioning units. And that's where he's talking about the gifts. We don't we don't do two things as it's been talked about, unity and diversity here. There's two things we don't do. We don't say because of whatever reason, I'm not part of the body.
And we don't say for whatever reason, you're not part of the body. Each one, I and every other one has their own particular function in the body. And that goes back to the end of verse 11 where the Spirit divides to each in particular according as he pleases. So the functioning of the members in the body is directed and dictated by the Spirit of God.
As he pleases.
Public Ministry.
A lot of people here to the first parents or the young people that they wouldn't maybe feel free to.
Speak up and and try and be a help in that way.
I wondered if there might be a few suggestions given that how God might use somebody in those in that situation because it really comprises the majority of this audience.
Have you ever seen your heart, brother Steve?
Have you ever seen your heart?
Is it important?
There's a lot that are of members that are inside, and there are those, as it says here in these verses, that are feeble, that are less honorable. What do we do?
We bestow upon them more abundant honor. Lord, help us, brethren, to be guided by these precious truths.
As to the body of Christ.
No.
And I might say for Steve, if we look at verse 28, I think we get not only if we look at those other places and Romans and also in Ephesians, but in verse 28, we get some broader types of gifts and look at the end of the verse. Then gifts of healing helps governments, diversities of tongues. I know there was a old brother in the Columbus meeting where I grew up.
And he?
Said that his gift probably was that of helps.
01:00:02
And that's, that would certainly catch anybody, wouldn't it? We could all be a help. We often pray in connection with the assembly that we would be a help, not a hindrance. That's a good prayer, isn't it? Some people have a special gift that way, and they're appreciated.
And it'd be right to say, dear ones, that most of the functions of the body are invisible.
And so there's much going on behind the scenes that allows the visible to be perceived. And so chapter 813 of First Corinthians, it might not be something that's manifest publicly, but the act of love, act of love among the Saints is manifested in how we function together outwardly, isn't it? And so most of my body's functions are invisible, but I'm thankful they're active and functioning properly in their measure.
Whether one member suffered, all Members suffer with it.
Brethren, our brethren in other countries of the world are suffering persecution, imprisonment, and we ought to feel that. Brethren, sometimes they say, well, that's way over in the other part. How can I ever understand what's going on? They are fellow members of the same body. The Lord help us and I, I do believe if there was a willingness before the Lord, perhaps the Lord can put.
Into your life, a ministry toward those brethren. That could be very useful. The point is.
Be exercised.
Help to some of the young that are wondering what their gift is.
The Ecclesiastes, Chapter 9 and verse 10.
It simply says this, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whether thou goest and Simply put.
Somebody else has said this. If you see a need, maybe, just maybe, the Lord is exercising you to fill that need.
And so your young brother, and if you see a need, be willing to put your shoulder to that that load that knee and satisfy it or help out with it. And as you do that, the Lord is going to lead you and show you.
Step by step what he wants you to do. It is very easy for us and natural for us to look around to our brother and and see someone like our brother John Kim or one of the laboring brother and say wow.
What a what a wonderful servant of the Lord. I wish I could be like that person.
Brother John Kemp didn't get to that.
Position, you might say overnight.
And each one of us, if we do that which our hand findeth to do, the Lord is going to lead us on, and he's going to show us what he wants us to do, and he's going to give us blessing and fruit for our labor.
In chapter eight of the book of the Acts, Philip the Evangelist, not the apostle, but the evangelist. You're not called the evangelist there, but he goes down and preaches in Samaria and the Lord blesses his laborers. He goes to give the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, but it's not until the 21St chapter of the book of the Acts that he's called Philip the Evangelist. I think that's quite significant. So the exercise, do what the Lord puts on your heart to do.
Is that the thought in the last verse of our chapter? Covet earnestly the best gifts. We should be exercised. Not just sit, but exercise. We're members of the body. The Lord has given us a special place, each one of us. And so we're to covet that and exercise it and find it what it is, and yet show unto you a more excellent way. Well, there's a danger of gift of the flesh getting involved, isn't there? And so we have a balance in the next chapter.
01:05:04
I mean the term laboring brother, because we're all laboring brother. Remember I brother that had been at a conference and.
Somebody back home asked him who were the laborers there? He said, well, I thought, why did you sisters labouring in the kitchen?
Laboring Sisters.
Oh, doesn't it?
It is the thought of.
See maybe after meeting.
Start with Chapter 13.
The Reality of the Man Christ Jesus
Address—Phil Fournier
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.
Brother Bruce Anstey visited us a couple of weeks ago in Hemet.
And we had the 6th chapter of John.
And we started off.
The chapter with the comment which?
I have never heard before, he said. We have four types of bread in this chapter.
And the first one of course was a Passover, the second one the the loaf of barley bread that fed the 5000. And the third one is the man. On the 4th one is Christ, the bread which came down from heaven. So I would like to.
Have some manna this afternoon.
It's not the old corner of the land, but I think it's something to feed our souls.
Hymn #303 When Israel by divine command the pathless desert draw they found throughout the barren land assure resource in God. Verse 5 Jesus the bread of life is given to be our daily food.
Within us dwells that well from heaven the Spirit of our God. Lord tis enough, we ask, no more Thy graced around us pores. It's rich in unexhausted store. In all its joy is ours.
Some brother raised it to him. Please #303.
I think I'll start just by reading the three scriptures that.
I have on my heart as an introduction first one in John's Gospel, Chapter 11.
John's Gospel Chapter 11 and verse 33.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her, he groaned in the Spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have you laid him? And they said unto him, Lord, come and see.
Jesus wept.
Then said the Jews, behold how he loved him. And some of them said, could not this man?
Which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died.
And the next one in Luke's Gospel, chapter 19.
And maybe we'll read from verse 37 to get the connection.
Luke 19 and verse 37.
And when he was coming, even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hast known, even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace.
But now they are hid from thine eyes, For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemy shall cast a trench about the encompass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee. And they shall not leave in the one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
And the next one by way of.
Divine inspiration by the Apostle Paul I believe. Hebrews chapter 5.
Hebrews and verse 7.
Who in the day of His flesh, in the days of his flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears unto him, that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared, though he were Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect, he became author of eternal salvation.
00:05:27
Unto all them that obey him called of God and High Priest after the order.
Of Melchizedek.
Well, the subject on my heart, perhaps you've divined from the three scriptures that we've read are.
Tears. Specifically here we have the tears of the Lord Jesus, and I want to look at the tears of Joseph in the book of Genesis. But I tell you what's been pressing on my mind. I was in Aberdeen a couple of weeks ago and I had a conversation with a brother and he told me what it is now become a somewhat repetitive story about someone that was brought up among the gathered Saints.
Who is now uncertain of the existence of God?
I believe that's the fourth case that I know of.
And perhaps there's more, but those are the ones that came to mind as I thought about it.
And it troubled me.
And I thought about what is the remedy?
Now this man, I'm going to read you something, and I've read this before in the company of.
Not such a company as this, but in other companies. In fact, one year ago almost exactly.
Brother Daniel Sibo read this for me in front of this children at the Sunday School treat in Shadow Hills and I don't know but what. Maybe it was over their heads but.
What is on my heart is the reality of the man Christ Jesus.
Son of Man and Son of God.
Before I read this, let me see if I can put this together in my mind. There's a beautiful poem I think it was. **** Gorges sent it to me years ago and I've treasured it ever since.
It's, I don't think it's widely distributed, but it's by Brother Darby called the Man of Sorrows. I think it has 44 verses and at one time I had memorized it, but I can't quote it now. But the one verse that I wanted to quote and I'm going to try.
Oh, strange yet fit beginning.
In all thy life of woe in which thy grace was winning.
Poor man is God to know.
You know.
There was a man down here who wept.
The third occasion here perhaps is somewhat ambiguous. I don't know if the Garden of Gethsemane, though it sounds like it is, but the other occasions we know of any wept not for himself, he wept for others. And why did he do that? Because he was really a man. The question I put to the children at the Shadow Hills Sunday School treat was what are these things that we read about because we read in John chapter 4, Jesus therefore being.
Weary with his journey, sat thus on the well and after those days he afterward hungered. And one little boy, 7 or 8 years old, and he says those are feelings. And that wasn't the word I was thinking of, but that's that was a good word. Their feelings. The Lord Jesus was a man here on the earth and he had feelings.
And human feelings, perhaps are no more deeply expressed than with tears. Now we have something we call crocodile tears where people cry. Sometimes my grandchildren do that. I can tell they're not really hurt or anything, but they're, they're pretending to cry. But you know, Jesus wept there in John Chapter 11. There was no mistaking the character of his tears, was there? They knew, they said, behold how he loved him.
And there when he beheld the city and wept over it, I don't know who observed him on that occasion.
But the heartfelt nature of those tears were unmistakable. For that city had said, We don't want him.
He was their king. There was a feeble remnant there that praised him. Blessed is the king that cometh in the name of the Lord. But the leadership said, Master, rebuke thy disciples. That is yet the character in which the Lord Jesus is treated in this world today.
00:10:05
So now I'm going to read to you from Mark Twain, otherwise Samuel Clemens, and forgive me if it's inappropriate, but it I've I found it to be most telling. A man was a humorist and he was very funny. I like to read what he wrote and it it's often a very dry humor which appeals to my sense of literature. I don't read it frequently, but this book is called The Innocence Abroad and this.
He took a trip around the world cruise. He was very wealthy man by this time and he could afford to do that six months. the IT was $1200 in that day, which would probably be hundreds of thousands now, I suppose.
You'll excuse me for my water. I have a cold and I'm taking medicine that makes my mouth dry.
So let's read this paragraph from the Innocence abroad. He's standing on the shores of the Sea of Galilee when he says these words, writes these words, and they're not funny. They weren't meant to be funny. I sometimes say they leaked out of him. It was true.
It seems curious enough to be standing on ground that was once actually pressed by the feet of the Savior.
The situation is suggestive of a reality and a tangibility that seems at variance with the vagueness and mystery and ghostliness that one naturally attaches to the character of a God.
I cannot comprehend yet that I am sitting where a God has stood, and looking upon the brook and the mountains which that God looked upon, am surrounded by dusky men and women whose ancestors saw him.
And even talked with him face to face and carelessly, just as would of the they would have done with any other stranger.
I cannot comprehend this. The gods of my understanding have always been hidden in clouds and very far away.
Well, I trust that's not your comprehension of God.
Because the Lord Jesus was born there in Bethlehem's Manger.
Poor man is God to know.
That we might look upon him and and say there he is in all of his loveliness, in all of his beauty, he wept.
He was touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He felt what we feel. He walked where we walked.
And we can look upon him and we don't have to say like Mark Twain.
I don't get it. I don't comprehend that because what he what? My message to the children was this. The Pharisees said, thou being a man make us thyself, God.
And Mark Twain said, he's God, how could he make himself a man? But he's both. And that is the way he endears himself to our hearts this afternoon as we look at the story of Joseph. I know of no other story that so eloquently proclaims in picture form the loveliness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So let's turn to the book of Genesis, and we'll look at Joseph's tears.
There might be 7 times and I don't know how much time I'll have this afternoon.
I spoke on this subject once before and Hemet and it was quite a long time ago and I don't remember how long it took me, so we'll just have to take it as it comes. I have we were reading in the book of Acts out at the Batista prison camp on Sunday night saying.
Noticed in the 7th of Acts that Stephen took up the story of Joseph in about 3 verses or about 30 seconds. I don't think I can do that, but let's let's take a look here, starting with the 37th chapter of of Genesis.
And Joseph's tears are not mentioned here.
And I think there's a reason for it in the, in the divine plan of the of the type here, we find that if he did cry here, and he very well may have, I think he probably did because he was just a man and just a boy. As a matter of fact, he wasn't a man at all. And so I think he did weep, but those tears would have been probably for himself.
00:15:10
And in the type, the Lord Jesus wept.
I didn't weep for himself.
He wept for others and in every other occasion I believe.
The Joseph wept for others and so we'll see how many of them we could get through here and I don't I don't purpose to speak thoroughly on this subject. It's one that could take up many meetings I'm sure. So we'll pick a few things out of out of this story. But one of the one of the scriptures that often comes before me on the Lord's Day morning as we remember the Lord Jesus and his death is from this 37th chapter and we'll read those verses because.
So beautiful and verse 11 of Genesis 37.
And his brother envied him, his brethren envied him, but his father observed the same. And his brother went to feed their father's flock. And Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock? And Shechem come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I.
And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks, and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the veil of Hebron, and he came to Shechem, and a certain man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou, When he said, I seek my brother, and tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the man said, They are departed hence. For I heard themselves say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brother, and found them in Dothan.
And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them.
They conspired against him to slay him, and they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh, Come therefore. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, some evil beast hath devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams. Stop there.
You know, there had, there was a time.
Maybe 30 years ago when someone was visiting the gathered Saints and.
He was from another group of brethren.
And he was, we were down in San Diego and I was sitting at the lunch table and.
Some things were said and a brother said you're a blasphemer. And he got up and he left the table. And I was taken aback by the comment and alarmed by it. And so I asked a few questions about what was being said.
And this is what was suggested in so many words, that the Lord Jesus.
Became the son when he was born into this world.
So I thought about the importance of.
The fact that the Lord Jesus was the Son of God from a past eternity, He didn't become the Son. He became a man, but not the Son, for he was always the Son of God.
In a past eternity and you know, we've got two beautiful types.
And this is one of them in the Old Testament that illustrate that in eloquent and beautiful terms. You know, the Spirit of God has given us these stories of brother Norman Barry used to say the Old Testament is a picture book and the New Testament is the legend of the picture book. And so we understand the picture book by means of the New Testament, which gives us the details of what is in the story. And so we have this.
Picture of a father sending his son and the son goes willingly.
And you know, we have none of the background behind it. Because did Jacob know that the brethren envied their brother Joseph? I think he did. Why doesn't it tell us that? Well, because it would spoil the type. You know, Jacob was not all knowing. He, he was ignorant of many things. In fact, he said at a later time, he said all these things are against me.
Right when God was preparing him for the greatest blessing of his life.
So there was much that Jacob did not know, but here he sends his son to his brethren who hate him.
And I have trouble believing that Jacob didn't know. But you know one thing, we do know that the Father.
00:20:04
Sent the Son to be the savior of the world. And I remember Brother Lundine saying, you know, it doesn't say that God sent Jesus.
It doesn't say that. It says the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, not the one that became the Son. He was always the Son. He sent him down here to become a man so that he might weep tears, real tears.
Weep as you and I weep. I thought I didn't know how to cry anymore. I cried, I'm sure, when I was a boy.
Probably many times, Probably when I deserved it.
But I didn't cry for a long time.
And then my nephew died.
And when I found out the character of his death, I found out that I knew how to cry. And I cried.
Maybe I cried harder than I'd ever cried when I was a boy.
Because I felt it very deeply.
So here we have this young man, and he came out of the veil of Hebron.
No, Hebron was the place that Caleb spotted when he was a spy that went into the land and he had to wait 40-5 years before he could possess that place. And it was the most difficult place, but he wanted it.
And he possessed it at age 85, and he had a son-in-law that we heard about this morning.
By the name of Athniel and a daughter by the name of AXA. And they enjoyed that place.
Hebron means communion.
That same poem of brother, Darby says.
Oh, I knew this was going to happen.
Out of my mind.
Maybe it will come back later, so we'll let it go, but it has to do with the fact that the Lord Jesus is revealing to us who God is. And you know, that's.
To think of the Lord Jesus stepping out of the veil of Hebron, that place of communion with his Father, we read in Genesis 22 another.
Another Old Testament illustration of the Father and the Son. But there we read they went, both of them together, and so we see that the beauty of that the Father and the Son one and purpose.
That man might be redeemed, that God might be glorified. The Lord Jesus came down from heaven.
I came down from heaven. Could there be anything more clear?
For us to understand who that was that walked here on earth, that was God manifest in flesh. He was truly man and truly God. And so we find that he's found him wandering in the field. And I cannot help but think of that scripture whenever we sing that hymn, wandering as a homeless stranger in the world thy hands had made.
How could it be?
That one that was down here in this world, you know, I cut down a tree recently in a house next door that I had planted a citrus tree and the frost had killed it and it sprang back. Brother Tim over there was telling us about the almond trees that are grafted into the Peach, the Peach base. I didn't know that.
And these citrus trees are grafted into some kind of a citrus base, but I don't know what it is.
However, what came back was just the root stock and it bore nothing but thorns, and they were big thorns, big long thorns like that.
You know, yesterday we were hiking up in Ken Tony's property and we went by some wild roses and they had little short thorns. I don't know what kind of thorns they were, but they made them into a crown and they pounded them on the head of the Son of God.
He was a man. Did he feel those thorns? He felt them. He did. And I just poked my hand. I had gloves on when I cut that tree down and I poked myself with those thorns several times. I, my skin is pretty thin now and it had scratches from it. And I just thought about that. You know, they put that crown of thorns on the head of the Lord Jesus. That was God's beloved son that they did that to.
Oh, does he love you and I?
Yes. Was he a real man? Yes. He had to be a real man so they could # nails through his hands and his feet so they could put a crown of thorns upon his head. They couldn't do that to God, but they did that to the man Christ Jesus.
00:25:19
Let's read down here.
In verse.
31.
And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in blood. And they sent the coat of many colors, and brought it to their father, and said this, have we found No. Now whether it be thy sons coat or no? And he knew it, and said it as my sons coat, an evil beast hath devoured him. Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces, and Jacob rent his clothes, and put half cloth upon his loins, and mourn for his sons many days.
And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.
And he said, I will, for I will go down into the grave unto my son. Morning. Thus his father wept for him, and the Midianites sold him into Egypt on the Potiphar, an officer of Pharaohs, and captain of the guard. Well, there's no questioning. These tears here were real and sincere and heartfelt and long lasting. How long was this that Jacob wept for his son?
It was a long time.
This wound was hard to heal. I remember going over to Phoenix, AZ and visiting my brother-in-law.
A year or two after his son had died.
And we got to the house and my sister said.
Dan's having a hard time this morning, so we came into the house and we sat down and Dan came out a little later and his eyes were puffy.
And it was very obvious he'd been weeping, weeping for his son a year or two after his death. And I imagine that here with Jacob, he wept for his son. He mourned for the loss of this boy that he loved so deeply and so dearly.
Do we ever think what it meant to God to give his Son?
What about those four young people?
He would no longer know if God loves him.
He gave his son.
Did he feel it deeply?
We cannot measure it. We will not know throughout all eternity.
The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
There was a pit here and there was number water in the pit and we find always that the type falls short for the Lord. Jesus said in the Psalms prophetically, I sink indeed mire where there is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where the floods overflow me. Joseph was there in that pit and we don't read of him here crying, but we do read later on and maybe we'll just advance to that. We're going to skip over.
The story of Joseph's keeping in the prison and so forth. There's many.
Precious lessons in there. But in those eleven years I maybe they're thirteen. I think Joseph was 30 years old but when he stood before Pharaoh. I've done the math before, but I didn't do it before this meeting. So I think perhaps 13 years. I think it was 17 when he was sold into Egypt. And feel free to correct me afterwards if I got the numbers wrong. At any rate, I'm not concentrating on the physical numbers, just on the length of time.
He went from 17 years old to 30.
Pretty good length of time and stood before Pharaoh. So during those 13 years he felt abandoned by his family, betrayed by his master Potiphar, whom he faithfully served. We don't know how long, I don't think. Imprisoned, falsely accused, forgotten by the Butler, and then at last he is elevated to a place of.
Incredible.
Exaltation and then follow seven years of fan of famine and two years of plenty. So that makes it 39 years he was separated from his family if I've got my math correct.
In any case, during all this time, we don't find him weeping once.
As far as we can tell, he didn't weep for his own troubles. He wept for the sorrows of others. And so to me, it beautifully illustrates that the type of the Lord Jesus for his heart was toward his people. You know, there in Deuteronomy 33. Yeah. I think somebody read it this morning. Yay. He loved the people.
00:30:15
All his Saints are in his hand. We don't find it all that often in the Old Testament in words like that, like we do in the New Testament.
Go to first John 4 if you want to read about the love of God and you get it over and over and over again.
But in the Old Testament, you have to look for it, but sometimes it's there and beautiful illustration. And so we find Joseph loved his brother. They treated him badly, but there was no thought in his heart of revenge towards those ones who had mistreated them. So we find in chapter 41, I think. Let me see here.
Actually, it's chapter 42.
And I'm rushing along here in the hopes I want to get to the last one that is of particular loveliness to me. Or at least a rebuke maybe, rather than necessarily loveliness.
But here the the brethren are obligated to go seek out.
Some help because they've suffered through the years of famine and you know, Jacob was an innovator.
He was an entrepreneur. He was a man of considerable hard work.
He said to his father-in-law by day, the heat consuming the frost by night.
You know what that means, don't you? He worked day and night.
That might have been because his home life wasn't too pleasant, but he was a man of considerable means as well. I once calculated the value of the gift that he gave to his brother Esau, and it came out to something like $560,000. Counting up some sort of rough estimate of the value of the of the animals that he gave to his brother Esau, he had become a very wealthy man.
But you know, he's brought to poverty and the beauty of the story here, young people particularly, let me divert for just a moment. We can't go through the story of Joseph without appreciating.
Its dispensational aspect because we what we find is that Joseph in those those years between the age 17 and 39 when he was separated from his earthly family.
Had a wife and children.
And it speaks to us of the church in this present day.
That mystery that was, that was hidden in the Old Testament, well, we see it there in tight He had a Gentile bride and he had children.
God hath made me to forget all my toil and all my father's house. One of his children was named that forgetting and a stranger here. And So what then are Joseph's brethren a type of? Well, they're a type of that nation of Israel that God is still going to take up. And there is a doctrine that I have noticed in various places.
Particularly Facebook that has been presented usually by those that have left gathered Saints, and it's presented as though it's new truth. And what it says is that the church has taken the place of Israel in the purposes of God. It's sometimes called covenant theology, other times called replacement theology. But you know, young people.
It's not new truth, it's old error.
I have a little book that was given to me by brother Bill Gooding when I was a young person, and it's a very valuable book written by John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, and it's the Letters of John Noon. There's a very high spiritual tone in the book, and in there he writes one of the finest articles I've ever read on divine guidance. Just beautiful. But you know what John Newton said? The proper hope of the Christian is death.
Why do you say that? Because he did not know the difference between the church and Israel.
And that the Lord Jesus is coming to rapture the church out of this world before the seven years of famine come. That is the great Tribulation or the tribulation period. John Newton didn't know that. Why? Well, because it was old error that was taught that the church took the place of Israel in God's purposes. But you know, we lose a great deal.
00:35:02
In our souls, if we take up with that.
We're going to be the losers because there is precious truth regarding the restoration of God's earthly people, Israel. And you know what it is? It's the glory of the Lord Jesus because they said, and we were part of them because it was Jew and Gentile. But the Lord Jesus said he that delivered thee unto me half the greater sin that was the nation of Israel that said, master, rebuke thy disciples. We don't want.
To come to the king of Israel.
But God is going to glorify Him before His own people.
And they are going to say, this is our God. We have waited for him.
They're going to know him as their refuge as they go through that troublous time.
And they are protected under his wings, and they rejoice in that place of protection.
And they welcomed their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, while the apostate nation.
Says we have made an agreement with hell.
A covenant with death and with hell. Are we in agreement?
It made lies our refuge. I am not quoting it correctly, but it is Isaiah 2815. I spoke about it to the children in Shadow Hills a week ago or so, and I just enjoyed to think that that remnant of Israel finds refuge under the shadow of His wings. And it says His truth shall be thy shield, His truth. And what is the truth? That Jesus is the King of the Jews.
Yes he is and he is going to have that place and reign and they are going to recognize him and we find in the story of Joseph told out the dealings.
In type of the Lord Jesus with his brother, with his earthly people, and he passes them through deep suffering, and he feels it with them, because he weeps at their sorrow.
And he waits for their repentance. I'm going to run out of time, so let's carry on here and read in the 42nd chapter, verse seven of Genesis 42.
And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew him not. And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Your spies to see the nakedness of the land year come. And they said unto him, Name, my Lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. We are all one man's sons. We are true men.
Oh, they had a lie. They were carrying with them I think for 22 years or something.
My daughter's the math way is not me.
22 years they've been carrying a lie. How did they comfort their father when he wept over the missing Joseph? I don't know. Because they carried a lie. In their hearts they weren't true men, but here they say they are.
Verse 12 And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land are ye come? And they said, Thy servants are 12 brethren, the young, the sons of one man is is in the land, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not When Joseph said unto them, That is it that I speak unto you, saying, You're spies, hereby you shall be proved by the life of Pharaoh, you.
Go forth thence, except your youngest brother. Come, hit her, send one of you and let him fetch your brother.
And you shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you or else, by the life of Pharaoh. Surely your spies and he put them all together in ward. Three days might answer to the first three years of the tribulation. And verse 18. And Joseph said unto them, The third day this do and live, for I fear God if he be true. Men, let one of your brethren be bound in the House of your prison. Go ye carry corn for the famine of your houses.
But bring your youngest brother unto me, so that your words be verified, and you shall not die. And they did so.
And they said, One to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear. Therefore is this distress come upon us. Verse 23. And they knew not that Joseph understood them, for he spake unto them by an interpreter, and he turned himself about from them, and wept.
00:40:01
And returned to them again and communed with them.
Well, this is perhaps the second time of Joseph weeping.
If we.
Can believe what the brother said, and I think we can, that he wept there when he was in that pit. And we find here that they saw the anguish of his soul. They were untouched by it. They would not be moved by their younger brother.
We can just imagine his words. Please, I want to see my father again. Don't do this to me.
In all, the Lord Jesus prayed in the garden.
But what he shrunk from?
Was the forsaking of God and the wrath of God for your sins and mine.
That is a scene that we cannot enter into.
We have His words, but no explanation is given. O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. That it wasn't possible, was it? There was no other way that you and I could be saved, that the sin question could be answered before God. There was no other way. Here we found Joseph weeping.
Weeping for the sorrow of his brethren. But they needed this exercise. They had let that sin go unjudged for all those years.
Had not thought about it, had not considered it. And here it is, staring them in the face.
And you might say, well, the work was done. Look, they've repented. There was a greater work to be done. And what it was was the recreating of the scene, which before.
They had failed in and that is will. They abandoned their brother and go back to their father with a story the second time.
And so Joseph wants them to bring Benjamin down, and we find out they did.
And we need to go forward here.
And we find some blessed words here from this man Judah.
And I just want to read them because.
You know, Ruben said. Something that's incomprehensible to me. I have 11 grandchildren now, and Ruben said to Grandpa Jacob Slay my two sons if I don't bring your my brother back.
Would that have been any comfort to Grandpa Jacob to have two of his grandchildren killed?
Not at all. But you know, Judah was a wicked man. He morally, he was corrupt.
We can read about it. We're not going to, but you could read about it if you want to. And we find out what kind of character he was. He was a man of the world, a man of the flesh. But you know, there's a work going on in his soul right now. God is doing a work of repentance with him and he says.
In verse.
Chapter.
43 in verse 8.
You see, the discussion comes up again. They're running short. And Jacob has already said Benjamin is not going to go, you're not going to take your youngest brother. And Ruben has made this preposterous offer and Jacob turns him down outright. No surprise there. But Judah says something else. And Judah said unto Israel his father, send the lad with me.
And we will arise and go, that we may live and not die. Both we.
And thou, and also our little ones, I will be sure, ye for him of my hand shalt thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee. Then let me bear the blame forever. You know there was something that Jacob could go with. Here was a man who stood up and said, Whatever happens will be my fault.
There was a work of deep and real repentance in this.
In this man Judah, and I suspect we're going to run out of time to read all of his words in the 44th chapter, but I strongly recommend it for the blessing of your soul to see how he recounts before this unknown man. He doesn't know he's his brother yet, but he tells him this story. I was sure T might find my for my father. Let me stay here in the place of my younger brother.
00:45:02
Let's go forward and see.
What?
What Joseph? What happens to Joseph here when his brother Benjamin comes? Verse 16 and chapter 43 and verse 16. And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, Bring these men home, and slay, and make ready, for these men shall dine with me at noon. And the men did as Joseph bade, And the man brought the men into Joseph's house. And the men were afraid because they were brought into Joseph's house, and they said because of the money that was returned.
At the first time are we brought in, that He may seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondsman in our *****. Oh, doesn't that illustrate what man thinks that God is after? He wants everything I've got. He wants me to give something up. He's after me. He's out to get me. That is man's concept of God. I remember brother Ramon Alarcon preaching the gospel.
And it stuck in my mind for whatever reason.
Concept of the DIOS Man has a wrong concept of God.
He's out to get me.
All for God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son.
These poor brethren did not enter into what was in the heart of Joseph, and so Joseph here sees his brother.
And.
Verse 29.
And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your younger brother of whom you spake unto me? And he said, God, be gracious unto thee, my son, You know, I don't know if he spoke to him through an interpreter, but can you hear his words?
Oh, remember, dear young people, this is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you think of Him in those affectionate terms? Do his words ring into your ears? God be gracious unto thee, my Son.
You have that sense in your soul of the love of God. There's no substitute for it.
It will keep you from the snares of the enemy that will tell you that God doesn't love you.
I've often mentioned that Albert Einstein believed that God created the world. He couldn't come to any other conclusion based on his mathematical interpretation of the universe. But he said God doesn't care about man.
He wound the world up like a top and let it go. So we're just left here to fend for ourselves.
What a sense of desperation in your soul if you believe that.
But it's not true, for God has given his Son.
He loves us and He's proved his love to us and we see it here.
In picture form. God be gracious unto thee, my son. And verse 30 And Joseph made haste, for his bowels did yearn upon his brother.
And he saw where to weep, and he entered into his chamber, and wept there. And he washed his face, and went out and refrained himself, and said, set on bread.
And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, for the Egyptians, which did eat with them by themselves.
Because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews without as an abomination under the Egyptians. And they sat before him, the first born according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth. And the men marveled one at another, and he took and sent messes under them from before him. But measurements mass was five times as much as theirs.
And they drank and were merry with him. Why did he give Benjamin five times as much?
Remember Joseph's code of many colors, which he got and nobody else did. Oh, his brethren envied him. That's one thing that Steven reminded the children of Israel about the leaders of Israel in in any at any rate, in Acts Chapter 7, the patriarchs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt.
And so here's Benjamin's mess, and you can kind of draw the picture in your mind. You know, he set them all down there at the table. And I might be able to do that maybe with a SIBO family, but I don't know if I could get all their ages correct. But I certainly couldn't do it with anybody that I didn't know at all. And so here's this man, and he's an Egyptian. Or shall they think? And he lines them all up according to their age.
And there's a youngest brother there. They knew he knew who he was.
And he's surrounded with all this food. I'm sure he couldn't eat it all there. He's given the richest, greatest blessing that could be given to him. And there's a brother looking at that. He got five times more than we did.
00:50:11
They looked at Joseph 22 years before. He's got a coat that we don't have.
Let's make sure that nothing comes true.
Of his dreams. Let's get rid of it.
And so this scene is recreated.
And what are they going to do?
Well, we only have 7 minutes left.
But we know what they did.
They left for home and their hearts were happy in spite of the fact they looked one on another and said.
What is happening here? How does this man know all about us?
This is very strange.
They marveled at it.
So they pack up the next day, they're on their way home. Their brother Simon is with them. They're feeling good. Wow, I got all this stuff we got and we dodged a bullet. There's nothing bad going to happen. And they get to the end.
And somebody shows up and says, what have you done? He stole the cup.
No, no, no, no, no, we, we didn't do that. Remember, we brought the money back. We're good people, you see, There was a need for a deeper work of repentance in their souls. We, we don't necessarily realize God's ways with us, do we? You know, we, we read that on the third day.
The the leper was, was cleansing and in the 7th day was clean. And we see that period of time that has to go by and that #7 pops up again. So we see that there's a repentance process that the nation of Israel goes through this remnant when they recognize those wounds in his hands and they look upon him whom they pierced, and they mourn for Him as one mourns for His only son.
This is what's happening here. As they're going through this work of repentance, they rent their clothes and, you know, they don't send Benjamin back and say, OK, here's the guilty party, take them back and we'll go on our way and make up some story like we did last time and do that. They turn around, they come back and they have a spokesman who's Judah, and he falls down before we should read it. It's just too beautiful. I can't read all of it, but.
Verse 14.
Of chapter 44 And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house, for he was yet there, and they fell before him on the ground. And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? Why you not that such a man as I can certainly divine notice who's speaking here? And Judah said, What shall we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak?
Or how shall we clear ourselves? God have found out the iniquity of thy servants.
Behold, we are my Lord's servants, both we and who all He also with whom the cup is found.
Here was a profound and deep work of repentance. And Joseph replays it again. And he says, No, no, you can go home, leave your brother here. I can't do that. Judah says I cannot do it. And he pours out his heart. He tells him the story. And you know the next chapter we find verse 40, chapter 45, verse one. Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all of them has stood by him. And he cried, 'cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him while Joseph made himself.
Unto his brethren. And he wept aloud. And the Egyptians in the House of Pharaoh heard.
And Joseph said unto his brother, And I am Joseph my father, yet live in his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom he sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me. Hit her, for God did send me before you to preserve.
Life.
Oh brethren, dear young people, I'm out of time. I want to go to the last one and just read it briefly. I want you to read this and let the words sink down into your soul and just rejoice in Joseph's tears. This is a picture of God's beloved Son. He was a man. He wept here upon the earth.
Joseph makes himself known unto his brethren. They recognize who he is.
00:55:00
Can you imagine those thoughts that went through their minds?
Let's go to chapter 50, the last chapter of Genesis.
And verse 15.
And we'll just read this and we'll close.
Verse 14 of Genesis 50 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he and his brethren, and all they that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father. And when Josephs brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will requite us all the evil which we did unto him. You know how long it gone by.
18 years.
And during that time, did Joseph show one single sign?
That he held a root of bitterness against them. Not once.
The Egyptians said of him, thou hast saved our lives. They knew what Joseph was and they were just the heathen. And here was his brother that had watched all of his kindness for 18 years. And what did Joseph do?
Verse.
17.
End of the verse. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
I wonder, does the Lord Jesus weep?
And our unbelief of the goodness that's in the heart of God.
He's a man, he can weep.
Oh, let us not grieve his heart, brethren.
By having in us an evil heart of unbelief.
For He has proved his love to us in the fullest and deepest way. Dear young people.
Go home and read this story for yourself and let the Spirit of God make it precious to your souls and enjoy that thought of Joseph tears and remember they speak to us in picture form of the tears of the Blessed Lord Jesus. Mark Twain didn't know him God for him was a figure of ghostliness.
And intangibility hidden in the clouds and very far away.
But you know, he's come nigh.
He came down from heaven that we might know God. Let's pray blessed.
Gospel 1
Gospel—Ted Sester
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Full meeting tonight. Let's start by singing #10 #10 There is a Savior on high in the glory, A Savior who suffered on Calvary tree. A Savior as willing to save now as ever. His arm is almighty, His love great and free. Oh come now to Jesus, that dear loving Savior.
Receive him this moment, and peace shall be dying.
#10.
There's a first couple verses in first Peter chapter 2. I'd like to first Peter chapter one and verse 24 if tonight. If you don't have a Bible, just listen.
It says, For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. This is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.
Tonight it's not important what I have to say. It's important what the word of God has to say. Tonight the authority is the word of God. You know, I could have a lot of crazy ideas and you know, they wouldn't be appropriate for what we're going to talk about tonight.
Tonight your eyes should not be on me, but they should be on the Lord Jesus Christ, Him crucified.
Tonight.
There may not be anything that you have not ever heard.
There's a verse that was quoted there when he prayed, and it's a verse that's in the Old Testament.
Not very long into the Bible in this verse, we have this verse and it says, my spirit shall not always strive with man.
You know the Spirit of God.
Is in this room tonight.
And it can take the Word of God and it can apply it to your heart tonight.
But you have to let it root into your heart. I can't do that for you.
The friend who brought you can't do it for you. The person who invited you can't do that for you. Your parents can't do that for you. I can't do that for you. You have to accept the word of God to be true. It says let God be true and every man a liar. Before we go any further, we have to establish the authority. The authority is the word of God.
I want to read.
In John chapter one.
John chapter one. We're not going to turn to a lot of scriptures tonight in John chapter one.
If you don't know your Bible very well, a good place to start reading your Bible would be John chapter one, John chapter one and verse one. It says in the beginning was the Word. That's a name for the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus came into this world. God's Son became a man and he came to this planet earth.
Says in the beginning was the word. He always was a son, as we heard.
He's the Son of God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.
And the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not.
And verse.
Seven. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe.
Verse 10 or verse 9, pardon me, That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. That is the savior that we have to proclaim tonight.
He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew him not. Do you know him tonight as your personal savior?
Maybe you're a child in this room and you've sat through a lot of gospel meetings and you're not saved yet.
Tonight, we can just stop right now. Do you believe that you're a Sinner? Do you believe you've done bad things? Do you believe that you have told a lie? Have you ever told a lie? One lie it says will keep you out of heaven. That's what Revelation says. One lie. I've told a lot of lies.
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There's not anyone in this room that could raise their hand and say they've never told a lie, but one lie it says we'll keep you out of heaven.
Have you ever done?
Anything wrong? Yes, you have. What does the Scripture say? What does the word of God say? It says for all have sinned and come short for the glory of God. God has a standard, and His standard is holiness. God cannot have one sin in His presence.
Letting the Lord Serve Us
YP Talk—John Bilisoly
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
OK, well, it's really a privilege to be here to speak to you this evening. And it's nice to see so many faces. I got this privilege not long ago in at the Burbank conference. And there must have been, I don't know, a couple of 100 young people in the room. It was really amazing. So it was, it's nice to see somebody here. Well, let's, let's ask the Lord for his help. And then I'm just going to share a few thoughts with you. I don't have much time and you've heard so much today.
Already so, but let's give thanks for all that we have. Our loving God and our Father, we do thank Thee for all that we've been brought into by thy grace. We think of what we heard this evening, that Thou has created us for thy glory and that us have a purpose for each one of us That's in the gymnasium this evening. And we think of the privilege it is to to know.
The Lord Jesus as our Savior to know that the question of our sins has been dealt with at Calvary's cross, and we don't have to.
Wake up with fear or apprehension as to where we are headed. For we know that we're bound for heaven for the glory, and we look forward to that time and we pray, Lord Jesus, that we would respond in our hearts and say, Even so come Lord Jesus. But we think of this world in which we live and we're trying to find our way through it, and we have an enemy that is putting pitfalls.
And snares in our way. And father, we ask for thy help.
That the Word, thy precious word, would illuminate these things that are a danger to us. Help us, we pray we need thy help. We cannot walk on our own safely through this scene. So we just thank thee that thou has promised to walk beside us and to help us. And we thank you for the Spirit of God that is a comforter to us, that indwells us and that.
Can take of these things in Thy word, and make them good to our hearts.
So we ask for thy help and the little time together in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Came out well, I think.
I think what I have to share with you this evening is really only going to take me about 10 minutes or so.
I thought it was interesting and helpful what we had this afternoon in the reading meetings and I and this morning too. And I hope that you've enjoyed it. I, I have.
We talked a lot about serving the Lord using the gift that the Lord has given us and.
I think I understood from what was said this morning that the Lord has given each one of us something to do and.
Our desire should be to try and determine what that is with his help. But I want to, I was thinking a little bit in the last few days and weeks actually of a little portion that I want to share with you because I think that, you know, we often get perhaps taken up with what can we, what can I do for the Lord.
And it is a privilege to be able to serve Him in some way. But I think that there is a portion that is even, let's say, better than that, better than serving the Lord. And the Lord himself calls it a good part. And you'll see what I mean in just a minute as we look at this little portion in Luke chapter 10. So if you want to follow along, there's just a few verses I want to read. We're very familiar with this portion.
But it is just impressed me of late with what we have here in this little account of the Lord being in a home in Bethany, that He perhaps often.
Spent time in and it was a home that he was comfortable in, and it was a place where he felt loved and wanted. And that must have been a tremendous comfort to the Lord's heart when in general he was rejected and he came into his own and his own received him not but here in this house in Bethany.
Where these two sisters lived and their brother the Lord felt welcome. So let's pick up here in in Luke chapter 10 and verse 38 and read just a few verses. Now it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house and she had a sister.
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Called Mary which also sat at Jesus feet.
And heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she helped me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful.
And troubled about many things. But one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part.
Which shall not be taken away from her.
Well, we know the account well, so I won't go into a lot of details, but I think it's it's nice to see these two sisters. They're both, they're both active, They're both doing something. Martha was cumbered about much serving and Mary is there sitting at the Lord's feet now, I'll have to admit that.
I feel, I felt I have read this and I have felt kind of sorry for Martha because.
I can understand in some sense her frustration, how she must have felt like, you know, why isn't Mary helping me? I, she just left me to, to do all of this by myself. And yet it's interesting, isn't it, that the Lord, as it were, he gently rebukes her. He does it in a very loving and kind way, but he rebukes her for the spirit and this attitude that she has. And he commends Mary, her sister, who in her eyes.
Was just sitting there at the Lord's feet. But the Lord sees things differently than she sees them.
And he, as it were, he has to correct Martha's thinking and saying and saying to her that, you know what? What your sister has done is what I would hope for you too, Martha, that.
Here's an opportunity to hear my words, to sit at my feet. And your sister has chosen the best part. And so as I thought about that, I thought about this whole question of serving, and we had a lot about that today, serving the Lord. And so here's one that is serving the Lord. And you think as you as you read this, you think, isn't that that beautiful? Here's Martha, she's serving the Lord, She wants it.
Special for him, and she's doing what she can for him. Why does the Lord speak this way to her? Well, there was a need in Martha's heart. And I wonder how many of us here have perhaps gone through this struggle, maybe similar to Martha, where we've compared our lot with someone else's and we've had similar feelings that Martha had.
And you know, it's, it just struck me as I read through this.
And thought about this, that, you know, there's a lot.
That is said about serving the Lord, but you don't hear as much about the Lord serving us, do you? We, we think about what can I do to serve him? We we talk about it serving the Lord and and what a privilege that is and and that is so true. But the Lord here in a sense is saying to to Martha, I want to serve you.
And that's what Mary is letting the Lord do.
Mary is sitting at the Lord's feet, hearing His word. The Lord is serving her and.
That's the point that I want to convey to you young people this evening, is service is important, but there's a better part, and that is letting the Lord serve us. What do I mean by that? Well.
It's as we are sitting in the Lord's presence, quietly letting Him, as it were, minister to us. That's the the better part or the good part that the Lord is talking about.
And that really has to pro ceed our service for him. So so before you and I can really serve the Lord in the right spirit and attitude and do it for him out of a heart of love.
We, as it were, need to let him serve us first. We need to enjoy that communion with him. And as we enjoy that communion with the Lord, as we let him serve us, then we're going to want to serve him. It's going to be natural if.
If if you if you are in someones presence and you you feel that they love you and that they have the very best for you and they want to serve you, then in turn you want to serve them. That's just the natural response. And I think that's the whole point of this little portion. Is that Mary, the part that Mary chose, the Lord said was the good part because she was sitting there at the Lord's feet listening to his words. He was ministering to her. Later on in this book in the.
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2nd chapter The Lord asks this question in verse 27. He says, Whither is great weather is greater, He that sitteth or meet or he that serveth? And then he says, is not he that serveth?
Is not he that sitteth at me greater? But then he goes on to say, but I am among you as one that serveth. And so I think it's it's been really helpful to me to see this order here that before our service for the Lord comes, we have to let him serve us. Now how do we do that?
How do we do that? Well, this is this is what's beautiful to me about this. This is something that you don't do for anyone else's eye. You know, we, we go out in service for the Lord and people see us and so on. And people make comments and they say, isn't that nice? And did you hear about so and so he's he's doing this for the Lord. And did you hear about this sister and what she's doing for the Lord? I'm not.
Criticizing that, I'm not downplaying that, but.
What is is beautiful about this here is that to allow the Lord to serve us. It's not for anyone elses eye. It's it's something that you in private do with the Lord and you know you may you may we talked today about.
We'll look at, you know, what is so and so look at what so and so is doing. And I wish I could maybe do something like that. But like I said.
Service is something that.
It's done, and then the Lord is going to evaluate in the end what was for him and what was not for him.
And we can be sure, and I've heard it said and I believe it's true, that in everything that we do for the Lord, there's probably something that the Lord has to, as it were, set aside. Just like when he was going to use Gideon and Gideon wanted to give him a sacrifice and the Lord, the Angel of the Lord, told him to pour out the broth. Well, I think there's something in our service and all of our service for the Lord that maybe be maybe as imperfect because we're imperfect beings, but this that.
Where the Lord serves us, that's done in private that no one else sees in your life.
No one else sees in my life that is something that's not going to be taken away and that's that's what's so.
Beautiful at the end of this chapter is the Lord says to Martha, He says, one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen the good part, and look, look what it says, The very last words that the Lord says, which shall not be taken away from her. In other words, that time that I.
You spend in the Lord's presence quietly, alone that no one else even sees, in your bedroom wherever it might be, where you allow the Lord to minister to your heart through His word. That time that you spend in quiet that is not going to be taken away, that is eternal, your laborers for Him that you might do. The Lord is going to keep what He can, and the rest will be.
Put aside, if you will, there's always going to be something of of self in it. So I've just really enjoyed this here that.
This good part that Mary chooses that will not be taken away from her. So we might sum it up like this that Mary or Martha is is cumbered about it says with much serving. So Martha is occupied with what she can do for the Lord Jesus and Mary is occupied with the Lord Jesus himself. And that that to me is the difference between the Lord.
Serving us, and us serving the Lord.
Martha here is serving the Lord and she's cumbered about it. And Mary is just enjoying the Lord himself. And that's what he really longs for in each of our lives is he wants that fellowship with us individually and.
And that's something that someone doesn't see and no one's going to be able to say, well, you know, evaluate that, if you will.
Your service for the Lord will be evaluated by your brethren. Don't let that scare you or deter you from doing it, but you're it will be evaluated This that you enjoy with the Lord is between you and him alone. And like I said, I'll just repeat myself again. It has to come first before your service for him. So what we had today was beautiful and all but.
I just wanted to add this this component to it is that we have to allow the Lord to serve us.
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And to enjoy that fellowship of him ministering to our hearts before we are going to be in a condition and a a right attitude to serve him. So that's that's my message this evening is I know that we all want to serve the Lord and I I hope we do anyway. I know that it's it's something that we we're constantly.
Have to be before the Lord about as to what, what would he have me to do and so on. But don't don't neglect the the.
Good part that the Lord says, or we can say the better part, and that is.
Letting him serve us, let's not forget that he wants to serve us. He wants to serve each one of us by ministering to us. So I, I think that's so important in our lives. All right, we'll just close with prayer and then I'll also give thanks for I heard there was some refreshments so.
Our loving God and our Father, we do just thank Thee for these little touches in Thy word, and we pray that each one of us would seek that good part that cannot be taken away from us to enjoy fellowship one-on-one, as it were with our Savior, the Lord Jesus. To just let Him minister to our hearts to through His precious word, that we would not neglect it in our lives and that we might as a result of that being.
A right attitude and place to serve him in some capacity. We just pray for thy help.
We give thanks for each one of the young people here. We pray for their encouragement. Thou knowest.
What each one is going through in their own individual lives and he struggles, temptations, whatever it might be, decisions that they're faced with. Our Father, we just pray that thou would come in and undertake for them and give them knowledge and wisdom as we spoke of that today as well. We just thank thee too for the refreshments that we.
By nature, enjoy these things that Thou has provided. We just pray for nourishment for our bodies. We commit ourselves to Thee for the rest of the evening and for a night of rest as well. We ask for it in the precious and worthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
The Father Sent the Son to Be the Savior of the World
Children—Terry Kilcup
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.
I don't think there's anybody in here that can say that they've never heard the story before. Is this the first time anybody in this room to hear Sunday school or a gospel or about the Lord Jesus? Last night the gospel went forth in this very room, and I'm sure most of you were here.
There's a very important message, but this morning this message may be more important than last night's message.
Not because it's me, but because you've been given another day. The Lord Jesus didn't come yet, and he hasn't taken you home yet. We don't know when our days are up. So if there's someone in this room and the burden on my my heart is there might be one or more in this room that hasn't accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Does anyone else have a song I like to sing?
A number #4 Here you go next.
I was thinking about this morning and I've spent, I've spent a lot of time in the gymnasium.
The bleachers are normally pulled out, the baskets are normally lowered down, and the scoreboard is on. And I felt pretty comfortable there and I spent hours in the gymnasiums.
And before we go it on the basketball floor, my coach in high school was a Christian and he'd have a say the Lord's Prayer before we went out on the basketball floor. Not everybody on the team was a Christian, but they each had to recite the Lord's Prayer.
You know, this morning the bleachers are pushed back, the baskets are rolled up and the scoreboards not on.
At last, Nick was a 21St, wasn't it, Tim? I got a phone call. My cell phone rang and I pulled it out and I told my wife someone from Eastern Washington is calling. I didn't know the number, so I answered the phone and they said, is this Terry? I said yes. He said this is Tim Newton. I said OK, and I thought there was something wrong.
With my father-in-law sick, something happened and he said.
Well, I've been asked to call around to see if somebody wants to speak. And about that time my mind went blank and I didn't hear a whole lot of what he said after that. And I think I said I got to call you back. I got to pray about it. I'll call you tomorrow.
Tomorrow came, tomorrow went. I didn't call him.
Prayed a second night, call them back the next day.
I told them OK.
In what was said to me was it doesn't have to be long and it doesn't have to be complicated. So I took it it needed to be short and simple. That's what I'm going to try and do is keep it short and simple for the children.
So before we go any further, just like when I went to the gym playing basketball, there was a prayer said before the game. But last night?
I didn't get a whole lot of sleep, I woke up quite a bit and I prayed quite a bit. There was a lot of prayers going up for this meeting last night. I might be by my from myself and I believe there was others that told me they'd be praying for me. So before we go any further I'd like to bow my head and ask for help.
Our God and Father, we just thank Thee for this time. We have to open Thy word.
To the children, we just pray that the message would be simple. We just pray that it would come from the We pray that there be one in this room that is without thee, that they would turn to thee before it is forever too late. So we just asked this.
In thy name and ask for help and pray that they just pray that the prayers would continue to go up throughout this meeting. We ask this in our name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
We'll sing some more, but I just want to read.
A verse.
In Luke chapter 18 verse 16. I'm sure most of you kids already know this verse.
Supper, little children, to come unto me and forbid them not, for such is the Kingdom of God.
Suffer their little children to come unto me.
We want each and everyone in this room child, or if there's a teenager or one older, if you're still in your sins.
Our prayer is that you would come to know the Lord Jesus before it is forever too late. Does someone else have a song they'd like to sing?
What number?
Number six.
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Welcome.
To sun, everyone smells great.
And great tone and I smell.
Change sunscreen alone.
And all rain.
The Graves.
Shining.
The face.
Tell example.
Strong.
God.
Is light and God.
Is some.
What number?
Number one, who was that?
Almost persuade.
Come, come.
Today.
Almost persuade.
And all.
OK, we'll sing that in just a minute. OK, um.
The last two songs.
Actually, we're part of what I was going to speak about this morning. So I'm going to maybe we'll sing #5 in a minute. I want to. I'm going to read a story in in Luke.
I was just thinking, in the past month there's been two people that have passed away. One I knew, one I didn't know, one man that passed away.
He's very, very wise man in this world, very smart and the world thought he was.
One of the smartest people there were.
But I read a little bit of what he finished up before he passed away. And at the end of the article I was reading, it said that those people that believe in God, it's just a fairy tale. It's just a fairy tale.
And if that man went into death believing that?
He'll be forever separated from the love of God, the other man that passed away.
I knew him. I met him when I was 12.
And he passed away not too long ago.
And when I heard that he passed away, I thought he is face to face with his savior.
The one he longed to be with.
The one he talked about, he shared the gospel with anybody and everybody.
He went from this poor Earl, this poor world, absent from the body, and he's present with the Lord.
If you were to die today, will you be absent from the body and present with the Lord?
I trust you will, but I don't know. I can look and see that most of you or all of you have been to Sunday school before.
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You've been to the meetings here, but I don't know what's in your heart.
Only God does so. I want to read in Luke chapter 16 verse 19.
Luke, 1619.
There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was at his gate full of sores.
And it came to pass that the Baker died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, and the rich man died and was buried.
If you were to die, if you were to die today, would it be said of you? You, you died and you were buried? Or could it be said that you were carried by the angels, absent from the body, present with the Lord? Would you be like this man that was so smart, but he thought God was a fairy tale? Would you be buried? Would you be seeing him as your judge before you're cast into a lost eternity, forever separated from the love of God?
I'm going to turn over to.
Acts Chapter 7.
Are you ready? Are you ready to meet the Lord Jesus as your Savior?
Have you asked him into your heart?
Acts Chapter 7.
Verse 56 This is Stephen. He was preaching.
Behold, I see the heavens opened in the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. And they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears, and they ran upon him with one accord. They didn't want to hear what Stephen had to say. Many in this world don't want to hear what the Lord Jesus has to say.
They cast him out of the city and stoned him, and the witness laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. So is there stoning Stephen? He's praying, saying, Lord Jesus received my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice. Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
I don't know about you, but if someone was hitting me or throwing rocks at me, I wouldn't be. I should, but I wouldn't be praying that not to lay this in at their charge. I would want to fight back. That's my nature and that's all. That's all of our nature to fight back. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
So here was Stephen.
Being stoned and there was a man there named Saul.
And he was, we're going to turn over to Chapter 9, we're going to read more about Saul. And it said Saul yet breathing and threatenings and slander against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest. And he desired him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound into Jews unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly they're shown, they're shined round about him a light from heaven.
So here's Saul, who had had the coats thrown down at his feet when they were stoning Stephen. He's gone on.
He's gathering up Christians and putting them in prison.
But as he's, as he's going on, a light shone from from heaven.
And he fell to the earth, and he heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
And he, trembling and astonished, said Lord.
Have you had that light children shine from heaven on your heart? Have you had the Lord Jesus touch your heart? And have you turned and said Lord?
Have you owned him as Lord here? He says, Lord, how did how did Saul know who this was? He'd been gathering up Christians to beat him and kill him, but he knew who he was fighting against and he said, Lord.
And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.
Is persecuting the children of God? And what did he say? And he trembling?
And astonished said, Lord, what will thou have me to do?
Have you asked the Lord Jesus, What would you have me to do? Have you owned him as Lord? What would you have me to do?
Acts 1631. Can anybody know what that verse says?
I'm sure you do. I'm sure you've learned it for your Sunday School verses, but it says believe.
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I can see some lips moving on. The Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Lord. What would they have me to do? I remember listening to a meeting on a tape. It was Bob Tony.
And he was preaching and he was saying there's nothing to do. All it says is believe. Just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's nothing else for us to do.
It's that simple. Even the youngest up here in the front row.
That's is that simple, just to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that thou shalt be saved.
We're all sinners in this room, it says. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Then Levi doesn't leave anybody out, does it? For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
I have my notes here because I get up front here, I'm a little nervous and I lose track of what I'm saying so.
But we're all sinners. There's a verse that says.
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. I'm so thankful for that verse because everyone in this room, including myself, we're all sinners. We're not righteous.
He came to save sinners. Now there's two types of people in this room. There are sinners.
That are lost, and they're sinners that are saved. Which are you? Are you saved or are you still in your sins? Are your sins still upon you?
There were three people on the that were the Lord Jesus was crucified and there were two people with them. I appreciated this the other day in Tacoma.
One thief had.
Sinned in him, and sins on him, the other thief.
How that go had sins in him, the Lord Jesus on their head, no sin in him, but our sins were put on him. So we had one thief that had the sins in him and on him once thief that had the sins.
In him, but not on him. He was a Sinner, but the Lord Jesus had bore his sins for him. Thank you.
But I appreciated that, that we're all sinners. But if you are saved, your sins have been put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
You don't have to pay for those sins, it says. The wages of sin is death.
The wages of sin is death. I go to work for wages, and if I work like I'm supposed to, I get paid.
So we're traveling through this Earth.
Last night, Ted said we were all born sinners like Ted's. We don't have to be trained to sin. I've heard that many times that it comes natural to something that happens.
We're all sinners.
Is the Lord Jesus bore your sins?
As he bore my sins, he did. The work was done at Calvary's cross.
Not of works of righteousness that we have done. What is the Lord Jesus? What does God think about our good works?
There's filthy rags. Did anybody collect filthy rags? Anybody keep them?
They're thrown away, aren't they? Filthy rags are thrown away and that's what our good works. That's what our works are to God. There's nothing we can do for our salvation. It's already been done since the wages of sin are death that first doesn't then there, but it says the but the gift of God. It's a free gift. I haven't paid for a gift in my life that was given to me.
It was given to me as a gift. It was free and God sent his son. That's our Sunday school verse today, isn't it?
Says the Father sent the Son to be the savior of the world.
That was God's gift to each one of us, His own beloved Son, to die on the cross for our sins.
So now I want to there's another subject I want to talk about.
For those of us that are saved.
And then we go through this world and there's many things in the world that occupy our time and our thoughts. I just had a few things in this bag. Does anybody know what this is?
Steps up So baseball. Anybody know what this one is?
Anybody played croquet? It's a croquet ball.
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Anybody.
More specifically, it's a it's a softball.
Girls play softball. Boys play baseball.
Anybody know what this is? Golf balls? Anybody play golf?
I've tried it.
I heard it's a good game. I heard it's a fun game. I couldn't. I couldn't prove it. I don't think golf's very fun. Anybody know what?
Wiffle ball. Very good. It's a wiffle ball. You probably use it for pickleball too.
Here What's this?
Ping pong ball. His family plays a lot of ping pong. I've watched him play ping pong at our meeting room at Tacoma and I wouldn't. I don't think I could even beat him. They're pretty good at ping pong.
Anybody know what this? What is this volleyball?
And then what is this football? Very good.
Got a couple more here.
Basketball OK now like I said at the beginning, I spent a lot of time in the gym. I played a little bit of basketball and.
Does anybody here that plays it a lot?
What's your name?
Jesse, if I asked you to come up here and see you could dribble from one end of the gym to the other faster, would you want to try that with me? I've got this basketball, don't you come up here and you can use this one and I'll use this one and we'll see who can win.
You want to try it? I think I have a good shot of winning.
Children, this is a silly example but what I was thinking about.
As we go through our Christian lives in this world.
It was a simple illustration. I want to go to Matthew chapter 5.
And verse 14 And it says, Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, neither do men put, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a Candlestick, and a giveth light unto all that are in the house. So let your shine your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and that and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
We're to be a we're to be an example of the Lord Jesus Christ were to shine forth for him. You know, I work with people that I don't think they've even had a Bible in their hands, let alone opened it up, talked with him on the phone.
And I haven't talked to them about the Lord Jesus. I've done business with them.
And not a while back, I was talking to a vendor and I said something and the vendor answered. They said something back to me that just struck me to the core.
I made a comment that I shouldn't have made and this vendor said that's not very Christian like.
And my mouth just dropped open. She couldn't. They couldn't see me. I was on the phone.
And it just hit me so hard.
And I apologized. I didn't know they knew I was a Christian. I had no idea they knew I was a Christian.
Like we said yesterday, there was a family at a store.
Some brother, I think it was Bob, said. I went up to him and asked him if they were Christians. There was something different about them.
And yes, they were Christians. So we can go through this world, children. We can be a light to the Lord Jesus Christ.
They may not read the Bible, but they can read Christians.
They know how we should act. They can correct us.
And that hit me to the core when I was corrected by someone who.
Who didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior?
So how can we?
How can we?
Not be like this basketball. What's wrong with this basketball?
It's crushed. Why is it crushed? What's it missing?
It's missing the air inside, isn't it? The air is not in this basketball. I bet if I took my pump and pumped it back up then it would hold air again. It would be. It's still a basketball. Even though it's of no use right now. It's still a basketball.
There have been times in my life, sorry to say, that I've been like this basketball.
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The Lord Jesus has not been able to use me because I.
I haven't been reading and I haven't been praying. I haven't been meditating on the Word of God. This is what we've become.
We could become useless to God. We're still Christians. Like Ted said last night, once you're saved, you're always saved. God may not be able to use this, I've heard my father-in-law say.
A saved soul, but a lost life.
We don't want to become that do we don't want, we don't want to just get saved and then go off and do whatever we want.
Some people that are saved and have lost their lost their way. They're the most miserable people in the world.
So how can we continue this? Can someone start the song for me? Read your Bible, pray every day. This is how we become more like the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pray every day. Pray every day, Pray every day.
Read your Bible, pray every day and no problem.
And you grow, grow, grow and you'll grow, grow.
So I want to encourage each one of us, as well as myself, to continue to reading our Bible and praying every day. And you don't have to turn to a bit in Hebrews 12 Says, Wherefore seeing ye also are compassed about with so great a crowd of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and every sin that so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race.
That is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Unto Jesus, not unto a man on this earth.
But unto Jesus, I know there's some in this room that would like to run and I know they don't go out and put on their their boots or their hiking boots to go run their race. They put on, I'm going to guess I talked with her, she puts on ASIC gels very nice running shoe so she can go run. She gets rid of the heavy boots that she can run. So there's many things in this world that will weigh us down that will keep us from.
Running the race.
Matthew 619.
Lay not up your treasures upon earth were moth and rust doth corrupt.
And where thieves breakthrough and steal. But lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust, nor death.
Corrupt and where thieves do not breakthrough or steal for what your treasure is, there is your heart also. So children, if our treasure is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The things of this world will not get a hold of us and drag us down. We can lay those weights aside if we're putting our treasures in heaven instead of on this earth. I work for a man that owns the company I work for and he is just grabbing and trying to hold on to everything he can get. His treasures are on this earth. His father passed away and left him his company and he's just doing his best to hold on.
He doesn't have a hope.
He doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, so he's just grabbing what he can. But if our hope is in heaven, our treasures are in heaven, we can lay aside those weights. It'll draw us down, it'll pull us away. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and in whose hope the Lord is. So I trust that each one in this room can say that verse.
Because there's coming a time, it says every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess. You're going to bow the knee now.
And ask the Lord Jesus to be your savior. Or are you going to bow your knee at a future date when he's going to be your judge? And it'll be ever, forever too late. We sing that song almost persuaded the king. Agrippa, He said, almost. Thou persuadest me to be a Christian. I'm not trying to persuade you to be a Christian, but I'm urging you to look to the Lord Jesus and he may touch your heart and save your soul.
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I did say we'd sing one more song #5 who did someone start that, please?
It's my choice.
Sunday, my Sinner and my God.
Transactions.
I am my Lords and feelings, and I follow.
Glad to know, glad someone did your heart.
Happy, happy day.
When Jesus?
Was my sins away?
In time.
To watch and pray.
And every time.
See every day.
When Jesus?
Wants my sins away.
In time.
To watch and pray.
Pray and every joy is here every day.
Every day.
Happy day when Jesus.
Called my center way.
What a beautiful song to end on.
We didn't say our verses.
Maybe if you've learned your verse, we could all say it at the same time.
I'll start. I'll say it first. The Father sent the Son to be the savior of the world. First John, 4/14.
We all say it together now, the father.
Thank you very much. Now let's we'll just close in prayer.
Your Reasonable Service
Open—Tim Stewart
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Book of Hebrews.
Maybe one verse in the book of Hebrews that was mentioned last night.
Hebrews, chapter 4.
And verse 12.
For the word of God is quick and powerful.
And sharper than any two edged sword.
Piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and as a discerner.
Of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
We just had bed to us. Let the prophets speak two or three and we know the verse. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God or the mouse peak, the mouthpiece of God. And we have here A2 edged sword. And so I trust that what will be presented as the word of God and.
I trust that each one of us, myself included, will feel it cut very deeply.
And I trust that it won't be blunted so that it can properly achieve.
Not which it has sent out to do.
We've had.
A couple of reading meetings now where we've spent a considerable amount of time talking about gift and the book of First Corinthians is.
Looking at an assembly which had as an assembly as a whole failed to operate properly in many ways, and so the instruction that is given in First Corinthians as regarding gifts is concerning how they operate to the whole assembly.
Was also mentioned Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians Chapter Ephesians is the book where the highest truth is brought out, where God has.
Poured out his heart and shown us what has really been given to us and from that standpoint in the 4th chapter, which is in the practical part of the book.
It's brought out how Christ has given gifts.
To the church.
For everyone and we made several comments in the reading meetings about.
For young people, and I feel this may apply more to them than others in the room, but I trust we can all have something to learn from it and how to know.
The question of what is my gift? The question of.
How am I supposed to serve?
Last night we had a talk at the.
Young people sing, which I really appreciated about the Lord serving.
And how Mary had that better part when when Martha was serving, but Mary was being served by the Lord.
And last night in the gospel, we had three questions.
Where did we come from? Why am I here, and where are we going? And so I'd like to tie this together somewhat here and look at the book where the gifts are mentioned in an individual sense, which be Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter 12 So gifts as mentioned in Ephesians chapter 4 and what we had in first first Corinthians, they were to the benefit of the church. And here gifts are mentioned and it's talking to let's just read here Romans chapter 12 and verse 6 having then gifts different differing according to the grace that is.
To us, whether prophecy, let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith or ministry, let us wait. Or it could read occupy ourselves on our ministering, Or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, or he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, and so on. And so here is given that.
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Those that have, if we want to call it this gift, there to exercise it.
And Romans is a very individual book from the very beginning.
It deals with the salvation of the soul, which is an individual thing.
And there's a reason why this is the 12Th chapter. And this is a question that many young people come to. I've come to is how do I know if I'm supposed to be ministering, or how do I know if I'm supposed to be teaching, or how do I know if I'm supposed to be exhorting or so on.
And to answer that question, we have to work backwards. There's a reason why the book of Romans was written in the order that it was written in. And so this portion here in.
Verses 6/6 and on in Romans chapter 12 dealing with our gifts comes after the first couple verses of Romans chapter 12. Let's read that.
But before we read them, just make this as a comment. The gifts are given for the benefit of the church, not for the benefit of the individual that has them. And to an individual. If you're searching for gift, perhaps a better question would be.
What does the Lord want me to do? I appreciate the way our brother brought out. Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it.
That's the thought that's given to the individual.
What does the Lord have me to do?
That's a question but many young people also have What is the Lord's will for me in my life?
We've had many talks about that.
We'll look at that here in Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12, verse one. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy.
Acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove that which is good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
These are some If you read these verses without any context, they're very harsh.
Present your bodies a living sacrifice.
That's not talking about devotion, that's talking about sacrifice, giving everything up.
If you want to know what the Lord wants in your life.
And this speaks very deeply to me. You're going to have to give up everything that you want to do.
If you're going to understand what God wants in your life, your own ideas and motives are going to have to be completely set aside.
That hurts. That hurts.
Be not conformed to this world.
Speaks very strongly to me as well.
But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Somebody asked a question, How often do we have to renew our mind that says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Well, if your mind needs renewing, renew it if these things from the world have caught our attention.
We need to get back. We need our minds transformed.
Where does that come from?
We need to look and realize what Christ has done for us. I'd like to read to him from the echoes of grace in relation to this.
So him and the echoes of grace. It's number 75.
I gave my life for thee. My precious blood I shed.
That thou mightst ransom be, and quickened from the dead, I gave my life for me, for thee. What hast thou given for me? My Father's House of light, my glory, circle, throne I left for earthly night, For wandering, sad and lone, I left it all for thee.
Hast thou left off for me?
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I suffered much for thee, more than thy tongue can tell of bitterest agony to rescue thee from hell.
I've borne at all for thee.
What hast thou borne for me?
And I have brought to thee down from my home above salvation, full and free, my pardon and my love.
I bring rich gifts to be. What hast thou brought to me?
I don't think anyone.
Has here on this earth has been fully touched by what the Lords work on the cross means for them?
We have the remembrance meeting this morning.
Yesterday afternoon we had an address.
The humanity of Christ was brought out.
This was a real person.
This was God coming as a man.
To save me.
To save you.
What response? That ought to target our hearts.
In First Corinthians chapter 5 it says the love of Christ constrains us.
The love of Christ constrains us.
Where our hearts see Him.
What he has done.
It says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.
That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
When we see what Christ has done for us, it is only reasonable. You could almost read which is your minimal service. Which is your minimal service to lay everything down. Lay it down at the Lord's feet.
This cuts deep.
Deep.
And what this song brought out is what you have earlier in the book of Romans before Romans chapter 12. You have the end of Romans Chapter 11.
Which is a tremendous burst of burst of praise. It's called the Doxology.
Romans chapter 910 and 11 is a parenthesis.
Chapter 8 ends with another burst of praise. Looking at the Lord. This comes the 1St 8 chapters of Romans have to deal with our salvation.
And at the end of this, let's just read it, We read a verse to open at the beginning of the prayer meeting yesterday.
He verse 32, Romans chapter 8 and verse 32 he that spared not his own son.
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all.
How shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?
So on and at the verse.
Verse 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
And verse 38 For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
These bursts of praise, it's, it's something to me to think about that the Apostle Paul, when he took up with different subjects, he took up with the salvation.
Of the soul.
And deliverance from sin and all these things in the first eight chapters of Romans.
And the response to the thought of God's grace and that subject was such that he just burst out, and praise burst out in praise. We often hear that God wants worshippers before he wants servants.
And I think that's an accurate order that if we see Christ.
For what he has done.
There should be a response in our hearts that goes up to him.
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That is what God desires, and this is part of why we are here, why we are here.
Is that we should be to the praise of his glory. It's that phrase is mentioned twice in Ephesians chapter one where its eternal counsels of God and how we are brought in. It says that ye should be to the praise of his glory.
Worshippers first.
But the same is also the reason why when you think of all this service that's being done in the assembly.
In the church, all these service, all the service, these different gifts that are given.
The apostles. The apostles and prophets laid the foundation of what we stand on. There's teachers that help us to better understand who God is. There's there's pastors that have a care to reach out to us when we've fallen from grace and bring us back.
That have a real care for the soul, those evangelists that go out to bring more in and all these things work together to produce more worshippers.
It's both what comes first and what is the purpose for it.
And the other question is where does it come from?
And it all comes from recognition.
Of what the Lord Jesus did for us on the cross.
I just have a few.
Other comments to make here briefly.
What is?
When the Lord says this, do in remembrance of me.
In light of what he has done on the cross.
What is your response?
Just think about that.
Think about what he did on the cross.
And think about what your response to him is.
The other thing we had mentioned was.
In First Corinthians 11.
In Ephesians.
And as.
Was brought out by a brother Matt Clawson in Colossians chapter 2 about the whole body being knit together in love and 1St Corinthians the verse chapter 12 The verse I was thinking about was.
These members of the body and these things are also mentioned in in Romans and other places as well. It's brought out because it's the apostles doctrine and it's what what's important for us to walk together. But here in first Corinthians chapter 12.
A name much more of those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable. Upon these we bestow much more abundant honor.
And our uncommon parts have more abundant comeliness.
In light of what I've just been mentioning here about looking at Christ and what he's done for us, when we look around this room and we see all these different ones here.
Did it ever strike your heart that Christ loved them? That person sitting next to you, That person sitting across the room, That person that you hold a grudge against? That Christ loved them to the point where he went to the cross to die for them?
If we have this before us, I think we would.
Treat each other a lot differently. I'm guilty of it myself.
But also on the thought of gift in this.
It's something that our old nature, when it thinks of the thought of gift or the thing to think that I might serve, I might serve a useful function to the body. There's pride involved in that, and Romans 12 provides an answer to that.
Directly addresses that.
Romans, chapter 12.
And verse 3, before I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, as I said, this is very individual to every man. That's this is to individuals. The book of Romans is individual.
Every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
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These things are called gifts for a reason.
It is God meeting our need and reaching out on a sovereign grace and providing for that.
That's humbling.
That's the humility that we need to address this topic with.
That's all I had but to go.
Back over it the other direction so we.
Just for clarity, let's go. So first, the Lord saved us.
There ought to be a response of worship and praise and Thanksgiving for that.
Then when God says, I beseech you therefore, brethren.
By the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And response of what we've seen him done and after that worship.
There's something that he has for us to do, and we are.
When we see what he's done, don't we just we should just lay everything down. Lord, you died for me.
What would thou have me to do?
That should be the response and as we'll bring out.
I believe was brother Clarence London like to say God.
Sorry. Love is the sovereign spring of activity with God. And what that means is every action that God has ever done has been on the motive of love. And what we're going to see in in First Corinthians chapter 13 is that brought out and how our interactions with one another should be that there should be a motive of love. And the the final purpose is that there would be more worshippers.
May we all.
Look to the Lord.
And just find beauty in him.
And from that we'll flow the proper response.
Read a verse in Psalm 83.
Psalm 83, verse 12.
Referring to, I believe, enemies in the days of.
Of Gideon, I believe. Let us.
Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
My French Bible says that the habitations of God.
And that word houses there. It's the same word as.
The pastures in Psalm 23.
Pastors of God.
The places God has provided for blessing and enrichment of His children, His people and.
Where he wants to dwell with us.
And our brother brother Tim mentioned Romans chapter 12 and I was just wondering if we could consider different abutations of God.
And one of them is our bodies. He dwells in our bodies by His spirit. And so if we deliver up our bodies to Him, he can be.
Using us, as our brother suggested, in worship and service and.
And the enemy, as those that are mentioned here in the 83rd Psalm, that was their desire to take possession to themselves of the habitations of God, deprive the Lord of those places where He has an entrance, and He deserves to live and dwell, and to put something else in there. And so I just mentioned this in connection with our bodies, which are the temple of the Holy Ghost.
We have the members of our bodies and our eyes, our ears, our mouths, our hands, our feet can be occupied with many, many, many, many things all around us.
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Or they can be put to the service of the Lord by being energized by the Spirit of God and submitting to His leading and obedient, obeying the Word of God.
Another habitation of God, I believe, is a household and a family, and how he likes to enemy, likes to destroy families and.
Prevent the Lord from having us. Enjoy with Him that invention of His family, you know.
Father, mother, husband, wife, and children. It's such a wonderful, natural thing to enjoy and to be blessed. And we're so thankful for every family, every measure of that habitation of God with us that we can enjoy.
And as we've mentioned in the reading meeting, we have the habitation of God, which is the church and the body of Christ. I'd just like to go to First Timothy chapter 6, verse chapter 3 rather for a few comments there.
Is one thing the enemy certainly wants to destroy is any testimony on the earth that gives glory to the Lord Jesus and have it as his name honored and he would destroy anything in nature that corresponds to God's order and glory. You know we have this.
Dissolution of gender differences is just, you know, an attack on the creator God and the order that he's put in his creation. So we have in first Timothy chapter 3 just like to read from verse 14 to 16. There these things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly, But if I carry long that alias know how to the artist to behave thyself in the House of God.
Which is the Church of the Living God, the Pillar.
And ground of the truth.
And Paul writes these things to Timothy. He would have liked to be there himself. And hadn't had he been there himself.
They would have heard it from the apostle himself, but he just in case he wasn't able to make it. The Lord didn't provide for that opportunity, he says in the 15th verse. But if I carry long.
That thou mayest know.
How thou Artest to behave thyself. I would just suggest here that the translation is a bit different in French, and I think it's two in a new translation that one.
Artist ought to behave. It's it's not just a Timothy, it's how we ought to behave in the Church of God and the House of God, the Church of living God.
Now artists to behave artists is maybe it's clear to you, but as I read it, I had to look it up what the intent or strength of that artist. You know, I would have read it myself, say how he should behave. But that's not what artists mean. It's what you must behave. You must be born again. Same word.
Translate the differences here SO.
Here's instruction from the apostle, and we have it in the preceding verses as to men and women and the order in the church and the offices we spoke of yesterday, local responsibilities. It's not left to us, It's specified here. And this is that that's how we must, how we must behave, how the order of God is here, how we must behave ourselves.
In the house.
Of God.
Which is the church?
Of the living God.
The pillar and ground of the truth.
Now, if we talk about the church, we talk about the truth. We thought of maintaining the truth and.
These are all subjects, you might say, that are taken up by different ones at different times and in different lights. What was the substance of all that's mentioned here? This church and the living God and the truth? What's right in there in the next verse?
And without controversy.
Is there a controversy among Christians?
If controversial.
Where does the country where she come from without controversy?
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Great is the mystery.
Of godliness. That's what it's all about. There's no controversy we had.
Yeah, the mystery of godliness. You know, when I was a young man, I was brought up in a in a church and.
We had all these mysteries, so I asked a question and they'd say that's a mystery.
How does the host become?
The body and blood of Jesus. That's what I was taught when I was young man. What a precious romance we had this morning.
We didn't have the body of the Lord or the blood of the Lord. We had a loaf and we have a glass of wine. We had a cup of wine, but boy.
It spoke to my heart about him. That's not him. It's a remembrance of him. When I was a young man, they said that this piece of wafer, after some prayers were made, it became.
The body and blood of Jesus. And if you ask them how?
It's a mystery.
So every time you had an intelligent question, you wanted to know and understand.
It's a mystery.
You can't be brought into it, you can't enjoy it, you can't know it. Well, it's told us right here.
What is that mystery of godliness? Well.
God was manifest in a flesh.
That is a blessed person of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, who became a man and who walked down here among men.
And manifested who he was by the miracles, by the discourses, by the wisdom expressed, by the compassion.
And manifested the reality of man's heart.
How we created incarnated goodness, Incarnate love. How we treated that person with hatred, without a cause.
This is the mystery of godliness. God has revealed himself to us through that person of the Lord Jesus, and everything we do and understand and are brought into the enjoyment of is connected with that person becoming a man and going to the cross and shedding his precious blood.
To allow us to be brought in such wonderful blessings. So that verse there we have verse 15, the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground it says in a note there to stay of the truth. And so the first element there, primordial element, the one has preeminence.
Is God manifest in flesh, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ and no one else?
You know, a pillar.
Speaks of strength, you know?
And the churches there put in a strong position.
It has a sure foundation. The apostle Paul says in Prince Corinthians 3. No other foundation can any man lay than that which is laid the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no other foundation you can build on. What a firm foundation? Unmovable. Unchangeable.
Do you have a controversy with that?
Some have a controversy with that. Jesus is one element of Christianity. No, he's not one element of Christianity. He is the substance, the beginning and the end. You don't have Christianity without Christ. And so I thought of the pillar. You know, it has a firm foundation.
A Christian and work of the Lord Jesus.
But a pillar is vertical, you know, And that pillar is like this pillar's like that. They're solid on solid ground, the revelation of the word of God, of the person of Christ. But it's vertical. And how high does that pillar go?
Right up into heaven.
We have a head in heaven, we have a foundation on the earth, which is the Lord Jesus Christ and his work, and we have a head in heaven we can depend on and receive from him instruction, guidance, help, restoration, forgiveness, grace, rich supply that we pray to him in heaven. So I enjoy that connection of the pillar strength because it's based on something unmovable and connected with the Son of God in heaven who has.
00:35:01
All authority both in hurt and in heaven. It tells us in Matthew chapter 28.
But that second part of it, it says ground of the truth or stay of the truth. It seems to me, as I understand it, that there is this pillar.
That is connected with the personal or just in his word and his presence at the right hand of God and that there's the.
A stay, something that helps out, it helps. We had that in First Corinthians 12 helps.
The church is there to be a help.
And that revelation of that mystery of godliness in connection with the Lord Jesus.
I think at the work of the evangelist, you know, I like simple things.
Evangelists. He presents Christ the sinners.
And the pastor teacher.
He presents Christ to the believers.
And the worshipper represents Christ to the Father. It's all about Him.
And so if we are active, our brother was bringing to us in Romans 12 and we had that in the gifts. Here we are members of the body of Christ, living stones in that building and that building and that body needs to be distinguished in our understanding of it. But yet.
It is to be stay a stay something to help out.
To that wonderful revelation, and so without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in flesh. He partook.
Of flesh and blood.
He became a man so he could die, and he died, but he was on the earth there and after he went through John's baptism.
When he came out of the water, the Spirit of God descended upon him in bodily form, and the voice came from heaven and said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
He was a son before, was always a son of God, never became the Son of God.
When he was born into the world, he became the Son of God. In incarnation was still the Son of God, but he had never been a man before.
And I risen from the dead, and he's a son of God in resurrection. He's never going to be anything different for eternity. He always was and will be the Son of God. But now he's the Son of God.
In resurrection, so when he was on the earth here justified.
By the Spirit.
Scene of angels.
They were there when he was born, they told the shepherds there.
And they saw him in the garden.
In his agony of blood.
And their witnesses. There is resurrection in the gospels. Why seek ye among the dead? He that is resurrected or alive? Scene of angels.
Entered into heaven in bodily form.
Angel in heaven they saw him.
In bodily form, wounds in his hands and his feet in his side, the March of the crown of thorns, the Son of God, the Lord of glory, scene of angels on the other side of death in heaven. And then it says, preached unto the Gentiles.
You know the heart of God.
I might be wrong and I'm saying this, but the heart of God wasn't fully known to the Jewish people.
God had a heart for every one of his creatures, every human being in the face of the earth, He has a heart for them.
He was thinking of them. He chose that people of Israel to make himself known and to have them go through those things that we benefit from now as we learn from them, from their mistakes, how God had to deal with them.
What his heart wasn't limited to the people of Israel. And now that the Lord Jesus come and he's died and risen again, and that his contract with Israel, you might say, was set aside when they finally stoned Steve and rejected their Messiah, who was both risen now and glorified. God could open his heart and say, oh, I had this on my heart all the time. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
00:40:01
All of them.
The Gentiles, the Lord Jesus, God manifested flesh, presented to the Gentiles, believed in the world.
You know, it says in the Book of Revelation, from every tongue, people and nation, tribe, you think of a tribe on the earth, a nation.
A language.
You can think of it and there's going to be one of them. That's what the scriptures say. There's going to be at least one of the many, many, many more, I hope, from every one of them in my glory.
God had a heart for all of mankind and he revealed it to us now through the Apostle Paul, the gospel of the grace of God. And then it says, received up into glory, you know.
We know he's in the glory now.
The Apostle Paul was taken up into the 3rd heaven. He didn't know if it was in the body or out of the body, but we can affirm on the authority of the Word of God that we are going to go into glory, into heaven itself with our bodies.
And the Lord Jesus comes, we're going to enter into heaven ourselves in the glory to be with and like him forever. And so we can look back at these verses, considering the mystery of godliness, and see how.
God is applied to us.
The result of this wonderful person in his work God manifest in flesh.
Can God be manifested in your life and mine? I believe he can. I mean, it's not like the Lord Jesus. Of course not.
But the Spirit God dwells in your body. Now how can that be? What's it justified by the Spirit? And I believe that the work of the Lord Jesus so perfect, when the benefit of it is applied to you, God Himself by His Spirit can come and dwell in your body until the day of redemption.
And if you and I let him live out in US, what is going to be manifested in that life that we have is the character of the Lord Jesus.
The fruit of the Spirit, Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, all these beautiful virtues that we see manifested in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ lives in you, and if Christ lives in you, it can be manifested in you.
And I have to say it's in a very small measure in my life, but I know he has produced in my life compassion and love for people I didn't have compassion for. I didn't love. He will do that He's given me.
Might not agree some measure of patience, but He has done that. He has produced in me, produced in you, some likeness to His Son, and it would never be manifested perfectly like it was in the blessed Lord Jesus.
But God can be manifest.
In your flesh too.
Daddy, I believe you can, and it's based on the fact that the work of the Lord Jesus so perfect that God could give you and seal you with His Spirit, not on the basis of you and what you've done, but on the basis of the merits of the Lord Jesus and the value of His precious blood that has washed you from all your sins and mine also.
God manifest in flesh justified in the spirit to the ones that believe also scene of angels. You know it tells us in the scriptures that the let's go to that verse in Ephesians chapter 3. Principalities and powers are learning of the manifold wisdom of God through the church.
Ephesians chapter 3.
Verse 10.
To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers, And how many places might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God.
According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You know.
Sometimes we were gathered, just a few of us, to remember the Lord and.
Was a precious time this morning. I trust you. You find it precious yourself. I thought it was so precious. Think of the Lord and glory looking upon us there. And you said wow.
So wonderful. But there are other spectators, I'm sure this morning, and I believe some of them were angels and they would see these creatures made to the likeness of God, who in time past blasphemed his name and misbehaved. I'm sure if they look at your life, I might say that we're such misbehaving children. You might say here we are.
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Giving up every other occupation, Sitting quietly.
Not filling our minds with different aspects of truth or whatever. We're just quietly sitting in the presence of the Lord Jesus and going back to that scene of Calvary where others just like you and me were there cursing him, insulting him, despising him. And here are the same creatures, you know, with the same nature.
Have been visited by the grace of God to be worshippers and her brother was saying here we are and the angels of Washington.
God is so wise. God is so wise. He didn't crank up robots. He moved our hearts. He touched us. He visited us. He affected us so much that we decided that we wanted to be here this morning.
And I hope you all wanted to be here this morning. Maybe you were here because you had to be here. And I know that happens and family, and I'm glad the parents are bringing their children to the meeting and having them understand that and witness that. But you know, it doesn't matter how old you are, you can enter into it yourself and say that person who's the Lord Jesus.
He died for me.
I have a man in a therapy house I visit every Monday and I said, I say to him.
He's been brought up in a certain denomination. And he says, I know he died for us, you know, And so I tell him, who did he die for? And he said he died for us. You know, he died for sinners. He died for us. And I said, that's not a good answer.
That might be a true answer, but it's not a good answer. And you know what I'm getting at, and you know what I'm getting at. And he died.
For me, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
He loved the church.
And he gave himself.
For it.
You are precious, dear brother and sister.
All our brothers and sisters are precious.
And we can be.
Seen of angels and the measure that we appreciate his love and come around him to worship and come to him in prayer also, and we certainly need to do that because we're needy people. Well, I just want to go on here with first Timothy 3 and verse 16 justified in this Christine of angels preached unto the Gentiles.
In the past tense.
Preached unto the isn't nice. It was. It was preached to the gentile.
You preach to the Gentiles.
Have you told your neighbor? Have you told your fellow workers? Have you told your friends at school?
That's how it happens. How shall they hear what other preacher? And we had that in connection with the gifts. You know, I'm not an evangelist. I am. Yeah. You don't need to be an evangelist. You might give a book. You might suggest something to somebody. Listen to that. You see that? You ever read this?
Lord can give you just that needed courage and energy to open the door in a conversation. Somebody says something about that, but about the future, about something.
And the Lord says that's the key, that's an entrance. And so use that opportunity yourself because I don't think it's finished. He hasn't finished preaching to the Gentiles. I believe he's still doing that. I think people are getting saved every day.
By somebody telling them.
Gentiles believed in the world, and that's God's work. I I can't have this man who keeps answering me in the plural. I can't have him. I can't save him.
You know, I can wrestle them to the ground and say he died for me, Died for me. You want me to say I'll say it, but it's not true. In his heart, I can't do that.
That's how God makes people believe. How shall they believe if they don't hear? And how are they going to hear unless there's a preacher? And so each one of us who know something of this mystery of godliness, the Son of God who became a man so that the whole world could be saved, it's not going to be saved, but he has a purpose that he could save the whole world if the whole world would believe. And so preached unto the Gentiles, believed in the world and received.
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Into glory.
Where does our path end? Our path ends in the glory, in the pencil of face to face with him. We're talking about a brother there just before the meeting, say I don't have any. Millions are going to be there. We're all going to be face to face with him. I don't know what's going to happen, but it's going to happen.
I don't know how the Lord Jesus could raise Lazarus from the dead when he was already stank already, but it happened.
Everything God says happened, happened, and when he says it's going to happen, it's going to happen, and it's going to happen exactly the way he says it's going to happen. The Lord Jesus was received into glory.
Of course.
And you and I, we're going to be receiving the glory also, not because of you and me, but because of him.
Now this verse here, it says how we must behave in the House of God, which is the Church of the living God.
It's a Church of God, but it's qualified living God. And I like that expression because the dynamic of God acting in the midst of us by his Spirit. And you know, there's a lot of criticism made about.
US collectively and, you know, perhaps we need to bow our head and say something that we deserve. You know, we kind of.
We kind of did things that brought us upon us, but.
I think we're doing the right thing.
We're applying and submitting to the instructions of the Word of God, and I believe that's why this morning we had such a beautiful remembrance and yesterday we had entrance into different things in the Scripture that was edifying to each one of us and learning things from one another. It works. And in spite of our weaknesses, it works because that's God's provision and He's a living God and where He's given room, he comes in and He ministers.
And he helps and he uses.
Now, we would not claim that we are the Church of God. We know the Church of God includes every believer. Everyone has received the Lord Jesus, his Savior, and that really is the House of God and the body of Christ. And we can't claim to be specifically that. That's broader than just the company that we're in.
But I trust that we understand from this book that God has ways he wants us to do things.
And I believe we should be that company who has a desire, a heartfelt desire to do things the way he wants them to be done.
Some of them are very simple, and I'm afraid I mention them often because they're obvious. They can be seen with your eyes because there's verses that say this is how things need to be done and we do them physically that way. But there's also many, many other things that are invisible, not as perceivable by the sight, that are also prescriptions in the Lord of God, in the Word of God.
So what the Lord says, love one another as I have loved.
The hi brother, how are you? That's outward, that's nice. But is there that love, that compassion, that concern for one another?
Every member cares for every other member.
Another member comes in. You don't know him, you don't know her, you've never seen him before. And perhaps they're not in the mold that we're used to. How do we greet them? Do we greet them with love and open arms? Or are we more in a?
Cold attitude, warm attitude. How would the Lord greet them, members of his body for whom he died for? Well, that affects how we treat each other and perhaps others that we're not connected with. We may not agree with things that they hold or they are carrying on with. But you know, it's not possible for us to say we're going to, we're going to walk with the whole House of God. We do recognize it's the House of God, but.
If we're going to be called to disobey the instructions of the Lord.
I can't, I mean, I'm not perfect, I'm not saying that, but I'm saying if I have light from the Word of God how things need to be done, how can I substitute that with something else? And that's what men have done. You know, they said that was those verses in those days and you know, and they destroyed this part and not part and then you can't really know.
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This book, unless you go and follow courses and you go to university and have diplomas, you're recognized that you have a degree in theology and stuff like that.
Book here says that God has revealed it to little children. Little children, what they do is they believe their fathers. And I was a kid, I believed in Santa Claus. I mean, you know, you might not Anyway, I want to bring something for the kids. But anyway, I did believe in Santa Claus. And on Christmas Eve I would ask my father for a piece of cake and a glass of milk and I put it by the Christmas tree we had in our home at that time and.
I go to bed.
But in our house, we were living downtown Montreal and we didn't have a chimney.
So poor sad. I know how he would fit in the chimney the way we see him in pictures, but he's a pretty hefty fellow anyway.
I'd say my father that, yeah, you know.
And my dad would go in a living room and he'd open the window and he says, we don't have a chimney, but Santa Claus come by the window and he'll, you know, put the gifts under the tree and stuff. And so in the morning, I get up, sure enough, the cake was gone. The glass of milk was empty. The gifts were under the tree, and the window was closed within the winter.
Santa Claus, it come, I'm sure about that. It was five years old, you know that wasn't true.
It wasn't true.
Little children believe their parents.
So their parents can have them believe that Allah is God and Muhammad is their prophet.
They believe that sincerely, because the adults around them, that's what they say.
Well, you know, when we have the word of God, we say, what does God say? What does my father say? I believe what my father says. I'm a little child and this is what he says in his book, and this is what I understand. And that's what I want to do. So just go to first Peter chapter one, John chapter 4 for a moment.
First John, chapter 4.
Christian.
And verse one.
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist. Where have you heard that it should come, and even now already?
Is it in the world Ye are of God? Little children have overcome them, because greater is He that is in you than either is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore speak they of the world, and the world here with them. We are of God, and he that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God, hear it not us hereby know we the Spirit of truth.
And the spirit of error, I just like to notice here there is the spirit of the Antichrist.
That opposes that Jesus is come in the flesh.
And you know, it's just that Jesus was a man on the earth is that God was manifest in the flesh. That person is God manifest in the flesh. That's the mystery of godliness. It's given to us to understand that this is what Christianity is about. God coming on the earth and the person of his Son to reveal himself and to accomplish that wonderful work of redemption to fill the heavens with sons and daughters of God. Well, it says later on here they that.
Of the world they, they are of the world. Therefore speak they of the world and the world. Hear them. We are of God, he that knoweth God here at us. He that is not of God, hear it not us hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. And I just mentioned this, that I distinguish between the spirit of Antichrist, who denies the person of the Lord Jesus to who he is, and the spirit that denies.
The teaching of the apostles. They hear it, not us.
How simple for us dear ones who receive the Word of God. This is how we must behave in the Church of the living God. And if we must behave this way, may we appropriate ourselves of the living God who lives in you, who lives in me by His Spirit, and is ready to lead us together, independence and in subjection 1 to another, for us to enjoy the wonderful thing, the wonderful thing that He's prepared for us before we go.
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And enter together, all in perfection and glory that He has merited for us through His work on the cross.
The Mystery of Godliness
Open—Michel Payette
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Psalm 83, verse 12.
Referring to, I believe, enemies in the days of.
Of Gideon, I believe. Let us.
Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
My French Bible says that the habitations of God.
And that word houses there. It's the same word as.
The pastures in Psalm 23.
Pastors of God.
The places God has provided for blessing and enrichment of His children, His people and.
Where he wants to dwell with us.
And our brother brother Tim mentioned Romans chapter 12 and I was just wondering if we could consider different habitations of God.
And one of them is our bodies. He dwells in our bodies by His spirit. And so if we deliver up our bodies to Him, he can be.
Using us, as our brother suggested, in worship and service and.
And the enemy, as those that are mentioned here in the 83rd song, that was their desire to take possession to themselves of the habitations of God, deprive the Lord of those places where He has an entrance, and He deserves to live and dwell, and to put something else in there. And so I just mentioned this in connection with our bodies, which are the temple of the Holy Ghost.
We have the members of our bodies and our eyes, our ears, our mouths, our hands, our feet can be occupied with many, many, many, many things all around us.
Or they can be put to the service of the Lord by being energized by the Spirit of God and submitting to His leading and obedient, obeying the Word of God.
Another habitation of God, I believe, is a household and a family, and how he likes to the enemy likes to destroy families and.
Prevent the Lord from having us. Enjoy with Him that invention of His family, you know.
Father, mother, husband, wife, and children. It's such a wonderful, natural thing to enjoy and to be blessed in. And we're so thankful for every family, every measure of that habitation of God with us that we can enjoy.
And as we've mentioned in the reading meeting, we have the habitation of God, which is the church and the body of Christ. I'd just like to go to First Timothy chapter 6, verse chapter 3 rather for a few comments.
Is one thing the enemy certainly wants to destroy is any testimony on the earth that gives glory to the Lord Jesus and have it as his name honored and he would destroy anything in nature that corresponds to God's order and glory. You know here we have this.
Dissolution of gender differences is just, you know, an attack on the creator God and the order that he's put in his creation. So we have in first Timothy chapter 3 just like to read from verse 14 to 16. There these things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly, But if I carry long that alias know how to ought us to behave thyself in the House of God.
Which is the Church of the Living God, the Pillar.
And ground of the truth.
And Paul writes these things to Timothy. He would have liked to be there himself. And hadn't had he been there himself.
They would have heard it from the apostle himself, but he just in case he wasn't able to make it. The Lord didn't provide for that opportunity, he says in the 15th verse. But if I carry long.
That thou mayest know.
How thou Artest to behave thyself. I would just suggest here that the translation is a bit different in French and I think it's two in a new translation that how one.
Artist ought to behave. It's it's not just a Timothy, it's how we ought to behave in the Church of God and the House of God, the Church of living God.
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Now artists to behave artists is maybe it's clear to you, but as I read it, I had to look it up what the intent or strength of that artist. You know, I would have read it myself, say how he should behave. But that's not what artists mean. It's what you must behave. You must be born again. Same word.
Translate a difference in here so.
Here's instruction from the apostle, and we have it in the preceding verses as to men and women and the order in the church and the offices we spoke of yesterday, local responsibilities. It's not left to us. It's specified here. And it says that that's how we must, how we must behave, how the order of God is here, how we must behave ourselves.
In the house.
Of God.
Which is the church?
Of the living God.
The pillar and ground of the truth.
Now, if we talk about the church, we talk about the truth. We thought of maintaining the truth and.
These are all subjects, you might say, that are taken up by different ones at different times and in different lights. What's the substance of all that's mentioned here? This church and the living God and the truth? What's right in there in the next verse?
And without controversy.
Is there a controversy among Christians?
It's controversial.
Where does the culture, where she come from without controversy?
Great is the mystery.
Of godliness. That's what it's all about. There's no controversy we had.
The mystery of godliness you know, when I was a young man, I was brought up in a in a church and.
We had all these mysteries, so I asked a question and they'd say that's a mystery.
How does the host become?
The body and blood of Jesus. That's what I was thought when I was young man. What a precious romance we had this morning.
We didn't have the body of the Lord or the blood of the Lord. We had a loaf and we have a glass of wine. We had a cup of wine, but boy.
It spoke to my heart about him. That's not him. It's a remembrance of him. When I was a young man, they said that this piece of wafer, after some prayers were made, it became.
The body and blood of Jesus. And if you ask them how?
It's a mystery.
So every time you had an intelligent question, you wanted to know and understand.
It's a mystery.
You can't be brought into it, you can't enjoy it, you can't know it. Well, it's told us right here.
What is that mystery of godliness? Well.
God was manifest in a flesh.
That is a blessed person of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, who became a man and who walked down here among men.
And manifested who he was by the miracles, by the discourses, by the wisdom expressed, by the compassion.
And manifested the reality of man's heart.
How we treated incarnated goodness, Incarnate love. How we treated that person with hatred, without a cause.
This is the mystery of godliness. God has revealed himself to us through that person of the Lord Jesus, and everything we do and understand and are brought into the enjoyment of is connected with that person becoming a man and going to the cross and shedding his precious blood.
To allow us to be brought in such wonderful blessings. So that verse there we have verse 15, the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground it says in a note there to stay of the truth. And so the first element there, primordial element one has preeminence.
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Is God manifest in flesh, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ and no one else?
You know, a pillar.
Speaks of strength, you know?
And the churches there put in a strong position.
It has a sure foundation. The apostle Paul says in First Corinthians 3. No other foundation can any man lay than that which is laid the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's no other foundation you can build on. What a firm foundation?
Unmovable. Unchangeable.
Do you have a controversy with that?
Some have a controversy with that. Jesus is one element of Christianity. No, he's not one element of Christianity. He is the substance, the beginning and the end. You don't have Christianity without Christ. And so I thought of the pillar. You know, it has a firm foundation.
A Christian and work of the Lord Jesus.
But a pillar is vertical. You know, they're not pillars like this, the pillars like that, they're solid on solid ground, the revelation of the Word of God, of the Person of Christ. But it's vertical. And how high does that pillar go?
Right up into heaven.
We have a head in heaven, we have a foundation on the earth, which is the Lord Jesus Christ and his work, and we have a head in heaven we can depend on and receive from him instruction, guidance, help, restoration, forgiveness, grace, rich supply that we pray to him in heaven. So I enjoy that connection of the pillar strength because it's based on something unmovable and connected with the Son of God in heaven who has.
All authority both in hurt and in heaven. It tells us in Matthew chapter 28.
But that second part of it, it says ground of the truth or stay of the truth. It seems to me, as I understand it, that there is this pillar and it's connected with the personal allergies in his work and His presence at the right hand of God, and that there is the.
A stay, something that helps out. It helps. We had that in First Corinthians 12.
The church is there to be a help.
And that revelation of that mystery of godliness in connection with the Lord Jesus.
I think at the work of the evangelist, you know, I, I, I like simple things.
Evangelists. He presents Christ as sinners.
And the pastor teacher.
He presents Christ to the believers.
And the worshiper represents Christ to the Father. It's all about Him.
And so if we are active, our brother was bringing to us in Romans 12 and we had that in the gifts here we are members of the body of Christ, living stones in that building and that building and that body needs to be distinguished in our understanding of it. But yet it is to be stay a stay, something to help out.
To that wonderful revelation, and so without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest.
In flesh he partook of flesh and blood.
He became a man so he could die, and he died, but he was on the earth there and after he went through John's baptism.
When he came out of the water, the Spirit of God descended upon him in bodily form, and the voice came from heaven, said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
He was a son before, was always a son of God, never became the Son of God.
When he was born into the world, he became the Son of God. In incarnation. We're still the Son of God, but he had never been a man before.
And now he's risen from the dead, and he's a Son of God in resurrection. He's never going to be anything different for eternity. He always was and will be the Son of God, but now he's the Son of God.
In resurrection, so when he was on the earth here justified.
By the Spirit.
00:15:01
Scene of angels.
They were there when he was born, they told the shepherds there.
And they saw him in the garden.
In his agony of blood.
And their witnesses. There is resurrection in the Gospels. Why seek ye among the dead? He that is resurrected or alive?
Scene of angels.
Entered into heaven in bodily form.
Angel in heaven they saw him.
And bodily form wounds in his hands, and his feet in his side. The March of the crown of thorns, the Son of God, the Lord of glory, scene of angels on the other side of death in heaven. And then it says, preached unto the Gentiles.
You know the heart of God.
I might be wrong and I'm saying this, but the heart of God wasn't fully known to the Jewish people.
God had a heart for everyone of his creatures, every human being in the face of the earth, He has a heart for them.
He was thinking of them. He chose that people of Israel to make himself known and to have them go through those things that we benefit from now as we learn from them, from their mistakes, how God had to deal with them.
But his heart wasn't limited to the people of Israel. And now that the Lord Jesus come and he's died and risen again, and that his contract with Israel, you might say, was set aside when they finally stoned Steve and rejected their Messiah, who was both risen now and glorified, God could open his heart and say, oh, I had this on my heart all the time. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
All of them.
The Gentiles, the Lord Jesus, God, manifest and flesh presented to the Gentiles, believed in the world.
You know, it says in the Book of Revelation from every tongue and people and nation, tribe, you think of a tribe on the earth, a nation.
A language.
You can think of it and there's going to be one of them. That's what the scriptures say. There's going to be at least one of the many, many, many more, I hope, from every one of them in my glory.
God had a heart for all of mankind and he revealed it to us now through the Apostle Paul, the gospel of the grace of God. And then it says, received up into glory, you know.
We know he's in the glory now.
The Apostle Paul was taken up into the 3rd heaven. He didn't know if it was in the body or out of the body, but we can affirm on the authority of the Word of God that we are going to go into glory, into heaven itself with our bodies.
When the Lord Jesus comes, we're going to enter into heaven ourselves in the glory to be with and like Him forever. And so we can look back at these verses, considering the mystery of godliness, and see how.
God is applied to us.
The result of this wonderful person in his work God manifest in flesh.
Can God be manifested in your life and mine? I believe he can. I mean, it's not like the Lord Jesus. Of course not.
But the Spirit of God dwells in your body now.
How can that be?
What's it justified by the Spirit and that believe that the work of the Lord Jesus so perfect, when the benefit of it is applied to you, God Himself by his Spirit can come and dwell in your body until the day of redemption. And if you and I let Him live out in US, what is going to be manifested in that life that we have is the character of the Lord Jesus.
The fruit of the Spirit, Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, all these beautiful virtues that we see manifested in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ lives in you.
And if Christ lives in you, it can be manifested in you.
And I have to say it's in a very small measure in my life, but I know He has produced in my life compassion and love for people I didn't have compassion for. I didn't love. He will do that. He's given me, my wife might not agree, some measure of patience, but He has done that. He has produced in me, produced in you some likeness to His Son, and it would never be manifested perfectly like it was in the blessed Lord.
00:20:06
Jesus, but God can be manifest.
In your flesh too.
I believe you can.
And it's based on the fact that the work of the Lord Jesus so perfect that God could give you and seal you with his Spirit, one on the basis of you and what you've done, but on the basis of the merits of the Lord Jesus and the value of his precious blood that has washed you from all your sins and mine also.
God manifest in flesh justified in the spirit to the ones that believe also scene of angels. You know it tells us in the scriptures that the let's go to that verse in Ephesians chapter 3. Principalities and powers are learning of the manifold wisdom of God through the church.
Ephesians chapter 3.
Verse 10.
To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers, in how many places might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God.
According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You know.
Sometimes we were gathered, just a few of us, to remember the Lord and.
Was a precious time this morning. I trust you. You find it precious yourself. I thought it was so precious. Think of the Lord and glory looking upon us there and so.
So wonderful. But there are other spectators, I'm sure this morning, and I believe some of them were angels and they would see these creatures made to the likeness of God, who in time past blasphemed his name and misbehaved. I'm sure if they look at your life, I might say that we're so such misbehaving children, you might say here we are.
Giving up every other occupation, Sitting quietly.
Not filling our minds with different aspects of truth or whatever. We're just quietly sitting in the presence of the Lord Jesus and going back to that scene of Calvary where others just like you and me were there cursing him, insulting him, despising him. And here are the same creatures, you know.
With the same nature have been visited by the grace of God to be worshippers that our brother was saying, here we are.
And the angels are Washington.
God is so wise. God is so wise. He didn't crank up robots. He moved our hearts. He touched us. He visited us. He affected us so much that we decided that we wanted to be here this morning.
And I hope you all wanted to be here this morning. Maybe you were here because you had to be here. And I know that happens and family, and I'm glad the parents are bringing their children to the meeting and having them understand that and witness that. But you know, it doesn't matter how old you are, you can enter into it yourself and say that person who's the Lord Jesus.
He died for me.
I have a man in a therapy house I visit every Monday and I said.
I say to him, he's been brought up in a certain denomination, and he says, I know he died for us, you know, And so I tell him who'd he die for. And he said he died for us, You know, he died for sinners. He died for us. And I said, that's not a good answer. That might be a true answer. It's not a good answer.
And he knows what I'm getting at, You know what I'm getting at. And he died for me.
The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
He loved the church.
And he gave himself.
For it.
You are precious, dear brother and sister.
All our brothers and sisters are precious.
And we can be.
Seen of angels and the measure that we appreciate his love and come around him to worship and come to him in prayer also, and we certainly need to do that because we're needy people. Well, I just want to go on here with first Timothy 3 and verse 16 justified in this scene of angels preached unto the Gentiles.
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In the past tense.
Preached into the isn't nice. It was. It was preached to the gentile.
You preach to the Gentiles.
Have you told your neighbor? Have you told your fellow workers? Have you told your friends at school?
That's how it happens. How shall they hear what other preacher? And we had that in connection with the gifts. You know, I'm not an evangelist. I am. Yeah. You don't need to be an evangelist. You might give a book. You might suggest something to somebody. Listen to that. You see that? You ever read this?
The Lord can give you just that needed courage and energy to open the door in a conversation. Somebody says something about that, but about the future, about something.
And the Lord says that's the key, that's an entrance. And so use that opportunity yourself because I don't think it's finished. He hasn't finished preaching to the Gentiles. I believe he's still doing that. I think people are getting saved every day.
By somebody telling them.
Priests unto the Gentiles believed in the world, and that's God's work. I can't have this man who keeps answering me in the plural. I can't have them. I can't save them.
You know, I can wrestle them to the ground and say he died for me, Died for me. You want me to say I'll say it, but it's not true. In his heart, I can't do that.
That's how God makes people believe. How shall they believe if they don't hear? And how are they going to hear unless it's a preacher? And so each one of us who know something of this mystery of godliness, the Son of God who became a man so that the whole world could be saved, it's not going to be saved, but he has a purpose that he could save the whole world if the whole world would believe. And so preached unto the Gentiles, believed in the world and received.
Into glory.
Where does our path end?
Our path ends in the glory, in the principle of face to face with him. We're talking about a brother there just before the meeting. Say I don't know how many millions are going to be there. We're all gonna be face to face with him. I don't know how it's gonna happen, but it's gonna happen.
I don't know how the Lord Jesus could raise Lazarus from the dead when he was already stank already.
But it happened.
Everything God says happened, happened, and when he says it's going to happen, it's going to happen, and it's going to happen exactly the way he says it's going to happen. The Lord Jesus was received into glory.
Of course.
And you and I, we're going to be receiving the glory also, not because of you and me, but because of him.
Now this verse here, it says how we must behave in the House of God, which is the Church of the living God.
It's a Church of God, but it's qualified, living God.
And I like that expression because the dynamic of God acting in the midst of us by his Spirit. And you know, there's a lot of criticism made about.
US collectively and and, you know, perhaps we need to bow our head and say something that we deserve. You know, we kind of.
We kind of did things that brought us upon us, but.
I think we're doing the right thing.
We're applying and submitting to the instructions of the Word of God, and I believe that's why this morning we had such a beautiful remembrance and yesterday we had entrance into different things in the Scripture that was, I believe, edifying to each one of us and learning things from one another. It works. And in spite of our weaknesses, it works because that's God's provision. And He's a living God, and where He's given room, he comes in and he ministers.
And he helps and he uses.
Now, we would not claim that we are the Church of God. We know the Church of God includes every believer. Everyone has received the Lord Jesus, his Savior, and that really is the House of God and the body of Christ. And we can't claim to be specifically that. That's broader than just the company that we're in.
But I trust that we understand from this book that God has ways he wants us to do things.
And I believe we should be that company who has a desire, a heartfelt desire to do things the way he wants them to be done.
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Some of them are very simple, and I'm afraid I mention them often because they're obvious. They can be seen with your eyes because there's verses that say this is how things need to be done and when you do them physically that way. But there's also many, many other things that are invisible, not as perceivable by the sight that are also prescriptions in the Lord of God, in the Word of God.
So what the Lord says, love one another as I have loved.
Hi brother, How are you? That's outward, that's nice. But is there that love, that compassion, that concern for one another?
Every member cares for every other member.
Another member comes in. You don't know him, you don't know her, you've never seen him before. And perhaps they're not in the mold that we're used to. How do we greet them? Do we greet them with love and open arms? Or are we more in a?
Cold attitude, warm attitude. How would the Lord greet them members of his body for whom he died for? Well, that affects how we treat each other and perhaps others that we're not connected with. We may not agree with things that they hold or they that they're carrying on with. But you know, it's not possible for us to say we're going to we're going to walk with the whole House of God. We do recognize it's the House of God, but.
If we're going to be called to disobey the instructions of the Lord, I have, I can't, I mean, I'm not perfect, I'm not saying that, but I'm saying if I have light from the Word of God how things need to be done, how can I substitute that with something else? And that's what men have done. You know, they said that was those verses in those days and you know, and they destroy this part and not part and then you can't really know.
This book, unless you go and follow courses and you go to university and have diplomas, you're recognized that you have a degree in theology and stuff like that.
Book here says that God has revealed it to little children. Little children. What they do is they believe their fathers.
When I was a kid, I believed in Santa Claus.
Anyway, I want to bring for the kids. But anyway, I did believe in Santa Claus and on Christmas Eve I would ask my father for a piece of cake and a glass of milk and I put it by the Christmas tree we had in our home at that time. And I go to bed. But in our house we were living in downtown Montreal and we didn't have a chimney.
So poor sad. I know how he would fit in a chimney the way we see him in pictures, but he's a pretty hefty fellow anyway.
I'd say my father that, yeah, you know.
And my dad would go in a living room and he'd open the window and he says we don't have a chimney, but come by the window and he'll, you know, put the gifts under the tree and stuff. And so in the morning, I get up, sure enough, the cake was gone, a glass of milk was empty, The gifts were under the tree, and the window was closed within the window.
Santa Claus, it come, I'm sure about that. It was five years old, you know that wasn't true.
It wasn't true.
You know children believe their parents.
So their parents can have them believe that Allah is God and Muhammad is their prophet.
They believe that sincerely, because the adults around them, that's what they say.
Well, you know, when we have the word of God, we say, what does God say? What does my father say? I believe what my father says. I'm a little child and this is what he says in his book, and this is what I understand. And that's what I want to do. So just go to first Peter chapter, first John chapter 4 for a moment.
First John, chapter 4.
First, John.
And verse one.
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist. Where have you heard that it should come, and even now already?
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Is it in the world? Ye are of God, little children, because I've overcome them, because greater is He that is in you than he does in the world. They are of the world. Therefore speak they of the world, and the world here with them we are of God, and he that knoweth God here at us, He that is not of God, hear it not us hereby know we the Spirit of truth.
And the spirit of error, I just like to notice here there is the spirit of the Antichrist.
That opposes that Jesus is come in the flesh.
And you know, it's just that Jesus was a man on the earth is that God was manifest in the flesh. That person is God manifest in the flesh. That's the mystery of godliness. It's given to us to understand that this is what Christianity is about, God coming on the earth and the person of his Son to reveal himself and to accomplish that wonderful work of redemption to fill the heavens with sons and daughters of God. Well, it says later on here.
They that are of the world, they, they are of the world. Therefore speak They of the world, and the world hear them. We are of God.
He that knoweth God here at us, he that is not of God, hear it not us hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. And I just mentioned this, that I distinguish between the spirit of Antichrist who denies the person of the Lord Jesus to who he is, and the spirit that denies the teaching of the apostles. They hear it, not us.
How simple. For us dear ones who receive the Word of God, this is how we must behave.
In the Church of the living God, and if we must behave this way, may we appropriate ourselves of the living God who lives in you, who lives in me by His Spirit and is ready to lead us together, independence and in subjection 1 to another, for us to enjoy the wonderful thing, the wonderful thing that He's prepared for us before we go and enter together all in perfection and glory that He has merited for us through His work on the cross.
Reading Words, and The Word
Address—Dave Newby
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Sing together #219 Please 219.
We'll speak a little bit about why we're here, about the word, and about words.
About books and about reading.
And first of all.
Years ago.
This was probably 3035 years ago.
A brother told me a story that he had attended a lecture. It was a lecture, an address, and I don't remember what all the circumstances were.
And it was about the importance of man.
The value of man.
And I was chatting with a brother afterwards, he was telling me a little bit about it.
And he said to me as he was sitting there listening to the speaker talk about the importance of man.
He said. I thought of a hymn.
Lord, what is man?
Tis he who died?
You know, there's a verse in the 72nd Psalm where 77th Psalm where he talks about.
How he is so moved and so full of the thing that he cannot speak.
And brethren, I have been very encouraged to also think of the Scripture where the Lord says to Israel through Hosea, take with you words.
Do you ever feel a need in your own heart?
And you can't hardly think of the words to pray. You don't know what to say. Isn't it a mark of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that he says, well, here, take you words?
And I've been very thankful over the years.
To be able to just take the words of God right back to the Lord.
Some of my favorites are Ecclesiastes and probably the Gospel of John.
And the book of Romans.
And how many times I've come into the presence of the Lord.
May be very burdened.
And I can just bring the words of God that He's given to us in His Word.
And justice Read them back to the Lord.
He gave them by inspiration.
So what is man, Lord? What is man? You know the scripture asks the question, what is man?
And to make a Long story short in this particular subject.
God gives us a man where all others failed, where Adam has failed, and all of his race.
God has given us a man. Now think about some of the comments that have been made just in this conference in the last two days.
Some of the scriptures that have been read.
Have you heard the Word incarnation? I've heard that word a number of times in the last few days.
The Incarnation And we heard about the incarnation of the Son of God.
We've heard about the Trinity.
And that at a particular point in history, God the Son.
He took the seed of Abraham by the hand.
He became a man. We speak of the man Christ Jesus using the words of the apostle Paul.
And I'm sure that all of us as we anticipated coming to this conference.
What did we know that we were going to do?
We were going to open the book. We're going to open this book right here. We are people of the book. We're people of the word. God has given us a book.
There are rival books that God has given us this book. There are others that claim to be the word of God, but they aren't. And there you have the field of apologetics where where skillful and gifted men have gone in and have looked at some of these things and they've laid out before us some of the reasons why.
We would consider this to be the word of God, the claims that it makes, and why some other book might not be the word of God.
So I have some quotations and then we have a few scriptures we want to read. And I have to say thank you to some of my brethren that you have anticipated some of these things. And I think that we are together in that when we come together to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And what He is to us in our own personal lives.
And in the midst of his own, it's a good question. Why are we here? You know, there are. We heard some questions, asked basic questions.
You know, and some of the basic questions really touch in on what we're talking about here when we're opening the Word of God.
It's been noted that probably the two major philosophical questions at the basis of all other questions are why is there something rather than nothing?
We know that there is something. There's not nothing, there is something.
We're all experiencing that.
And if there is something, why is this something the way it is and not some other way? Every question goes back to God and we're going to see that when I turn to my go to chapter, so.
First of all, Saint Augustine from his confessions.
Now listen very carefully.
He addresses the Lord in that book.
Saint Augustine's Confessions is a That's one of my desert island books. If I had to be marooned on a desert island and I could have five books, I thought of this. I've played with this idea. If I could have five books, that'd be one of them.
He says you have made us for yourself.
And our heart is restless until it rests in you.
You have made us for yourself.
Now we spoke of the Triune God, the Godhead.
And think about a word like this. There are some who are lonely. There are people who are lonely.
But there's another way of looking at something like that. There was a period in my life where I was lonely.
So just as some of you, I went looking for the solution to my loneliness.
And by the grace of God, I found the solution.
And there she is.
But as I got older, I looked at it a little bit differently. Instead of loneliness, use this word.
Incomplete.
Incomplete.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, God is love.
And love would have an object.
The father would have an object of love for his beloved son.
Would we ever say that God was incomplete in and of himself? God is eternal.
We are finite. God is a necessary being. We are contingent. We are not necessary.
But God is love, and God would have an object.
For his love.
And thus we have the scheme of salvation in Scripture. You have made us for yourself.
And our heart is restless until it rests in you.
Are there restless hearts in the world today?
Probably more so than we have ever known in the past. Now some of that may be due to.
Media hype and so forth. But there is a spirit afoot in the world, and at the bottom of it is a restless spirit.
The heart was made for God.
For fellowship with him.
And the heart of man will always be restless.
Until it rests.
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In faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Where do I learn about that? I learn about it in the book.
That's where I learn about it.
I opened the book and I read about it. Now everyone of us knew that when we came to Walla Walla for this weekend, we were going to open the book. What do we wonder? Well, we wonder what passage is going to be suggested for the readings, and some of us are thinking about what it might be.
We wonder what are our conversations going to be like? Who am I going to visit with?
Who have I not seen for a while? And I want to visit with that person. I want to see how they're doing. And I think about who is going to be here. You know, I have a few questions for a brother. I want to take up a certain passage of Scripture with a brother.
Who's going to speak? Who's going to have the gospel? Who's going to have the addresses? Who's going to get up and speak in the open meeting? Who's going to speak of the young people? Sings.
Who's going to have a children's meeting? Those are the questions that we wonder about. And at the rock bottom of every single one of those questions is the Word. Because we're a people of the Word. We're not going to come here and air out all of our ideas about this and that and the other thing. We're going to come here and we're going to open the Word because as believers who are redeemed through the work of Christ and the grace of God, we want to know what the Lord has to say to us. So we pray before we come here.
And we pray in the prayer meeting because we want to know what the Lord has to say to us.
Why do we want to know that? Because we know that our hearts were made by Him for ourselves, and the heart is restless until we rest in Him.
There are those in the room here who have hearts that are restless regarding certain areas of your life. You have challenges in school, you have challenges with your family. You you don't know what to do for a living. You have whatever circumstances it might be, there is something there where you need to turn to the Lord.
To find your direction. The good thing is, is that you know that you need to turn to the Lord.
We sorrow when people turn elsewhere other than the Lord.
From Charles Bridges on Ecclesiastes.
I recommend that book very much.
Here, Bridges is actually quoting another writer.
He is the substitute for everything, He being the Lord Jesus.
Nothing can be a substitute for him.
Think about that.
There's lots of stuff in our lives.
Probably more than ever before, I hear people say. Well, I'm just so busy.
All kinds of things that demand our attention.
Hold this way, pulled that way. It actually becomes kind of comical in some ways because you have to ask yourself, do you really need this? I mean, do you really need this? How much of this is self-inflicted? Just so much what CS Lewis calls the Kingdom of Noise.
What another writer calls the chaos of the now.
One writer talks about how the tendency of the day and age in which we live is to get people to think that the here and now, this moment, is all that there is. We're going to talk about that when we go to a certain chapter. This moment is not all that there is.
He is the substitute for everything, all of those things in our lives. How sweet it is, how comforting it is to be able to turn aside and just say, Lord, I just need to spend some time with you.
Just quietly.
With the man Christ Jesus.
Now, we'll see a little bit later when we turn to some scripture again, this question, what is man? There's a statement of GV Wigram. I might be giving it a little bit roughly because I couldn't find it before I came to this meeting. I've got it marked somehow, but there were so many markings in that book that I couldn't find which marking it was.
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Were it not for the incarnation, I should be ashamed to be a man. Did I say that right?
A brother over here, Dan Leaning I think, pointed that out to me many, many years ago, were it not for the incarnation.
I should be ashamed to be a man.
I am only thankful to be standing here as a man before you because of the man Christ Jesus.
Not because of Adam.
But because of the head of a new race, the Man Christ Jesus.
And those of us who have believed in Christ, who are sealed with the Spirit of God, are no longer viewed as in our Adam standing. We still have the flesh.
That we are viewed as in Christ. Brethren, this is the Christian position. This is at the heart, at the core of Paul's ministry who had the mystery revealed to him. And this is a doctrine, this is the line of teaching that constitutes Christianity. That is largely being given up in our day. Somebody made a comment about replacement theology. That's one of the terms.
Progressive dispensationalism, all of the inroads of any number of different teachings that deny distinctions that God has made in his Word. That's why we turn to the book.
We want to understand the distinctions that God has made.
Job 36 Who teaches as he do we want to be taught?
Do we want to be someones pupil? We need to be a pupil or a student of the Lord.
Inasmuch as we are, we can take advantage of and value others that the Lord has raised up to teach us. But we must first of all be a student of the Word of God, every one of you.
Start when you're young.
We're a people of the book.
Why do we turn to a book?
Because reading is the universal means of learning.
Reading is the universal means of learning.
It is through reading and meditation on the Word of God that we develop an appetite for silence and solitude.
That is productive of reflection and self containment.
Young people, learn to pursue it in your life.
I'm saying this very seriously.
You need to learn to pursue this in your lives.
There are certain things that you cannot hope to have if you are constantly bombarded by noise.
Now this is a question. You don't raise your hands.
In the last month or so, how many of you?
Have sat quietly.
Without.
The stimulation of electronic gadgetry.
And read something and meditated on something quietly and alone, because you wanted to read it, because you felt a need for it. Not a school textbook, not a magazine, not social media, not something like that, but something that had core to it, something that had substance to it.
Because you had a need.
The word of God, yes, but maybe some writings of some gifted person, or maybe a book of doctrine, a book of ministry or a biography or a a book of history, something that lays out something solid for you. How many of you have done that?
An hour.
It's time well spent.
Through reading, our attention is directed.
So here are some questions to ask ourselves. What commands your attention? It's a very interesting thing to go throughout a day and be mindful of. What commands your attention? Why was I drawn to this particular thing? What is it within me that made me want to pay attention to this particular thing, whatever it might have been? It's a very interesting question.
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It's a good part of reflection and.
Self containment. To learn to be able to have a feel for that and to pay attention to what it is that causes you.
To look at certain things and to think about them.
It can be a real grief.
But it can be the means.
To helping you get on the right track and realize that the Lord has given us certain areas that He wants us to focus our attention.
Now I want to read a little bit of a quote. A bit of a quote.
It's a little bit lengthy, but please listen to this. This is very, very helpful. This is from a passage that I go to. I was speaking with a young brother before the meeting, and it was kind of interesting. I think it was a little bit providential.
He asked me this question.
He said. Do you ever read a book twice?
My wife smiles because we've talked about this quite a bit. And I said, yeah, you know, I'm not a reader, I'm a rereader. And if a book isn't worth reading twice, it wasn't worth reading once.
I have books that I pull off of my shelf.
Time and time again, and I learned a very interesting thing from one writer who was writing about the subject of how to read and how reading affects us.
He says you not only need to be careful what you read, what books you read, but you need to be careful what you read in those books.
And I'm going to read you a paragraph that I go back and read this all the time. I have. I don't know how I go back and read the paper that it's in. This is in CS Lewis's book God in the Doc.
When any man comes into the presence of God.
He will find, whether he wishes it or not, that all those.
Things which seemed to make him so different from the men of other times.
Or even from his earlier self.
Have fallen off him. All those things that seem to make you different.
He's back where he always was. Have you ever been back where you always were?
Adam sued Omnia Semper. I don't read Latin, but I have a whole bunch of Latin quotations and that's my favorite.
Adam, Pseudomnia Semper.
Everything is always the same.
I'll break off there for a moment.
I've read because of some of my background. I've studied the writings and some of the history of the higher critics.
All of those guys that buzzed around Germany hundred, 150 years ago and so forth and.
Taught us that the first five books of the Bible weren't really written by Moses and Isaiah was written by two or maybe more people.
And what we call the destructive critics, those of us who have some knowledge of Scripture understand the value of what's called the lower criticism and textual criticism.
But the higher criticism, that's the destructive criticism. I like to call it the lower criticism because it smells like sulfur.
The objective is to destroy and to undermine.
And one of the things that they would say is, you know, those times back in the Bible.
Way, way back there, thousands of years ago, you know, the mindset was so different.
And those times were so different, and everything about those people's lives was so different that we just can't even understand what it was. So we have to demythologize the whole thing and try to get back to the intention of the author and all of this now really. You really believe that?
The Bible more than any other book.
Gives us a repertoire of characters by which we learn to recognize and judge what it is to be human. Have you ever met somebody like Joab? Don't tell me that that was just all way back. And we can't understand what they're, what they were thinking, and their lives were so different. Joab is as transparent as they come.
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And we see in the Bible that there were people who saw through Joab.
Like the fellow where he said, you know, Absalom, he was hanging in the tree, why didn't you take a sword and kill him? Well, the king said not to do that. And besides that, if I'd have done that, you would have been the first one that would have ratted on me.
What happens today that wasn't just a long time ago.
Do not let us deceive ourselves, he says. No possible complexity which we can give to our picture of the universe.
Can hide us from God. No complexity can hide us from God.
There is no cops.
No forests, no jungle thick enough to provide cover. That's the 139 Psalm, isn't it? We cannot flee from his presence.
This is the one who wants to have fellowship with us and we cannot flee from his presence.
We read in revelation of him that sat on the throne, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away. Chapter 20 and verse 11.
You know the meek and gentle Jesus, the gentleness of Christ, the meekness and the gentleness of Christ. There is a day coming when the heavens and the earth are going to flee from the face of that man. There will be no place found for them.
It may happen to any of us at any moment.
In the twinkling of an eye, in a time too small to be measured.
And in any place, all that seems to divide us from God can flee away.
Vanish, leaving us naked before him, like the first man, like the only man, as if nothing but he and I existed.
That's being alone with God.
And since that contact cannot be avoided for long, and since it means either bliss or horror, the business of life is to learn to like it.
This is the first and great commandment. The business of life is to learn to like it. In other words, we need to get used to the way things are as God has revealed them to us.
Why is there so much restlessness in the world today?
The bottom line is because people don't like this world as God made it. But you know.
They're welcome to look for another one. I wish them the best because they aren't going to find it.
We live in a world of fallen men.
And in the book, God has told us what the remedy is.
Now, I know that many of you, I'm sure, have a book of the Bible or a chapter of the Bible that you turn to for comfort.
It might not be what you're reading in at the time, it might be something that you turn to when you feel a need.
I do. I have some passages like that, and I have one that I turn to probably more than any other, and quite frequently. It's already been read by two brothers.
Thank you, Ted. Thank you, John Villasali. And it's John chapter one. Before we go there, I want to mention Psalm 90.
Psalm 90A Prayer of Moses the Man of God, Verse 1 Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Everything is always the same.
We have a dwelling place in God. He's the dwelling place for all generations. And now Moses is speaking about God and His dwelling among the people of Israel since he brought them out of Egypt. Now verse 2, before the mountains were brought forth.
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And thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from eternity to eternity.
Thou art God from eternity to eternity.
Thou art God. I don't remember who it was, but a brother used that expression I believe this morning. From eternity to eternity. And I thought about this.
Thou art God from eternity to eternity. Sometimes, conventionally speaking, we use an expression of past eternity. I heard that expression.
Past is an expression of time, so that's a conventional expression. There's no such thing as a past eternity or a future eternity. Eternity is the eternal now, and that's not the chaos of the now that we have in this world. That is ignorant of eternity, both past and future.
But with God, all is an eternal now. All is present before the mind of God at every moment of time. See, look, I did that again. I said time.
I lack words to even express eternity, but from eternity to eternity thou art God. Now we learn in in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 that he has put the world. It can also be rendered eternity or the age in their hearts. Ecclesiastes 3 and verse 11 I believe it is.
So please turn with me to John chapter one, and we'll just make a few comments from this chapter and leave it for your consideration.
But before we read a few verses in this chapter, let's just pick out three of them to see the flow of what I want to emphasize. And I've already touched on a few of these points.
Verse one in the beginning was the word. Now it refers to him as the word there.
We've been talking about the word. We've been talking about words. We have the written word and we have the living word. The written word is a revelation to us.
Of the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did we not sing together? Thou art the everlasting word.
The Father's only Son. That's who we came here this weekend to speak of and to enjoy together the common faith, the redemption that we have in Christ Jesus. Where do we learn that from young people? Where do we learn that from? We learn it from the Word by spending time in the Word.
In the beginning was the word now from eternity.
In the beginning was the word there is your from eternity.
To eternity.
God shall be all.
In all.
So let's see, from eternity Here in the beginning was the word. Now go over to verse 14. That verse was read.
The one where we can say where the writer could say in the beginning was the Word. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
This is the incarnation of the Word. This is the incarnation of the Sun.
There was a mention made of the eternal sonship. There was a paper written years ago and it was entitled Something like this.
The incarnation of the Sun, or Sun ship by incarnation? How do we answer that question? It's the incarnation of the Sun.
The Son of God became Incarnate. That means he became a man. You know, if you take, as far as I'm aware, if you take a standard English Dictionary and you look up the Word incarnation, you will see a reference to Christ.
There is no other system of teaching that has that.
You say, well, what about all the Greek gods, The Roman gods? Wouldn't you say that that's kind of an incarnation? Well, there's an interesting thing that you can say about that and even about myths about the flood and, and other things like that.
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And this is something that was brought out also by CS Lewis and I think very profitably. If in the history of the human race there was absolutely no myths connected with the incarnation and some of these things, and then the incarnation came along, you might think, well, this is a new thing.
But the very fact that there are myths surrounding some of these things shows that there are intelligences behind what has happened throughout the history of this world, and then at a particular point in history it happened.
The Lord Jesus Christ stepped into this world through the door. He tells us that in the 10th of John he came through the door.
And not only did he come through the door, he is the door. Scripture mixes its metaphors. A door might mean one thing here, It might mean something here.
He came in the divinely appointed way such that there was number possible way that it could have been imitated or faked in any way, shape or form.
That is why the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ and all of the events surrounding His ministry, His death, His resurrection and His ascension, all of these things as they are laid out in Old Testament prophecy.
Give us confidence that God has spoken and acted.
Now again, This is why we want to read the entire word of God.
It's one thing to have our go to passages.
That we use for comfort in an hour of need, but we need to study the entire word of God because it's it's like an older man said at one point, he said that the study of Scripture becomes more and more exciting and gets more and more a hold of you the more you do it because you begin to see the connections.
When you're reading through a particular passage of scripture.
And you're familiar with the Word of God, you can read through and you can see allusions to any number of other passages that show you that the book has a common origin. And it tells the same story. And it's been noted.
That a book as large as this book that we have written by approximately 40 some authors over a period of probably over 1500 years or so.
Tells you the same story, just like where one chapter is done and then the next writer takes up and he writes the next chapter and everything fits together.
Because the key to it is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's at the root of it all. He is the great subject, the great object.
He is the one who ties together every thread of teaching and the entire Word of God, and that's why we want to see Him in the Scriptures. If you go back to the beginning of the book.
Right there in the fall of man.
You have the woman's seed bruises the head of the serpent.
There you have in the third chapter of Genesis.
You have that foreshadowing, that prophetic foreshadowing of the redemption that would be accomplished by the Lord Jesus, but of His victory over the enemy. What a precious thing that is to be able to see that and then to follow that thread all through the Scripture. So let's just look at verse 29.
And my point is not to go over every verse.
In this passage, but to point out how you might notice that there are certain.
Passages of Scripture, maybe a chapter or a brief portion of Scripture. And I like to see this kind of thing because it shows that God may go on for quite a length with something. And then He'll give you a little summary where in just a few verses or a chapter it kind of gives you the whole thing. And then He starts over again and brings you up to the same point. Mr. Kelly calls that the habit of prophecy.
And that's true in the prophetic writings, and I think it's true very broadly in Scripture itself.
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Verse 29 When John the Baptist sees Jesus coming to him, he says behold the Lamb of God, now the Word.
Who has been made flesh? Now he is called the Lamb of God.
And says, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, that does not say sins.
That says sin of the world. Now in Mr. Kelly's exposition of John, he has some brief but very interesting comments on this where he talks about how we see the whole work done even irrespective of time. It's the character of the Lamb of God. He is the taker away.
Of the sin of the world. When will that finally be fulfilled? From eternity to eternity in the eternal state now.
Especially those of us who are younger.
It's good to see these broad sweeps in Scripture and how the Lord can give us just maybe you spend a little bit of time quietly in your room, nobody else around, and you use some of these things to get some help. You get the broad sweep of Scripture because when you start digging into the details, you start studying individual books of the Bible. It's good to have the outline first.
So let's go back.
Just to the first few verses of John chapter one.
And let's just look at these verses.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, a statement of His, of the distinct persons within the Godhead, or He is with God. We remember Proverbs chapter 8. He was with Him.
And the word was God, a statement of his deity. He now he segregated out for special notice. He was in the beginning with God. I'm reading the new translation.
Verse three, here's a very important point. All things receive being through Him and without him, not one thing received being which has received being. Now that's kind of coming at the same thought of creation from two different sides. It all received being through Him and there's not one thing that we can see that received being that didn't come into being through him. That's a very broad statement of his creative power, his creative Fiat of God.
And that's found in the one who was in the beginning with God and he was God. Now there's three verses and, and I, I love to go over these verses, each within its own context. Turn first of all to Colossians chapter one. We'll see 3 verses, one in Colossians, one in Hebrews, and one in the Book of Revelation that tell us the same thing.
And this is a very important thing to notice about our Lord Jesus Christ, because it gives fullness to the purpose of God.
In him and remember his redeemed people will be with him. He's going to have us with him to enjoy the inheritance when he takes his inheritance. OK, first of all, Colossians chapter one.
The end of verse 16 All things.
And that's the thought of the all things.
Have been created by Him and for Him. He creates them. He is the instrumental power that creates them, and He is personally the purpose for which all things were created as the center of the Council of God. Now turn to Hebrews chapter 2.
In Colossians chapter one.
As the Son of His love, we have an emphasis in a sweet way upon His deity.
In Hebrews chapter 2, this is the chapter where he takes the seed of Abraham by the hand. This one who is greater than the angels, greater than Moses, greater than Aaron, is the one who.
Becomes a man.
In Hebrews chapter 2.
Verse 10 For it became Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation, through sufferings by Him and for Him.
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In connection with his humanity that his taking of manhood.
Revelation chapter 4.
Somebody said one time that they picked out a certain verse, I think in Ephesians, and said it was the highest truth in the Bible. Sometimes we like to say things like, well, this is the highest truth in the Bible, you know?
I think that something such as this.
We could say is the highest truth in the Bible. Revelation 4 and verse 11.
Thou art worthy.
O our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy will they were and they have been created. Now this is before the judgments come, which usher in the millennial Kingdom of Christ, where the heavenly Saints will come with Him.
When he returns to reign.
With a complete fulfillment of all things will be in the eternal state, when God shall be All in all, when God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit shall be All in all, and we will be with him. Now the thought that we will be with him.
As he takes his Kingdom and as we go throughout all.
Eternity with the one who redeems us. I cannot think of anything that is more calculated to deliver us from the tyranny of the now.
From the tyranny of the urgent, all of the things that seem to command our attention.
And draw us away, often to trivial things.
Now don't get me wrong.
There are simple things in life.
That we need to pay attention to.
And that we can pay attention to in a godly manner because He would have us to do so. We have our relationships, our natural relationships. We have our families, we have our livelihood. That He calls upon us to do that. We are to provide things honest in the sight of all men. But what we are to do is to hold those things and to do those things.
With a view to what we have here in the Gospel.
In these opening verses of the Gospel of John, this one who was life, he is life to us. Without him there is nothing but death, because there's a death upon fallen man.
2nd Corinthians chapter 5 if he died.
That proves that all men.
In their atom standing all men were in a state of death.
He died to deliver us from that.
Well, there are a lot more things that we could say. I would encourage each of you, especially those of you who are younger, to take a little bit of time and go through this first chapter of the Gospel of John and see how it takes you from eternity to eternity. And then when it does that, what does it do? It shows you step by step through the life of the Lamb of God as He trod the pathway.
Here in this world.
It's a beautiful thing, but it takes time. It takes attention. Think about the things that command our attention and how the Lord would have us in the time that we have to learn to sit quietly before Him.
And to take up these things, it's pretty good.
Gospel 2
Gospel—Bob Thonney
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Good evening.
Like to start the gospel meeting with a verse of scripture?
The wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God.
Is eternal life.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let's pray.
Gracious God our Father, we're so thankful for the good news of the gospel.
About thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we give thanks for Him.
And ask thee tonight that thy Spirit may have liberty to strive with anyone who is still holding out and has not got their accounts straight with thee. Father, bless Thy word tonight wherever it goes out, but especially here.
There's anybody that hasn't got the amount the account settled that they wouldn't have peace until they rest. Lord Jesus, in thee we pray and give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Let's sing #23 on our hymn sheet.
Behold, behold the Lamb of God.
On the cross.
Verse that is very basic, The wages of sin is death.
Did you hear it? Listen, The wages of sin is death.
You sin, you die.
It applies across the board. Or have you heard of somebody that has escaped to death?
You never hear of such a purse. They may live a long life, but the time comes.
When they die, it's the result of sin, and scripture says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
There were men in the beginning of human history that lived a long time.
Adam got up to 930 years old. Pretty impressive. One of his descendants got up to 969.
But he died.
Sin is what brings death. Sin means missing the mark. It's not trusting God. In the beginning, when Adam and Eve were put into the garden, they were put there in innocence without the knowledge of good and evil. And God said you can eat of all the trees of the garden, but that.
Of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of that tree.
And that very one commandment.
They committed the infraction of violating it, and death came into this world. From then on, the whole human race has been affected by that problem of sin. And now the average of the.
Lifespan of man is down to around 70 years old. Whatever happened.
You know, it's interesting to look through the history of the Bible.
After the flood, it dramatically decreased. Noah, the one who came through the flood with his children, lived up to 950 years old, but his sons got up to only about 600 years old.
And then it goes drops down to 400 years and then Abraham's father 205 years. I believe it was Abraham got up to 175, Isaac to 180, and then Jacob 147.
And then a little further down Moses to 120. And then we have the norm.
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It's about down to about 70.
Sin degenerates. It looks attractive, but it degenerates and it would be a pretty sad picture if it weren't for the second part of that verse. And that's what we want to talk about tonight. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. A gift is something that you do not earn. It's given.
Because of the goodness.
Of the heart of the one who offers you that gift.
Tonight, I want to go back to John's Gospel chapter one. I'm not going to apologize.
For the fact that it was spoken of last night and also this afternoon, because Scripture is inexhaustible and every time I read it, it's still fresh. So we're going to go back to that chapter one, I say if you are.
A new person that is beginning to read the scriptures. This is a good place to start to read the Bible. John's Gospel. Let's read verse one. In the beginning was the Word.
Bird was with God, and the Word was God.
The same beginning with God, all things were made by Him.
And without him was nothing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
This afternoon our brother explained that first verse clearly. In the beginning was the Word. You know, on the other gospels we have the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ, at least in Matthew's Gospel, in Luke's Gospel. But there is no genealogy here. Why? Because when there was a beginning to talk about.
And time.
Is measured by the movement of heavenly bodies and so when God called this creation into existence, time began that was the beginning and when that beginning was the word was already there he is an eternal person that's something that just stretches our minds to the breaking point here was a person who always was who had.
No beginning. He is eternal. He heard that verse this afternoon. From the everlasting to everlasting. Thou art God. He was always there. And so in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. He was a distinct person in the Godhead.
You know that title, the word. I don't know if you understand why that is used as to the person of our Lord Jesus.
I sometimes say this if I would stand up here.
And not say one word, but just look at you. You would look at me and say, what in the world is he thinking about? You wouldn't have a clue. You can make some guesses.
But when I opened my mouth and used words, I make you understand.
What I'm thinking about and God is so great, so infinite in his being.
There is no way that we can know who God is.
Until God became a man in the person of the Lord Jesus. He is the word of God.
Here is the full expression of all of all that God is.
You know in the Old Testament there is the revelation of God in creation.
It is an amazing display of God's power and God's wisdom, incredible display. But nobody would, might, might not have guessed that God is love until the Lord Jesus came into the world and he is the word of God. It's not talking about God the Father.
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It's not talking about God the Holy Spirit is talking about God the Son.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is that word.
And the last phrase is the word was God. So he is in every sense of the word, God.
Is full deity the same was in the beginning with God. In other words, in the beginning there was no change in God. He was that in the beginning.
When the creation took place and then verse 3, all things were made by him.
And without Him was not anything made that was made. In other words, He is not a creature. He is the creator of all things because He was before all things that were created necessarily. He is the Creator. Wonderful reality. You know, I sometimes think in preaching the gospel that we need to take time to speak of creation because it is.
Incredible display of God's power. I love to view.
The stars at night, especially on the high Andes of South America. To look up in a clear night when the moon hasn't come up yet and see the display of the stars. Incredible. You can actually see with the naked eye galaxies that are not the part of the Milky Way Galaxy. It is fantastic the view of the stars in those places.
And yet how little we see so that you get an idea of how great the God is we're talking about. Let me tell you just a few facts about the Milky Way Galaxy of which we form a part here on planet Earth. We are revolving around the sun, which is one of approximately.
200 billion stars.
In the Milky Way Galaxy.
The distance across the Milky Way Galaxy is what they calculate to be 100,000 light years.
Light traveling at a velocity of 186,000 miles per second.
It takes 100,000 years for light, a beam of light, to cross our Galaxy alone.
Incredible. But wait until I tell you this.
Scientists now say that there are probably according and the numbers just keep going up and up.
250 billion more galaxies in the known universe.
Just like our Galaxy.
And how did they come into existence? Scripture tells us clearly. He spoke and it was done. He commended and it stood fast.
Oh, the power in his word, as he spoke the whole universe into existence.
People think they are so great. Amen. Stop a minute and take a look at the God we're talking about, the God of which the Lord Jesus is the Son of God.
Oh, what a tremendous thing to be able to know him now. Verse four in him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Interesting.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. It doesn't say his words.
We're light, we know that they are, but here is his life.
His very presence amongst men was the light of men.
What is light? That's an interesting question.
Says in Ephesians chapter 5, light is that which makes all things manifest. Not only do your eyes see light, but by that light you see everything else.
Still remember in our years in Bolivia speaking to a man where we took our Toyota Land Cruiser to get it tuned up once in a while.
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Mechanic shop and one day after he had done his work and I paid the bill, I said.
Don Alfonso, I paid the bill with you now, but don't forget we all have a.
Account to settle with God.
He looks at me, he says OK.
Roberto, he says. We're all pretty good people. You're a Goodman. I'm a Goodman.
I said, well, you can talk for yourself, but you can't talk for me. I'm not a Goodman. I've sinned innumerable times, he said. Well, I guess I'm not that good of a guy either.
But I left him a New Testament and in a subsequent visit.
He says to me, I can't understand that book you left me. Why don't you come over to my house sometime?
And explain it to me. And so we went over to his house on a evening a week and we started with John's gospel. Look at that verse six to me it is so interesting. 12 words.
All monosyllable words, and yet the depth in that verse in him was life and the life.
Was the light of men, and I remember when we got to that verse.
With Alfonso.
I said Alfonso, what is light?
He just looked at me for the longest time and he didn't really say anything.
But we went on in the study of the chapter one.
It was sometime after when I stopped in at his mechanic's shop again, he says. You know what?
That book you left me, I understand it now. It makes sense.
What happened? The light penetrated the darkness.
And that's what God wants to do for you. Nothing makes sense in life until you see.
This one who is not only the word, but he is the light.
But notice in verse five and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
Now we have another word, Darkness.
You know what darkness and light don't cohabit. They cannot be in the same place at the same time. And if you go back to chapter one of Genesis, you're going to find that very right there at the first God separated the light from the darkness. You know, there's people that try to mix light and darkness.
You can't do it.
There are two distinct things.
And so the light shined in the darkness of this world where the Lord Jesus had come.
But the darkness comprehended it not. Man is in darkness.
And it's a willful darkness. It's not so much that they cannot see, but they will not see.
Because they don't want to see what the light exposes in their lives.
The light makes you uncomfortable if I have a shirt on that had all sorts of dirty.
Spots on it.
And I would be alright if everything was dark in here, getting up in front of you all. But somebody switches on the light. Immediately I get uncomfortable, I'm going to start trying to hide what's on my shirt. Why? What's made the difference? What made me so uncomfortable? It was the light. And so the light exposes our sins.
And that's why they could not see it says in Second Corinthians chapter 4.
That men are blinded because they believe not the glorious light of the gospel of Christ, which is the image of God.
And so they're in darkness. Now. Notice verse 6.
There was a man sent from God.
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Whose name was John? This is not the Evangelist John. This is John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus as the Messiah.
The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light.
That all men through him might believe he was not that light.
But was sent to bear witness of that light.
What would happen if I go downtown Walla Walla?
On a sunshiny day and go down the street and everybody I meet up with, I say.
Hey, the sun shining, the sun shining. What would they say, you crazy guy? Everybody can see that the sun's shining. But you know what? When Jesus, that true light came into this world, people were so blinded, God had to send a man before him to give testimony. This is the true light.
Open your eyes to see him.
Verse 9. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
Yes, the light shines on you. You know, if you have a blind man, you can show China Searchlight into his face and he's not going to see anything because he's blind.
And so the light shines, and it even shines on a blind man. He was in the world, the Lord Jesus, and the world was made by him. Here's the creator of the world.
And the world knew him not. To me it is extremely interesting in the record of the life of our Lord Jesus, how that?
The animals knew who he was when he gave the command for the fish to fill Peters net. They obeyed.
When the donkey, the call of the full of the donkey, was carrying the Lord Jesus into Jerusalem.
Donkeys, naturally speaking, don't do that. They buck off anybody that wants to get on them. But he evidently knew who was riding on him, and he walked calmly into Jerusalem. The animals knew him, but humankind?
Sorry, they didn't know him. He came unto his own.
And his own received him not He is talking about the Jewish people. They had the scriptures of the Old Testament to tell them.
More or less when he would be coming.
And where he would be born.
They had prophecies.
They had no clue.
When wise men came from the east and asked in Jerusalem, Where is the Christ to be born? Where is the King of the Jews to be born, they could answer the questions, but they had no clue that he had come. Are you here?
Maybe you know the Bible pretty well. Maybe you can answer the questions.
Do you know him? Oh, how important it is to know him.
That we have a change in verse 12, but as many as received him.
To them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them.
Which believe on his name beautiful. There were some, Yes, there were some.
And how do you become a child of God? How is it that you can be born into God's family?
What is required? What does it say?
Even to them that believe on His name, you know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so when the word of God comes to your ears, I ask for your own blessing. Don't shut out the word of God.
Listen to what God has to say. I can understand if you don't want to listen to me, go ahead and shut your eyes, your ears to what I I say, but listen to God. The blessing of your soul depends on it. And so faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so that they did they.
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Simply believed on his name.
Young law student came to my house in Bolivia one time and I could tell he was under conviction of sin and he said what do I have to do to get saved?
They told me that I have to repent and I don't understand what I have to do. So we got open John's gospel and I read this verse 12. As many as received him to them gave he power or the right to become the sons of God to them that believe on his name. I said you're a law student come on tell me what does the Bible say?
You have to do. Does it say you have to get down on your knees and pray. It's good to pray, you know, but is that what it says?
He looked at it.
Believed on his name.
Exactly, I said. That's what it says. If you want to pray, that's fine.
And he did get down on his knees and prayed, and received him by believing on his name. Beautiful, wonderful truth. But notice verse 13, which were born.
Not of blood, nor of the will of man, will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Is there anybody in here tonight that decided to get born the first time of your earthly parents? You know, you didn't decide that. That wasn't your decision. That was the decision of your parents. They wanted to have children, and you were the result of the will of the flesh and the will of man.
But now we're talking about new birth, because the first birth has been tainted with sin.
And if you want to enter the Kingdom of God, you must be born again.
By the will of who? By your will? Is that your decision?
Well, here we will find out that it is God's will. God wants to have children in His family, and when you listen to His word, believe it because that's the secret of being born into God's family. How important these truths are. You may make a decision. I don't say you won't make a decision.
But it was because God wanted children.
In his family.
And now we come to verse 14. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
As we heard this afternoon, this is what we call.
Incarnation, in other words, the eternal Son of God.
Became a man.
As God.
He could not die because God is immortal in his being.
It's impossible for God to die, so to be able to die.
To pay our sin debt, he had to become a man. A man can die. He was not subject to death because he was not a Sinner.
But he chose to die. There was only one man.
That was born into this world, that didn't have to die, and he was the one that chose to die.
Why was that necessary? Because of our sin. God is a holy God and he cannot have sin in his presence. Impossible if God would Passover 1 little sin and not taking into account.
It would call in question God's holy character. Absolutely impossible that he would do such a thing.
Now every sin that has been committed by man, woman or child.
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Will receive its just punishment from the hand of God, but for that purpose the Lord Jesus came into this world.
And at the end of his 33 1/2 years of life down here.
They condemned him to death, the only man.
That had no fault, and Pilate said that several times as he examined the person of our Lord Jesus. I find no fault in this man.
I don't understand why he commanded them to take him out and scourge him. Romans scourging was called in some places the living death because often malefactors died on the scourging post. It was so violent, so terrible, but they took him out side the city of Jerusalem.
And there they hung him on a cross.
Between heaven and earth, between two malefactors to look like there were three malefactors being executed that day.
And there he hung, according to the record of Scripture, from 9:00 AM in the morning to 3:00 PM in the afternoon.
For six hours, he hung with life on that cross the first three hours.
Humankind passed before him and spat on him and insulted him.
And hurled insults, he said. Reproaches broken my heart.
You know, they said, if he's the Son of God, let God deliver him.
Did God deliver him?
Not reproach broke his heart.
You know, one thing is physical suffering, another is suffering.
Of the soul.
But then we come down to the time at 12 noon when everything got dark.
It was way too horrible for any man to contemplate, but in those three hours of darkness was wet. God laid our sins on the head of His own beloved Son.
And then let the fury of His righteous judgment fallen all its weight on His beloved Son. The waves and billows of God's judgment rolled over him for three hours.
No complaint from that center cross those three hours. Only at the end, an awful cry. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken?
Why did God forsake His Son on that cross? Didn't He love him? Yes, He loved him more than I could never understand. But you know what? He loved you, and He didn't want you to go to a lost eternity. And it was the only way that our sins could be paid for so that God could forgive them and cleanse them away.
The Lord Jesus.
Said at the end it is finished all the judgment that was against us because of our sins. He paid the price in full and then he gave up his life.
And they took him down from that cross.
And they laid him in a grave.
And the third day.
A first day of the week, like today.
They went to the tomb, those women, to look for his body, to anoint him with ointment.
And he wasn't there.
There were angels that say he is not here, he is risen. Oh, the triumph.
Of the work of redemption of our Lord Jesus. He rose in the power of a life that death can no longer touch.
And that's the life, that eternal life that we talked about in the beginning of the meeting. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the gift He wants to give you. It's a life that death cannot touch. Death can touch my body, but it cannot touch the life that I have in the Lord Jesus.
00:35:14
Wonderful reality.
We're getting close to the end of our meeting. I do want to take a little bit of time to address an issue that I think is very important. Our brother Ted last night was talking about the fact that a true believer in the Lord Jesus can never be lost. And that is true. The Lord Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. That is a wonderful reality.
But what concerns me is what our brother Phil talked about yesterday.
About those?
That used to even break bread with us.
And today they are self-proclaimed atheists.
And I don't think they're the same persons, but I know several myself.
And it concerns me as we sit in a meeting like this, are you real with God? I look at you and I can only see the outside. I cannot see your heart. But you are standing in the presence of God. And as he looks from one person to another, you cannot deceive God. If you think you're deceiving God, you're deceiving yourself worse than anybody else.
Don't do it, it happens way too much.
It happened when our Lord Jesus was here. There was one of his 12 apostles. Yes, he was an apostle. He went out and preached. He did miracles.
Where is Judas Iscariot today?
In the torments of hell.
Why?
Because he did not have faith in the Lord Jesus. And I'd like to read some verses in Luke's Gospel chapter 13 before we close our meeting, because this is very serious matter.
Verse one. Luke 13 One there were present at the sea at that season, some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Suppose ye, that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things?
I tell you.
Accept ye, repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Repentance is necessary for getting the remission of sins.
And repentance means a change of thinking.
Important. It repeats it in verse five. I tell you, nay, but accept ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Repentance doesn't save you.
But you cannot be saved without it. What saves we've already talked about it is faith.
In the Lord Jesus Christ. But you must repent. I say that because.
Yeah, I see increasingly people who say they are Christians.
And they are living an ungodly lifestyle. And people sometimes their parents will say, oh, he accepted the Lord way back there. He said he's just away from the Lord.
Careful how we talk about those things.
I think it's very serious, extremely serious. The Lord Jesus said buy their fruit, you shall know them. And if there is not roots of a believer, we have no assurance that they are a true believer.
I agree with what Ted said last night, that a true believer.
Him never be lost. Peter fell, but he didn't stay in that position. He got up, He came back to the Lord and he got restored. But when souls go on in a sinful lifestyle, they have to understand that sin is what wrecks this creation. You have to repent of those sins.
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Sometimes people say I was born homosexual. I can't help it. That's the way I was born.
You know what?
When I was a boy, I had a tendency to tell lies.
I could say I was born that way. I can't help but I was born that way.
Thankfully, I had a dad.
And the consequences of lying to my dad taught me it's better to judge myself to change my thinking about lying. And if you say that it's because you haven't repented of your sins, Scripture is clear that those ungodly lifestyles will lead you.
To a lost eternity, and it's scary to see how it's been accommodated by professing Christian churches today.
Those kind of ungodly lifestyles, unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And so it's extremely important to repent. When I was in Bolivia, there was a young man who helped us build the 1St house we had down in the city of Montero.
He was a professing believer.
And.
He was breaking bread at the Lord's table. He actually went with me on some of my visits to some other little meetings into the jungle areas.
Never questioned the reality of Jaime Martinez.
But in time the house was finished and he went off to get employment somewhere else and I lost contact with him.
Some time later to not extend the story.
There was in the city of Montero somebody that was killing people.
And they couldn't figure out who it was.
And it came out in the end that it was.
Jaime Martinez and the police took him into custody and he confessed it was a military government at that time and they use.
Some coercion and he confessed to having killed 12 People.
He did other things that are not going to mention here, terrible things. They took him into custody. People were so angry at him that they mobbed the police station and he had to be taken elsewhere one day under a pretense of doing an investigation out in the countryside. This is the way they deal with criminals under a military government.
The two policemen that were carrying him out into this particular place.
We're not watchful and he starts running towards the jungle.
They call it at him to stop and he didn't stop and they pulled out their pistols.
Jaime Martinez went into a lost eternity. I heard about it. It made me cringe to think that I broke bread with a man that is now in the torments of hell.
There you sit.
Are you real with God? You can fool me. You can fool others. You cannot fool God. I plead with you.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's anybody that wants to ask any question after the meeting will be here. I'll be glad to clarify anything. We'll pray to end our meeting, Father.
Bless Thy word, we do pray.
That it might penetrate anybody who is not real, they pray for blessing. Give thanks, Father, for thy precious word, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
God's Plans are Different
YP Talk—Micah Sorensen
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Well, good evening. I am very excited to talk to you tonight. It's funny because.
I'm very nervous so work with me.
I hope all of you fall asleep while I'm talking.
That would be helpful for me.
You guys, most of you in here know me and I'm not a very serious person.
Ever, for the most part, but tonight I want to talk to you about something very serious.
I'm not going to be joking around.
Because to me.
This was something that I dealt with.
And really, most of you, a lot of you are actually older than I am, but most of you are just a few years younger than I am. In fact, I remember the first young people's meeting that I sat in. It was only six years ago.
And tonight?
This subject to me is just very, very important because I'm a planner. I plan out my entire life. I plan out every detail of my life, every little thing, every little day, every move I'm going to make, whether or not I go to college, Whatever it is, I plan it out.
When I was in high school, that was the details that I thought about. I remember when I was in high school, I was going to a church.
And I.
I just, I had all of these little detailed plans for my life.
At the time, I even thought I knew who I was going to marry. I had everything like set out. That was the way my life was going to go. And then God turned me around. And I want to talk to you about God turning you around and specifically somebody we know about that God turned him around from going running from him. I want you to turn to Jonah. If you have your Bibles, we're not going to spend a lot of time reading, so don't feel like you have to open.
If you don't want to, but everybody here knows the story of Jonah. I'm not going to get into some deep theological meaning behind anything here. I'm just going to share a simple thought.
Jonah chapter 4.
Something that just just.
Came off the page at me. I'll read part of it here.
We know the story, and I'll kind of go over it real briefly. Jonah runs from God.
And he's going to Tarshish.
And anyway, you know, Jonah gets followed by a whale. You guys all know the story. And he goes to Nineveh like he's supposed to. He tells Nineveh what he's supposed to, and what happens? He tells Nineveh that they're going to be destroyed if they don't repent. They repent and then God doesn't destroy them. And so Joan is embarrassed.
It's a little silly. God told him what to do. First he runs, then he, you know, then God takes him where he needs to be. He does what God tells him to do. And God doesn't destroy the city. And Jonah's embarrassed.
It's a little silly, so let's read there and says in chapter 4. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly. It's verse one.
He was very angry.
And he prayed in the Lord, and he said, I pray thee, Oh Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before you under Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and great kindness and repentance thee of the evil.
Therefore now, oh Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.
This is the serious subject I'm going to talk to you about tonight.
Everybody here is having a great time. I suppose everybody in your life, you really want everyone to think you're always having a good time. I mean, that's social media. That's everything we really want to like, have everyone think that we have the worst life.
We want everyone to know we have the best life.
I mean, I do. I want you all to think that I'm successful.
I'm good looking, I know it's hard to believe.
I want you all to think things about me, but the truth is, deep down, I'm just like you.
Everyone of us have things that we deal with. Everyone of us have pain. I'm going to tell you a story about a young guy.
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17.
He's going to church. He's doing the right thing. He does everything that he's supposed to be doing according to what people believe.
Everyone his whole life had told him he was going to marry this girl. And even he thought it, she thought it and they were, you know, they were whatever dating, I guess. And and he just kind of like goes on and believes that this is what he's supposed to do. He's got this plan to go to Bible college. He's going to do all this stuff, you know, he's going to become a pastor. Whatever the plan is, he's good to go because this is what he's always wanted.
And then through the course of a few different events that happen.
The girl and the guy break up.
And it ends. And this guy, just like Jonah.
That that pain was so great.
That he just couldn't see any life ahead for himself.
He just couldn't see. I mean, what's the point? This was the plan. I mean, you disrupt the plan. What's going to happen?
This was his plan. I mean, isn't that what you want? God, if that's what I want, right?
So often we try to make our plans, God's plans for us.
And it's very the reason this is so serious is because it's so easy to do. It's so easy to get caught up with our plans.
And then when disappointments come like Jonah here, you know, he's like and we all.
It's a very, you know, it's a silly thing, but you know, God, why aren't you destroying these people? I just went and told them you were going to destroy them.
I mean, it's a little silly. I mean, God's not going to destroy the people. And now he's upset about it.
There's thousands and thousands of people.
And then you look at this young guy, you think.
This is a little silly.
I mean, he just got his heart broke. It's going to disrupt all his plans. I mean, soon.
You know, just like it says here.
With Jonah, the young man became angry at God for ruining his planes. The young man just continued on in his life. But really, I mean, he's not being an example of anybody. He's not really helping anybody. It's just that bitterness is eventually coming out in little areas of his life. I mean, you look Jonah here, Jonah had already been swallowed by a whale. You can already see the amazing things that God can do to bring someone back.
But John is still angry. So then the rest of the chapter there and it's really it's really kind of neat, but God takes this. He grows up this basically like a Reed to cover up Jonah to shade him from the sun when he runs away from the city. And then he creates a worm that comes and eats and you know, the Reed dies and Jonas so angry about it.
How many times in our lives do we use that ourselves where we, you know, we little things that come up, we're like.
God's doing such a great work in our lives.
And then we got takes it away. It's like, God, what are you doing? This is what I wanted. I thought that's what you wanted for me. We didn't do anything to get it. We didn't do anything to have the life. And we have to begin with. I mean, just like it was red today, all things were created by him and for him. Every single one of you today, every one of you is extremely important.
I mean you.
You're the future.
Every little thing you do today effects tomorrow.
It's the little things.
It's how you act when things don't go your way. It's not about how you act like things are going well. I mean, we see those examples all the time. It's really easy when things are well.
But when it really counts is when.
Plan.
We might stop.
The reason I told you that story?
Is because.
That young man.
Is me.
And I wouldn't be here today.
Had it not been for God taking me?
Out of that position.
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And it was the toughest thing I ever went through.
And for a few years, I was so bitter.
I just did what I thought was what I wanted to do, running from God.
And eventually.
Through extreme circumstances.
God brought me back to where He wanted me.
And it was so painful.
And I'm so grateful today because of it. I'm now married to the most beautiful woman in the world.
And I'm standing here telling you this story.
And at the time, I could never have told you that I was going to be here or that I would be able to give this talk at all, because at the time I had a plan.
But got a different one.
I want you to turn with me over to first, Peter.
First, Peter.
Chapter 5.
Verse Verse 6.
Says Humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand of God.
That he may exalt you in due time.
Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he made a vow.
Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.
It isn't about when things are easy.
Because.
A lot of the time when things are easy, we're really not looking to God.
It's about when things get tough.
It's about when things get tough, especially as young people, we have to accept those challenges.
It's about little relationships, whatever they may be, if it doesn't workout.
No, God has a different point.
Those details.
Aren't for us to know. Sometimes it just doesn't workout the way we plan.
Everything you do today effects tomorrow.
The examples you are is young people to other young people. That affects those young people. We look at it like it's just affecting us, like Jonah in this.
Chapter.
We look at it like it's only our life.
But it's all those around us.
And you can see it in your parents, you can see when there's when there's things that are in between the assembly. You can see it everywhere else. But a lot of time we don't want to address it in ourselves. It's the little things.
Did Jonah have a right to be angry?
God.
No. Do we?
No.
We don't.
He created us for one purpose.
To serve him.
To bring honor and glory to Him.
And that should be our entire goal with our lives.
And we need to cast all of our care and.
Because he cares for us.
It's the little details.
Thank you guys. Let's let's close in prayer and also pray for the food.
Dearly Father, we just thank you so much for this day. Thank you for everything that we've learned. Lord, we just.
Pray that you would bless the rest of this evening, Lord, and pray that you bless the food to our body strength and just help us to in our conversations to honor and glorify you. We thank you again for everything that you've done and everything that you're about to do. Your name, we pray these things, Amen.
1 Corinthians 13
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Chapter 13.
Chapter.
First Corinthians chapter 13, verse one.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I so that I can remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity that profiteth me, profiteth me nothing.
Charity suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaughteth not itself is not puffed up.
Does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, and thinketh no evil.
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, and endureth all things. Charity never faileth. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail, Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophecy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three. But the greatest of these is Charity. Chapter 14.
Follow after charity and desire of spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophecy. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue, tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God. For no man understandeth him. How be it in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
But he that prophesied speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself. But he that prophesieth edifieth the Church. I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied. For greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret that the Church may receive edifying. Now, brethren, if I come unto you Speaking of tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation?
Or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine, And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds. How shall be known what is piped or heart? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue, where it's easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.
Did you want verse 12 to Bob? OK.
Even so, ye, for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the Church.
About the last verse of chapter 12, I think it's helpful if we read it in the new translation because there were some questions about it. It says in the new translation, but desire earnestly the great greater gifts, and yet show I unto you a way of more surpassing excellence. I suppose if we just read what the King James, our good King James Version says, we might think that we should individually covet.
Of the the platform type gifts, but that's not the thought at all, is it? The thought is that speaking to them collectively as an assembly and there are greater gifts. In other words, they were taken up with assigned gifts there in Corinth and they were actually acting like children and showing off before one another, especially with the sign gifts. And the apostle says don't do that. Be taken up collectively with those gifts that have lasting value.
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Desire the greater gifts, its desire in it as an assembly. Isn't it that there would be edification for the whole body?
And that last phrase of verse 31 really introduces chapter 13. I show unto you a way of more surpassing excellence. That's the way of love which we have in chapter 13. The Lord said, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, that ye have love one for another. And I think in the surpassing the way of surpassing excellent excellence, love.
Is greater than gift, he didn't say something about. They would know that you're my disciples because of the display of gift among you. It's because you have love one for another.
And so they said in the Roman Empire, see how they love one another.
Explain a little bit to us the word love that it speaks here. We have it translated here as charity, but it's really agape love, isn't it? Can you explain a little bit love? Yeah, we have the love of friendship and and here we have divine love.
Believers have the privilege of showing the love of God, don't we?
As he has loved us.
So we have the privilege of loving one another.
We have the privileged brother, but we are commanded to love. He doesn't say, if you find it in yourselves to love, okay, go ahead and love. He commands it. And I've really found it challenging, brother. And in between the Gospel of John and the Epistle of John, we have.
Seven times when we are commanded to love.
And it's that we don't understand the character of love, brother, and it's the settled disposition of favor towards us on the part of God. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Why did he love us? Was there something good in us that he loved us? He loved us because God is love.
And as he looks at you and me, that's his settled disposition towards us. People may not accept that love, but it doesn't change the fact that they are loved and over other. And to understand this better, it's not because there's something lovable. We find it easy to love those that are nice to us. That's not what we're talking about. And I sometimes say.
Brethren, in Ephesians 525, as the verse that says husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That's divine love. Love them with divine love. That's important. And sometimes I hear husband say, I used to love my wife, I don't really love her anymore. They don't understand.
What love is?
Love does not come and go that way.
It's the settled disposition of favor toward an object. That's the love we're talking about here. And so just let me go back to John's Gospel. The three times in John's Gospel that that command is mentioned because brother, and I'm convicted in my own soul.
That this really needs to be a reality in my life and I'm afraid I fail in this. John 13 and verse 34.
A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if you have love.
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One not to another. Did you notice, brethren, it's a command. He doesn't say if you, if you feel like it, do it. No, it's a command. And brethren, if you and I are born into God's family, you and I have the capacity to do that, to love as He loved us. It's a new commandment because in the Old Testament, remember, the commandment was to love your neighbor as yourself.
The reference point was, how do I love myself? I'm still love my neighbor just that way. But in the New Testament the reference point has changed. What is it? It's the Lord Jesus as I have loved you. And O brethren, who can love like Him? And so may we be exercised. The other two in John's gospel are in the 15th chapter. Just to read them briefly, verse 12.
This is my commandment.
That ye love one another as I have loved you.
Verse 17 These things I command you, that ye love one another. I find that very interesting and challenging.
Remember a problem in South America between a few sisters in a particular meeting and one sister said I hate that sister.
And I thought a brother that responded responded very well. He said, sister, if you are not born truly into God's family, I can understand that you hate that person. But if you have been born into God's family, you have a life and a nature that is able to love that sister that you don't find very pleasant. That's the love we're talking about, isn't it?
It probably doesn't need to be said, but.
This is really the love of the minister who's given, who's exercising a gift, isn't it? I mean, what what you say is absolutely true, but this interpretation of this is that we should minister in love. Is that right?
That's what to motivate us.
And the Lord writes to the church in Ephesus.
In the second chapter of Revelation, he mentions all these good things they were doing.
But you had against them that they had left their first love. And so there can be a lot of activity, but the Lord looks behind that at the motive that is the source of that activity. And so it's the same with how we have here in the question of spiritual gifts or the activity, you might say the Spirit to members of the body of Christ. Well, this these were manifestations, you might say, but what was behind it?
You know, if we didn't have any manifestations, well, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given unto us. The fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, all these beautiful things because we have the Spirit of his Son in our hearts. We cry about Father. Well, this is this is more the substance, isn't it, of what we are and what we have. And if God gives us equipment to benefit the body and that we would enjoy these things, you know, we know I know a lot of.
Of brothers who are occupied with gifts and they do not know that they're eternally saved. They're not enjoying the love of the Lord as I have loved you. It's a it's a measure of love that he died for them, but it's a conditional love. And so I just thought of this in connection with what we have in the first verse as to the.
The things producing noise, it says here sounding brass or a tinkling symbol. It compares it later on to a trumpet. You know a trumpet can give a certain sound and you recognize something. But if I had symbols here and I just went.
Oh, you'd recognize that I had a symbol and I made some noise and said, look at me and my gift. Well, that's not the purpose of gift, to draw attention to ourselves. The purpose of gift is to have people understand more of the Lord Jesus and grow in grace and in the knowledge of him. And I believe this is what the Lord is looking for in our service to one another.
Is that there is genuine love for my brethren, that they would be growing in the knowledge of him, and that a resemblance of him, and if he needed.
00:15:09
Could take gifts of healing or manifestations of tongues or whatever what the Spirit needed to produce that. Not to put attention on the gift himself, but on the purpose for which it was given that they would grow in grace and the knowledge of that blessed person.
Because much gift is used to aggrandize oneself or to build an empire. So it isn't really love for the Saints. But how many radio stations can I get on how? How big can this ministry get?
It's the love of commitment, isn't it? Not so much an emotion. There's a good note in John 21 and the new translation, isn't there, where the two types of love are are given there and, and when, when the Lord is speaking with Peter, both agape and paleo, we don't perhaps have time to go into that so much, but the distinction is agape. I believe it's Mr. Vine that says that. That's the distinctive word of Christianity.
It was an unknown factor in that way. I think the word was around, but not in the way that Christians use it, because it's that which rises above anything that natural man can understand. It's not an emotion so much. That's phileo Remember a story I read recently about a missionary who came to the United States and was speaking to the native Indians years ago? He came to a certain tribe and spoke to the.
To the chief and the chief was standing there by his his dwelling. He had all kinds of of his, the scalps of his enemies lined up by his by his dwelling there. And the missionary says you have to learn to love your enemies. And the chief looked at him and said, then I then I need a new heart. He says, that's exactly right. And that's what Christianity is, isn't it? He gives us a new heart.
Doesn't mean that we have again, the emotional attachment to everybody. It really means that we seek their greater good. Love is used in a wrong way oftentimes today, isn't it? It's used in a way that does not seek a persons greater good, but rather it skates over things that will lead to their destruction and their lack of fruitfulness. And we have to be careful that as a minister that we minister to those things that seek their greater good is before God.
That's what this love is, isn't it?
So we spoke of gift. The word was used, a motive. So in chapter 12 we have the gifts, some of them enumerated and spoken of in principle. And then in chapter 13, we have the motive for the exercise of gift. And I think it's good to notice as we go into this chapter that love is not limited. Love is the thing that is the greatest of all. Love is going to abide. There are other things that will pass off the scene.
But love is going to abide, and that tells us that gift is limited, it has its limitations. It's not the answer for everything. And if you go from the 12Th chapter.
To the 14th chapter where you have the exercise of gift in the assembly and you don't have the right motive. You have those things you're talking about, Vern for, for the aggrandizement of the man or to make the man look good or for some kind of a display, and that's a wrong motive. We learn in the 14th chapter that everything that God has given to sustain the believer here is for the edification of the assembly.
Not for self, but that the that the Christian community might grow thereby in its likeness to Christ. You you have some of that spoken of in Ephesians chapter four and five. God always has a purpose in view, and the purpose centers in Christ himself.
And the motive is love.
And this is the key too, isn't it, to the question, what is the rule of the Christian life Now? I suppose 9 out of 10 Christians would say, well, it's it's the law.
Once we're saved, we need the law to keep us on the right path. But if we truly understand grace.
00:20:01
That's a far greater motive than the law, isn't it? The example has so often been given of a person who is a is a house nanny perhaps, and she follows a long list of rules in that house. But if by chance she becomes the wife of the head of the house, he doesn't give her that long list of rules anymore. But it's love that reigns, isn't it? You don't need that long list of rules. They may be some guidelines there, of course.
But it's love that reigns there. That's a far greater motive. That is a list of rules, and so is the Christian. The secret is if we walk close to the Lord, then we will seek the to honor the Lord and to please the Lord. And that's the secret of Christian blessing and fruitfulness, isn't it? It's not keeping a long list of rules because we have to, some people say, well, if you don't keep the 10 commandments after you're saved, that's, and I know Mianism.
And that's against the law. But they don't understand grace.
With the heart and draws after in a more powerful way than law ever could. I've been mentioning this to others, but we've been reading through Exodus at home and I was struck by the comment of one of the commentators. He he mentioned how that law was given to Israel to put an end to legality. It wasn't given so they would keep the law because he knew they could not keep the law.
But it was given to show they could not do it and they needed to depend on God's grace. Now, when they first came out of the land of Egypt, they were subject to grace. There's four stages in the wilderness. The 1St is the stage of grace. And so when they first came out of the wilderness, when they needed water, when they needed food, the Lord graciously provided it for him to show that His resources were adequate to meet their needs and more than adequate. But they didn't appreciate it. So in a sense, the Lord at Sinai said OK.
If you think you can do it yourself, I'll give you the measure to do it. But it was known that they would never able to to keep, they would never be able to keep the law in its entirety. It condemns us. And then they would default back to grace. That's the only way we can go on in the Christian pathway. And so that's what we have here is the secret of grace.
Just like to mention briefly.
Brotherly love, which is the word fileo that you mentioned, because it figures quite a bit in the New Testament as well, and it is an important part of Christian living.
Hebrews 13 One says let brotherly love continue. It's the mutual appreciation of one another that's cultivated and develops.
I've known brother Phil Fournier for quite a few years. We've traveled together sometimes. I appreciate you, brother. You appreciate me. I think so. Well, there's brotherly love. It's something that's very real.
But sometimes I use this illustration Sentosa and I give you I get irritated at you and I give you a slap in the face.
Now is their brotherly love.
Do you love me?
And you still do. But that's agape love, isn't it? And I think it's helpful to see the difference. I want to go back to where Brother Michelle read in the prayer meeting in second Peter chapter one to show that those two things are addressed. Second Peter, chapter one and in verse.
Five, he says beside all this giving all diligence, add to your faith. And there's a number of things that we are to add to our faith, not just say we have faith, but show it. Let it be practical. But notice the end of this list in verse 7 to godliness.
Add brotherly love. That's the filial love.
And to brotherly love charity or agape love. And that's why you can still say you still love me. I hope I never do that brother, but I that that I'm just doing it for illustration sake. I appreciate you brother.
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And it's quite a few times in the New Testament. Look at one other point that I think it's helpful to see it In First Thessalonians chapter four, we have the two mentioned together as well.
In First Thessalonians 4 and verse 9, as touching brotherly love, there it is. Phileo, you need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God.
To love, that's the agape love one another. I think that's beautiful to see how they're brought together. I just mentioned that brother because I think it's helpful to see the difference.
First and second single chapter one, verse 20.
Second Samuel 126 I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant.
Unto me that love to me was more wonderful than passing the love of woman. And then first Samuel 18.
First one and it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking undissolved Saul of Johnson was knit with the soul of David and Johnson loved him as his own school got a note here that Saul his love was just for what he got out of him. But Jonathan blood was based on faith for who he was and we need to love the Lord for who he is but.
Other question is this filet alone?
Brother being our beloved brother.
I.
So the end of verse one of our chapter, we're only a sounding brass spirit tinkling symbol if there's not love.
The end of verse 2, there's not love. Even though I can have a great understanding and knowledge and faith, it says I am nothing.
That's pretty telltale brother. The end of verse 3. Even though I give to the poor and give my body to be burned, it profiteth me.
Nothing.
It's not the outward things that we see that give value.
It's love that's behind it. Important.
Just to go back for a moment, I the I don't know the direct correspondence between the word for love and the Old Testament in Hebrew and the Greek words in Eric. Do you have you thought about that or? Yeah, the word is a hava mainly in the Old Testament, but it's much more general than the two.
It would include that, but it it, again, agape seems to have been unique to Christianity, going beyond what we have even in the Old Testament. Yeah. So it's difficult to give a quantitative answer to that in, in a sense. So it's, I read the Septuagint. You could sort through it a little better. But of course, we know as a translation, so it wasn't inspired by God. And there's debates as to what would be the best Greek translation for a Hebrew word and so forth.
But certainly. But it's a good thought. Yeah, the love between Jonathan and David was certainly the Phileo type of love, wasn't it?
Tells us that the love of God is should have brought in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given unto us and I I thought that that aspect of love.
Is only experienced by the love of God in our hearts. It's his love really through us. And so I don't know the Old Testament that they could have enjoyed that and the vessels of that love without the Spirit of God.
Dwelling in them.
I think it's important to.
Remind ourselves to who Paul is writing to. He's writing to Corinthians, and these are a a culture of people that are very, very full of themselves. And it's almost like the Paul by the Spirit is poking their balloon in three balloons he takes care of.
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And the first one is this matter of eloquence. So the actual delivery.
And the warning here is be very careful about just working on the delivery. Is there a motive behind the delivery? It's great to have a good delivery. What are you delivering? Do you really have a message from God? And what is the motive for that message? And then in verse two anyway, I should say that the the the little poke that pops this balloon is.
You really thought that sounded good, didn't you? It was real empty. And that's where I believe the Spirit of God and does he not do that to us at times? You command yourself for the delivery and and maybe the Lord uses a brother or a sister, your wife to say, wow, that was real empty. So then we have in verse 2.
Great spiritual power.
Intelligence and that Greek influence of being able to go philosophically very deep and so on. And so now when they become Christians, they they want to be able to excel in this display of knowledge. And we see there that the understanding of the mysteries and knowledge and so on. And so he he says there at the end that the needle that pokes that balloon.
Is that nothing I am nothing. What did you really intend to be? What was it you were trying to achieve And this is where this challenge of divine love that is really a sacrificial love and we know that from from the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in verse three, this other area of of acts of public acts and acts of recognition that you can be known and characterized by.
And he says that if love is not really the motive for it, it's not a sacrificial love, you go really at this level, giving my body to be to be burned. And so there are those that do these kinds of things without even being saved. And so he says it profits you nothing. And so this really is another needle that pops that balloon that why did you do what you did?
Did you do it to be recognized? And he says you're lost. There was no profit for you. And so you can see in these first three verses before we really get into the qualities and the characteristics of love and so on that he seems to address that Corinthians spirit here and there's a there's a Corinthian in every one of us. We're full of it. And so this is a really good chapter for us to.
Contemplate together.
Chapter 13. Just a moment for a verse there.
Romans 13 and 10 as to the things that love does not do, and we certainly have much to learn as to what love does do, but Romans 13 and verse 10.
Says there that.
So it will be my French Bible here so.
Love worketh no I'll to his neighbor.
When there's ill being done to another, that is not love.
I use the example often if you go to the dentist.
It might be painful.
But He's not doing you any ill. And so love, it might include pain and having to inflict pain. And the Lord, we know He has to deal with us that way. But the motive is love. Then there is no I'll being done. There might be pain, but there is positive result to the action of love.
I've got somebody off here.
Appreciating your comment Brother Wayne about.
Those three things.
In the book of Prince or the Epistle of Corinthians, wasn't Pauls eloquence challenged?
Wasn't his.
Accused of being timid and weak.
And is it possible shift challenge?
Just those three, when you brought that out, it made me think of how we've been taught in the business of Corinthians that they're these things of the apostles, apostle were challenged that when you brought that out.
00:35:15
It seemed that those answered.
And then his, his love for those Saints, isn't there a passage where he lists the ways that his his own sacrifice for them had been put on display? That was all selfless and for their their sake. And it was just when you brought that out, it made me think of those things that that's what was brought out, that they.
Call it in a way had to defend himself before the Corinthians.
And in all those three areas.
His brother Pat was saying earlier, this is a fruit, the fruit of.
Love And if we had an apple tree and we wanted more, a larger apple or a bigger apple, we wouldn't spend our time on the fruit. The fruit comes as a result of the working of the tree, the leaves taking in the sunlight and doing photosynthesis, the roots taking in the water and the minerals and the vitamins and the energy, whatever is in the soil. And so in our lives when we struggle, as you were mentioned, brother Bob, I think that's a really good definition of agape. Love is goodwill towards another person when we struggle with another person.
And we look at our apple or whatever the fruit is and we're like, man, you know, I really don't love them like I should. Trying to shine that up isn't going to help watering it isn't going to help that. You have to, you have to dig deep. And who has love? God has love for that person. And he says you if you say you love God and you hate your brother, you're a liar.
It's this is so real. This is our faith in action. And he tells us in Matthew chapter 5, if we're having a struggle with a brother or a sister, if we're having a struggle with somebody, we dig deep with our roots and go to the Lord who has the love that we need for them. And he says is the Lord Jesus speaking, but I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute you. When we have a a difficulty with someone, pray for blessing on them.
And that opens the conduit in our hearts to let the love of God come up out of that soil through us, His love through us to that other person. And then the fruit grows.
Through and this is kind of peculiar to again, that's what that's what he's getting at here. All it's not how we act in our everyday life and loving our brother, but it's in ministry. That's what this chapter is all about.
It's a gift using that gift for the good of the people, for the edification of the church. And so it's, it's something that is peculiar to having a ministry, isn't it? And how you do I, do I minister for the people of God or am I trying to build up a denomination or something or I have a gift and.
Am I trying to?
Build this empire.
I want to get more money so that I can get bigger and aggrandize myself.
And I think that's a it's a real struggle. Like the brother says, we have a lot of Corinthian in US, so it's really a warning or.
To those who are and and and do exercise gift.
Doesn't go, but it's you have the gift even though someone is trying to build an empire, get it on more stations or be bigger in the denomination or something. The gift doesn't go, but it's not motivated by just edifying the people of God. You would agree, Brother Vern, wouldn't you? That gift is not mere only used in assembly context.
Than at all times in any measure that we meet up with believers who are members of the fellow members of the body that we use our gift at that time. And so it is like you say the important thing is that we keep that in mind. Did want to say what you mentioned, brother Matt about loving and sometimes it seems difficult to love the verse we have in first John 4 is a helpful verse.
00:40:16
We love because He first loved us. And sometimes when you don't feel much like loving, go back to the person of the Lord Jesus. How they mistreated him, how they spit in his face, how they insulted him, blackmailed him in every form possible. Did he ever say, I've had it, That's enough, I can't stand it any longer.
I'm going back to heaven. Never, never entered the picture. He went straightforward in his sacrifice of love. Oh brother, I say that is a real challenge to us. Let me encourage us rather than that we get on in this chapter unless we just get bogged down. The verses that follow, verse 4567.
Our beautiful characteristics.
Of this love, Love suffers long. Oh, sometimes we don't have very much patience.
Is kind kindness? Brethren? Do we treat each other with kindness?
And so on. And then verse 8 and I love this love. Never fails. Isn't that beautiful? Never fails.
O brethren, how these verses search my heart. May our hearts be searched in our relationships one to another. So often we find the lack of these things. The Lord help us.
Just going back to Vern's comment, I was wondering if.
Because of the importance being put on.
Public service activity in the midst of the Saints that the apostle Paul, the Spirit of God rings before those who would be in that position or activity. The fundamentals of of love. I believe these verses apply to all of us, but these ones that we're going to be public and we're going to take a place and they needed to be reminded that this is what it is. And so I'm sure it's in the constitution mentioning Vernon, but they needed that especially perhaps.
Because the last thing that can do good to a man in a flesh is to be on a platform, to be listened to, to be looked at as authority or knowledge. And so it's a snare for our poor wicked hearts. And so here's reminding us of that beautiful quality we find in the Lord Jesus. How big did he make himself?
He made himself the smallest of all, and he shines the brightest.
The Lord help us to be small.
And you can use this. There's 16 characteristics here in those verses 4 through 7. And somebody has said that the first seven have to do with keeping self down.
And then the last nine, how to behave when the first nine are not manifested? First seven are not manifested. But that's the 1St order, isn't it? Keeping self down. The Greeks again, that the Corinthians were Greeks, they like to show their gifts off and they liked eloquence, All that was human. And they had to learn to go down, didn't they? How important that is.
Speaking to a brother recently where there were some issues and I said brother, it seems to me that those that are most spiritual will take the low place. And that's often the secret to the answer to controversy, isn't it? Those that are the most spiritual are going to take the lowest place and that will be how they contention will be resolved.
And so the first seven again are those that have to do with keeping self down.
Just the opposite of what nature wants to do.
How do I know when I love someone?
And I probably wasn't the right person to give an answer to that question.
00:45:02
4 verses here, verses 4 through 7 through the test, aren't they?
If you look at all these things and just look at how Christ so perfectly filled me.
Greater love after no man than us, said a man lay down his life for his friend.
And then Romans 5.
It goes so far beyond that.
Hate, but God commanded his love toward us.
And that while we were yet sinners.
Before I start rock.
Not at all dependent upon the out death on whom it is disturbed.
It's entirely.
Self dealing.
I.
But brother Chris brought out.
He bears out the truth that when this divine love is in action, it's not always appreciated out there.
And yet that's just its test to bear out the beauty of what it is.
I think the Apostle Paul saying I will most gladly.
Spend and be spent, though the more abundantly I love, the less I be loved. So that's love, never failing history.
But does that that that's that's very true. Does this, you see this on the wall of many people, you know, love never failing. But really it's something for eternity, isn't it? It never will fail. It's a it's it's in that sense that never never will fail. But there's in these verses here that moving on, it says.
Love never faileth.
But whether there be prophecies that they shall fail?
Whether there be tongues, they shall cease, and so.
It seems to be a different word. And then it says down in the 10th verse. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
So it seems that that tongues have ceased. I, I take it I'm I'm not arguing about that.
But at this time.
Tongues were a gift.
And when you get to the 14th chapter, you find out that Paul does not prohibit.
Even being used in an open meeting.
The contrast the best gift with the lowest gift and, and I believe, and this is maybe going on to the next chapter, but I believe that we always feel like it has to be a prophetic meaning or you have to be a prophet in order to be used of the Lord in an open meeting. Because when you get to the the 12Th chapter, it says are all prophets.
And then we jump over to the 14th chapter and we say anybody can can participate. Well, not everybody's a prophet. And there's no such thing as a prophet for an occasion. It's a gift, but all other gifts can be used in that meeting too. Even look at look at the verse 27 of that next chapter. If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by this is in a, in in an open meeting.
Let it be by two or at most three so it could take up the whole meeting. He does that. It's probably probably.
It's the lowest of the gifts, it seems. But nevertheless, there's there's room for a teacher, there's room for hospital. So this is always just a man who has a gift of a prophet. And so I think that's the way to understand it. And so we always say let the prophets, you know, speak and and the others judge but.
In anything, if it's a teacher and he's teaching something that he feels the Spirit of God would would give that out to the audience that he's speaking to. We should judge what he says.
00:50:14
So the point is, is that an open meeting, a ministry meeting, is for the purpose of edification, exhortation and comfort.
Whatever gift the Spirit of God may choose to use to do that.
And, and I think it's good to for just a moment, go back to these questions that Paul asks at the end of the 12Th chapter. You you touched on that.
Where he asked this question.
Are all apostles? He doesn't answer these questions. They're rhetorical. This is a rhetorical device that the apostle uses. Paul is always asking questions, and then he may answer them or he may not.
Hear the implied answer to all of these questions is no. Are all apostles? No, only some are. He gave some apostles.
Are all teachers, are all evangelists? No, I'm not an evangelist. Now here is a tough one. Do all speak with tongues? Oh, there are those that would say yes. I was told one time that there was concern about my salvation because I had never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I had not spoken in tongues. I was asked, have you ever spoken in tongues? And I said no. And I doubt if I ever will, but I know that I'm redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.
And I've been sealed with the Holy Spirit of redemption, with the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. It didn't get me off my center. Do all speak with tongues? No. Now a comment on chapter on verse eight of our chapter. You touched on this, Vernon. I think it's interesting if you read this in the new translation. First of all, love never fails. That's going to be eternal.
We will eternally dwell in the light of His love. That will never end. But notice how it reads in the new translation. But whether prophecies, they shall be done away.
Or tongues. They shall cease. That's a different word.
Or knowledge it shall be done away. So with both prophecy and knowledge it says shall be done away. Now my understanding is.
That has the sense of something gradual, a gradual passing away, which is why we need to hold on to the knowledge of Scripture in his pure form, as we have been given.
We live in a scene of.
Of terrible confusion.
But with tongues it's different. My understanding is is that that means it stops.
And the problem that Paul is addressing in First Corinthians 14.
Is not the speaking in tongues as you say. The problem is that tongues were out of control. They were not being interpreted.
And so if an individual who has the gift of tongues was going to speak in tongues in the assembly, which was a known language, there must be an interpreter present to interpret what was said so that the assembly could be edified. If there was no interpreter such that the assembly could be edified by what was being said, then the person who had the gift of tongues was to remain.
Silent. Is that the teaching?
At the Burbank conference a few years ago, there was a Mexican brother that had a word in the open meeting that was translated into English, and that particular year there was a group of brethren from Korea there, and in turn it was translated into Korean. And in that way all could profit.
We might mention the the point here that the word in chapter 14, unknown is not to be there, is it? It's a known language. And I might mention in the first verse, we didn't really refer to it as chapter 13. It's sometimes caused confusion when it says, though I speak with the tongues of men and angels. Well, we know what the tongues of men are. Those are the different languages. What are the tongues of angels? That's simply eloquence, isn't it?
00:55:01
When angels spoke to men, they spoke in a language they understood. It wasn't babbling. But some of our charismatic brethren will start babbling and they say those are the tongues of angels. They've had some charismatic rather than tell me that. And we speak in the tongues of angels. But if we look at the history book, we find out that that's been a sign of demonism since since before Christ. So it's not the tongues of angels, it's the tongues of demons.
But the angels, whenever they spoke in Scripture, they spoke to men in a language they understood, but they spoke with power and eloquence. Is that what that means? I remember Brother Gordon Hayhoe commenting on that. And he said wherever angels are sent in this world scene, because they are ministers to those who shall be heirs of salvation, if they're sent to the United States, they speak in English. If they're sent to China, they speak in Chinese.
They're spent sent to Israel. They speak in Hebrew. So he says they. That was the adaptability of tongues. I enjoyed that.
First verse, a first word in chapter 13 of my French Bible is if not when. And so it's something that was being said that they were doing. If somebody, as you suggested, brother, if somebody speaks, it's babbling because that's the language of angels. That's all. Well, if I do that, you know, where is the problem and there is no prophet. Just wondering about the the question of prophecy in connection with where we're reading it in First Corinthians.
That we didn't have New Testament and how were they to be entertained in the things of the Lord if it wasn't by the Spirit of God giving communications, by his power of things, revealing things to them that they would share. So they would be speaking for the Lord by the Spirit to bring edification. And now we have the New Testament. And so as we sit together and we we read those things that are given to us by the Spirit of God.
We can all share the thought of God that He wants us to understand from these, from these verses. And so we do not need that kind of ministry. We might say that we find active in the capital. Lord told me to tell you and he told me to do this and he told me to do that. That is not necessarily in accordance with the word of God. So apostles and prophets that were used to lay the foundation. Once the foundation was laid.
These men who were given as gifts, as prophets and apostles are no longer required. We have the apostle Paul with us right now. He's right here. And so Peter and John. So we have that foundation. We're building on that foundation. And so the pretension to be a prophet today in that sense, I don't believe stands a test of Scripture. But if we read the word of God, if we search the word of God and we have thoughts by the Spirit of God from the word of God, when the other vacation of others, we might be prophesying. And that could be done by any brother in this room, couldn't it?
I think that young brothers who make notes in their Bible like what Eric has said where it says unknown, it should be uninterpreted and then you get the right thought right?
Uninterpreted though.
Own language, wasn't it? It was a native language somewhere.
Not babbling. We need to be clear on that.
Apostle uses a picture of a trumpet, you know, in the military in the morning, I think they have a, a call there and I'm not going to imitate it, but I'm sure, you know, I thought that whatever and the brother, the brothers are the people in the tents. And you said that was a nice sound. You know, no, they react to it. There was no words, but they understood there was a message with those sounds. And when there's a sound with no message, what is the purpose of it? So even a trumpet which has no words and there's not much intelligence and what is communicated produces a response in the hearers. And I think that's what God wants us to have by the gifts or use of our mouths or whatever, by his Spirit as a response to what is being said.
What's being presented?
For getting down to the end of the meeting, brethren, and I'd like to touch the end of this chapter. It's.
It seems like it reaches into heaven really the end of this chapter. And I, I just, I don't know exactly how to explain it all, but there's certain things that I, I revel in. Notice at the end of verse eight, it says whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we all have to admit that's the way we know.
01:00:12
In part, and there are some brethren that are very knowledgeable.
But of all that can be known, how much? What percentage would you say you know, Brother Eric? Fraction of 1%, Just a fraction of 1%, in fact, a brother that the more he knows, the more he realizes how little he really knows. Oh, brethren, we know in part now. And that's why there's so many things.
That we cannot understand how important it is like Brother Dave has been exhorting us to go by Scripture and the ministry we have of the precious word of God. We know in part and we prophecy in part. But then verse 10, notice when that which is perfect, that's complete, is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
And then it gives similes here. When I was a child, I speak as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things. We're talking about maturity here.
Now we see through a glass, darkly or dimly, But then.
Face to face now I know in part. There it is again. I know in part. But then.
Shall I know even as also I am known brother?
Brother Dave, how are you known?
Better tell me.
You're perfectly known by the Lord, aren't you? Then shall I know even as I am known? And I that's why I say I think it reaches into heaven. When we stand at the judgment seat of Christ, the Lord's going to open to us the whole picture. We're going to get it. Then shall we know even as also we are known? Isn't that wonderful, brother? Amazing that that's what's ahead for us.
Now we know, in part, it's a privilege to sit in meetings like this, to listen to one brother and another, and sometimes questions too, that help open up the Scriptures.
But we always have to say we know in part.
That doesn't mean omniscience, does it? No, because God alone is omniscient. But nonetheless, it's a state that will be attained to in heaven, isn't it? God knows what that state is, and it's far superior to what we have now. And I, I wonder, I believe that the judgment seat will be a big part of that, won't it? To learn those things that God knows about us.
Then we'll know even as we're known.
It's interesting in the Book of Revelation we have the Elders, which are the figure of the redeemed.
And in the course of the Book of Revelation of times, John doesn't understand what's going on. And often it's an elder that comes to say this is what it is. They were in the know. We can put it that way. They had passed the judgment seat. They knew. And it's wonderful to think, brethren, eternity is a fixed state of things. Sometimes I hear the statement made. I'm not sure what to think of it.
That we're going to be learning through all the ages of eternity. I think that's a expression we use because we can only think in time. But really eternity is a fixed state of things. And so we are going to.
Know as we are known in that day and we really don't know how, what are how bad we are doing, but in that day we will. The Lord will show us just what we are.
But we'll also see what he's done for us. And that will just enhance the praises to the Lord. Bruce was talking about it wouldn't be public because, you know, he, he thought it wouldn't be public because maybe they'll go in alphabetical order and he's an amnesty. So he's hoping they didn't do that. But the thing was, even if it was public, brother, you won't have the flag, you know, just you'll.
01:05:21
You'll just be glorified and even if people saw what you'd already did are already done, it would just enhance what Christ has done for you and that so it would bring crazy to the Lord. That's all you're going to want to worry about that you want the praise to be to Him.
Brother Albert Hale used to give a beautiful example of He spoke about how.
Pretend he had a debt of $5000 and some dear friend came along and paid that debt in full. He would be so thankful for that. This is a number of years ago, of course, when $5000 was a large sum. And he said years later, perhaps he was going through his papers and he found out that that was not a debt of $5000, but of $500,000. How much more grateful he would be to his friend.
Who paid that debt at great price? And so is the judgment seat of Christ. Well, our time is just about up. But I did want to make a comment, a clarification about face to face. We hear lots of things and we have some hymns about that. But strictly speaking, face to face will be at the rapture, won't it? It's not. When a person dies, they are in the Lord's presence. Yes, that's true, but it's not exactly face to face. They're still waiting for something bad.
As we are, that's when face to face will take place at the rapture. And I might mention there's some confusion about the rapture. It's not that the just very briefly, but it's not that the dead in Christ, it says they rise first. That doesn't mean they go to heaven first, does it? That means the body and soul come back together and they rise from the earth 1St and then we go, go up together to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord? That's the moment.
Of face to face altogether. One time. We look forward to that time.
#25 in the appendix.
1 Corinthians 14
Reading
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First Corinthians chapter 14 and verse one.
Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophecy. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God. For no man understandeth him, howbeit in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exportation and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself, but he that prophesieth edify the Church.
I would that you all speak with tongues, but rather that you prophesied. For greater is he that prophesied than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret that the Church may receive edifying. Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine? And in things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds. How shall we be known? What is piped your heart?
First, the trumpet give an uncertain sound. Who shall prepare himself to the battle so.
So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue, where it's easy to be understood how shall be known what is spoken, for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. Even so ye, for as much as you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the Church.
Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Else when thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall he that occupy the room of the unlearned say, ameneth thy giving of thanks?
Seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest.
For thou verily give us thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank my God I speak with tongues more than yell. Yet in the church I had rather speak 5 words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others also.
Then 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. Brethren, be not children in understanding how be it and malice be ye children, but in understanding be men in the law. It is written with men of other tongues and other lips. Will I speak unto this people?
And yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign not to them to believe, but to them to believe not, but prophesying serveth not for them to believe not, but for them which believe.
If therefore the whole church become together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers, will they not say that you're a man? But if all prophecy and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest, and so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth.
How is it then, brethren, when you come together, every one of you hath a song, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course, and let one interpret. If there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the Church, and let him speak to himself and to God.
Let the prophet speak two or three, and let the other judge, if anything be revealed to another that sitteth by. Let the first hold his peace. For ye may all prophecy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the Saints. Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak.
But they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith along, and if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. What came the word of God out from you?
00:05:07
Or came it unto you only, if any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual.
Let him acknowledge that the things that I write into you or the commandments of the Lord.
But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophecy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order.
The.
Bob, would I be right in saying that we have direction where the Spirit of God is to lead?
In three meetings, the prayer meeting.
The breaking of bread and the open meeting.
I believe that.
We have Bible readings, God, that's a mercy that God has given because we in the end, we don't have a lot of gift. And so we can come together and learn by questions and so forth.
And I remember asking a brother one time, if we don't have direction for a reading meeting, then why don't we always have this open meeting? And he looked at me and he said, because brother, we don't want to assume that we're more than what we are. So sometimes there wouldn't be gift for it. If you had two, two men in an assembly, probably you'd want to have a reading meeting rather than an open meeting.
Comment on that if I'm wrong.
Our late brother Clint Buchanan used to say that he felt these verses toward the end of the chapter described a reading meeting as much as an open meeting. And when you take the whole of the portion, it says.
You may all prophecy one by one that is done in a reading meeting in a what we call an open meeting, we.
We take that verse and I don't think it's wrong. Let the prophet speak two or three and let the others judge in verse 29. But we don't go on to what comes after. If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by that the first hold his peace. And I think it's the sense that we need to be conscious of the leading of the spirit. I know that some feel that a reading meeting is not a full assembly meeting.
And in the sense that perhaps we have a portion already established that is not leaving it totally open for the Lord to lead in that way. But I like the way it's done in South America. In many places they will the beginning of what they call a reading meeting. They will leave it open if some brother has a portion to minister on or if there's a question.
It's open and then if there's nothing further, they go to the scripture. And yes, we are living in days of ruin. But when it says we may all prophecy one by one, that's done in a reading meeting. It's not limited like it is. So Brother Columbia Cannon stated that it was he felt an assembly meeting and I know there are others that feel that way too, reading meetings.
In the beginning of the Brethren movement, it was often Mr. Darby that was present and reading. Meeting was for them to minister and it was basically left to one, maybe two brothers to to go forward and carry the meeting. And I can understand why they felt that that wasn't a full assembly meeting. Assembly meeting is when we let the Lord guide us.
Even perhaps as to the character of the meeting, I understand that years ago in the England they would come together for an assembly meeting. It wasn't established beforehand what character that meeting would have, whether it would be a prayer meeting. Sometimes they would have what they call praise and worship meetings besides the breaking of bread. And so I think that's what we have in verse 23, if the whole church become together into one place.
00:10:08
And again in verse 26, how is it then, brethren, when ye come together and you see that there's one has a Psalm, another has a doctrine, another a tongue at the revelation and interpretation, what was to regulate that? It was let all things be done unto edifying. So it was the edification of the Church that was to be sought, wasn't it?
Is it Actor 4?
The 16th verse.
That's Colossians 4.
Verse 16.
It reads and when this epistle is read among you.
'Cause it, 'cause that it be read also in the church.
Or the assembly of that elderly saiyans. And actually likewise read the epistle from Laodicea, and also we have First Thessalonians chapter 5.
Verse 27.
I charge you by the Lord, that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren, and I.
Would think of it was red and there was liberty. There might have been explanations given, questions asked and the ministered from those very letters that were read to the assembly.
You have to block.
That we don't.
Put our own thoughts into it. Scripture is a scripture and often give an illustration, quite probably given it before. But this mother, she was asking her boy to do his chores. So we don't need these animals. You know, why do we have these animals? We just have to clean up after these animals. We should get rid of these animals, she said. Son, we have a problem. What is that?
Your opinion does not count and so.
When we think, well, you know, we're giving examples and it's not scriptural, you know, I, I believe we have every principle to have a have a reading meeting, but it's a meeting where you can ask questions and, and if you go back and you see what he's reading meetings of Mr. Darby, they ask questions and and it didn't get upset and think, oh, you're disturbing the, the peace.
No, they they said, but what about this scripture? And he said that what about this scripture? And and that's the way you learn. And so a reading meeting is to learn and but a but an open meeting. I mean, our meeting is the spirit of God would lay on the heart of a brother. What is he feels is the need at that very moment.
So I appreciate, you know, illustrations, but just like this, they read, they read it. It doesn't say that they expounded on it. So we just have to stop there and we go beyond scripture. I mean, it's very, very people say, well, I think, but when the little brother said when you say, I think you think wrong unless it's according to Scripture.
It does say let the Prophet speak two or three.
And let the others judge so that if a brother, if I make a mistake in what I say, I hope you brothers are going to help me out and clarify what is done. That is not exactly the context and what we call an open meeting, but there is liberty. And I must say, I have been positively edified in reading these brother, and I really believe that the Lord has used that.
For real, solid, positive edification, exhortation and comfort, I, from my youth, have sat in reading meetings and listened to brethren. I remember a particular conference here in Walla Walla where a brother made a mistake in speaking about the person of the Lord Jesus. I was surprised how quickly your brother Albert Hayhol responded and corrected the mistake in a way.
00:15:02
And I don't know, some brother may have not understood that he was correcting it, but it was a real evident correction. We need that brother. You know, it was read yesterday that the assembly is the pillar and ground of the truth. I remember old brother Eric Smith used to say the assembly is not the truth. The assembly is the pillar and ground of the truth as God had it and His purposes. It's what upholds the truth. A pillar is something that upholds.
The truth. And so it's not in a Bible school. They may expound the scriptures, but the students don't have the right to correct their teacher. They're there to learn and the teacher is there to teach. So if he makes a mistake.
It goes unchallenged and in.
Organizations that man establishes to propagate the truth, and that's the way it is. But it's in the assembly where two or three speak. And so we take up a certain section of Scripture and two or three may explain that, but it says let the others judge. Now it doesn't mean judging people, it's judging what is said.
You have your Bible open in front of you. Is it square? Does it square with what is said there? You are to be exercised in your place. You young people, have your Bible open. Get it from Scripture because if you get it there, you've got it solid. It's not just because a brother says that. And one thing I have really appreciated, brethren, that the Spirit of God is present to give testimony to the truth of God.
And when it's according to the truth of God, it squares. The Spirit gives testimony to the truth. When it's not, something doesn't sound right. You may not know what it is exactly, but the Spirit of God gives testimony to the truth of God.
Is this the only place in the New Testament that you get?
Scripture for singing in the assembly.
I was not too long ago I was an assembly and he said we have no scripture for singing in the assembly. We did sing and all you object to that, but said but we do get it here, don't we? And that's when he says in the 15th verse, I just think it's because we need scripture for what we do and, and I was puzzled. I didn't know where to turn. But the 15th, 1St it says what is it? Then I will pray.
With the Spirit, that's the human spirit, and I will pray. With the understanding I will sing.
Whole thing again and it says down in the 26th verse it says, how is it then, brethren, when you come together, everyone of you have a song, a doctrine, a tongue, a revelation, an interpretation. So the song, the singing. And I just say that for the young as well. Sometimes somebody ask you, what do you have scripture for? You got to have scripture. There's a scripture. I think another verse you could put, Vern, is Colossians 316.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.
Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns one another. It's collectively here. You can apply it that way anyhow. Singing with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
I have really enjoyed it rather than in Latin America, and I've learned much from my dear Latin brother, but.
They sing quite a bit more than we do at the beginning of a meeting.
Rarely is it just one hymn. Sometimes it's three hymns. Sometimes they sing for half an hour. That allows time for the brethren to get there. You know, they're not controlled by the clock like we are. But Don Ruhl made the statement one time, and I really think he's right, he said.
I think the most effective piece of written ministry for the Latin brethren is their hymn book. And you learn by the hymns. We have a precious hymn book ourselves, and it's scriptural. Those hymns are, and you learn from them. It says that here, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So I encourage you, brother, to you don't have to limit it to just one hymn at the beginning.
00:20:18
Meeting. It's nice, perhaps to sing too, if the Lord leads. The point is, the Lord should lead in it.
Two and verse 42. They persevered. I'll read it, James. They continued steadfastly and the apostles doctrine and fellowship and then breaking of bread and in prayers. Is this a list of assembly meetings?
Or.
It's an application.
And I think in this chapter 2 or what we're reading, there are principles that are to be followed, brother. And not every meeting is exactly like it. I mean it. It is amazing to me to see how the Lord leads in our breaking of bread meetings. One time it's a one kind of a theme and another time it's a different theme. It's living the Spirit of God have his liberty in guiding us according to his thoughts.
About the person of the Lord Jesus.
So I would I would like to suggest in this chapter 14 that we make a few comments on the first part of the chapter and then dedicate ourselves mainly to the towards the end where we have where the whole church comes together into one place, which is evidently what is called an assembly meeting.
In the first part of the chapter it says here follow after love and desire spiritual and it's like it's been mentioned that gifts is in italics. It's really spiritual manifestations, the manifestation of the spirit. In other words, when we come together, be sensitive in your spirit to give the Spirit of God liberty and so he goes down through this verse three is a very important verse.
He that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification.
And exhortation and comfort, somebody has said edification is building up, exhortation is stirring up, and comfort is binding up. So there ought to be a sense of the need in this particular time and speaking accordingly. That's what prophecy really is. It's speaking the word of God according to the need that there may be at any particular time.
Did someone have said that? That first verse, I think somebody said here following after charity and desire, spiritual manifestation is that's not individual, they said that's collective. We ought to collectively desire the best gift.
Is that is that right?
Say that.
That word mystery at the end of verse 2 is a question I have.
Used it this way. I just would like to have that confirmed or corrected that the reason it's called a mystery is because nobody understood what was said. So it ended up being like a a mystery. What did he say? It's not that he said it was lofty things in a supposed language nobody understands is that nobody understood and that's why it was a mystery. Not there was much substance that was said, but to the audience that heard nobody understood anything, would that be the right understanding there?
If you could give an address and French brother, I don't really know.
That's it. You can speak some very good important things, but I don't know what profit there would be. I don't know how many understand French in this.
It would be a mystery to the church.
Not that there was substance necessary, no.
There are 7 formal mysteries in the New Testament, aren't there?
And we could go through those, but this is not one of those. This is just a general expression, isn't it? The formal mysteries are those things which were secret in the Old Testament.
They were hidden God, but they've been revealed in the New Testament, but only revealed to those who have been born again. So that's a mystery. But those are the formal mysteries. But here, that's not that at all. And that's kind of what you were talking about yesterday in Catholicism.
00:25:14
Lots of lots of mysteries, but they're not formal mysteries. They're just things that nobody understands.
Six verse.
Would bring substance there. If somebody had spoken in tongues, it was either by revelation, knowledge, prophesying.
Or by doctrine they would have been substance, wouldn't there, if it had been by the Spirit of God?
We've been speaking about the liberty of the Spirit, but there's also such a thing as grieving the Spirit, isn't there? That's the other side. There is liberty. But it's different in a reading meeting like this, isn't it, than it is in a priestly meeting like the breaking of bread or prayer meeting, where there's much wider ministry. Because everybody in a reading meeting, all the brothers, all the sisters are actually priests, though the sisters, as we know, don't take audible heart, but everyone is a priest.
Meeting, you're saying a worship meeting, at a prayer meeting, and even in the beginning and the end of meetings, giving out a hymn or praying, that's a priestly service, isn't it? But when it comes to the exposition more and the gift, that's when it's limited, isn't it? So that there would be simplicity and clarity. So we have different things here, but we do need to keep in mind that there is not only spiritual liberty for the Spirit because again.
He's to be the president in the meetings, but there's also a danger of grieving the Spirit, and that is missing the mind of the Spirit and promoting myself. That's a danger. So we have to be sensitive to that. And I think that would come in under verse one, wouldn't it? A desire to prophecy would not violate one or the other.
And quenching the spirit would be another one, wouldn't it? That we need to watch. We can quench the spirit in two ways.
One is.
By not speaking when the Lord gives us the direction to and the other is and I'm of an offender in this and speaking too much. Not being sensitive says later on in the chapter something is revealed to another that the first told us peace, let's be sensitive brother and God uses one and another to help us.
Let me ask a question, another question, perhaps some of that wanting to ask this question, but.
In that day, prophecy was a little different.
The scriptures weren't written, so God gave his mind orally and so somebody would stand up and it actually is the word of God that they're that they're bringing before the audience and somebody else sitting by who had a gift of prophecy.
The Lord would give them something and they would, I got something and my other brother would sat down. I've seen this violated and people think that that this is for today. And I was at a meeting and this brother was speaking and he was taking a little bit too time, too much time. And I saw that brother wiggling on his chair waiting to get up there, you know, And when the other brother sat down, he got up there and he said even before he got down, he said somebody else might have something to say.
Now that's wrong, absolutely wrong. And so the interpretation of this was in that day, but I doubt whether somebody, when somebody had something to say, another brother sitting by saying I got something to say to you, better sit down.
The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets so.
Keep your control. That's that's the way I understand that. Al Vern, would you allow that if the Spirit of God is able to indicate to you that you should get up and minister the word of God or that you should make a comment at any time?
That He's also able to indicate you should sit down. The Lord knew when to sit down and I think we need to know the same.
So the Spirit of God is the one who is the president that we've been saying earlier, and we need to recognize that. And it's a miraculous thing that the Spirit of God could indicate to you or I to give food to God's people, but He can also tell you to be quiet.
I'd rather speak 5 words with my understanding than 10,000 words.
00:30:05
I often believe, brethren, we need to study to be brief so that there is room for others. Sometimes we have a way of just filling up the time that may not be the direction of the Spirit of God.
Think of the little.
Quotes and scripture of five words.
Behold the Lamb of God.
Sir, we would see Jesus. What beautiful messages in those five words with understanding.
It speaks here too of verse eight. If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? Imagine in those days the battle was announced by a trumpet blast, and if it was an uncertain sound, it would leave confusion.
To the Lord's people it needs to be clear. The truth of God, brethren.
So that there will be positive edification, exhortation, comfort, according to the need of the Lorde people.
I wonder if we can say there's three things in these first 25 verses. The one is the necessity of charity combined with spiritual exercise prophecy verse one, and then verses 2-3 and four more the thought that there should be substance to what's said.
As you say, sometimes things are just filled up but no real substance. There should be substance, it should be to edification.
Exhortation and comfort, and if the spirits leading it will be. And that's part of the judging, isn't it? And then verses 5 through 25 or so, it's been suggested that it there needs to be clarity. And that's in a sense the gift of teaching, isn't it? Particularly a teacher is one who's able to make things clear, whereas a person who doesn't have that gift so much has a hard time making things clear. But there needs to be clarity. That's why it speaks about.
The uncertain sound, it's not to be an uncertain sound, It's to be clear. We often give outlines to things that I think that's very helpful. Now, we do notice in some of the older writings it seems as though there's not as much of an outline. Mr. Darby used to say on a number of occasions that he said on like a minor, I bring the order to the surface and others refine it. And we're so thankful for those that have refined it for us.
And that's very helpful, isn't it?
And then in the last part, as you were mentioning, Bob, I don't know what verse you had in mind, but at least 26 to the end, it's more the order of the assembly.
Verse 23, it speaks about the whole church come together into one place. So I take it that's an assembly meeting.
When it says whole church, that's the local expression of the church. It doesn't mean the whole church and just means that full the church in that vicinity.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Verse 14 it says if I pray in a tongue my spirit praise but my understanding is unfruitful. Sometimes people have used that to say that.
That they can pray in an unknown tongue. I take it though it is a tongue that is known. But if I would pray in Spanish.
Today, why? There might be a few that would understand me, but my prayer, my understanding is unfruitful in that nobody knows what I asked the Lord for, and that's the sense of the Word. What is it then? I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Else when thou shalt bless with the Spirit.
00:35:20
How shall he that occupies the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest. So it's it's their principles that are given to guide us in our meetings together. Saying Amen is something that we do.
In our assembly meetings, and it means that we are in agreement with what has been.
Expressed to the Lord.
Could you?
Say that this was what this 14th 1St means. For if I pray in an uninterpreted tongue, my mind prayer. The spirit and the mind go together, but my understanding is unfruitful to the assembly.
I think it's chapters like this, you can imagine that brought about the Reformation, wasn't it? Because the the masses were all in Latin and the generally the priest didn't understand a word they were saying and they would Babylon and Babylon and things they'd memorize and had no idea what was being said and none of the people knew it was being said. So when the scriptures were read, people read chapters like this and they said something's terribly wrong here.
And that's what brought down in many cases, the power of Catholicism. And I might mention that there is a movement afoot very much now to undermine the Scriptures. And this is part of the great ecumenical movement. Usually it's done by what her brother Dave referred to yesterday, the higher criticism. They're corrupting or using corrupted Greek texts. And it's been, it's been documented that many of these corrupted Greek texts.
Are the ones that are the basis for many of the new translations. And many times the translation boards for these new translations have Catholic members on the committees. And so the attempt is to undermine the authority of Scripture, which was the basis of the Reformation. If they can undermine the authority of Scripture, then the thought is that they'll recall people to the authority of the Church, which is the whole principle of ecumenism.
The in Revelation 17, it speaks about the mother of harlots. She's calling all her wayward children back to her authority. And that's what's happening. And we need to be careful about many of these new translations. It's not a question of little different language or a little modern English or that sort of thing. The real issue is they're being undermined by corrupted texts. We can be thankful for our King James. We can be thankful for the JND translation.
We have to be so careful about the introduction over the last 100 years, or really what the Revised Standard version in the 1880s, that there was a push to use corrupted text to justify Catholics, the Catholic system. And there's been a whole tremendous number of new translations since that time. And just a word of warning again that those new translations as a rule are based on.
Core texts that justify the Catholic, the ecumenical system. So just a word of warning there. We need to know the fountain from which we drink. And we can be thankful for these translations we have.
So we'll pose a question here just just because I'm wondering here, I'm trying to grasp some of the things that have been said.
I spent 15 years in a large evangelical church with a senior pastor that was a very gifted teacher.
I left that because I believe that when I was confronted with with the assembly that things were different in the assembly. The Holy Spirit was leading and I did not believe the Holy Spirit was leading where I came from. And so I went. I struggle with this when we say that the Holy Spirit.
00:40:00
Or when it's said that the Holy Spirit doesn't lead in the reading meeting and.
And I wonder if if that is true, then what is the value of the reading meeting if the Holy Spirit is not leading in the reading readings? Now I know that the gracious God that I have that if for some reason there is not a teacher.
He provides himself. He provides the Holy Spirit. He provides a scripture.
In fact, we have this in in first John chapter 2.
And verse 27 But the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you.
And ye need not that any man teach you.
But as the same anointed teeth the 19 teachers you all things and this and is true and is not a lie and even as it is has been taught you ye shall abide in him. And we can read through Psalm 119 where where the prayer is in a number of.
It's in the form of a prayer. It says teach me, oh Lord.
The way of my statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end.
So there's a crying out to God to teach.
Because we need a teacher.
Yet we have the Holy Spirit.
We confidently say that we need no man to teach us.
Holy Spirit is not leading.
Where are we if the Holy Spirit is not leading? What is the value of the reading meeting?
Holy Spirit is always to lead, even when we are not in a meeting, He is to lead. He's there to to guide us into all truth. And that's why I say you need to be sensitive at all times of his presence. But it's a special thing when we're gathered in the Lord's presence like it says in verse 23, when the whole church become together into one place in verse 26 as well, that we be sensitive as to his presence.
And let him, like I say, Aaron, I think it's beautiful to see how the the Lord uses the reading meeting in positive edification, exhortation, and comfort. I do believe He does lead.
Don't you say, Eric, I, I agree. I have a note. I think I got it from my brother, brother Bruce. But he said, well, these verses refer primarily to the open meeting. The principles are broad enough to apply to the Bible reading. And I think that's good in a sense. There's prophecy going on in a reading meeting. And we certainly want to be subject to the Spirit of God. Do we not want to be subject to the Spirit of God? And we have to keep in mind when we read verses like you read there in first John Aaron, that we have to read the whole Scripture, don't we, that one Scripture balances out another.
So we've been reading about the gifts that we have. So while it's important that my conscience be bound by God alone, I don't have to have a priest like Michelle was speaking about to interject and have to teach me all things between me and God. Well, that's what some systems teach. But rather, ultimately, I'm responsible directly to God for what I hold and what I act on. And yet clearly, as we have in these chapters and other places.
There are those that help us along the way that have these gifts that could be clearer. So there's always that balance in Scripture, isn't it? But I think that's the point there first, John, yes, my conscience has to be bound by God alone. That's why Martin Luther could stand at that great diet of worms and had all the power of of the of the European empire there. And he stood virtually alone, but with the Spirit of God. And he said, I act on the authority of Scripture.
You cannot come between me and my conscience with God, and that was what God used to.
And large measure bring about the Reformation. But on the other hand, we have these other scriptures that show very plainly that God has given gifts to help us along the way. So we have both.
Agree with that, Wayne.
An illustration perhaps of those scriptures.
Because it cannot mean that you don't need the Roman teach you the very thing that you read is John teaching. So it cannot mean that. But what I think it does mean, and I I believe this is true that.
00:45:13
When I was 17, I heard the gospel. I thought the man was cussing. That's how ignorant I was of of these things. So.
When I I didn't know anything, I remember going home that night and realizing it was a little New Testament in the bottom of the drawer. And so I thought, I'll get us out and all my friend. He said, Clark, do you think you can live like this? And I said, I don't know, but I'm going to give it a whirl. Didn't know what I was saying, but I picked up that New Testament and I read it. He begat this. He begat that. I thought, how does this thing end? I turned over there and here's Revelation.
What am I into? I didn't know anything. So one of my schoolmates said, he said, you know, it isn't the Bible isn't the only word of God. No, I didn't know that. Would you like to know? Yeah, I would like to know. You know, these other books. So he said, come with me. We went to the Mormon church. I I I didn't know a thing, but I knew this wasn't right. I asked me why I knew it. I don't know.
So I another the only other.
Church that was in the town was a Pentecostal church. So this the pastor took me under his wing and he said, you know, there's nine gifts, don't you said, no, I didn't know that. He said, would you like to have it? Yeah, I would like to have them, but I never caught them. And when I saw these things, they just.
I knew this wasn't right. I don't know why I knew it was right.
So some sisters took me to Branham's healing meetings. You know, this was supposed to be the manifestation. It just left me flat. Why? Because I was open. I didn't care. You know, all I want to know was what was the law? What was, what is it all about? And the Spirit of God.
Gave me to know that those things weren't right. That's what that scripture means. I believe if you don't have any agenda, you will know. You will understand when air comes.
But, and so I think that's what those scriptures mean, that the Spirit of God protects you. John is talking about Gnosticism that was coming in. You know, John was written way after around 90, after all these other things were written.
And he's cautioning against Gnosticism, and he's saying you have the Spirit of God who will?
Either validate or invalidate what's being said, but at the very very same time John is teaching this. So is it this?
Does that make sense?
Lucent And I don't want to give the impression that I was saying that I don't need my brethren. That's not what I was saying at all. But but I believe that God is gracious and that He provides us the Holy Spirit. He provides us the Scripture. So when there is no gift or when there's a lack of exercise to exercise that gift, He will meet our needs.
And he got referred to the thought too that let the others judge when things are said in the assembly.
Brother speaks up in the reading meeting or the open meeting. We still have need to receive it from the Lord. If the Spirit of God doesn't apply it to us, doesn't give us clarity about it, say well, I'm not right for that. Or perhaps it isn't exactly what it is. The Lord knows. And so the Bereans, they looked up the Scriptures to see if that what was being said was in accordance to the Scripture. But I had that verse in First Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 12. I think our brother was referring to it. Now we have received not the spirit of the world.
But the Spirit, which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. And I think it's for Second Corinthians, it refers to the unction. And I believe the unction is the ability to enter into the things that God has given us by the Spirit. And so the Spirit is really the one doing the teaching, using teachers, the word of God. But unless he opens by understanding to it, I'm not understanding it.
As scripture says, study to show thyself approved, a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed. And so we study the word of God, and so when we come together we can share.
That's that's not the same thing as the Spirit of God leading in an assembly meeting. So.
00:50:00
To say, you know, we always lead, I don't think that's that's proper.
Bible.
It look at first Timothy, I mean second Timothy 2 and maybe you get some. Now this doesn't mean that Timothy was always led at the spirit, but he said in the second chapter, in the first verse or the second verse, because we run out of time and the things that thou was heard of me, he's taught Paul's talking to him the things that thou has heard.
Of me among many witnesses. The same. Not something different, not anything added to it, not anything taken away from it. The same thing.
Commit thou to faithful men now. So that's Paul teaching Timothy Timothy teaching another one that.
Who shall be able to teach others? That's four generations, 4 different ones, and we learn the Scripture like that. Well, you say, well, they weren't LED of the Spirit.
You see the difference. We study to show ourselves approved. We see what Paul taught. We try to convey that to our other brothers and those brothers, they they convey it to another other brothers and those convey it to another brother. That's.
That's the way that the scripture is passed on in the same way and an assembly.
At a reading meeting, you know, some things and you can add like here I've many years, I've thought that I could desire another gift, but it's it's that was a wrong interpretation. Somebody came along and they say, no, this is assembly. Oh, that's what it means.
Well, it doesn't mean he was led of the Spirit to tell me that he just, he knew that from study.
Yes, we need to realize that we don't have it all straight. Yeah.
The norm is here, brethren, not us. Don't focus on us because you're going to see failure wherever you look. But the principles are there, and that's our purpose this afternoon is just to read it and comment on it and perhaps get a little more clarity as to what an assembly meeting is. So it's beautiful here in these verses toward the end of the chapter.
The speaks about tongues and I think on Saturday we mentioned that in the.
List of the gifts.
In Romans, in First Corinthians, and in Ephesians, this is the only place it mentions the miraculous gifts, and it's because perhaps those from the synagogue right next door.
To the assembly in Corinth, the Jewish people might have come in, and so God gave tongues as a sign. As it says in verse 22, Tongues are a sign not to them that believe, but to them that believe not a prophesying serveth, not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. So he's showing that there might have been in the case of Corinth.
Those that use tongues for assigned to those Jews that might have come in, but what is to be desired is prophecy so that there's understanding so that there's positive edification. So we have in verse 23, the whole church become together into one place and all speak with tongues and they're coming in. Those that are unlearned or unbelievers will they not say.
You're mad or you're crazy. Don't understand anything they're talking about here.
But if all prophesied, there come in one that believeth not one or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all. The secrets of his heart are made manifest. So falling down on his face, he will report, worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.
He's convicted by the Word of God. And so I think it's important, brethren, that we be aware of those that we are addressing when we speak publicly do to speak according to the need that there is. Sometimes even unbelievers come into assembly meetings. Remember Brother Eric Smith saying that in the beginning of the work in Bolivia, he found that there were more that got saved in reading meetings than in the gospel meetings.
00:55:13
Kind of interesting commentary that we need to be sensitive as to who's here and the need that there is and speak accordingly. And I say to our younger brothers.
Your questions can be very helpful. Sometimes I've noticed that a question is asked and if it's a good question, it helps to open up the scriptures. If you have a question about it, why it's there's a good chance there are quite a few others that might have a question as well.
In this chapter.
The Spirit of God.
Very interesting. You go back.
Thus, giving these gifts. It's the Spirit that's that's doing these things. But as you read through this chapter, there's a lot of mention about the Spirit, but it's never capitalized. It's always our spirit, a small spirit.
It's just an interesting thing. Perhaps someone could help on that.
What's your thought, Brother Ben?
That is all we need to catch through the thought of we have something.
He gives what is needed, but when we come together.
The question might be, well, am I being led by the Spirit like in a reading meeting here to say what I'm going to say and if the Spirit of God has laid something on our hearts maybe before we came. This chapter really gives us, doesn't it, guidelines as to what would be orderly in the presentation of things. Appreciate what Eric said earlier, and I've enjoyed it too, that there's at least three things that would govern us and we're going to take part.
The first one, is it done in love is what I have in my heart really.
And love for the Saints that they would grow. The second thing is, is it under edification as Eric bought out? Is it is it of a nature? There's a clarity, is it profitable? And then the other thing that he brings us to is to come to the end is, is it done decently and in order? I may have something that the Spirit of God is laid on my heart. I may have love for my brother behind, but maybe it's not the time for it. It wouldn't be an order this time. So.
The word of God lays these things out to govern us so that there is order. There is that which would be in order in light of what the Spirit of God has has before us. But I really appreciate help. It just is very interesting to me that you don't find the Spirit of God in this chapter per SE. I'm not saying the Spirit of God doesn't lead, He is leading us, but.
There's something else that governs our own spirits when we come together, because he's speaking about our spirits, the spirits of the prophets, those things that would govern us in light of our taking part, participating in a meeting like we have right now.
That's why we have in Saturday, in chapter 12, we had the Spirit of God mentioned there. Don't weigh in. He is the one that gives the gifts, their diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit there, it is a capital S and I don't think we can isolate that from our chapter either, can we?
Here's a helpful note. Then if you look in the new translation, it's really not spiritual gifts, but he points out how there's a distinction between a confounding demons actions with that of the Holy Spirit. But a little challenging I think, but you might check that footnote out in the new translation.
So again, I agree with Bob that I think his spirit is is included here in this chapter as well. It's not capitalized, but Mr. Darby makes a comment that sometimes in translating Scriptures, it's difficult to know whether to use a larger small S because our spirit should be in accord with the Spirit of God. And that seems to be, if I read that note correctly, that's how I understand it. But read it for yourself. Let's see, see what you think about that.
01:00:15
I knew what you're saying.
Those are those are those are good questions. They they help us to understand and.
You know, the tendency is if somebody asks a good question, honest question, and we get mad because we don't have an answer. We always in, in, in Tacoma, we say we don't have an answer. We'll have an answer next week. We'll go and search this out. But it isn't, you know, there's there's no shame in saying I don't know. Well, I'll have to find out. But the tendency and and with older brothers who really were gifted, if you ask him a question and they couldn't answer it.
I asked those questions and one brother, he just turned around and walked off, you know? Yeah, it was an honest question. I wanted to know.
I asked an older brother one time when I was a young man and.
And he said, I don't know, but I'll get back to you. Yeah, right. I have a lot of confidence in that, brother.
That he had the.
The understanding just to say I don't know, I think that to try to think you have an answer and give an answer is not the not the way to go.
Yet even the questions we asked there should be a prophetic element to it, and there's sometimes unprofitable questions. We have to be careful. Some questions are appropriate for after meeting, perhaps one-on-one. Others are for the profit of others. And that would be a good question. But it's just not to fill a curiosity, is it? But we have to keep in mind the purpose of the meeting for edification, expectation and comfort.
I remember Gordon Hale once saying along those lines, asked him a question. He said, you know, I'm not a Bible authority. I'm just a student. And I've often, often repeated that the best we do are we're just, we're just students of Scripture or that we don't pretend. I hope none of us pretend to be Bible authorities. We're all learners.
The verse 29 of our chapter, Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the others judge.
Principles that we apply in what we call an open meeting let open for the Spirit of God to lead. And I think the same principle applies in a reading meeting. If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first oldest beast. In other words, be sensitive that God has others that he might want to use. And don't just necessarily take all the time, for the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
God is not the author of confusion, but of peace and notice this part as in all the churches of the Saints. These are principles, brethren, that apply broadly across the spectrum of Christian assemblies. This is what is to guide us. I think it's important to see and then verse 34, the women keeping silence. It is not permitted for them to speak, but.
They are commanded to be under obedience. This also set the law. And if they will ask anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church.
Remember a sister that was always cornering brothers after a meeting and asking them questions And finally somebody said, why don't you ask your husband those questions at home? Oh, he doesn't know anything. I said, well let him ask then.
And maybe he will grow in the Lord and be a help to his brother. And you know what she took that counsel and and her husband that supposedly didn't know anything. He started asking and it was an impulse to him and it was a real blessing in that family and in the end to the assembly as well. So these are principles that are to be applied. What came the word of God out from you or came into you only.
Any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge the things that are right unto you. They are cannot commandments of the Lord. Brethren, these principles are not practiced in Christian circles at large. You know it. And what are they? Are they something that the Apostle Paul was only?
01:05:08
That he gave.
No, these are the commandments of the Lord. And if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.
And then at the end, let all things be done decently and in order. If the Lord is in our midst, brethren, should there not be order? If there's not order, we need to get down on our faces before the Lord and confess.
Our need of humiliation.
Why would you concede or would you go along with that if you looked at that 35th verse and read it like this? And if they will learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home, not in the assembly, because some people don't. Some women don't have husbands. And for it's a shame because it talks about any assembly or it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church.
So evidently they were asking their husbands questions while during the meeting.
So I say this because I know that there's brothers who feel like you should. A woman should never ask. They should never go to you and ask her question. They should ask their husband. Don't do that to anybody but their husband.
But that's not true. I mean, sometimes maybe, you know, they feel that you could answer their question.
So.
I take it that he says there in the church so that they were they were asking her husband in the well about the meeting was going on and it was it was confusion. So he said ask at home, but that doesn't say that they couldn't ask after the meeting.
I was in connection with that 14th chapter that if somebody speaks, he has a responsibility to consider. He should be speaking as the Oracle of God.
But the instructions that we have here would help us to discern that if the spirits of the prophets then were to be spirit as subject to the prophets, if we're led by the Spirit of God, we would be subject to the order and the things that are written for us in the Word of God. The Spirit of God leads us to submit ourselves to the instructions that we have in this chapter.
The Remedy for Cold Hearts
Open—Wayne Coleman
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After 5.
First Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 20.
Despise, not prophesying.
Also read it in the Darby translation.
Do not lightly esteem prophecies spray.
God our Father.
We've had much before us the leading of thy spirit.
We are now at another open meeting.
And Father, we ask that.
This meeting would be truly led by Thy spirit.
Will we acknowledge to thee that?
We have sat in open meetings on occasions.
We've not always felt the leading of thy spirit.
And father, perhaps it's because.
Let us know that we would not receive.
A word from thyself.
And so we would ask in a special way this afternoon.
That our hearts would be willing.
That we would be prepared to hear.
Thee speak to us through one or two or three.
Or Jesus, we want to hear thy voice.
We pray that we would.
We ask it in thy precious and most worthy name. Amen. Amen.
An expression that we just sang in this hymn.
That is very precious. I'd like to just read it again, verse 4.
What burning power?
In all thy words we feel.
When to our raptured hearts we hear thee tell the heavenly glories which thou knowest so well.
Well, sometimes we need to be recalled to those burning words.
Let's turn for a few moments to Luke chapter 24.
I wonder if where that's where that expression in this hymn comes from.
Luke, chapter 24.
I like to read from verse 13.
Behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem, about 3 score furlongs and they talked together.
Of all the things, these things which had happened, and it came to pass that when they communed together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them, But their eyes were holding, that they should not know Him. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these, that she have one to another as she walk, and are sad?
And one of them, whose name was Cleopas answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass therein these days? And he said unto them, What things?
And they said unto him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people.
And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him.
But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. And besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yeah, and certain women of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre. And when they found not the body, they came saying they had also seen a vision of angels which said that he was alive.
00:05:19
And certain of them which were with us went under the sepulchre, and found it Even so, as the woman had said, but him they saw not.
Then he said unto them, Oh fools, and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ, or the Christ the Messiah, to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them, and all the Scriptures, The thing is concerning himself.
And they drew nigh into the village, whether they went, and he made us, though he would have gone further.
But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it's toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass that he sat at meet with them. He took bread and blessed it, and break and gave unto them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him. And he vanished out of our sight. And they said one to another.
Did not our heart burn within us?
While he talked with us, by the way, and while he opened unto us the scriptures.
And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the 11 gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, the Lord is risen indeed, and so on.
This chapter is, I'm not going to comment on all of it. We don't have time. We could spend another hour or two on this chapter for a great profit. But I just like to point out a couple of things here.
We have.
This line has come up a number of times. There's been a number of comments that have we have expressed our sorrow over those that we have seen slip away.
We have expressed our own weakness and.
Lord, is it I am I? Next we wonder at the power.
That can draw Saints of God who have enjoyed.
Many precious things and and even taught them to be carried away and drifted in into things that they have once preached against.
These are things are very troubling to us. I believe in this chapter we have the reason for it and we have the solution. You know, it's not, it's not great to just point out the problems.
Without the solution, and I believe that this chapter gets right to the core of it and both in the problem and the solution. And that's really just what I had before me.
And particularly this point, as we have had in our hymn. What burning Power in all Thy words we feel, Hebrews, just for a moment. I'm not good at quoting things. I'm going to turn to it.
In Hebrews chapter 2, verse one. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip, or more accurately, we should slip.
We need to live in the truth that we have heard and that we profess.
I believe that this is absolutely vital. What happened to this couple, probably a man and wife, was they had heard much about the Messiah they had, they had come to know and to trust in the Messiah, and they were looking for him to come and set up the Kingdom.
But they did not pay attention to the fact that the Messiah was destined to suffer.
And that there could not be blessing for them, except that He would go to the cross. He had told Him that He had told all of his disciples that they were selective in their hearing.
And I would like to suggest to your conscience and to mine many of our troubles come from selective hearing. We wish to hear what we wish to hear, and that's all we really hear.
00:10:07
And so as they look at the meltdown.
Of things we go through this chapter and we find that in the first part of the chapter we have these dear women who went to the sepulchre and he wasn't there.
Why wasn't he there? Because he said he wasn't going to be there. They didn't get that. They weren't listening for that. And so in their devotion, it was misapplied. And so we find throughout this chapter, there's really a lot of this, and the Lord Jesus in his patience and love is correcting it here. And so we find that.
They are leaving the place of God's appointment. They're leaving Jerusalem.
And they're going away, they don't know where they're going, and it doesn't really matter.
Because they don't have him anymore.
And so it says that when the Lord Jesus himself drew near to them, and he listens to their conversation.
He says, well, what's the problem? Like what's what's going on? And the Lord may say to you or to me, what really is the problem?
We need to tell him and notice what he says to them or what they say to him, and this is very indicative of what was at the core of this.
In verse 18.
Are you out of touch?
With the real issues we're dealing with, have you ever said that to the Lord? Art thou only a stranger to us? Don't you know what we're going through these days? Don't you know how we suffer?
This is something that does come up in our hearts, doesn't it?
Now, it's been said that no, that these things shouldn't come up in the heart of a disciple, but they do.
Where do these things come from? They come from the enemy of our souls. Don't be deceived to think that these are legitimate feelings for a child of God.
There are so many things that pass in our minds and in our hearts these days that are just the enemy of our soul is launching at us and we live in a world that is all indexed by feelings. We're not based on facts anymore and truth and and divine realities is how I feel about it. And that's what we have in this chapter.
These dear Saints are expressing how they feel.
Satan had put a dart in there, and they took it up and entertained it.
And what it really was at the very core of it was you're out of touch. That's what they were really saying to the Lord. You're out of touch. Art thou only a stranger? And don't you know what's really going on? Verse 18.
About all these things. And so he says, well, what things in verse 19?
And so they expressed to him what their idea of him really was. It was a very faulty understanding of who he was. They had reduced him to a prophet. A prophet was really what he was.
And so verse 21.
They say to him, we trusted and he didn't come through.
Has anyone here ever felt that I trusted the Lord?
And he didn't come through.
I've been disappointed. I didn't think the Christian life would ever get this part. I didn't think that the testimony would ever get to this level. I didn't think that our assembly would get to only just a handful.
We trust him.
What are these These are?
Unrealistic expectations.
And this is what we have done.
In our feel good Christianity we have presented.
Unrealistic expectations and many persons.
Have got a faulty foundation based on that.
00:15:02
We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel. And here notice this. This is really important. And besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done.
And they say, you know.
And this is the third day. There's something unique about that. We're not too sure what it was, but it's the third day. And this was what often happens when we have unrealistic expectations, when we're indexing to our feelings about things, about our feelings about the truth of God, we lose the realities the Lord had said to them. And after three days.
All rise from the dead and they're saying, you know, there's, it's the third day.
There's something about that. We're not too sure what that is. And so and then they go through the evidences.
And then he says to them in verse 25, Oh fools.
And slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
You know, they had been selective. They did not and were not prepared to accept that the Messiah could suffer. They wanted a salvation. They wanted a deliverance by a deliverer that would not have to suffer. It really is not addressing the same question. It's not getting to the root of man's trouble. And we've had that here in our gospel meetings so wonderfully brought out.
They were attempting to bypass that.
And so ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to have entered into his glory, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. I believe that this is the cure right here. Are you disappointed? You may have a lot of reason to be disappointed.
Failure is everywhere, primarily internally, isn't it your own disappointment with your own progress?
Well, the fact is.
That the Lord Jesus has suffered to bring you into liberty. And maybe you've missed that point altogether.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? And so he goes back through the Scripture. This must have been an incredible meeting that they had with Him. Well, it was that they say that their hearts burned within them as He went through the Old Testament Scriptures and through those prophetic psalms. And he talked about His sufferings and he talked about His coming glory and so on. I would like.
Suggest to you.
That if you're discouraged and if you have a sense that your expectations of what the Christian path would be.
Has been unrealistic. You need to go to the cross. You need to go to the sufferings of Christ and make a study of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go through the New Testament and focus upon the sufferings of Christ, the atoning sufferings of Christ, his sympathetic sufferings of Christ. There's lots of helps that you can get that will direct your heart.
In ministry to the sufferings of the Lord, go back through the Psalms and look at the sufferings of Christ. It will change your perspective. We have this idea that if we are faithful, our lives are going to work out just fine, and when persecution and difficulty comes, we lose our way.
And so as we look at the Lord Jesus and we see him as the perfect servant, suffering untold rejection and dishonor and shame, it draws out our hearts and we're willing to go with him. And that's really what happens here. And so he begins to speak to them about about himself.
And his suffering. It was a balanced exposition.
They were unbalanced. They were picking and choosing what they wanted in the Scriptures. They were going to their favorite verse and they were not going and taking in all the Scriptures. And so in verse 29.
They constrained him abide with us, whereas toward evening and the day, as far as spending, he went in, and then as he broke bread with them, they must have seen his hands.
00:20:10
I'm not sure really, but.
They got it.
Their eyes were opened, they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight. And so their hearts are burning with desire for him, and they find their way back and where they got up right away and they retraced their steps. You know, I don't think that we can obligate anyone to retrace their steps.
They are going to have to work this out.
At the foot of the cross, you know, we got saved there and we get away from the Lord and I believe that we have to go back there and we have to see Him suffering for us. He pulled out all the stops and suffered untold agony and suffering so that He could set us free. And we want to have this easy.
Life here that we can't handle any disappointments or we can't handle much, and I believe that we live in a bit of a bubble.
In these last couple 100 years, it's been uncommon to the Church of God and we're very weak and very feeble and we will get strength as we observe the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I believe that the the.
The remedy is to see him as the suffering one we had our brother bring before us with regards to Joseph.
Benjamin That's what broke them down.
They had, you know, everything was exposed in their hearts when they saw the innocent 1 Benjamin suffering. They knew it should have been them and it just broke them down. And I believe that as we occupy ourselves with a suffering Lord that it will really convert us. May the Lord help us.
I.
I.
Let's turn to a verse that we know well in Psalm 42.
I.
I.
Psalm 42.
And verse 7.
Deep calleth under deep at the noise of thy water spells all thy waves, and thy billows are gone over me.
I want to speak about something for a few minutes.
It's been on my heart for some time. The subject is love. I know some years ago Mr. Ironside wrote a little pamphlet called Holiness, the False and the True. I don't want to speak about that, but I do want to speak about love, which we've been speaking about, the false and the true. And this follows up somewhat with what Wayne was speaking about. We had lunch together and spoke about some of these things, but I came across a.
Little chart here on the Internet not too long ago that touched me. I just want to read parts of it. At least it speaks about on the one side of the chart the biblical Jesus and on the other side the postmodern Jesus.
We don't have time to go in much detail about what postmodernism is, but it comes down. We'll see as we go through this chart comes down partly to the idea that we live in a relativistic world.
There's no absolute truth. We make up our own truth. We live in the moment. It's all about me. Let me read through this because this is so predominant in the world, first of all. And then it invades Christendom, and then it invades the assemblies as well. The biblical Jesus. I'll read that side first. It says born as God.
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In the flesh, the postmodern Jesus.
Born as a man who was promoted to deity, Biblical Jesus again warns of sin, judgment and hell. The postmodern Jesus never says anything negative. Maybe that sounds familiar. The biblical Jesus commands repentance of sins.
The postmodern Jesus disregards repentance of sins.
Biblical Jesus gives you salvation, hope, peace and joy, while the other gives you health, wealth, and happy feelings.
Biblical Jesus is hated and despised by the world.
Postmodern Jesus is loved and accepted by the world.
The biblical Jesus hates sin and exposes the truth about sin.
The other condones sin and never corrects you or your sins.
The biblical Jesus commands with divine authority. The other gives suggestions instead of commandments. Biblical Jesus offends the world with the truth.
But the postmodern Jesus hates to offend you, loves political correctness.
The biblical Jesus brings division when necessary. The other promotes unity and tolerance at all costs.
The biblical Jesus preaches God's righteousness.
The other preaches only on love.
The biblical Jesus exalts God the Father's will. The other serves your will, not God's will. The biblical Jesus warns of false signs and wonders, magnifies God's word. The other exalts, signs, wonders, and mysticism above God's word. The biblical Jesus demands that emotion.
Experience and opinion.
Conformed to sound doctrine. The other exalts emotion, experience, and opinion above sound doctrine.
The biblical Jesus commands you to deny yourself and allow Christ to work in you.
The postmodern Jesus encourage you, encourages you to love yourself and gratify all your fleshly desires. And then the question at the end is, which Jesus do you follow? It's a good question for us, isn't it? We are affected by these principles that invade the world.
And invade Christendom. And I'm afraid that we've been affected by the false love.
Of covering things up and that's why I read this verse in Psalms. Sometimes we hear the expression unconditional love. Well if used properly that's fine, but it can be used improperly. And I believe what this verse means in Psalm 42 verse 7, deep calleth unto deep.
At the noise of thy water spouts, I believe the deep is the love of God, satisfying the demands of the holiness of God.
I know it's been applied to God satisfying the needs of man, and I don't object to that as an application, but I believe that the true interpretation is that love and holiness go together. God is light and God is love.
Deep calleth under deep at the noise of thy water spouts. What's that mean water spouts? Well, I think it means, as we sometimes say, the cross is the center of two eternities. It broke up the universal order, and it brought in and introduced a new order, and that's the order of which Christ.
Is the last Adam, and then we have all thy waves.
And thy billows are gone over me. Just what our brother Wayne was speaking about, the awful sufferings that our Lord passed through in order to inaugurate this new order, without which there could be no blessing for the broad creation. Thank God for it. Now I just like to take a couple minutes. We've spoken about the false love.
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And how we're susceptible to it. Scripture teaches didactically.
That is, one verse after another, the text Scripture teaches by example. It teaches by type. Let's turn back to the book of Ruth. And I have enjoyed for some time how we have an expression in the four chapters of Luke about the true love according to Scripture in Ruth.
Ruth, Chapter One.
Beautiful little book, as we well know. In fact, the very name Ruth means beauty. She is a spiritual beauty. She's a picture of one who takes God's side at all times. We can be a Ruth too. God would desire that. We would be a Ruth in our little corner. And so we have Ruth in chapter one. We spoke about Agape this morning.
That's very helpful. Agape, as we mentioned, is the love of devotion.
Commitment, not so much an emotion. We see that a little bit later. It's that which is unconditional in that sense. But of course it's always consistent with the holiness of God. And so we have Ruth speaking as we read in verse.
14 We know the story here.
Ruth and her husband went down into the land of Moab to escape the famine.
Maybe there's a famine in your little assembly.
They tried to escape it and all they found was death and finally.
Naomi returns or begins to return, and one of her daughter in laws, Orpha in verse 14, kisses her mother-in-law. But Ruth clave under her. And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back under her people, and under unto her gods, return thou after thy sister-in-law. I suppose that was a test for dear Ruth.
And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee.
For Withers outgoest I will go, and where thou logist I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord. That's the key, isn't it? The Lord had touched her heart.
The Lord do so to me, and more also if aught but death part thee and me. When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, she left, speaking under her. So they returned back to Bethlehem. Was it an easy thing to do? Ruth had left some time before.
And she comes back in many respects, broken. She says to call her Mara. That's where our name Mary comes from.
But she did repent and that was the beginning of blessing. I have a note in my Bible, it says that she returned to the place of blessing. That's good. Isn't it important for us to return to the place of blessing? But then let's read in chapter 2. You know, I love this chapter 2.
I think it's a beautiful illustration of what we have in the New Testament of the order of God's house. We have the different people that are involved. We have Naomi, who's an older sister. We can read in First Timothy and in Titus about the place of the older sisters in the assembly in the Christian community. We have Ruth, of course, who's the subject.
We have Boaz, who's a picture of the risen Lord Jesus, the one who's commanding everything.
We have the One, the servant to Boaz, who's over the reapers. He's a picture of the Spirit of God who carries out the will of Boaz, the exalted Savior. We have the reapers, a picture of those that are helping us to understand the scriptures as we've been speaking, that go out into the fields and service.
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We have the young men that draw water out of the wells.
Help us understand the scriptures as well. We have the maidens that were to be the companions of Ruth and so we have Phileo love here. Don't wait. This is the love of affection. And so once we've turned to the Lord and laid ourselves in consecration to the Lord to lead us into a place where there will be.
Companions that will be a help to us with them, that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
So if the 1St chapter is the place of blessing, I have a note here in my Bible that says the 2nd chapter is the blessings of the place. It was a happy place, a happy community, the order of God's house. This is what God has prepared for us. And so they all work together. Well, we see that Ruth is diligent. We're thankful for that. We don't have time to go into details, of course, but look at the end of.
Chapter, if you would please, verse 20.
And Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness of the living and to the dead. Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen. And Ruth the Moabitess said, He said unto me also, Thou shalt keep fast by my my young men, until they have ended all my harvest. Now watch your young people.
What the older sister counsels the younger sister? And Naomi said unto Ruth, her daughter-in-law. It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, not his young men, that they meet thee not in any other field. So she obeyed. She kept fast by the maidens of Boaz that gleaned onto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest, and.
Her mother with her mother-in-law. Remember what it says in Revelation chapter 3 we see.
Bowing to the word of God here the Lord Jesus says as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. That's not the postmodern Jesus, is it? There's not rebuke and chasing, but too often times it's we avoid conflict and allow people to go on in a pathway.
That's not help, not helpful or helpful, but here we have that balance.
First of all, Naomi repenting and coming back to the place of blessing. And then she corrects Ruth. Ruth naturally would have liked to follow the young men. She apparently was a young person, not too old yet a widow we know, but nonetheless an attractive young lady. She would have liked to have followed the young men. Not what Boaz said. And Ruth is corrected by Naomi. She said no, you follow the maidens. That's good advice, isn't it?
The order of God's house. So as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent. We don't like that word so much today, do we? And I've seen others that the young people get in trouble.
The tendency is to cover it over and excuse it, and then the next tendency is that too often is Wayne was alluding to. They follow the young people out.
And it's not a happy path though. It's not the place of blessing. So she returns to the place of blessing. Chapter one. She gets the blessing of the place by submitting to the order of God's house. If you notice, we didn't talk about it, but in First Corinthians where we read in the the House of God is the main subject up to the middle of chapter 10.
And then the Lord's Table is taken up.
In the middle of chapter 10 and then in the 11Th chapter, the Lord's Supper is taken up, but there's something in between and it speaks of the subjection of the sisters. I so well remember our brother Albert Hales speaking about that. Such a help to me. He says the secret to maintaining the Lord's Supper and the Lord's Table in its proper place.
Is subjection.
Otherwise, it seems like this thing about the head coverings is out of place. But what's the point? The only way to be maintained in the path of blessing is subjection and obedience. Naturally we don't like that, but that's the path of blessing. You know, when we get home.
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There won't be any differences between male and female. The lessons learned will be lessons we'll have for all eternity. But at the present time there are distinctions that God makes and their distinctions for His glory and for our blessing. So we have the blessings of the place. And then in chapter 3 we have something else.
Something also that our brother Wayne alluded to. The blessings are a nice thing.
We've been speaking about many of the blessings, but look what Ruth said. At least, Naomi says in Chapter 3.
When Naomi, her mother-in-law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? And now is not Boaz our kindred, with whom maiden, with with whose maidens was? Behold, he went with barley tonight in the threshing floor. Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor. But make not thyself known unto the man until he have done eating and drinking in it shall be.
When he lieth down with thou, shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in and uncover his feet, and lay thee down, and he will tell thee what thou shalt do. And she said unto her, All that thou sayest unto me I will do.
I think what we have here is not simply the place of blessing as we had in chapter one, not simply the blessings of the place of our position and as we have in chapter 2, but we have the blesser himself. This is the real secret of Christianity, isn't it? Not simply.
To seek what the Lord has to give, but to learn to walk in communion with the Lord Jesus himself.
Remember when I was first married, somebody handed me a book by a physician who is also a marriage counselor. I don't read a lot of that kind of thing, but that book was helpful to me. And this marriage counselor brought out four terms that are used for love. The first, of course, was agape, and he said many people missed that. He said, people come into my office, like Bob was saying the other day, and they say I'm not in love with my spouse anymore.
And he explained the truth of agape, that it's a love of commitment. It's not an emotion. The emotion will come if there's the right commitment. And and then thirdly, he said there's the word in the Old Testament, ahava, and that embraces something a little differently. It's a general word, but another thing it embraces is romantic love.
And in a sense, that's what we have here. Who can read this book of Song of Solomon?
And not see that there's romantic love there, the attraction in that case between a remarkable man and a unremarkable woman, we might say. But the Lord has drawn us after him with those cords. And this is the real secret of Christianity, is it not? Let's just hold her finger there. And our time is short. But let's turn to Philippians again.
We don't need a risk list of laws and rules like we've been saying, but the secret spring for the Christian.
The true love is the secret spring, and this is what we have, for instance, in second in the Philippians chapter 3. Notice what the Apostle Paul says in verse 7.
But what things were gained to me? Those I counted lost for Christ? That was past tense, wasn't it? Perhaps when he was a young man he made a great decision, and now he comes into the present, years later.
Yeah, doubtless, and I count present tense all things but loss 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 Jesus Christ, The righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable under his death, by any means I might attain under the resurrection of or from among the dead.
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Not as though I had already attained either, were already made perfect.
But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. It's that love that draws us, and the more we learn of Him, the more we realize that everything else in the world is but done compared to the Excellency that's in Christ Jesus.
Our Lord. And so in this chapter we have that side of a hava, I think.
First, the place of blessing. Second, the blessings of the place. Thirdly, the blesser himself. A wonderful truth that is the great secret of Christianity, to walk in the Lord's presence. And it's interesting.
To that, she finds out we don't have time to read through it, but she finds out when he wakes up. Not only does she desire to have him as as as her companion.
But He desires to have her as His companion. The more we learn, the more we walk in the Lord's presence. We find how much He loves us and cares for us and wants to walk us, to walk and His company and grow in His presence. Blessed be His name. That right, Matt? He likes to say that.
Blessed be his name. Now we have chapter 4.
Blame is just about gone. I like this chapter. I think we get something else turned if you would just put your finger here and turn over to Romans chapter 12.
We have a word that's used only once in scripture as I understand.
But it brings an interesting perspective to this theme of love, the subject of love.
Romans chapter 12 and verse 10.
Be kindly affection 1 to another with brotherly love. Well, that brotherly love is phileo, that emotion, that love of friendship between 1:00 and another believer. But what's that word kindly affection mean? Well, this man who wrote this book that was given to me some years ago.
He said it's the love of belonging. It's Stargate is the Greek word, or at least it's the word that's based on.
That word be kindly affection, he said. It's like an old shoe. I remember my parents passed away here several years back.
And they had lived in that house for, if I remember, some 40 years, and my brother told me about going to that house one day when the other people had moved into it. It had been sold, said, you know, it seemed awfully strange. I had to knock on the door. Never happened before.
He used to just walk in that store gate. It's the love of belonging. That's a wonderful thing, stability and the love of belonging. The Lord Jesus loves us. He wants us to walk in his presence to get the great blessing, but He also wants us to be a blessing. I think that's what we have in this chapter.
Ruth now becomes a blessing. She almost disappears. Really.
But she becomes a blessing. Let's just look at the end here.
In verse.
Verse 15 of Ruth chapter 4 and verse 15 And he said under under the And he shall be under thee, Speaking of of the child that would be born. He shall be under thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thy old age for thy daughter-in-law.
Which loveth thee, Which is better to thee than seven sons hath borne him. This is what the woman said to Naomi. One mark of a mature Christian is joy.
It's a sad thing to see a Christian come to the end of his life and not to be able to finish his course with joy. And that be our prayer that we would be able to finish our course with joy. We know of some that it's not true. It's a sad thing. But the Lord wants us, his mature believers, to be joyful believers and He will give us that joy.
If we keep close to him now look at this also.
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Verse 16 And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom.
And became a nurse unto it. And the woman, her neighbors gave it a name, saying there is a son born to Naomi. And they called his name Obed. What's Obed mean? Means worshipper. So not only is the Christian pathway when walked in the Lord's presence a joyful path, it's also a pathway of worship.
The Lord deserves that worship. It's the overflow of the heart to the one who loves us.
Has given himself for us. And then finally I wanted to read verse 17. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. What's Jesse mean means gift. There's service involved too. Service. So there we have joy, we have worship and we have service.
We think together.
Love: the False and the True
Open—Eric James
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Let's turn to a verse that we know well in Psalm 42.
Psalm 42.
And verse 7.
Deep calleth under deep at the noise of thy water spouts all thy waves, and thy billows are gone over me.
I want to speak about something for a few minutes.
It's been on my heart for some time.
The subject is love. I know some years ago Mr. Ironside wrote a little pamphlet called Holiness, the False and the True. I don't want to speak about that, but I do want to speak about love, which we've been speaking about, the false and the true. And this follows up somewhat with what Wayne was speaking about. We had lunch together and spoke about some of these things, but.
I came across a little chart here on the Internet not too long ago that touched me. I just want to read parts of it. At least it speaks about on the one side of the chart, the biblical Jesus, and on the other side the postmodern Jesus.
We don't have time to go in much detail about what postmodernism is, but it comes down. We'll see as we go through this chart comes down partly to the idea that we live in a relativistic world.
There's no absolute truth. We make up our own truth. We live in the moment. It's all about me. Let me read through this because this is so predominant in the world, first of all. And then it invades Christendom, and then it invades the assemblies as well. The biblical Jesus. I'll read that side first. It says born as God.
In the flesh, the postmodern Jesus.
Born as a man who was promoted to deity, Biblical Jesus again warns of sin, judgment and hell. The postmodern Jesus never says anything negative. Maybe that sounds familiar. The biblical Jesus commands repentance of sins.
The postmodern Jesus disregards repentance of sins.
Biblical Jesus gives you salvation, hope, peace and joy, while the other gives you health, wealth, and happy feelings.
Biblical Jesus is hated and despised by the world.
Postmodern Jesus is loved and accepted by the world.
The biblical Jesus hates sin and exposes the truth about sin.
The other condones sin and never corrects you or your sins.
The biblical Jesus commands with divine authority. The other gives suggestions instead of commandments. Biblical Jesus offends the world with the truth.
But the postmodern Jesus hates to offend you, loves political correctness.
The biblical Jesus brings division when necessary. The other promotes unity and tolerance at all costs.
The biblical Jesus preaches God's righteousness.
The other preaches only on love.
The biblical Jesus exalts God the Father's will. The other serves your will, not God's will. The biblical Jesus warns of false signs and wonders, magnifies God's word. The other exalts, signs, wonders, and mysticism above God's word. The biblical Jesus demands that emotion.
Experience and opinion.
Conformed to sound doctrine. The other exalts emotion, experience, and opinion above sound doctrine.
The biblical Jesus commands you to deny yourself and allow Christ to work in you.
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The postmodern Jesus encourage you, encourages you to love yourself and gratify all your fleshly desires. And then the question at the end is, which Jesus do you follow? It's a good question for us, isn't it? We are affected by these principles that invade the world.
And invade Christendom. And I'm afraid that we've been affected by the false love.
Of covering things up and that's why I read this verse in Psalms. Sometimes we hear the expression unconditional love. Well if used properly that's fine, but it can be used improperly. And I believe what this verse means in Psalm 42 verse 7, deep calleth unto deep.
At the noise of thy water spouts, I believe the deep is the love of God, satisfying the demands of the holiness of God.
I know it's been applied to God satisfying the needs of man, and I don't object to that as an application, but I believe that the true interpretation is that love and holiness go together. God is light and God is love. Deep calleth under deep at the noise of thy water spouts. What's that mean? Water spouts?
Well, I think it means as we sometimes say.
The cross is the center of two eternities. It broke up the universal order, and it brought in and introduced a new order, and that's the order of which Christ is the last Adam. And then we have all thy waves, and thy billows are gone over me. Just what our brother Wayne was speaking about.
The awful sufferings that our Lord passed through.
In order to inaugurate this new order, without which there could be no blessing for the broad creation. Thank God for it. Now I just like to take a couple minutes. We've spoken about the false love and how we're susceptible to it. Scripture teaches didactically, that is one verse after another, the text.
Scripture teaches by example. It teaches by type.
Let's turn back to the book of Ruth, and I have enjoyed for some time how we have an expression in the four chapters of Luke about the true love according to scripture in Ruth.
Ruth, Chapter One.
Beautiful little book, as we well know. In fact, the very name Ruth means beauty. She is a spiritual beauty. She's a picture of one who takes God's side at all times. We could be a Ruth too. God would desire that. We would be a Ruth in our little corner. And so we have Ruth in chapter one. We spoke about Agape this morning.
That's very helpful. Agape, as we mentioned, is the love of devotion.
Commitment, not so much an emotion. We see that a little bit later. It's that which is unconditional in that sense. But of course it's always consistent with the holiness of God. And so we have Ruth speaking as we read in verse.
14 We know the story here.
Ruth and her husband went down into the land of Moab to escape the famine.
Maybe there's a famine in your little assembly.
They tried to escape it and all they found was death and finally.
Naomi returns or begins to return, and one of her daughter in laws, Orpha in verse 14, kisses her mother-in-law. But Ruth clave under her. And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back under her people, and under unto her gods, return thou after thy sister-in-law. I suppose that was a test for dear Ruth.
And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee.
For Withers outgoest I will go, and where the largest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord. That's the key, isn't it? The Lord had touched her heart. The Lord do so to me, and more also.
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If aught but death part thee and me. When she saw that, she was steadfastly minded to go with her.
She left speaking under her, so they returned back to Bethlehem. Was it an easy thing to do? Ruth had left some time before, and she comes back in many respects broken. She says to call her Mara. That's where our name Mary comes from.
But she did repent and that was the beginning of blessing. I have a note in my Bible.
It says that she returned to the place of blessing. That's good. Isn't it important for us to return to the place of blessing? But then let's read in chapter 2. You know I love this Chapter 2.
I think it's a beautiful illustration of what we have in the New Testament of the order of God's house. We have the different people that are involved. We have Naomi, who's an older sister. We can read in First Timothy and in Titus about the place of the older sisters in the assembly in the Christian community. We have Ruth, of course, who's the subject.
We have Boaz, who's a picture of the risen Lord Jesus, the one who's commanding everything.
We have the One, the servant to Boaz, who's over the reapers. He's a picture of the Spirit of God who carries out the will of Boaz, the exalted Savior. We have the reapers, a picture of those that are helping us to understand the scriptures as we've been speaking, that go out into the fields and service.
We have the young men that draw water out of the wells.
Help us understand the Scriptures as well. We have the maidens that were to be the companions of Ruth. And so we have Phileo love here, don't we? This is the love of affection. And so once we've turned to the Lord and laid ourselves in consecration to the Lord to lead us into a place where there will be.
Companions that will be a help to us with them, that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
So if the 1St chapter is the place of blessing, I have a note here in my Bible that says the 2nd chapter is the blessings of the place. It was a happy place, a happy community, the order of God's house. This is what God has prepared for us. And so they all work together. Well, we see that Ruth is diligent. We're thankful for that. We don't have time to go into details, of course, but look at the end.
Chapter, if you would please, verse 20.
And Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness of the living and to the dead. Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen. And Ruth the Moabitess said, He said unto me also, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men until they have ended all my harvest. Now watch your young people.
What the older sister counsels the younger sister? And Naomi said unto Ruth, her daughter-in-law. It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maiden, not his young men, that they meet thee not in any other field. So she obeyed. She kept fast by the maidens of Boaz the gleam unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest. And.
By her mother with her mother-in-law. Remember what it says in Revelation chapter 3 we see bowing to the word of God here the Lord Jesus says as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. That's not the postmodern Jesus, is it or not rebuke and chasing, but too often times.
It's we avoid conflict and allow people to go on in a pathway.
That's not help, not helpful or helpful. But here we have that balance. First of all, Naomi repenting and coming back to the place of blessing. And then she corrects Ruth. Ruth naturally would have liked to follow the young men. She apparently was a young person, not too old, yet a widow we know, but nonetheless an attractive young lady. She would have liked to have followed the young men, not what Boaz said. And Ruth.
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Is corrected by Naomi. She said no, you follow the maidens. That's good advice, isn't it? The order of God's house. So as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. We don't like that word so much today, do we? And I've seen others that the young people get in trouble.
The tendency is to cover it over and excuse it.
And then the next tendency is that too often, as Wayne was alluding to, they follow the young people out and it's not a happy path, though it's not the place of blessing. So she returns to the place of blessing. Chapter one, she gets the blessing of the place by submitting to the order of God's house. Have you noticed? We didn't talk about it, but in First Corinthians where we read.
In the the House of God is the main subject up to the middle of chapter 10.
And then the Lord's Table is taken up in the middle of chapter 10. And then in the 11Th chapter, the Lord's Supper is taken up. But there's something in between, and it speaks of the subjection of the sisters. I so well remember our brother Albert Hales speaking about that. Such a help to me. He says the secret to maintaining the Lord's Supper and the Lord's Table.
In its proper place is subjection. Otherwise it seems like this thing about the head coverings is out of place. But what's the point? The only way to be maintained in the path of blessing is subjection and obedience. Naturally we don't like that, but that's the path of blessing. You know, when we get home, there won't be any differences between male and female.
The lessons learned will be lessons we'll have for all eternity.
But at the present time there are distinctions that God makes and their distinctions for His glory and for our blessing. So we have the blessings of the place. And then in chapter 3 we have something else, something also that our brother Wayne alluded to. The blessings are a nice thing. We've been speaking about many of the blessings.
But look what Ruth said. At least Naomi says in chapter 3.
When Naomi, her mother-in-law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? And now is not Boaz our kindred? With whom maiden, with with whose maidens was? Behold, he went with barley tonight in the threshing floor. Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor. But make not thyself known unto the man until they have done eating.
Drinking in it shall be when he lieth down with thus up mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in and uncover his feet, and lay thee down, and he will tell thee what thou shalt do. And she said unto her, All that thou sayest unto me I will do.
I think what we have here is not simply the place of blessing as we had in chapter one, not simply the blessings of the place of our position and as we have in chapter 2, but we have the blesser himself. This is the real secret of Christianity, isn't it? Not simply.
To seek what the Lord has to give, but to learn to walk in communion with the Lord Jesus himself.
Remember when I was first married, somebody handed me a book by a physician who is also a marriage counselor. I don't read a lot of that kind of thing, but that book was helpful to me. And this marriage counselor brought out four terms that are used for love. The first, of course, was agape, and he said many people missed that. He said, people come into my office, like Bob was saying the other day, and they say I'm not in love with my spouse anymore.
And he explained the truth of Agape, that it's a love of commitment.
It's not an emotion. The emotion will come if there's the right commitment. And and then thirdly, he said there's the word in the Old Testament, Ahava, and that embraces out something a little differently. It's a general word, but another thing it embraces is romantic love. And in a sense, that's what we have here. Who can read this book of Song of Solomon?
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And not see that there's romantic love there, the attraction in that case between a remarkable man and a unremarkable woman, we might say. But the Lord has grown us after him with those cords. And this is the real secret of Christianity, is it not? Let's just hold our finger there and our time is short. But let's turn to Philippians again.
We don't need a list of laws and rules like we've been saying.
With the secret spring for the Christian.
The true love is the secret spring, and this is what we have, for instance, in second in the Philippians chapter 3. Notice what the Apostle Paul says in verse 7.
But what things were gained to me? Those I counted lost for Christ? That was past tense, wasn't it? Perhaps when he was a young man he made a great decision, and now he comes into the present, years later.
Yeah, doubtless, and I count present tense all things but loss 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 my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith.
Of Jesus Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection.
And the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable under his death, by any means I might attain under the resurrection of her from among the dead.
Not as though I had already attained either, were already made perfect.
But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that through which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. It's that love that draws us, and the more we learn of Him, the more we realize that everything else in the world is but done compared to the Excellency that's in Christ Jesus.
Our Lord. And so in this chapter we have that side of a hava, I think.
First, the place of blessing. Second, the blessings of the place. Thirdly, the blesser himself. A wonderful truth that is the great secret of Christianity, to walk in the Lord's presence. And it's interesting.
To that, she finds out we don't have time to read through it, but she finds out when he wakes up. Not only does she desire to have him as as as her companion.
But He desires to have her as His companion. The more we learn, the more we walk in the Lord's presence. We find how much He loves us and cares for us and wants to walk us, to walk and His company and grow in His presence. Blessed be His name. That right, Matt? He likes to say that.
Blessed be his name. Now we have chapter 4.
Claim is just about gone. I like this chapter. I think we get something else turned if you would just put your finger here and turn over to Romans chapter 12.
We have a word that's used only once in scripture as I understand.
But it brings an interesting perspective to this theme of love, the subject of love.
Romans chapter 12 and verse 10.
Be kindly affectioned 1 to another with brotherly love. Well, that brotherly love is phileo. That emotion, that love of friendship between 1:00 and another believer. But what's that word kindly affection mean Well, this man who wrote this book that was given to me some years ago.
He said it's the love of belonging. It's Stargate is the Greek word, or at least it's the word that's based on.
That word be kindly affection, he said. It's like an old shoe. I remember my parents passed away here several years back.
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And they had lived in that house for, if I remember, some 40 years, and my brother told me about going to that house one day when the other people had moved into it. It had been sold, said, you know, it seemed awfully strange. I had to knock on the door. Never happened before.
Used to just walk in that store gate. It's the love of belonging. That's a wonderful thing, stability and the love of belonging. The Lord Jesus loves us. He wants us to walk in his presence to get the great blessing, but He also wants us to be a blessing. I think that's what we have in this chapter.
Ruth now becomes a blessing. She almost disappears. Really.
But she becomes a blessing. Let's just look at the end here.
In verse.
Verse 15 of Ruth chapter 4 and verse 15. And he said under under thee. And he shall be under thee, Speaking of of the child that would be born. He shall be under thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thy old age for thy daughter-in-law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons.
Hath borne him. This is what the woman said to Naomi, one mark of a mature Christian.
Is joy.
It's a sad thing to see a Christian come to the end of his life and not to be able to finish his course with joy. And that be our prayer that we would be able to finish our course with joy. We know of some that it's not true. It's a sad thing. But the Lord wants us, his mature believers, to be joyful believers and He will give us that joy.
If we keep close to him now look at this also.
Verse 16 And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom.
And became a nurse unto it. And the woman, her neighbors gave it a name, saying there is a son born to Naomi. And they called his name Obed. What's Obed mean? Means worshipper. So not only is the Christian pathway when walked in the Lord's presence a joyful path, it's also a pathway of worship.
The Lord deserves that worship. It's the overflow of the heart to the one who loves us.
Has given himself for us. And then finally I wanted to read verse 17. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. What's Jesse mean means gift. There's service involved too. Service. So there we have joy, we have worship and we have service.
We think the other ten books.
Gospel 3
Gospel—Dave Whitaker
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
The mystery of love. We've had love on our heart a lot. Lot on our tongue. Speaking of it, thinking about it.
And love is the spontaneous fruit that grows in that heavenly orchard.
It says let brotherly love continue. It's automatic. You don't have to force it. It's there if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
The mystery of love. Think of these skillfulness. The skillfulness of love. That's something we hear stories in our life about love and the extent that love went to secure a companion for life. The energy of love. If there's a concrete wall.
And the man's love is on the other side of that wall.
Our wall is coming down, beautiful, the warmth of love.
Love, it says in the song of soul and strong as death. Think of this. You can't have love that strong without hate.
That's kind of a weird statement in it. You hate everything that is going to destroy that love.
And so the longest journey that was ever made.
The longest journey children that was ever made.
Has loved the story of love from start to finish we've had faithfully presented the wrath of God in these meetings so true when I think about how.
People leave this world.
They leave it in their sins, they go into a lost eternity. There's no end to it. If I break my leg, I go to the doctor, I get it fixed. If I get a cold, I take some medicine maybe, and I get better and so on. But no, it's forever and ever. So children, young people, listen please to the message tonight.
Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me.
He realized four weeks ago in the Rotunda of the capital of the United States of America, man sat down with hundreds and hundreds of people round him like this.
And he played a simple melody on that organ, and he sang clearly, simply.
The same exact song as you have #12 and your hymn sheet. You don't have that? Well, read it to you.
He's saying all four verses clear. Here's the president of the United States, here's the vice president, here's former presidents, here's people from the House of Representatives, Congress and so on, and people of all stripes and faith and so on listening to this beautiful, beautiful hymn.
Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bids me come to thee. O Lamb of God, I come, I come. I heard him singing that I could make it out.
Just as I am, and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot to thee whose blood can cleanse each bottle. Lamb of God I come just as I am. Poor, wretched, blind here, these millionaires watching, listening, presidents and so on. What's he singing this for? Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind. Sight, riches, healing of the mind. Yeah, all I need and need to find. O Lamb of God, I come. I come just as.
Thou receive will welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, because I promise I believe, oh Lamb of God, I come.
If the Lord comes 5 minutes from now, I haven't given you the gospel, I'm going to give you the gospel, and you know it well. 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.
In the early chapter of the Bible it speaks about.
God creating. God creating. You don't have to turn to it. I'm going to turn to a few verses very rapidly because we have an abbreviated gospel meeting here. Other 10 minutes or so it says.
God saw the light. That was good.
And then later on it says.
The dry lamb earth. That was good.
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Arab building seed and so on.
In light to rule the day so on good and then the last verse, the 1St chapter of Genesis says God saw everything that he had made.
Was very good.
Whoa, look at what it says in the next chapter, verse 18.
And the Lord God said is not good, not good.
That man should be alone.
The consequence of that statement? That needed fulfillment, didn't it?
And so that a deep, deep consequences.
God said that not good that man should be alone. Now there are some people in here that are meritable age and they haven't experienced.
Married life I've been I've enjoyed 108 years of marriage. My wife has been married for 54. I've enjoyed we've enjoyed that marriage together and I have been married 54 years. So this represents a lot long happy days, but those of you that don't have a companion.
Just wait till the end of this story. It's beautiful, it's beautiful.
God saw to it that his son is going to have a companion. There was a council, a council.
Between the father and the son.
And it was a Council of Peace. That right, Ernie?
Help. And who's going to bear the glory? God is going to bear the glory.
There was a question asked in Isaiah and it says heard avert voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?
Then should I hear my send me? What is he going to go for? He's going to go for a companion forever.
Those that have missed out in this world, companionship, don't you worry, don't you worry. Companionship here, beautiful as it is, that nothing to compare with what's coming because God sent his Son down to this world, that journey that took him from the heights of glory.
Down into this world, I'll tell you a story, you children. You know what Skittles are, don't you? Oh delicious little cat. Do you know what Skittles Skittles are?
Yeah. He shook his head.
Young man, maybe 12-13 years old, came into the office and he had his buddy with him. He had a box. In that box, I told this story before. In that box was.
Peanut brittle.
Salt water taffy.
Skittles and he probably bought them for $2.00 a box at Costco. And he after the I talked to him a while, I said what about this? He said well I can sell you these Skittles 6 bucks. I thought it was a little steep but the boy wanted to go to camp that summer so I bought it. I said to him I got a question for you young man, just a young lad.
If you were standing at the gate of heaven and God were to say to you, how can I let you come into my heaven? You're a Sinner, just like Dave.
You know what that boy said instantly? He said because God came down into this world, He wrapped himself in human flesh and he went to the cross and he died for me.
Can you, can you say that young person?
Does that mean anything to you?
I'll go, he says, and you hear my send me. That was part of that journey that he took. Heaven's highest glory. This journey that he took came down into this world. He came down and he he was found in a Manger. Doesn't even say he was born in the Manger.
He had nothing, nothing.
There he was, and it says the lines have fallen on to be in pleasant places. Yeah, I have a goodly heritage.
But outside the door, Herod.
Made him flee down into Egypt land.
Ran away.
Fled, and then at the point in time he came back. Lazarus.
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He walked among men in his service for God and for blessing of man.
He did all those kind loving deeds, raised the dead.
And heal the sick.
And they took and they grabbed him and they took him to a judgment hall. Can you imagine that?
And.
They flogged him, they spit on him, they crowned him with thorns, and they crucified him.
And.
He was buried, died. He shed his precious blood. He was buried. He rose again the third day.
And then he presented himself through above 500 brethren at once. I think there were 541 People at dinner yesterday.
Did you see the Lord Jesus yesterday? I think we did. Precious time in His presence by faith.
And then he presented himself to his brother.
And he went back up to where he came from.
The circuit is almost complete. There's something missing. Is it you?
There's coming a time when he's going to go and he's going to gather up faith. The precious fruit of the earth is going to gather up and he's going to take it home.
What a beautiful word that is when I get done with a day's labor. Home and beautiful, beautiful.
Have his thoughts come forth and love us so much to speak about here. Well, we can go on. I've got 5 minutes to go.
The Lord Jesus is going to come at the rapture.
And he's going to take faith home. I don't think there will be any faith left on the earth.
After the Lord takes us home.
There'll be a time there where faith will come again, but the faith will be absent from this earth. I'll be gone.
So now Sinner, you come to the sinners bench.
You sit down there, this room for two.
There's just room for two on the sinners bench. Who do you think the other one is?
The Lord Jesus will come along and sit beside you and put his arm around you.
And he will show you his nail print hand, and he'll say, I was made sin for you, I was made sin for you. I took your responsibility. The sinners place at the cross.
Now you can have life. I'm giving it to you as a free gift, and don't you dare try to add anything to it, because that ruins the splendor in a.
The charm, the beauty of that gift.
And then you confess yourself as a poor, guilty Sinner. You take Christ as your Savior. He'll take you through the mercy seat.
He'll take you to the sinner's bench, and then he'll take you to the mercy seat thereof. He meet with you. And what's there? That precious, precious blood of Christ. Yeah.
And then when the Rapture comes, he's going to meet you on the cloud.
And then where's he going to take you? He's going to put you on a different seat in the Father's throne.
That is going to be complete that journey.
Where will you be when he sets things right in this world? Everything to the glory of God the Father and the exaltation of Christ. Where will you be? Will you be?
In the last two minutes, 3 minutes, will you be in a lost eternity?
Or will you be?
With me, I'll meet you there, God's right hand.
Will you be singing there with me? Will you be there when the Lord Jesus Christ leads the singing?
Will you experience that eternal joy, or will it be darkness for you?
Those are searching words.
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So much could be said of that journey.
From the palace of his glory.
From that home of joy and love came the Lord Himself to seek us. He wants you, young person, there with Him above.
Shall we pray?
Lord Jesus, precious Savior, we think of this.
Wonderful journey down to stake.
To have a companion forever.
He and I in that bright glory.
We pray for these children, Father, the world has its filthy attractions and it has its seemingly harmless attractions. We just pray that they might be drawn to the Lord. Jesus might have a happy life, not a ruined life like some we know.
When her faith might have the joy of the Lord as their strength.
The rapture before them.
So, Father, we just pray for these children and the parents.
And now for the travelers mercies our God we pray Jesus name, Amen.
To Have a Fruitful Christian Life
YP Talk—Josh Costron
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.
Wow, a lot of young people. Great to see you guys.
I was counseled by my lovely wife when I was coming over here to keep this short and sweet and I know you guys have had a long day and you want to get going with some volleyball and so on, but.
If you'll allow me a few minutes, I like your undivided attention if I could, and I just want to speak on a few things now.
I what I've had on my heart tonight is is really I want to touch on a few things that.
Really would be productive to a fruitful Christian life.
And I want to notice a few things that might minister to that, if you will.
But before I do, you know, this is a, a young people's group and I don't know most of you and you, most of you probably don't really know me and I don't know your hearts. And of course this is a message to Christians, but you know, I, I want to start by reading one verse.
Just in the event that, you know, there might be somebody here who is not a Christian or is a Christian by profession, but really.
That's it. And you know.
What's so important is that we.
Are right with God. This is where it all begins. You know, we can't fool God. It was pointed out at the meetings and I believe in one of the Gospels that God knows us.
You know, He knows us through and through. He looks right down into our heart and He knows exactly where we are tonight and He knows if we belong to Him or not. And I trust that we all do. But in the event that there is somebody here who does not know our Lord Jesus Christ, I just would like to read this one verse. In John chapter 14 verse six, it says Jesus.
Let me back up end of verse 5 this is.
A question by Thomas and he says how can we know the way?
And Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
It's pretty exclusive, isn't it?
You know, when we are talking about eternal things and eternity, there is only one way.
The world.
Wants to put a whole bunch of stuff before us and confuse the issue at hand.
And, you know, I remember a brother giving a message, a gospel message, and he had some interaction with somebody at a gas station and he said that you need to know the Lord Jesus as your Savior if you want to go to heaven. And he said, well, I didn't really buy into that. And and he thought that if you're just sincere, that's good enough. You know, a lot of people believe that today that if you're just.
Well meaning brother Tim, we were talking about this over.
Lunch today or or supper and.
And I think you had an interaction with the guy for, remember, right, the story right where he just thought he was a good guy and that's all he needed. He had a Good Wife, he had a good job and he, he he made good money. What else do you need?
If that's all he had.
Then he has nothing.
You know the Bible says, what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?
This is the vital question for everybody, for humanity. Where will you spend eternity?
And Jesus Christ says I am the way, He is the way to the Father. He is the truth about the Father, about God, and use the life. He is the one that can bring you into a relationship with God as your Father.
And so if you have not availed yourself of the finished work of Christ and put your faith and your trust in our Lord Jesus Christ, I want to tell you something. He loves you more than you know.
And he died for you at the cross shed his precious blood, that blood which can wash away all our sins.
If you place your trust in him.
He promises you eternity with Himself, where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.
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The Lord Jesus loves you and he died for you. And friend, if you're here tonight, we want you to know that if you have any questions, please come and talk to somebody and we'd be happy to talk to you.
But.
With that said.
That's where it all begins for us as Christians. Salvation, knowing our Lord Jesus is our Savior, coming into relationship with him, and he reveals to us who God really is. You want to know something about the heart of God? You want to know who God is? We see it in Christ. You know, I want you young people to know this.
That God.
Wants.
Your blessing, He wants you to be happy. And what is the secret to that happiness? A lot of people struggle with this and it's not that complicated.
But there's responsibility involved, you know, we just can't, I suppose, get saved and just expect everything to just work out with no exercise in our life. So if you will bear with me for a few moments, and I'm going to try to be brief, but there's a couple things, a few things I want to notice in Second Kings Chapter 3. We're not going to read this whole chapter.
And I just want.
To point out the fact that, you know, we go into these Old Testament scriptures and what can we learn? You know, it's just not a historical narrative and just interesting stuff that happened in days gone by. Lot of incredible things happen that are true because this is the truth. The standard of truth is here. This happened. But you know, the New Testament tells us that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope.
And we can look back into these things and get instruction for our souls. And that's my point tonight I want to draw out from a few of these scriptures in brief, some spiritual lessons that we can get as Christians for our life. So in Second Kings chapter 3.
We will start at verse.
Six, and King Jehoram went out of Samaria the same time, and numbered all Israel.
And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab hath rebelled against me, Wilt thou go with me against Moab to battle? And he said, I will go up. I am as thou art, my people as thy people, and my horses is thy horses. And he said, Which way shall we go up? And he answered the way through the wilderness of Edom.
So the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah and the king of Edom, and they fetched the compass of seven days journey, and there was no water for the host and for the cattle that followed them. And the king of Israel said, alas, that the Lord hath called these 3 kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab. But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire of the Lord by him? And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water?
Hands of Elijah and Joshua had said, the word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
And Elijah said unto the king of Israel, What have I to do with thee? Get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother. And the king of Israel said unto him, Nay, for the Lord hath called these 3 kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab. And Elisha said, As the Lord of hosts liveth before, before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass.
When the minstrel played that, the hand of the Lord came upon him, and he said, Thus saith the Lord, Make this valley full of ditches. For thus, say the Lord, You shall not see wind, neither shall you see rain. Yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink both ye and your cattle and your beasts. And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord. He will deliver the Moabites also into your hand.
You notice Jehoshaphat made himself.
An ally with.
A king of Moab and the king of Israel.
Shouldn't have done it.
And he aligns himself with this confederacy, and to go down and take out the king of Moab.
Joshua Fat was a godly man, I believe.
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And this is the first principle I want to draw from is that he had bad.
Companions.
Bad alliances in his life.
And this is the first thing that I want to point out that if if we as Christians, young person or old person doesn't matter if God.
What God wants for us is is he wants us to be aligned with those of like precious faith.
Yeah, I think of, I think it's in the Psalms, is it not? Says I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and who love thy precepts.
You know God wants you.
To enjoy the fellowship of those of like precious faith.
And if you're going to experience.
A refinement, if you will, a sharpening. You know, iron sharpens iron there. There's no replacement for good companions who love the Lord and who are those who can stir you up and encourage you and build you up in your most holy faith and encourage you on in the path of faith and service for him. This is what God wants for us.
So companionship is an important thing, isn't it?
Who do you hang around with?
Who? Who is your social sphere?
I would suggest it should be.
The people of God.
Here's another thing.
We're going to jump to verse 16, he says. Thus saith the Lord, make this valley full of ditches.
Interesting.
What's a valley?
It's something that is very low, isn't it?
I think, Paul says. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation we're with. You've been called with all loneliness and meekness.
You know we need to cultivate a spirit of meekness and loneliness that was exactly seen in our Lord Jesus.
Here's the King of Glory, the Son of God, come into this world to manifest God to you and me.
And he was within his rights to come in.
And glorify himself.
I mean, this is God the Son.
But he took the lowest place.
I believe this is something that we all need to be exercised about and cultivate in our life is a humble, lowly spirit.
If we do that, that produces.
An Ave. whereby God can bring blessing into your life and my life and he can use you for his glory. But if what stands in opposite and on the other side of the line compared to that is pride. High thoughts of self, low thoughts of others and pride destroys people.
And he says make this valley full of ditches.
So he wanted them to dig out the earth.
And I believe that this is another point is that we need to get rid of all the earthly stuff that is clogging our life and that is affecting us in a negative way as Christians.
The world has its way.
Subtly, and sometimes not so subtly.
Where it it stops?
God from from really affecting our life in a positive way by taking up with the things of this world that does not profit us at all. We could enumerate a whole bunch of things, and I don't need to do that. You and I know exactly what those things are in our life. And what was the purpose of digging ditches so that the water might come in?
And.
It says.
For thus saith the Lord, you shall not see wind, neither shall you see rain, yet that valley shall be filled with water. What's that a picture of? It's a picture of the Word of God. What is going to refresh you and me as Christians, as being the people of the book, as we had at the conference, and as our brother Dave had brought out, that we need to have that time with the Lord and to read His Word.
This is so important if you want to know the mind of God.
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You want to seek direction from the Lord. You want to know all that He has planned for you and your life and all that that interests him. It's in here the Word of God.
This is our refreshment and this is what he wants for us. So we need to dig out the earth and we need to let the water flow in and we need to avail ourselves of the word of God. So that's another point is.
Is being occupied with the word. I just want to jump over to the next chapter and there's a couple other things I want to notice here.
So we have in we'll start in verse one another cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophet prophets undue Elisha saying, thy servant, my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did the did fear the Lord, and the predator has come to take unto him my two sons to be bondman. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in thine house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil.
And he said, Go borrow the vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not a few. And when thou come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.
So she went in, or went from him, and shut the door upon her, and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she poured out.
They came to pass when the vessels were full, that she said unto her Son, Bring me yet a vessel. He said unto her, There is not a vessel more in the oil state.
Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go sell the oil and pay thy debt, and live thou and my children of the rest.
This is another point.
Is that we need to live.
In the stings in in the sphere of the Spirit of God and to be exercised to be filled with the Spirit of God.
You know, it says we are exhorted to be filled with the Spirit. Now as Christians, of course we're indwelt with the Spirit of God, but to be filled with the Spirit of God is something altogether different.
And to be filled with the Spirit of God is to allow the Spirit of God to come into my life and allow him control, if you will Simply put.
And all that I think of and all that I do ought to be guided by the Spirit of God.
And it says in Galatians that we are to walk in the Spirit. That's another thing. Need to be filled with the Spirit, but we need to walk in the Spirit as well. And what does it say? If you walk in the Spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh? You ever found that you lack power sometimes as a Christian and sometimes you find yourself falling prey to the flesh.
And justice, stumbling along, that's not normal Christian experience. Christian experience is a path of victory and triumph. I'm not saying that we don't go through hardships, Not saying that we will. Yeah, all that live God be in Christ. Jesus shall suffer persecution. That's a promise. And that persecution comes in various forms.
But the point is, excuse me, the point is, is that God wants us to be filled with the Spirit, to be to walk in the Spirit. And we need to have this as another exercise in our life if we want to experience the blessing of God in our life in, in, in terms of having a fruitful, productive, productive Christian life for him down here on this earth.
OK, finally.
Verse 8 And it fell on a day that Elijah passed to Shinham, where was a great woman, or a wealthy woman, and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was that as OFT as he passed by, he turned in through their deep bread. And she said into her husband, Behold, now I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall, and let us set for him there a bread, and a table, and a stool, and a Candlestick. And it shall be when he cometh to us that.
Shall turn in thither. And it fell on a day that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there.
I'll stop. I'll stop there.
This is another thing.
This man of God, Elijah, he pictures to us here the Lord Jesus.
And there was an exercise to make him a little place where he could turn in into this people, this wealthy woman's home. And he had a place there where he he could find some rest. He had a little chamber. And I believe this chamber speaks of our hearts.
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The Lord Jesus.
Wants your affections.
My son, give me thine heart.
He is jealous for your affections.
And he wants you to be exercised about that.
And we need to question, we need to ask ourselves.
Have I made a little chamber for the Lord in my life, in my heart?
Or does he just kind of get put on the back burner, if I can put it that way, and he just kind of becomes an afterthought or a footnote to my life?
Or does he have the preeminence? You know, I was talking with him again.
I appreciate your brother, Tim. I we talked about a lot of stuff and we're talking about the other day if I asked you one this question, we're talking about this.
What is the very first moral principle that you learn in Scripture? Does anybody have an answer?
It's found in the very first verse of the Bible.
In the beginning, God.
He has the preeminence.
He has the 1St place. At least he should have the first place in our life.
So right from the very beginning, the very first verse in the beginning, God.
Is it so in my life?
You know we say Lord Jesus. What does that mean?
I give him the place. Yes, he's my savior, but is he my Lord? That means that I give him the authority over my life and He calls the shots.
Well.
He wants the chamber, he wants our hearts, he wants our affections, He longs for it because he wants our fellowship. And this leads me to the other thing. There's a few things here. There's a bed, place of rest.
Are there things in our life that the Son of God can delight in, take rest in, that meets His approval?
There's also a table, a place of fellowship.
Lord Jesus wants to have fellowship with us, not just once a week.
Wants to have fellowship with us day in and day out.
And a stool.
It's a place of a learner.
He wants us to sit at his feet and to hear his word. You know, we talked about this.
About We're all students. We all ought to be students of the Word of God.
Brother and sister like.
You know we ought to be students and a Candlestick testimony.
Lord Jesus wants us to be a testimony for Him.
So if we give the Son of God his place in our life, I believe these things will find their proper place in our life. So to summarize, we need to make room for the Word of God in our life. We need to make room for the Spirit of God in our life, if you will, in a very practical way, we need to make room for the Son of God in our life as well.
We do that.
That I believe we're going to live a fruitful, productive Christian life while we are down here on this earth. So what God wants for us.
If it beats living for ourselves.
We live for self. We're going to be very unhappy Christians, and that would not be God's ideal.