Walla Walla Conference: 2024
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Ephesians 1:1-4
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I did our father.
We are thankful for the work that the Lord Jesus has accomplished. We thank you that redemption is complete.
And that he is risen. We pray that as we're about to open your word, that you would lead us. We would wait on you.
And that.
We each might.
Understand more what He has done for us.
And how we stand in him.
But also we pray that we would be in the present good of it, enjoying.
Himself.
And what he has accomplished on our behalf. We ask this now, Father, in the name of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, Amen.
We've had quite a bit about our standing brethren, and I wonder if maybe we could take up Ephesians 1.
Unless there's something else that.
Is on somebody's heart. Did you have something, Brother Bill? No. That sounds very good, brother Bob.
There's always plenty in Ephesians 1.
Ephesians, chapter one.
All an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God to the Saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings.
In heavenly places, in Christ, according as He hath chosen us, in Him before the foundation of the world.
That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.
Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself. That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him.
Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory, Who first trusted in Christ?
In whom ye also trusted. After that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of His glory. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the Saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling.
And what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints? And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us Word, who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead?
And set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that dwelleth All in all.
Perhaps no other scripture is so full of our spiritual.
Heritage Brethren, as it says in verse 3, here He's blessed us.
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With all spiritual blessing, every spiritual blessing.
Is ours right now, whether you understand it, whether you enjoy it is another matter. But brethren, it's ours because it's in Christ. And that's the expression we find again and again in the book of Ephesians. You are a believer in the Lord Jesus. You are in Christ.
And therefore this is all yours.
Children of Israel went into the land of Canaan to possess him. They had to put their feet on it to possess it. And that's the challenge, brethren. We can talk about these things, but let's let it sink down into our hearts and enjoyment. These things are ours that we talk about every spiritual blessing. We are living in a materialistic.
Culture.
And so everything is measured pretty much about how you prosper materially. And it's a distraction, I must say. I have been challenged by my brethren in Latin America, some of whom are poor, materially speaking, I'll never forget.
In the home of a very poor brother.
Sitting down at the table because there is no other place to sit in the house.
And the brother didn't have any nice house to show us around in, didn't have any nice vehicle out front to show us that. He picked up his Bible and he opened it and I thought he was starting to read. Afterwards I understood he didn't know how to read.
Sometimes he had his Bible upside down, but he said that I'll never forget. Brethren, the.
Joy that radiated from that black face, the Dominican Republic had happened.
And that was a challenge to me. Rather in material, things get way too much in the way.
Of our spiritual heritage and God wants to bring us into the enjoyment of it.
So may the Lord help us in this chapter. It's like you say, brother who prayed at the first make you say it's we have to we have to really chew on it and there's so much here to enjoy.
Sometimes I get questions about, well, what are these spiritual blessings that are ours? Then what does it mean? The Darby translation says in the heavenlies.
What does that mean? And what are those spiritual blessings? Sometimes when I was young, they seemed kind of, I say it with all reverence, but they seemed kind of nebulous to me as to what they were and where they were. And how would you explain that, Brother Bob? You suggested the chapter. And what are those spiritual blessings? And.
And.
You said that Israel entered into the land of Canaan.
And we know that entering into the land was, in that sense a type of our entering into the enjoyment of our spiritual blessings. But.
That was something concrete. It was land, and they had to put their feet on it. It was all theirs, but they had to enter, possess and dwell in it. But what are those spiritual blessings? Or at least what? How could we explain that? And.
And.
Where do we get them? Not that not where do we get them, but how do we get them?
In the enjoyment of them, that is. Well, we have a list of them here in this chapter, don't we? And just to mention one of them.
Yeah, verse seven, we have redemption. We have it through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Brother Bill, do you have the forgiveness of sins? Yes, I do.
Please show me some document or something please that I can see it materially.
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The only document we have is right here.
Yeah, it's possessed by faith, isn't it? It is an amazing thing, brethren. And I find so many believers in their simplicity. And I don't want to be critical, but in different parts of the Christian profession, you hear them pray. Oh Lord, forgive us our sins and.
We have it. We don't have to ask for it. We have it. And so it's it's a wonderful thing to let it sink down in your soul. We don't have to ask for the forgiveness of our sins.
We have it and there are other scriptures that can be given to. Sometimes people say, well, what do you do if your sin is a believer?
By first John chapter one is pretty clear. You confess, but confess is not asking for forgiveness.
Confession is a different matter and that's what's necessary in the life of a believer. If he lets, he gives in to sin. But we have the forgiveness of sins. And so there are many others here too that we can mention. Just like to mention in the first verse there it says by the will of God, and I think it's four times that you have the will of God.
Mentioned in this chapter.
It's God's purpose, Brendan.
It's the purpose that he had before the foundation of the world, and it's wonderful to let that sink into our souls. It's not a matter of who I am, it's a matter of who He is. What kind of a God do we have? He's a God of love. He's a God of light, and He's revealed himself for that purpose. And he has a will. He has a purpose.
In our lives just to show the other places in the end of verse 5.
Says Having predestinated us unto the adoption of the of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according.
To the good pleasure of His will. And then, verse 9. Having made known unto us the mystery of His will.
Verse 11. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the council of his own will. Let that sink in, brother. And in the first chapter we don't have the will of man at all.
We have the will of God. What is that will? It's like a vast stream of blessing that comes.
In from what we call the past eternity and flows through the course of time.
And into that future day of glory, oh brethren, what a tremendous thing.
To know our God and His purpose is a blessing for us. You don't get the will of man until the next chapter. The first verses speaks about the.
The children of disobedience and the We all had our conversation in times past, and the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. So you don't have the will of man until you get to the second chapter. Let's keep this in mind as we.
Talk about these wonderful places, brethren. It's so rich.
They enjoyment of those spiritual blessings. May the Lord grant that we might let it sink down into our hearts.
I think it might be good to.
In verse four, it says according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. And you know, when we think about that, if you if you go to Matthew 25, there are those that were chosen out from the foundation of the world. But here it's before the foundation of the world. And this should exercise our hearts because in eternity before there ever was anything.
Before there was an earth, before we were here. God has chosen those inside this room.
Do you have an eternal blessing to have these blessings that were being talked about here?
And it should awaken the responsibility to occupy ourselves and to really think about.
That we were chosen out. We're the most blessed people on the planet. There's nobody like us.
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Nobody but the church has this.
I'm not saying that there's not others that will be found to be in heaven or to be with Christ, but us as a unique people.
God has chosen us out in him before the foundation of the world, and that should exercise us. It should give us to realize just how special these things are. They've been given to us.
And some brother mentioned about walking in them. It's it's an important thing to take possession in in Deuteronomy 26.
There's a verse that says that.
Umm.
It says in verse one. And it shall be when thou art come into the land.
Which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
That you need to take possession of it and then it says and to dwell there.
So this is this is true of us. We have an inheritance.
But do we embrace it? Do we take possession of it and do we meditate about it? Is it really ours? And as we we take this up, we have the privilege to do that. We have the privilege of of being glorifying God for what he has done to bless us. So.
Verse three says Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It begins here because at first, and properly so, we get occupied with our blessing and what we have. And this morning we're going to enjoy some of our blessings and what has been given to us. But as we grow, we will learn that what's more pleasure to our hearts than the blessing?
Is to know the blesser, and that goes beyond the blessing.
Paul said that I might know him and the power of his resurrection.
As Paul grew in his Christian life, he became more and more occupied with knowing the Lord Jesus than anything else and to know the power of his resurrection, which is the foundation of Christianity. But having said that, Paul here says.
As He had in verse 4, chosen us, and the first blessings that are given are in the fourth verse. What's that blessing chosen us? That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. That's a foundation spiritual blessing to be able to be before God.
And be seen in his eyes as holy.
And if we are, then we can enjoy His love.
As long as there's any doubt in our souls as to where we stand with God.
We don't enter into our spiritual blessings very much, but when we recognize that God has done a work for us and in us through the Lord Jesus Christ that now presents us as holy before his eye, the one holy eye, if you will of all, then we street it as a tremendous blessing. And it's a foundation. It's the 1St.
And so it says if I'm holy, then I'm without blame before him.
That is, He looks upon me, and I recognize He looks upon me, not looking for sin that's been dealt with before His holy eye, that's been taken care of. And so if I'm without blame, then I can enjoy the blessing of His love, and I can say I'm without blame before Him in love and enjoy.
What's in his heart again? The blessing is more important than the blesser.
And we want to get to know the supreme joy of our hearts.
Is to know the joy of the Father's heart and the joy of his Son, and when we have the same joys that the Father and the Son have, will be blessed in our souls when we enjoy it beyond anything else that we can have. And so having said that, then the next one in verse 5 is.
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Predestined, that is, chosen us ahead of time.
For what?
The adoption of children.
Can you think of any better family to be in than God has chosen to make you one of His children?
And that you now call him your father and you know that relationship with him.
That's a blessing that is a spiritual blessing that is yours and mine to this morning address God as Father and to know I I didn't choose the family I'm part of.
My parents didn't even choose me in a personal way. They got what came, but it's not true with God.
God knowing you before he founded the world and knowing how you'd be and what you'd act like in your sins as a child of Adam, God put his love upon you and said, I'm going to make you my child.
And I'm going to bring you into a relationship with myself that you can enjoy love with me.
Without the question of sin at all, but to enjoy it in perfect holiness.
And yes, there are things that hinder the fullness of it yet, and I'll make one more comment and stop. And that is because there was nothing at work in the Ephesian assembly that was a hindrance to it. It gave God the liberty to present to the Saints in Ephesus.
The highest truth that is found in the Word of God.
But if there is something in our lives that is, and there can easily be something that hinders.
Then God has to work on us first before He can bring us into the enjoyment of the spiritual blessings. So if you're not enjoying Him this morning, it may be that there is something in you that God in love is going to work on you to remove it. But until it's removed, it's a hindrance to you from truly entering into what God's desires in His.
Individual fellowship with you and with you as part of the body of Christ.
Before I get too far along, I'd like to mention in verse one brethren, it says to the Saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Sometimes people think that there are two groups that are mentioned here really is the same.
Those that are Saints set apart, ones are the faithful. That's in when we're born into God's family. That's the characteristic.
Of a believer in the Lord Jesus. He acts in faith and so it's really.
Every true believer has faith. What measure? Well, the Lord can show you.
And sometimes he has to say to us, oh, you have little faith, but.
The point is, we still have some faith, and that's what's characteristic of every true believer. They're the they are Saints and they are the faithful in Christ Jesus.
And going to verse three, brethren, I want to say a little bit more about this.
All spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
And that is kind of like he's mentioned brother Bill, a challenge to take in because we are.
Are taught from right the youngest on to value.
Material things, and there is some value in material things. I don't say there's not.
But our blessings, brethren, are not material.
They are spiritual and so we have material things, but I like to put them under the category of mercies.
That God loans to us and sometimes He takes away from us as well.
And so you may have a good amount of material things.
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Their mercies God has loaned to you to use for Him. But our blessings are all spiritual. Just go back into Deuteronomy again and verse and chapter 28 to see the contrast. And I think this is important to see the contrast between Israel and the church. Israel was blessed with material things. Notice it.
Chapter 28 and verse one.
Shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
And to observe, to do all his commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all the nations of the earth.
And all these blessings, notice the blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee. And if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, bless it. Shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shall thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, in other words, children, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, and the increase of thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep, Blessed shalt thou be, shall be thy basket in thy store blessed.
When thou comest stand, and would bless it shalt thou be when thou goest out so that.
Their blessings are all material things and they're very real. But brethren, this is the this is the challenge for us today that many people think, oh, the Lord has really blessed me. Look at all I have.
Brethren, you can lose it all too, but these blessings that we're talking about in chapter one of Ephesians, you, if you are a real believer, can never lose. You might lose the enjoyment of it, but you cannot lose the blessing.
Because it's in Christ and that's so important to see. So he's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. No, brethren, the Lord help us to grasp it, to let these things sink down into our souls. Brother Don has been talking about verses four and five being chosen in him being predestinated to a position to.
And these are wonderful things to realize and let that form your life. So many people think they're I'm here in this world to earn a bunch of money and to use it. Well, OK, there's nothing wrong with that. But it's not Our Calling. Lord help us, brother, and to let these things really sink in.
And our lives are made-up of relationships.
Husbands and wives, children and grandchildren, and it's, it's a joy. We enjoy those relationships and they're meaningful to us. And God has purposed an eternity to have those with himself that he can enjoy.
And we can enjoy him so.
When it says that we would be holy and without blame before Him in love, it's because He loves us.
And we love him And so these, these things have an intimate meaning to us. It's not a one sided thing. God just one day said, you know, I'm going to bless the people.
But no, He wanted to bless the people for his joy as well. And that's the beauty of this because our lives are made-up of relationships and relationships are important to us. And so it is here when we see this, we want to see too that God has done something for himself. He's done something for his pleasure, but it's also for ours. It's reciprocal, it's two sided.
And we can, we can be thankful and rejoice in that.
How did God know in that past eternity that there will be an edge stags around?
There's a word that scripture uses. I find it helpful to understand. Let me.
Give you the verse in Romans chapter 8.
And verse.
Verse 29.
For whom he did for no.
Foreknowledge and is spoken of in other parts of the scripture as well.
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So that God.
Never, Brethren, has learned anything. He knows everything.
Absolutely everything.
And so in a wonderful to know a God.
And now he's our father that knows everything. And so he knew before the world was that we would exist. And in that war knowledge, he not only chose this, but he predestinated us. And so is beautiful to think about it in verse 4, the choosing.
And in verse 5, the predestination.
And I find it helpful, brethren, that choosing is He chose our persons.
Predestination is to a place that He had in mind that we would occupy, and that place is to be a sun. Sonship is really the thought here to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.
But going back to that verse four, to talk about being holy and without blame before him in love, that is so tremendously beautiful.
Brethren.
I sometimes give the illustration to our Latin brethren.
Suppose you know a young lady is about to be married and she puts on this beautiful white dress.
And there she has to go outside and and be taken to the place where she's going to be married. And as she walks around along the street, there's some dirty cars and dirty stuff. Do you think she's going to be careful how she walks?
She sure is. Why is she so careful? Because she's got such a beautiful white dress on.
Not to condemn it. And brethren, that's the power of Christianity. We don't.
Strive to attain holiness. He has put us in that position and to enjoy that.
Is going to make us careful in our walk down here. How important that is.
You know, sometimes you see a truck and it says, I don't know, Jacobson and Sons.
Now, you never see a truck that says Jacobson and children, you just don't.
Because it's talking about somebody who's come of age.
It's talking about somebody. He's my son and he's intimately involved.
In understanding something something about the business. And so when it brings in sonship, it speaks about God revealing to us the the things of Scripture. Why do we know about Ephesians or what do we know about Psalms or what do we know about how the Lord is going to come in and reign in the Millennium or that there's going to be an eternal state? It's because we're shunned.
Is because he's brought us into his confidence and so not only do we have the intimacy of that nearness.
But we have the intelligence that God has given us to be able to look into his thoughts and mind of things because we're sons. And that's that's one of the many blessings that are ours is is that we have an in with God as to what he's going to do and glorifying his son and to bringing us into deeper relationship with him in the coming day.
Sometimes you hear a story told.
That there were two children in the family and they got to squabbling.
And one was an adopted child and one was born into the family.
And and so the one that was born into the family says, you know, you're less than me because I was born into the family. And the other one, following up on what Don said a while ago, he says, yeah, well, they had to take you and me. They chose. And it's it's a kind of a warm and fuzzy story.
But it doesn't help the illustration of what sonship is because.
Really on both the natural born and in that story of the adopted 1 They're brought into the same place. But sonship as we have it in this chapter and we have it in other places in the New Testament is an elevation from the place of children. There are children of God in back in for for thousands of years now.
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They weren't known as such. There wasn't a community of them together.
They didn't recognize one another in any special way, and if you ask them if they were such, they wouldn't have necessarily been able to tell you though that they were. But now, since the great work of Christ on Calvary Cross, His ascension, the sending of the Holy Spirit, the place of Yes, we are children of God, like Old Testament Saints were, but unlike them, we have now been elevated to the place of Suns, and perhaps it is our highest individual.
Dignity. But one of the hymn writers put it, we stand accepted in the place.
That none but Christ could claim it is a dizzying.
Position or standing as you put it, Bob, that we have a place of sons.
There is nothing that could be higher than that and the gospel of the grace of God's purpose.
It's not only to provide for you and me the forgiveness of sins, but step by step our blessings are unfolded as they are in this chapter that we might share in the glories of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's your destiny.
Almost every Christian blessing we have, these spiritual blessings are present. We have them now.
Except one. We're not glorified yet, but he's going to glorify us.
And we're going to be there with and like Christ. He won that place totally through grace.
And according to the marvelous counsels of God, that we are assigned a place.
Next to him also his sons to be able to call the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We now pray ABBA father, this is this is the the peak.
When the prodigal son came home from the far country, he had made-up the prayer that he wanted to say, Make me as one of Thy hired servants.
God doesn't need any more hired servants. What he wants is sons.
And so he didn't even let the prodigal son get to that part. Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, put shoes on his feet and a ring on his hand and and kill the fatted calf. He wanted sons to sit down at his table to enjoy fellowship with himself. Brethren, this is where we've been brought.
Are we living in the enjoyment of it, President? I just think this is the tremendous challenge.
To our souls now.
Would it be right to say comments on the expression that's already been made about relationship and its connection with spiritual blessings and what we have in this chapter?
When in the very beginning of God's book he creates man, and in the very beginning he says about it, it is not good.
That man should dwell alone.
God has so created us that we are not fulfilled without relationships.
A man that is, or woman or child that is totally alone.
Is not is going to still have something in them that's unsatisfied and unsatisfiable. You can have the best house in Walla Walla. You can have the fanciest car in Walla Walla.
And it's not to have it mean that it's sin, but it will not of itself bring lasting satisfaction to the soul. There's no relationship in it that we use spiritual blessings. The word spiritual connects itself with the word Spirit, and it's the spirit in us that brings us into relationship with God.
If we had only a soul and only a body, we'd never know God.
Our way of knowing God is by the Spirit.
And so those things that bring us in relationship to God are spiritual in their character.
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And so it is that in the supreme sense of it, it is not good that man shall dwell alone. When God's beloved Son became a man, he became a man to remain so.
A holy, perfect man, one that honored and glorified and did the work of God on earth.
And returned to his father's house.
But it is not good that man shall live alone.
And so God provided from a past eternity that his own beloved Son is a man, would be able to share and have a relationship with men.
And so he forms the church, his body, and it's the closest possible relationship that two can have, and God has brought us into it. God wants himself to have creatures to share with even he Himself in his being, if you will, doesn't want to be alone. And he never has been, because he has always had the Son.
And so, in deity, the Father and the Son have always had perfect sharing.
But now that he's created us, he says, I want you to be my family. I want you and I to share.
And one could go on all morning on it, but one further thought connected with it and that is.
You have to have common interests and common capacity.
To share.
There are things that you in this room, if you have a child, you can't share it with your child yet.
It doesn't have the capacity, it hasn't learned yet to share with you what you wanted to know and enjoy and it to enjoy you.
God in bringing us into his family in order that we might share together all that is in his heart toward us, he said. I'm going to give you the life of my son.
I'm going to give you that life of my son, which is in we sang the first song we sang 216 or whatever is eternal life. It was called resurrection life in the hymn because.
If the life of Christ can only be had and given by God in resurrection, and it is a resurrection life beyond death.
And that makes it eternal. And God says, now you and I can enjoy together because you have the same nature as my son.
A divine nature. You have the same life as my son and as a such.
Your heart's desires and mine are the same. Never been with somebody and they wanted to do one thing and you wanted to do another.
Well, not so in what God brings us into exactly what gives pleasure to God will eternally be pleasure to us. Nothing that God doesn't want will we ever want in resurrection life. And so our sharing and these are these things are part of our what's called here spiritual blessings.
But you say, Don, I'd like to go back again to verse three to mention something that has not been brought out. Blessed be the God.
And Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice in verse.
17 When he's praying towards the end of the chapter, it's to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Chapter 3 and verse 14 He is praying again and it is to the Father.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's beautiful to think what you're bringing out, Don, that the Lord Jesus as God.
Became man to have our company for all eternity. Wonderful, incredible, wonderful things to think about.
But I often think of what it says in Psalm 22.
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Where the Lord Jesus says, Thou art my God.
From my mother's belly as soon as he became Incarnate.
In the womb of the Virgin Mary he could say my God. Before that he was God.
And in that sense he couldn't say my God, but as soon as he became Incarnate.
As a man in the womb of the Virgin Mary, he said, My God, thou art my God for my mother's belly.
But he doesn't use that in his lifetime.
Except at the end of those three hours of darkness on the cross, when he cries out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Wasn't he his Father? Yes, he was. But at that moment it was God in the holiness of his character that was dealing with the question of sin in his own beloved Son.
And he says, my God, my God, the only time.
I think he says that, but it's beautiful. Then when he in resurrection, he says to Mary.
I ascend into my God and your God, my Father and your Father. So we're introduced into that eternal relationship that there was between the Father and the Son. We know God, that God that is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know him as our Father. It's incredibly wonderful.
When the expression my God is used, it's.
Usually either nature or power, isn't it? And sometimes both.
When it brings in Father, it's relationship. And we do have both in this chapter, God and Father, don't we?
So just to go back to the practical side of it for a moment in a broad picture.
All of those heavenly blessings which are mentioned here in verse 3.
All of those spiritual blessings in heavenly places I would suggest.
Just so we get it clear, they are brought before us in chapters one and two of Ephesians.
If you wanted to categorize it a little bit more, you could say chapter one is more individual blessing, Chapter 2 branches out into more collective blessing, and then as you mentioned, Brother Bob.
Now it's our privilege and our exercise to enter into them. And Paul takes a whole chapter, Chapter 3, to talk about that, doesn't he takes a whole chapter. He starts out the same as he would.
Same as he does in the 4th chapter, but then he takes a digression.
And has to talk about how we are going to enter into those.
Those blessings. And so once again, and this is going beyond what we have in this chapter.
The prayer in chapter one is addressed to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And this has already been mentioned. The prayer in chapter 3 is addressed to the Father.
That is getting close in the relationship and in the enjoyment of what we have. But in the first two chapters, it's God who as God.
Purposed all this for us before the foundation of the world, and now he says here are all those blessings.
As a brother under whose ministry I sat long ago when I was growing up used to say every Christian blessing is a mountain peak beyond which even God could not go, Maybe some remember the source of that quotation. Every Christian blessing is a mountain peak beyond which even God himself.
Could not go. Very true, isn't it?
When it comes to the passage in verse.
Of four.
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. It is important to understand that this is part of the individual blessings that we each enjoy. It is not a collective election.
00:50:16
Israel as a nation had, as Paul writes in Romans 9, to whom pertaineth the adoption?
The national adoption of Israel as sons going way back to what the Lord said to Moses that he was to say to Pharaoh, Israel is my son, even my first born, and he was to tell Pharaoh, let my son let my people go. That was a national election, not individual, but election for the Christian is individual. He chose you.
It does not say.
In verse four, according as He hath chosen it, referring to the corporate entity that we are part of as the bride of Christ or as the body of Christ, He chose us. Us is plural, a series of individuals. It's pointing out an individual blessing He has for you. He knew you before the worlds were made.
However many billions of years you want to plug in there.
He knew you then, and in the fullness of time He called you one by one, and he brought us in. And we're told that the gate is straight. It's narrow. I picture it as the kind of a gate that you can only go through one at a time. And that's the way we're saved if any man hear my voice.
And so one by one we come in. But it is a blessed thing, and it establishes our souls as worshippers.
To be able to look back and say why me?
I don't know.
What the answer is to that, I'm not sure we ever will, except that He loved us. But it's individual, and I think it's important to see that He's chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
Fellowship.
His goal was fellowship.
And this is what he had in his heart, and it helps me at least to say that God could have done anything that he wanted.
And all eternity.
And this is what he did, this is what he wanted to do because he wanted fellowship.
And then to review.
What did he have to do to bring me into fellowship with himself without a shadow in first John Three we have We are born in.
His genetics.
Gone one.
We are born.
Not a blood, not of the will of the flesh.
We are given, as you were saying, Bruce earlier, the very life of Christ.
He was the one that stood in our place, the last Adam.
Suffering for us. Glorifying God on our behalf, Going to the cross.
Dying, bearing our sins, resurrected, and sending the Spirit of God down to dwell in us. These are spiritual blessings.
That we may.
Be sitting here listening and feeling that it's not doing me much good.
If I'm not right, I'm not walking in the Spirit. I cannot understand my spiritual blessings. I cannot enjoy them because they are based on fellowship and God has given me every everything and it's waiting for me to take advantage of anytime I want.
But it really is only by and through the power and the ministry of the Spirit of God within that can bring me.
Into true fellowship with my father and with his son.
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And with the glories that I have as we have in verse 3.
In Christ, what do I have? Whatever Christ has.
I have wherever he is, I am. This is. This is the fullness of spiritual blessing.
Another thing that brother you mentioned, Bill said that about Ephesians, was that you will not be blessed more in heaven than you are right now.
I must say I enjoyed that a lot. You will not be blessed more in heaven than you are right now.
The question is the enjoyment of it and the expression that we have here in these verses, brethren in Christ so often in Him, in the beloved, in whom? It's all in Him. But I want to add one more here that I enjoy.
In love at the end of verse 4.
Young people, do you know you're in love?
That's our place. Isn't that amazing? God looks at us with unmeasured love. You may not enjoy it, but that's your place. And we need to have our thoughts, brethren, formed by the Word of God.
I remember when I was young I didn't get married till I was 30 and I looked around and saw so many of my good buddies getting married earlier.
And I wondered what happened to me, maybe there's something wrong with me or something. But.
To realize, brethren, you're in love. You're in a love. They cannot know any nation. Oh, how wonderful.
It's important to notice, isn't it? I know this is not particularly only, or shall I say it, it's not only in Ephesians, it's throughout Paul's writings, but it was a special revelation, one of the revelations that God gave to Paul from a risen Christ in glory, that the believer.
Positionally is in Christ. No one preached that before Paul did.
Well, what a precious expression that is, and how wonderful to realize that every true believer is in Christ.
Very practical. Perhaps I can take a moment and tell a story that I've told before, but it took place about the time of the Reformation, where a Saint of God who had come into the good of the Gospel was dying. And of course, in those days most of Europe was steeped in the doctrines of Roman Catholicism, which.
Said that you couldn't really know for sure what was going to happen and there was a purgatory awaiting you and one thing and another and.
People tended to fear death, even those who had come to know the Lord.
But this old man was very, very peaceful on his deathbed and his family and his children around him couldn't understand it and.
One of them.
Said Father. What are you resting on? You're very quiet. You're very comfortable. You're very relaxed.
Oh, he said. I'm resting on the finished work of Christ.
Well, that didn't somehow cut it with them, as we say. And another one spoke up and said, well, father.
What are you going to do?
They spoke in terms of the only language they could understand.
What are you going to do if you get to the gate of heaven and the Lord won't let you in?
Oh, the old man said, if God won't let me into heaven.
He'll have to put his own beloved son outside first.
And they were shocked at what seemed to them to be absolute blasphemy.
Was the old man right? Yes, he was. Because if you and I are not fit for heaven.
According to Paul's ministry, then, Christ is not either, because we are in Christ.
And the old man had gotten hold of that truth, and he was dying.
In the good of it and throughout Paul's epistles, you'll find that expression.
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In Christ over and over and over again. And I venture to say that while it's not peculiar to Ephesians, it's one of those blessings that you and I have. Don't we?
But I add to that that it says that Christ is in God.
Well, that's true too, yes.
Well, I'm just saying that because it's it if, if we're in Christ and Christ is in God, you can't get any nearer to God.
It's impossible to get near to God than being in Christ with Christ as in God. That's the only reason I mentioned that.
Asians it's in Christ and Colossians it's Christ in US. Beautiful to see.
Could you sing #200 and 14214?
Sailor with surpassing.
Our sins.
To die.
In 1000.
Rupees are gone and.
Is the sovereign and great.
S of dying.
Man.
And blessed us with God blessings in his Son.
Who is priceless life?
Maybe read a verse before we pray in Romans 8.
Romans 8 and verse 14.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are.
The sons of God, for you have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear.
But ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA Father.
The Spirit itself, bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God or the sons of God.
And if children and heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be, that we suffer with him, that we also may be glorified together, Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for bringing us to this portion for the time to be in Thy word.
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Lord, in another place you say you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And a brother asked in this meeting, How are we?
Practically work this out. We see what thou has done, Lord Jesus, what thou hast done, our God and our Father in sending him that we are sons. And Lord, we pray for thy, the power of Thy Spirit to nurture us and groom us and shape us and form us.
That we might be growing up in Him, We pray for blessing on the rest of this time in Jesus mighty name, Amen.
Seven Foundation Truths of Christianity
Address—B. Conrad
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Well, good afternoon. Let's start our meeting with singing part of hymn #25.
Hymn 25. Just the 1St 4 verses of #25 If someone could start that please.
I shall share.
Our sunglasses.
Let's pray. Our God, our Father, we thank thee.
Were the thoughts expressed in this hymn and in the readings we've had together?
As to the place that we have been assigned by Grace.
Thou has blessed us, as the apostle would say, is exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think.
And we stand like little children before the majesty of Thy Person, Thy Grace, and those councils that thou hast told us about and displayed to us in thy precious word. And so we would ask this afternoon, that would give us the liberty to take up some of these precious.
Things in a way that would be profitable for the young and for the old.
So we commit the time to Thee, our God, and ask for the leading and liberty of Thy Spirit to take these precious things and to rehearse them together. Forgive thee. Thanks our God for all thy love. We ask this Lord Jesus, in thy worthy and precious name, Amen.
Well, I know that we are all used to.
Young Christians meetings, Young believers meetings being largely exhortation.
And I don't plan to.
Umm, take up.
Things that would be exhortation today, not my exercise.
Not that there isn't.
Great profit in exhortation.
We read in First Corinthians that the prophets speak to edification, exhortation, and comfort.
But I've been exercised recently very much.
That sometimes we skip a couple steps.
In our desire to help and encourage one another.
And the step I think we often skip is what I would call explanation or instruction.
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And so my exercise this afternoon, especially for those younger in the faith.
Is.
To bring before you some information.
Say, well, that sounds kind of dry, no?
The world.
This natural world that is around us, on which we stand.
Was formed and is sustained by information.
Information that came from God.
We're all familiar with the 1St chapter of the Word of God. And God said, and God said and God said.
God spoke and it was so, and God communicates.
And he communicates by sending information, if I could put it that way, out into the universe of nothing.
We sometimes think of another retired ironworker and I who are used to in our career lifting and hanging and supporting heavy things. And he said to me, did you ever think of that verse in Joel? He spread, spread it forth the north over the empty place, and hang at the earth upon nothing.
Oh, it's wonderful to think. And now more and more those.
Even unbelievers who are scientists who are studying this natural creation.
More and more they are standing in awe of how a living self, of your body, of all everything that has life.
And even the atoms and everything else that makes this platform on which we stand.
Comes from a God of intelligence, a God of purpose, and he communicates with information.
And so how suit it is, isn't it in John chapter one that he should be called the word of God? That one who in his own person came out from God from that place where he dwelt for all eternity in the light that no man can approach unto, as we read in first Timothy 6?
No being could approach into the into those into that sphere.
Where God exists in the essence of His person. But God has been pleased to come out from there in the person of His Son, and He has spoken to us and communicated to mankind in the person of His Son and through His precious Word.
And in a certain sense, that's information. It is information of a divine source, and it is meant to accomplish things.
As we read the scriptures over the years, decades for many of you in here.
We work at trying to understand what we're reading. Where does it fit with everything else?
And much of developing understanding of the Word of God is learning to discern where things fit.
I'm going to read a verse in Philippians chapter one. It's just to start with that describes that process a little bit. Philippians one and verse 9.
The apostle writing to this, to the Saints in this gathering, this assembly, and this, I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and in all judgment or intelligence, that she may approve things that are excellent, or in other translations that she may approve of and understand things that differ.
Much of gaining understanding of things is to understand things that differ, to make distinction between things and not have them all jumbled together.
Another introductory verse I'd like to read is in Matthew 13.
In verse 52.
Jesus said unto them, sorry, verse 51, have you understood all these things?
They say unto him, Yeah, Lord.
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Then said He, under them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed into the Kingdom of heaven, is like unto a man that is in a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
And so in your household, on your property, where you live, you have all kinds of things.
You have outdoor things, you have shovels probably you have sledgehammers, you have bars, you have maybe chain falls and and chainsaws and and outdoor stuff.
You have big shears that you maybe trim your hedges in front of your house and things like that.
And then you go into another part of your house and you have little tiny scissors.
That you sew and make clothes, or you cut paper, or you do other things like that you have.
A silverware or, or things that you eat with and that goes in a certain place and you don't just have it and it's a a disastrously disorderly home if somebody comes in and puts a chainsaw down on the kitchen counter.
Or if.
The people that are preparing the food, the ladies of the house, maybe they say, why, where are all the knives that I'm trying to set the table? There aren't any knives here or forks and say, oh, well, you know, Junior had them out in the backyard and they're they're all in the we need to pick them all. And so this is what this is what can happen.
And it takes time to understand where things fit together so that we can have the kitchen, things in the kitchen and the garage, things in the garage and the basement, things in the basement and all the rest.
You and I as believers, we can apply this to ourselves. What the Lord said to his disciples, did they understand what they heard? Most likely not, but they said they did. The Lord doesn't take them up on that, but He brings before them a very important.
Responsibility, if I could put it that way, that every man that is a householder bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
And you and I have the privilege to read in the prophetic Scriptures, one of the brothers mentioned Isaiah and, and we have the Old Testament prophets. These are to us old things. They're valuable things. We need to understand these things because these old things are prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled, and they shall be.
And distinct from that, there are new things.
If you look in your, if you have a concordance in your phone and you and you use it to look up words like many brethren do nowadays, you'll notice that the word new, there's two words for new in the original language. One means just kind of fresh, you know, like.
You wake up and you say it's a new day, or you say you know, I I have new sheets on the bed or.
Or I put some new water in the vase or something like that. It's just something that has been there before that's fresh. But that's the minority of words in the New Testament. Over 40 or maybe 50 times in the New Testament, there is a word that means, in my American slang, brand spanking new.
You may save your money as a young person and buy a car.
And it may be 10 years old with 50,000 miles on it. And you bring it home and you say to mom and dad, look, I have a new car. Well, it's not really new, but it's new to you. But if you, if you go and you have, you're able to go in the brand new model is hit the streets and you've read about it and you go and you get one of those, then everybody can see, well, that's a new kind of it's brand new. There's never been another.
And in the New Testament, usually the word is brand spanking new, a totally new thing. And that's what you and I have been brought into.
Now, last September.
At a conference that I wished I could have attended but I I I couldn't, a brother that I am close with and have known for many years gave up what I felt was a very helpful address. It was in Mayfield, KY, you can look it up.
00:15:07
And his exercise was to communicate, and I put this construction on it.
Afterwards, when I listened to it was to communicate information, and the information that he communicated was in the form of two questions. The first question he asked everyone was did the church that you and I are part of exist in the Old Testament?
And he went through a number of scriptures showing that it absolutely did not because it is a brand spanking new thing.
That was formed after certain things that God accomplished took place, namely the coming of the Son of God from heaven.
The rejection of the Son of God from heaven as the stone that the builders rejected.
He became the head of the coroner, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his sending down the Holy Spirit. And he referred in Matthew 16 to the Lord Jesus himself, saying to Peter and the others on this rock himself, the rock I will build my church future.
And he developed that whole thought. So the short answer that I'll just give you this afternoon is, did the church exist in the Old Testament? No.
The second question that he proposed and and proceeded to answer was a brother here mentioned it a few times this afternoon was was the church prophesied of in the Old Testament? Short answer no, and a brother sitting over here made reference to to a couple passages in the New Testament which show that the Church of God, which is the body of Christ.
And the bride of Christ.
Was hid in God and not revealed in Old Testament times or in Old Testament scriptures.
And you say, well, what about a type? And as the teachers back East where I'm from used to say to us, a type is a type of nothing until you have the revelation of the thing. And once the substance and the revelation of The thing is revealed to you. But then you say.
That's just like Genesis 22, or that's like just like Genesis 3, or that's just like this or just like that, and you begin to see all these pictures.
Of the thing that was newly revealed. So the existence of the church as made-up of children of God that are now gathered together in one was a mystery hidden God and is now revealed as a brand new thing. And he developed that. And so the answer to his second question was no. I thought that talk and I suggest you listen to it.
Not just because he's my brother friend, but.
Because I felt it was really timely and valuable to many. And Christianity Today, we know how the winds are sweeping.
Of different types of error resurfacing in in amongst the people of God and the particular truth that the brother brought out in that address was spot on to put into people's understanding the passages of Scripture, the right information that forms the right thoughts in US and organizes our lives properly.
So that we can be here for his glory because the God's intent by communicating information to us.
Is that it has a process in US and leads us to live a character of life to have a character of thoughts and interactions with others that are consistent with the place that he has for us now in this one Newman in this new thing that he has created the Church of God. I would like in the short time that we that we have.
As that brother focused on the collective side of things.
I would like to focus on a few.
Fundamental and basic Christian truths in from the word of God that are individual. And while I was pondering this, I thought of seven. I don't know if we'll get through 7. Some of them we got through in the reading meeting. Anyway, the first one I want to speak about is forgiveness. Forgiveness. And so we could just go to Ephesians 1.
00:20:03
We spoke about.
The verse. The seventh verse. Redemption through his blood, The forgiveness of sins.
And you say, how can you say that that's a new thing? Because Psalm 32 is quoted in the New Testament.
And we can go back to Psalm 32, and David speaks about how blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and whose sins are covered. But if you I don't, we don't have time to develop any of these very much. But I will point out to you that the type of forgiveness that David was enjoying as a blessing is not the forgiveness that you have as a Christian.
In second Samuel after David committed.
The horrible sin of stealing your eyes, wife.
And having Uriah killed with the sword of the children of Ammon, Nathan came to him and spoke to him very plainly in in parable form to his conscience. And it had the effect on David of giving him to judge what he had done, and to make confession. And he said, I have sinned before the before the Lord, before Jehovah.
And Nathan said, God hath put away or taken away thy sin, thou shalt be saved.
No.
He didn't. Nathan didn't say to David, it's good that your sins have all been forgiven. No, he said. God has taken away your sin. You will not die.
And David rejoiced and exalted in the fact that he received forgiveness from God for that sin. If I'm right, connecting Isaiah 30, Psalm 32 with that occasion. And I think that's where it lines up.
And so, as brethren have taught for.
Decades and decades.
The forgiveness that you read about in the Old Testament and the forgiveness that you read about in the Gospels before the Lord Jesus.
Laid down his life on Calvary's cross is the forgiveness that has to do with this life. We would call it sometimes we call it governmental forgiveness. Thou shalt not die. God is not going to take your life away, David, because of what you did yes, he was under the government of God in his life as we all know, but.
He had a form of governmental forgiveness.
In John chapter 5.
I think it is there was the man at the pool of Bethesda had been there 38 years. The pool would move and he had no man to put him in. And the Lord showed mercy to him and healed him. And the Lord found him, I think it was the next day and said to him, revealed himself to him and said to him.
Sin no more, unless a worse thing come upon you.
In Matthew 18, in the parable that the Lord presented to the disciples as part of this similitude of the of the Kingdom, the man who who owed in our terms millions, went and begged for forgiveness, and he received it. And then he turned around and ground his, his one who was indebted to him to maybe, I don't know, 5 or $10,000.
Grabbed him by the throat.
And what happened, the forgiveness that he had was revoked. So I just don't have time to develop this. But when you read the word salvation, when you read the word forgiveness in the Scripture, there are different aspects to it and different context to it. And we all need to learn what we're reading about and where we're reading.
What kind of forgiveness do you have? A totally brand new type of forgiveness.
Because your forgiveness is based upon a work of accomplished redemption on Calvary's cross.
And as soon as the Lord was risen, he began to speak about it. He spoke about it in Luke chapter 24.
And as one of the brothers mentioned here, maybe it was here earlier this morning.
Forgiveness began to be preached as soon as the Lord Jesus communicated the Holy Spirit and and the disciples went out. Not to say that there is a future forgiveness as Isaiah and the other prophet said.
00:25:06
But that if there is a forgiveness that may be laid hold of by faith and may be had as a present possession. And so if you put your trust in Christ, that's the kind of forgiveness that you have. You have the forgiveness of sins. Let's just turn to for for one verse to Acts 13. I believe this is one of the earliest occasions.
When the apostle Paul's, a content of his preaching was recorded in the Word of God.
Acts 13.
Verse 38 Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you. The forgiveness of sins. In Romans 3, where brother Bob referred to us in the reading meeting, we see there that the apostle develops the the the thought, the information.
That God.
Exercise forbearance to men before the Son of God himself came into this world.
Let's just read it, it's quicker than paraphrasing Romans chapter 3. I will reread part of what Bob read.
Verse 25.
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation or mercy seat, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission or passing over of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God.
Old Testament Saints subsisted under the forbearance of God.
Forgiveness was promised as a future thing, but after the work of Christ was accomplished, in the Spirit of God sends out the fruit the message of it.
Forgiveness is now preached and it may be possessed as a present possession by believers, by men and women of faith, and that's what you have. It is different than the forgiveness that David spoke about. It is different than what Old Testament Saints were privileged to know and enjoy.
Forgiveness is.
As someone expressed.
Incomparable.
Mercy, that we have been pardoned.
In the face of the enormity of our sin.
But if God had just left it that way, He could have pardoned you and taken away your guilt.
And left you.
To wallow around, so to speak.
As a Sinner.
Because forgiveness doesn't give you new life.
Forgiveness doesn't give you a new nature. Forgiveness doesn't give you a new object.
Forgiveness doesn't in itself doesn't give you a new standing before God, your forgiven Sinner.
If somebody defrauds you and you see them on the street and you decide to be gracious and to just let it go and say forget it, I've written the debt off, you have defrauded me, I forgive you.
But it's you're not inviting them to coffee, you're not saying you want to enjoy their company. But more than forgiving our sins as the next verse in Acts 13.
Which was referred to this morning as well. Acts 13.
And 39 be it known unto you, I'm sorry, verse 39 and by him, or as a brother corrected it in the reading, in him all that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. This is the first inkling we have of the wonderful truth of justification.
Of being made righteous, that is beyond being forgiven. Yes, you're forgiven.
You have eternal redemption. Your sins and iniquities will not be remembered anymore. You are pardoned, full and free and forever. But more than that, He has justified you. He looks upon you and reckons you as if you have never sinned before.
00:30:08
And he develops justification in the end of Romans three, he meaning the apostle Paul.
And into chapter four and five to show that not only are you justified from all things which Moses law could not.
Undertake. But the believer now has a life. He is regarded as a justified person, and has a life connected with Christ, to which sin has never been, nor could it ever be attached.
That's what the New Testament teaching of justification brings before us.
Are you inherently righteous? No, you're not. You have a fallen nature.
You're probably dealing with it today. You are not inherently righteous so that God looks upon you and say I have looked him up and down.
And now that he's a believer, he's inherently righteous. You are not. And by receiving life, which we hope to get to, that doesn't make you inherently righteous either. It's God's estimation of you because of the work of His Son, that he counts you as righteous even though you are not intrinsically so. We read in 2nd Corinthians 5 He, God, hath made him the Lord Jesus.
Sin for us was he did he have sin intrinsically? Absolutely not. He was that holy thing in him is no sin. He knew no sin and did no sin, but he was made sin and then it goes on to say at the end of verse 14. I think it is second Corinthians 5 that we might the ye might be made the righteousness of God in him.
And so it is we have this.
We have this life, we have not only sins forgiven, but this is a New Testament blessing. That Old Testament Saints did not have to be conscious of the fact that we stand before God in a new condition and a new position, and that position was not available to us before the man Christ Jesus was raised out from the dead.
By all the rest of the dead, by the glory of the Father.
There's one man in heaven now. There's one man who has been risen. Resurrection has to do with the body.
And young people get confused. They say my uncle John, my aunt, my aunt Mary, they're with the Lord. And and I, I, it gets all confusing to them. They are with the Lord as to the essence of their person, their spirit and their soul. But their body was laid lovingly in the ground.
They're separated from the body, and that's what death is in that connection.
And you and I know that when the Lord comes, they will be raised, and they will then have a body.
A changed body, a glorified body, a body like his resurrection has to do with the body. The good thing to remember that? And so it is when the Lord Jesus was raised out from among the rest of the dead and took his place as a risen man in a place where no man had ever been before.
He is the forerunner, he's the first fruits. He's taken a place on the other side of death.
And there he is, and God in grace has assigned you and me.
That place in him justified in him. We need to move along.
Yes, there was a desire in Old Testament Saints to be just, to be justified, and there is are certain expressions about Old Testament Saints. There was such a thing as faith in Old Testament Saints, and there was the righteousness of faith in Old Testament Saints, but not until the Lord Jesus is the forerunner.
Burst into the other side and took his place there as a risen man.
Was there, could there be such a thing as being justified in him?
And so you're forgiven and you're justified.
Doesn't mean God wants your company.
There's probably people in this room who have done things for other people.
Gracious things gotten them their first job, helped them get their first car.
00:35:03
Got them out of a jam or a difficulty and change their condition.
Change their position by getting them funding and education or doing an apprenticeship or whatever it was.
But still that doesn't mean that there is a desire for company and I was enjoyed the brothers comments this in the readings that we've had so far.
That it's about relationship. Because as wonderful as redemption is.
It is a means and I don't mean in the slightest way to be.
To lessen it, but it is as wonderful as it is the means which brings us into a place where God has fulfills his counsel and his desire to bring us into relationship with himself. And so in Romans 5, we read there. I'll turn there for just a moment.
We read in Romans 5 and verse.
10 for if when we were enemies.
We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
No death of his son, no reconciliation.
Was David reconciled to God? He was not. He was a man after God's own heart. He was a man of faith.
He had divine life, but he was not reconciled to God.
Colossians teaches us and the other four or five verses that we have that speak about reconciliation.
The foundation of it is the blood of Christ shed on Calvary's cross, because God is holy.
And God is righteous, as the brother expressed at the end of the last meeting in his prayer.
We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation.
As you know, in most business disputes or interpersonal disputes, there's usually some error, some some folly or fault on both sides. And so a mediator seeks to kind of get both and nudge both out of their hardened position sometimes to come together to reconcile the two parties. That is not what the word of God speaks about.
In regard to reconciliation.
The psalmist could say thou art the same. God is the one who never changes.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. Thank God he doesn't change.
And He never will in that way. He is who He is, the majestic, glorious one in every, every virtue. All of the movement, all of that translation from point A to point B is on your and my part. We are not reconciled with Him. We are reconciled to Him. And it speaks of as this.
Portion in Romans 5 describes.
It speaks of our joy, It speaks of his joy to have us near to himself. When Joseph revealed himself to his brethren, what did he say? He said, Come near unto me, my brethren. And the great work of Calvary's cross was not only to eradicate sin from before God, though it though it will have done that in the coming day.
But to fit you and me, to be in the presence of God and to be there.
In a right state.
With a capacity to understand him.
And to love him and all of his counsels, that's what God wants.
I've heard brothers say when I was young that the human heart has two needs.
Just talking about a human heart and one of the brothers referred to it this morning.
To be loved.
And to be understood.
Stop and think about it. If you're loved by someone who really doesn't understand how you tick or what you're all about, you appreciate it.
The grandmotherly love that I got from my dear grandmother, she loved me, but she didn't understand me at all.
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On the other hand, to be understood and not to be loved, that's pretty cold.
We don't want that. Perhaps you've had a boss or a teacher or somebody like that who got you all figured out, but you didn't sense that they had any affection for you. That's a cold process right there. I've had that happen. No, but the human heart, he wants to be loved. He wants to experience that, that unique form of, of fellowship between human hearts and to be understood.
And gone.
Not only wants us in his presence, clean, holy, blameless, but He wants us to understand Himself.
And he wants us to love himself and everything about him and his counsel, his purpose. And that's what love does.
Well, let's switch gears a little bit. We've kind of covered some gospel truths, some foundational truths.
All New Testament truths.
The forgiveness we've spoken about, the justification, the reconciliation in Paul's doctrine.
True only of the believers that have been brought to God through Christ.
Not the portion of Old Testament Saints. So let's switch it up a little and move a little to John.
Chapter 5.
The next couple ones I thought about.
Are kind of interrelated as a.
Opposed to what we had with Paul.
And they are the believers present possession of eternal life.
As it has been presented to us in John's Gospel.
That in his epistle that eternal life.
The indwelling and presence of the Holy Spirit.
In the believer who has put his trust in Christ.
And Sonship, which we covered, I trust to some extent those three are related.
Working backwards from Sonship if we go to Galatians chapter 4.
This may have been referred to.
There is an elevation.
To the standing of man and woman of faith since the Lord Jesus.
Ascended on high and sent the Holy Ghost.
In Galatians 4 we read the comparison between what a Jew who had immense privileges compared to all other people on the earth.
Had for his privilege and portion and the believer now.
Whether they were a Jew or Gentile.
Verse 26 Ye are all.
The children of God. I believe it should be the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
And in chapter 4 the air, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father. Even so we, when we were children, were in ******* under the elements of the world, but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of a woman, come under the law to redeem them that were.
Under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons or sonship. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, ABBA, Father, wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, than an heir of God through Christ.
This passage shows that to be a Son of God which every believer that has put their trust in Christ is is an elevation of standing before God that no Old Testament St. ever enjoyed.
They were children of God. In the John's Gospel we read that the children of God were scattered abroad, would be gathered together in one. That has happened.
Sonship brings before you and me privileges that Old Testament Saints.
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Could not and did not enjoy. It brings a liberty of access, as a brother was telling me at lunch. It brings the reality that we have an inheritance as joint heirs with Christ. It brings intelligence and discernment. It brings privileges that were never known to men and women of faith before.
And it is connected with the gift and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
In John Chapter 7.
The Lord Jesus on that. I think it was on the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.
In verse 37 of John 7, in that last day, that great day of the feast.
Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Parentheses. But this spake he of the spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.
Future for the Holy Ghost was not yet or not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.
In Ephesians chapter one we read verse 13. After that she believed.
You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
Did you realize it at the time? Maybe you were six years old when you accepted Christ. God seals the Saint. He seals the work which He accomplishes in your soul.
When you believe the gospel of your salvation, not salvation as a theoretical thing.
But the gospel of your salvation as an individual.
Then God seals that just like you seal a finished.
Document A finished set of drawings. A finished legal document. It's sealed.
And the believer who has put his trust in Christ is sealed.
With the Holy Spirit of promise. Old Testament Saints did not enjoy that. How did how did Shamgar do what he did with the with the with the Oxco? The children were singing that how did David slay the lion and the bear? How did all of those things that Samson did, how are they accomplished? The Spirit of God came upon him.
Even Saul, a man who we have no evidence that he was a man of faith.
It says the Spirit of God came upon him.
It's totally different than what you enjoy because the Holy Spirit that sealed you, that indwelt you when you believe, will be with you forever.
Brother Malcolm Hollowell, his son, is here. Maybe his grandchildren, he told me when he was first saved a new Mac many years ago.
He said the reason that I knew that I would be raptured to heaven.
Before the Great Tribulation, which is a subject discussed constantly now in Christianity.
He said the reason I knew it is because John the Lord said in John's gospel that he would send another comforter, he'd be with me forever.
And then I read in Thessalonians that that day shall not come until he, the Holy Spirit, is taken out of the way. And he says, I just put two and two together and realize if he's gone, I'm gone. Interesting way that Matt Caldwell came to that conclusion, which I assume that he kept.
Many years since, but this scripture is plain that an Old Testament St.
Could not and did not enjoy what you can enjoy, the Holy Spirit indwelling you, the Spirit of sonship, so that even the babe in Christ, the Apostle John could say you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things.
And then he continued to teach them and the rest of his epistle. It's very interesting, but such is the capacity that we have from that divine guess, that divine inhabitant, to the better way to put it.
That we have who will be with us and in US forever, the collective side, which is not my exercise to take up.
Is that when you search through the scriptures that you know and think about them?
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It becomes apparent that even though you have faith, it is not your faith that joins you to me or the rest of these believers in this room.
Or the rest of the believers on the face of the earth, men and women have had faith, thank, thanks be to God for hundreds and hundreds of years. But their faith did not unite them in any kind of an any kind of an essential way. It's the Holy Spirit sent down on that day of Pentecost that united believers in dwelling each one.
And uniting them together into one body.
1St Corinthians 12 I'm going to keep moving along here. 1St Corinthians 12 it's by 1 Spirit we have all been baptized into one body, and so the Holy Spirit indwelling you unites you to me.
As we used to explain to the children, if I take a a bowl full of beads, each one with a hole in it, and I show it to you, I said, what is here? You say that's a bunch of beads. You're right. But if somebody puts a string between methodically inside each bead, now the hole is filled with a string. And then you put it all the way through everyone and tie it together, put it back in the bowl. You say to the child, what do I have here? You say it's a necklace. It's a bracelet.
It took on a character of things that is not just individual, it is now corporate. And so there is that aspect of the Holy Spirit's indwelling you and me as to life.
If we go to John chapter 5.
Among many places we could look.
And obviously you know that we are not exhaustively taking up any of these things.
But if it gets you started on running them to ground yourself, I feel that's a good thing to get to get going on.
In John chapter 5.
We read in verse.
21 As the father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, Even so the son quickeneth whom he will.
When Nicodemus came to see the Lord Jesus.
He was somewhat flattering to the Lord and said, we know thou art a teacher, come from God.
But the Lord in discerning his state of soul and his heart.
Made him back up.
You need to back up and he told him you must be born again.
I know it is common to think that you were born again when you believed on the Lord Jesus.
As your savior. But the scriptures teach that you believed in the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
Because you were born again.
From that to ground, because it's something that's good to understand.
How did you get born again?
The sovereign action of God in your soul.
He quickened you. He gave you life.
The Old Testament Saints had life. We have things in common with the Old Testament Saints.
They were men and women of faith.
They had life from God.
They were put through the paces morally to train them, to prepare them, to grow them. Think of Abraham, think of Jacob. What a work of God, of the Potter on the clay.
They had aspirations for future blessing. They had confidence in God even though they didn't have the assurance of faith that you have.
And you only need to read the Psalms to see that.
It's very interesting. They were many of the Psalms. The psalmist is.
Is tested. He's under tribulation in many places. He says it's because of my sins or my failure or our failure.
But he still has confidence in God.
Because he's a child of God and he has faith.
And so there are commonalities between US and Old Testament Saints, and we know that.
But the difference is that you are not only born again like David and Abraham and these others.
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But the gospel, the words of this life, that divine information was presented to you.
And faith lays hold of the testimony that God gives. And when you laid hold of the gospel testimony as a born again soul, you believed and you're sealed with that Holy Spirit of Columbus. And the Holy Spirit is not only the source of your life, but now he's an inhabitant and one with your life. This is.
A peculiar or distinct Christian blessing.
I know it's.
Sounds confusing to say. Old Testament Saints had life. They did.
The character of the life that they had is not the character that John calls life eternal that you have.
Because John defines what it is in his gospel, in his epistle, and he says this is life eternal, that they might know thee.
Father and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. And in John's epistles and in the Gospel we see very clearly that the definition of one, the experience of one, the understanding of one who possesses eternal life.
Is knowledge that God is his Father and that He has the life.
Communicated to him, that is the life of Christ.
Before the world was was was founded, before this planet was spoken into existence, that eternal life was with the Father, as our brother mentioned this morning. The Father and the Son in eternity, in delight, in mutual love and glory, beautiful. That eternal life, John says, which was with the Father, has now been manifested unto us.
And not only was it manifested, that would have been the greatest thing that ever happened on planet Earth.
If God himself took manhood and came to earth and displayed all that God is, there's no more question.
What is right or wrong, or what is glory, or what is it displayed in the person of the Son of God? That would have been enough. But beyond that, of course he went to Calvary's cross. He laid down his life when the Greeks, those Gentile seekers, came to him in John chapter 12.
They said to Philip, I find it.
A touching passage, they said, Sir, we would see Jesus.
Would you ever turn away somebody who came to you like that?
At school.
At work in your neighborhood?
No, you wouldn't.
How it must have pained and strained the heart of the Lord to have to say.
Except a corner. We fall into the ground and die. It abideth alone.
But and if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
I'm looking out this afternoon on that fruit, some of that fruit.
The fruit of that one who died, who took a life that had never been displayed before as a risen man, and shares it with you and me.
Yes, it was the woman that was deceived.
And Adam was responsible.
And how gracious of the Lord.
That when he rose from the dead, he gave the message to Mary.
To another woman, he said, Go to my brethren, tell them I ascend them to my father and your father.
To my God and your God, what a message. What a message.
And she did.
The last one, our time is up in Ephesians chapter one.
Perhaps we will touch on this in our next reading.
Ephesians, chapter one.
And verse eight he hath abounded.
Toward.
Us in all wisdom and prudence.
Having made known unto us the mystery of His will.
Joseph.
Was not only savior of the world, but revealer of secrets.
What a privilege that you and I have.
To understand, to be brought into the understanding of things that the Lord Jesus said many prophets, kings, and righteous men desired. To see the things which you see and have not seen them, and have heard the things which you hear that have not heard.
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What a privilege, what a time to live.
What a wonderful time for you and me to live.
To have the communication.
From the majestic God of glory, and that we might understand these things.
Yes, the psalmist or Job. I know that when I die, I'm going to see God. I will stand before him. There were these little glimmers that came from the confidence that they had in God. It's going to work out. They didn't know how or when, but you and I now know it's not just true of the repentant thief.
It's true of all that have put their trust in him that we now know.
We're absent from the body if we die and present with the Lord that we know when the Lord descends from heaven.
Perhaps today and gives the assembling shout, we're going to be changed in the twinkling of an eye. We're going to be like him. Flesh and blood does not inherit the Kingdom of God. We shall, we will. We're going to be with him. We're going to be like him. We know when we know how we even know why. Wonderful Joseph.
Our true Joseph is a revealer of secrets. He's revealed these precious things to us as his friends, Old Testament Saints.
We're not in the good and the knowledge of what you know. I have tried to distinguish between what could have been known by known by men and women of faith in Old Testament times this afternoon and distinguished the unique and special blessings that you have if you put your trust in Christ. And truly it could be said like the governor of the feast, he said to them.
Man, that was having the wedding. They said you've kept the good wine until now.
And so it is. He's kept the best for you and me for me. Nothing higher. Let's just close in prayer.
Blessed God, our Father.
We look up to the as thy children and thank thee.
With these spiritual blessings.
That we've been brought into in Christ, thy beloved Son.
We thank the Lord Jesus for being willing to come as we often sing from Godheads fullest glory down to Calvary's depth wall. We rejoice to have learned that the powers of death and hell could not keep thee without its rise on the third day. And then many eyes saw thee descend into the ascend into the clouds of heaven.
And Lord Jesus, we wait for thy soon return. In the meantime.
We pray that our knowledge, our understanding of these things would result in us being here for Thy glory, our hearts affections engaged.
And our time, our resources, our lives. Lord Jesus devoted to following the While we wait for Thy soon return, we ask Thy blessing upon thy precious word. Give thee thanks for all thy love, Lord Jesus, and Thy worthy and precious name. Amen.
Ephesians 1:5-7
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Our blessed God and Father, we thank Thee for sitting and only begotten Son to come into this world, to go to Calvary's cross, to die for our sins. You think of this hymn that we just sung.
That tremendous well came mercy hope for just a place within thy door, but we thank thee that we were given much more all the crown. The mansion was all prepared before we most of all we look forward to being a thy presence. We just ask for help that we would enjoy those blessings that we already have right now. Pray that we would live view of heavenly things. Pray that we would.
Detach ourselves from this world and all the material things.
Thank You for Thy mercies that haven't been provided, but pray that we would look for those spiritual and the heavy things we just ask for help as you open Thy word and the precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen, Amen, Amen.
But we kind of talked about things in a general way. Brother Bob, how far did we get in our chapter?
Yeah, we got down to four and five, but I would suggest we start with three just to take the contacts of it, if that's all right.
Ephesians chapter one and verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings.
In heavenly places in Christ, according as He had chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy without blame before Him, in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself.
According to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.
Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will.
According to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him.
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things, after the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ.
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of His glory. Wherefore I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the Saints.
Cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you and my prayers.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints? And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward, who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.
Far above all principality and power and might and dominion.
And every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all.
One thing that we learn very definitely, not only in Ephesians, of course, but.
It's very evident in what we have been reading.
That to put it.
In straight terms.
What we have in Christianity.
Is not primarily all about us. Yes, there is plenty in Ephesians that is about us.
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And it could be described if you could put the emphasis there. In Ephesians, it is we who are emphasized as being in Christ.
Whereas perhaps in Colossians the emphasis is more on Christ being seen in US, and there is plenty in Ephesians, as we have already been talking about, about those spiritual blessings which are ours in Christ.
And the development of them, but at the same time, Paul's ministry is characterized.
By the fact that it begins with a risen Christ in glory.
And all God's purposes in him and that is going to be brought out in the next few verses concerning the mystery of the will of God and how it concerns his beloved Son and so on. But here in verse six it says.
To the praise of the glory of His grace, and then later on in verse 12 That we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ.
I say it from a practical side.
It's very, very important to get hold of that. It's very easy for us to look at all that we have in Christ and everything that is ours in Him.
As making everything in Christianity revolve.
Around us, is it right to enjoy those spiritual blessings as we had this morning?
Indeed it is, and God means us to do so, but at the same time.
God wants to take us to a higher plane than that, Not in the sense of forgetting the enjoyment of our blessings.
But rather occupying us with the source of those blessings.
And all God's purposes in him.
That takes us right out of ourselves, so that no longer are we emphasizing everything that is ours and isn't this wonderful, all the things that we enjoy, but rather God wants us to be occupied with the one who is responsible for it all His glory. And you see that illustrated in some of the ministry of the Lord Jesus.
I'll just take time to refer to it. We don't need to turn to it. It's in Luke 11 I believe.
Where the disciples? Well, let's turn to it.
Luke 11 I believe it is.
No 10, Luke 10. Sorry, wrong chapter. Luke 10.
And here the Lord Jesus has sent out seventy of his disciples to go out and preach.
There they had the express command from the Lord and His power to do it. So there could be no question that what they had been doing was of the Lord and by His power. And they come back in verse 17 saying, Lord, even the devils or demons are subject unto us through thy name.
And the Lord shared in that joy, and he says in verse 18, And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
Behold, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.
And nothing shall by any means hurt you.
But then he draws them back in a very gentle way.
Just to adjust their thinking in the right way. Verse 20.
Notwithstanding in this, rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you.
But rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.
In other words, he is saying, don't rejoice so much in what you have and in what you have done.
Rejoice in what I have done.
Where does that what? What did we have to do with our names being written in heaven?
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Nothing.
Accept our sins. It humbles us, doesn't it? And so going back to Ephesians one, I just say.
Let's remember that when we are considering all those wonderful blessings that are ours in the heavenlies.
And God's call to enjoy them at the same time.
God blends with all that His purposes concerning His beloved Son, which was characteristic and is characteristic of Paul and his ministry, and so He would occupy us not only with those blessings, but with the one who has been responsible and is responsible.
For giving them all to us.
Do you agree with that, Bob? Sure do.
Have the heart of God, don't we, in the purposes that He has?
Yeah, I think we mentioned it this morning, but I'd just like to say it again because I think it's important to distinguish.
Between verse four and verse 5. Verse four is election.
Verse five is predestination, and it's that election concerns our person. He chose us before the foundation of the world, but in that choosing He had a purpose in mind. And that's predestination, isn't it? Here it is. He predestined us unto the adoption of children or sons by Jesus Christ Himself.
If you look at Romans 8, it's interesting it uses the word predestination to.
In verse 29 after that verse that we so often quote verse 28, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the.
Born among many brethren, so predestination is that he's going to conform us.
And this is the way he's working in our lives now, to the image of His Son. He wants to fill heaven.
With sons that are just like the Lord Jesus. This is predestination and so this is what he has predestinated us tomb and then I like the end of verse five of our chapter. It says according to the good pleasure of his will.
Why did he choose me? Why didn't he choose somebody else? Brethren, we can't answer that. We say it was according to the good pleasure of his will. He willed it so, and so we rejoice in that. That's.
I think is beautiful.
And then it goes on in verse six to say to the praise.
Of the glory of His grace.
Wherein he hath made us.
Accepted in the Beloved.
And that beautiful bread accepted in the beloved.
I find so many people.
My travels that don't feel accepted, even sometimes an assembly context, they don't feel accepted.
And it's, I guess, the way people react to each other. I think if we could get a hold of this, it would deliver us from that problem.
You are accepted in the highest level possible.
Accepted in the beloved, it doesn't say in Christ, it says in the beloved. The place you occupy is a place that he looks at you with supreme love. And I like to think of it, brethren, that it is so amazingly wonderful that even the things that seem to be negatives, even the things that seem to be.
Against us.
Can and only work for our good in the end?
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That's the only thing that can happen. You know, sometimes we make mistakes and we get into problems.
But God is so great that He can even take that if we can admit our mistakes and He can turn it into means of blessing for us, That's our God because we are accepting in the planet. I think it's incredibly wonderful. So if there's anybody that doesn't feel accepted, take a look at this verse.
He's made us accepted in the Beloved.
Once you get a hold of that, it doesn't matter whether you feel that others accept you or don't accept you.
Who are accepted in the high level possible?
So there was a distinction made.
Or a comparison of Ephesians and Colossians. And it's also been said that in Colossians you have what Christ is to the Church, and that's why they are encouraged to hold the head, not to be drawn aside to some modern teachings or whatever it was that was afloat doctrinally at the time there was.
In that day, it was the beginnings of the Gnostic system.
Which was a spiritual elitism which took elements from both Judaism and Christianity and paganism. They weren't.
To let go of the head, the heavenly head.
Whereas in Ephesians we could say we have what?
The churches to Christ, but as it was emphasized.
That it's not a matter of our eyes on ourselves and if we look at the comparison of two verses.
Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 10.
Where he's talking about the mission of Christ when he came.
The one who ascended, he's the same.
That descended into the lower parts of the earth than verse 10. He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens.
That's where he is now.
That he might fill all things.
The Old Testament looks ahead to Israel's Messiah.
But it's veiled the fact that he was to fill all things. And another thing that wasn't revealed to them was when he is there, the one who fills all things, he has a compliment with him. And if we go back to chapter one of Ephesians, the end of the chapter here is the one in verse 22 who fills all things.
God has put all things.
Under his feet and gave him to behead over all things.
To the church or the assembly?
Which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all things. So he fills all things. That is the purpose and counsel of God for His Son in manhood. He fills all things, and with him is the fullness of him that fills all things. Would be hard to think of a higher calling.
Wouldn't it now?
All of this if we turn over to chapter 3, where the apostle in a parenthesis and.
Something that Bruce said this morning regarding sonship. You have a collective sonship in the Old Testament. Let my son go that he may serve me in Exodus Chapter 4.
I have called my son out of Egypt, which we know refers to.
The Lord Jesus that's prophetic of the Messiah. But as it's been emphasized, this.
Individuality of sonship, that which each one of us is given to know by faith in the Word of God, is a result of chapter 3 and verse 3. Paul says that by revelation the mystery has been made known unto me.
Go over to verse nine. He speaks of the administration of the mystery.
I'm reading the new translation Hidden throughout the Ages in God.
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Who has created all things?
The mystery is something that was hidden in God. So, Bob, when you were speaking this morning, I was thinking to myself, we have the word of God before us. You even asked Brother Bill about redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Do you know that? Yeah, we know that, don't we? But we also know things that are characteristic, the teachings of the mystery that's been revealed.
The truth of the one body, so the Lord said in the 5th of John.
He tells the Jews that Moses will accuse you.
In whom you trust.
For he wrote of Maine.
Why are these things that we have here not in the books of Moses?
How about Isaiah? Isaiah has been referred to as the Gospel in the Old Testament. The the the 5th gospel you might say.
The book of Isaiah is full of Israel's Messiah. Why are the things that we're reading here not in the book of Isaiah? Well, it was touched on earlier. Something had to happen first that showed that there was no distinction.
Between Jew and Gentile. I'm talking about the cross of Christ.
What's been referred to as the center of two eternities.
And right here we look at the cross of Christ, because there.
He was rejected by his own.
And upon the occasion of the cross of Christ, his resurrection, his ascension to heaven, to the right hand of the Father, and the sending of the Holy Spirit, he forms 1 Newman in Christ. And that's the mystery. So go back to that chapter 3, verse nine. It was hid in God. It wasn't hidden in the Old Testament.
We don't have a type of the body of Christ the bride Yes, and when brother Don was talking about.
Marriage.
Remember exactly how you put it. But I was thinking, did the Jews know when they had the books of Moses, when they had that account of Adam and Eve in the garden and she being brought forth as a compliment to him because it wasn't good that the man should be alone? Did they know that that looked ahead to?
The one who is filling all things and has a compliment, who is the fullness of him that fills All in all. No, they didn't know that. That was waiting for the revelation of the mystery that was to be given to that man, Paul.
A few thousand years later, 1500 years later.
And that's the foundation of the things that we are talking about when we open a book like Ephesians and we read these verses here. This is not something that could be conceived of in the mind of man. This was hidden in God and at the time determined by God after the Lord Jesus was raised.
And became the head of a new race of men.
These things were revealed and that's why we're here talking about these things today.
Couple of thoughts in verses 6:00 and 7:00.
About Grace.
In verse six, to the praise of the glory.
Of his grace in verse seven, it's to the riches.
Of his grace.
And it's the fact that.
As has been said many, many times, but it's helpful to us. Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve. It's preserving us or keeping us from what we actually deserve. And that's mercy.
But grace is connected with the liberty that God has to show when He's in his heart.
When there's no hindrance to doing so. So mercy has looks upon us as a focus and says God says I'm going to have mercy on you and I'm going to keep you from what you really deserve. But grace has to do with God.
00:25:11
Being free.
To act toward us.
Because of what's in his heart toward us and so in verse six to the praise of the glory we don't have mercy brought out in chapter one. It's not the point here for us not to get what we deserve, but rather the chapter is it gives expression to God acting.
With liberty and holiness and truth and righteousness.
And be free to do so because of what Christ has done and what God can do for us in Christ. And so in verse six, it's to the praise of the glory. Glory is the display of excellence. And the more we know God, the more we see a display of excellence.
God is morally and in every other way.
Everything that he does is done in a way that displays himself in his honor and in His glory. And so our acceptance in the Beloved produces in US.
Praise. It's good to think about, good to appreciate. We don't think, you know these things. We don't produce them in ourselves really. It's like we don't just say, well, I'm going to do this for God or I'm going to do that for God as if it started with us. But here it starts with God and it results in what's to the glory, the display.
Of the glory.
Of his grace.
And why making us accepted in the Beloved? But in the seventh verse, it's another aspect of it. It's according to the riches of his grace.
You can have good feelings and a good desire towards somebody and would like to do good to them.
If I could put it this way, you'd like to be like God and show grace.
But then you stop and you say I haven't got it, I don't have the capacity to do it.
I wish I could take this person and show them how much I care for them.
By what I'm able to do for them and you have to stop and say I wish, but I can't do it. I I don't have what it takes.
Here's a God who has rich.
He's not limited as we are in His grace. He is at perfect liberty and He has everything that's needed.
He owns everything, he has all power, and so he can show us the riches.
Of His grace. And to me it connects itself as well with what's the most precious thing there has ever been? What's the most valuable thing that has ever been. I don't know if I'm expressing it very clearly, but redemption, the price that had to be paid.
Exhibits the riches of God.
God could have thought of Oregon purpose.
The rework of redemption and again we've been emphasizing in Christ.
There is no such thing as redemption outside of Christ. It's His blood. The redemption we have is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that was paid our price of forgiveness. And yet God was rich enough in His grace that He.
Predetermined that his son.
Would pay that price and the sons. How did he act when he was going to pay the price? He says to his father, here am I send me. And so he came with the perfect unity of heart with God to display and to bring out for us the riches of God's grace.
00:30:10
Comment please on chapter 2, verse 7.
Where it speaks about the exceeding riches of His grace. Listen to what you have to say.
Go ahead.
I don't know if I can but.
Brother, it makes me think of when the Lord Jesus and the temptation the devil shows him all the kingdoms of this world.
And their glory in a moment of time.
And here.
When he's going to display the exceeding riches of His grace, it takes the ages to come.
O brethren, how little we grasp of it all.
When the coming day of glory for the earth, When Christ comes and displaces glory and establishes the Kingdom of God for 1000 years.
Those who are on Earth.
Are going to look at us.
As the bride of Christ.
And they're going to praise God.
That he could do such things for people. Thankfully, they will not because of the work of God in them, envy us.
In that way.
Abraham's You look at the life of Abraham and all the Bible, he's probably of a man.
Of everything apart from the Lord Jesus. But as a man, he's the most characteristic man of faith.
And when God sees, and so we admire, we appreciate, we respect Abraham.
As the heir of promise by faith, and the life that he exhibited as a life of faith.
But stop and think. Abraham's going to look at you.
And whatever you once were.
And he's going to say, how rich is the grace of God?
That he took you and brought you into a relationship with himself that he did.
Which is a more wonderful relationship than Abraham will ever know forever. That's the riches of his grace because it emphasizes what's in God, not us. Again, I say mercy. We're the objects of mercy because of how God treats us. But when it comes to grace, it's God revealing and expressing.
What's in his own heart?
Totally without respect to the worthiness or anything else of the object of it. And so it's all because of what God is that we have all that we will ever have and not didn't have anything to do with us being anything.
God started with.
Sin filled sinners.
That's you. Consider that a worthy object of God's attention. You know, not really.
But in grace it was and it is, and in the glory of that riches it will be displayed, I think in chapter 2, particularly in that day when God displays Himself and his Son in his millennial glory.
So even the prophet Isaiah.
Looks ahead to a time when Israel's God would be glorified.
And I was thinking of this, we have the word display.
And this morning, Bob, you referred to the prayer beginning in verse 17.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. It seems the emphasis in the prayer in chapter 3 is on Father, but here after he says that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, it says the Father.
Of glory. Now that can take the mind back to the Lord's.
Prayer in the 17th of John.
In verse 24, I believe it is, he says I will, that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am.
00:35:07
That they may behold my glory, which thou hast given to me.
So there is to be a display.
We know that the display is there now, we know where He is by faith, but there's going to be a display before all the principalities and powers of the universe, that which the creation has awaited, the manifestation of the sons of God, the glory of Messiah with his heavenly.
The bridegroom with his heavenly bride.
The entire creation has awaited this display. It isn't displayed yet.
That's part of the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.
But there is going to be a display in a coming day, determined by God.
Hey, does that mean that this is millennial? Is that what you're talking about?
In flight of the 10th verse of the first chapter, that in the dispensation of the fullness of time, that's millennial. So this display you're talking about is millennial. It's going to be displayed.
In in the millennial Kingdom where he will be head over all things in the heavens and the earth according to prophecy, but there will also be the eternal state and that's after all administrations or dispensations have run their course and God shall be All in all. And I like to think of that verse.
God shall be All in all. That's the highest truth in the Bible.
The Millennium has already passed.
Everything where the sun is there as the mediator, it's it's already passed and God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit will be exalted and the temple of God will be with men and everything is going to be over as to the testing of man.
An eternal display.
Yes, that's so beautiful to see that, Dave, and I'm glad you brought that out.
What we get, and I know it's going ahead a couple of verses, but what we get in verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together all things in Christ.
Both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him, as you say, and I don't mean just to repeat what you've said, but.
It's very important to have it clear that that will be displayed in the Millennium.
But perfection will not be there.
Again, quoting an old brother that I sat under, he said remember that the Millennium is really only the front porch.
To the eternal state, and that is true. And so, yes, there will be tremendous blessing in the Millennium, unprecedented, and there will be the full display as we get in Revelation 21 of all that the churches, and they will be displayed with Christ in that glory visible from the earth.
And the Earth will.
Have Christ reigning and being vindicated here.
But again to re quote that verse from cursed Corinthians 15 when God becomes All in all.
Very little said about that eternal state and we don't need to get dwelling on it in this meeting particularly except just to recognize that ultimately everything heads toward that point. Verse ten of our chapter ultimately is in view of that time when.
All the evil will be done away. Sin will never raise its head again.
The Kingdom of God, which will be eternal, will be fully manifested with Christ at its head.
And everything in every way according to God's mind. I like your expression. That's the highest truth in the Bible.
00:40:02
So Bill, is the 7th verse that we just had in the second chapter, is that eternal or is that Millennium?
I'd like to hear what others say, but I wouldn't restrict it to the Millennium.
Would others agree with that? What about that, Brother Dawn? Would you? Would you think that verse seven of chapter 2 would go right on to eternal ages?
I only think it's the doorstep.
Sorry, we didn't catch that. Yes, I believe it's a millennial display. I'd like to turn to Romans Chapter 11. That gives us a little bit of insight, perhaps as to how God works through the dispensations of time.
And.
Romans, Chapter 11.
Concerning what God displays, and when He displays it, and so on, He tells us in verse 33 all the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out for who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who have been His counselor? We talk about the purposes and counsel of God.
Counselor to help inform them, or who hath first given to him.
And it shall be recompense to him again. And then he gives us somewhere summation. I think that's very important to keep track of and all thoughts about the word of God.
For of him.
And through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen.
And it's well to keep before the soul that.
The beginning of everything is of him.
The fulfilling of anything that is going to last and be is through him.
And the purpose for which it's done, and the one to whom it's done is to him. This is referring to God in deity. And it says, To Whom be glory?
Forever Amen. The end result of everything in bringing us into what's called the eternal state will be the perfect eternal.
Expression of the glory of God.
And everything leaning up to it, going back to the way in which God accomplishes it, it's through him, through Christ Jesus.
And so to get just a little idea of how that works in Revelation.
Primary book in the New Testament that gives us anything we call prophecy.
In the revelation we see in the first chapter.
An introduction and then chapters two and three. The responsibility of the church to be the light of the world when the Lord Jesus is not here, and the evaluation of the church's performance. It comes short.
And so the end of chapter 3 as a display of testimony for God in the earth during the time you and I are living.
God says, as it were judges, that the Lord judges it, and said I have to put you aside as a testimony.
For me, but then the question is who is worthy to set things right?
And so in chapter 4 of Revelation, the question is raised, Who's worthy? Who can do it?
Through him we see in chapter 4 the creator of the Earth.
And the creator of the earth has the rights to do what he wants with the earth that he created.
And so as creator, he has the right to step in and act as he chooses to set things right. But that's not his only qualification in chapter 5.
00:45:00
Who hath redeemed the Redeemer is brought out as the Redeemer, the one that paid for everything to have the earth have a right to it.
He sure does, and in chapter 4 he's worthy to do it as Redeemer.
And chapter 6 to somewhat the end and the eternal state comes in in one of the last chapters, the.
Redeemer with all rights for the glory of God. I go back to the Word glory and all things are from Him, for him, and to Him. That Son perfectly glorifies God in setting everything in order before the God. And when is the work is done, the completion of the glory of it will be such that in the eternal state.
There will be no longer sin, there will be absolutely no sin, and none of you and I in this room will have a single thing in us that would ever make anyone recognize that sin had ever existed. There's one thing, though.
Ought to bring our hearts to worship that will. There's going to be one and only one thing that will be seen in eternity that we will ever know that sin existed. There'll be a new heavens, there'll be a new earth, there'll be new bodies, there'll be everything. Satan will be banished. And so that there's absolutely nothing physical.
To make us know that sin ever existed.
Except Loki in the hands and the side and the feet of our Redeemer, and we will see the marks in him forever.
And it will produce, as it should, eternal worship, as we see that eternal reminder of the riches of God's grace and the price of redemption.
Well, since we're talking about redemption, maybe that's a good point to get back to verse seven of our chapter.
And here's one of the blessings of the.
Believer we have redemption in whom?
We have redemption and like has been brought out. It's really the basis.
Of all blessing the groundwork that's so important.
Through his blood, and then one of the results of that redemption through his blood is the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.
O brethren, to realize we are forgiven, our sins are all gone. I know it seems like such a basic subject that sometimes I think we don't stop.
To think about the wonder of it all before a holy God.
I am forgiven.
My sins according to the riches of His grace.
But remember years ago?
With Ted Frazee going out to the penitentiary out here in Walla Walla and speaking about the forgiveness of sins and how that we can have it.
And there was an older man sitting in the back row. I don't know who he was.
Or his name or what he was in there for. But he came up after the meeting and said.
All these years.
I have been asking for the forgiveness of my sins.
Now I understand. I accept him. Thank God for him. It is a wonderful blessing. And sometimes, like I say, sometimes we don't. We think it's so basic. Well, that's for those that just got insane. Yeah. OK. Thanks for us, dude. Enjoy it. Oh, brother, what a wonderful thing that we have.
00:50:02
The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.
I'd like to point out one other blessing that we have. It's in Romans.
Chapter 3 that is based on redemption as well.
Just to point it out to show that it is the basis of all blessing. Redemption is Romans 3 and reading verses, well, let's read from verse 23 and 24.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. There it is again mentioned the basis of this blessing justification.
Being declared righteous. God has been so vindicated.
And glorified in the work of the Lord Jesus, that now he can not only forgive our sins, but he can declare righteous those guilty sinners. Oh, whatever.
Lord help us to enjoy it.
The fact that we have gone through.
From the beginning of the chapter.
Series of.
Blessings. Spiritual blessings.
And we finally get down to verse 7.
Speaks about forgiveness, redemption through his blood.
Is evidence of what one of the brothers said 1/2 hour ago how God centered and God oriented the view is in Ephesians?
We're familiar with the book of the Epistle to the Romans, and after an introduction, the apostle goes through every company, the moral characteristics of every company of men and women that have lived on the earth.
Brings them all guilty. And then in the verses you read in Romans 3.
Shows how God has been pleased to come in and address.
Man's fallen responsibility by the work of his son on Calvary's cross.
And it builds up from there in Romans 3, in chapter 4 and chapter 5, and reaches up one of the peaks where the believer is able not just to joy in his salvation, but he joys in God. Beautiful. So in Romans, it's built from the bottom up.
Because it's more what are we going to do? How are we going to justify fallen man?
Guilty man because for thousands of years, because man is a moral being.
He has a desire, he says. As Job said, how can a man be just with God?
We drink in iniquity like water. We're born under trouble like the sparks fly upward.
How can he be clean that is born of a woman. That was the aspiration and it finally awaits Romans. The building up from the bottom, from the foundation, the laid in the blood of Christ and so on and up it goes in the Epistle of the Romans doesn't go as high as Ephesians, but in Ephesians it's top down. It starts at the very top. And we've been working our way down through these these these blessings that are owed not.
Much demands responsibility, but to the free action of God, because he wanted did it so he wanted it so He wanted to bring mine near to himself, with the capacity and a desire to understand Him and to enjoy Him.
And that's what God has done, and that's what he starts in in in Ephesians. But of course, God being who he is, righteousness is maintained. And so he gets, when he gets down to verse seven, redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
In the construction business, as most everyone knows, you generally go down to build up. You got to go down and lay the foundation.
00:55:03
But there's certainly there's a type of construction that's called top down. We're in a big city with all of these buildings and all of the utilities underground and all the complexity. You can't just open up a big hole. You you have to stabilize everything as you go. And so men have learned to build from that. They'll build the top floor at ground level and dig down and build the next level and work their way down. It's called top down.
And in a complex, crowded city with high rises, that's what they do. And it always reminds me of Ephesians chapter one. It's top down.
It's his desire.
It's him displaying the glory of his grace and then by the way, I can afford to do this and I want to the riches of his grace goes down and and as they say, pulls bottom, it's the bottom layer. So I appreciate that very much. Responsibility has been addressed. I know the young people get get a little bit vexed with trying to reconcile.
The sovereignty of God with man being responsible in these two themes they can see.
Are incompatible in a way, because responsibility says give me, provide for me, show me what you have. But in the sovereignty of God, he's giving those to give and to. There are two different things. Of course. They meet at the cross of Christ. That's where responsibility was met, gloriously so. And that's the display of God's sovereignty and every aspect of his being.
So I appreciate as we've gone through these different spiritual blessings and we're not done yet.
Get down to the fact that yes, God's desire was what it was, but still God is holy in the blood must be shed to enable him to justify the vilest Sinner and still be just in doing it.
Bruce, could we say that when the Lord chose us out before the foundation of the world?
That from there on, he took our responsibility to bring us into that place. We're not even responsible. He he became, he made himself responsible to bring us into that place.
Say in my in my considering your question, it was at Calvary's cross that he addressed our responsibility.
There's in Romans chapter five I think it is, or four.
And this has been the source of a lot of misunderstanding in Christianity.
They say that by the righteousness of one, many were made righteous, many made just.
And they point to Christ's life and say, yes, he lived a perfect life. And so therefore that somehow imputed to you and me.
But in a good translation and you can look it up for yourself, it's by 1 righteousness. It's when he stood in the breach for you and for me and addressed our responsibility fully at Calvary's cross. To me, that's where the sovereign love of God in providing him.
And the wrath of God being poured out on sin, with fury let together at Calvin's cross.
Tom, 8510.
Voted.
Birthday and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
And where do they meet?
I look at the cross.
It's wonderful to rejoice in the mercy and the grace of God.
But we will stand there in his presence, fully justified.
Because of his righteousness.
It just happens to be according to the eternal counsel of God.
That the punishment was meted out to someone else and not us, the Lord Jesus.
He has brought us to that place.
Without sacrificing the least of his nature as God.
01:00:05
No attribute of God was ever compromised.
I can still remember.
Seeing.
A video of Richard Dawkins talking about God's forgiveness and saying well, why can't he just forgive us?
Just abhorring the thought that someone would have to die in our stead.
Why can't he just forgive them?
It doesn't work that way.
Because God is holy.
And every attribute of God.
Will be fully satisfied and was in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our responsibility has been fully proven.
But the fact that we are in Christ has nothing to do with my responsibility.
Was all on him.
Could we have ever learned the depth of the love of God?
Any other way and that he gave his son to Dionne Calvary's cross.
For all eternity. And what Don had said that the wounds in his hand and his side.
And his feet will be recognized in eternity, will be an eternal.
Display of his love for all that were redeemed and so if he just saved somebody.
It would never understand God's love, but we have to remember that the angels are learning.
The love of God, something they never knew before. We're learning the love of God. Christ will be on display and will be on display with Him. It's all connected with the love of God. So it's absolutely necessary that He died to save our never dying souls. You'd never know it any other way.
And not only the love of God, but the truth that God is like, isn't it in the same time?
Fully vindicated.
Maybe seeing #100 and 35135?
01:05:43
42 as well.
Glory to God on high.
Glory to God.
Side. All sides.
Of.
Give us.
A.
Guilty.
Break. Not anymore.
Wrong.
Nothing.
Alone.
Love, I know the and teach.
Love.
God can raise.
No love like this.
No.
It was and sores down there now.
All sins work together.
Your dreams.
Of our Lord.
To sleep now and.
Forever be here.
Our God and our Father.
Our great.
You are just.
We're grateful that there are consequences for evil actions.
Consequences for goodness. You are a good God.
Just holy, separate from sin.
As the supreme being in the universe.
That there is responsibility.
Consequences.
And yet, because there's consequences for sin.
01:10:06
We all stand condemned.
But for your grace.
Your mercy.
The love that has been poured out.
To rescue.
Content centers proving that our God would rather dive and live without us.
We give thanks for the blood of Jesus Christ, your Son.
Given.
His own life.
For hours.
But he would bear.
On himself, the consequences that we deserve.
And so that we would be welcome.
In communion with our God.
We offer praise.
We offer thanks.
We recognize and revel in Your glory.
And.
We're so happy.
To be able to joy in our God.
Instead of the terror.
That would be our place, so we offer.
A sacrifice of praise.
The glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
Jesus is Lord
Gospel—R. Thonney
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.
Like to quarter verse to begin with?
If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, or Jesus as Lord.
And believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead.
You will be saved.
Burden on my heart this evening is that I fear in our country that there are many who have a head knowledge about the Lord Jesus, who he was and what He's done but has never surrendered to Him.
As Lord.
Scripture tells us plainly He is Lord of all.
Another place, he says he is the Lord of the living and of the dead, so no one escapes him. So let's sing a hymn to start our meeting here, number 21.
Decide for Christ today.
Confess him as thy Lord proclaim to all the saviors worth. How faithful is his word. We'll sing the whole again.
They saw it for Christ today.
And God.
Inside for Christ today.
To all that savers.
I'll be holy since his word.
Bride and soul grace all the way. So I won't be right. So the one we can't believe, the one we can't stay alone, we can't stand.
Let's pray.
The God and Father, how wonderful.
That we can proclaim the wonderful message of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But we are concerned, our God and Father, in our country where human rights are so insisted upon and people think that they don't have to submit fully to this glorious person, the Lord Jesus. Oh Lord, we pray that thy Spirit would convince tonight the importance of repentance from our ways.
And to own the.
Lord Jesus, as Lord of all we give thanks. Father, we can open Thy word and speak from it, and we ask thee for the direction of Thy Holy Spirit in doing so. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
00:05:09
I'd like to go first of all to First Samuel chapter 17 to the well known story of David and Goliath. I think you kids will enjoy this, I must say.
I'm almost 80 years old now and I still enjoy reading the story of David and Goliath.
And I'm not going to read that much in chapter 17 just to mention what was going on in Israel at that time. My purpose is to read the first verses of chapter 18. The result that took place because there was an observer to David going down to meet the giant, it was Jonathan.
The King's son, the one who is in direct.
Lineage to take the throne of Israel.
Something happened in his heart.
He surrendered to David, and I'd just like to read first of all a little bit in chapter 17.
About the showdown that there was at this time in Israel, you know, they had.
Enemies that were called the Philistines. And in amongst these Philistines there were giants.
In notice in verse four it says there went out of the a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath.
Of Gav, whose height was 6 cubits in a span. I figured that out some time ago and I got to jotted down my Bible. That's almost 10 feet tall. It's pretty tall guy. He had a helmet of brass upon his head and he was armed with a coat of mail and the weight of the coat was 5000 shekels of brass. That's about 100.
56 lbs of this coat of mail that we put over him.
So that any arrows or Spears that were thrown at him wouldn't be able to penetrate. They would hit that coat of mail.
But 156 lbs that thing weighed. He had grieves of brass upon his legs and a target of brass behind his between his shoulders. The staff of his spear was like a weavers beam and his Spears head weighed 600 shekels of iron and one bearing a shield went before him. 600 shekels of iron is about 19 lbs. You imagine the head.
Of that sphere was 19 lbs. He threw that at you had probably not get completely over.
And probably do you in so this was quite a.
An enemy that they had to deal with.
And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are you come out to set your battle in array?
Am I not a Philistine? And ye, servants to Saul, choose you a man to come.
A man for you and let him come down to me if he be able to fight with me and to kill me.
Then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him?
Then shall ye be our servants and serve us. And the Philistine says, I defy the armies of Israel this day.
Give me a man that we may fight together when Saul lets the king of Israel.
And all Israel heard those words of the Philistines. They were dismayed and greatly afraid.
Pretty terrible situation they found themselves in. You know, Saul was a man that was head and shoulders above all the people in Israel and yet he didn't have any courage to take on this giant.
Verse 12 Now David was the son of that etherified of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name was Jesse. He had eight sons in the old, and the man went among men for an old man in the days.
Of Saul. The three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul.
To the battle in the names of the three sons that went to the battle where he lived, the first born.
00:10:00
Next to him of in an Abbott and the third, Shama and David was the youngest.
The three eldest followed Saul well. David, since he was the youngest, was sent out into the fields to take care of the sheep of the family.
And there he was by himself. And now in the next verses, David is sent by his father to take some food down to his brothers. And when he gets there.
Verse 22. David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage, and ran into the arm, and came and saluted his brethren. And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion.
The Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words and David.
Heard them anyhow later on in the chapter, because we're not going to talk too much about this, but I just want to. I find it so thrilling to see how David was encouraged. He finally got talking to people. Why doesn't somebody take this man out? And nobody had confidence to be able to take him out. You know why?
Because they compared the giant to themselves.
And I can see why they were afraid.
But you know, David was different. David didn't think of that as a battle between David versus Goliath. To him, it was a matter of God versus Clath. And he got talking to the people and finally he comes up to being called right into the presence of Saul the king. And I'm surprised, but they were.
This was going on for 40 days and nobody came forth. And I think Saul was pretty desperate. And finally here comes David and David says I will go to fight. He said, no, you can't, you're a youth, you can't take him out. He says I was with my father's sheep in the desert.
In A lion and a bear came and I, and they took a lamb out of the flock, and I went after him in.
When the lion rose up against me, he says I caught him by the beard and killed him.
Necessarily that means it was a African lion because I don't think any other lions have beards.
Imagine the courage of this young boy. But he had learned to trust the Lord.
His confidence was in the Lord. And so finally Saul says OK.
I'm going to clothe you with my armor. And he puts off his armor on you. Imagine Saul was a big man and it didn't fit very well. And so finally David said I can't use this. And he leaves it in the heap. And he goes on. And what does he choose? I think this is so beautiful. In verse 40, he says he took his staff in his hand and chose him five smooth stones out of the brick.
Put them in a shepherd's bag which he had even a script, and his sling was in his hand and he drew near.
To the Philistine.
He used what he knew how to use.
Sling and stones, you know, in Bolivia.
From the High Alta Plano, many of the brethren have large flocks of sheep and I'm amazed at how accurate they get with their stones and their swings.
Sometimes it's a sister that's out there taking care of those sheep and they see a sheep getting way off to one side and they take a stone and they fling it out there right beyond that shape. And that sheep knows immediately that they're getting too far away and they run right back. They're very accurate. And so David must have been pretty accurate too, but his, his confidence was not in his own accuracy. But notice verse 41.
Time came on and drew near unto David, and the man that bear the shield went before him.
And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth in a Ruddy and of a fair countenance. And the Philistines said unto David, Am I a dog, that you come to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistines said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh into the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field.
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And you can imagine, here's this huge giant of a guy.
And he sees this boy. He was a youth that says, I don't know how old he must have been, maybe 1718 years old.
And here he comes to meet the giant, and I think Goliath felt insulted.
Come on, you got to send me somebody my size to fight with me. This my dog that you're sending him?
Anyhow.
It's beautiful, but David says to the Philistine. Verse 2045. Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield. But I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
This day will the Lord deliver thee into.
Mine hand, and I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee, and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day, and to the fowls of the air, to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
You know David had been.
Anointed as the next king already and I think he was talking here as the king.
Already, but it's interesting and it says verse 48 when it came to pass, when the Philistine arose.
And came and drew nigh to meet David. David hasted and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. I thought it was me, brother, and I'd kind of stay back aways and take my shots, but not David.
Oh, the confidence in the Lord. And to me that is a challenge. I say young people, older ones too. Have you really trusted him? Have you really surrendered to the Lord Jesus?
And that's what it was with David. He had his confidence in God completely. And it's beautiful. Verse 49, David put his hand in his bag, took fence a stone and slang it and smote the Philistine in his forehead. And the stone sunk into his forehead and he fell upon his face to the ground. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and smoked the Philistine and slew him.
There is no sword in the hand of David.
Therefore David ran and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
What a mighty victory that day because of David's simple faith in God. And let me tell you, if you'd only realize by surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, you can do mighty things like David did. But I like I say, brother, and I fear that there are those who have never.
Surrendered to the Lord Jesus, you know he's called into.
Saul's presence afterwards.
And verse 56, the king said, Inquire.
Thou whose son the stripling is. He was called a stripling. I suppose he didn't have a whole lot of clothes on, but it says, and as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul.
With the head of the Philistine in his hand. Can you imagine? Here's David with the head of the Philistine in one hand, and with the sword of the Philistine. We know that he took the sword to because later on it was something he used. And so he came into the presence of Saul, that stripling, that youth.
What a victory.
There was somebody in the presence of Saul.
That was witnessing it. Now I want to get to the first verses of chapter 18. It was Jonathan Sauls son came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
Saul took him that day and would let him.
Go no more home to his father's house. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul.
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And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, that kingly, princely robe.
And gave it to David and his garments, even to his sword.
And to his bow, and to his girl.
David didn't say, Hey, Jonathan, you have to give me everything. No, not a word of it.
But it was David's love, that one, Jonathan's heart. And that is the way it is tonight, my friend. Young people, older ones too. It's not being moved with fear. That's proper, to be moved with fear, because judgment is coming on this world.
But what we want you to see is the love of Christ. And I want to talk about this because.
There was somebody else that went down into the valley, the valley of death.
And it was the very Son of God, God's eternal Son, the creator of the universe, the one who spake everything into existence. And I can't grasp the magnitude of the person of the Lord Jesus.
And how he created all things by the word of his power. He spake, and it was done.
I love to talk about the.
The universe.
The Milky Way Galaxy that we are situated in.
They say. Now the last figures I've gotten is that there are approximately 300 billion stars in our Galaxy alone.
And one of the books I have on the universe says there are at least 250 billion more galaxies.
The other day I saw another article on the Internet that said.
Their figure because of some of the telescopes they have out in space now that it's closer to 3 trillion more galaxies in the universe. Here's the person that spake it all into existence and he came into this world to seek and to save the last.
Nobody recognized him.
They he was born.
His poor mother, after coming from Galilee, had to.
Find a spot in the stable to give birth to her first born son. Oh, what a story.
In the rapteman swaddling clothes and laid them in the Manger.
The angels came down, remember? Angels I don't think had ever seen the their creator before.
For the first time, the angelic hosts come down. They see their Creator.
Laying as a supposed helpless babe. It was anything but that in that Manger. And I'm sure they thought, where are these people? Don't they realize what's happened? That God has only begotten, Son has come into this world? And they went out and they found the shepherds in the field and they were the first ones to come and to see.
That little they while he was laying there in that Manger.
He was maintaining the whole universe with the word of his power.
It's something that I find difficult to grasp, but what it does to me is make me bow and recognize the grandeur of his person and recognize it's not me, it's him. And that's what we have to come to in our lives. To your young people, dear older ones too, to realize we live in a culture that makes everything of yourself stick up for yourself. Do it for yourself.
And I say.
That is rubbing you of something tremendously glorious.
To know the Lord Jesus Christ and to surrender to Him.
To bowed his feet. Well, we know the story that the Lord Jesus.
Grew up. First of all they went into Egypt, and then when they came back from Egypt they went to Galilee.
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And he was raised in the city of Nazareth, his.
Stepfather was a Carpenter.
And in Mark's gospel, the Lord Jesus is called the Carpenter as well, so he.
Was evidently a Carpenter by trade.
He learned to know what it was to grow up in this world.
But he was not a wealthy person when it came, he said to the point of show me a penny. He didn't have one in his own pocket to take out and show people. And when it came to riding into Jerusalem on a donkey to fulfill the scriptures, he didn't have his own donkey. He had to borrow 1.
And to me, it is a marvel you never have.
The Lord Jesus have much of anything in this world, but when it came to the needs of others, He was always able to supply the need when time with a group of 5000 men and besides women and children, he says.
To his disciples, give them to eat. I said, we don't have anything here. Well, there is a boy that has five little rolls and two fishes.
Give them to me and he blessed them and they ended up, after everybody had eaten and were filled, ended up with 12 large baskets leftover. That's our God. He's come to where we are.
And he has in his power to meet the need of everyone.
That comes in simple faith to him. For me, it is wonderful to think about. And then the time came after his public ministry that they couldn't stand him any longer. It was the religious people that feared that they were being replaced by this one who was the Messiah of Israel.
And so they take him.
And present him to the high priest. First the high priest.
Spit in his face. You imagine God manifest in flesh. Here comes this hyper Eastern spit square in his face. What was the reaction of the Lord Jesus at that moment? I just think of Him standing there.
And the spittle running down his face. No reaction. He did not come to condemn. He came to save. Oh, what a savior.
Savior Pilate, they took him to him. Next of all, he was the Roman governor, and without his consent they couldn't put anybody to death, Pilot, three times over, says. I find no fault in this man.
And then he condemns him to the most awful death of the cross. Let's go over to John's Gospel just.
For a brief few details.
Verse one of chapter 19, John's Gospel. Chapter 19, then Pilate.
Therefore took Jesus and scourged him.
I don't know if you've ever read anything about Roman scourging. I read a book one time about it and it said it was called The Living Death.
It was so awful that malefactors often died on the scourging post before they were even crucified, so they scourged him.
And then he says in verse three, verse says, Pilot therefore went forth again and said unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that you may know that I find no fault in him. Verse two it says, They made a crown of thorns.
And they put it on his head. And you know, we have thorns that are not very bad. But in Bolivia, where we lived some years, we have thorns there that are maybe 3 inches long and they are as hard as nails.
One time somebody wanting to do me in saw that I went into with my Jeep to visit somebody and they sewed a bunch of thorns on the.
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Road because they knew I had to come back that way. Next morning my 4 tires were flat on the ground. That's how how strong those thorns were. They go right into the tire and I had to buy 4 new tires because they were all shot. But think of that on the head of the Lord Jesus and they took sticks and they whacked him over the head.
I'm thinking about this brother and these are some of his sufferings. These are not the worst of his sufferings, but they are some of them.
And then it says, verse 5, Jesus came forth wearing the crown of thorns in the purple robe. Pilot Seth unto them, Behold the man. When the chief priests therefore an officer saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate said unto him, Take ye him, and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. Three times he says.
To the crowd I find no fault in him, and yet he proceeds to crucify the Lord Jesus, and so they take him outside the city of Jerusalem. Verse.
16 says, Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. He, burying his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha, where they crucified him.
And to other with him on either side, one in Jesus in the midst.
There he was, hanging between heaven and earth, with nails through his hands and his feet.
From 9:00 in the morning till he died at 3:00 in the afternoon.
And we know the story from other gospels that are the first three hours. It was people who passed in front of him and mocked him and spit on him.
He says in one prophetic scripture in the Psalms, reproach has broken my heart. They said if he's the Son of God, let God deliver him.
Did God deliver him? No. Why didn't he deliver him? Because their only way that you and I could be saved is if he would die as a sacrifice for us.
Us. But that reproach broke his heart. That's not exactly the same as physical sufferings, but that's suffering too. But then he came to those three hours of darkness that we have the record of.
In Matthew, Mark and Luke and in those three hours.
Was when God took up the question of sin with His own beloved Son. Spotless, sinless victim hanging.
Refused by humankind on that cross God laid on him.
The iniquity of us all.
And then God took the rod of his punishment and punished the Lord Jesus for those sins that I've committed.
For three hours you can read through the gospels and find out there was number complaint voiced by the Lord Jesus on that center cross.
Was only at the end. We talked about it today that the Lord Jesus cried. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
God's holy character had to be vindicated, and it was by the Lord Jesus and those three hours of darkness.
He paid the price in full for our redemption. And then he bowed his head and gave up. The ghost gave up his life. He died.
And I'll go down to verse.
32 Then came the soldiers. This was after he had died.
And break the legs of the 1St and of the other which was crucified.
With Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was dead already, they break not his legs. One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood.
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And water, and he that saw it bare record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true that ye might believe.
For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken.
And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
The price of redemption. We were speaking about redemption today.
Was paid not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.
There, from that dead body, the soldiers opened his side and flowed out blood and water. How terrible, how awful. That's what he paid for you and me. And now I say he's saying to you to come to him.
To confess him as your Lord and you.
Something else that you want to do with your life. You think you know better than to come to Jesus. I plead with you to think through it. When I think of the tremendous sacrifice that He made for me, I tell you, young people, older ones, children, my heart is broken in me and I had to bow and say, Lord Jesus.
You.
Our Lord of my life, it's not what I want in my life. The clothes I want to wear, the things that I want to do is what you want for me.
You know, we live in a culture and this is what scares me.
Where people want to have a good time.
I'm not saying to having a good time is always wrong, but I'm saying.
If you have not bowed to own Jesus.
As Lord, you're not saved.
And so that concerns me deeply. I say this, I think I've mentioned it before in gospel meetings. I know.
Of four or five young men.
Who used to break bread at the Lord's Table?
Who today professed to be atheists, They don't have any faith that there is a God at all. And that really concerns me. And as I look across this crowd here and I say, I can't see your hearts, I don't know. I'm not going to make a judgment call on it. But I want to call you to reflection.
Is Jesus Lord of your life?
The day is going to come when the Lord Jesus is going to come back from heaven to establish His Kingdom.
And those who have not owned him as Lord will have to bow.
Their knees and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Oh, what a day that's going to be. And you and I that are real believers are going to see that happen when he comes back. Oh, the glory of it. But they're going to be those who perhaps sat in gospel meetings like we're sitting tonight.
Who never have made a decision.
For Christ, how solemn it's going to be in that day.
When you meet with Jesus.
And have to confess that he, yes, is Lord, but it's too late for salvation.
So I just want to challenge you with all that's in me. Is Jesus Lord of your life, or is there something that's more important to you in life than that?
Young people, again, I say we're living in a culture that.
Emphasizing emphasizes having a good time and doing what you like, that you have the right and the title to do what you like in your life.
I say, given what Jesus has done for us.
In that wonderful redemption, I say I no longer have that right.
To say what I want to do. There's somebody that has all the rights for me and he is the one that shows me what I am to do. And so I challenge you. Are you going to bow to him? And the sooner you do it, the later I would like to see you do it. Not because of fear, although that is a valid motive.
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Moses, or I should say Noah, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.
But the greater motive is the love of Christ. Think of how he went to that cross. Think of how he suffered that judgment from the hand of God, so that you and I could be saved and brought into God's house forever.
Oh, that is something that wins my heart and I challenge you tonight to think it through. If you have any questions or doubts, I would be glad to talk to you after the meeting. And I'm sure there's others that could be a help to you as well. But I, I'm, I'm really concerned that there's a possibility that there are those who know that Jesus is Lord in their head, but they have never.
As Scripture says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth.
Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved.
Have you done that? How important it is. Let's just pray to end our meeting. Gracious Father, thanks for thy precious word. We just do. Thank thee, our God and Father, for thy love and giving him to die for us. Lord Jesus, for suffering the judgment for our sins on that cross we bless thee. We praise thee and thank thee. Commend ourselves to thee for the rest of the evening if there's somebody.
That hasn't made it real in their own life. Oh our God and Father, we pray that they might be convicted and come in simple faith and bow and surrender. Just like Jonathan surrendered to David, that we would surrender to the Lord Jesus. We give thanks.
Commend ourselves in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
God's Purpose for Our Life
YP Sing Address—C. Troyer
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33.
33.
Unfortunately.
We're going to have to call the scene. I know, I'm so sorry, but we've got a good time for good evening, young people. It's nice to see everyone. Let's start with a word of prayer. Our God and our Father, we're thankful for this time we could have for this wonderful day we could have in your word. And now as we get to the end of it, thankful for this beautiful singing. Thank you for every soul in this room. It's encouraging the Lord to see these young people, and we ask for help now as we would have one more little portion from your word. Pray in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, Amen. Amen.
Proverbs chapter 19. I'd like to read that to introduce our subject and you can, if you don't have your Bible, you can listen and follow along that way, but Proverbs chapter 19.
And I read this verse. Excuse me, I read this verse a couple weeks ago.
And I thought, I think this is what we should talk about at Young People's.
Verse 21 There are many devices in a man's heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord that shall stand, and I'd like to talk about the council of the Lord and I would maybe use a different word. I would use God's purposes for us.
Two years ago I got on an airplane and I sat down where I was supposed to. I sat at a window and a little bit before we took off, another man came in and he sat down in the aisle in the same row. And he was a big man and he was quite an interesting person. He had so much artistry on his body.
Probably more than I have ever seen, and I think I've seen a lot of people. His artistry was on his arms, it was on his neck, it was on his face, and he had a woman's name over his eye.
And he was, we would say, an interesting character. He looked interesting. But as I sat there, I realized that he was even more interesting because he was on his phone and he made the mistake of having his keypad on and he was sending what I would describe as rapid fire text messages to somebody.
And doing it in such fast sequence that there was no way they were responding so it was A1 sided conversation.
And he was so agitated.
He was so agitated, I guess I would say it was almost like there was a mushroom cloud over his head. He was just this ball of nerves and worked up. And I thought, wow, this is going to be a long time on the plane. And then I realized, well, after we're in the air, he's probably not going to have Wi-Fi, so this keypad noise is going to go away. That was true. Didn't say anything to him. Didn't make eye contact.
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We started to descend into Phoenix and before we land, true to form, Wi-Fi works again. Same thing. It's just firing off message after message. Obviously the same person because the sequence was so fast. We land, lights, come on.
And he turns to me and he says.
I don't remember the exact words but said he was so jealous that I was able to relax and sleep on the airplane.
And I said, well, there's a story about that. And I pulled up one of my sleeves and I said, I was at the hospital today and I'm traveling back and I'm not feeling so good. So I pulled up one of my sleeves and he could see my bandages. And of course he had a really wide eyed response to that and wondered what what was going on. And.
So I had a chance to talk to him for a little bit and I wish I could remember more of the details of what I told him. I told him a little bit about the diseases and the health problems I have.
And I distinctly remember at the end of the conversation I said, I'm 45 years old and I'm still alive and I know that God has a purpose for my life.
And just think about the man I described.
Would you think he was insecure? Do you think he knew what he was all about?
He turned to me. Sorry, this is hard to say, but I want you to hear it. He turned to me and he said I'm 52 years old.
And I'm trying to find my purpose in life.
And as I thought about that story, young people.
I realized that when I was a young believer.
I had saving faith, but I didn't know what God's purposes were for me. I wasn't settled on that. So this man's problem is not isolated to people who may not be believers.
So tonight I'm hopefully I'm addressing this to you as if you know the Lord and I don't know. I don't, I haven't really studied and thought about what His purposes are for those that don't know Him. Obviously people who don't know the Lord can have a purpose. I don't believe it can be an eternal or a meaningful purpose. But if you know the Lord, He has a purpose for you. And I just want to go back to this word.
That we read in Proverbs. It talks about the counsels of God, and we should probably quickly go to Ephesians 1.
And this is a verse that or in many ways thankful we haven't gotten to yet in our reading meetings because I'll be interested to see what is said about this, but I'll just break in it at verse 11. Speaking of Christ, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him.
Who worketh all things after? Here's the word council of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. And here we have this word counsel again.
So in my world, in work, we sometimes say, well, we have a contract problem or we're having a problem getting paid, we need to hire a council. What does that mean when we say that at work we got to hire a lawyer, We need to hire somebody to tell us, direct us what to do?
God's counsels are not like lawyers. God's counsels, and I hesitate to take this subject up in such a short amount of time, but God's counsels for us started before Adam was created. God had a plan for the man Adam in the big picture and what would happen with all of the human race. God had that plan in place when Adam was made.
But the beautiful thing is, it becomes so much more personal if you know Him as your savior.
Part of God's councils we talk about the eternal councils of God. That's the plans He has made, the the desires he has for you, his his desire to bless you, his desire to carry you through your life and your walk here. Those are just small aspects of what His entire council is.
But before you were born, he had a purpose and he had a plan for you.
And if you know him as your savior, he wants to show you that. And I remember as a young man.
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Sometimes it's so difficult practically. We say, well, God has a purpose for me and he's doing these things with me. And I think sometimes we focus a little bit too much on ourselves and we say, well, how do we do what he has for us to do? How do I know what he wants me to do? Why am I alive? Why do I exist? What should I work on? Should I love this person and get married to them? Should I love this person? Should I go to college here? There are all these things in front of you.
And it's overwhelming, but it's not, it doesn't need to be overwhelming from the standpoint that God already has those things implemented for you. And I agree completely. It can be overwhelming from the standpoint that he doesn't just give us a manual and say this is these are the things that are going to happen to you in life. The path of faith is not driven by formula and logic in many cases. And I just want to encourage all of you if you want to understand the.
Of God and how that practically affects the decisions you make, whether you go forward, whether you slow down.
Those are all things that come about in faith and asking for God's wisdom. And sometimes as young people, we think that we just want everything spelled out so we just know what to do. Well, it doesn't get any easier. I'm in my mid 40s. I'm closer to upper 40s now and.
I've stopped wishing that the map would just be handed to me because I've so much enjoyed what God has given me that I would have never asked for and that I would have never expected because the unexpected things and in many times the difficult things have been the exact things that I've needed. And I want to take this a step further. And, and young men, I don't want to, I don't want to pick on you if you're if you're a go getter, we say, and and you have high intensity.
And you make a lot of things happen. And there's some young ladies here that have a lot of drive. And I'm a person that's in a position professionally where I get graded pretty hard on what I achieve. Lots of people know if I do well or not in the position that I've been put in. And some days we get measured. We get graded pretty harshly on what we accomplish in a day.
And some of us get graded pretty harshly sometimes for what we don't allow or what we prevent in a day.
And what that does is we sometimes look at ourselves too much. And when when God put together his master plan for your life, it wasn't about you, it was about him. And one of the verses that I didn't focus on in Ephesians, but it talks about being to the praise of his glory. I think all of us as believers, we understand that ultimately we're here for the glory and honor of God. Well, that's a pretty big.
Umbrella to operate under. So how do we fit? How do we go in underneath that? And practically, to go back to what I was talking about, when we make it about us, it gets to be pretty difficult because we're never quite good enough and we're never quite getting enough done. And for those of you that might be graded professionally or in college for what you're achieving or getting done, that may be the reality of it, but.
Let's be cautious about bringing that mentality into our spiritual walk.
And one of the things I've really enjoyed just recently, and it's probably come about because of difficulty and experiences in life and things like that. And I'm hoping this will help all of you, especially the ones who are wired to do a lot of damage and make a lot of things happen.
God's purposes in your life may in fact be more directly connected to being.
Than they are to doing. And for those of us who want to take action, sometimes that's a really tough lesson and a lesson we have to learn many times. For those of us that are a bit more easy going, that might be an easier lesson to learn. But God is using you in ways that even you are not able to understand because in his grand scheme and his economy and the way he's doing so many things at the same time.
You personally see only a subset of what he's doing with your life.
And I'll share one more personal story and then I'll close. But as my diseases have gotten worse.
I have struggled some with sitting back and saying.
I'm between surviving.
And I'm somewhere between surviving and death, but I can seldom get myself to feel like I'm fully thriving. So why does God have me in this, in this in this area between life and death where I'm really, I don't feel like I'm doing well physically. And what am I getting done? And are the results that I'm getting done and the things I'm achieving that I have desires for that would have?
00:20:23
Value. Are they really happening? Am I making a big enough difference in all of those things? Well, you notice what's happening in that conversation with myself. It's about me. Again, that's the underlying problem with those types of questions and those types of arguments, and that's the beauty of.
God and His kindness showing me that His purposes for our lives may be more directly connected to being than they are to doing. Because while I may not believe that I'm achieving the things that I think would be important or would even be eternally beneficial or valuable. Maybe some of the things that I'm not even aware of. Maybe talking to the man who is so agitated and telling him that God has a purpose for my life.
Maybe that's one little thing in that man's life that will he will remember. And maybe later on, that's the last conversation I had with him. He got off the plane and the way he responded to me, it was as if he just had mad respect for someone who had a purpose and he wished me well and took off. But that little conversation, while it seems like so insignificant to us, may in fact be something that God uses. And it's not my responsibility to keep track of that or grade that.
Figure out, did that make a difference in that man's life? That's the Lord's business. And if we are faithful in these little things, He will continue to show us. And I'll close with this example. We don't have to turn to it, but in Genesis.
The children of Israel are, I'm sorry, in Exodus, the children of Israel are leaving Egypt and Pharaoh last minute says I'm going to pursue them and they know that Pharaoh is in pursuit. Moses stops and he tells the people stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. I'm paraphrasing. He tells them to stop and I believe that he was functioning in faith, but we usually stop reading at those verses. But if we continue to read, the Lord tells Moses.
In my paraphrasing, why are you standing here? You need to get moving.
And he tells Moses directly how to cross the Red Sea. And the waters were parted and they moved. So how as young people, how as adults, do we know when we should stop or slow down in faith? And how do we know when God is telling us to move forward? And my, I don't have any magic formula for your life decisions. There is no magic formula for your life decisions. But as you seek Him and you have faith in what is happening.
That you have faith that what is happening is ordered by Him and His plan for you is perfect.
And I would encourage you to ask him for wisdom if you're confused or you're unsure of a decision, it may be wise to hold back. But conversely, when you know you need to go forward, move forward promptly, quickly. Do not wait. And one last word of advice about practical things is sometimes we think, well, we're not making enough happen and this job is not enjoyable enough. To me, this is not fulfilling. This is not the track I want to be on. I really want to do this because.
This would be more enjoyable or this would be better for me?
Those things might all be true.
But if it's God's mind for you to do things like that, He will open the door and the timing might be right. You might need some time in the wilderness. Maybe there's some time to learn some lessons before you go to the next thing that you think is so much more intriguing than what you're working on. Work on listening for God's timing and His counsels and the things, plans, and ideas He has for you. Let's close.
Our God and our Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your faithfulness to us. We're thankful that we can come at any time and ask for wisdom.
And the practical and daily matters and decisions of life we give thanks to for this refresh, these refreshments, we ask a blessing. And for every soul, every young person in this room, we just ask for a special blessing. We're thankful and we pray in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Flowers
Children—T. Blake
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Are there 64 children to sit up front?
Well, I want to go ahead and get started because if things go as normal.
I'm going to run right to the end and hopefully not over, but that's pretty common. There was a brother that spoke yesterday and I saw he went two to three minutes over, so I'm OK to do that too. I think so.
Before we pray, I want to ask a few questions because I'd like to get to know your children. And maybe when I get to know you, you'll kind of get to know me and we'll kind of feel comfortable together. And I think children are very brave because when I was at your age.
I would have been in the back row.
Maybe wanting to hide under the chair. I was very shy and the Lord's helping me to overcome that.
I'm still a little bit shy also.
The first question I'd like to ask is.
Did your father or did your mother wake you up this morning? I'm asking the children in the front row who whose father or mother woke them up this morning.
Very good, very good.
And.
When they woke you up.
Who got up the first time they called you?
Not the first time, second time.
Second time, you know, sometimes in Sunday school and it's good. There's a boy in the Bible that we have that he the first time he was called, he got up. The second time he was called, he got up. The third time he was called, he got up. I think we know who that is. But who was that Samuel?
But, you know, sometimes I see children come into Sunday school late, their parents and I sometimes wonder.
Whose fault is it?
Did the children get up when they were supposed to and get dressed? You know, it's good to get right up because we have some important things to talk about Sunday school, right? It's good to get our hair cooled, maybe eat a little breakfast and brush your teeth, make sure our shoes are on the right feet, things like that, so there's time. It's good to get up and have plenty of time. Sunday mornings. We're not rushed to run into Sunday school.
It's important.
Another question.
Who likes to take naps?
Wow.
Good job. Not very many, but you know, if I asked everybody else in the room, you know what would happen.
All their hands are gone.
I love naps. I look forward to a nap every day and if I can, I take a nap. And you know, there was about a week ago on Saturday, I was, I had a good breakfast. I had puff pancakes, Maple syrup and peanut butter and, and strawberries and blueberry topping and bacon and.
I was tired, kind of had a long week. We stayed up late some of the nights helping with some things, some friends houses and.
I was tired at 11:00 and I just, I went over on the couch and I was about to sleep. And you know, these things that you have in your pockets, I hope none of you have them, but they're called cell phones. And it vibrated when I was trying to go to sleep. And I was like, this happens all the time. And so I just went to sleep. But then as soon as I woke up.
I better check and see what that was all about and I woke right up.
And there was also a voicemail.
And guess who it was?
It was Tim Newton back there.
And guess what he asked me to do?
Something I really like to do. He asked me to speak to the children. You know why I like to speak to the children?
Because I was a child once, I know what it's like to be a child and.
I used to have a Sunday school class.
So it's kind of fun working with children. You know, what's the hardest thing about speaking to children is?
Some adults, too.
So they don't have a very long attention span. Pretty soon you're looking over here and you're looking at your friend's shoes and you're fiddling with the mic. And I was a child once too. And, you know, I, I could tell you how many lights were in the meeting.
00:05:08
And I could tell you how many windows were in the meeting room and I could even tell you how many tiles were in the ceiling. You know, it was like about 52 * 25. And I learned to do multiplication too, because it was pretty hard to, they all kind of look the same. And as your accountant, you lose track. So that kind of forced me to do some multiplication too. And so I, I know what, what it's kind of like to.
Have your attention.
So who likes pizza?
Do you like pizza?
Not sure.
I think everybody likes pizza. You don't like pizza? Wow, that's amazing. OK, who likes salad?
Not quite so many hands, but.
You like salad? That's good.
Very good. You know, people always told me, you know, maybe when you grow up you'll like solid. I'm kind of afraid when I'm going to grow up. I just don't know when I'm going to grow up. But it's good that you like salad.
What else might we like?
Who likes spaghetti?
My grandkids love spaghetti. That's a meal that you don't have to feed them, they just eat it right down. Who likes?
Liver.
I didn't think I'd have any. Do you have liver before?
Does your dad like liver?
Wow, your dad likes liver. That's amazing. You know, Saturdays we worked pretty hard and we'd come into the house.
After working hard.
And, you know, we, I grew up in a large family, there was 6 1/2 dozen in our family and we had to work pretty hard to, you know, keep food on the table and we come into the house and.
The house was just fragrant with the smell of liver and my heart would just sink.
Liver and onions.
Sometimes even better than that. Who's had kowtow? Do you have kowtow? It just kind of slips right down, yeah.
Yeah, it's actually pretty good. You just don't think about it much. It's pretty good, but you know, we didn't let much go to waste. And your children, when you eat your food, sometimes I'm really sad to see children throat. There's people starving all over the world and you don't finish your food and you throw it in the garbage. The Lord never did that. He picked up all the little bits of bread that were left 12 baskets full. He didn't waste anything.
Don't waste your food. So I grew up that we ate everything in our plate and we ate about everything.
Else too.
We were well fed, We were.
Who likes?
Schoolwork.
That's a little better than liver. Good. There's a few.
That's good. That's good. I won't say anything bad about that. That's good. Who likes Sunday school?
Sunday School? Do you like Sunday School? We all like Sunday school, right? We do.
That's very good.
Why do we have Sunday school?
To learn about Jesus. To learn about Jesus. Someone else have a can tell me why? That's a very good answer.
Do you know about Jesus?
Is there anything else that we're going to learn? Is there anything better we can learn?
Memorize verses, memorize verses. You know, there's a man, just a second. There's a man, he's 53 years old and he's never opened his Bible. I told him to read, start reading in John's Gospel. He's like, where's that? I was like, well, it's in the New Testament. What's the New Testament? He's never opened a Bible and he's 53 years old. Children, you've been able to learn verses.
Your mommy and your dad.
Have want you to get the word of God in your hearts.
00:10:05
Learn about the salvation of God.
Learn about the salvation of God through the Lord Jesus, right.
To sing songs about him.
Who likes to sing?
I like to sing. And you know what? There was going to be a surprise this morning, but they surprised me and I was going to make sure we had little hymn books for you. Because this is all about the children. We're kind of acting like the adults aren't here. And we're we're, we're just having a nice time up front. OK, then we're not so nervous.
To learn about how God and Jesus loved you.
But does God love us too? How do we know that God loves us? Because he sent His.
Son. Who was his son?
Who's this? Who's God's son? God? Who is his son Jesus?
The Lord Jesus.
And what do you think the Lord Jesus would do if he were here?
Diana crossover, since that's what he did when the Lord Jesus came here, He died on the cross for our sins.
Forgive us.
If he was here, he would want to forgive you of your sins.
But you know, there's the verse I'm going to read in Mark chapter 10.
And it's going to show you we have Sunday school because we want you to know, like the children said, that Jesus loves you. We want you to know the Father's part.
And how much he loves you. He loves you very much.
And maybe somebody that has a Bible in the front row could read. Do you have that there, Mark? Chapter 10.
Read Verse.
13 through verse 16.
And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them, And his disciples rebuked those that brought him. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such.
Is the Kingdom of God rarely? I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up, and his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
What did he do?
He took the children up into his arms as though he would sit down on the chair and he'd just put you on his lap. And you know none of you, some of you, If I did to that, to you, would you be a little scared?
A little uncomfortable. Do you think if the Lord Jesus did that to you that you would be uncomfortable?
No, you wouldn't be afraid of him at all, but that's what he did with the children. He took him up into his arms and he blessed them. And so we want you to understand how much the Lord Jesus loves you.
OK.
We're going to pray.
Then we're going to sing a few songs.
Very few. And if there's time at the end, we can sing some more. But I want whoever has a verse to say. I want you to be able to say a verse. We're here to hear you too, but we're going to pray. And you think that when we pray.
Do we should we close our eyes? What do you think? Yes. Yes.
Most people are nodding yes. Do you think we should always close our eyes when we pray, even when I'm driving a car?
No. So there's sometimes.
That's a good as a driver. Maybe you shouldn't. That would be very good advice might be in the drivers Ed book. So when I'm driving, I can pray. You know, there's some people I talk to and I I don't know what to say and I'll just ask the Lord with my eyes open. I'll pray and say, Lord, show me.
What I should tell them? What should I say? Nehemiah did that. Others did it in Scripture, right? But when we're sitting up here.
00:15:08
Why do we close our eyes?
It would be good to close our eyes.
So you don't get distracted, Exactly what were you going to say? Someone over here, I was going to say, say don't get distracted.
I don't need to say anything they told you, right?
To give respect.
Very good to have respect, you know, I think.
They said it right.
And I think when you close your eyes, it's kind of like a little silent. Amen.
Right, OK.
We're going to pray and if we can remember to close our eyes and we're not distracted and we can hear what's being said and it's like we're saying the same thing to the Lord Jesus, OK, let's pray.
Where, Jesus, we give thee thanks for these dear children.
We would just pray for help that we could in some measure manifest thy love to these dear children. We pray that they would hear thy voice, Lord Jesus, and we pray for the salvation of each one. McGee thanks, Lord Jesus, for thy great love. We thank thee and the Lord Jesus. Precious name, Amen.
Long time, somebody have a number?
Number 88. Number 88. The Donkey song.
Everybody have a handbook?
There are once once a while.
Jesus.
Went just the way that he struck me, said wake up. He made some by God like Son of God.
And Jesus is able to make you.
#47 #47.
Into a tent whereas.
Salvation. Sorry.
Nobody. Ever.
00:20:11
Again, salvation. So really make me.
Tell what you can say. I'm the children of men.
Nobody ever has told me people.
Bending, we caught the last words up.
Just as he and turned up.
God sent his Son.
To you.
And I'm sure that he sent him for me.
Tell me again, tell me salvation story, reaping all the land of the end of the world.
Who has heard?
About the love of the Lord Jesus more than once.
How many times do you think this little boy heard the.
Gospel that the Lord Jesus loved him.
I think it was only one time. And why did he only hear it once? We don't know. But you know what was happening to this little boy. He was dying. Are we ready to die? I told the man yesterday or a few days ago. I said I don't fear death. I'm not afraid to die because I know where I'm going. I'm going to go.
To be with the Lord Jesus. Are you ready to die?
He said I am hopefully going. I said no, you need to know.
You know, growing up, we used to sit under Uncle Oscar Frazier. He was our Sunday school teacher in the Sunday school, and he would always say there's two reasons why we need to accept the Lord Jesus when we're young.
One is we might die.
Another one is that the Lord might come, and there's another one.
Today, if you will hear his voice, harden, not your.
What's the rest of that verse?
Hearts. Oh, we don't want you to get a hard heart.
We're going to sing one more.
What #49.
#49 see if we know this one by heart.
Jesus gave her water.
00:25:10
Lord, he can't salvation, and he's from sin and stride.
To me.
Hunger shall be bringing.
To the Lord and Savior, you can't save your life.
That song was about a lady.
Who heard about the Lord Jesus? The Lord Jesus spoke to her and she went and she told others about the Lord. Have we told anybody about the Lord Jesus?
We've been given life if you know the Lord Jesus your Savior.
Shouldn't we be telling others? Shouldn't we have a love for lost souls?
Yeah, that's why we're telling you this morning we want to make sure each one of you, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, that you realize that you're a Sinner.
Yes, you've sinned, but you need to realize that you are a Sinner.
And that the Lord Jesus came to save you.
And there was a great price paid, and that price was he died for you.
OK.
We are going to start down here.
Who would like to say their verse?
It may be so that everyone else can follow along. It's nice when kids you say your verse if everybody else opens up their Bible and follows along. Can you tell me the reference of your diversity You're going to say if any man be in cries, he is a new creature also are passed away beyond all things become new 2nd Corinthians 517. Good job you know what when she started to say the verse.
That's part of the reason why somebody said that we know the Bible. She started to say the verse and there was an older brother.
And he just started turning right to it. He didn't even have to know what the reference was. Isn't that nice?
Was very nice, thank you. You did a good job. Who else would like to say your verse?
For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son. Thy whosoever should believe in him should not perish, whatever lasting life. John 316.
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. 2nd Corinthians 517 Good job, thank you.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. 2nd Corinthians 517.
Good job you want to try, you can do it.
If any amount being clay sees a new quiz, you're asking the best way. You're asking to become the Sacred 517. Good job, that was excellent. Anyone else?
Any man being Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new. 2nd Corinthians 517 Very good, excellent.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold all things. Are you second Corinthians?
5/5/17.
Any man, if anyone being Christ used a new creature. Old things are passed away before all things have become sick and Corinthians fast 17 good job.
If any man, if any man, be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
2nd Corinthians 517. Very nice, a good job. Anyone else?
They may be in Christ. He is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are becoming. 2nd Corinthians 517 Thanks. God told the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in him should not perish, but shall have everlasting life. John 316 Thank you, good job.
00:30:04
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. 2nd Corinthians 517 Thanks anyone over here?
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, old things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new. 2nd Corinthians 517 If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, all things are passed away, behold, all things become known. 2nd Corinthians 517. Thank you.
You want to try.
OK.
If any man, if any man, be in Christ.
He is a new creature. He's a new creature. Old things are passed away.
All things come new.
Corinthians. Second Gruffians.
517 Good job, very brave. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are becoming. 2nd Corinthians 517 If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new for 2nd Corinthians 517 Thank you, Good job.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. Two Corinthians 5/17 Thank you very much. Very good. If any man being Christy is a new creature opens are passed away, behold all things are become new. Second Corinthians 5/17 Thank you very much.
If any man being taxi is a new creature.
What things?
Pastor.
The whole.
All things are becoming 2nd Corinthians 5 seventh control.
If I remember being crushed, here's a little creature. Old days are passed away. Hold all things are recorded as far as limited.
Creature old.
All things are best way. Behold all things.
Are we going 2nd Corinthians 5? Something very good?
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. 2nd Corinthians 517.
I'm wondering if the one that's translating is translating all these verses as we go down the road.
I hope he is because that will help some of you remember what this first, memorize it better.
If any man be in Christ.
He is a new creature, old things are passed away and behold, all things are become new. 2nd Corinthians 517 Very good, nice, anyone else?
Any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. 2nd Corinthians 517.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Second Corinthians 5/17 Thank you very much. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He made his need to lie down in green pastures. He leaves me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leaves me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of Sharon. Jessel, fear no evil, for thou art with me.
Thy rotten thyself. They come for me though.
Thou preparest the table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou unwantest mehevest oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I'll dwell in the house Lord forever. Psalms 23. She learned a whole chapter. Have you ever done that?
It's pretty good if anyone be encouraged to use a new creature old things the best way Behold all things will become a new Second Corinthians 517 very good. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold all things are become new Second Christians 5/17 Thank you Jackson.
OK, you want to try.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are becoming new. 2nd Corinthians 517.
00:35:09
If any man be encouraged to use a new creature, old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Second Corinthians 5/17 Thank you very much. Children needed a very very good job.
I wasn't planning on speaking about this first and our time is running out.
I was going to say something, but I don't know if I should except it says you're new creatures or a new creation. So if you want to know what that new creation is, listen again to the meeting Bruce had yesterday and you'll know what that new creation is. You think you can do that?
If we remember what he spoke about, we'll know what that new creation is. But there was a man. I don't know if I anyways.
He just got saved and, you know, he was kind of a hard man and he was in business. He wanted to make a lot of money and he was kind of, his language wasn't always very good. And he got saved. He was 5051 years old and he got saved. And then he comes over to my house and and he wants to visit and I call him Brother Terry. Before we weren't friends really. We dealt with each other in business. But he got saved and he came and he's a whole new man.
There's he's like Jim. I lost all my friends.
He made new friends. He's like, I don't know why I need all these guns and ammunition anymore. Says we're not to kill people. We're to say people are to get saved. We want people to get saved. And he's like Tim. I thought I was really living the life, but he's like Tim. I really have life now. And he wants to please the Lord Jesus. He's a part of that new creation. He's a whole new man.
The Lord gave him new life. New life.
OK.
Now.
Can anyone guess there's something that I really like? I really enjoy it's under here.
It's something the Lord created, but it's something that women really like. I'm a little strange because I like it too, but I really like.
Flowers, flowers, flowers.
Flowers. I like flowers.
And, you know, at home, some people get my age and a little older, they feel like they need another house. You know, the kids start moving out and they kind of get itchy and they want another house. And my son was moving out, and I kind of felt like I could use another house. And so I raised my family in a little brown house. We had a little brown house. And I decided I was going to build another house and this house.
Was going to be a greenhouse. Not a brown house, but a greenhouse.
It's on the same property, just a little ways away, and this house is kind of like an orphanage.
Can someone tell me what an orphanage is?
Something that takes care of children who don't have parents.
Did we hear that? I think so.
So in this House.
There are 24,000 no 26,442 babies. Can you imagine all in one house over 26,000 babies. Have you ever seen that?
No. And they came, my four daughters, they took him and they put him into a four inch little bed, little pot. And then my daughter Johanna, she's kind of like a nurse and and she goes around and she makes sure they get enough water. She makes sure they're not too hot and they're not too cold. And she makes sure that they're all healthy. And if they're not healthy, she tells Andrew he's kind of like a doctor and he comes and he gives him medicine.
And in about two months, I'm going to put him up for adoption.
And they're going to go live at someone else's house.
And that's where they're going to live the rest of their life. Is that someone else's house? And So what I have here.
We have to be kind of fast.
I'm going to put these up for adoption. We've kind of learned about adoption, didn't we yesterday a little bit.
00:40:00
This is a little different. This is how they've come into maybe your family. Adoption is kind of what happens within the family. So I would like, if you would like to adopt A flower, I'd like you to come up here and take one. Everyone, there's enough for all of you to take a while. Take whichever one you would like. Oops, sorry.
And when you're all done, I have bags that we can put them in.
And so you can take him safely to your home. Be very careful. They're babies.
Act like they're your little brother or your little sister.
Just take one, they're all pretty.
And then go sit down again.
Because we're running out of time, but I have about 9 minutes.
So I'm going to read a verse to hold them very carefully. Remember their babies.
I am going to read a verse. I don't have time to do quite what I wanted to do. I wanted to go around and find out all of your names. I don't know your names.
But I could tell you all the names of these flowers. I left some tags in them because some of them are red. They're all. There might be 7 different platoons, but some are pink, some are red, some are striped.
Some grow fat, some grow tall. They're all different sizes. And so I put the names on it. I was going to go through and tell you all the names, but you can read them. Some of them don't have names. There was one in here that had a question mark. Did anyone get the question mark All right here. Is there anyone here that doesn't have a name?
Do you all have names? OK, well we don't know what this one is for sure.
OK Isaiah chapter 43.
Isaiah chapter 43 and I'm just going to read it, OK.
And I want your children to listen because we only have a few more minutes, OK?
Isaiah 43 we heard yesterday, this is the 5th gospel, right? Isaiah is like the 5th gospel. That's what I heard.
First one, but now set the Lord.
That created the O Jacob, and he that formed the O Israel. Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. Who knows your name?
Liam, that's your name, but who knows it? I don't know who else knows it.
What were you going to say, Israel? Very nice name. I wanted to hear all your names, but we're out of time, so the Lord Jesus knows your name, children.
Have you heard the Lord Jesus? Have you heard the Lord Jesus call your name?
He says.
I have called thee.
Thy name can you say, as he says here Thou art mine. Are you the Lord Jesus?
Are you saved? Can he say I have redeemed thee? He died that he might save you, that he might redeem you?
Are you saved?
And your children.
When does the Lord Jesus often call children?
What time of day does the Lord Jesus often call children is when you're playing ball, playing with your dolls, or eating a meal?
When does the Lord Jesus often speak to children?
In Sunday school. Sunday school, very nice. Where else? Just think about it, children, because all four of my children had it at this time.
In the Bible, in the Bible, that's very good. He speaks to us through the word of God. But where do we hear a little voice sometimes that's calling us?
In our bedroom.
You got it is when we're trying to go to sleep. Who was called when they were laid down to sleep and they heard somebody called him and he called their name twice.
00:45:08
Samuel. Samuel.
Samuel.
Have you heard?
The Lord Jesus call you. He is, and he knows your name.
And we want to make sure we read yesterday and I think Luke chapter 10 that the Lord that your name is written in heaven. Once you come to the Lord Jesus and believe on him, your name is written in heaven. And also we want your name to be written in the book of life.
You know, there was one time growing up we had a large garden. We needed a lot of food and we had a garden on one side of the driveway and then we had a garden on the other side of the driveway. And then we had a garden in the orchard. And so, you know, as soon as we could walk, we learned how to use a hoe because you have to weed, keep the weeds out of the garden, right? And one time I was out there with my brother Rodney, and I asked Rodney. Rodney.
I could hear somebody was calling me and it was the Lord Jesus and I asked my brother how can I get saved?
I want to be saved. You know what he told me? He's like, you just go over there to that pear tree. How big is a pear tree? Does anyone know about how big a trunk is on a pear tree?
It's not very big. It's probably about about that big around, He said, just go behind that pear tree and ask the Lord Jesus to come into your heart that you're a Sinner and that you want him to save you. And you know what I did? I was about your age. I was 567 years old. I went over to that pear tree. I got down on my knees. That pear tree is still there. I got down on my knees.
And the Lord Jesus saved them.
There's coming a day that says in Luke.
Chapter 13 maybe?
That the door.
There's a door, you might say into heaven. The Lord Jesus is the door. That door is going to be shut.
And it's going to be shut forever. We don't know when that's going to be shut. And the Lord Jesus, there's going to be those knocking on the door of wanting in. And you know what the Lord Jesus is going to say.
I never knew you.
That would be a terrible thing. The Lord Jesus were to say to you, I never knew you. Does he know you?
Have you come to him?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that thou shalt be saved.
Don't wait, dear children.
So when you look at this flower, it's going to grow, it's going to start to bloom, and so are you. But are you going to shine for the Lord Jesus? Are you going to live for the Lord Jesus? You want to do it now? I'm dealing with some men that are in their 50s. They're not saved.
They have to come as a child.
Just like you.
So we're going to pray.
Or Jesus.
We just, we look to these for these dear children.
We thank Thee for Thy faithfulness that Thou dost call us by our name. We just pray that their hearts would be open to Thy call.
And that they would receive thee as the Savior of sinners. We thank thee for this little time. Lord Jesus, thank Thee for thy faithfulness.
Cast yourselves upon thee and give you thanks and the Lord Jesus name, Amen.
So I have brown bags here. Slip them into that bag and then they'll be safe. OK, You want to. It's kind of like a car seat.
You want to help me pass them out?
Yeah.
Resurrection
Address—B. Prost
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.
But we began the meeting by city again.
That we sung already in this conference yesterday #34.
#34.
It has to do with the subject I'd like to speak on this afternoon, but before we sing this hymn.
Maybe I do too much of this, but I'd like to tell you a little bit about the author.
I've always had an interest in who wrote hymns and under what circumstances.
And if you look in the back of the book, you will see the name beside this hymn #34.
WP Mackay.
I can relate to him because he was a medical doctor.
He was born in Scotland in the late 1830s and had a very godly Christian mother.
But he didn't care for her Christianity and didn't care for the Lord and.
When he was fairly young, announced his intention to go to the city of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and study medicine. Well, his mother didn't want him to go. She thought he would get into the wrong crowd. She knew he wasn't saved.
And she was very concerned about him, but he was going and that was that.
However, she gave him a Bible when he left home, put his name in the front of it, put a Bible verse underneath it, and gave him that Bible and said, son, hang on to this, you may want it someday.
Well, as you can well imagine, he had a brilliant mind and he did well in medical school.
But he did get into the wrong crowd and got into things that he shouldn't have gotten into. And one night when he was drinking too much, he pawned to the Bible off for a little bit of extra money to buy more liquor and never gave it a second thought again.
Well, time went on.
Brilliant young man.
Did well in his studies, arose to become.
The leading doctor in a hospital there in Edinburgh.
One day, quite a few years later.
A man was brought into the emergency that had been very badly injured. I don't know the details of what happened to him, but anyway he was brought in very badly injured and.
Yet he seemed very calm and accepting it all very easily.
He said to Dr. Mackay. How? What's my condition? What am I going to end up doing? What's going to happen?
Oh, Dr. Mackay said. Ah, I guess we'll pull you through somehow.
Well, the man knew very well that his injuries were very serious and so.
He said. Doctor, I'd like the truth. I'm not afraid to die.
He said tell me exactly where things stand.
So the doctor said, Sir, he said, I'll be honest with you, you've got only a matter of three hours to live.
So they took him up to a bed in the hospital and the last thing the man said before he was taken upstairs was tell my landlady to bring the book.
Doctor McKay was busy with other things. Later on the next day he went up to the ward to see what was going on and he said of course the man had by that time passed away.
He said I want to know what was the book that he wanted.
He didn't even tell the landlady what it was. He said she know what it was.
Tell me. Tell me what the book was. Was it his bank book or was it a book with his appointments in it? Or what did he want?
The nurse said you go and take a look under his pillow.
So Doctor McKay went, lifted up the pillow, picked up the book.
And as you can well imagine, there was his Bible.
All that time, others had been blessed through it, including that man.
00:05:02
And here he was a lost Sinner.
Was what he needed.
The Lord used it to bring him to Christ that very day and for the rest of his life. He used his time for the Lord.
Didn't live to be very old either. He died when he was in his mid 40s I believe. Something like that. So just a little background helps to make this hymn come alive for us.
#34.
Oh, Lord is risen.
Waiting till we all struggle.
To save all.
We want to.
See him and to say no more.
Our loving God and our Father, we look up to Thee again this afternoon, thankful for all that we have already enjoyed from Thy Word.
And thankful to our God for the precious truth contained in this hymn, the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and as thy word tells us, has become the first fruits of them that slept.
We thank Thee, our God, that everything in our lives, everything in Christianity, depends ultimately on resurrection. So we look to thee now for thy special help as we open thy word this afternoon, praying that Thou wilt bring before us that which would be suitable for us. Guide and direct us in every way we pray.
We ask all this, our God, thanking thee, that we can count on thee.
And doing so, independence in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Well, I have to confess to you that when I came to these meetings, I had been enjoying the subject of resurrection, and I was particularly enjoying the 15th chapter of First Corinthians.
00:10:03
What we have had before us brings before us the fact that is what we have had in the readings in Ephesians 1.
Brings before us the present enjoyment of that resurrection life. Already that is what we have from those from a risen Christ in glory to do with those heavenly blessings which are ours. Wonderful.
But at the same time, at times in our life, we are also in the wilderness, aren't we?
In one sense, we're already risen and seated in heavenly places. That's Ephesian truth.
But in another sense, we're in the wilderness that is Philippian truth. And you can match up many of those Old Testament types with different books in the New Testament that illustrate the truth of them. And so let's turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 15.
And I'd like to dwell particularly on three questions.
That the Apostle Paul asks in this chapter.
Resurrection is a very broad subject. We cannot hope to deal with it all this afternoon, and I'm not going to try, because I have found over the years, both for my own soul and for others too, that it's often better to say a few things and deal with them.
Well, if I could use the term rather than try and say too much.
And that is no criticism, Brother Bruce. I want you to realize that I have, on my occasion, stood up to have an address and, as the English proverb goes, bitten off more than I could handle at the time. But First Corinthians chapter 15 has three separate questions in it.
All of which I believe Paul asks to exercise the Corinthians, but also to bring out something positive.
Because as you read through, just to give a moment or two of background, as you read through First Corinthians, it tends to be kind of negative, doesn't it? Paul has to deal with one problem after another.
That existed there in Corinth, and you and I probably can scarcely think of an assembly.
That had more disorder and more confusion and more things going on that needed straightening out than Corinth.
And yet at the end of the chapter or correction at the end of the book.
What Paul does is wonderful. He takes up one last error that was being propagated there, namely that some were saying that there was no resurrection of the dead.
And uses that.
First of all, to show the futility and the utter impossibility of that thought, but then to use it as what we might call a springboard to bring out wonderful truths concerning the resurrection of Christ and all of the ramifications of it.
Again, we don't have time to go through it all, but let's look at the first question.
1St Corinthians 15 and verse 12.
Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
In other words, Paul was saying what is behind this thinking? Where did it come from and what kind of thought, what kind of?
Spirit if you like.
Put that thinking into your minds so that now you are saying.
There is no resurrection of the dead.
00:15:05
Paul had spent, as we know, a long time in Corinth, at least a year and a half, and we know from other things that Paul said that he would have made it very clear to those Corinthians about the truth of resurrection, about the Lord's coming.
About how that believers would be raised from the dead who had died in Christ. Yes, I know the details are given there in Thessalonians, but if he gave it to the Thessalonians, at least in brief, in a matter of about a month, surely he gave it to the Corinthians.
In a matter of a year and a half.
And at here they were listening to some who were saying.
There's no resurrection of the dead.
On the negative side, why does that thinking come in? And there are various reasons for which we will.
Get into a little more deeply when we get to the second question.
But on the negative side, Satan wants you and me.
Even as believers. Certainly he wants unbelievers to think that way, but he wants you and me, even as believers, to discount and if possible, to deny the resurrection of believers.
Why would he do that?
For those who are not saved, the natural man does not want to believe in resurrection.
Oh, he thinks in terms of perhaps, yes, I hope that when I die, I will go to heaven. And maybe there is life after death. But many would prefer to believe, and you have encountered this kind of talk, too, but this life is the end of everything. And that when we die, we die just as an animal dies, and that's the end of our existence.
There is nothing more.
But deep down inside.
Man knows that there is more.
Deep down inside, he knows there is something more.
There are those out there today who call themselves atheists.
Who do not believe there is a God. And I am reminded of a true story that took place quite a number of years ago, probably 75 years ago now and maybe more, where there was a man who met up with a believer in our area there in Ontario, Canada.
And when the believer began to speak to him about eternal matters, he said, Well, he said, I must confess that I have started to think about that a little bit lately.
He said, you know, I have been an atheist all my life. My father was an atheist, my grandfather was an atheist, and that's how I was brought up.
But then he went on to say.
It wasn't that long ago that I was at my father's bedside as he was dying.
He lay there on the bed, he wasn't in hospital, he was at home. And as he lay there on the bed he had lapsed into unconsciousness and we all were just waiting for him to take that last breath before he would be gone.
But he said I have to relate to you.
That all of a sudden he sat up in bed.
And in a voice that was laced with terror.
Said there is a God, there is a hell.
And I'm going to it.
He fell back down on the bed and was gone.
The man said I can't forget that scene. It has haunted me ever since and it wasn't that long ago.
And I believe that man, that who is talking to him, that brother who was talking to him, was able to lead him to Christ. But now for the positive side, because our time is going. What does resurrection mean to the believer? Everything depends on it. Why? Because for you and for me.
00:20:17
Everything is going to happen that really counts.
In resurrection.
And that's why Paul.
Take such a long time in this chapter to connect the resurrection of Christ.
With the resurrection of the believer.
Now you perhaps would say, well.
Come on, Bill, you know.
We've all been brought up to understand the Lord's coming and the resurrection of believers.
And how that when the Lord comes, the dead in Christ shall rise 1St, and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. We all know that. Do we need to be reminded of it again?
I speak to my own heart.
It is very easy to believe in all of that.
And it has been brought out already in these meetings to believe in all of that with a certain amount of head knowledge.
Which is all good. We need that we have to have some senses in order to take in knowledge.
We have to have a brain to take things in, but you know, it has to get down from here.
To the heart level. And that's what Paul meant to Timothy when he talks to him in Second Timothy chapter 3.
He talks to him about the things which sell us learned that's getting it up here.
And been assured of that's getting it not only in the heart, but in the walk.
And I say to my own heart, as I say to you this afternoon, does the thought of resurrection really grip my soul so that I realize that everything depends on it?
Or you say, perhaps I'm waiting for the Lord to come. I don't expect if I can use the English language this way. I don't expect to have to be raised from the dead.
I expect to be here when the Lord comes.
I don't think it's stretching things too much to say. It's still, in a certain sense, resurrection because it takes just as much divine power to change that body of humiliation that you and I have. And it will be a changed body, not a different body, a changed body, a recognizable body. We'll talk about that more later.
Just as much power as it takes to raise.
A body from the dead.
When the Apostle Paul was standing before King Agrippa and others.
He said why should it be a thought, incredible thing, incredible with you, that God should raise the dead.
And you and I as knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
We know that no matter where that body might, might go, what might have happened to it?
How it might have deteriorated, the Lord is able to.
As the hymn says, take that precious dust and remold it.
Back into a body which will be a glorious body.
But why is it so important?
Turn back for a moment to Second Timothy, chapter 2.
Second Timothy, chapter 2.
And I'm going to read verses 7:00 and 8:00, but I'd like to read the second of those verses, verse eight. I'm just going to quote it as it is in the JND translation. Follow with the King James and think to yourself, am I changing the meaning a bit?
Verse seven Consider what I say. That's Paul and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
00:25:07
But then Paul brings in what was central to his ministry.
And here's the verse as it is in the Darby translation. Remember Jesus Christ of the seed of David comma raised from the dead according to my gospel.
Does it change the meaning a little?
Paul didn't want Timothy to remember so much the fact of the resurrection.
He wanted him to remember the one who first of all rose from among the dead.
And why does he say that?
I believe it was because the Apostle Paul had never met, never known the Lord Jesus when he was on earth. He met him first of all on the Damascus Rd. when he heard that voice from heaven saying, I am Jesus whom thou persecuted.
Oh, you can just imagine. Here was Paul stricken to the earth by a light brighter.
Then the son and suddenly he realizes this is.
A risen Christ talking to me and everything that characterized Paul's ministry.
Had to do.
With a risen Christ in glory.
Some of us here are old enough to remember our late brother Clifford Brown, originally from Des Moines, IA, then lived in Burbank, CA for a number of years. He's been gone for well over 45 years, so you have to be a bit on the old side to remember him. But he used to say.
True Christianity.
Begins on the other side of the cloud.
Referring, of course, to the cloud that received the Lord out of their sight when the disciples watched him ascend up to heaven.
When the Lord Jesus.
Died on Calvary's cross.
What did it look like from a human perspective?
Those who pass by no doubt said.
He was a great prophet, but he was a miserable failure. Look where he is now. Look what's happened. All those miracles he did, all that good teaching. He did everything he gave.
His own followers have forsaken him. One of them betrayed him, another one denied him his oaths with oaths and curses.
His own nation condemned him, shouting and hollering at Pilot to crucify him.
And you remember the two on the way to Emmaus, the way they reacted, they were just devastated. Everything, it's all over with.
Was it?
An absolutely not.
No.
Through weakness and defeat, he won the Mead and crown. Trot all our foes beneath his feet by being trodden down. Where did the blessing begin in resurrection?
Many years ago in the Bible reading in Montreal, Canada and I wasn't there.
Was only reported to me, a brother. We won't turn to it. You can look at these scriptures.
A brother referred to John's Gospel.
Chapter 19 and at the end it's recorded that.
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes of 100 LB weight.
And involve the Lord Jesus in a burial fit for a rich man.
And as people will sometimes do in a reading meeting. And it was a good question.
A brother spoke up and said, well, he said. We read in Psalm 45.
All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes, and cashem out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.
00:30:02
And then he threw out the question, Why were there only myrrh and aloes in the burial of the Lord Jesus, and no cash?
Well, there was a well taught brother there that had the answer. Oh, he said you have to realize what those spices meant. He said myrrh speaks of beauty, but it has to be crushed in order to bring out the fragrance of it. He said that was the fragrance of Christ's death in the sight of a holy God.
But he said the Aloes speak of bitterness.
And just as they were bitter herbs with the Passover, so there was a bitterness with the suffering of the Lord Jesus, as he bore all the judgment of a holy God against sin, and was made sin for us.
But he said the mirror and the Aloes were there at the grave, but it wasn't time for the cache yet.
He said it's not mentioned by name, but he said the Myers and or the Cashiers in the next chapter.
You can look it up in John 20 where the Lord says to Mary Magdalene.
Because Cassia, he said, speaks of healing and comfort. And so the Lord said to Mary Magdalene, Go to my brethren, and tell them what I ascend. Touch me not, he says, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren, and tell them I ascend unto.
My Father and your Father, and my God, and your God.
All the marvelous breadth and height and depth of blessing that comes in.
Everything looked like a total failure, but the untold blessed came in resurrection.
And then Paul brings it out so clearly that if Christ is risen, how can you say that we won't rise? Because if Christ is not risen, you're not even saved if he's here yet in your sins. And we aren't going to go into the depth of that this afternoon except to point out that.
For you and for me.
You and I are called to follow a rejected Christ, and we are not going to get even the reward of what we do for the Lord.
Necessarily down here.
And that's particularly apropos in this verse that we just read in Second Timothy.
Pardon me a moment.
It's particularly important because, as most of you know, Second Timothy was the last epistle Paul wrote.
He had been imprisoned, I believe for the second time in Rome, and he knew that this time he was not going to be released.
And he is telling Timothy, Timothy, the signs are already out there of declension that is going to come in all they which are in Asia, he could tell him, have forsaken me.
But there is not one hint of discouragement in the whole book. Burdened, yes. Concern, yes.
Tears yes, on Timothy's Part 2, but Paul says Timothy in so many words, it's worth it. It's well worth it. Keep on going and he reminds Timothy of the Lord Jesus Christ and says.
Where did the Lord Jesus get the reward for his faithfulness?
Not down here.
Now he'll be vindicated in this world, in the Millennium, as we have been talking about, and the Millennium, among other things, will take place for that very reason, for the public vindication of God's holy character.
But that's not what you and I look for. We look for heavenly glory.
And.
Paul says to Timothy, the Lord Jesus didn't get his reward down here.
He got it in resurrection. Same thing with the Apostle Paul. He could have been one of the most discouraged men around.
All they which are in Asia have forsaken me where some of his best, if we could say it.
00:35:10
I don't want to use the term best assemblies. That doesn't sound right. Where but where? Some of the highest truth that he had given out. He had been free to give in Asia and he had spent time there.
And it went to his heart. It was disappointing, no question about it. But Paul says Timothy.
I've got nothing to be ashamed of. You carry on. And you too.
Will get your reward in the coming day. Well, let's go on now to the second question.
Verse 29.
Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?
Why then? Why are they then baptized for the dead? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
What does it mean to be baptized for the dead some groups and they call themselves Christians anyway, they believe in going through a certain ritual of.
Being baptized for people that have died. But that is not the thought.
It simply has the thought that when a believer is baptized, he takes his place before this world as being identified with Christ.
And we get that in Galatians. Every one of you that has been baptized into Christ has put on Christ, put on Christ bearing the name of Christ in this world.
And in that sense, every time a believer is baptized.
He is there, as it were, to fill up the ranks of those who have gone to be with the Lord.
No one here today was there in the beginning when baptism was first instituted, Christian baptism. And yet here is a large company, relatively speaking.
Of believers.
We've all, in that sense, been baptized for the dead. We have taken the place of those who have gone before. It is a wonderful privilege.
But you know when we take that place, as we have already been reminded in what Brother Bob brought before us.
It is not to have an easy life and if I can say it, and I speak most of all to my own heart.
I don't like conflict. I don't like things that don't run on an even keel.
And I do my best to make them run on an even keel. But then, as Bob was aptly bringing out, the Lord doesn't allow that in our lives, does He? And sometimes it's just in simple things.
Give you an illustration, maybe some here can relate to that.
About two or three weeks ago, I happened to go down to my furnace room and I was going to change the furnace filter. And I do that regularly on a on a proper basis. And I keep my day book. I put it down so I don't forget about it. I put a new one in and then three months down the road I put it in my day book, changed furnace filter.
I went down and there I saw water dripping from a pipe.
Oh dear, I said, Lord, I have so much I have to do today, I don't need this. But it wouldn't stop. I said, well, it's not too bad. I'll put a bucket under it and hope that it quits by tomorrow.
Well, there wasn't much in the bucket the next day, but there was still dripping and I had to deal with it.
Pain in the neck, to use a common phrase.
But the Lord allows it, doesn't He? He doesn't allow us to get too comfortable down here, even if it's only things that have to do with this life. And sometimes He allows other problems in our lives, bigger and more difficult ones.
Like our brother Dave Newton being taken to the hospital or something like that.
00:40:01
All kinds of things.
But nevertheless baptized for the dead.
But if there's no resurrection, why should we do that? Why should we do a thing like that?
Paul says there's no point to it and he gives the result of not believing in the resurrection in verse 32 he says if after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, you see how serious that riot in Ephesus was over the.
Goddess Diana and the silversmiths and so on. Paul thought he was going to lose his life over that.
He refers to it a couple of times, once here, and he refers to it again in Second Corinthians.
What advantage hath it me if the dead rise not let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. And I say to each one of us here this afternoon, that is what we are seeing in the world today.
The world looks terrible politically, economically, militarily, leadership wise, in every way. The future looks bleak. And then of course, on top of all of that, people are terribly worried about the environment. Dire predictions are being given to us about what's going to happen and what we better do and so on. And.
People are saying, what's the point? Let us eat and drink for tomorrow. We die. Take all the risks you want. After all, you're going to die anyway. You might as well have fun doing it. And if you do something that's very dangerous and you lose your life in it, well, all right.
Hoop it up, live life to the full.
If there's no resurrection.
And you know, without wanting to speak to anyone but myself.
We here in privileged countries like the United States and Canada.
And maybe some in Western Europe too. Some of that attitude, if we're not careful, can rub off on us.
And we can fail to do what the Lord could say in the parable of the pounds in Luke 19. Occupy till I come.
When we see the Lord's coming so close and when we see signs that are indicative of what are going what, what is going to happen after we're called home, it's easy to say.
We can afford to coast a little bit because we're so near the end.
We don't have to be too concerned. We're going to be taken home very shortly.
But we're brethren, Saints of God, entitled to say that at any time in the Church's history.
Yes, they were. Yes, they were.
And so Paul is saying to Timothy.
And in two Timothy, but he also says here to the Corinthians.
Why are we standing in jeopardy every hour? Why if, why are we facing difficulties in our lives? What's the use of it all?
This is quite some time ago now, but I remember sitting around the lunch table at our home and there were some there. I knew them all well. Some were believers and some I was pretty sure were not.
And when we have anyone into dinner or lunch, if there's any possibility of doing it, we always take the word of God out and read it. And I read a passage, I can't even remember what it was. Now, concerning this same thought. It wasn't this chapter, but it concerned the difficulties of the Christian life.
And what it meant to us.
And one of them spoke up, one of our guests spoke up and said.
Well, it really makes you wonder, why would you bother doing it all? Why do all that kind of thing? Why? Why walk that kind of path?
I did not know whether she was saved or not. I rather doubt whether she were.
00:45:07
And I can't remember everything I said, but I said something like this. I said, you know.
You're in very old company.
Your attitude is not new. The Apostle Paul said it and it wasn't his own idea nearly 2000 years ago. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
And that is the natural outlook.
I say to each one of us here, the Christian life is worthwhile. Every ounce of it is worthwhile. And why is it so important for this reason that we are using the time we have down here to build for eternity? Do we realize that?
A brother again who's a ministry I sat under while I was young used to make this comment.
He said everything in your life and mine. Now this may sound rather sweeping, and if you challenge it, I understand, but I believe in a certain sense it's true, he said. Every action of in your life and mine will have both present and eternal consequences.
I remember thinking about that and thinking what a mouthful that is.
The things that we have done for the Lord, the Lord says we will get a reward.
The things that we have done, otherwise there will be a loss.
The Lord says so.
Now I am not saying and I don't want to get into this this afternoon.
Because it's very difficult to go down that road that one believer in eternity will have necessarily.
A greater enjoyment of Christ or something like that. We've all heard the illustration that.
Everyone will have a full cup, but some cups will be bigger than others and so on.
And.
I would only say to you in the words of one of our best old writers, he said.
When he was challenged with a question like that, he said it may be true, but because scripture doesn't go there, I don't either.
Good remark and I say the same thing.
But the point is, there will be consequences. You and I have an opportunity down here to follow a rejected Christ, and there will be a special reward.
For those who have honored him in the scene of his rejection, now you and I, as we often admit, do not have much in the way of persecution.
Not yet.
But it may come before the Lord takes us home, and I don't envy you.
Young families here about to raise children.
In the world that we are growing up in today.
Yes, I have children too, and I have grandchildren.
I even have a great granddaughter.
And I fear for those parents who want to raise children in the fear of the Lord. It's getting to be more difficult. Remember, the Lord will always give you a clean path. It may be narrower, it may be more difficult, but God will always give you a clean path right to the end, or God would not be God.
The path is worth it. Worth it. Let's not fall into the trap of coasting to the Lord's coming. Let's continue to occupy till he comes. The last question.
Verse 55.
Oh, death.
Where is thy sting, O grave? Where is thy victory? It's kind of a rhetorical question because Paul knew the answer to that very well. He wasn't asking as if, Tell me the answer to that. Oh, no.
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Yes, it says in the next verse. A sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. And the devil, sadly, has done a good job of trying to persuade men in some cases.
That there is nothing beyond death, as we've already said, or persuading them that everybody goes to some beautiful place.
Where all is light and everything is nice and we're all going to get there some way, somehow.
Yes, we can all go different ways.
But as we had pointed out in the Gospel, God has one way, and that is through Christ, and we cannot choose to come in our own way.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. And so Paul says, O death, where is thy sting, because death has an awful sting.
I can well remember.
Visiting a beloved brother in Christ.
Who was in a nursing home back home where I lived in Hamilton, ON.
I knew that brother well.
I can't remember not knowing him because he was part of our local gathering.
And he lived to be what anyone would call a ripe old age. He was in his 98th year when the Lord took him home, and I used to visit him. He was totally clear in mind right to the end. And he loved to go out. He was a farmer and he loved to get out in his car and get out into the fresh air.
He used to tell me, Bill, he'd say, you know, man made the cities, but it was God that made the country and so on.
So we'd get in the car and I'd take him out for an hour or two, drive in the good weather of course, and he enjoyed it.
But I remember once sitting talking to him in his room and all of a sudden there was a terrible commotion in the next room.
And the man in the next room, and I knew that man a little bit, he had no use for the things of the Lord.
But he began to shout and began to carry on, and later on at his shout turned to a cry and all kinds of commotion. Nurses arrived and eventually doctors and so on.
He realized that he was going, he was dying, and he did not want to die.
He was afraid to die. And that shouting and carrying on that crying went to my heart as I thought.
There's a soul passing into eternity, and he's afraid to die.
The sting of death.
Isn't it wonderful to have the sting of death taken away? Isn't it wonderful to have, as our brother Tim said in the children's meeting this morning, he could say I'm not afraid to die. Wonderful for the believer to say that. But you know, sometimes the believer, even the true believer.
Can somehow, if he's not careful, we can get away from the Lord, and then we begin to have doubts. Soul and in our soul by the devil.
And I don't mind admitting that there have been times in my life when not having been close enough to the Lord.
The devil is so doubts. What if it's all just something made-up?
What if you do get to your deathbed and pass away and find it's not the way you thought it was going to be?
The devil can sow those seeds in our hearts, and I have visited with more than one dear believer.
Who said I don't think I am saved anymore?
I won't be there. I've talked about the joys of being caught up when the Lord comes and I can remember one saying to me, well, Bill, I won't be there. I won't be there. I'm not saved. I've never been saved at all.
I'm sorry to have to tell you that no matter what I said to her, I couldn't get things straightened out. Eventually she did get peace again. I'm glad to report.
But many years ago there was another brother that I suppose had more wisdom and maybe more depth than I do. And when a sister and older sister said that to him on her deathbed, he could be a little blunt at times. And he said to her, well then, sister, why don't you just give up Christ and die without him?
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And he said it with a straight face, too.
But it worked.
Oh, she said. I'd never do that.
And then he said more gently, he said, sister, I knew you wouldn't. I knew you wouldn't, He said, because you are saved and all this is an attack of Satan. Let's remember that.
But just in the few minutes that are left.
I want to touch on something.
In a couple of ways.
Perhaps.
And I have thought about it as I get older.
And obviously others have.
I remember reading the last words of John Nelson Darby.
When he was on his deathbed. Or some of the last words anyway. Maybe not the last words.
He said something like this. He said, well, it will be a strange thing to be in heaven.
But he said it will not be a strange Christ, it will be one that I have loved and known for many years.
Beautiful.
But then I was very much encouraged on another occasion reading in GV Wiggum's ministry and he touched on the same subject as he was nearing the end of the journey.
And.
I don't think there was any question in his soul about his relationship with the Lord, but dear GV, Wiggum died of a broken heart more than anything else because of the troubles among brethren in those days that just.
I felt sorry for him and reading about it, he just threw up his hands, he said. It's all over with.
It wasn't true. Thankfully, we're still here today, 150 years later.
He went to be with the Lord, I think in 1877, but what he wrote was beautiful.
He said. Do we sometimes think about what we will do when we get to heaven?
He said there's one thing that ought to satisfy our hearts, Christ.
Will be there. Isn't that beautiful? Christ will be there. And it's true. It's very true. Is there anything beyond that?
Brother Bob, when he was talking in the Gospel, talked about the number of the stars.
And it went home to me a little time ago because I like reading those kind of books too. And I read a piece of information that just.
Boggled my mind.
They said that in the extent of our present knowledge, which is probably limited.
They said if you can think of all the grains of sand in this whole world.
There are at least 10,000 times more stars than there are grains of sand.
In this world.
And, you know, I'd like to think of all those stars as indicative of the glories of Christ.
It will take an eternity will never exhaust them.
But one more practical thing.
Sometimes we wonder about things in heaven.
And I'm going to say something that I am thoroughly convinced of, but it's always been a great comfort to my own soul.
To think about it and I've used it to comfort others. There may be those here who have lost.
Children, sometimes at a very young age.
And you have no doubt that those children are with the Lord.
Because they were too young to have set their will against the gospel of the grace of God. No question about it. That is very clear.
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But sometimes, and don't get me wrong, I have never lost a child.
In that way and at a very young age. And so I have never been through the experience, but I have talked to a number of parents who have gone through all of that. And sometimes the question is voiced, well, I wonder what he would have looked like if he had grown up or what she would have turned out to have looked like.
Sometimes when a child begins to grow, you say, well, I think he would have favored my grandfather, or she might have favoured my aunt or something like that. But you always wonder, what would that child have looked like in maturity?
You know we sing that hymn around the throne of God in heaven will many children sing.
And I would never take away from the truth of that. But we know from God's Word that when we do get up there.
Male and female will not exist anymore and suppose that you were to lose a six month old baby.
Is that 6 month old baby going to exist in eternity as a six month old baby?
I don't believe so, no. That child will be in the full maturity of understanding.
Able fully with intelligence to join in the praises.
I've sometimes told parents, do you wonder what that young son of yours might have looked like if he hadn't met with that tragic accident? Or that daughter that got a serious disease and was taken away before she could grow into maturity? I have told them with confidence and I believe for my own soul that Scripture would support it.
You will find out someday, not in a body of humiliation.
Which they would have grown up in in this world, but rather with a body of glory.
Fashion like unto his glorious body. Now of course, human relationships will not exist up there in the in the same way. We don't delve into that particularly because our time is gone. But I say that as a comfort, as an and as an encouragement. Oh death, where is thy sting, O grave, where is thy victory? For the believer? The Lord has won the victory.
The victory is there in resurrection, and because Christ is risen, you and I will rise. You and I will be changed, and we will enjoy that blessing for all eternity.
I know our time is gone, but maybe we could sing #4 in the appendix. In closing, I think it's a just a bit of a short hymn. His be the victors name who fought the fight alone. Triumphant Saints no honor claim his conquest was their own.
#4 in the appendix.
Triumph and say no on earthquake.
It is gone. Where is God's errors?
Find me the Sandy.
It was on me and from.
Draw.
ING.
Slay, slay, slaying.
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Glory.
To die.
For his church.
For thee.
Blessed God our Father, we come to Thee again, thanking Thee for the precious truth.
Of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from among the dead, thanking Thee for that victory that He has gained for us. To him be all the praise. And now we commend thy word to Thee, that Thou make it good to our souls, that we too might enjoy that resurrection life which Thou hast given us, that we might live in view of eternity and not for time.
Until that day when we are taken home.
So we commend thy word to thee, and ask all this our God, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Taking the Land
Open—M. Rogers
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.
Our God and our Father, we're thankful that we could have this open meeting, this assembly meeting.
We thank thee for those that Almighty right raise up.
To address our conscience.
We know that each one of us have a need, each one of us have a concern, each one of us need to be encouraged in the pathway. So we would ask our God and Father to raise up those.
Who love thy people?
Who desire their best might be led by the Spirit of God to address our conscience. So we ask this Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, precious name, Amen.
Stronger, weak, fewer, many. And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad. And what cities they be that dwell in, whether in tents or in strongholds, And what the land is.
Whether it be fat or lean, whether they be good wood they're in or not, and be of good courage and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first stripe grapes. So they went up and searched the land from the wilderness of Zen into Rohab. And the men came to Hamath, and they ascended by the South, and came unto Hebron.
Where Anaheim, Aheman, Shimshai and Talmay, the children of Anak were. Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoon and Egypt, and they came into the brook of Eshkol, and cut down from Sansa branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bear between two upon a staff, and they brought of the pomegranates and the figs. The place was called the Brook Eschol, because the cluster of grapes which the children of US Israel cut down from thence.
They returned from searching the land after 40 days, and they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and all the children of the land, of children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadish, and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, and said, We came into the land whither thou sent us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey.
And there is the fruit of it. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walls.
Very great. Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South.
And the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan.
And Caleb still the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are able to overcome it. But the men that went with them said, We are not able to go against the people, for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched under the children of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search, it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. And all the people that we saw in our men of great stature. And there we are, we saw the giants.
The sons of Anak, which came out of the giants, and we were on our sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
And then while we're in this portion, we can come down to the verse six of the next chapter. And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jeffuna, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes and they spake into the company. The children will say in the land which we passed through to search, it is an exceeding good land.
If the Lord delighted us, then He will bring us into this land and give it us a lamb which floweth with milk and honey, and then we come on down to verse 24 of this chapter.
My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully him I will bring in the land wherewith he went, and his seed shall possess it. Now the Amakites and the Canaanites in the valley tomorrow turn you and get you in the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.
There's dwelling on the spirit of Caleb for just a second. We see here that there are 12 men that are sent up into the land of spy. And as they come back out, they see they all bring report. And if you read in our chapter in in in the 13th chapter there we see that they all seem to agree in verse 27 that the land is a beautiful land. It is flowing with milk and honey and they have evidence of it by holding a branch of grapes between two men. The thing was so huge.
That they're bringing out grapes that are that big.
And they all agree, all 12 of them agree, the fact that this land is a beautiful land.
Ten of them though bringing up an objection, and the objection is that these.
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The children of Anak at the end of verse 28 moreover, we saw the children of Anak. You could take the word moreover and put in the word but but we saw the children of Anak there. They all agree on the fact that it's a beautiful land, but.
And yet Caleb and Joshua stand up and persuade the people that God can help us to overtake the land.
There was Joshua and Caleb and roughly 600,000 people standing there. If we didn't read it, we can read it.
In the following chapter here where they rise up and they want to stone them.
Moses, Joshua and Caleb and maybe a few others are standing forth to go in.
And the large part of the company wants to stone them.
But Caleb, I just want to focus in on Caleb for just a second in light of what we've just been taking up. Caleb saw something there that his heart affection, that he wanted to go in and possess the land.
And we find out in the following chapter there that all the rest of the men of the everybody was to die off.
Except for those that were 20 years and under, the rest were to die off. And so we find Caleb as he turns out into the wilderness with all the company. He goes with his brother and he finds out he and Joshua are going to be the only ones that are going to be the old men. And they have to be out there.
For 40 years.
He saw something in that land he wanted bad, but he had to turn around and go out with his brother and.
And wait for it.
Let's turn over to the book of Joshua, The story continues.
I am so thankful this portion in Joshua 15 rounds out the story of what we see here.
It's a beautiful type to see this story of Joshua and his family. The 1St 12 verses of Joshua 15 have to do with the division of Judah as they are going in the land, They're possessing the land and it talks about all the boundaries.
But then we have in verse 13 this few verses here.
And unto Caleb the son of Jefuna, he gave a part among the children of Judah, according to the command of the Lord, to Joshua, even the city of Arba, the father of Anak, which city is Hebron. And Caleb drove fence the three sons of Anak, Shishai, and a human, and Talmay the children of Anak. And he went up Fence to the inhabitants of Deber. And the name of Deber before was Kirjas Seifer.
And Caleb said he that smiled Kurja seifer, and taketh it to him, will I give Exa my daughter to wife. And off Neil the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it, and gave him AXA his daughter to wife. And they came to pass, as she came unto him, that she moved him to ask of her father afield, and she lighted off her ***.
And Caleb said unto her, What was that?
He answered, Give me a blessing, for thou hast given a Southland. Give me also springs of water.
And he gave her the upper springs and the nether springs. Well, it's beautiful to see this.
This portion here because of the fact that 40 years before, 40 years before, when those 12 came out, the excuse was that that the Anakins, the enemy, was so great they could not take it. That was the excuse.
And so Josh or Caleb turned around and went out into the wilderness with his brother and, and I'm going to presume he had a family while I was out there because I don't know. And I'd love to hear afterwards exactly, maybe their ages. I'm going to assume that Caleb might have been 20 when he went into Spy the Land.
And now we know that it's at least 40 years later. So he's got to be somewhere maybe around 60 years old. And he's now one of the oldest guys. He is the oldest between him and Joshua.
And he had to spend 40 years up there. He had a family, apparently.
And while he was out there, he must have talked of something.
He must have shared with his daughter.
The beauty that he saw in the land.
Because we know. At his age, 60 or so, we know.
His endurance was such that he went in and he took care of the enemy. That was the excuse.
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And we see it's Hebron, right? We see the city is Hebron. This is the city of Annette where they have the Anakins. You get the three Anakins there in verse 14. The very excuse that the other ten had. Josh or Caleb went in to take care of that excuse after meditating upon that and join that for 40 years. He wanted a piece of land and he was going to take it. God's land that was given to him.
But what's compelling about this, too, is that apparently, whatever he had, whatever influence he had about his children.
His daughter says, you've given me this, but I want this too. I want more. And his nephew says, you know, nephew takes him up on the challenge. He gets a daughter because he got a piece of land. There was an influence, I'm going to presume there was an influence upon Caleb, upon his children while he was out in the wilderness, while he had to go out with his brother. And despite what he wanted to do, there was an influence upon his children. There was something to enjoy in the land.
Miss Daughter AXA did not see that land, but she heard about the land.
It's beautiful. She heard about the beauty of that land, and we've already taken it up in the meeting where the Old Testament Saints were to get the land. They were to enjoy the physical. You and I are to enjoy the spiritual. We have a risen head and glory. We're to enjoy that. I think the principle can apply.
Maybe you've been in a meeting like this and you've got to taste of the glory in Ephesians one and the Lord Jesus.
But eventually we leave. We go back to daily life.
If you have been risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. How does that apply?
When we leave.
Like to go back to let's just turn back to that Colossians 3 and read a few more verses.
That follow that verse.
Through the 1St 4 verses.
If you have been reason with Christ, see Colossians 31. Seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead in your life is hid with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory.
I enjoy Pauls writings because he speaks, I had a class in college called symbolic logic and he speaks in these terms particularly here. And you'll find it in Romans where we have if, then, if, then, if then you always get the you always get the, the, the, the matter, the fact after the if. And it's beautiful because if you're risen with Christ.
Six, those things were above verse four, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear.
Then ye shall also appear with him in glory.
And so we have Caleb looking forward to that thing he says God promises and he influenced his children, His children in land. They say we want more of it. And not only that, they saw their father clear out the Anakins as well.
There is things that are fighting for attention when we get back out in the world, there are things that fight for attention. More than ever that is going to disrupt what you and I can enjoy.
For risen Christ.
I've said it before, I used to work in technology many years ago, and we got to see the advent of smartphones. Before smartphones were happening and we were seeing this, We're seeing this, all this take place, and now we have instant information at our fingertips. How can we use that to help me seek Christ, which is above?
Well, I will share with you a brother that lives up the valley from where we live. He's a dentist. He shared with me an interesting news. I share this with young people and older ones that use technology. We all do, some of us.
I'll share with us because I think that the technology can help us seek things above. Let me share with you. He was asking about it happened to be my son-in-law. He says, what's his name? And I gave him his name and he put it in his calendar. He says, he says I'll pray for you. I'll pray for him because his son-in-law works for the same Police Department. And I think that's very nice because everybody says I'll pray for you. And that's just kind of a statement. No, he's serious. He was putting a note in his calendar.
That he was going to pray for my son-in-law, his son-in-law, etcetera.
He had alarms going off. I could see on his phone he had alarms going off that he was going to lift these ones up before the Lord.
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Can I go? Can I be through the day? Can I be out working in the garden? Can I seek things above? No, my mind is preoccupied. Can I have an alarm go off? Yes. What if a mother is crying with a baby? How can you seek things which are above where Christ stood on the right hand of God? How can that happen? How can that happen when I'm in the office, in a business deals going down or whatever it is?
How can I seek those things which are above? Yeah, these little reminders can happen.
Caleb found it that he was out in that wilderness and he, I'm going to presume, I'm going to put it out there, he impacted his children, his, his next of kin around the campfire, that that was a precious thing to have. And when I get there, I'm going to claim it for what God has given me. And you and I have the exact same thing waiting for us. We've already been taking it up.
Am I caught up with the redemptive nature of the Lord Jesus?
If I caught up with the fact think about this, that he's thinking about me right now.
And he's thinking about you. Have you thought about that?
That's striking the thing. He has the ability. He's God. He can think about me all day long, even though I may not think about him.
When he was on the cross.
Did he not do his work thinking about you?
And so.
Blossoms 3 if he had been reason of Christ, seek those things which were above and that's our position. We are the position. Caleb had his position as a as a child of Israel, a son of Judah, if you will. He had his portion waiting for him and he meditated upon that while he's in the wilderness and he impacted his children to which his children then wanted to have more. I so enjoy that. So I hope that that can be of an encouragement.
To those that are in their teenage years because our our 20s because.
Caleb was right about that when he went in and surveyed the land. Maybe that's an encouragement for other teenagers and such because you're hearing these things for the first time.
Or maybe you've heard it again and it's settling in Ephesians 1, Colossians three other portions.
Are settling in what is in Christ in glory right now, because I can rest assured of this.
Is there is a large percentage of dear believers that don't take up with this. They don't enjoy the fact that our position is in Christ.
Because if that is the case, then we wouldn't be so wound up about things that are happening on this earth right now.
Even on the political scene.
If we're seeing Christ in glory, He's over all. He's going to take care of it.
He's thinking about me right now.
One more time, if you then may risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ.
Sit us on the right hand of God, blessed be his name.
Two Fathers, Sons, Women, and Murderers
Open—R. Gonzales
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.
Monastery Hermanos. Good afternoon, brethren.
Capitolo and Libro de Segundo de Samuel like to turn to Second Samuel.
Has 12 verses.
And it talks about the story of Ishpecet.
What called my attention that there's one verse.
The Mephibos said about Mephibosheth.
Capital of Cuatro.
We're going to see the history of two fathers.
And two sons and two women he knows, and two murderers as he goes on Lectura.
Este capitolo.
We're going to read.
OK.
Chapter 12. Capital 4.
And when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebrew, and his hands were feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled, and Saulson had two men that were captains of bands, the name of the one was Vienna, and the name of the other, Recap.
The sons of Rimmen. The Bureau fight of the children of Benjamin for Beareth also was reckoned to Benjamin, And the Berethites fled to Gitaim, and were sojourners there until this day. And Jonathan Saul son, had a son that was lame.
Of his feet. He was five years old when tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled. And it came to pass, as she made hastily, that he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth. And the sons of Rimin the Burethite. Recap. And Vienna went and came about the heat of the day to the House of Ich Boseth, who lay on a bed at noon.
And they came thither into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat, and they smote him under the fifth rib, and recap. And Vienna his brother escaped. And when they came into the house, he lay on his bed in his bed chamber. And they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and get them away through the.
Plane all night, and they brought the head of Ishbaseth and to David the two Hebron.
And said to the king, Behold the head of Ishmael the son of Saul, thine enemy, which sought thy life, and the Lord hath avenged my Lord the king this day of Saul and of his seed. And David answered, Recap. And Vienna his brother, the sons of Rimmen, the Beerothi.
And said, As the Lord liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity, when one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings. How much more when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed. Shall I not therefore now require his blood at your hand?
Take you away from the earth. And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up over the pool of Hebron. And they took the head of Ishfo. Seth, and buried in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron.
Los Dosicos is bosset in Mefiboset, so we'll start with the two sons, Ishboth, Seth and Mephibosheth.
Demos and reversical Uno este izbo said to Otemore Allen terrace amera via muerto poserasia. So we find in verse one that Ishva says was afraid when he heard that Abner was dead in Hebron.
And it makes me think of Mephibosheth when they he heard.
That his father, Jonathan had been killed. There was fear there, and he was fleeting.
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Palacio and it was when David called them to come to the palace.
And he said to don't fear.
What was the difference between?
Mephibosheth El significado Los nombres ESMU importante tambien.
Significance of the names or the meaning of the names is is important to.
Significant and I found that ishfosat means man of shame.
Is meaning that means that.
Shame is destroyed.
Ambos eco serran familiaris del Rey Saul Both were relatives of King Saul Morif and since David was counted as an enemy for my saw.
And each one of us.
Since we are sinners before God.
Our anonymity with God.
What was the difference?
But one ended up.
At a very cruel way.
Ended up in a place of much privilege.
Because this has something to do with the story.
The father of Ishmael, Seth was King Saul.
He was a man that was always occupied with himself.
He was a person that that took a lot of selfies. They don't and Sierra la persona ques occupy and SI mismo estamos de la Gloria calendar del Pueblo.
He was always occupied with what was about him and how the people looked at him.
And when everything is alright and everything he's, he's happy.
When he got jealous of David, then his heart changed.
He did his look.
He didn't seek God with his whole heart.
The difference was that David.
The other was the Jonathan, the son of Mephibosheth, the father of Mephibosheth.
He was not so occupied with himself.
And Jonathan was occupied with the welfare of his son.
When he.
When he came to David.
He asked David that he would be always.
Mindful of the welfare of his of his household.
Jonathan and so.
King David and his love for Jonathan.
Extended his Miss Mercy to to Mephibosheth.
And this is the mercy that we have received through the Lord Jesus.
Story verse 4 escuando Bella solamente. It's the only one. That's the only one that speaks about Mephibosheth.
Now I want to talk about the two women.
In verse four, it was a nurse.
And the other was a doorkeeper.
And they both had something to do with these two sons.
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Corriendo Nurse, when Mephibosheth was only 5 years old, took him up and was running.
And Mephibosheth.
Fell and became lame on his feet.
No poems overmaster esta mujer We don't know anything more about this woman. Inos amosiya por muchos anos tuessa culpability. We don't know if she carrying around the guilt of this accident.
Yeah, she would think, well, if it wouldn't have happened, this accident, then Mephibosheth wouldn't be lame like he is now.
And I want to say to you, brother or sister in the Lord Jesus.
Don't live under the guilt of what has happened in the past.
Because sometimes we have the guilt of that on our consciences for so long.
And we need to understand that God is sovereign and he is in control of everything.
Permitio para SUS planes perfectos and instead of thinking that it was an accident, we have to think that God had his plans in it all.
For.
If he hadn't fallen, he wouldn't have been lame.
Maybe David wouldn't have called into the palace.
Would be another thing.
The other woman, the doorkeeper.
Was asleep.
And when she was asleep, then these two assassins that came into.
Take the head of ishpef came in.
We have penido corazono sinoma Vera dormidomi MI MI amonovira muerto.
And maybe she carried guilt, too. If I hadn't have been asleep, maybe those guys wouldn't have gotten in.
God allowed that she was asleep and that they gone in.
Those those Padres we're talking about, two fathers and two sons.
We see how these two women had something to do with this story.
Of these two men.
And so we have to rest, brother, in the grace and sovereignty of our God.
Let's talk about these two men that were assassins. Recap in verse 9 and Bana his brother.
We think these are the worst guys.
In the history.
They were worse than the famous chef and Ishwasher.
And really, what they did was terrible.
But they were the same sinners as were the two women, the two sons, and the two fathers.
Era Dana or recap? Which one was worse? Recap or Bana? His brother?
Who had killed more people?
The Lord Jesus on the cross was between 2 Thieves.
Which thief had robbed more than the other?
You know finances historic extended antibo Testamento. This is a story in the Old Testament.
And our brother, who just got through speaking, told us.
And it really is enjoyable to me, the stories that we read here.
And it's wonderful that God speaks to us through these stories.
00:15:05
Pero kermoses Vera promosos la drones in la Cruz Uno dells. What a beautiful thing that one of those thieves on the cross beside the Lord Jesus, I'm queried. He was the same as the other thief.
That he received the grace of God.
Momento La Cruz would have been there at the cross.
And would have accepted the forgiveness.
Luanda recipient. They would have received it.
And this is the grace of God.
Azika Terminos. Historia Sandor Manos. I want to finish this story, brethren.
Fathers or mothers?
Rosicos Y Encommendarce, Los Angeles How important it is to love our children, to pray for our children, and to commend them into the Lord's hands.
I quiz algunos hermanos aura SE procupan porcesicos. Maybe some brethren are preoccupied for their children.
Because they're not walking with the Lord, OK?
Maybe they have some kind of.
Difficulty like Mephibosheth.
Solo. And so they think, well, maybe I'm going to go to be with the Lord and my child is going to be left behind and what's going to happen to them?
I want to say to you, God will take care of that, Jonathan. Jonathan wasn't there anymore.
Jonathan was gone and David helped.
Out with Mephibosheth local El Paso authorized Bosset We've seen the difference with what happened to Ishmael Scheff.
Solo Kyoto car conversiculo mass en El capitulo venti Uno de esta mismo libro. One more verse and the chapter 21 of this book. The same book, Second Samuel 21.
Resume of the chapter 21 is gabia amre portres anos. There was three years of famine.
It was because Saul had killed the Gibeonites.
David asked the what can he do to rectify things?
And so they asked for seven sons of Saul.
And.
It could have happened that Mephibosheth would have been taken in that those seven sons.
Verse 7 But the king spared Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because the Lord's oath was between them.
Between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul.
Privilege. So my favorite chef was instead of having a place of condemnation, was in the favor with it.
'S a muerte was delivered from the death that.
Ishma, Seth. Experience.
And here we see how.
Delivered at this time sometime later.
And so let us have confidence that the Lord can bring our children.
When we are not here, He will take care for them.
I wanted to.
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Share something. It's interesting. I was a little bit hesitant rather than to do it because.
In the line the lunch line this noon, I was by a young brother.
The Armor of God
Open—R. Thonney
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 wanted to share something. It's interesting. I was a little bit hesitant rather than to do it because in the line, the lunch line this noon, I was.
By a young brother who said that three years ago we had Ephesians one in the readings here. I don't I didn't remember that. Maybe some of you do, but he had listened to it on.
Online, I guess, and then he said also that.
I had spoken in an open meeting on the armor of God, and I must say brother now before he told me that I had that on my heart to speak this afternoon. And so I wondered if I was being too repetitive. But I have found, brethren, that we don't need to be worried about being repetitive. I suppose you can do it too much, but.
Paul said to the Philippians. I.
Am not ashamed to speak the same things unto you, and I just have to say rather than as we take up this.
Was so precious to me the what the Lord brought out from different brethren yesterday about our position in Christ in the heavenlies.
Tremendous our place. But what is impressed me, brethren, as I've gone over these verses so many times in different parts of Latin America that as soon as we do, there is spiritual conflict that becomes evident. We have an enemy that does not want you to enjoy those spiritual blessings.
And he's going to do everything possible to avoid it that you don't enjoy it because it's in the measure that you enjoy these spiritual blessings that there will be power in your life to walk as a believer ought to walk. Just like we were talking yesterday about the matter of that. He has set us in a place of holiness and without blame before Him in love.
And to enjoy that rather than it's not something we try to attain, it's what we have in Christ.
And if you enjoy that, there's going to be holiness in your walk practically as well. And so there is real conflict in it.
And I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but it was impressive to me in some of our treks across the Andes. Years ago, we came to a town in the Andes where we could finally get a bus to take us on out to Lima, Peru, and we met up with a group of believers there. They were didn't seem to be with any particular denomination.
There were some that had been saved through some missionary that had come through there, but they said we'd like to have a meeting.
And hear what you have to say about the scriptures. And so we were enjoying.
The scriptures and the little room they had off the street.
Was fairly full of people and while we were enjoying it, here comes a drunk to the front door of that place and start shouting in Quechua in the door. I don't understand Quechua that much, so I didn't understand what he's saying, but all the tension went from what we were saying in the scriptures to the drunk at the door.
Well, thankfully her brother got up and got him by the arm and towed him down to the corner and around the corner and let him loose down there. And we thought, oh, that'll help to so we can continue with our meditation on these spiritual realities, these blessings we have. It wasn't too long before he came right back to our door again. It was the enemy that wanted to hinder the enjoyment of these things of Christ.
Whatever he may use in your life or mine, I found that it often happens that when we are in the enjoyment of it, there will be conflict. And so I'd like to go over to the 6th chapter and just briefly go over the different pieces of the armor of God because I think it's so important if we're our young people, and I may have spoken about this before, like a young brother said, but.
If so.
Rather than bear with me, we're going to go over it again because I feel that we need to be reminded of these things we have. The spiritual warfare begins in verse 10 of chapter 6.
Finally, my brethren.
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Be strong in the Lord.
And in the power of his might put on the whole armor of God.
That you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in higher heavenly places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all.
Two stand stand therefore.
Having your loins girt about with truth.
And having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicket and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints and for me.
That utterance may be given unto me, that I may make, may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
For which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. So in this portion we have seven different parts of the armor of God. It starts in verse 14 with being girt about.
With having our loins gird about with truth #2 The breastplate of righteousness #3 feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
#4.
Taking the shield of faith 5. The helmet of salvation 6. The sword of the Spirit 7. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. So these are things I'd like to just go over in a brief way because I think they're so helpful in connection with the spiritual conflict.
And you're going to have to come to the recognition that we are in a world of conflict.
You know, what I see so often is that we like to make ourselves comfortable. We try to accommodate ourselves down here rather than God is not interested in making us comfortable down here. There's going to always be some little thorn to make you uncomfortable.
And it's because He has prepared our place beyond brethren, we are called to heavenly glory. That's where He has in mind to have us down here. We're not at home and there's going to be always conflict. Count on it. And so how important it is to stand. It's kind of interesting how often that word stand or withstand.
Is used in these verses we wrestle not against flesh and blood and.
That's not our conflict. We wrestle against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high or heavenly places. And so he says, Take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. How important, brother, not to give up. There's so many that tend to say.
I'm just not up to it. I can't keep on.
Stand brethren, withstand God is able to keep you standing. And so here are the parts of the armor of God that are so important. The first one is having your loins girt about with truth.
Truth of the word of God and when it says girt about you know the soldiers of old had a their wide belt around their middle and that helped them to be strong in the battle.
To say it has to be gird on, brethren, it means there has to be practical. You might know it in your head, that is not enough. Put it on. Make it practical in your life. That is so important, otherwise you're not going to be able to stand. That's what makes us stand. And so how important is to have an understanding of the truth of God.
00:10:09
Especially in the New Testament of the doctrine of the Apostles.
Says about the early church that they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and then breaking the bread and the prayers steadfastly means that he went on in it. And so I want to encourage you, especially your younger brothers that are coming on to read the scriptures to read the good ministry that's out of that can help you to understand it.
It will be a source of blessing for you your whole life long. But not only that but to meditate on it. Somebody has said RPM is reading prayer and meditation.
When we meditate, it's like that cow chewing the cud, getting the good out of it and.
Chew it, think about it, and meditate on it.
And that's the way you get to be strong, to be able to stand with your loin skirt about with truth. How important this part of the armor of God.
The second is verse 14, the second part having on the breastplate of righteousness. You know, they carried a breastplate in the old armor and if a arrow or something came and whacked him in the chest, why I wouldn't get in because they had the breastplate on. And so it's the breastplate of righteousness. And I like to think of this as a good conscience. It's interesting to me that.
Speaks to Timothy quite a bit in his epistles about a good conscience. I just want to read.
In chapter one of First Timothy 2 mentions of a good conscience and to me it's so important.
First Timothy chapter.
One and verse 5.
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart.
And of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned. Verse 19, holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck. There's other verses in Timothy that talk about the conscience, and I think it's so important to exercise a good conscience, Paul said.
In the book of the Acts herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men?
He didn't say. I always have a good conscience, no.
He says I exercise myself. It's a daily exercise to have a good conscience. Is there something on your conscience that's bothering you that you know that you did, that you haven't really rectified? Get it straightened out as soon as possible. You're in no condition to encounter the enemy if you don't have on the breastplate of righteousness.
Oh, how important this is to have a good conscience.
And the Lord help us so that when we encounter the enemy.
That he doesn't say, hey, you know, you're plowing something in your life that you know is wrong or not in any conditions. I mean, that's that the enemy in that way. We need to exercise ourselves to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.
So the third piece is verse 15, your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We preach the gospel of peace, brethren, but we need to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. It didn't say shod with the gospel of peace, but the preparation of the gospel of peace. In other words, the way you walk in this.
World commends the truth that you speak, how important it is to walk properly as a believer, somebody has said about certain people.
What they do speak so loud that I can't hear what they say.
And that's a person that is not have on the preparation of the gospel of peace. The Lord help us, brethren, how are we known in our community? Do we have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace? Remember, that prepares the means by which we will be able to take this message of the gospel of peace.
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But then notice verse 16.
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith he shall be able to quench all the fiery darks of the wicked.
The darts are the doubts. An enemy works with doubts. He tries to get us to doubt God.
That's what he did to Eve in the Garden of Eden. He said, Yeah, hath God said, and he made Eve doubt God. Those are those fiery darts. And I say to brethren, sometimes I understand if you want to doubt me, I've got my failures. I can understand if you want to doubt other brethren, but when it comes to God and His Word, don't allow any doubt.
No, it's important to above all.
Having the shield of faith, and by that shield of faith is trust in God and His Word.
Faith is always based on the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And so how important do base our lives on the truth of the Word of God? What God says, Stand on it because God will never be mistaken. Sometimes I don't understand what God's telling me.
But it's pretty clear the scripture, so I'm going to go by what he says.
For as much as I don't understand it very much.
But how important it is, brethren, not to allow doubts to come in, because that's the way the enemy wants to knock us down. In comes one doubt, and it gets in, and we tend to tend to countenance that doubt. Let's see. I don't know what to say about that. And then in comes another doubt, and sooner or later that soldier is down on the field of battle.
Again, I say rather than trust God.
You can always trust him.
You might not be able to trust anybody else, but you can trust him and I.
I think I mentioned somewhere recently.
A young sister said to me.
A while back.
Lord has left me, I said. What? Why in the world do you think that?
I just feel like he's left me, I said. Do your feelings ever change?
Yeah, they've changed quite a bit. Does the Word of God ever change? No. Which is better to trust than your feelings or the Word of God? And I find so many people pay attention to their feelings. Yeah, your feelings are real and we have to deal with them. But I just want to say you can't trust your feelings. You can trust God's Word completely.
So that is a piece of the armor that says above all.
Make sure, brethren, to have that in place, the shield of faith.
Beautiful. Wonderful.
I'd like to think of the Apostle Paul when he was in that storm on the sea and the Lord appeared to him and said, fear not, Paul. I've given you all those that are on the on the ship with you. There's 276 people on that ship.
And he finally stands out. Paul does amidst all that crowd and says, fear not for I believe God. He had the shield of faith in place. Oh, how wonderful it is if we can simply do that, Brandon. Now the next one is verse 17, the helmet of salvation. The helmet covers the head.
And it's the knowledge.
That we have a complete salvation.
I love that little stanza of him 16 in the appendix, if I can remember the quote that it says. For every tribulation, for every sore distress in Christ, I full salvation sure help and quiet rest No Fear of false prevailing. I triumph Lord in thee, Oh Jesus, friend unfailing, how dear art thou to me that's the that's the helmet of salvation.
00:20:09
To knowledge.
You're going to have tough times. Yeah, you might have tough times, but remember, God is working through it all.
For your blessing in the end. And he's going to have his way.
I sometimes say to people, God's purposes are from that past eternity.
And here come me and I'm sometimes kind of willful and hard headed and stiff necked.
Who do you think is going to win, God and His eternal purposes or me in my hard headed stiff neckedness?
You know what the answer is, God is going to have his way in the end. Wonderful to understand. That's the helmet of salvation to realize that rather than he will bring us through. And then the last piece of offensive is actually say the first five are defensive and then we have the offensive, the sword of the Spirit.
Which is the word of God, and this is what the Lord Jesus used.
When he met Satan every time Satan.
Tempted him. He said it is written in one of the temptations, Satan said it is written to the Lord Jesus, and Jesus said it is written again. He would not be.
Put to one side the word of God, and so that's the sword of the Spirit.
Impressive to me that's the Lord. Jesus didn't reason with Satan. We don't have to reason with the enemy.
What we have to do is quote Scripture. It is written, and then the last one is verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. How important prayer is, brethren, I've been impressed in my own life in more recent years the importance of making it a serious occupation in our lives.
I sometimes quote what I read from Martin Luther.
He said one time he said I have so much to do every day.
I dare not take any less than three hours to pray in the morning.
Brother, no wonder God used that man. Do you take time to seriously pray?
God wants fellowship with us, and not only with the Lord Jesus, but with.
God as Father, he's our Father. He's interested in us, He knows where we are, He wants fellowship with us and so to pray. Not only prayer, but it speaks about supplication.
Why supplication? Do we have to kind of convince God to do something? That's not the point.
He wants us to be intense about our our requests.
Because he is intense about it. He wants fellowship with us.
In those things and I think that's why where supplications come in and so may the Lord help us brethren to.
Have on the whole armor of God.
Speaking with God
Gospel—D. Rule
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.
We will start.
By singing together #38.
#38.
Until I get started.
I know how they're saving faith to make it happen.
For all believing in this.
In my heart, but I know.
I have been living with God and never swayed in heaven and he can take home.
To keep that which I remembered.
I know.
I said really, Jesus, fruit of the word.
Creating him.
But I know.
I have been leaving.
Persuaded.
That he is able.
To keep that which I have been.
No, God does.
God knows that on my mind, right at the moment when we were singing, I looked at you and wasn't very happy that you're so far away from me. I want to talk to you.
But then I thought, no, I don't need to talk to you tonight. I can't get close to you in the way that you need tonight.
But.
God.
Wants to speak to you tonight.
I hope you're going to listen.
To what God has to say to you, and he can get right where you are and He knows what's going on in your mind, whether you're thinking about checking out from a hotel tomorrow, what you're going to do after this meeting is over.
What you were doing at supper time, Some part of a conversation you had today.
Those things have their place.
But I urge you.
To let God speak to you.
Tonight and right now. So let's talk to him. Our God, we ask that you will speak.
That the one who is up front will just be your voice.
But most important, our God, that you will speak by your word.
To each one.
And the result will be that if they are still lost and in their sins and don't know you and your love, that they will listen and learn and believe and receive and know the Lord Jesus tonight as their Savior. So we ask our God.
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To work for the honor.
Of thy love and the work of thy Lord Jesus in his precious name.
Amen.
Turn.
To First Samuel, chapter one.
In First Samuel chapter one.
We have a mother.
That talk to God.
She told God what she was thinking.
And she was not very happy and she talked to God about it.
We're then going to see what God has to say about a boy.
That she got from God, from the Lord.
And the Lord, she talked to the to the Lord.
And in what we're going to see is the Lord.
Talk to her son.
You need to talk to the Lord.
And you need to let the Lord talk to you and speak to you.
So listen.
For him tonight.
In chapter one.
Now verse one, there was a certain man of.
Ramoth Zofum of Mount Ephraim, and his name was El Cana.
You know God's very personal.
And I don't know because I'm not the one that needs to speak to you.
But God knows your name.
Just like he knew this man. You're an individual.
You're a single person of his attention because he cares for you. He loves you, and so he knows you.
So here's a man, and he's introduced to us, and we learn his name.
It says in verse two he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah.
And the name of the other Vanina.
They too had names.
They were individuals. They were people that God cared about individually. And we're not going to. We're going to see what God had to say, or more of it is what Hannah had to say.
To the Lord.
Also it says of this man in verse three he went up.
Out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh.
And the two sons of Eli Hofney and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there. Everybody's got a name because they're cared about individually. Here's a man that every year he took his family.
To a place where he could present them and himself.
Before the Lord.
You're here this weekend.
To a place.
Where some of you come every year.
To the Lord.
To listen.
To present.
To see others.
That also have come every year, at least many years to be here.
And that's what this man did. He took.
His family, some of you children are here. You had nothing to do with coming.
00:10:04
Except probably a little bit like in my household at your age, my dad at a certain point in time said get in the car. And that's what we did.
We couldn't have told you how to get where we were going. We had nothing to do with the decision to go there.
There's a boy every year. My dad took us yearly to a place called Detroit for a time, just like here.
And when the time came to go, it was like some of you children.
You've got in the car.
And some seemingly a long time later, he got where you were going.
That was this way.
This man every year took his family.
Where they could.
Interact.
And present themselves before the Lord.
So it says.
In verse four, and when the time was that El Cana offered, that is when he got there, he had things that he wanted to present.
He was an adult and he had things to present to the Lord.
But.
We're going to look at his wife, particularly in verse five. But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah.
There's a father.
Or a husband who loved his this wife Hannah, and he wanted her to be happy. He wanted to do for her as good husbands want to do and desire to do for their wife.
But notice the middle in the verse five. A very important statement.
But.
The Lord.
Had shut up her womb.
You know, he wanted to do everything he could for.
But God had a hand in her life in a way that.
He didn't have control over God, had that control, and God by his purpose decided at that point she wasn't going to be able to have children.
She was unhappy.
She was one unhappy person.
It says the other of his wives.
Made her unhappy partly because she was unhappy that she couldn't have a child.
And it's important to see that who was keeping her from having a child was the Lord.
So you're here tonight. I don't know what age you are. You might be 100, I don't know. I don't think anybody here is 100.
But you might be 5, you might be 25.
You might be 50.
But you may be sitting in your seat inside you.
Unsatisfied. Unhappy.
And people that love you.
Can say I love you, be happy, but you're not.
Because the Lord is the only one that can satisfy what you need tonight.
If you're like Hannah.
She had a desire that was right. She wanted something.
And.
Yet the Lord.
The one who had the power to do it hadn't given it to her. In fact, he was the one keeping her.
From having.
It.
So it says in verse 7.
And as he did so year by year.
00:15:02
This wasn't.
One conference. This wasn't one event.
That she was.
In a place of being unhappy, it went on for a long time.
Year by year by year and.
There it was.
There it was. Maybe you were here last year, maybe you were here the year before and you came here looking for something and you haven't found it.
And you're unsatisfied.
And you've gone back home.
And gone to school or gone to your job or whatever it is.
Maybe just played with your toys as a little child and yet there's that inside you, something that is missing.
That leaves you like Hannah.
So what she do? What do you do about it when you're not happy?
Verse seven, what she did, she wept.
She cried.
And it says she didn't need that.
That's how unhappy she was. She wept.
And she didn't want to eat.
So what happens?
Her husband in verse 8, Elcanus says to her, Hannah, why are you weeping? Why aren't you eating?
Why is your heart sad?
Am I not better?
Than ten sons.
She wanted a son and her husband who wanted her to be happy, he says to her, Aren't I better than didn't you having ten sons?
She doesn't tell us what she answered.
We can only imagine.
In the condition of her heart, what she might have answered, but that God doesn't put us to speculate about that because it's not important from God's perspective, and so he.
Inverse.
Verse 9 So Hannah rose up.
After they had eaten and after they had drunk, she went a little ways.
At least she was really neat. He did what he could and it helped her a little bit, but it didn't meet what was inside her. It didn't satisfy the need that was inside her and so as a result.
It says in verse 10.
She was in bitterness of soul.
You know when you have something that is making you unhappy and it goes on for a long time.
It's very easy to get bitter.
In your unhappiness, and maybe you're here tonight as a person who inside you, you might not appear that way outside.
You may not even want to admit it to yourself.
But inside, down deep inside you, you're bitter.
Because you don't have what it is you feel.
Would make you happy and perhaps you feel that somebody.
Is keeping you from being what you want to be and how.
So what's she do about it?
She prayed.
Unto the Lord she talked to the Lord.
About it.
00:20:00
It's the right thing to do.
It's what you need to do tonight.
If you're bitter.
If you don't have in your soul that which is satisfying, she cried when she talked to the Lord. That's how much she felt that it wasn't some little light thing to her.
And so she talked to the Lord.
So do you, I hope.
You need to.
The Lord had kept something from her.
We're going to give you a personal illustration because personal illustrations people tend to remember better.
When I was a boy.
My mom and dad told me I need to talk to the Lord.
That is, pray.
And.
They taught me words to say to the Lord, or thoughts that I should say to the Lord.
And.
When I was pretty small, I learned that you were supposed to talk to the Lord.
And I was told that you could talk to the Lord and He would give you things.
And I needed a certain toy.
I needed a certain toy, so I talked to the Lord and I said Lord.
I need this toy.
And.
Tomorrow morning I'm going to do it out in the playroom beside Grandpa's toy box that he got given for us, and I'm going to go behind the toy box to pick up what I'm asking you for.
So I did that. I went down the next morning and I fully expected that when I went.
And got behind and I was rather shocked and couldn't understand.
That the thing I asked the Lord for?
Wasn't there?
Took a while to learn.
You know, sometimes we ask the Lord for things that He knows better than we do, and he says no.
I had some things that the Lord needed to teach me and.
So the Lord's like Hannah, ** *** wanted a child in the Lord at up to that point was saying no.
Did she stop talking to the Lord? No, she didn't. She kept on.
Verse 12 and it came to pass. She continued praying.
This man Eli that worked at the temple was about in those days what we would call a man of God.
And responsible for the spiritual good of the people that came there.
And he saw her praying.
And he didn't understand.
He did not understand, he didn't realize, and in fact, he came to wrong conclusions about her.
You may be in a condition here tonight that you say, and maybe it's true. Nobody understands.
The Lord does.
The Lord understands perfectly.
Exactly where you are tonight. What's going on in your mind at this moment?
What's in your heart, what you want, what you believe and what you don't, and so on.
He didn't understand, but God used him anyways. Sometimes we don't understand things and God will use us anyways. And he used her the Eli anyways to give her a word that was a comfort to her and he said.
May you find grace.
And so it says in verse 18, she went her way. She ate. Her countenance wasn't sad anymore. She stopped crying.
00:25:08
She ate. She went home.
And.
It says verse the end of verse 19 the Lord remembered her.
All the time had come when he was going to give her the desire of her heart. She'd waited for years.
She was unhappy for a long time, but the Lord was in control. He's in control of your life. He's in control of the circumstances of what's going on with you. And so the Lord, he remembers her and he gives her the child she desired in verse 20, and she names it Samuel.
That means asked of God, she'd ask this child of God and he gives it to her.
Now we're going to.
Time passes quick. We're going to turn around and talk about her son.
Samuel.
She says in verse 25 for this child I prayed and she had learned quite a few things during her unhappy period and the Lord was using those things and she said to the Lord, thank as it were, thank you Lord.
And I this child is for you.
Your mother, your father here tonight. You have children here.
Is your heart right about your children?
The Lord gave them to you.
Are you willing, as it were, to give him back to him and raise them for him?
With the desire that they become his children. Well, that was what was in Hannah.
She learned a very important lesson in her life. We see in chapter 2, verse one, Hannah prayed that became a lifelong part of Hannah's life and the Lord had answered the biggest prayer of her life. And she continues and we will only have the time to touch on a little bit of this very valuable prayer.
That she spoke to God, that reflected things that she'd learned.
Through the experiences of her life.
That everybody in this room, one way or another, needs to learn what Hannah learned.
If you haven't learned it, you're in God's school and he's a patient teacher.
And if you're the Lords, you're going to learn some of these things. We'll just look at, name them, almost a few of them, so we can get on to talk about Samuel verse 2. There's none holy as the Lord. She'd learned that the Lord was holy.
Have you?
There is none else beside thee. She learned that there was no substitute. There was no alternative. The Lord was it.
She learned verse three, don't talk proud.
Don't have too great a thoughts of yourself.
She was. She was a good learner in my opinion.
She learned in verse three the Lord is a God of knowledge.
He knows everything.
Eli didn't understand her. Her husband didn't understand her fully, even though he loved her and cared for her. But she really had learned that God was a God of knowledge. He knew.
You sit in your seat, whether you're a young person, a child, or an older one, the Lord understands you.
Perfectly. And he knows everything about you.
Nobody else does, including yourself.
You don't even understand yourself in any ways. Like God knows you. He's a God of knowledge. That means that he knows. I say, what are you thinking about? And I have no idea.
But God does. He knows everything. He knows exactly what you're thinking at this moment and what's important to you and so on.
00:30:08
She then goes on to compare different people.
God raises some people up.
But he put some people down, he gives some people life, and he brings death.
He lets some people or makes some people be poor, and other people he makes rich.
And some that start out rich and think they're pretty great, he takes it away from them and they find out they're just like everybody else, they're poor and so on. And we'll leave it at that. Other things that she she learned.
And we need to talk to the Lord, learn the same things.
OK in chapter 2.
It says.
Verse 11 This child Samuel ministered unto the Lord.
And I'll just characterize him. He was a good kid.
He was a good boy.
We don't read anything bad about the way he was in what he did. He was a what we would call a good boy. He was probably a joy.
To Eli, who we worked for, and to.
His parents.
And so on. It was a joy. He was a good son.
That also though Eli had two sons.
Verse 12 it says of his two sons they knew not in verse 12. A very important statement.
The sons of Eli were sons of Belial. That means they were bad.
And they knew not the Lord.
They knew not the Lord.
Do you know him?
You may be good.
In the way you act.
The question is, the important question for you tonight is do you know the Lord?
It says these two sons, they didn't know the Lord.
And.
Verse 18 a little more on Samuel. He ministered before the Lord even though he was a child. Everything we read about Samuel was is good as to how he behaved and what he did as we read through he ministered but.
The.
Sons of these other two sons.
Of Eli verse 17. The sin of the young men was very great before the Lord. They were bad sons.
They sinned all the time.
They dishonored the name of the Lord Jesus in their life and eventually God put them to death for it.
They didn't know the Lord.
Their father talked to him. Verse 23 said why do you do these things?
I hear of your evil.
He didn't. He wasn't a good father.
They didn't properly restrain them, but he cared about them and he was upset.
By what they were doing and the dishonor to Jehovah the Lord that they were.
And he says.
My sons, it's no good report. Verse 24, I hear about you.
And so on.
He said in verse 25, if you sinned against somebody else, well that's one thing, but if you sin against the Lord.
Who's going to? Who's going to be able to do anything for you?
I can't say to the Lord be good to my sons they're bad. Who's going to come to the Lord on for you if you act that way and later on we read that God did put him to death because of their life. Is God someday going to have to take your life because you.
00:35:01
Turned out like those boys and justice live in sin.
And as a result, he has to say that's it.
Your life's done.
Verse Chapter 3. Verse one.
This child Samuel ministered unto the Lord.
Verse 3.
Air, the lamp of God, went out in the temple of the Lord. There was the ark, and Samuel was laid down to sleep.
Now look, we're going to see about Samuel verse four, the Lord called Samuel.
And he answered, Here am I.
Good boy.
Sounds good.
But the thing about it is, he had no idea he was talking to him.
He didn't recognize that it was the Lord that was speaking to him.
If you're in this room tonight and you don't know the Lord, he's speaking to you and you don't know it.
You're like Samuel, you may be a good boy, but in the importance of knowing the Lord, you're no different than Eli's sons.
In that way, you're just as far from God as they were. No matter how you're acting and think you are, you have an opinion of yourself. You might say I'm pretty. I'm no, I'm not perfect, but I'm kind of all right. I'm not like the kid down the street or at school or something like that.
So he goes to Eli and Eli said, no, I didn't call you. I'm I'm not talking to you.
Go back to bed.
Verse 6.
The Lord called again Samuel.
It's important, I think, to see that the Lord just spoke to him and he didn't. And he said, hear my eyes. He knew somebody was talking to him, but he didn't know who. Here the Lord gets a little more personal and he says Samuel, he calls him by his name.
Are you listening tonight to the Lord?
And letting him is you hear him say your name to you, I'm speaking to you. Well, that's what the Lord was doing to Samuel.
And so he goes back to Eli. No, I didn't have anything to say to you. Why verse seven? Samuel did not yet know the Lord.
Samuel didn't know the Lord. Verse 8. The Lord called Samuel again the third time.
And he goes to Eli again. And finally Eli realizes.
The Lord must be speaking to Samuel, so he says.
Samuel.
Verse 9 Go lie down and it will be if he calls you.
You shall say He tells him what to say to respond this time, he says.
You're to say, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.
Speak, Lord.
For thy servant here.
Samuel Gozen lies down.
And.
For the fourth time.
Lord speaks to him in verse 10.
Lord came and stood and called as at other times, and he's even more personally than ever been with Samuel. He says Samuel, Samuel.
He repeats his name and he.
Samuel responds.
Speak for thy servant here.
Actually, the Lord was opening up His eyes in his heart. He wasn't very far along at this point because He doesn't say Lord, but He is responding according to what He understood. And He does say, Speak for thy servant, heareth. And He was, we can see from what we read about it, He was sincere about it.
And the Lord speaks to him some more and as we read along.
00:40:06
Umm, Lord speak to him again in the 21St verse. He's got, he's, he's come to know the Lord and the Lord appears again and he reveals himself to Samuel. And how does he do it? Verse 21, by the word of the Lord. You probably are holding in your hands the word of the Lord and the Lord's going to use it if you're not refusing it to speak to you.
Listen. Learn.
Believe. Enjoy.
You live in a different time than Samuel, but I'm going to tell a little personal story about what you need if you don't know the Lord.
Last summer I was on my way to a conference like this in Ohio, in a place called Carrollton. And I had occasion to have to stop overnight at a little hotel on the road. And when I got up in the morning and this hotel served a breakfast like I'm sure the hotels here do. And so I went down to get my breakfast and there were little round tables and I sat down at one, and most of them were.
And there was a man and his son and they sat down at the table with me and we started a conversation and it wasn't 5 minutes into it that we were talking to each other's brothers in the Lord.
And he told me how.
He was one of eight children.
And he told me about his older brother.
And if you don't know the Lord?
You need to hear about his older brother.
He lived in a family and he said my mom and my mom had respect for for God.
But we never had the Bible in the house. They didn't have the word of the Lord to speak to them.
But.
One time they lived about 20 miles north of Detroit, MI and and his older brother was in Detroit one day and there was a preacher there.
At that time presenting the Lord Jesus Christ and the preacher.
Ah, his older brother went to hear this man.
You hadn't heard these kind of words before.
But he listened.
He heard. He believed what he heard. He was so excited by what he believed he heard and had come to understand for the very first time he'd ever heard the message that he lived 20 miles north of the city. And he literally ran and walked twenty miles home in his excitement of what he had just learned and received.
He gets home.
Then his mother sees him come in in this state that she hadn't seen before. Then she says what's happened?
He says to his mother.
I'm a Sinner.
Jesus Christ came into the world to die for me.
I'm saved.
God loves me.
Her mother looked at him, and she.
What saved me?
And so, having heard the message one time in his life, he had heard it clearly. Clearly.
And he says.
It means that you've accepted Jesus Christ to save you.
And he talked to her, tell she understood a little bit.
And this is what he did. It's precious.
He put his finger in her chest.
And he got right up in her face and he says you need to be saved.
And you need to be saved now.
He then took her two cheekbones between his hands and he held her like that. And he says now.
00:45:02
She got saved right then.
How could she know you need to be saved now?
If you haven't been saved before.
I mean, aren't already saved.
Times come to an end.
I'm of two minds about.
Whether to go on for three or four more minutes, I think I'm going to.
I knew a young person just like some of you young people.
Very well.
And he came to meetings like this.
He knew.
I listened to him in the assembly where I lived, the place where I live, stand up to the platform of the hall like this and present Jesus Christ to an audience.
He was smart.
Incredibly smart.
He went to the local university.
And he was the top student in one of the four most important law schools in the United States.
He graduated at the top of his class. He went to work for a law firm.
Of a man named Mr. Nixon. Richard Nixon.
He wrote speeches for Mr. Nixon when he was running for the president of the United States.
I said to him one day.
I said I couldn't argue with him, he could turn me inside out if it was arguing. But I said to him, you're a fool.
And you'll never be happy.
On the road.
I said I'm I'll be always happier than you are.
They about cried, he said. That's right, you always will be. I have no hope of being happy.
Later on.
Yeah, he rose.
In his profession, if you will.
But he had nothing to hold onto. He had no hope. He had no heart, he had no life. He ended up an alcoholic.
And had a miserable death.
Are you going to be like that?
I know what I speak. That's one of my brothers, and I understand the awfulness.
Of sitting in a room like this and refusing to be like that young man that heard the word for the first time and believed it.
Don't be a fool.
Accept God's love, accept the Lord Jesus.
Now.
Spray our God. We ask that there will be anybody in this room if you come right now, Lord.
And the room is emptied.
You think of how awful it would be if one of the.
People in the room is still in the room alone.
To be forever separated from you because they refused your love and work, Lord Jesus. So we just pray for everyone and the desire Lord, if you give the shout.
While we're here in this room that we'll all go together to be with you forever.
We ask for your work and blessing on your Word, our God speak and by the Spirit make each one listen and receive. In the name of the Lord Jesus and for His glory. Amen.
Courtship and Marriage
YP Sing Address—D. Nicoara
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.
75.
Step by step by step.
Lord.
Shall I know, feel that and comfort me where I go all the ground where we leave?
And she can hide what is good.
There's a crucified.
Means to play.
Big I love 10,000.
We destroy our world.
When he cried his friends, he gave himself to God. Salvation for this man was Sun.
He could have gone.
To destroy the world.
50.
Yeah, we'll just sing around.
Tomorrow I don't seem to understand, but I know who wants to borrow and I know he holds my hand.
I don't know about tomorrow.
It may bring poverty.
But no one is a Sparrow, it's a one who stands by me, and the path that, be my portion, may be through the flame or flood.
What is presidents goes before me and I covered with his love.
Many things about tomorrow.
I don't seem to understand.
But I know who's tomorrow.
And I know he won't. He won't lie. He won't, he won't lie.
One 87187.
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
His side in the way somebody says that we do, where he says may we go, never feel wrong.
Girls.
24.
00:15:41
25.
25.
I see.
Glory shall we see?
Face to face, I shall be more than far beyond, far beyond the soil.
Face to face.
I shall be old and barking on the sun.
Nice to visit my soul.
30 #30 will be the last one.
00:20:27
I can praise tomorrow.
Because he lives.
God, because I know.
He rules the future.
And life is where the living just because he lives.
Let's ask the Lord for his help again, our Father, we give thanks for this opportunity to be together.
All the young people and this time that we can have looking in the that word sing in his beautiful hands, and we ask for help and on the message pray Lord Jesus, Amen.
In the past, the different conferences whenever.
I will have a message for the young people. I had different ones, young men and ladies, young ladies coming over and they will ask me to speak on courtship or marriage and.
It's a fair request because when I was in young, that's what I wanted to hear.
But it's like I kind of hesitated because.
My courship and my marriage was, I think, one of the oddest ones you'll hear. And I don't want to talk about myself. I want to talk and look in the Scripture what the Lord has to say, what God has to say. But for those who don't know me, I married Daniella, my wife, the third day after I seen her for the first time in my life.
So I had two days to plan for the third day. And so when my daughter Sabrina asked me, Dad, did you love mom? I go no way.
I didn't love her, I liked her and of course we didn't have Internet, but we did have cameras, so I did have a picture of her.
So I was like, OK, she looks good.
And and this story that I was going to look in really quick and I know I got only 10 minutes to do this.
It's in Genesis. I was going to talk a little bit about.
The story of Isaac.
And and I thought I had it bad, but I think Isaac had it worse.
So in Genesis 24, I'm not going to read the whole account, I'm just going to jump to some of the verses and phrases.
Abraham.
Is.
The size that Isaac needs a wife and I think because Isaac talked to him.
Just to make a really quick, you know, to go to Genesis.
In the beginning with Adam, I think it's chapter 2.
The Lord said it is not good that a man should be alone. It's not like Adam woke up on day saying hey, I'm missing something.
He didn't know he was alone. He didn't know what he was missing. How could he? And you know, I get a lot of responses for young men and younger ladies too. I don't think I'll ever going to get married. I don't think the Lord wants me to get married. And and I think it's let's you know, we see in Genesis here that the Lord decides for Adam if if he if he needed someone.
So in verse.
24 Says, Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, or in the Romanian translation says, Shall be glued, shall be one.
And there shall be one flesh. And I know some of you here are already married. And I say good for you.
00:25:01
I got married. I got married at 20. So is it true that the older you get, you get more knowledge and wisdom? I think so. But you know, like I asked Luke, my son-in-law, why should Sabrina? Why should I give Sabrina to you? Why are you worthy to marry my daughter? Not because my daughter was special necessarily, but why?
Why did you just wake up one day and decide to?
Hey, I'm going to marry this young girl.
And.
I mean, if somebody was to ask me, it's like, well, let me pull out my paperwork and read my resume over here, he says. You know, I love the Lord Jesus with all my heart.
And I don't know much about the scriptures, obviously he's young, but.
I think that the relationship I have with the Lord Jesus should be suffice for me to be a good husband.
And the desire to learn the Scripture. So I urge first of all that.
Umm, that you do seek a godly, you know, it says in in in the Lord, Paul says in the Lord relationship relationships, but.
That's and at the same time to seek a wife that's going to be a mother to seek mother material, a husband, a father material, not just someone that you're going to my my brother used to have a saying.
Well, if I marry so and so, I'm going to go on honeymoon with her, but I'm going to come by myself.
And you know, it sounds funny, but at the same time it's very serious. So God wants people.
Should be fruitful and multiply and the happiness that we have as parents with our children have a granddaughter. It's unbelievable. It's beyond any any dollar you can put it or amount of price. So we see back over here in Abraham wants his servant, a liaiser of Damascus. He was a very wise #1 steward of Abraham and he wants him. Why didn't he want?
Isaac should go.
And alias down in Abraham. Wait a minute, you want me to go?
Get this girl for Isaac, But what if she doesn't want to come? Should I get Isaac to come and pick for himself?
And and Abraham says, no, I don't want him going back there. And it's I don't want to get into it now the reasons, but the Lord wanted him in this new place and Abraham didn't want his son. He didn't want to go there and he didn't want his son to go there. So he says it sends Eliezer and then he says, well, then you're free from.
From your duty so.
And the servant said unto him, Pray adventure, the woman will not be willing to follow me. Unto this land must thy needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou comest.
And of course Abraham says no and in verse 10.
We see the Eliezer Takes took 10 camels. He had 10 camels when he came to the well. So he's praying.
He's praying to the Lord that the girl that comes out and offers me water and also says.
I want to give you camels. One and 10 camels. That's a lot. I mean, that's a lot of water.
So to jump ahead, so he's C Eleazar knew the God of Abraham, he's praying and he puts a sign.
And I remember I used to when I was young, I was like, mom, how do I know? How do I know which girl? It's like, just pray that tell, tell the Lord you're I'm young, I don't know. I can't read the signs. Just slam a door in my face. Be ready to be humble, get a slap on the face and be good with it. The Lord has.
Someone, if we trust them with all our heart he has.
For each one of us, someone that he knows is best for us. And then a month or so, I'm going to have 27 years with Daniela.
And.
I do want to mention that because Abraham wanted Eliezer to go into that country, he didn't want to get a wife out of the Canaanite women. So very important that I'll stress out tonight that you're going to look for a future spouse that loves the Lord Jesus.
00:30:21
That has a relationship with the Lord Jesus and that's something that.
Myself and Daniela had and that's what we enjoyed. We didn't know each other, but I never met her.
But I would call her, I would write some letters. She will write letters.
But we talked about the Lord.
In God's principles and precepts and how beautiful when we share our Redeemer with each other and over here.
Eliezer goes before the the the father of the girl and says the Lord had blessed my Master greatly. There's a blessing there. My Master is blessed. Your daughter's going to do good and we have that blessing and this I'm talking about spiritual blessing. I'm not talking about physical and.
And he tells the story.
How he?
Let me see here about Rebecca.
How he put the sign before the Lord and how she not only gave him water but also the camels.
Yeah. And well, I was going to skip over to 48 and I bowed down my head and worshiped the Lord and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way, very important in the right way.
To take my master's brother's daughter unto his son.
So.
What a statement that he makes there.
And shows.
His obedience not only.
And his reliance? Not only.
Because of Abraham unto Abraham, but also unto the Lord.
And how he prayed, and how the Lord answered and showed him.
And So what I'm trying to say is that we can't, I'm not trying to say that we put a sign necessarily out there, but how important it is. Because we can imagine back in this day, the Canaanites and all this other nations, they had no idea about God. They were idol worshippers. They were just really bad and.
And Abraham wanted Isaac and Isaac too, but over here I'm thinking maybe Isaac.
Abraham said, no, you stay back because I don't want you going there because of the promise and because the Lord doesn't want us. So he sends a liaison. He has a lot of wisdom. And I think Isaac understood that it was a Prince because Isaac was 40 years old. It's not like, you know, he was a.
A teenager so. But he understood that and he obeyed and he understood that God doesn't want them to go back.
And.
We see that Rebecca is being brought in and.
She was being nasty. It's not like what people think that. No, no, she had to go because she had to listen to the parents. No. Will you go with this man?
And they call Rebecca, and said unto him, Will he go with this man? And she said, I will go.
I think Rebecca must have known of heard of where she was going and what are the, you know, a lot of of Daniela's friends from work. She was a nurse there. They were like because she, they came to the wedding and I was like, how can you marry this guy you've only seen 2 days?
And you're going in a country you've never been into, a family that you don't know anything about.
And it's very hard for the world to understand.
00:35:00
Because in today we see how Satan is trying to just rip apart the institution of marriage.
And if we were to go, humanly speaking, it doesn't make any sense, but we need Christ in our relationship in order for the true course to stay together. Have the third one going through them, which is the Lord Jesus. And you know, it's not like I've been like, I want to give any credit to myself or Daniela, but everything goes to the Lord. All the credit goes to God. And I think if we.
If we humble ourselves in the sight of God and we choose to follow.
And put Christ first in our lives and look in the person that we're looking at to marry.
And see Christ in them. How much? What's the relationship with Christ? How much do they talk about the Lord Jesus? That's very important.
And then the world has Plan B and Plan C if the marriage doesn't work.
For God's children, there's no Plan B and Plan C, It's only plan A.
And and if we understand and we have that foundation in our relationships when we talk to one another as young, young people and we trust the power of God, you know, we see later on Isaac in verse 63, chapter 24 and Isaac went out to meditate. He wasn't spinning his keys around. Where is that woman? You know, it's like.
I was thinking, boy, if I knew that.
The servant is going out, gave me a wife. I'll probably be waiting all day. Didn't do any work, but he went to meditate. And I think that's very important because he understood that God wanted the best for him. And I think he had faith that God is going to find him a woman that's going to be.
According to God's will.
So he was out to meditate in the field at Eventide, and he lifted up his eyes and saw and behold, the cameras were coming.
Rebecca lifted up her eyes and when she saw Isaac.
She laid it off the camel. She came down. She.
I think she, she was honored, she was happy, you know, obviously just to meet him, but Can you imagine the fate that she had and the desire to, to meet a person?
That trust is God because obviously we see that what Ali is or what was talking about the whole House of Abraham. And that should be our #1 focus when we do get in in relationship. First of all, we should. I don't think that.
When people get bummed out and I think the Lord wants me to be by myself and live by myself, I I the Lord wants.
Believer he wants us to have that relationship and be fully multiply and you know another thing is that what I was going to bring out. I don't know how am I doing on my time, but the Lord Jesus when he talks when the Pharisees talk about a divorce papers, he says because of the hardness of your heart Moses.
Gave you guys a divorce paper and that's what we're seeing today is the hardness of our hearts.
And the Lord wants us to have a malleable or easy to work with heart. Are we humble before God?
And justice rely on the Lord Lord work in my life and humble me work in my heart help me love you most in my life. If if if a person doesn't love the Lord Jesus after and I'm talking about a believer.
If we don't recognize how much Christ has done for us and how much he loved us.
Are we really going to appreciate what our wife or our wives or our husband are doing in our lives? Are we going to be?
Recognize that in their efforts.
We sometimes say, wait, if a man doesn't respect his mother, it's a question mark and it's true.
But I think it goes even further if if a person, whether you're a young man or a young woman, if you, if you don't acknowledge Christ in our lives and really.
On the Lord Jesus as our personal Lord of every minute of the day.
I remember the first phone call when I called Daniela.
00:40:02
I asked her, are you saved? Do you love the Lord Jesus? She says with all my heart.
That's the most important thing. I didn't care how much money she was making, the degree she had. And the same thing with Luke when I asked him about, you know, his desire to marry Sabrina.
I didn't care how much money he had, how much money he was making, how much he has saved up, what's his future plans were? I don't care. He loved the Lord Jesus with all his heart. And that's something that that's the foundation that God has a foundation for the believers, for each young, for each one of you. If you're born again, he has a foundation and he wants you to walk in those precepts.
Was the first thing that we have to look into a young lady or a young man?
Do they have that relationship with Christ? That's the base now.
How much money they're making, that doesn't mean anything. What degrees they have, it doesn't mean anything.
That's nice. If you're going to pursue some career, that's fine, but that's the most important because that's the beginning of wisdom right there. And when you're young, you may not know the Scriptures very well, but that's the beginning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So.
There's I think my time is up, but I just wanted to bring out in.
Let me see.
Proverbs, 1822.
One verse really quick.
Who shall find it a wife?
Doesn't say a girlfriend.
And this world, they don't care about husbands or wives, they care about girlfriends or boyfriends. How sad is that?
Find this a good thing. In the Romanian translation it says find it happiness, and I think that's the thought behind it if you want to be happy.
We follow what God has intended for us.
Find a spouse, have kids, grandkids and so on is the most rewarding thing ever.
This is an obtain a favor of the Lord, so findeth happiness. And I think it's true on both sides. I mean, what I'm saying is for both the young man and the young ladies.
There's in the world we're living in today. Oh, you got to wait. I remember I was.
Requesting a month.
To take off from work so I can have time to change all the passports, get her visa.
And the reason why we ended up getting it quick is because I was asked if you want to come back with me on the plane. We got a game here right away. So we have time. So she's like, OK, fine. She didn't like it because they got to get prepared. But I went over to the director in the apprenticeship and I asked for a month and, and I asked, I said, you know, they're like, well, you can only take two weeks off. And I'm like, well, how many times does a person get?
In the lifetime? Oh, more than once.
So how sad is that you know, but with the believers is for a lifetime what God has joined that no man set apart but apart so.
When we are looking for a relationship, it's a lifelong relationship, then the Lord comes, or the article of death. And if we trust the Lord in everything, He will help us.
So I wouldn't let the world bring in its fear and.
When we are ready to get married and we understand to let the fear of the world, of the world come in and say, Oh no, no, you're not ready because you need this much money in the bank. You need this and this. You need to finish this degrees. You need to finish this schooling.
Pray about it and the Lord will direct you. And how beautiful for Isaac that he allowed the Lord and didn't cross certain lines that he wasn't supposed to. Because either way, if the Rebecca didn't want to come, Abraham said don't take him.
Then forget about it. But you know Abraham and I didn't read it there.
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He said, But the Lord will.
He saw in advance and he, he acted like, oh, but it's going to happen.
Kind of like no doubt in my mind.
Abraham said unto him in verse six he says.
The Lord God of heaven, which took me, which took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kinder, which spake unto me and swear unto me, saying, And should I said, I'll give this land, he shall send his Angel before thee, and thou shall take a wife unto my son from dance. He was already, he already knew.
So are we going by faith because nobody knows the future?
But they are the standards of God that we have to abide by. But as far as.
Who knows what's going to happen in the future the Lord does and if we have him in our relationship and in our hearts is going to help us and he did it in my life and I'm very happy that I have the Lord and I love the Lord and I want you to do the same thing and I'm not saying you know to get married young or to that's we don't see a lot of it in the word of God is a lot of personal and that's why it's very hard to talk about marriage or courtship but.
There are standards that God has for us and we can take from, you know, a lot of times we can say, well, wait, we're not living in the days of Isaac. Nobody's getting the bribe for me. I wish it was that easy.
But we see their standards. We see how God, what God tells Abraham, what Abraham tells Eliezer, and then we see how Isaac was meditating. So they're on the right ground, on the right foundation, waiting on the Lord Jesus. And then it says that he was comforted after his mother's death, so Rebecca comforted. How beautiful is that? It doesn't say that they were arguing like crazy among themselves.
He was comforted, so let's pray.
OK, our God and our Father, we are thankful to have such a God loving God and we're thankful for your creation and.
We are thankful for this account that we have in thy word of Isaac and Rebecca. What a union we're thankful for.
The institution of marriage among thy people, and how beautiful.
When we have thee in our meds and the world cannot understand it and they want to imitate it, but apart from the cannot be done. So we pray for these young people. We pray for all of them. First of all that they will be saved and second of all that they may choose a spouse that will have that relationship with the Lord Jesus.
And to have thee in their midst. And how beautiful to see the young.
Married couples.
That have made their step. We are thankful for this opportunity and again we are thankful for the refreshments and.
All the blessings, the food for the hands that prepared it. My name we pray, Lord Jesus, and we give thanks. Amen.
Ephesians 1:8-11
Reading
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Thing #178 #178.
Praise Lord, so eternal joy.
Loudly Star Wars to thy bloodless.
Whereas with thou.
Lord.
There will lie long thy birthday, Christ.
We're all around this place.
We're all amazing.
Eternal love, therefore shine is where love my Son.
Yes.
And fill with me.
Eternally.
Is life.
There Christmas.
Of the throne.
Jealous.
But not at all.
So someone.
Thy counsel soon, and all thy own.
Fulfilled by God.
In life.
Spread wide the glory of thy throne.
We're all in glory.
Shine.
Yeah, deeper.
A former joy.
The Father's love.
Children.
And every.
Heart by sweet and glory.
In his eternal.
Praise.
Nor is it sweetness.
Now unknown.
Well proved it was.
On our Father's love.
Where joy wields rebuilding Christ's love.
43 in the appendix.
Oh God.
Grace, our Father. Hope.
Is my sovereign favor.
All blessedness we see.
There only is the mountain.
Wesley Waters.
Flow.
Which like a glorious.
River still lighter. I say go.
00:05:03
As I notice for know us strongly eternity.
Thy chosen loved ones.
Ever kept present to thine heart?
And when?
He's from his hiding place.
Thy word, thy sound breathe lightning does active by by truth.
Still leading on thy children.
Where gentle.
Work.
Free seed.
The word begun by.
Grace for reach is me and training.
Mother to see thy face.
Let's pray together.
Our Father.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you for.
These great things that we've been able to consider these few days. We pray for help now as we open the Word.
For instruction for edification for each one here in the room.
And for direction as we look into the great things concerning our Lord Jesus Christ.
That one who has been exalted to the highest place and as we've sung together.
The one who has revealed the Father to us.
We think of soon that we would see his face.
Our blessed Redeemer and we just ask for help for this time and give thanks in His precious and worthy name. Amen.
Start with verse eight. What did you say, Bill?
Sounds right to me, remembering that we have two more reading meetings and quite a bit of the chapter to get through.
Ephesians chapter one and verse 8, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ.
Both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him in Whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things, after the council of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory. Who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted. After that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, In Whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit a promise.
Which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the Saints, cease not to give thanks for you.
00:10:06
Making mention of you and my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us or who believe.
According to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead.
And set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might and dominion, in every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all.
I have found it helpful, and I suggest that perhaps other brethren can.
Correct, if it's not completely in order. But in the prayer at the end of the chapter, Paul prays in verse 18 that the eyes that they're understanding would be enlightened, that they might know. And there's three things.
That he specifically asks the 1St is what is the hope of his calling.
And I suggest that's what we have from verses 3 down to perhaps verse 8:00 and 9:00.
And the second is, what is the richest of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints? And that's what we have in verses 10 and 11, the inheritance that's spoken of. And then the third thing is in verse 19, what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe according to the working of his mighty power.
That's what you have in verses 13 and 14. The Spirit of God is the one who is operative and brings this all about. So I just suggest that as kind of an outline of the first part of the chapter, at least down to verse 14.
But we're still in that first section, aren't we, in verse 8?
And so he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. That word prudence we could also render a spiritual intelligence, I believe.
And that.
Ties in with something that was said back on Saturday and that is that.
We can look at what we have in Christ only as it affects us.
Or at least primarily as it affects us. But what characterizes Paul's ministry?
Is the purposes of God concerning His beloved Son?
And of course that does affect us, but first of all, it concerns him.
And so not only have we been brought into blessing, as it says in verse.
Verses 6:00 and 7:00, not only are we accepted in the Beloved, not only do we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, all those things are wonderful, but now God says, I want you to be admitted into all the purposes and councils that I have concerning my beloved Son.
And that is?
What we get in verse 9? The mystery or secret of His will.
And as we had brought out yesterday, that was not revealed or not yesterday, but Saturday, that was not revealed in the Old Testament. It was a secret hidden God. But now it's revealed and it was brought out. I believe you brought it up, Brother Dave.
There are types in the Old Testament that now we can look back and see the meaning of them, but that secret was hidden in God from before the foundation of the world.
00:15:14
And now they've been revealed, you and I, as part of the church, see the whole picture of all of God's purposes and counsels in his beloved Son. God wants us to know about them. And so that prayer that you referred to Bob at the end of the chapter, in a broad sense the subject of that prayer is.
That ye may know.
We have to know something before we can enjoy it and walk in it.
And so Paul says, I want you to know these things and that.
Outline you gave really commends itself. All of those things are.
Generally given to us in this chapter and to some degree in the second chapter.
But then we don't get to it with this chapter, but in the third chapter.
There's another prayer, and the emphasis in that prayer is that ye may be.
In this chapter, it's that ye may know in chapter 3, it's a moral state, a moral condition, and a walk that's in keeping with what we know. And so here, first of all, we need to know these things and God says it's all been revealed, now it's all yours.
I love the Spanish translation of this verse. Eight it says.
Wherein he hath super abounded toward us in all wisdom and intelligence. Just think, brethren, we are brought in from being enemies of God, into the very family of God, adopted into his family.
Who sit down at his table to be brought into the enjoyment of all God's eternal purposes. How in the world?
Can this be, and I sometimes say to the brethren, there is a gift to teach the Word. There is no particular gift to learn the Word and that is something that we all have in common. This is super abounded toward us in all wisdom and intelligence. Brethren, are you interested in what God has?
In mind not only for us now at the present time, but for.
That eternal day when Christ is going to display His glory in the fullness of it.
Rather than I just have to say, I just feel so completely insufficient in myself. And it's not a matter of ourselves, it's a matter of how he is abounded toward us. As they go around visiting sometimes, you know, brother and I find some of our sisters that are really laying hold of it.
Sisters are not to teach publicly, but it doesn't mean they can't learn. And sometimes they seem to be more with it than us brothers.
Often think back when the Lord was here on earth and he told them the number of times he said and we're going up to Jerusalem, I'm going to be killed and I'm going to be raised again the third day.
None of the disciples seemed to get it.
But there was one person I believe that got it. She sat at Jesus feet and heard his word. She was not at the cross, she was not at the tomb. She came beforehand and anointed his body to the burial. Mary of Bethany. She listened. Oh brethren, the beauty of that just to have.
A listening ear. I had find so much for myself. I read the scriptures but am I really listening? Sometimes I my mind is somewhere else.
Lord help us, brethren.
Is super abounded to us in all wisdom and intelligence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will. Sometimes say to the brethren in South America, if the president of the country would come to your door and say, I've chosen you to, I want to share all my programs that I have in mind for this country and say, what in the world did he choose me?
00:20:03
Brother, we're not talking about the president of the country, we're talking about the God of the universe.
That is opened up to his, his eternal counsel.
Lord help us slowly hold it up, brother.
Going to repeat.
What's already been said, at least the thoughts of it in the way that has been helpful to my soul to get a little understanding of it.
Everything begins with God.
I am.
And God himself.
Is what we call his counsels and purposes. You might say, sat down.
And decided what he purposed.
To be.
You say why? I can say why do I exist?
Why am I as a Why did I ever come into existence? Because God purposed it. It begins with Himself.
And it begins and is formed according to what he is in his essential being of light and love.
And as such, God purpose.
The creation.
And in purposing it because he knows all things.
He's not. He doesn't live in time. He doesn't learn things in the passage of time. God is, and God knows all things.
And has known everything from eternity. He knew before he ever created the world. We'd be sitting in this room exactly who we would be this morning.
But in doing so, and it's been said, it's the key to the whole Bible.
In Ephesians chapter one.
In verse 10, according to what he purposed in himself in verse nine, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ.
Both which are in heaven and which are on earth. Even in him, that's a summation.
Of what God purposed, if it could be put in one sentence, that's the.
Whole purpose for which everything is that God decided that he was going to have a creation, there was going to be man, and in that creation he was going to have the Son. God the Son would become a man and in that.
Son, God would honor himself. He would display his glory.
And.
What's unfolded to us here?
Is what his purposes are in it.
He's revealing to us where we fit in to that which he purposes.
And so he does so, and where we are and our blessings and.
Our inheritance and our place is all being made known or revealed to us here.
As where we fit into what he purposes, we're not the center of it.
We're not the primary purpose of it. And what is the?
The revelation of God.
Is gradual.
He could not, properly speaking, have made known to Adam what you and I are sitting and knowing this morning.
It would have been an impossibility, if I can speak for God, to have made known to Adam.
What we know this morning and the reason, the most important reason is some of what God purpose could not be known by us until the work necessary for God to accomplish His purpose had been done. That is the death and work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross is essential for God's.
00:25:06
To be carried out and then further than that part of what why the revelation couldn't be made known until it is here and to the Ephesians is the fact that the purposes of God involving.
US required.
Us to participate in life in resurrection the Sunday school worse for the children yesterday.
A new creation in Christ Jesus is essential to the purposes of God, and it's only possible to have new creation in resurrection.
The life yesterday or Saturday when we had yesterday when Bill spoke about the resurrection, it's an essential before God could make himself known in his fullness because we fit in by participating in resurrection life.
That's new creation, and I say that because the character of new creation.
The character of what's called eternal life is only possible in resurrection because it puts us in a place beyond death.
And that's essential to God's purposes.
It so the ultimate.
Revelation is the ultimate making known to us where we fit in.
The body and Bride of Christ.
It's interesting to me the fact that.
The final.
Revelation to mankind.
The work was done. A number of years had passed.
The Apostle Paul saw his visions and his revelations, but he doesn't communicate any of it for years.
When do we get it?
Everyone of the epistles that gives us the greatest amount of understanding of God's thoughts and hearts and mind.
Come after he puts him in prison and he's sitting in his prison.
And at that point, if you will, God says Paul, now I'm ready. I'm going to use you.
And in this epistle and Colossians and so on, which were written in prison, is the time when we get the Revelation finished and finalized and bring it to us. But I want to make one more point in connection with it, and that is.
God's purposes and the work necessary to fulfill them have been carried out.
But this morning God is working in us, in this room.
To bring us into the understanding and enjoyment of them. The prayer that Paul has here in this chapter is part of what he's asking God for the Saints and for us. And then God's response to that prayer is seen in Hebrews 13 when it says it is God that worketh in you.
God is going to answer the prayer of the apostle Paul and work in each one of us.
To accomplish what He's purposed in our enjoyment of it by bringing us unto into the understanding of it. And that's a gradual work. The revelation is made, but each one of us grows in our understanding as we go through the path of life. And so we progressively understand it more and more as we go on through the journey of life.
I think one thing that's really helpful I really appreciate what's been shared in verse 11. It says in whom we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him and if you jump back in diverse 5. It says having predestined is under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to make all this make sense to us for me.
00:30:00
We it's got to have a package. We went to Home Depot and we bought all these plumbing parts and the whole cart is.
Just covered with plumbing parts. And I'm like, how am I going to get all this into my pickup and into the house? And the person that was at the the lady said, well, would you like a bag? Yeah. And I put it all in the bag. And if we could put this all in a bag, the thing that makes us make sense, at least to me, is sonship. We're called all these gifts, all these blessings.
Have been brought out in what he's called us to be.
That new life, it's in sonship and in Romans chapter 8, and I think we already read this.
Romans 8 verse 29, it says for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first born among many brethren. And so many people go through life and they don't understand like I'm forgiven. But what does that mean? How how does that fit? We're called to be sons and those.
Are called to be daughters and we have a relationship with him and all those things, redemption and forgiveness and all those things fit right in that in his calling to make us sons. And now we can walk as as has been mentioned in the newness of life, as sons. People would say, you know, people, I prayed this prayer, but then there's no difference in my life. How does that make sense?
Well, that's that's not what's supposed to be working in US. What's working in US, as Don just said, is the.
Knowledge and the growth overtime growing more and more into the image of Christ.
That's his work in US.
I'd ask a question yesterday there was a question about whether this was.
The that brings us up to the Millennium or whether it goes into the eternal state and again this is a question, but because it says in Christ and you have heaven and earth and then you have an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of.
Him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will it it? It seems to me this does not go beyond the Millennium. Is that correct?
Because it doesn't say. Because it doesn't say as as.
Was was mentioned, the highest truth of of Scripture is the fact that God is All in all. But that's not brought out here. It's what's in Christ. And Christ gives up everything. He gives up the Kingdom to God.
Or to the Father that God might be. All in all, it seems to me that this is taking up.
What is Christ? What is to be glorified in Christ?
Brings up the inheritance and our portion with it. And that would only be in the Millennium, wouldn't it?
I like what was brought out. I think on Saturday that.
The Millennium is the anteroom into eternity, and I agree with you that it seems that this is the case. And the dispensation of the fullness of times is the millennial day, definitely when all things are going to be brought under the direct control of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we're going to have an intimate part in that as companions with him, both which are in heaven and on earth. But if you go over to Revelation chapter 21, there you have the new heavens and the new earth. It's interesting to me that.
That is something that is eternal and so.
It goes on into eternity. What is formed in the millennial day to be displayed goes on into that eternal day.
What would you say about that, Brother Bill?
Yes, I agree with that, and one of our best old writers says it much the same way, and I don't.
Just say it because He said it. But I enjoyed it that yes, as I said yesterday in the address, the Millennium is necessary for the public vindication of God's holy character, but then the eternal state.
Is for the everlasting satisfaction of God's heart, and in that sense.
00:35:01
When Christ is given a Kingdom.
Yes, the outward physical Kingdom that will exist in this world we know is only for 1000 years. Very definitely. And then as we get in First Corinthians 15, he delivers up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, that God that is God in Trinity may be All in all, and that's true in the eternal state.
But here it's the exaltation of Christ.
With his bride.
Over everything in a coming day.
But it's beautiful to see if you go to Revelation 21 when it describes the church in millennial glory. The bride is displayed as a city because administration is in view, but in the eternal state in the first state. Verses of that chapter. And I know this is getting a bit complicated, but I enjoyed it.
In this in the Millennium, the bride.
Is displayed as a city in the eternal state. The city is displayed as a bride.
That is, the relationship is paramount, and so this leads the end point of all of this is the eternal state.
But yes, the proper.
Display of it is definitely in the Millennium.
And we can't really go beyond that, can we?
I was thinking.
That the 11Th and 12Th verse are Jewish and the 13th person is Gentiles and then the eternal state. You don't get Jews and Gentiles. So that's just another proof that this is for the Millennium.
I like to think of three expressions we have in scripture.
And one that applies today is that grace reigns through righteousness. In the millennial day, righteousness reigns. It won't be a day of grace, Righteousness reigns. But in the eternal day, righteousness dwells. There is no need, like you say, of a city with walls. What are walls for? To keep something out?
Gates, there was mean there be no necessary, no necessity of that. And so the city.
In the first verses of chapter 21, which describes the eternal state, doesn't say anything about walls. There won't be any need of that. But I like to think of that, brethren, in verse 10, there are two spheres which are in heaven and which are on earth.
And God promised blessing to Abraham, he said. Your descendants will be like the stars of heaven.
And like the sand by the seashore, 2 spheres of blessing, and that will be go right into eternity. Those two spheres of blessing, that right brother Ed.
The testimony that the servant of Abraham gave when he traveled across the land to find a bride for Abraham's son.
Reminds us now that we in our.
Place can look back on it and see it as a tide of the highest parts of the gospel.
Because Paul refers to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.
And so the servant, he doesn't want to tarry. He gives that testimony and he gives evidences of it. We'll probably get to that later in the chapter he gave to Rebecca and her family.
Precious things. Gold, silver, raiment.
And the testimony was sufficient that when it came time to ask Rebecca.
Will you go with this man?
And she says I will go.
And in regard to Don's comment about the progress in our understanding?
Of these things, as soon as Rebecca commits to going, she's.
Her die is cast, she's left home, and she's on her way. And you can only imagine what kind of conversations she'd already heard the testimony of the greatness of this man Abraham, and the fact that he to her his son, that they had in his old age, unto him hath he committed all that he has, and she's going to be his bride.
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That's, you might say, in a certain sense consummated before they left.
And then there's that journey. We don't know how long it was, but you can only imagine as I sit here, I feel like I'm on the journey.
And I'm listening to.
The future of this?
This son, and now I'm going to have a part in it that's very intimate and you, you, you imagine her asking questions and the servant unfolding to her as the days went on A.
And brides prepare for weddings, you know, they There's clothing and there's.
All kinds of things. And we know the story of Esther and how she was prepared physically and all of that.
It wasn't that kind of preparation for Rebecca. She was riding on camels, I assume, across, you know, wilderness ground. She was naturally speaking. You say she when she got there, it's like she'd been out camping for weeks, right? But there was a preparation in her understanding, and it's beautiful to think of that she.
She was going to see a one who was so glorious, she was going to have a part with him.
And no doubt she wanted to learn as much about him before she got there as she as she could, and she did so. It's a beautiful to have these things rehearsed for us along along our way.
I think the reason it's so important to see the difference is because.
Whether it's the Millennium or the eternal state, each one has its display of beauty in which the Church is identified with. With the Millennium, we have a body like Christ.
We will reign with him and be a part of his inheritance, sharing his inheritance. We'll have a responsibility in his reigning. We reign with him.
And it's you look around at us and there's going to be this beautiful display of his bride and wife.
That represents his character for the Millennium and that beauty for the for for all to see what those who suffered with him in his rejection.
And the display of blessing that and beauty that he's going to present.
To every created thing during that Millennium. Of course, the eternal state takes on a different character, as Bob has already mentioned. But I just think that that each one has its distinct beauty. I mean, we've talked about, you know, standing before God, the one that we offended, the one that was worthy to judge us, and now we're going to stand before him or do stand before him, holy and without blame.
Before him in love we've been we've been placed as sons chosen out an eternity to to be able to come together and take these things up and take it in and enjoy it. We have the Spirit of God in US and the Spirit of God is ministering to us these these things that were taken up with we say they're the highest truths of Scripture. It is in connection with the Millennium and Christ's glory. But we have a.
Take it in and rejoice in who we are in our relationship. And that's why I I feel it's so important to see the distinction between the two. They're they're both to be able to enter into God's rest, have God come down and and and rest upon the Tabernacle. I can't even fathom it. It's way beyond. I rejoice in it, but I can't enter into it. But but here we can we.
Take it in. We see. We see the progress of what God has accomplished through Christ for us.
It's such a blessing.
The end of the Lawrenceville meetings, the readings, A young brother sitting.
Not far behind me stood up and closed the meeting in prayer.
00:45:05
And I was very edified by his prayer. And in his prayer he was quoting parts of Psalm 110.
And that is the Psalm, where it is said to the Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet.
And after so I spoke to the young brother and I said, which do you think will be more to the satisfaction of his heart?
His enemies made the footstool of his feet or his people willing.
The day of his power.
I liked his answer, he said. A willing people. He looked out upon the people that were hungry and confused and diseased and sick and agitated.
How His heart went out to them and how He wanted to bless them. And yet on every hand and on every day, the push back, as we call it, He got, and the reproach and all of the rest. And so how delightful and refreshing it will be to Him in that day. Yes, we were enjoying in those meetings the vindication of Christ.
Who was rejected here?
Renewed heart loves to look forward by faith to that day. We look beyond the long dark night, as the hymn writer put it. And we we love his appearing because that's the day of vindication. And so his enemies will be made the footstool of his feet. But he'll have at last a long last, a willing people, that which is to the satisfaction of his heart. So whether it's the Millennium.
Or of course into the day of God that the consummation of that the long unfolding of his counsel to have those who love him and that he loves in in a state of love and enjoyment like he had throughout all eternity. To me, that is the probably the most precious thing to him.
For God's glory.
I trust I want to make a couple of comments about his glory.
The ultimate, and it's been referred to many times in different ways.
Is that God doing all things that counsel of His will, is doing all things that will ultimately display and magnify His glory?
What he is in his excellence.
There are.
Attributes of the glory of God that you and I will never know.
They're beyond comprehension to a created being.
The glory of God is the ultimate.
And what has been in the purpose and counsel of God is to bring us into the enjoyment and relationships that enable us to see enjoy His glory, and as a result his of His work in US creatures that can worship Him.
We praise Him for what He does. We worship Him for who He is.
And in that respect?
The revelation itself, even in the Millennium, is progressive in its character. That is, the heavenly side of it progresses more rapidly than the earthly.
You and I when we are taken into the presence of God by the rapture.
Are ready for eternity because.
Our sin nature and our sins and our bodies and everything that has been corrupted as a result of sin will have been removed from us, and so we will be in a liberty and an enjoyment.
That's not limited by what things are on the earth.
And the difference is in heaven.
Satan will have been cast out and the.
Impurities of fallen angels and so on in heavenly places.
Will have been removed. You and I will enter into a place with himself.
That we will have removed from us all that was dishonouring to God and in the way it's carried out to take us to the day of God goes back to death from our the revelation of it goes back to Genesis 1 when God creates in chapter one it gives the various steps of his creation of the earth.
00:50:25
And then it says he rested.
From his work. Why? Because he had now created something.
In which he could view it with no sin. Adam in the garden.
The creatures themselves, the earth was sinless.
And so God was able in that state of things. It says He rested on the 7th day.
When Eve sinned.
That was the end of God's rest. He's never rested a day since. From that day when sin entered into the creation, God has never rested, and he will not rest.
He can't rest in the Millennium.
Because there will still be sin in the earth.
Both the earth itself and the creatures in it. Mankind, there will be sinful men in the earth during the Millennium. And so God will be working. He will be for the vindication and honor of His Son, displaying His glory in gathering together with the intent when it's done, all things in heaven and all things on earth.
Will be gathered together in one.
For his glory. And so when the end of the Millennium comes.
There will be a work that includes several things very important to the end result.
That is on the Earth.
It still has all the effect that man's sin has brought and Satan's and fallen angels have brought upon it, and so God says, I'm going to remove it completely from my sight.
I'm going to destroy it and remove it. The not only the earth itself, but the physical heavens are spoiled in the sight of God because of sin, and he will remove them. He will burn up, if you will, and destroy the current heavens and the current earth and create a new one.
One in which there is absolutely no sin.
He will have people on earth.
But those people that will be on earth at that time will be like we who are in heaven.
Having no sin in them.
And having bodies which are suited.
To a sinless condition.
And when all this necessary work is done, we come to the joy of eternity, when God is All in all. But I also enjoy the IT takes eternity to bring it. He shall rest.
In his love, God will be able to sit down and enjoy what he has done and the councils he has fulfilled.
In rest.
Why? Because everything.
Having to do with what his eye sees as sinful will have been removed.
Forever from His sight. And then there will be the eternal state of God All in all, in His glory and resting, and we in that participation that has been given to us as part of it. And I believe one of the highest aspects of it is worship.
Is that we as creatures will be able to worship God.
Regardless of whether we're on earth or in heaven or a part of the Bride of Christ, or whatever our role may be at that time, for us it's the Bride of Christ, and the Lord Jesus, in making us His Bride, is given to us the maximum.
00:55:01
Place.
That a creature can have in the relationship to the Son. And so that's our supreme blessing of being part of the bride of Christ because it is the maximum position that a creature can participate in a glory that is centered in the sun and to God.
So that emphasizes the mystery of His will.
What we're talking about here in this chapter is Christianity.
The revelation of the mystery.
That which we waited for, which God waited to reveal.
The millennial Kingdom or the 1000 years, that's a subject of Old Testament prophecy and I think it's very important to see that the Old Testament not not bringing in the New Testament yet, but the Old Testament.
Shows a change of order coming in the world.
In other words, Messiah is going to reign. There will be one who comes.
Who is going to set aside enemies, Bruce? You quoted the 110th song.
Many other passages, again, just thinking about the Old Testament, and I was looking at Hosea chapter 2 a little bit as we have here, heading up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth.
That the Lord is going to hear the heavens, and the heavens are going to hear the earth, and the earth is going to hear the heavens.
There is contemplated in the Old Testament a time when evil is going to be reigned in and Messiah will reign.
But the Old Testament also shows a suffering Messiah and you might say one of the one of the principles of prophecy. And some of the writers have been very helpful on this.
In a particular passage, you might see these things together.
But in the New Testament, they're split apart.
And one of the reasons why is because in the days when the Old Testament.
Was being put together and the profits were prophesying. There was something waiting.
To be revealed. Nobody knew about it. As we noticed in chapter 3 and verse nine of the book of Ephesians, there was something waiting there that was hidden in God.
It was going to be a long time until.
There was a little child born in Tarsus that God was going to get a hold of one day, and he was going to say, I want you to go tell the world about these things, this mystery.
But before you can do that.
You're going to have a time with the Lord Jesus on that road to Damascus.
So the Old Testament, and this goes all the way back to Moses.
Contemplates a change of order on the Earth.
But now that we have the New Testament, and I'm thinking of what Verne said about the Jews and the Gentiles. There were those who pre trusted in Christ. Now go back to the Lord's upper room ministry. What is he telling his disciples in the upper room ministry? He's telling them about things that we're going to happen.
That God was going to do when he, the Lord Jesus, was no longer going to be here with them.
And one of the things that he's going to do is he's going to send another comforter. He's going to send the Holy Spirit. So that means that with the Lord Jesus gone, his work is accomplished.
And now he's not here anymore. God is going to work in a different capacity.
The Triune Godhead is going to work in a different capacity. So we see the Father and the Son sending the Holy Spirit upon the occasion of the exaltation of the sun in glory, and what we are reading about here in Ephesians and Colossians, these passages where we have the mystery.
01:00:00
We're reading about something that constitutes Christianity.
Something that was waiting to be revealed and as he has here, those who pre trusted in the Christ trusted first verse 12 and then in whom ye also the Gentiles that looks ahead to chapter 2 where those two companies are brought together in one.
Newman that doesn't mean that we Gentiles become part of Israel.
That's not the teaching. There is one Newman.
That's one of the figures that's used here, United to the heavenly head.
By the Holy Spirit, before there was this heavenly head, you didn't have a body.
Now there's the head and there's the one body, and so that's really Ephesian teaching here. But all during the days of the Old Testament when the prophets were writing, that was waiting to be revealed at the time chosen by God based on the exaltation of the Lord Jesus.
Very good.
I'd like to go back to verse 11. Just a minute. Brethren, I find this something that's very rich. In whom also in the Lord Jesus we have obtained an inheritance. The question of the inheritance, even though we have it, brethren, we haven't possessed it yet.
It remains as.
Reference was made to Psalm 2 and I'd like to read that because this is the time when the Lord Jesus will take his inheritance and.
It says in verse seven of Psalm 2, I will declare the decree. The Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son, this day of I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance.
It's interesting when he says Thou art my Son. That was his eternal relationship to the Father.
This day I by begotten thee that talks about his incarnation. And so when he takes his inheritance is going to be as a man that he takes it and it's going to be in relationship with us. We're going to be with him when he takes that inheritance.
Brother, and I just must say I have to, when I look at the prophetical pictures, say the most glorious event.
In the history of this world will be when the Lord Jesus comes back to take that inheritance at the end of the great tribulation, the revelation of Jesus Christ, sometimes referred to as the manifestation or the appearing and he's going to come back that man that that's world saw last hanging dead on the cross.
In that terribly mistreated body.
Well, they will see coming in power and glory with the hosts of the redeemed billions. I am I'm sure we can say of the redeemed. And not only that, but the hosts of his mighty angels like to say that it's a major invasion from outer space.
And he's going to take the Kingdom for his own to reign supreme. And that's when.
We will possess the inheritance, brethren. I just want to say it in this way. I found it such a blessing, and I think that the enjoyment of this will deliver us from materialism. Why do you spend so much time trying to amass material things in this world if you're going to inherit it all?
Within a few short years, there's no need for that.
I still remember a brother in the Dominican Republic. We were there and.
He had gotten his eyes on material things and if you ever been to the Dominican Republic, it's a beautiful island and beautiful landscape, beautiful scenery. And I say this is all my inheritance too. I'm going to inherit it all and to enjoy it, brethren, but to realize that the possessing of that inheritance is when the Lord Jesus.
01:05:13
Rises up to take his inheritance.
What we have today is what we have in verse 14, the earnest of our inheritance, and we won't get around to it right now, but it's the Holy Spirit of God is the down payment, the earnest of our inheritance.
Like the way brother Gordon Hajo.
Put it one time, he says, supposing there's a piece of property that is going for the price of a half, $1,000,000. And so he says I want to buy that, so I'm going to give you a down payment. The down payment is $10 million. Is it? It's only worth half, $1,000,000? Why are you going to pay $10 million? Brethren, the Holy Spirit of God.
Is the earnest the down payment and is far greater than the whole inheritance what we have in the Spirit of God? So brethren, these things are real. May the Lord help us not to get so distracted with material things because it's all our inheritance. We're going to inherit it.
Christ in that day of glory.
Just make one more remark as the meeting comes to a close on a practical note.
We often hear about so-called covenant theology or.
As it's sometimes known as reconstructionism and it is sweeping.
Many parts of North America today. Very popular in many parts of Christendom.
And we're part, so we're part of Christendom. Let's not forget that. And many are being taken up with it. I would only say this that this tenth verse and the 11Th verse understood properly, will, if I could use the term, cure us from getting involved with that. But with this understanding.
There are.
Well, let me rephrase that. There is nothing in the Word of God that is contrary to sound reason. But there are things in Scripture, many things, that are ultimately beyond reason.
And when man's mind gets working in the things of God.
He tends to reduce those things that are beyond reason.
To something that he can wrap his mind around. And when we do that, we always, always, always fall into error.
A good example is man's responsibility in God's sovereignty, Calvinism and Armenianism. How much disputing of that subject has there been down through the ages? And it doesn't matter which side you emphasize, you fall into error. We have to accept it, believe in it, but recognize that the human mind can't bring those two things together.
Some of the things that have to do with the carrying out of verse 11.
Are not given us as clearly in Scripture as perhaps some of our natural minds would like. We naturally like to have everything nicely, tightly pigeonholed. Sometimes things aren't given out that way. People say, well, how could God offer to Israel their Messiah?
But yet knowing full well that they would reject him.
Have a plan hatched out, if I could say it reverently in a past eternity, with the other hand behind his back, ready to pull out the mystery of His will, the truth of the assembly when Israel rejected their Messiah. I can't. That bothers my mind. I can't get that straight.
Or how can God present the gospel today to Jew and Gentile? All can come.
And it tells us right in this same book, in the next chapter, that He hath made both one, and broken down the middle wall of partition between US, and so on.
And yet somehow, somewhere, some way, he's reserving those who haven't in that sense, rejected the gospel of the grace of God.
01:10:06
But have Jewish hopes and Jewish aspirations, and very quickly after we're called home, they're going to rise up and start preaching the gospel of the Kingdom. And millions and maybe billions of people will be saved through that gospel for earthly blessing instead of heavenly blessing. And how is all this going to pan out and work out?
I don't know all the answers to it, and I don't think any of us do, but we can accept what God has given us as to His divine purposes and.
No one will ever understand the Word of God completely unless we understand that God has in His purposes the blessing of the Church in heaven and the blessing of Israel on earth.
Unless we understand that while the Church is not the subject of prophecy.
Because it's a heavenly company, yet the understanding of the truth of the assembly.
As Dawn has been bringing out is crucial to the understanding of prophecy.
And if you don't understand the truth of the assembly, you'll get all mixed up in prophecy. And that's why, and I say it very kindly, not in a proud way, that's why so many dear believers are so far off the rails on prophecy, with all kinds of strange interpretations and lack of proper understanding, and the pieces of the puzzle don't seem to fit together, and so on.
We have to have an understanding of the mystery, the truth of the assembly.
In order to see the whole picture and as Dawn has been bringing out, it wasn't until that man from Tarsus, all the apostle came on the scene that God said. And here's the man I'm going to use to bring out the truth of the assembly so that everything is displayed. What a privilege we have, you and I.
As believers in this dispensation can now look out on everything that's going on in this world and safe.
Well, yes, I know exactly where we are. I know what's going on, I see where things are headed. I don't know all the details, but I know where everything is going. I know where it's going to end. And we can have peace about it. Perhaps we can simplify the chapter by singing hymn #253.
We are one.
Full group.
For no Lord fear.
Is.
From.
And.
We are in heaven.
Love, Spirit.
Unite.
Our souls still.
Are.
And warns us to.
Let fry.
While it is done, we drunk.
And.
Free Grace.
Which gives us.
On the road.
To bring me.
All the same.
48.
I in the.
Father's house.
01:15:06
There is a war, I swear.
I love my reward.
Where we love.
And.
And glory.
We shall shine.
Is blissful.
President.
Hardy White.
And love and joy.
And we shall grow with God.
Feel eternal.
Day.
Right.
Nor God and our Father. We have been talking about an inheritance.
And we are thankful that the Lord Jesus will be given an inheritance and will share it with him.
But it's nothing without the Lord Jesus.
It's nothing without the relationship of knowing that we stand before God.
Holy and without blame before him and love.
It's nothing without having a body like thyself, Lord Jesus.
To be thy companion, to see thy blessed face.
To worship and praise Thee.
We thank you for this chapter that we've been taking up.
We thank you that the Spirit of God can allow us to not only just have it in our heads.
But that is in our hearts.
Then we thank thee too, that to know these things.
And to enjoy them.
It gives us.
A desire to walk in a way down here that gives glory to thy name.
That were the evidence of a loving God.
Who has paid the highest price?
Thine own beloved son.
To be brought into these blessings.
We thank thee, Father.
The precious and worthy name of our Lord and Savior, Thy beloved Son.
We thank the Lord Jesus and Thy precious name, Amen.
Established in the Truth
Address—D. Newby
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Of the.
Waves of God and fix and root.
Assume thy grace.
As those readings by blood.
What's a song?
Of I love.
My angry and then.
Heart.
Will your converse? That's the first comes on.
Are gay.
Or there's so many.
We.
Really.
Count, but we are.
My walls.
The dearest.
Son, just love.
And grave listing.
With.
God, eternal time.
That we may.
Some small dairy.
Return.
My love.
Again.
Let's pray together.
Our Father.
We've read of you as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.
One who is exalted.
Your beloved son and manhood.
Now ascended.
At your right hand.
And we pray that you would honor his name this afternoon. We think of these meetings that we've had.
The truth that we have considered centers in that man.
Of your counsels, and we ask Father for help as we speak of these things.
This one last time in these days we've had together. We thank you for this time over the word.
And we pray for edification.
And comfort and instruction for each one. And we just give thanks in the precious name.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Sometimes when we go over the scriptures.
The words of a hymn come to mind, and I think that's because I'm sure it's because.
The hymn writers, they have these things before them as well.
Often.
Provoked by much trial and pain.
In their own lives, so that when a soul could write, Oh, tell us often of thy love, of all thy grief and pain.
Who knew? Grief and pain?
As the Lord Jesus Christ did.
We remembered the Lord Jesus yesterday. In his death, we considered.
In the emblems on the table.
The sorrow and the shame, the disgrace.
That he passed through Indiana his holy manhood.
We remember those words, that holy thing.
That shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
He who was without sin.
00:05:02
Who knew? No sin. I just think of our Lord Jesus and how He is the center.
Of all of these things.
I was asked by the brother to address our beloved young people. And what that does is that it certainly puts the mind back at the time when I was among the young people, when I was a new Christian.
My circumstances might have been different than many of yours, but yet there was a newly found faith.
Maybe there had been a long process prior to coming to faith. We touched on some of that in the last meeting.
But nonetheless, there was a moment when the soul came to faith.
What does a soul need? And I know that people come to the Lord Jesus, they come to saving faith at any stage of life.
I happen to be 20 years old.
Those who I see here in this room, it looks to me like for the most part.
Are raised in Christian homes where you hear the gospel, you hear the word of God ministered week in and week out. You've attended conferences like these probably for as long as you remember. That may be true of most of you in the room, maybe some not so much. I can look around the room and I can see adults that I know who were not raised in Christian homes.
But whatever it might be, there was a time when the soul was brought.
By the sovereign God to faith in the Lord Jesus to see that there was life in him and that everywhere else was death.
What is the need for a young person in a condition like that? And I mean young in the faith. But here I'm thinking in terms of the young people among us, many of you where I I can see you out there. I knew.
Maybe of your grandparents before your parents were even born, there are those of you here who are parents.
Who are the age of my children?
Many of the names that have been mentioned, I recognize those names, but you're too young to recognize those names.
And what that tells us, and this is really the burden of my heart.
Is that there is a deposit of truth?
That was given to us. You might say it was finalized.
When the New Testament was finally canonized. When the Canon of the books of Scripture.
Was finally put together.
And that deposit of truth has been entrusted to the Church.
And it's an encouragement to my soul to read writers from many years ago, centuries ago.
1000 years ago, nearly 2000 years ago, who valued the same deposit of faith. And it may. And we've been reading about that in these meetings. We've been talking about Ephesians chapter one and related scriptures that give us something of that deposit of truth.
The content of the faith of Christ that we are called on to believe first and foremost for our own souls, and secondly for those around us and for our collective life as well. The same deposit of truth.
So when I think of young people, I think of the need to be established in the truth. I don't want to read a lot of scripture this afternoon. I know that this is the end of three days of sitting in meetings and everyone is tired, and I'm tired as well. Maybe you can tell.
But for one last few moments, I would like to meditate a little bit.
On some things connected with the deposit of truth, and I want to say first of all, with the Apostle Paul in First Corinthians chapter 8, knowledge puffs up.
00:10:11
We read about knowledge, intelligence in Ephesians chapter one and that is of vital importance to us. Jose said my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. He said I have given unto them the great things of my law and they are accounted. A strange thing we don't want.
To take the great things that God has given to us in His Word and that they would ever be accounted a strange thing to us. We want these things to be familiar to us. We want to feed on these things. We want them to be our daily occupation. And this is the encouragement that I want to give to our young people.
There was a comment that was made earlier.
About a young man and an older brother. Took him and sat him down at a table and went over some things with him.
I will remember that for myself. I could name you a number of older men, and there are some of them that are in the room here this afternoon who very faithfully sat down with me and went over the Scriptures.
Everyone of us, everyone of you young people needs to be taught.
There is going to be an aspect of being taught by others. Who are you taught by, first of all, and I'm humanly speaking, within the company that you find yourself, you're taught by your parents. You might be taught by your grandparents.
As you get older and you get down the road a little bit and you develop a network of friends, maybe your brothers and sisters in the Lord, in the assembly where you are.
You want your brothers and sisters in Christ to be able to edify you with your Word, with His Word. You want to think about your companions. Who are your companions?
Some of our brethren have brought out how two very critical things in our lives.
Our companions and our habits.
And I will tell you that the two of those always go hand in hand.
If you spend your time with people who carry on with certain types of habits, most likely you will carry on with those habits as well. And just to put it positively, if you spend your time with people who know and love the Lord Jesus and want to speak of His Word and want to be together with the Lord's people.
That will be.
An encouragement to your soul as you grow.
What your part is?
Is to want to be that kind of an encouragement to the people that you spend time with?
There have been plenty of times in my life where I thought, you know, I could have said or done something differently that might have led someone to a little higher plane. And I had to go to the Lord and say Lord. I didn't use wisdom in that conversation. Maybe I talked about something or I talked in a way that wasn't really edifying. We have to be brought back to the Lord.
We always want our words to be with grace, seasoned with salt, that we might know how we can edify and encourage one another. You know the times when we have to be hard.
God willing, we desire that those times would be few and far between.
And I think of the example of our Lord Jesus.
And the way that he dealt with his disciples, the way that he dealt with those.
Who sovereignly came across his path?
I just read the 21St of John yesterday, probably one of the most classic examples.
Peter in the garden prior to the garden saying.
Even if all of the rest of these deny you, Lord, I won't deny you. I'm going to be faithful to the end.
And we see him cutting off the servants here in the garden.
But then by the sea in the 21St to John we see the Lord Jesus and it almost brings me to tears sometimes because I can see myself in that too.
00:15:03
How tenderly the Lord Jesus, after having already said to Peter.
Satan has desired to have you. That's the plural.
Satan wants all of you that he may sift you as wheat.
But I've prayed for thee, Peter. The Lord singled out Peter.
Because in following verses we see that there was a needs be within Peter and everyone of us knows in our heart of hearts that there is a needs be with each of us.
To be brought back every moment to realize the value.
Of communion with the Lord Jesus.
We can get together.
And we can spend time with the people of God. We can have our regular meetings. We can have our conferences.
But if the Lord Jesus is not primary in my soul.
Not only will there be a lack within myself, but there will be a lack in being able to encourage in a fitting way. My brethren, we live in a difficult time. We know this is a fearful time. A comment was made about.
Our families, young families now.
I can look across the room and I can see older people and I know.
You as well as I, we fear for our grandchildren.
We don't know what is going to come.
In this.
Society that we live in, we don't know. We know, I think that we can say with the trends and the principles at work, we have a good idea of what's going to come. But all of the hows and the winds and so forth remains to be seen. But we do know that the juggernaut's moving, the avalanche is going down the hill and it's starting to pick up the trash. And the thing that we need to see is that this has been happening for a.
Long time, the apostle John said. Children, it is the last hour.
And I would maintain the world is no more evil today than it was 1000 years ago.
Or 2000 years ago if you can discern the principles.
Now the manifestation of it, that might be a different thing I do. I have appreciated my local brethren, have heard it many times. I apologize.
Commentator 19th century AB Bruce.
Said moral laws require large spaces of time for adequate exemplification. We have an example of that in Scripture. Many the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. So there we see that God has many purposes. God had a purpose for the people of Israel, for the sons of Jacob to go down into Egypt.
One of the things he says is the iniquity of the Amorites.
Is not yet full, but there was another purpose that we read of. The Lord said to Pharaoh, I have raised thee up, that I might show in thee my power. He wasn't an Amorite, he was an Egyptian. So there's a second purpose.
He also used that 400 years.
To build the nation of Israel who were going to come into the promised land. Well, we could go on and on. God's purposes are many, and His purposes in your life are many as well. I am very thankful that here in this year, 2024, we're still here able to open the Word of God and to talk about it.
Freely.
It's not that way in many places in the world, and there have even been troubles in our very land from time to time, things that have happened in different churches and so forth.
The trouble is there.
Why is the trouble there?
Why is Christianity so despised? Particularly, you might say, in its most recent homeland in the Western nations? Why is Christianity so despised?
00:20:12
It's quite a question to ask.
I'll answer it this way.
Because Christianity provides a rival doctrine of salvation.
A rival doctrine of salvation.
Arrival to what? Everything that stands against it? What is the truth?
That we have in this book that is so fought against.
Or maybe what is its effect? The effects of it? What does this book do #1 It crosses your will.
And #2 it troubles your conscience, and the natural man doesn't like anything that crosses his will.
Or troubles his conscience? What do you mean to tell me that there's only one way that Jesus is the only way to heaven?
That just crossed my will. I don't like that.
Well, you think that you're better than I am. Oh, it troubles my conscience, and I don't like that. Now, the things that we face today.
In our world have been going for a long, long time, and I'll put it like this.
Gnosticism is relatively about as old as Christianity. At the time of the New Testament, it wasn't fully developed.
And unfortunately, it waited till some who were within the confines of the Christian profession to help continue to give it impetus. And I would hold, and this is not original with me, I would hold that those systems of teaching.
That are prominent in the world today, that are gaining much impetus in the Western world.
Are in one way or another gnostic systems and elitist type of a doctrine that at its root not to go into it in detail, is salvation by works.
Salvation by works has been referred to as a criminal doctrine and the reason why is because.
In the final analysis.
A Sinner is a criminal. Everyone of us that's saved, especially if we've been down the road.
For a while we know that there's a criminal in here and at some point in the past.
The precious word of God crossed the will of that criminal.
And troubled his conscience.
And we've been reading in the book of Ephesians about how by God in his grace.
He steps in and he works with that crossed will and that troubled conscience, and he gives us to see something that we have never seen before, and that is the glory of that blessed Redeemer. And part of Christianity, a big part of the starting of Christianity, we can say, is that I, each one of us.
With this will that would have stood against God. Sin is lawlessness.
One John 3/4.
It's that principle within me that says I am going to do my own will and I will not be constrained by anything outside of myself. That's lawlessness. For a man to do what he knows to be wrong is lawlessness. And brethren, lawlessness is something that every one of us has to face within our own hearts, because that's the tendency.
Of the natural man.
Lawlessness, a lawless spirit. God by his grace.
Dear young people, I want to say He is reaching into your heart. He is presenting his word that you might be instructed in righteousness.
I would like to turn to.
Second Timothy.
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And I want to talk about something in each of the four chapters in Second Timothy.
I've said before that.
I'd make the comment that I know I've spoken on this before.
And then?
My wife would say to me, I think that was about 30 years ago, dear.
Which underscores the fact that we have a different generation in the room here.
Before we go into Second Timothy.
And talk about.
The departure that we see, that characterizes the day in which we live, not just the day in which we live here today, but that characterizes the last hour.
Where we see an undermining of truth. Before we do this, I want to make a comment.
About the Book of Genesis.
And again, the things that I say here, these are things that were brought out to me when I was a young believer and I want to pass those things on. I remember a statement.
I didn't personally hear it myself, but I was told that Brother Chapter Brown made the statement, and I think it bears repeating. We can really echo this sentiment. I want to pass on the truth.
To my younger brothers and sisters in Christ in as pure a form as I received it myself.
And we'll see something of that in Second Timothy, because in Second Timothy we see things.
That are passed on, but they aren't passed on in a pure form.
And the comment was made earlier.
Christ.
Plus nothing.
That's the teaching of Galatians, right? Christ plus nothing.
I'm saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if I have Christ.
Even if I don't fully understand it.
I have everything that is his because that's part of the inheritance. He is bringing us in to everything that the Father has given him. We want our young people to enjoy those things. We want you to lay hold of those things in your own soul. You know what I want? I want to tell you what I want to do, and I address my younger brethren in this one.
If the Lord would leave us here, and we have.
Generations and have had generations who have gone home to be with the Lord and they would have said the same thing, though they would have also said I'm expecting the Lord Jesus to come and call us home.
But they would have said the same thing that I'm going to say if the Lord chooses.
To leave us here.
For a protracted period of time.
You know what I want to do? Some of you young brothers? I want to sit down here and listen to you. Stand up here and talk.
Because I won't always be able to.
I can remember when some of our older brethren.
Had to sit in these chairs because they weren't able to do it anymore.
Many of us enjoyed sitting at a table or maybe a living room conversation with some of those men. I can still remember when Clarence Lundeen told me I can't write letters to you anymore.
I want to be able to sit here and know that somebody who came after me wanted to lay hold of the truth. And this is the thought of of, as we'll have, we'll see in the second Timothy chapter two, of the truth being passed from one generation to another.
Second Timothy. Chapter One.
In each of the chapters of Second Timothy, there is some departure from the truth that is noted, and then something that is an antidote to that departure.
Second Timothy one and verse 13. I'm reading from the new translation.
Have an outline of sound words, which words thou hast heard of me.
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In faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
Keep by the Holy Spirit, which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted.
And that shows you that that deposit of truth is to be kept within us by the Holy Spirit. We've been talking about that in the previous four readings, very important foundation truth. Now verse 15, thou knowest this, that all who are in Asia of whom is by jealous and homogeneous have turned away from me.
This has been spoken of as a general defection.
From the teaching that Paul was used to give. From the teaching of the mystery.
If any of you have studied early church history and some of the principles that were introduced into the Christian profession and some of the different types of systems that evolved where sacramentalism came in and and the system of of the bishoprics and and.
Authority over the people where the pure simplicity.
Of the Christians gathering only as believers and with the exercise of gifts as it is, there is a lot that we don't know about the early church.
A lot of it is shrouded in mystery and I would also say that for quite a long period of time.
The early church was very Pagan in its.
Beliefs and it took a long time for clarity to come, and I believe that it was especially connected with the final canonization of the New Testament. Thank God there were men who were raised up. Many of them were Pagan philosophers.
Who were converted to the Christian faith?
Is everything clear and distinct in their writings? Not necessarily.
But God was watching over the deposit of truth, and I'm very thankful to say that overtime.
The entire Word of God was put together. All of the Gospels and epistles were gathered together.
And one of the councils in the three hundreds, the Canon of Scripture was determined after all the argumentation over which books of the Bible really belong there. Second, Peter had a tough time getting in but and there were questions about some of the others. But God ordered providentially that the entire New Testament Canon would be gathered together. And there are.
I know that in some areas there are over.
What 5400 manuscripts of portions of the New Testament that have given us textual critics a good idea of exactly how the New Testament reads? What a mercy of God in his Providence that he ordered it that way. But the point here? There were those who turned away.
Young people, I would encourage you.
To think about and outline of sound words.
There are many scriptures that help us to have an outline of sound words.
We've heard about the seven feasts of Jehovah, the seven parables of the Kingdom, the seven churches of Revelation two and three. But even if we think doctrinally, I'll go back to what was emphasized to me when I was a young believer study Romans. Romans places the soul before God justified Romans the the very things that Mark mentioned and that we were talking about.
In the last reading regarding being saved, what does it mean to be saved? What does it mean to be justified? And how is this seen within the entire scheme of God's ways with us, the scheme of salvation from start to finish? How do we see it that way? Study the book of Romans.
In Romans you get the doctrine, you get the dispensational approach.
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In chapters 9:00 to 11:00, how what God did with Israel is seen in the light of what he's doing now, today, and we get practical application study Romans.
Everyone of these books of the Bible, and I'm thinking of the epistles because.
In the epistles you might say we get divine commentary on the Gospels as well as the Old Testament. Now come back to my comment on made a comment on Genesis.
Genesis.
The first book of the Bible is very important. I was encouraged when I was young.
To study the book of Genesis. Genesis is the beginning. Now think about the readings that we've had.
We've we heard about the Creator, the creation, we talked about the new creation, what we see in Ephesians there.
Even though it might not have been named, I don't remember.
What do you have in Genesis? Just think about Genesis a little bit. Just kind of picture the book of Genesis in your mind. Get a little chart in your mind there.
What do we have in the book of Genesis? We start with the creation.
What's one of the first things that we read of in the book of Genesis that goes all the way through the Bible?
Marriage.
What is under attack in our Western culture today?
Marriage. Marriage is at the basis.
Of society, of human community Marriage.
And children.
Let me say this. Have you ever heard of the expression the sacred? What is the sacred?
I really love this definition given by a writer that I have enjoyed, he said. The sacred is that which cannot be otherwise.
It is the sine qua non of human life, sine qua non, that without which not you cannot have human life, human civilization as God intended it to be, without the sacred, without things that cannot be otherwise, and the pleasure, the satisfaction that we get out of life.
Will be enjoyed in as much as we value the sacred as God has given it to us.
There is a defection from Pauls teaching where to have an outline of sound words. There are many things that you can do to gain an outline of sound words. Chapter 2. The next step, the introduction of fundamentally evil doctrine. We talked about the resurrection in these meetings.
Chapter 2.
Verse 14 of these things put in remembrance, testifying earnestly before the Lord, not to have disputes of words profitable for nothing to the subversion of the hearers. Strive diligently to present thyself approved to God, a Workman that has not to be ashamed, cutting in a straight line the word of truth.
But profane vain babbling's shun.
For they will advance to greater impiety, and their word will spread as a gangrene. And then he gives an example of these individuals who taught that the resurrection was passed already. Seems to be some kind of a teaching of perfectionism.
What's the antidote everyone of you study to show yourself approved unto God? You can do it.
Now I know that there are many homes where there are sets of books.
Every once in a while, maybe your mom pulls them off and vacuums the dust off the top of them there. I know that some have done that.
You can read those books, I guarantee you. I guarantee you that you can read those books.
I was having a conversation with a sister.
Probably 25 years ago, 2025 years ago, if not more.
And she made a comment about those books. They were always there on the shelf.
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And one day she looked at those books and she said I can read those.
She pulled one off the shelf, and she did.
The rest is history.
Not completely done yet, but the rest is history.
You can do it three times, if you'll pardon me for saying. And Plato's writings, he says fine things are hard.
Do you want to have a good marriage? You won't have it without working at it.
Marriage is a fine thing, but you have to work at it fine. Things are hard.
You want to learn how to cook a really good meal? Fine things are hard, takes practice. You blow it a few times, but you know you keep working at it.
You can pull that book off the shelf and you can read it.
Fine things are hard, but you know there's great reward, the book of Proverbs tells us there's great reward in seeking these things.
Strive diligently.
To present thyself approved not to your brethren.
But to God.
I have been very thankful.
From time to time.
Some time back I was with a younger brother.
And I asked him what he'd been reading.
And he made some comments about some things that he had been reading.
And I got to stand there and listen to him give me a little discourse on some things that he had gained from the Scriptures, and I was very impressed. What he laid out before me he didn't get from just reading the book. He had taken it and he had assimilated it for himself, and it was very clear that he had.
Thought about it and considered it, and that's what we need to do. You know, you need to take some degree, some percentage of your leisure time.
And devote it to the Word of God. A prayerful consideration of the Word of God.
It's very rewarding, especially when you begin to cross lines. You cross a line and now you see a connection, and then that brings a bit more of scripture into focus for you. You keep studying and you cross another line. Now you see some more connections and it's like it. It's like it just keeps going.
And you begin to see.
More clearly as time goes on, the connections that God has for us.
In all of these different parts of Scripture, well these ones, they said that the resurrection was taking place already.
Many of these systems that I mentioned a few moments ago that are in antagonism to the Word of God, they have a doctrine of perfectionism.
But I want to put it this way to you. Let's just put it this way. I'll look so you can look left to right.
Is that right? Yeah.
Soul is saved.
And here is our final perfection when we're with the Lord Jesus. But in between there are steps, and you cannot sidestep them. You have to go through them all.
Look at it societally, there is something wrong.
Something fundamentally wrong with human society. I envision a perfect society.
I have my little pet utopia in my mind and I want to jump over all the ways to get there. God says no, it's not going to happen. Every time man tries to make heaven on earth, he makes it more of a hell than it's ever been before. And those very same principles are at work today.
In systems that are antagonistic to Christianity because Christianity offers a rival doctrine of salvation.
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And the rival doctrine again says there's something wrong with me inside. I need to first and foremost be saved by faith in the Lord Jesus.
You can take any of these systems that are going to make a heaven on earth.
Marxism, communism and socialism in all of their different forms.
Psychoanalysis.
Freudian and Jungian psychology.
If anybody studied Karl Gustav Jung, he talks about the process of individuation.
Sorry, that's not salvation. You can't skip over what God says you're going to have to go through. If you're going to reach this, that final state that God has for mankind. You have to go God's way. You can't have a counterfeit. Which brings us to chapter 3.
Chapter 3.
Verse 8 Now in the first 7 verses he's talking about this self filled.
Society that was getting underway even in the apostles days. Now he says in verse 8. Now in the same manner in which Jenny's and Jamborees withstood Moses. This is the only place where the Egyptian magicians are named. I believe in the same way that they withstood Moses. Thus these also withstand the truth. Men corrupted in mind, found worthless as regards the faith. What do we have here?
Chapter We've had the abandonment of Paul's teaching.
And we have had the introduction of fundamentally evil doctrine.
Denial of the resurrection.
Now we have.
Undermining the truth by imitation.
You know BB Warfield wrote a book called Counterfeit Miracles. We live in a society where we have to be on our guard for counterfeits.
And this is just an area where I again come back and the antidote in this chapter, at the end of the chapter is Scripture coming back to the Word of God.
Studying to show ourselves approved unto God. Learning.
Rational and objective principles of biblical interpretation. It was something about Bible interpretation that was brought up so that we don't go way off the mark in what we think about scripture, what we think that Scripture teaches. You know, there's a lot of weird stuff out there and a lot of times it's.
Fueled and driven by what I want, by some experience that I want to have. There's one movement after another and it's like a JG, Billet said when he referred to some fond thought.
Which is nurtured rather than regulated.
Young people, I have a mental crutch that I've used for a long time. I call it kill your idea if I think I see something from scripture.
I want to amass every argument against it that I can.
And if I can't?
Maybe it's true. On the other hand, there have been way too many you can think.
Of some of the people who have been leaders in all kinds of different movements, especially I'd say over the last couple of 100 years, they had some fond thought.
Something that they thought that they had, and after a while that's all they see from Genesis to Revelation. Whether it's speaking in tongues or handling snakes or whatever it might be, that's all they see in the entire Word of God.
We need to approach scripture from the standpoint of versa.
Verse 14. Chapter 3. Verse 14. But thou abiding those things which thou hast learned, that's good advice.
Abide in those things which thou learn and of which thou has been fully persuaded, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. He learned them from the Lord Jesus, through the apostle Paul, and that from a child I was known the sacred letters. That was the Old Testament, but perhaps even some of the New Testament books had been written by then. But it's all of Scripture which are able to make the wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus, you know.
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Even the Old Testament can make you wise unto salvation, but only through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. I have heard some interesting stories that some brethren have told from time to time about how the Lord used a passage in the Old Testament to convict them of their need of the gospel. How does that happen? It's God's Word, it's not the word of man, it's God's Word, and you want that word to have effect in your heart.
Every scripture.
Is divinely inspired.
And it's profitable.
For four things. First of all, for teaching.
I need to be taught.
For conviction when the word of God comes and teaches me.
It convicts me.
For correction, I'm a convicted soul, so I see that I need to make correction. I need to be corrected.
For instruction and righteousness, and the purpose is that the man of God may be complete.
Complete, fully fitted to every good work. Now when we come to conviction and correction and so forth, I want to say something about this book which is it makes it very different from other books. This book is a self condemning book. You don't find that in the so-called holy books of other religions.
Think of it this way. Here's a graphic example.
You know, we know from the scriptures.
The attitude.
That the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the Lord's Day had toward marriage.
And yet they were the very ones who preserved meticulously the Book of Malachi, which condemns them for their attitudes towards marriage.
This book was written by, and I'm talking about the Old Testament in particular now, which stands at the foundation which leads us up to when Christ was born of a woman born under the law, leads us up to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus. The Old Testament was written and preserved by the men that it condemned.
That is a remarkable fact of history.
Many times can you think of it if you had something that just condemned, you said well I'm going to put that in the wood stove. I don't want anybody to ever find that out. They didn't do that. Even these ones that during the days of the Gospel, the Lord Jesus said you are of your father the devil and the lust of your father. You will do. They held this book in reference, the Old Testament. It is a self condemning book and this brings out a principle that's very good for us to see.
Again, that we've touched on it. I come into peace with God.
I live in the sunshine of His eternal love.
Only after the realization what he has taken me out of and the fact that he has made me new, I could not have been there as a natural man.
There would have been no home for me in His presence as a natural man.
How we should value the Scriptures chapter 4? Here's the 4th step.
Verse 3 For the time shall be when they will not bear sound teaching.
In the first three chapters, we've had this entrusted deposit.
Have an outline of sound words. Study to show yourself approved to God.
The sacred letters, every scripture that's divinely inspired, that's what we've had in the first three chapters, but now they won't bear that teaching.
But according to their own lusts.
So this is not primarily an intellectual thing. William Kelly said that a lack of apprehension of the truth.
Is not so much a matter of intellect as it is of the will, and people are led by their lusts.
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And.
They're generally LED in the direction of something that doesn't.
Cross their will or trouble their conscience, and that's what they want. And there are lots of teachers out there.
Who are peddling fables to meet the needs of those people?
How about some of these perfectionist fables that we've got going in these days?
That somehow extraterrestrial life is going to bring us something that we didn't have before. Or how about transhumanism?
Poor pathetic man, he will go to any ludicrous fable instead of coming to the feet of the to the foot of the cross and bowing to what God has said. Dear young people, these things that we have here that Paul, we believe in the last epistle that he wrote.
Lays out so clearly that emphasizes the importance of being in the word now.
I am not naive enough to believe that you can infuse into someone something that they don't have, that they don't bring to the table if you will. That's going to have to come from within you. Your brethren cannot convince you to take up the Word of God and to make it good to yourself. These four antidotes that we read here, be sober.
Be sober minded.
Not subject to all of these deluding influences, nobody can do it for you. And what our desire would be is that you would so see the value of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That you would want these things for yourself.
May the Lord add His blessing to the Word.
Ephesians 1:12-23
Reading
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Before the world was a going for it.
Ation.
On nothing else were they?
God forbid us for blood.
And chose us in his son.
To him to be gone from God.
When your course was wrong.
And breath of blast at the sun.
And then we came to die.
In the dark.
See him?
And thy right hand on eye.
In grace, which is unchanged.
We stand from day-to-day.
And prove the founders.
Mercy.
Which through our pilgrimage.
And when the hill falls?
Shall burst upon.
The sea that's spelling all the darkness.
Which evening still happen?
Happen. Oh, then you'll come in brightness.
Merry, I shall see.
Oh, raided power and glory.
And we shall let him be.
For he laughed his glory.
To die upon the dream.
Well, to complete the story.
And come again and we.
Are for me to visit.
I don't be brought, you know.
And with increasing.
Our ceaseless praise shall flow.
Thanks for help.
Blessed God and Father, we thank Thee once again for a time that we've had. We look to Thee for fresh grace for.
Not in our own strength and in our own mind, but according to the Spirit.
To thy word, and what is needed we.
Depend upon Thee, our Father, for help during this reading, meeting and direction guidance.
We ask it that we may learn more of Thy glory and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In our present and future position.
We asked this and thy name, Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
We kind of talked about some of this in a general way, but where should we start?
Brother Dave was mentioning the we of verse 12 and the ye of verse 13. I think maybe that would be a good place to start verse 12 on.
The Ephesians chapter one and verse 12.
That we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ, in whom He also trusted. After that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory. Wherefore I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the Saints.
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Cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward, Who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and light, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but.
Also in that which is to come, and has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all.
It's helpful what David was mentioning this morning at verse 12. You have the Jews and they first trusted her, Darby says pre trusted because.
The gospel went out to the Jews 1St and then to the Greeks or to the Gentiles, and then it says in verse 13 in whom ye the Ephesian people were Gentiles.
He also trusted after that he heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
That's when we hear the gospel of our salvation. We believed it, and God puts his seal, his mark of ownership, his seal of security.
On those who believe.
And if we were to go over to the second chapter, we would see that that follows he's saying and you being dead in your offenses and sins. And then over to verse 11, Wherefore remember that he wants nations in the flesh who are called. And then he mentions a number of things about them.
Verse 13 But now in Christ Jesus, ye who once were afar off.
And then he talks about the middle wall of partition being broken down. These are the things that are characteristic of that one Newman in Christ. And that's where we have Christianity.
Through the work of God in the souls of children of Israel in the coming day, I believe, when we are gone.
They will trust in him in a future day. But those of the Jews that trusted in Christ then were trusting in advance, pre trusting and and so they are the ones referred to. It's not that we can look at the word we and say, oh that must be the Jews, but in the context of it, we know that the ones who pre trusted.
Were the Jews because?
As we noticed this morning, God is going to prepare the hearts of a willing people when He comes again. And for you and I, most of us from along the Gentiles, we also heard the word of truth in Acts chapter 10 when Peter was was summoned of the Lord to travel to the home of Cornelius.
The Cornelius and his close friends.
Were there present before God? And Cornelius was clearly a man who had been born again. He was a man of faith.
But when Peter spoke the words of this life, the Gospel particularly there in Acts 10, Peter says in a kind of a summary to him that is to Christ give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him should receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word.
And so those Gentiles having believed the gospel of their salvation.
The Holy Spirit fell upon them, and it was evident that they had been brought into present blessing.
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Cheers. In chapter two of the book of Acts, we're told that they had to believe and be baptized because they were part of that guilty nation.
And it was in baptism that they disassociated themselves with that guilty nation and identified with Christ, and then they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. So when they see in Acts 10 where you mention that the Gentiles without baptism.
Received the gift of the Holy Spirit. They are shocked, aren't they? But that shows the importance of of the order that God has put it in His Word.
And so we have the.
Indwelling of the Holy Spirit spoken about in a number of different ways in Scripture, don't we? We have the anointing of the spirit, We have the earnest of the Spirit, we have the ceiling of the spirit. All different aspects of the same spirits.
Work in US and his abiding in every true believer today, and we don't need to go over that wonderful truth again. We know that the anointing, of course, speaks of power and perhaps intelligence in divine things.
The earnest, as Brother Bob already explained, that this morning is as if God made a down payment on you and me of such dimensions that there can be no possibility that He will not carry out what He says He will do.
Once in a while today, if a man or a woman makes a down payment to carry out a transaction such as buying a home or something like that.
Very occasionally, depending on the circumstances, they will decide to forfeit that down payment and not carry through with the transaction. As I say again, it doesn't happen that often, but it does happen.
But God has made such a down payment on you and me that there's no way that he will not carry it out. And the sealing means, as you've just mentioned, Bob, that God has put his seal on us by the Holy Spirit that we belong to Him. Can anyone break God's seal? Absolutely not.
And the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of each believer is.
Peculiar to this dispensation of grace, isn't it? It was not true in the Old Testament before the day of Pentecost.
It will not be true after you and I are called home. It is peculiar to this time of God's grace.
I think I may be a good idea, brother Bill and John.
14 to see how the Lord, of course he's speaking beforehand, but I found that very helpful to for young believers especially to get a hold of.
The truth of the Spirit of God dwelling in US. Notice in chapter 14 of John's Gospel.
Verse 16.
Says I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you.
Notice.
Forever.
Even the spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, He said to the disciples then, for he dwelleth with you. The Spirit of God wasn't in them yet, but he was with them in the person of the Lord Jesus.
And it says and shall be future in you. So from the day of Pentecost on.
The Holy Spirit dwells in us, but just that point, that He shall abide with you.
Forever.
Not beautiful to know that the Spirit of God once he takes residence.
In the body of a believer never goes. It may be that we.
Grieve the Spirit of God, it says in Ephesians 4 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of promise whereby you are called, but and then it says in First Thessalonians 5 to don't quench the spirits. Sometimes we grieve the spirit and quench the spirit, and sometimes people even question it. Maybe I.
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I've lost the Spirit of God. That's that's not possible for a true believer. But sometimes we grieve and we quench. And so it's so important to carry out self judgment on a constant basis so that the Spirit of God has liberty. I really enjoyed thinking about the way it speaks of the Spirit of God dwelling in believers and in the book of the Acts. It's so common to see it says.
He they were filled with the Spirit of God. I'd like to hear somebody speak about what it means to be filled with the Spirit of God.
Does that mean?
I like what one brother once said to me.
He was having a bit of a discussion, not at that time, but he had done in the past and someone was.
I guess you would say arguing with him about losing the Spirit of God.
For having more of the Spirit of God in the sense that.
Some groups in Christendom believe that, well, yes, you get the Spirit of God when you're saved, but then there's sort of a second blessing that comes along. And he made a comment that I thought was very good. He said I cannot have more of the Spirit of God than I already have when I am saved.
Because it says in John chapter 3.
He giveth not the Spirit by measure, and the final words in that verse should not be there. They're not in the Darby translation unto Him.
He giveth not the Spirit by measure. So when we are in dwelt with the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God is there, and we can't have more than we already have. But then the brother went on to say.
But I hope as I grow in my Christian life and know the Lord better and most important as you mentioned, exercise self judgment, he said. I hope that the Spirit of God has more of me.
And I thought that was a good way of putting it if I had a glass here, an empty glass.
And I said to someone, I'd like you to fill that glass with water.
I could fill it if they had a jug full of water.
But supposing I put.
A bunch of small gravel and I don't know, whatever size you want to you want to call it gravel in that glass. You could fill the glass in one sense, but it wouldn't be filled because there'd be gravel in it and. And sometimes I must confess that when I'm on a plane and.
They offer me a drink, They say do you want ice in it?
And I know by experience that if you say I want ice in it, you get about 3/4 of a glass of ice and then the rest is whatever drink you want. So I always say no, I don't want any ice because I want more drink. well-being filled with the spirit.
Would mean eliminating those things which do not allow the Spirit to fill me with all that he has.
To teach me of Christ. Is that the way to look at it? Thank you.
Bill, if you.
Listen to some people, and I think people in this room probably do listen to other people. They'll say to become a Christian you have to be born again, but you can be born again and not be a Christian. Could you explain that?
I think that's, I think that's necessary for some people to understand that you can be born again and you have life, divine life, but you're not a Christian.
Maybe I shouldn't do this, but I think that's Don Ruhl's question. Some of us have talked quite a bit. So Don, maybe you could give us something on that. Would that be OK?
00:20:09
Find out.
God begins the work. He completes it.
And consequently, if a work of God and the soul produces life.
Person has life, they're quickened. But if God begins that work by giving light, He will complete that work.
It may not be completed that day or that hour. When the work is complete, that person will have the Holy Spirit of God forever dwelling in them.
The spirit and the many things that it brings into our lives, sometimes when God first works with them, we don't have it those things because the spirit of God has not finished working in us those things that bring us into.
The consciousness of what He has done and is doing for us. And so you see it in examples in Scripture where there were people that heard something and what they heard they believed, but they didn't perhaps have a complete message at that point given to them.
And so we need sometimes a person will hear only an impartial.
Or incomplete or not even completely correctly described gospel message and they will accept it as far as they understand it, because God has worked in them to quicken them. But the work will go on until it is sealed in that this As for example. It's not exactly the point, but it shows the fact that.
Can be time passed where the disciples at the time the Lord Jesus died quickened.
Yes, they were.
Were they sealed? No, they were not.
Because the sealing of the Spirit.
Required before God would seal anyone with the Spirit. There's nobody in the New Testament gospels that during the Lord's life actually were sealed with the Spirit due to the fact that as the Lord Jesus died.
Involved after he rose again, the message was given that they were to be brought into the relationship, as was emphasized this morning, of being children in the family and they had sonship.
But they couldn't have it until they could be given what's called eternal life. And sealing is always connected with sealing, a work that Scripture can call eternal life. Why didn't they have what God calls eternal life at that point?
'Cause Christ.
As was not risen until after he was risen, then his.
Life in resurrection could be communicated. That's necessary because it's that life, resurrection life, that Scripture calls eternal life. But Even so, at that point they didn't have the spirit.
And they don't have the Spirit until in Acts the Lord Jesus goes to heaven.
And is glorified.
And the Spirit is given to dwell in the soul of one who is identified in resurrection life with a glorified Christ.
And.
This you and I live in a very different period of time where all those things have now taken place. And so we're not waiting for Christ to rise from the dead. We're not waiting for him to go back to glory with risen, resurrected life in which death hasn't, can never come.
And we're not waiting for him to be glorified either. So we may very quickly or even instantaneously, if a clear gospel is presented to us, be brought by God to be sealed with the Spirit of God. And so we don't say, you can't say it wouldn't happen in the very hour in which a person puts their faith in the Lord Jesus. But that's not the way God works with everybody.
00:25:24
And God is sovereign and can do his work.
In whatever sway he chooses and our place is to accept that, appreciate that. And if a person you present a message to a person and they I I remember many, many years ago.
A person that came and heard the gospel, I heard it from a fellow student at school and it they said they heard this person present the gospel to another student in the school and they were over hearing it and they said.
I want to be saved. I want that. And so the gospel was presented to them.
And they said.
I believe, but I have questions.
It's not all clear to me.
In my judgment, they were quickened.
But they were not yet sealed. And over the next several weeks they brought their wife and they started coming and hearing gospel meeting preached and and then they became clear. And God doesn't seal. I'm speaking beyond just the Spirit. God, the Spirit does not confirm in us anything that's not true.
And sometimes the Spirit of God has to work within us.
To clear up our understanding of something before He can give us the consciousness that this is truth.
And he will seal his work in US of truth. But it doesn't always happen instantly.
Could I say that?
You're sealed when you believe that Christ plus nothing saves you, then that's a perfect work. Christ, God, the Spirit of God seals them and from then on your shield. It's not a different kind of life, it's just a life with more.
Relationships.
So the Lord said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
If he isn't born again, he's a natural man.
You won't see the Kingdom of God.
Would we say that those who were believers in the Old Testament were born again?
Well, we can go and we can look at the transition. We have a man, Cornelius.
The word of God tells us that he was a pious God fearing man.
And the Lord sent Peter to him to hear words, and after he heard those words, the gospel.
The Spirit of God came upon him and those that were there, there was the complete work. So as Don said, there was a work that was begun in him and God completed that work based on the day in which Cornelius lived and and and the Lord's choice to send Peter to minister the gospel to him and those in his house and the subsequent work.
Of the Spirit of God coming and sealing them was done.
Person that has life is by the Spirit by water, and the Spirit, the water is the word of God.
And the Spirit of God uses the word of God to create new life, but it's only when they come to rest on the work of Christ where God rests, then they are sealed. God says OK.
That's complete and he puts his sea alive. So that's why I see in Acts 10 there that.
Peter preaches Christ and gives the testimony to all that believe on him.
Shall receive remission of sins for His name's sake, and immediately the Spirit of God. Those people were believing as they heard it, and the Spirit of God seals them.
00:30:06
Two more comments about the spirit. They're not on the specifically on ceiling, but they're important in connection with it, and that is.
The reception of life.
Gives me the nature and the life itself.
But it's the Spirit of God, and the Word of God is used to produce that life in US, Thy word. It's a living word, and it produces or creates life in a soul when it's received. But the Spirit of God is the power of the life. You can have life.
And.
Be in hospital bed with no strength. That's maybe not a good analogy, but the importance of another aspect is that the Spirit of God gives the power to live the life. And further than that, and this is important, we were reading a little while ago the word comforter in John 14.
What for? I don't know how many years comforter to me means somebody that when you're sad.
Gives you some better feeling. That's what the word comforter tends to be.
You when somebody's at a Funeral Home, somebody else may come along beside him and put their arm around him and give him some comfort.
That's not what it means in the context of John 14. What it means is the Spirit of God comes to live literally, to live within us, you. That's the word dwell. And from that point, for eternity, He manages our affairs.
He becomes the manager of the affairs of our life and if we're submissive to the Word of God.
He doesn't occupy us with himself, we don't pray to the Spirit, and so on.
But nonetheless, the Spirit of God in US manages us and that life forever.
And that's a wonderful thing, we.
The way of another comment, the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. That means that a human being in himself is not sufficient.
To find a proper path through life and make the decisions that are necessary in life.
But the believer he has the life which gives him the perfect rights and desires of the life.
But he's still not in himself smart enough to be able to manage himself.
And therefore the Spirit of God works in this Newman.
To direct the thoughts, to give power, to give understanding.
To give that sense in the soul that the Lord is saying do this and don't do that and so on.
And without hindrance when we're in glory, where there's no hindrance of the flesh in US.
There will be a complete, perfect Restful management of the comforter in us for eternity.
Think of 1 little minor example, maybe of it in the sense that.
Several people had some conversation in the last today and yesterday and so on of some questions about how to interpret a verse.
If you go to the Word of God looking for an answer to something and you don't know it, but you've already made-up your mind, you're going to find something in Scripture that supports it to your mind.
Maybe absolutely wrong, but if the Spirit of God is working in you with liberty.
The thoughts you go to scripture and say Lord teach me.
And then the Lord directs you to the Scripture you need to know and gives you the realization in your heart of what that verse means. Because you didn't go with an agenda of explaining that this I'm going to do or that I'm going to do is the will of the Lord. A good way to miss the will of the Lord is to go to Scripture with the thought that you know what it is, and now you're going to find that it is.
00:35:16
It's rather that you go and say, Lord, what is your will?
And the Lord will show if there's not a hindrance in you to be shown.
That's part of the work of the Spirit after you're sealed.
That the 16th chapter and the of John's Gospel.
On the 13th and 14th verse.
Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, and whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.
What a tremendous blessing. And I just.
Have to say for myself brother and I don't think.
We are conscious enough of the presence and power of the Spirit of God that dwells in US. Think of it. God the Holy Spirit has taken residence in my body.
It is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Lord give us to be more sensitive and conscious.
Of his presence when sin comes along to be careful not to give it any place, and if we do sin way to be.
Ready to admit it and to confess it to the Lord. But the fact that God the Holy Spirit dwells here, incredible, tremendous.
Fact of the Christian life today we're getting back to our chapter because we want to get through this brethren verse.
14 We have talked about the seal of the Spirit in verse 13, but verse 14 the earnest.
This Holy Spirit is the earnest, the down payment God wants us to enjoy, the inherent and the fact that we are going to inherit all things even here and now. I must say you are Speaking of rather Hejo the other day.
I enjoyed the story about him riding on the train there in Ontario. You remember that story, Bill?
I think so, but refresh my memory a bit. While he was going along and there's a young man sitting beside him on the train and he said they were towards the time of harvest there and wherever they were going in Ontario, says beautiful harvest that are ready to be.
Harvested. Yes, said the young man. This all belongs to my father.
Interesting, interesting. They keep going hour after hour and it's repeated.
This is all my father's too. Your father must be pretty rich. Yes, he is quite rich.
And I'm in the inheritor of it all.
Remember.
Brother Hey, Paul. He he lived it.
Remember him that and a wall of all the conference and they were just bringing in the microphones. Then he went up to the front and there had a microphone there for him to use. He picks up the microphone, sets it to one side. He had a good booming voice. He didn't need it, but he you listen to him because he lived in the enjoyment of it. Brother, why don't we live in the enjoyment? And that's what's going to give us real testimony. That's why I say let's.
Sensitive to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit living in US.
Remember that, don't you, Bill? Yes, I do. Yes.
Wasn't sure for a moment which incident you were referring to.
00:40:01
So one thing we might pardon me notice here is you'd mentioned earlier.
About.
These things are individual.
Each believer the earnest.
The sealing of the Spirit and then we talked about the anointing. You have that in Second Corinthians chapter one, verse 21.
These are operations of the Spirit of God.
That every believer possesses these. These are part and parcel of you would say, the gift of the Spirit of God. But these are not the gifts of the Spirit of God. When we go to chapter 4 and the risen Christ gives gifts for the purpose of edifying the body and building it up in love. Romans 12, First Corinthians chapter 12.
Where he talks about the gifts of the Spirit, that's a different subject. That might be, that's something where you have one gift and he has another and she has a different gift. But these operations of the Spirit of God here are something possessed by every Christian. Every Christian has the earnest of the inheritance.
Every Christian has the anointing. Every Christian.
Is sealed with the Spirit of God.
Umm.
Does every Christian enjoy it?
In as much as they are yielded.
To the Spirit of God and to the Word of God.
That's the challenge, isn't it? Yes, and that's where the capacity that we've been given.
Needs to be exercised on a daily basis, each one of us first thing in the morning.
Into the word.
And yielded to the word.
We all know what it's like to have to go through that process.
Some days are good and some days aren't.
But we keep at it.
I have I have a question.
Is it true that?
Some of the Earth and others JMD and Mr. Kelly believe that a person wasn't really sealed until they had entered into the truth of Romans 8IN other words, the spirit of life in Christ, setting them free from the sin of death or the law of sin of death.
Am I mistaken or did they hold that belief that the term saved does not mean just free from guilt?
But free from the power of sin. And a Christian doesn't really enter into freedom from sin until he's entered into the 8th chapter of Romans. From my understanding, that's where the law of the Spirit of life and Christ sets me free from the law of sin and death. And I believe, look it's correct me. I'm sure there's brothers that know those writings better than I do, but I believe they looked at ceiling.
When you're sealed, you then can cry ABBA father.
The Spirit of God takes you to a place where you see yourself in Christ. Not just forgiveness of sins, but but a knowledge of being in Christ. Correct me on this if I'm if I'm off on that.
I had that question about Romans 816 as well. If that was the ceiling. The spirit of self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Is that?
We're certainly sealed by then.
That's talking about a saved soul, isn't it?
I could just share a quote. I'll be up here to the microphone.
I wrote it down and it's a quote I think is helpful by FG Patterson. I'll just read it really quick, he wrote. A saved man is one who has no doubts. Scripture never speaks of a man being saved who has any.
Who has what? What was that last note? Say it again. OK, I'll read it over again.
A saved man is one who has no doubts. Scripture never speaks of a man being saved who has any any doubts.
00:45:03
I would say sometimes there are people that I believe are truly saved, but because of a lack of proper teaching, they may have doubts. But I like the verse in John three when it's speaking about those that are born in God. And again it says the Lord says.
The wind blows where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound of it, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit, and so how God works in individual souls.
We don't know exactly. We see a movement just like you see the wind moving the the trees and the wind moving the trees and the leaves and but you don't know where that came from. You don't know where it's going. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. So the Spirit of God works brother. And then we have to allow him to show it in his time.
I would just say this, that it's clear that the account of Cornelius in Acts 10, that before Peter showed up, he was a born again person. He had life from God, evidenced by his pious character and his faith. But when Peter came and spoke the words of this life, the gospel of his salvation.
Cornelius laid hold of it, and he was sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
In the next chapter when Peter is called on the carpet for what are you doing? You're going rogue on us doing this with the Gentiles. Then in Chapter 11.
Peter in recounting it says.
Who should?
Call for Simon, whose surname is Peter. Verse 13, Acts 11 Who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved? And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. So a person who has believed the gospel of their salvation is an individual. You can use that word saved before Peter showed up. If you ask Cornelius he was saved, he wouldn't probably have.
Known what you were talking about and I'm not sure how much he knew after Peter left.
But he was a saved soul, He was a member of the body of Christ, and he had the Holy Spirit indwelling. Did he understand the doctrine of it? I doubt it. Did he, did he understand what you understand of deliverance from the power of sin? From Romans 6I tend to doubt it. Had he gone through the experience in Romans 7? Probably no.
And all of those wonderful privileges that were his.
And ours he wasn't probably instructed in yet. But I think we have to make a difference between our understanding what happened to us and having been brought into the possession of those of the spiritual inheritance. The present possession is something different and it's a wonderful privilege. And I experienced the privilege myself by others.
After I was saved and I knew I was, and a brother took me into his home, and at his kitchen table he unfolded unto me.
Had happened to me and unfolded to me over a period of actually years. The blessings that I had. I didn't get them when he explained them to me. I got them and I was saved when the Holy Spirit sealed me when I believed the gospel of my salvation. And so I just think we need to hold these things distinct and not hold a a, a bar.
Of spiritual understanding as if that is connected.
With the simplicity of what we have in Ephesians, one after that she believed the gospel of your salvation. In whom also in whom? Another point in whom we believe on a person.
In whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. I love the thought that a new convert.
In the scripture 9095 times in the New Testament it says.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. There are only a few places where it speaks of believing on His work.
And the beautiful thing is that when we believe on Him all that he has done and accomplished for God's glory and our blessing.
Is made good to us even though over a period of years it takes me to understand it. So I think it's beautiful that the babe and Christ in here that the six year old the 8 year old sitting in this room that has believed the gospel of their salvation. They have the Holy Spirit indwelling but Quizzum on Romans 6 Romans 8 you're you're you're not going to get very far.
00:50:18
That that'll be as their understanding development.
Yeah, I agree with that. I think, Mark, what you were saying and what Luke read, I think doctrinally we can say that that is true. And and I I think that that follows the scheme of things that we have here relative to salvation and hearing the gospel and believing and so forth. But then when we move to states of soul, we have to be very careful about painting with too broad of a brush.
You know, you maybe hear somebody say something so well, I don't even think he's saved well. Have all of us been absolutely correct in everything that we've ever saved said since we were a believer?
It'd be all over for me and.
A passage of scripture that really helps, I think in this case is in.
Philippians 3 where the apostle Paul.
In Philippians chapter 3.
Just for context, verse 13, brethren, I do not count to have got possession myself.
But one thing forgetting the things behind.
And stretching out to the things before I pursue.
Looking towards the goal. That's what the Christian does. He's looking towards the goal for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. We've been reading in these meetings about the calling on high of Christ Jesus, the revelation of the mystery. As many as therefore are perfect.
That's a statement regarding spiritual maturity.
Let us be thus minded, and if you are any otherwise minded.
This also God shall reveal to you. That's a process that the Spirit of God takes us through.
But where two we have attained, let us walk in the same steps.
And that verse has been an encouragement to me not to let what you don't know.
Bring you into a wrong state of soul. Let not what you don't know bring you into a wrong state of soul about what you do know. Hold on to what you know. I know that on the cross the Lord Jesus finished the work and God accepted that work. Don't ever let any questions about anything else rob me of that truth.
Hold on to what you know.
And then God will reveal the other things to you. And I think the key to that is how it's been brought out. Don't get your mind made-up that something is a certain way. Always be ready to yield to the word of God. And that's isn't that why we that that's part of the basic principle of education, right? Be willing to be corrected.
I don't know if this is a help but.
Saved or salvation?
Seems to have three tenses. I think about the verse that says baptism does doth now already save us. But we know that's not justification and we know that's not glorification. We know that sanctification. So it seems like the kind of for the believer the present tense have saved should be sanctification. The past tense should be justified justification.
The future should be glorification. Is that yes, context is everything.
To understand the context of each passage of scripture so that you see how the word is being used. That's why word studies can kind of be dangerous sometimes, because you can't just assume that a word is used in the same way in in each passage of scripture. You have to understand the overall context.
Want to go back to verse 14, brethren. And as the the Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory, the redemption of the purchased possession. Lord. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, he paid the price of redemption in full.
He paid the price to not only.
Uh, buy it back, but to set it free. And so the purchased possession is.
00:55:06
The whole of creation, he paid the price to buy it back for God and to set it free. And so when it says the redemption of the purchased possession, it's talking about that millennial day. If you look at Romans chapter 8.
And verse.
21 it says because the creature.
Itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For they know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And so then he speaks in verse 23, at the end of the redemption of our body.
We know that's going to happen at the Rapture, when our our bodies will be.
Transformed into the likeness of the body of the Lord Jesus. But I think this is.
Beautiful to think that the.
The in earnest of the inheritance is until the redemption of the purchased possession. Not wonderful to think that the whole creation is going to be liberated from the ******* of corruption. The animals, the plants, they all suffer because of mankind's sin. It's going to be liberated.
And so the earnest of the Spirit is, until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory.
MMM.
So what about this prayer then, that we have here? We don't have too much longer.
Some beautiful details in it aren't there.
Because in order to enjoy something, we were talking about that.
And it's what we enjoy and what we walk in that is really ours.
But we have to know it first, don't we? We have to understand it. And so Paul prays.
Praise for these dear Corinthian, St. or Ephesian Saints. He heard of their faith.
He says he heard of it. He'd been there probably longer than any other single place, at least as it's recorded.
In the book of the Acts, and there had been a tremendous amount of blessing in Ephesus.
Says all Asia heard the word of God.
And no doubt he had communicated much to them during the time that he spent there.
There was big trouble there. We know there was a riot over the goddess Diana and the silversmiths that were there. And we know from Paul's comments later on that he really feared that he would lose his life at that time. It was that bad, that strenuous a time for him. But now he's in prison, as we had before when he wrote this epistle.
And he had heard that they were going on well.
And their love. And he prays for them. In what way?
Well, we've already been through it. Brother Bob has given us a bit of an outline.
Of the aspects of this prayer, but it has to do with our understanding, our getting an understanding and knowledge of these things that are mentioned here, to understand those blessings that are mentioned in verse three of our chapter. They are all ours.
We don't like to keep quoting Brother HE Hayhoe, but he used to say.
Every believer is equally blessed. God does not have any favorites in His family.
And that is true. Every believer is equally blessed. Don't look at some other believer and say he or she has a lot more than I have. They may enjoy more than you have. Oh yes, that's entirely possible. But they don't have more than you do.
You have the opportunity to enjoy it, but just as Israel had to conquer the land.
Little by little. They weren't to do it too quickly, it says, lest the beasts of the field multiply.
What happens if we do that? It means we get more truth up here.
01:00:03
Than we've got down here.
And then the flesh gets into the picture and says, my, you know an awful lot. You're quite somebody, aren't you? And pretty soon we get thinking about ourselves and how much we know. And that is one of the worst sins that there can be to be proud about how much we know in spiritual things. Because the more we really know in the right way, the more it humbles us, doesn't it?
And so Paul wants them to know these things.
But to know them in the right way so that they will be able to live and walk in the enjoyment of them.
It's interesting in verse 18, it's in the Darby it says the eyes of your hearts. And I think that is really understand interesting because understanding is important, isn't it? But.
The home for the truth of God is the heart, brethren. To value it, to enjoy it. It's real, it's true, but I love this.
The eyes of your hearts being enlightened, or your understanding being enlightened. And it makes me think of that story about Elisha in the second King's when?
The king of Syria had sent an air is surrounded with the armies of the.
King and the young man goes out in the morning, the servant of Elisha.
And he is scared.
Says What shall we do?
And.
Elisha has no seeming worry and he prays. He says, Lord, open the young man's eyes. And he opened the young man's eyes and he saw the horses and Chariots of fire. Doesn't say roundabout the city, but around about Elisha. Oh brother, what?
A what a message for us today. We're living in a culture that is going downhill.
So rapidly it gets scary sometimes.
Let's let the eyes of our hearts be open to know.
What we have already spoken of briefly, first of all, the hope of His calling, secondly, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints. And thirdly, what is the exceeding greatness of His power? To us word who believe according to the working of His mighty power, just seems like the Apostle Paul runs out of adjectives.
To describe the greatness of the power that is liberated to bring us home to glory. Prayer.
Lord help us to have our eyes enlightened, to know it Alberthan to enjoy in our souls, and then what's going on in the world around us. There's not going to trouble us like it might if we don't have that our eyes open.
One of the things that such a safeguard. It was mentioned in verse 15 after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the Saints. I remember when we were first gathered 25 years ago or whatever I I saw all these older brothers that I considered incredibly wise and they went off the path and I was like, man, maybe I don't want to really.
Read the Bible. You know, maybe I'd be better off to to be intentionally dumb.
And then I came to realize that you can learn as much as you want to learn, as long as you walk.
In what you learned.
And this verse right here, he talks about the faith.
In the Lord Jesus Christ and faith produces love. And if we don't love, we're kidding ourselves.
Because Paul says in First Corinthians 13, if I know everything and I don't have love.
Nothing. If I have all faith and I don't have love, I am nothing.
And we can look at that and we can say.
Turn with me to the book of John.
01:05:05
John 15.
Verse five, it says I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in Him the same bringeth forth much fruit. It's not a possibility. If we're in His presence and He's in us, we're going to produce fruit.
So the point isn't.
To umm.
Try to figure something out. It's to be in His presence and He'll guide us what to do and where to go and.
And we've talked about the wisdom and understanding and it's all in Him. If we seek Him, if we want to be in His presence and walk in His steps just like He walked and loved just like He loved it, it does set us free.
Power that it speaks of here in our verses in Ephesians one in this prayer is not the power of God in creation.
It's the power of God in resurrection beyond.
The power of death, resurrection. Wonderful to realize it which He wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all principality and power, and might and dominion, in every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come and have put all things.
Under his feet, and gave him to be. Notice this, brethren, the head not of the Church. Here we have him as head of the Church in chapter 4, but head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all.
So that every situation that arises that affects us.
As believers in the Lord Jesus, remember his head over that situation.
And that is a tremendous comfort too, to realize some sickness, you get some accident you may have remember there's one who's head over all things to the church, which is his body.
To remember when I went through a particularly trying time and I almost thought I was going to lose my reason. And I was really.
Struggling and her brother walks up to me and says remember brother, everything that happens in the life of a believer comes directly from that man in the glory like a sledgehammer that hit me, but it was when I bowed at his feet and accepted the situation from his hand. Don't blame your brother and don't go looking at other sources of that may have brought you this problem. Look to him, he's the head over.
All things to the Church.
Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all. How wonderful.
How can we be that the fullness of him that Philoth all announced? How can that be?
Is God not sufficient unto himself? Is Christ not sufficient as God to himself? How do we understand that?
Lord Jesus. In that sense, Adam was not sufficient in himself until he had even.
The number of Jesus in those eternal counsels as a man is going to have a bride at his side. What a wonderful thing.
There is that.
In his purpose to have a bride, which is his body.
Says in verse 23, the fullness of him that filleth All in all.
There are glories of Christ that could never be displayed.
That weren't for the fact that in the riches of his grace, he's pulled up you and me and so many others and displayed the glory of that grace. And he will do so in the coming day and I believe throughout all eternity. And so it's it's almost seems too much to say.
And too far to think, but I believe that's what the scriptures teach.
That without the existence of the church and the display of His glory in the bride, there would be glories that could never ever be displayed. So in First Second Thessalonians, chapter one we read, He'll come to be admired His glory. He will be admired in all them that believe.
01:10:10
It's.
Worshipful.
Truths to lay hold of.
Briefing #327.
327.
And.
When?
They know such word.
May we also sing the last two verses of #300 and 33130 versus 5:00 and 6:00?
2 verses. Thank you. The last two verses.
Oh God, with breaking light.
Oh right, oh right. Shall I leave?
01:15:46
I'd like just to read.
Just a couple of verses and what we've had before is in these last few days.
Psalms 23.
Very familiar versus verse one. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, and he leadeth me beside.
Distilled waters and one other verse in the 107th Psalm.
107th Psalm verse 9. For he satisfies that is God.
He satisfies the longing soul, and He filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Let's commend ourselves, my gracious, loving God and Father.
We thank you for this time we've had over Thy precious word.
And we read in thy Old Testament where?
The Lord Jesus.
He shall see the fruit of the tribal of his soul.
And be satisfied, oh blessed Lord, that we might be satisfied as well now.
That what we have in Christ, the portion, the position, the prospect that awaits us.
Help us, Lord, do.
To take these things to our hearts, that we might apply into our feet to produce that which would glorify and honor the.
The little time that that remains, we know time is short, but we thank you, Lord, that thou has.
Brought us to these still waters and we have this precious wonderful Oasis here in this midst of the darkness that is ever increasing.
We, we have seated in the green pastures and Lord, we have fed on thee. Help us Lord, just to make it more real to our hearts. Until we hear that shout and we know that moment is drawing so close, maybe real, maybe you expect it at any moment. Lord make it real to our hearts. We just blessing and thank you Lord for this.
Portion we had that has fed us with food convenient, which is thank you and thy precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
The Joys of Salvation
Gospel—J. Ruga
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I'd like to sing a hymn.
Blast him and our little flock. The cross. The cross of That's our key. Let's sing this number 85 in the back of the book.
The cross, the cross. So that's our game.
Because.
The Lord was crazy.
Well.
Knowing.
The Causeway was love.
See question May be our blessed Jesus name.
That he shall bring. I suffer thus.
May all see lonely.
Can we just look to the Lord?
Our God and Father, thy beloved Son, Lord Jesus Christ, what can we say as we consider him, that beloved One who hung on that cross of shame and woe for each and every one of us in this room? And so we just thank thee that we can take a few minutes and point our thoughts back to that cross.
A cross of shame and suffering.
Because Thou didst piteous and loved us. And so we just commit the meeting into thy hands, asking Thy blessing upon it in Thy most precious name. Amen.
I'd like to reiterate verse that our brother Bob Tony started with in the gospel meeting the other day, and that is Romans 10 and nine, that if thou shalt confess.
With thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead.
Thou shalt be saved.
Now I'd like to go over to the.
Book.
Of Luke.
Chapter 15.
Luke, chapter 15.
And verse 3.
Luke 15 and verse three. And he spake this parable unto them, saying.
What man of you having 100 sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the 90 and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, till he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them.
Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise the joy shall be in heaven over one Sinner that repenteth more than 90 and nine just persons, which need no repentance either. What woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece?
00:05:11
Doth not light a candle.
And sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it. And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends.
And her neighbors together saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I had lost. Likewise I say unto you, There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one Sinner that repenteth.
You know I I read these two passages because I believe they Simply put forth.
The gospel, a sheep that is lost. Have you ever thought of yourself as a sheep, perhaps one that's just wandering in this world and you know there's a shepherd? The Lord Jesus Christ is a shepherd, and he's looking for lost sheep.
He doesn't care how old you are. He doesn't care how young you are. He's looking for lost she.
And you know the thing that.
I really enjoy about this passage is it says in verse 7 joy shall be in the heaven over one Sinner that repenteth more than 99 just persons.
You know, when we think of a lost sheet eight years ago I was up on my Uncle Doug's farm in Rideau Ferry and.
He was the shepherd, and there must have been about maybe 200 sheep out there. And he took off and all the sheep went around him just fine. And I looked at that and I said, I think I'll go try that. And what do you think happened? The sheep scattered. They went every which way. They didn't want anything to do with me because they knew I wasn't the shepherd.
But you know.
We have a shepherd in Christ, the Son of God.
Who loved me?
And gave himself for me.
He brought me to himself when I was about 8 years old.
And I remember Brother Kohler from New York standing up and saying, if you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you're going to be left behind, going to be left behind. And if you kids ever get left behind.
Your parents forget that they you were that they had you and you they left.
And you didn't know where they went. Have you ever thought about that moment? Sometimes we've heard in the gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ is gonna come, and he might come before this meeting's over. And will you be left behind?
Because you haven't accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you've put it off.
If the Lord Jesus were to come within the next 5 seconds, where would you be? You'd be left in this room. You'd be left for destruction, judgment.
Oh dear one.
Don't put it off. Don't put it off except Christ as your Savior.
You know this parable down here about the woman? She had a piece.
Of silver.
Silver speaks of redemption, and she lost one piece.
And what did she do? She looked high and low for it swept the house. How many of us have lost something, misplaced something, and we go looking for it? You ever misplace any of your toys? I've had a lot of toys in my in my lifetime.
And I still have toys in my life.
And you know.
Sometimes my grandkids come over and they want to see some of my toys. I had a Lionel train set that goes around the the den and they want to see the train go. I've had that for trains since I was about 8 years old.
But you know when I'm missing a piece and it doesn't work, I search diligently like this lady did.
00:10:05
Because it's of value to me, because it makes the train work. But what is it to your soul, the Lord Jesus?
God's beloved Son is that precious to your soul.
Are you?
Confident.
That you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, as we've read that verse in Romans. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. There's no question about him, you will be saved.
At the end of last year.
We had the conference up in Shadow Hills.
Just pardon me brother, because it touches my heart.
A sister.
Came out.
Met me in the parking lot.
She said.
She got tears she running down her face. They were tears of joy because her daughter confessed to the Lord as her Savior at the end of the last council meeting at Burbank last year.
I tell you we experienced what it says here.
There was joy in the presence of the angels of of God over one Sinner that repenteth and every time I think that 12 year old girl confessing the Lord.
I just.
It makes me cry, but it's tears of joy rather to know that a granddaughter confessed the Lord and Savior. There's no if you've never had.
The privilege being a grandparent and having a grandchild come to you and confessed Jesus is Lord, I tell you this passage.
As mentioned twice of the joy that's in heaven and every time I think of it.
It brings tears to my heart, tears to my eyes, knowing that there's another one, another grandchild on the way to the glory to see the Lord Jesus who loved her and gave herself, gave himself for her.
I.
Sat there with her mother in the parking lot.
And we just cried, thanking the Lord.
And then I went and I figured I'd go and track her down.
And have a talk with her and I went into the building where they.
Had the young people sing.
And she was on a row all by herself.
And they were singing a hymn, leaning on Jesus, leaning on Jesus. And she sat there in her seat, and she would go this way and she'd go this way. That's the young people do when they sing that song.
And I just sat in the back watching her and observing the joy that she had because she knew the Lord Jesus as her Savior.
I tell you, it thrilled my heart to see one so young in years coming to the Lord Jesus to know that she is redeemed by the precious blood of Christ on her way to the glory.
What can we say now? I ask you, children, young people, if you've never.
00:15:05
Have you confessed?
The Lord Jesus as your Savior.
Have you ever confessed?
The Lord To your mom, to your dad, to your best friend.
I tell you.
It's good to confess.
And you know.
Not only that, but it will bring joy to your dad, to your mom, to your grandfather, to your grandmother, to know that you're redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, that you're on the way to the glory.
And oh, may it be that you don't put it off because.
If you put it off and the Lord Jesus were to come back to claim all his own.
And you were left behind. You'd be left for judgment. You'd be left to be cast into a dark eternity.
And I tell you.
As our brother was mentioning about knowing the scriptures.
And growing.
There is a Savior on high in the glory.
That wants you there.
And may it be.
That you consider, well, your soul's destiny to consider.
What we've had these past few days here at Walla Walla, and we can thank the Lord for the faithfulness.
That's been presented these past three days here.
What can we say, brethren?
The Lord is good.
I just.
Mention that because.
It's every time I think of a grandchild.
Coming to know the Lord Jesus.
And to know that if the Lord were to come, that would be 1 grandchild.
That would be in the glory.
May we not put it off? May we consider it? Time is running out.
And it's just about time to quit and go eat dinner, so let's just commit ourselves.
Our God and Father, what can we say as we consider thy beloved Son, His finished work on Calvary's cross, in love to our souls, to redeem them from the pit of corruption? And what can we say, Lord Jesus, when we think?
Of family members.
Confessing thee is that their savior? Oh just bless we pray Lord Jesus, if there's still 1 lost in their souls, save their souls. And so Lord, we just commit ourselves to thee now thanking thee for these days up here at Walla Walla. And so we just looking along to see the Lord Jesus.
Amen.
Your Environment Is Important. Take Care of It
YP Sing Address—E. Soare
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Die heavens get too long and wide. He will wash away my sin, and I'll wait till child coming.
Yes, he just wants me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
He will stay.
Good work.
Now I have to follow back.
Thank you.
Who else has a song 5555?
No.
Victory, Jesus, I'll save you forever.
It's something about me when there's atomic blood in my mirror and all my love with you. Victory. We need some.
00:05:38
53.
No No 53.
Is not one that I usually saying everybody else.
Thank you.
Shiny as the sun.
We love our space, you see the grace and we first meet God.
#8.
These.
Die for me.
Oh my.
God.
I love my heart because we have a buzzing cold.
Amazing.
For me.
139 and.
139 and 14.
I know what the schedule is.
Doing really good.
I don't spend 3 days across.
I'm sorry.
2nd.
00:15:23
Glory Divide.
This is my song.
And I say, you're all the way long. This is my story. This is my song.
This is my story. This is my song.
Raising my sail over to you.
61.
00:20:20
I wish.
Bellow out and like carry it but I am not able to. So you guys are going to have to just keep doing what you're doing and don't be afraid to sing louder. So how many more since you sing you guys like two more?
Hey.
About one or two more.
Just Dance. What's that? We're just dead. We should stand. I like that song that we could stand for.
5858 All right, let's scan from this eight. Is it 5858?
Yeah.
Let's pray.
Our blessed God and Father, we thank thee.
We thank thee for thy love. We thank thee for the Lord Jesus Christ. We think of the bonds that unite us in Christ Jesus.
Think of how the gospel has been given forth. We trust that each one is saved, has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, has confessed with their mouth. We look to Thee for a portion for us. Think of the many souls here, and perhaps some that wouldn't listen online. We think of how Thy love for Thy people is great.
We pray for help. Thou knowest our frame. We are but dust.
But thy greatness, thy glory, thy honor, the blessedness of thy Son.
So much greater.
We thank thee for the leading of the Spirit. We trust thy word would be well spoken of that an impact in the lives of the ones that hear would be great too.
For thy glory, for thine honor, for fruit, for thee, O God, we pray.
Thy name, Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I had a lot on my heart.
I am going to set a timer.
And I will stop at 20 minutes.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you for making it out to this last talk on this last day of the conference. I'm sure you are tired and perhaps feel full, like you can't take one more talk, one more thought to think about. I have challenged myself to keep this talk down to 20 minutes and try really hard to make it 15. I challenge you since I am going to be saying a lot, sharing a lot in such a short amount of time that you will listen to this recording at least one more time.
My name is Eugene Sore. I was born in a country called Romania. My parents came to America when I was three years old. I am thankful, as I trust you are thankful, that I was raised under the sound of the word of God.
When I was about seven years old, I was saved. The Lord uses a gospel meeting Gresham OR to convict me, and the Spirit of God convicted me that I needed a Savior.
Though my raising up years were not in an abusive environment, it was not necessarily a happy environment. As immigrants, I was kept relatively close to home. No neighborhood friends. We moved around a lot. Also no school friends. Along with moving schools, I was taken in and out of public, private and correspondent school. Growing up during some of my most formative years, I remember the fight over the television. My father threw it out, my mother.
00:30:07
Got another one in later years my parents were divorced, remarried to each other and divorced again. Then my father remarried another and as I see from scripture is living and adultery. This environment is what I grew up in. As children we have no control over our environment. As young people we start getting some control.
As older young people, we have perhaps full control of our environment. My hope is sharing things that are personal and failures. You can be warned and consider your environment. Environment isn't everything, but it is vital. Could those babies grow that Tim was talking about in the greenhouse? Without the greenhouse environment? Could those flowers germinate and grow? Without the greenhouse environment? They could not. They would die.
They would not germinate, grow at all, and mature into beautiful flowers that could withstand the outside environment. If you have a home where your parents are believers and are seeking, perhaps imperfectly, to live their lives before the Lord and are seeking to have the babies the Lord has given them in a healthy environment where the Word of God is opened and the Spirit can nurture.
And grow and growth can happen. Praise the Lord and stay there. Stay there as long as the Lord would have you there. If you don't have that type of environment, there is a way.
I found the assembly in Gresham growing up and the fellowship I had with others my age and the Word of God being spoken and the prayer meetings a place of refuge.
It was and is a place, an environment.
Where I have found peace and blessing, Where truth is upheld and grace and mercy can be shown. Proverbs 7, verses 6 through 7.
Is why I'm sharing this story to warn in that manner if you remember that proverb you spoke of a young man.
Who wasn't paying attention? He walked down a path in a road and he got caught up in some things. It is a young man void of understanding.
That's all I have left.
From television I learned many things. Things of the world, things that attracted my heart, things of the flesh, things that hindered my spiritual growth even though I was saved at 7 years old.
Those things affected me. There's a phrase in the scripture of God, babes in Christ, if we don't have the right environment in our lives.
How long will we be babes in Christ? I turned 45 recently. From 17, that's what. Or from 7:00, That's 38 years. My growth has been hindered by the environment and I do not blame my parents.
Because I, as a young person, could have changed my environment.
As a young person, I moved out about 16 and I could have changed and taken full control of my environment. As we heard during the gospel or one of the addresses, we sinned because we want to. I did not believe the Word of God, which says in my flesh, in me that is, in my flesh there is dwelleth no good thing. There's nothing good in the flesh, there's nothing good in me, there's nothing good at all because of sin.
I have a sin nature and you have a sin nature, even though we are saved. And then the environment that you have around yourself as a young person can either go to nurture the new nature, the new creation.
Or.
It can hinder you and we can remain babes in Christ. I thank God that in this room, people younger than me are more mature in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? What a grace of God to have people, believers, ones souls, who have a desire and have taken the time to put away the things that would hinder your spiritual growth. You can do that individually, You heard?
Dave Newby's talk concerning you can do it. You can pick up a book. You can pick up a book and read it. Ministry, things that would help you grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
00:35:16
Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever amount soweth that shall, He also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap. Life everlasting in your life you can slow to the flesh, and you will reap to the flesh.
Do you know what that is?
Do you know what it is to reap to the flesh?
In my life, God has blessed me with a godly wife, a woman of worth.
Lie in my flesh nearly destroyed. It destroyed a marriage. How dare I? How dare I sow to the flesh so much that I would kill a marriage?
But.
For the grace of God, which is greater than my failures, which is more powerful than my worstness, He saved that marriage.
Unfruitful works of darkness. After television, there came the thing called the Horrible Internet. I call it the Horrible Internet because it's death in there. There might be things like BTP. There might be things that are good and proper and light.
But all, most of it, 95% of it, 99.7% of it, whatever percent you want to think of is garbage. It will kill. It will seek to destroy. And if you have a cell phone, beware.
What do we do?
What do we do with our time? What do I do with my time?
In the environment that we are in and we allow to have our thoughts go.
Our heart goes.
I remember a time not too long ago.
Four months, maybe I was still in a bad environment.
And some things happened in my life, in my family's life.
Some things that are inconsequential on the farm and I got so upset.
I smash my keyboard. I smash my keyboard so hard that it broke those clips under it.
Why?
Because I wasn't in the word of God.
I haven't replaced that keyboard.
I type kind of funny.
Feels kind of awkward after a long time.
But I don't replace it to remind myself.
This is what you did.
Anger did this. Hatred did this.
Everything that God makes is perfect.
I enjoy the portion that the brother brought out in creation.
God created all things and it was good, and after man it was very good and he rested. He rested. There was no sin in the world. Isn't that beautiful?
God created trees.
On the third day, the fruit yielding.
The fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so. Psalm, chapter one.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doth he doeth shall prosper. There are things not to do.
There are things to do.
And you shall be like a tree planted by the waters, bearing fruit, bearing fruit to God.
00:40:01
John, Chapter 15.
That new life that we have in Christ.
In Christ.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation.
That life is perfect.
That life is perfect.
Sin doesn't attract that new life. It's the life of Christ.
In the Lord there was no sin. He was perfect. That new life that we have is perfect.
John 15.
I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
So it's that life is perfect if I abide in Christ.
In the right environment, in Christ, there will be fruit. It will, naturally.
To the point spiritually grow.
If I have the right environment.
The Spirit of God.
Can bring out that fruit.
We have choices to make.
What kind of environment am I going to have when I grow up, young people?
It's your choice.
God doesn't say I will do, I will make you to do this.
He said you have a choice.
What will it be?
I enjoy, you know I'm.
There's another thought. You know, you try so hard to be a Christian.
You try so hard to be a Christian, but trying isn't the answer. You can't try. You can't try. If you try, you're doing it in the flesh. You're trying to do it in the flesh.
The new nature, Christianity. It just is.
If the life of Christ in me that is perfect is perfect, it's attracted to the Lord, it wants to know more about him. It wants to praise him properly. He does want to read, pray, meditate, and I will add an S to that, sing praises unto God. It wants to do that. But what am I filling up my mind, my ears, my.
Eyes with.
If you're stuck in a cycle.
If you're stuck in a cycle of sin, First off, it wouldn't be a cycle.
If you weren't saved, if you didn't have a new life, if you don't feel bad about sin, about what you do and things that you see that the word of God calls sin because it's not what a man does or puts in his mouth, but is what comes out of the heart. Those horrible things that the Lord Jesus talked about.
To the Pharisees.
Adulteries, murders, hatred.
All those things come in from the heart.
From that old heart, that heart that is desperately wicked.
We need to get done with that and we need to live in Christ.
I sometimes wondered why was that I'd get home from a conference.
And I go back to my old ways.
Why was I stuck in this sin? It's because the environment changed. I wasn't in a place where the Word of God was read constantly. I wasn't in a place where there was fellowship with other believers.
But I can.
And I should seek to create that environment at home if you have a problem with a cell phone, a computer?
If you don't need it, get rid of it.
They make cell phones that talk and text without things. Otherwise, if you need somebody to pray for you, find a prayer. Somebody pray for you. The Lord is praying for you. He's interceding. He's advocating for you.
00:45:02
We get so caught up in this culture.
Of material things Bob, Tony was talking about, why is it?
OK.
The children of this world are wiser than the children of light. They prepare for their end, which is just before death.
Us as children of light, what are we preparing for? And that's where we have that vision of Christ.
How big do you want your crown to be?
Not for yourself, Say, look at me, how big and beautiful do you want your crown to be? To toss, to throw, to give to the Lord Jesus, for he is worthy.
The heart. What are we inputting to the heart? What are we thinking about? What are we dwelling on?
I would like to say as to marriage, how honorable, how good it is. Brother shared with me that it was one of the things that was instituted before sin came into the world, and it is a picture of Christ and the Church. And as believers we have an opportunity.
To display a little bit of beauty.
A little bit of love in this world. Keep thyself pure.
Those words.
From the word of God are so beautiful. Keep thyself pure.
Let's pray.
Our blessed God and Father, we thank Thee that You would have us to be pure, to be righteous, and we know that we are made that way in Christ.
We pray for help.
That we would abide in thee, Lord Jesus.
We thank thee that you want us. You desire us.
How great, how great thou art.
How great is thy love that would go even to death for us?
That would even now seek.
For thy bride to wear those robes of righteousness.
We only fail. We thank Thee for Thy grace to heal, to change, and to.
Confess before they are failures, and we thank thee.
That thou dost cleanse us from all.
Unrighteousness.
And we are fit for heaven.
We rejoice in thee.
Our beloved.
Help our eyes to be fixed on Thee, Lord Jesus, my precious name, we pray.
Amen.
Our blessed God and Father, we thank Thee amongst the abundance.
Also for this food.
We thank thee for the hospitality, the ones that gave of themselves.
Occupied with Christ
Address—J. 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.
Our gracious God and Father, we thank Thee for this beautiful day. We thank you so much for Thy rich blessings to us in our life, Thy mercies. We thank Thee that they're new every morning. And we're thankful too for the past three days whereby we could get together over the Word of God and consider some subjects for our soul and to be.
Encouraged and edified, we thank Thee for all that's been before us.
And that our Lord Jesus has been glorified. We trust and.
And exalted in our hearts, we pray that as we leave and go back to our respective places where we work and live and move, we pray that we might do so with a good testimony and be encouraged in the path of faith that we might shine brighter than than perhaps we have ever shown before in testimony. So, Lord we, we thank Thee for all that has been afforded us over these past few days.
We pray now for help as we would look into Thy word and consider.
A few things here that we might be led by spirit and that there might be something for each one. We thank Thee so much for our Lord Jesus, who has made this all possible for us, these blessings that are ours in Him. We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for dying for us the cross. We thank Thee for rising again and ascending to the right hand of the Father on high.
And they're living for us, interceding for us daily, thinking about us constantly.
And we thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for thy love. And so we look to thee for thy blessing. Now, as we open up thy word, we ask Thee for thy help.
And we do so in thy worthy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
Well, I just have a few scriptures on my heart, something that's been a a real joy of for myself recently, just to consider some very practical things in the word of God and after listening.
To the ministry over the past three days, it's only reinforced to my own heart, what has been on my heart that.
That these things that we'll speak of in a moment are so vital. You know, we couldn't be more blessed, could we? We've, we've spoken about that in our consideration of Ephesians. One, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.
And it's been mentioned that God couldn't give us any more than he has already given us.
He has brought us to this pinnacle of blessing that is ours in Christ and we have it now. It's not something that we have to wait for to to to get and appreciate. But we we have these things now with the exception of a body that's been changed to be made like under his glorious body. We await that that future blessing which perhaps.
It might be today.
Hopefully today and probably today. And so I was thinking a little bit of these things and, and all the associated blessings that are ours as being Christian and Christians and, and, and, but again, the, the, the comment was made that you know, as much as we love to dwell on all these things and, and we should, we should appreciate them. We should value them. We should meditate on them.
We should walk in the good of them.
It should really direct us to not so much the blessings, but the blesser, right?
And and be taken up with the source of the blessings, Christ. He's everything.
And I think that that point was made in our readings and, you know, as we consider just the wonders of what he has done, it should just bow our hearts and worship and.
Cause us to just want to live for him more and get to know him better down here. And that's part of the burden on my heart today.
And I want to read just a few scriptures that are very familiar to us.
And give some practical exhortations to my heart and yours, just and things that we often hear. But you know, as it was mentioned already, repetition is good for us. You know, it's the best teacher. And we are so prone to forget, at least I am. And we need to remind ourselves again and again and again about these very basic things.
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That are vital and imperative, can I say, for our Christian life.
You know, there's a there's a brother back home and he often would tell me that in his prayer, he would say, Lord, show me thy glory today. You know, I appreciated that. Now, what is he saying? Is he, is he asking for a literal manifestation of the glory of God physically so he can see it with his own eyes? Physically, No.
No, but what are you speaking about? Is his eyes of faith.
That they might be opened up today. That he might get a fresh appreciation and glimpse.
Of where our Savior is on high. There is a glorified man in heaven today.
Living for you and me, interceding for us. And it is that man that God would have us to place our focus on. You know, there's many things today that is vying for our attention. We're going to leave this conference pretty quickly. We're going to go back to our normal life.
And we're going to find very quickly that the enemy is going to try to grab our attention and focus it elsewhere. And I'm not saying that all these things are bad. I mean, we have to go back to work. We, we have responsibilities. These are all things that require our attention.
But we can. So we can get so easily out of sync, out of balance in our Christian life where we get so dialed in one way that our spiritual life suffers as a result of it. And Christ, our focus becomes a little bit blurred. And then we find we start getting a little bit chilly in our soul. And then we find that our affections for the Lord and His things and the interest starts.
A little bit. And so thank God for moments like these that, at least for myself.
Recalibrates my thinking and to spend time with my dear brethren to sharpen me up a little bit and get me back going and charge those batteries, those spiritual batteries again, thankful for it. So with that said, turn to John chapter one and I just want to notice.
A couple simple expressions.
John, Chapter one.
And.
We will read.
Verse 29. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him.
And saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
We sang a hymn, I believe it was, I think it was him 174 in the little flock, and the third stanza speaks about this very thing.
It speaks about having our eyes fixed on Christ.
That our view would be consumed with him.
Oh, fix our earnest gaze, so, holy Lord, on Thee, that with Thy glory occupied, we elsewhere none may see.
With thy beauty occupied I think it is. And that's the whole point. Behold the Lamb of God and I you know, you could just picture John out in the wilderness doing his thing. And here is the promised one.
And it's like John couldn't help himself, you know, Behold, the Lamb of God.
And this is the one thing that.
I think we need to be occupied with is the work of Christ because I believe this is this is what we get here in this verse is the Lamb of God. Who is this lamb? Think of all those animals that were slaughtered in the Old Testament. Not one drop of blood could atone for any sin. Not one sin couldn't bring any blessing or anything like that. But what it did was it pointed on.
To what God had in view his beloved Son.
Coming into this world to be the sacrifice for sin, so that you and I could be blessed, the Lamb of God.
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His work at the cross brethren, has laid the foundation and I know this is this is not new to any of us, but how we need to be reminded of it that the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, His work at the cross has laid the foundation for all our blessings.
So everything that we have been enjoying over the past few days.
Why do we have those things?
It is because of the work of Christ. It is because he died and he shed his blood. It is because he's been raised from the dead. It's because he has been ascended back to the Father.
God's stamp of approval on that work, the Lamb of God, we read in first Peter that.
We are not redeemed by corruptible things as silver and gold, but it says, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot. Who verily, was foreordained in these last times for you?
The work of Christ. And you think of the extent of that work. And we speak about this a little bit, didn't we? We speak about a coming day, the Millennium.
Where this world will finally enter into this utopian environment that is so striving to achieve today, but was lost in the Garden of Eden through man's fall. And God will see to it that these things are restored in this world.
Where he will take away the sin of the world. But not only in the Millennium, there will still be.
Sin in the Millennium, of course, and the effects of sin, but.
In that eternal day all sin and trace of sin will be removed, and so this expression which taketh away the sin of the world.
Really brings us back to that momentous work, that incredible work of Christ that has gone to.
Make this all possible. You know we read in Hebrews. I'll just read that verse quickly.
Hebrews.
Chapter 2. Verse 9.
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. If you look at Jan Darby's translation.
Says everything.
You know, sometimes we think of the work of Christ.
As only dealing with our personal sins. And this is true.
But this expression here, which taketh away the sin of the world.
What is that pointing to? It's pointing to the fact that Christ sacrificed at the cross not only has answered for our own personal guilt, but it is gone far beyond that. It is not only dealt with the results of sin, but sin itself.
He has answered to God, He has propitiated God, He has satisfied God.
As to the sin question period.
Think of that.
Think of the magnitude of the work of Christ. I mean, we can't enter into it.
But you think of all the groaning creation that we live and move in and today, today excuse me and and all the effects of sin in the creation. He answered to God for that.
And his work has dealt with it. And so in the coming day.
You can take away the sin of the world.
Everything.
Every taint of sin will be gone in the eternal state because Christ has dealt with it.
Before God on a righteous basis. And this brethren, has paved the way for all blessing for all time Old Testament Saints, New Testament Saints, future blessing, all dispensations. If there is any blessing, it comes back to the cross and the work of Christ.
What a savior we have. And so my point is that we should be.
Taken up with this wonderful work of Christ, every day we ought to be thinking about it, meditating on it, consumed by it.
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And then if you drop down.
It says in verse 36 again very very similar verse, and it says in looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, behold the Lamb of God.
I believe, brethren, that this would point us to his person. John could see Jesus as he walked. And I feel there's a real practical lesson for us there too, that we can see the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we go to the Gospels and it is all displayed before us. Perfect life, perfect man.
And yet God manifests in the flesh.
And we see how he carried himself about in this world, what he did and what he said. Never man spake like this man.
The grace and lowliness, the humility, the mercy.
All these things that characterize our blessed Lord in his life down here.
And to think of who we have come to know.
God.
In.
Christ, I mean, these are these are, can I say.
The basics, but they're so profound.
And this is where our eyes of faith should be. Behold the Lamb of God. And I feel that this is a call to my own heart that God would say, look at him.
Consider his work. Occupation with Christ. This is the point. Occupation with Christ is what we need every single day. We need to be obsessed with Him.
You know, you think of Peter, right? We know that story very well. Peter sees the Lord.
Gets out of the boat, but then he looks around and he starts to sink.
And how often it is like that in our life, where we lose sight of the Lord. Did Peter sink? No. Would the Lord let him sink? No. The Lord is right there.
But he became.
Concerned.
About his circumstances around him and he lost sight of who it was that he was pursuing. And if I could speak to our hearts, my heart especially.
Brethren, it's this simple. We need to be occupied with Christ.
Daily occupation with our Lord Jesus. And what is interesting that follows from this, and I feel like it's a moral order, is that the next verse says this.
Verse 35.
37 Excuse me, verse 37 And the two disciples heard him speak.
And they follow Jesus.
They didn't say they followed John, they followed Christ.
And I feel that if you and I have a daily occupation with Christ.
That there will be a natural outflow of testimony in our life to those around us, to our brethren, and to the world that we rub shoulders with. And the effect on these disciples was they followed Jesus.
The power of testimony cannot be overstated, and our testimony at times, brethren, becomes.
A little bit clouded and weak perhaps?
It it it it perhaps lacks because it all comes back to these basics.
That I really haven't been enjoying Christ in my heart.
And you know the the soul that is just taken up with Christ.
They cannot help but just be a testimony and the the the blessing that will flow out from from the that vessel is powerful, powerful and you know God has left us here. The Lord Jesus has sent us.
And He wants us to be that light in a dark place, to represent Him well while we are here in this life and the here and now.
00:20:01
But then it goes on to say, Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? And they said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, Being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou?
He saith unto them, Come and see they came, and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day.
This to me suggests communion.
We cannot.
Overstate the importance of communion. Daily communion.
And it's a daily exercise. Again, I know these things are not new, but we need to be reminded of it because again, your attention, friends and dear young people, is going to be arrested.
As soon as we leave this place and the enemy is going to start trying to point your mind and cares and interests elsewhere.
But we need communion every day. It's a strange thing, isn't it, as it's been expressed that it can withstand the fire the the the most hottest persecution. But yet one bad thought will break that line of communion that you and I might have with the Lord. Just one bad thought. And so daily self judgment is so needed, isn't it?
And so I think that these things flow from one another. You have occupation with Christ, his person and his work, and then there's testimony that flows from that, but it's sustained by communion.
This is practical Christian living.
Very basic, but we all need it. But I was thinking a little bit as well is that here is whom God would have to arrest our attention, the Lamb of God, the person of Christ and being occupied with him.
But why is it that our minds so very often are quick to move off of this?
Glorious subject be taken up with the things of this world.
You know, there's many Christians today, and without wanting to be critical.
I think it's true that many Christians and brethren, we can't exclude ourselves from this.
Umm, you know, tend to run around with their hair on fire because of the current state of this world.
They get it consumed with the politics of the world and the social issues and all that's going on in the world today and get all whipped up into a frenzy and soon.
Their eyes get off of Christ and then on to worldly things that concern this earth.
And you know, in our testimony starts to suffer. We start to become like the world around us.
And God hasn't called us to that, I was thinking.
Well, let's read the scripture.
Revelation.
Chapter 5.
And I find this so striking. Again, speaking about spiritual eyesight.
And having our focus on the right things of Christ. It says this in verse 5.
Revelation 55.
And one of the elders saith unto me, We've not behold the lion.
Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David.
We thought we've spoken about Christ as the Lamb.
You know, brethren, he is the lion as well. I suppose those two beasts couldn't be any more far apart in terms of their natures and what characterizes them. You think of a lamb, a lowly little animal.
It's not very strong and all of that, but you think of a lion like Proverbs 30 is the strongest among beasts. It turns aside for no one.
And I believe that in the lion we have ability and strength.
And, you know, you go back to Genesis 49.
Which we won't read for times sake, but we see there Judah is like a lion, and out of his loins will come one.
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Who is the Messiah? Who will reign? You know, brethren, God's program is moving forward.
Just as planned.
And you and I can just be observers.
Of what's going on in this world and we don't need to worry about where things are going because God is in full and perfect control.
There's coming a day when the Lamb.
Will reign as the lion, and he will set all things right.
It says here in chapter 5.
If you read the following verse. And I beheld and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb.
As it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes.
Which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth? And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and 20 elders, it's you. And I fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of Saints and so on. It's striking to me.
That the lion is the lamb, and it's incredible to see this.
Backdrop of the Book of Revelation, a book of judgment, of glory, of majesty, vindication, and all of that. And on the backdrop of all of this comes forth God's Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lion.
It's very interesting that as far as I understand it.
The Lamb in Revelation when it is spoken of and the Lord is spoken of as the Lamb.
The word for lamb spoken of in a diminutive state or a small M and I find that so striking because.
That, I think, would point us to the fact that God's Lamb was rejected, cast out and not valued by mankind.
But He, as the Lamb of God, has paved the way for all blessing.
And He is the basis for all our blessings.
But it is as though God has said, here is man's estimation of my beloved son.
And I'm going to put him up into the highest place and glorify him and magnify him.
And present Him to you in all his glory.
This one who was rejected.
I have raised him up.
And before he takes the inheritance chapters 4:00 and 5:00.
Chapter 4. We have the Lord Jesus pictured as the Creator. Chapter 5.
As the Redeemer and judgment is about to fall on this world in chapter 6 and onward.
He is about to take his inheritance that we were talking about every created thing, the very inheritance brethren, that he's going to share with you and me.
And here it is. The Lamb is about to break open those seals and pour forth God's judgment. It's a solemn, solemn thing.
But I think, brethren, it's something that we ought to look forward to, not judgment itself, but the fact that the Lord Jesus is going to come back.
To the very place that he was rejected, where his name was cast out.
And dragged through the mud. And God is going to elevate the name of His Son. And as it has been said that in the Millennium, it will be for the vindication of God's holy character. The eternal state will be for the everlasting satisfaction of His heart.
It's not up for you and me to try to fix this world because it is a ship that is sinking.
But what we can do is we can render testimony to this one who died for us and who rose again.
There are four things that stand out before me that.
00:30:06
Really bear, bring to bear upon my heart the fact that I do not belong here. We have been called out of this world.
But we are in the world. He has left us here for a purpose.
First, Peter tells us that we are strangers and pilgrims.
Think of 2nd Corinthians 5. That tells us we're ambassadors.
And as Philippians 3, it tells us that our citizenship is in heaven.
What of any of that suggests to you and me?
That we have any part with this world.
He has called us out of the world. A stranger is one who is just passing through or doesn't belong. Rather, a Pilgrim is just passing through.
An ambassador represents a different country.
We praise.
We.
Pray.
We love sleeping. We pray sleep.
173.
1273.
To see.
To see.
Behave.
To hear the same thy glory.
3/24.
As the same same thing.
00:40:02
Lord Jesus.
Lord.
Our God we have.
Crawled like plains.
Where we shall see.
Face to face.
Lord Jesus.
God.
I absence.
During the Lord.
Lord, join me, Lord.
God from the.
The sorrow.
And my friend see.
God.
Jesus. God.
Lord Jesus.
God.
And blame us. That's why, you know.
Great morning.
Hearts of God, we need try.
When you speak unlike you.
Worry.
Jesus, come.
174.
So.
I will pray the swear, Lord.
They see.
Seven Foundation Truths of Christianity
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