Address—C.E. Lunden
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I'll read a verse in the 11Th Psalm first.
Psalm 11.
In the Lord put on my trust.
Say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain.
Below the wicked Bender bow they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Now, I suppose you're aware from the little hymn we sang of the character that this meeting might take this afternoon.
That is, we'd like to speak a little of the work of Christ.
And other things, connection with it. But first of all, I would like to call your attention to the importance of this verse.
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
You know, most of us here are living under tremendous privilege.
And I wonder if these dear young people this afternoon are aware of the privilege that they have.
Where the word of God literally folly. But there's a day coming, dear friends.
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When it will not be so.
That men will search everywhere to get a hold of the word of God.
Oh, wonderful. Supposing this afternoon that you were in a land?
That was not so privileged.
Where you didn't have an open Bible.
And where the foundations were all destroyed outwardly, what would you do?
I wonder if you, dear young people this afternoon, as well as some of the older, are established in the present truth.
Do you know where you stand this afternoon? Where do you stand? What are you resting on? Where do you find your peace?
I'm sure the many may.
Be indifferent about these things, although they may outwardly at least profess the name of Christ.
Where do you rest this afternoon?
And so I'd like to speak a little about.
First of all, the blood of Christ.
And the death of Christ.
The cross of Christ.
My death with Christ.
And then the believer in the new land.
We have some of that this morning in Joshua, but let's turn for a moment now to Exodus.
The 12Th chapter.
And here we have the blood of Christ.
Now this account is so well known I'm not going to read but a few verses.
Just to bring back to our thoughts.
The subject.
And I'd like to say, as I speak of it, that although we have the Passover here, we don't have the full truth and regard.
But to all that which concerns the blood, which we learn later.
The various phases of redemption.
But we do have the Passover here.
And so I'm going to read from the 21St verse.
Of the 12Th chapter of Exodus.
Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb.
According to your families, and kill the Passover, and ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lentil and the two side pulse with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you should go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians. And when he seeth the blood upon the lentil and on the two side posts, the Lord will Passover the door and will not.
Suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to spite you.
Now the point that we have here is that.
God has prescribed a remedy at the time when the destroying Angel will Passover the door.
And dear young people, this afternoon there's a day coming when that which?
Corresponds to the destroying Angel will Passover your door.
That's true. We'll Passover your door.
Now as that destroying Angel passes over your door, will you have the blood applied?
To that door.
So that he won't touch anyone in the house.
I know you say, well, this is a young people's meeting. This isn't a gospel meeting.
But all dear ones, this afternoon, I believe there may be those in this room who are unsaved this afternoon.
Who have not learned to trust in that precious blood? Who are not sheltered from that coming judgment?
Now it would seem rather hard to take.
5010 thousand, 15,020 thousand, maybe 50,000 Lambs. I don't know how many there were.
That there were a tremendous amount of Lamb slain that day.
Oh, you say, why was this necessary? Because God said so.
That's why.
Isn't that putting it simple? God said so.
Do you have a prescription of your own for salvation?
In Hebrews we are told without the shedding of blood there is no remission.
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No remission.
And the redemption's work comes through.
That is, the work of redemption is a result.
Of what the Lord Jesus did on the cross of Calvary.
Which we'll speak of at a moment, Lord willing.
That the blood.
Now, it isn't a question in this instance of what you think of the blood.
But it's what God thinks of the blood.
Dear what is God who has been offended?
And there is one remedy, and only one.
And that's what God himself has prescribed.
Precious blood of Christ. Peter speaks of it. Paul speaks of it.
And we have it all the way through Scripture, from the beginning to the end, The precious.
The blood of Christ.
Now this was poured out in a basin, but remember, the victim first was slain. Slain.
And so from that dead victim the blood was poured out. Oh, how beautiful these pipes are, pictures of that work of the Lord Jesus Christ, when the soldier pierced his side, and forthwith kinder out blood and water.
Now we just have a picture here of course.
To gather others from the New Testament.
The actual doctrine.
But oh, how important this is. Dear one, may I press it upon you this afternoon?
Some of you may be going into a certain schools where they where they make little of the blood. In fact deny it, but remember.
Is the day coming when the Angel will be over your door?
And unless the blood is applied, unless you have taken that hyssop.
The Hirsch was the smallest of all trees. Man is likened to a tree.
And.
Each one, each head of the family, had to take that history an indication of the position he was in before God and humiliation.
Confession of sin.
Apply that blood in the bosom to his own doorposts, and to the lentil over the door.
Now when the destroying Angel came by, he passed by that house.
That's the Passover.
And I ask your dear friend this afternoon.
Dear young friend, has the has the Angel passed over your house? Or is it your house in such a position that the Angel will pass over your house?
You know, Speaking of the foundations.
In about 150 years ago or more.
There were 4 cardinal truths recovered for the Saints of God.
We can't speak of all of them in detail this afternoon, but I will mention them.
The first one is what we're Speaking of, redemption.
Now, I don't say we have all of redemption mentioned in this Passover, but it's through the blood that I'm Speaking of redemption through the blood.
The second one is that the Spirit of God came down to indwell the believer.
Now, dear young people, these are important truths for you and me.
And they're summed up in these. First, the precious blood redemptions work, which has really 2 aspects.
And that is bought back and set free forgiveness of sin.
But then the Spirit of God indwelling the believer.
Once this is done.
The next is.
The presence of the Spirit of God in the assembly here below.
And the last is the Lord's coming, the believers hope.
Are you in the enjoyment of these four basic truths?
The precious blood of Christ. Redemptions work. The Spirit of God indwelling the believer.
The presence of the Spirit of God in the assembly, making his habitation on earth.
And then the Lord's coming.
Well, we're speaking now of the blood, the blood of Christ.
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And you know.
The blood of Christ puts away all sin.
All sins.
We find that.
This work of the Lord Jesus was a completed work.
When we get on to the subject of Jordan, we'll see that the priests stood in the in the river until it was all finished. Finished.
The work was finished.
Well, we find that in John's Gospel, the Lord could say his last words, as it were. It is finished, the work is finished, so there's nothing left to do as far as our standing before God.
And that's what we're Speaking of now, our standing.
23rd Verse For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when he seeth the blood upon the lentil, and on the two side both, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in onto your houses to spite you.
Now we go on to the 14th chapter.
And here we have the Red Sea.
We'll start reading at the 13th Birds.
Because this speaks to us, beloved, of the death of Christ.
The death of Christ.
And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today.
With Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever, and the Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
19 First and the Angel of the Lord.
An Angel of God which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them, and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them, and it came to pass. It came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these. So if the one came not near the other.
All the night.
In the 28th verse.
After the judgment, the waters returned and covered the Chariots and the horsemen, and all the hosts of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them.
There remain not so much as one of them.
Not one of them.
But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall unto them on the right hand and on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore.
And Israel saw the great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and his servant Moses.
Now in the case of the blood, we find that the people who believed took the blood and they put it on the door, the side post in the level.
But here again, we read that the people believed they believed.
And so faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
Now what do we learn from the Red Sea?
And the deliverance here, well just this that it was delivered.
Many dear believers do not know that they are completely delivered.
Now how can you go out and serve the Lord Jesus? How can you be happy in your souls?
If there is a constant dread of something in your life.
That possibly you're not going to be able to keep yourself.
We find here that what is called to our attention is that all the enemies are dead on the seashore, and in that 28th verse there remain not so much as one of them, not one of them.
Is this a foundation beloved for our soul?
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Surely is.
Oh, how good to rest on that precious blood and to have peace.
With God.
And if we went into the subject, we'd find it brings reconciliation.
But reconcile to God.
And now we find not looking godward. Now we're looking manward at the Red Sea, and we see our deliverance.
Who did this?
Is it something that you did in your life in which you excelled above others?
That you got deliverance for your soul. Is there some great experience that you.
Went through that you yourself provided by which you get deliverance.
No, the children of Israel got deliverance by simply believing this great work.
That's where we get deliverance.
You believe this this afternoon?
This is what establishes the soul.
A sense of the work of the Lord Jesus.
Now what was it that gave Deliverance?
Ah, there was a time when the Lord Jesus could say in the language of Psalm 42.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water, spouse.
All thy ways and thy billows have gone over me.
That's how you got Deliverance, beloved.
By believing.
The death of Christ.
The death of Christ.
God says when I see the blood, I'll Passover you.
We've been passed over.
Now I see myself completely delivered. I am set free.
And sin has No title or dominion over me.
Now, because I'm not under any laws or anything else that I'm under grace.
The work of Christ has completed.
My deliverance.
When he.
When he died on Calvary's cross, he laid down his life and death.
And so now the children of Israel are rejoicing in redemption's work in the next chapter. You can read it when you have time and all. How beautiful it is.
The Lord has triumphed gloriously, not the children of Israel.
Now it's a sense of this in our souls that keeps us to our young people.
How anxious we are to do something, and it's nice too to be used of God.
But it's a sense of this that keeps us.
Oh, how fresh.
The joy with the children of Israel on this occasion.
They were right up against the wall, a wall on either side of them, and a great sea before them. What were they to do? The Lord opens the sea before them.
And they March over on dry land. You know the story well.
But what happened to the enemy? They follow after them to the midst of the sea, and then the waters close in over them.
That's the judgment that takes place in all the enemies of those who refuse.
To identify themselves with the Lord Jesus in his death.
But now if we go a little further.
In the 15th chapter.
The 22nd verse.
Notice in the 21St verse they're singing about the Lord, how He triumphed gloriously.
So now in the 22nd verse. So Moses brought Esther from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of sure, and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.
And when they came to Merrill, they could not drink of the waters of Mara, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Mara or Bitter. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord. And the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.
There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them.
Who said, if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and we'll do that which is right in his sight, and will give heir to his commandments?
And keep all his statutes. I will put none of these diseases upon me, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee. And they came to Elam, where were 12 wells of water, 3 score, and 10 palm trees, and they encamped there by the waters.
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You know, it's a wonderful thing to know that you sheltered under the blood your young friends here this afternoon.
And to know that in the death of Christ.
You have full deliverance. You've been set free.
But how about the wilderness?
Well, that's quite a problem, you know, with all of us, the wilderness and the refreshment, because that's what water speaks of.
How quickly they change from singing to murmuring.
Did you ever do that?
Singing to murmuring.
Now is there any remedy for this?
Oh, the world says well.
I remember a young man went to a minister once. He was exercised about his soul.
And the minister said, well, he said, if you go out on a good fishing trip, you'll be all right.
That's what this minister told this man is that, is that the formula for being?
At rest in your soul.
Oh dear ones, I'm not speaking against catching fish now, don't misunderstand me. But I'm talking now about what is the refreshment for your soul here.
Is that the things that you see about you?
Oh dear ones, we're surrounding ourselves with luxuries.
Ease and pleasure, and we are betraying the fact.
We don't realize Our Calling.
The Levitt were pilgrims and were strangers.
What are we setting before our children?
Did many of you dear young people are starting families?
What kind of a picture are you giving these children?
Setting before their eyes in your own conduct.
Dear young people.
Is it that you are to have everything that this world offers and everything that the next one to you can't do it?
You can't do it.
The Lord Jesus could say when here you cannot serve 2 masters, you can.
You love the one and despise the other. That's what happens.
And now let us test our hearts.
Oh, let's test our hearts. Do I love luxury?
Oh, let's be clear this afternoon.
Do I like the glamour of this world?
Am I seeking the pleasures of this world?
Is it so?
And so the subject before us then solemnizes our hearts.
We have the cross of Christ here.
And the children of Israel wanted refreshment.
They were murmuring. And what was it that gave them refreshment? Why a tree?
A tree was cast into the water.
The cross of Christ.
You believe that?
Have you proved it?
Or you may get some temporary relief and refreshment from this world, but you'll never get anything that satisfies your soul.
Oh dear young people, is there anything that can refresh your.
Heart.
Like a sense of the love of Christ who went to that cross of Calvary.
To take your place because scripture says he bore our sins.
In his own body on the tree.
He was made a curse for us, Galatians tells us.
Let me read you a verse in the end of Galatians.
The last chapter of Galatians.
Verse 14.
But God forbid.
That I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me.
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And I unto the world.
Now this is a statement that Paul makes.
Of the possession of the Christiane.
The world is crucified to him, and he to the world.
Now turn with me to the second chapter of Galatians.
Verse 20.
I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live.
Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith.
Of the Son of God who loved me.
Gave himself for me.
You know when the Lord Jesus, our blessed Savior, was on the cross of Calvary.
There are two thieves, one on each side, and they were both mocking him.
And we hear him saying, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
And one of the thieves turns in all his agony, and he says, Lord.
Lord.
And then he turns to the other thief, and he says, Dost not thou fear God?
Oh, what a picture.
Read it carefully and you'll see what it means when Paul says I'm crucified with Christ.
Oh, he was a thief. He was a robber, That man on the cross beside Jesus.
Found the Savior.
Yes, he found the Savior and look it up and you will find 7 things that man learned that most people don't learn in their lifetime and he learned it in three hours.
He learned to call Jesus Lord.
On that cross.
I am crucified with Christ. What does it mean to you, dear fellow young people?
What does it mean to you this afternoon? Are you willing to say this?
For me to live is Christ.
Is that an object before you?
Crucified.
There that one solitary witness at the crucifixion, when all had forsaken him and fled.
And are you going to stand up in this sad, Dark World as the foundations are breaking away?
And are you going to stand there as a living witness, as identified with the Lord Jesus?
In separation from it all.
Oh how beautiful this the sweetness.
The cross of Christ in our circumstances, to apply it now.
With all its sweetness.
And if this were so, dear young people, your mouth would be open in praise on Lord's Day morning.
Yes, they would. There wouldn't be long silences.
No, there'd be him.
Or there be a word of praise? Yes there would.
Well, we have then the cross of Christ, and that's what sweetens the pathway. That's what brings refreshment in this Dark World.
And if you really want to live for Christ, that's the subject to be occupied with.
You know, the disciples in the 9th chapter of Luke made seven mistakes.
You can look them up if you like 7 mistakes.
The first one was they didn't recognize that they were following a rejected Christ.
And the Lord is praying twice in that chapter.
And either two or three times he brings before them his death and his suffering.
Until finally, in the 11Th chapter they say to him, Lord, teach us to pray.
Ah, it was the death of Christ that brought them to their senses and their need. The death of Christ.
The cross of Christ.
And what is the believer going to lose?
By following Christ and taking this position is identified with Him.
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As crucified with him as in separation, what is he going to lose?
You know what Peter said in the 18th chapter of Luke?
We have left all.
What should we have there for?
Oh, the Lord, says Peter. You're going to have manifold more in this present time.
And in the world to come, life everlasting.
Now, Peter, how much do you really want?
And you, dear young people, how much do you want?
Now, how do we respond to this?
Does the Cross have any application, dear young people, to our manner of life?
To our deportment. To our dress, Does it?
It should have.
If you and I are occupied and are refreshed by the sweetness of the cross of Christ.
I'm sure a great many of our habits would change.
Think of Abraham. He was a Pilgrim.
He lived in a tent.
The character of his manner of life.
His appetites were all very simple, weren't they?
And what about his nephew Lot, And how did he end up?
He departed from all of these things that were in keeping.
With the calling of the Pilgrim.
He left his family in Sodom.
And he just barely escaped with his life.
That I turn with me to Joshua.
The 4th chapter.
And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying.
Take you 12 men out of out of the people, out of every tribe of man.
We'll command you them saying, take events out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priest feet stood firm, 12 Stones.
And you shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place where you shall lodge this night.
Ninth verse.
And Joshua set up 12 Stones in the midst of Jordan, and the place where the feet of the priests which bear the ark of the covenant stood, and they are there under this day. For the priests which bear the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until everything was finished. That the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua.
And the people hasted.
And passed over.
The 18 first, and it came to pass, when the priest had bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, came were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the souls of the priests feet were lifted up under the dry land, which that the waters of Jordan returned under their place.
And flown over all his banks as they did before.
Well, this picture closes with eternal judgment, doesn't it?
The water is flowing back over all its banks again.
Because this was.
The picture at the time of harvest, when the water slowed over all the banks.
But God came in and he stopped that.
That water from coming down from above.
And it depleted at the bottom. And here they passed over in dry land again.
But now what is the picture here?
Is that the death of Christ? Yes, it is. In Ascent, it's the death of Christ.
But it's a picture, really of my death with Christ.
My death was Christ.
The two, the Red Sea and the Jordan here collapsed. They come together.
Now I apply this truth to myself. What does this mean?
Well.
I have to come to this before I can come into the new land, because in the end of this chapter we come into the new land.
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My death was crossed.
And so we read in Colossians, dear young people, that ye are dead. Are you a Christian? Well then, you're dead. In the sight of God, you're dead. And you're dead to everything that belonged to the 1St order of things, you're dead.
That we read in Galatians that Paul spoke of a life which he now lived. He lived by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him and gave himself for him.
So as to the old order, it's gone.
And you and I have a right entitled to reckon the whole thing is gone now. 12 Stones representing every tribe.
Are taken out of this Jordan into the new land, representing the new position of the believer.
But what about the other 12 Stones? Well, Joshua takes care of that.
It's a picture to us of the Lord Jesus, isn't it?
And so in Colossians, we learned there that.
The position we're in is the result, again, of the death of Christ.
But there is this added in Colossians, that you and I are to mortify our members which are upon the earth.
And that goes along with the new position that we're in that Joshua brings before us.
We have members on the earth, and if we leave these members to themselves, they're going to dishonor God.
Yes they will.
Unless we get instruction in everything that we do from the Word of God, we're going to dishonor God in these members which are upon the earth.
Oh how we need to depend upon God for every step that we take.
And so we see then the 12 Stones in the bottom of Jordan, and there they remain to this day. That's the old order of things, the old man.
It's either Adam or Christ, one of the two, and Adam all die, and Christ shall all be made alive.
Get that in Corinthians.
Now let's read on in this chapter.
10th 1St and the Children of Israel and Captain Gilgal.
Self judgment.
And kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month and even in the plains of Jericho.
And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the Morrow after the Passover.
Unleavened cakes and parched corn in the self same day, and the man has ceased on the Morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land. Neither had the children of Israel man anymore, but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
Now I wonder, dear young people, are you eating of the fruit of the land of Canaan?
Are you eating of the old corn of the land?
You know, it's a wonderful thing for you and me to know that our sins are forgiven, to be trusting in the precious blood of Christ, and to know that Christ died for our sins, to know that we're crucified with Christ. All of this precious foundation truth, Oh, how important it is.
But you know, we're entitled now to feed on a risen.
Glorified Christ.
That's what we are to feed upon.
That's the old corn of the land.
Arisen.
Glorified Christ, that's what we are entitled to feed upon. And what are you feeding on?
Are you feeding on the husks? Prodigal did that, you know, And I'm sure when the Prodigal got to the father's house, he wasn't eating husks.
How about you?
About me. Oh, I think to this much, to this, to myself this afternoon.
Am I feeding on husks and all the tendency is to feed on husks?
And we have it all around us, and we have it put up in religious packages too. Are we feeding on husks?
Oh, how good it is to sit down with the Word of God and have the Spirit of God open the precious things of Christ to us.
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You know, it's one thing like Ruth to be gleaning and gleaning away and to get these precious things that were left on purpose for her, but it's quite another thing when she's in the presence of boats, have him fill her apron full.
And she got twice as much that day than she ever did in gleaning. Have you ever had that experience?
When he filled the apron full.
Oh, our precious beloved, to have this experience down here.
To feed on the old corn of the land.
And now what else in closing?
It was brought before us so beautifully this morning, but I'm just going to read it for you because the passage wasn't read.
13 first and it came to pass.
When Joshua was by Jericho, that's the city of the Kurds.
That he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him, with his sword drawn in his hand.
Joshua went under him, and said unto him, Art thou for us before our adversaries?
And he said Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord, and my now come.
Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place where thou standest is holy.
And Joshua did so.
Now here we have the captain of the Lord's host, and we have here.
That which the Spirit of God would always occupy us with.
If he is the one who ministers to our hearts, and that's the person of Christ.
Always it's a wonderful thing, you know, dear ones, this afternoon, to know truth. It's a wonderful thing to be established in the present truth.
That, you know, our hearts could be quite cold and know these things, but you can't be in communion with this captain of the hosts.
Walking in holiness.
And be cold.
In your soul, no, you can. And so I ask you, dear young people, are you allowing the business of this world?
We all have a responsibility.
Are you allowing the pleasures of this world? The glamour?
The.
The character of it, whatever it is that's affecting you at this moment, the position.
Are you allowing any of these things to rob you of these precious things?
That we have in Christ.
Is the capital of the host and as we were told this morning.
In disobedience we don't find ourselves in His presence. We don't find His protection.
Nor do we find our ways ordered rightly.
And so remember then the blood of Christ.
The death of Christ. The cross of Christ.
The work of Christ.
Our death with Christ and our position now in the heavenlies.
As this sets before us eating the old corn of the land, that's our proper portion. That's what we should be occupied with now, eating the old corn of the land.