Address—I.H. Klassen
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I'd like to read a portion in Second Timothy.
Which especially concerns should we say, young men?
And I'd like to read a portion that especially concerns those of us that are older.
Really none of us are exempt from the word of God. None of them none of us are and say well, we've we've got it made. The Lord has a has a word for all of us continually. Now second Timothy first Timothy 4 you know, if we say that we are in Christ and we insist on that very much we all are in Christ, but.
Paul speaks of our ways being in Christ. There's such a thing as our ways being in Christ, and this would be the way.
And we find that more is accomplished by example than by words. I think we all admit that. And so he says to Timothy in verse 12, Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believer in Word, in conversation. That is a matter of life.
In love, in spirit.
I thought of the day in which we live, how important the spirit is, the spirit of a man.
You know.
We can say things ever so right, and if our spirit isn't right, it just almost neutralizes everything. And so, especially in these last days, the Lord presses very much that our spirit be right.
And so he says to Timothy, your spirit, faith, purity, oh, it's so important. Purity is so important in relation to testimony, in relation to, to going on with the Lord.
Thought of the verse in Isaiah says that be clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.
Now, sometimes when a soul gets a little away from the Lord, there's a tendency to get perhaps quite strong in service.
But uh.
The Lord presses the fact of purity. I remember my mother once saying she it was years and years ago. She said she went shopping one day and she saw a dress in the showcase.
And there was a sign on this dress.
Slightly soiled but greatly reduced. I I get amused when I think of that, but how true that is. Slightly soiled but greatly reduced. And that's what happens. And so.
The word press is so strong for purity.
And then verse 15, Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them. Now it's one thing to give our time, but another thing to give ourselves. Give thyself holy to them, that thy profiting may appear to all.
Take heed unto thyself. How? How? This suppresses that to heed to thyself and to the doctrine. We may reverse that. Take heed to the doctrine and myself, but it's the other way around. Continue in them. For in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Now we've heard of salvation of sinners, sinners getting saved, but this is Saints getting saved.
And I think of that, how important it is.
And how?
Saints, as it were, are falling, by the way, and they need to be saved.
I sometimes say why get a lot of other recruits if we can't save those that we have?
Well, Timothy was told to continue in these things to save himself, and then that hurt him.
So this is very practical in relation to say we should we say a young man, though we all fit in that I could never say that I am above these things.
He that hath clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger. It says, I believe in the Book of Job.
Now it turned to First Peter 5.
And there we see that.
That exampleship is pressed also in connection with leadership.
00:05:00
Now chapter five of first Peter, the elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Now notice what it says to the elder. Feed the flock of God, which is among you.
Feed the flock of God.
You know we used to run cattle.
And if there was pasture for them to eat, one wire would hold the cows with electric wire, of course, but one electric fence would hold the cattle. But if there was no food in there, you could put all kinds of wires around the the pasture and they would break out. Well, it's that way. And this brings an exercise, doesn't it? Feed the flock of God?
And then it says taking the oversight not by constraint, but willingly.
Not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being Lords over God's heritage, but being in samples or examples to the flock. So here we get. If we want to put this in another age bracket that includes some of us older ones, there is the word but being.
Examples to the flock now. It's the kind of a thankless job, we might say.
I remember Brother Al Larson said you want to be happy, preach the gospel. If you want to have your heart broken, shepherd the Saints.
And so it says here. But there is a day of reward coming when the Chief Shepherd shall appear. Ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
And then there's one more verse. Likewise a younger submit yourselves and to the elder, yeah, all of you be subject 1 to another.
And be clothed with humility. Well, here's this verse just brings us all right together. And none of us would.
Would say, well, look down somebody else's back and say you better take care of your side of things. I think we all need to take care of our own side. But with this, I'd like to turn to the 20th of Deuteronomy, which first takes up maybe the character of the of the young man.
Now let's say at this point I don't want to say one thing that we're discouraging a young man from growing.
Nothing from searching the word.
That one moment from taking him away from any of these things. But I think in this chapter we get a little insight as to how God deals with with each one of us and especially should we say with with a young man here.
Now there's going to be conflict in the land. You can't get away from it. The whenever there's a going on with the Lord in any way, there's going to be conflict. It's going to come from Satan.
6th chapter of Ephesians. There is spiritual wickedness in high places, until there's always this pressure against any testimony of the Lord. So there's going to be conflict. So it says, when thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and see his horses and Chariots and a people, more than thou, be not afraid of them.
For the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And it shall be when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people.
Now this is all the side of encouragement. The priest shall come.
And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies.
Let not your heart faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. Well, here is the priest now, the priestly side, as it were. It comes along and speaks a word of encouragement, like Paul spoke to Timothy, he said.
God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love and a sound mind. And be not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner. It just seems like the priest, as it were, comes in and speaks words of encouragement.
00:10:09
And I believe that the priestly side here speaks.
Of that side where those words of encouragement, it's like Paul speaking to Timothy, so.
There is always the the encouraging side and we have to be real careful just to cut somebody down, say well, you're, you're worthless. But the point is.
There is a sign of encouragement that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but He of love and of a sound mind.
And we are not to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner.
But now there is another one approaches on the scene in verse five. It's not the priest now, but it's the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, what man is there that hath built a new house and hath not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house. Must he die in the battle? And another man dedicated?
Well, now this is a different picture, isn't it?
It's not now the priest, but it's the officers of the people that come out and they apply as it were a personal test and.
As much as to say no, there's a man that may have built a house now the house is a structure of truth that we might have and praise the Lord if we are exercised enough to have a structure of truth but when he's pressing here is the fact that if you have.
Their structure of truth and have not lived in it. You are in real danger of dying in battle, in real danger being overcome. And I think we're aware of this, perhaps everyone, especially us that are older, because we have experienced at times where we have not really made the truth good to ourselves, We have not really lived in it.
And consequently, there's been disaster.
And so I think of it the the priests like Timothy, Paul talking to Timothy, but the officers of the people, I think of Paul talking to Mark and the 15th of Acts, you know, here was Mark and Barnabas and Paul and they were making a decision about going on one of their missionary trips.
And.
You can just about here at the Barnabas says. Well, no, I'd like to take Mark along.
And it kind of crept leaked out, you know, it was Mark, was his relative.
And Paul says well.
Mark.
You remember a while back when you were on a missionary journey with us, you turned back.
He says, he said. I just don't think you're ready, Mark, for this, this. I don't really think you have lived in your house.
And so we know that there was a problem created over that. But nevertheless, I think the offices of the people here carry the thought of testing a person as to whether he is ready or not for the for the battle for the because it was really quite a serious thing for a man to die in battle.
And we learned something here. We learned something of the sovereignty of God. And I often say, if we're not clear on the sovereignty of God.
That we are not very stable now it says here another man let him go and return to his house lest he die in a battle, and another man dedicated. So God is going to have his work done.
God is not thwarted in any way because if I don't do it, somebody else will do it, and so he's going to have it done.
Well, you might say, well, you're kind of discouraging us from reading the word, from searching the word. No, not at all. It's important to build a house, and I just wish I had to build more of a house when I was a young man.
But turn to.
Turn to the 23rd chapter of this same book for just a little reminder.
00:15:02
And attest again, and I don't say anyone is violating this, but notice what it says in verse 24 of Deuteronomy 23.
When thou comest into thy neighbor's vineyard, then thou mayest eat grapes thy fill at thine own pleasure, but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel or in thy basket. What? Somebody asked me one day what that really means, and I was in a home where there was Mr. Darby's books on the shelf.
I don't know 34 volumes and the and the index.
And I said, well, there's Mr. Darbys vineyard.
Now you can go and eat all you want from that vineyard, but if you take it and put it in your basket, it looks like it's yours, looks like you raised it.
Now, if you have gone into the vineyard and you have eaten the grapes and you have assimilated them, you've got the good out of them, then you have something that you can pass on to somebody else. You have strength, as it were, to pass on and to help others. But if you just take it and put it in your basket, it's almost like handling it in more or less of an intellectual way.
And and this was really forbidden in in Deuteronomy 23.
So.
Again, I say it's wonderful that we have the written ministry and we need it and, and what would we have done without it? But as we we go into it, let's be careful that we don't, just as it were, take it and put it in our basket and then pass it out as though it's my own because it won't have the power.
Until.
You have assimilated it and it comes out as it were in your pathway, as we had in Timothy.
Now, maybe an example of that would be in Mark, I think it's the 14th chapter. Yeah. Mark 14. You see, there's a time coming where going is going to be rough. You know, there always is. We're put to the test.
We're mentioning before the meeting that God tests us on everything we put out. Now in verse 50, the test came.
The Lord was taken and he was led away and then verse 50 says they all forsook him and fled.
But now notice verse 51. And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about him, about his naked body. And the young men laid hold on him, and he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.
Well, what? What was the matter here? Lennon, you know, speaks of practical righteousness.
But what was the matter with having a linen cloth cast about you? Well, it was something that he never wore. He had the linen cloth cast about him, but he had never worn it. Now in the next chapter, you have a man.
Is it the 16th chapter? Probably yes, the 16th chapter.
You have a man that's clothed in a white.
Gold.
Verse 5.
And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment, And they were frightened. And he said unto them, what a message he gave them, Be not afraid.
You seek Jesus, NASA, which is crucified. He is risen.
Not here. Behold the place where they lay him. Oh, what a difference to have just a linen cloth cast about you, or if you're wearing it, whether or it has come part of you. And if this linen cloth, it just cast about you, somebody can come along and pull it off just at a very inopportune time. And.
How how humiliating it is and how disheartening.
So the Lord would spare us from that to live in your house is something like wearing wearing them in them, not just having having it cast about you where you more or less would appear to have it as it were so in this verse.
00:20:22
And again, I say by no means would I discourage searching the word or the ministry, but.
Let's remember, it's a wonderful thing to live in it. A while back I heard a young man open up the book of Ephesians, the 1St chapter. And remarkably so. But it proved that the man wasn't really living in that. And so if there's no power in it, there's no power in anything that you and I would put out that has not become part of us.
It's just somehow the Spirit of God does not link his power and approval with it. If if I'm not living in that, in that house as it were now, I.
This doesn't mean look for perfection. I never like to give the idea that the Lord even looks for perfection because he doesn't. But he does look for a right spirit and he looks for self judgment and an acknowledgement as to how many times the perhaps the 1St man asserts himself and we don't really recognize him.
Well, now you come to another test. The officer isn't through yet, you know he.
And that's like we mentioned the officers like Paul saying to Mark, I just don't think you're ready Mark. And I believe that faithfulness of Paul to Mark resulted in Mark's restoration. A number of years later, Mark was restored. But Barnabas, as we far as we know, I don't think Barnabas ceased to serve the Lord, but he was no more in the public for some reason or other.
Now it says, and what man is he that hath planted a vineyard and hath not eaten of it? There again, you've planted a vineyard, but you haven't eaten of it yet. Let him also go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it. Well, turn to Leviticus 19, I think maybe.
To get an idea what's meant by planting a vineyard?
Yeah, verse 23 And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised. Three years.
Three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you. It shall not be eaten all.
But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy, to praise the Lord with all.
And the fifth year ye shall ye eat of the fruit thereof.
That it may yield unto you the increase thereof. I am the Lord your God. Well, will we learn from that? Well, one thing we would learn, that you would have to be at least five years in the land before you could eat of your own vineyard.
And I believe it's instructive because the first three years the fruit was unedible, it was uncircumcised, it's called. And I believe those three years are a process that you and I go through, that we learn that in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no, no good thing. And the very thought of three is resurrection. 3 You come, as it were.
To to a new creation and think of what goes on of the the.
Problems and all that goes on in those three years as the Lord is seeking to teach us again and again, where the flesh asserts itself and and the Lord shows that it had no place. And then you come to the 4th year and it was all given to the Lord on the 4th year.
Now isn't this the result? When I learned that in me that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing? Then I say, well, everything belongs to the Lord, all the glory is to the Lord, everything is His. Now we might say that with our mouths, you know, everything's the Lord, but have we really entered into the fact that if it weren't for the Lord, then we would have nothing?
00:25:14
So all the fruit is given to the Lord the 4th year.
Well then, beautiful, the Lord turns around the fifth year and he gives it back to you. But it's given back on altogether, a different ground. Now it's given back on the ground, should we say, of resurrection. It's given back.
In such a way that we can enjoy it and have it without it affecting us the wrong way. So the man that planted a vineyard, it took a while before he really got the benefit of that for himself. And you know, the vineyard speaks of joy especially and.
I believe it's true when we're talking to before this meeting about certain ones.
Trying to be happy, trying to push certain things, and yet down in their souls they have not experienced the real joy of the Lord. And so it's because we have maybe jumped over those first three years and have not really come to the end of ourselves. And then to give the blessed Lord all the credit, all the glory, and then when you turn, when he turns around, he gives it back to you. It's so different.
It's not now something that I got, but it's something that the Lord gave me. Well, that's the the.
The next one, Now there's three, and I mean the third one. And what man is there that hath betrothed the wife, and hath not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.
Well, perhaps your thought is better than mine on that, but I thought of it in this way. The thought of marriage is the thought of increase.
And it's the thought of increase at home.
I thought of how wonderful if I or any of us could be used for a little profit and increase in our own assembly in our own homes.
That would be the first place, wouldn't it too, that I might, I might be profitable at home. And it's wonderful the thought of being profitable first in our own home and then profitable in our own home gathering and then launch out maybe other places, but sometimes people go clear across the country to serve the Lord and they have never.
Showed any interest at home? Well, I believe that the warning here is that if we're going to get established and we're going to get our feet on the ground, that it has to start at home.
So this was another test and again the statement is.
Unless they die in battle and another man taker, I'm always going to have his work done. But.
It's not going to be done by disobedience in any way. It's by according to His word and by obedience to the word. Now this final Test, and the officer shall speak further unto the people and.
And shall they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and faint hearted?
Let him go and return to his house, lest his brethren's hearts faint as well as his.
Well, you know, it makes me think of one man fearful and afraid can make ten others fearful and afraid. And so we have to really be careful about hanging crepe. I sometimes call it that, just looking on the dark side. I was over in Toledo.
A year ago and.
Oh, that was the one person there just talking as though the world had come to an end and there was no hope. There was nothing left and all that kind of a thing. Everybody was not honest and this type of thing, well.
A person like that can affect a lot of others and so we have to be careful about the side of being fearful and afraid.
Now they had no place in the army of Israel. A man that was fearful, and afraid he was. He was told to go home. And the only place where I remember this to be used was in Gideon's case.
00:30:08
And Gideon.
He was leading an army of.
I forgot now 33,000 maybe, But the Lord said, well, that's too much, too many. And so he applied the test. He said whoever's fearful and afraid, go home.
Now again, just ponder that expression, fearful and afraid, and how easy the enemy can use that to to just take the starch out of everybody. But then they were, I think 20,000 left after he applied that. And so he applied the next test he taught, brought him down to the water and he had him drink water.
And as they drank water, one of them went on this side.
And then one on that side, and you might say, well, how would drinking water determine who would be in Gideon's army or not? The way that they drank water, that's about as insignificant thing as there is. I know in the harvest field you maybe have a dozen men. They all drink water different.
Some just go up and down and others take their time but but in this case this is what decided it and I believe now I sometimes say I see the Lord using some maybe.
Maybe should I say a very common insignificant brother, and of course I am that too, but I say I wonder why he doesn't use me. He uses him and he doesn't use me. Well, I believe that the drinking water is probably the most insignificant thing that there is. And I believe that is what the Lord tests us on, is what you might say, the very insignificant things.
I think in many cases you know scripture speaks of.
Well, it has some even words like be courteous. You like to run across a person that's courteous. You know, sometimes maybe they don't have it coming, but but a courtesy is a wonderful thing, obedience, rebuke, not an elder. The elder is to is to be an en sample all those things.
And so this is really what?
What decides whether you're going to be in Gideons army or not is the way you do little things, and I just can't encourage that too much because perhaps you're looking at a man that failed the worst in that kind of a thing. But I have noticed at home and I've been gone.
Sometimes months at a time.
But those that are taking over the ministry and the service of the Saints of most of us older ones were gone. Most of them were in Phoenix.
Were those that were the Lord was using, were those that had their hands in the dishwater at the all day meeting, those that swept the floor, those that cleaned off the tables, those that set the chairs in order, Those are the ones God is using today. So I believe it's something to encourage us that God discerns and He decides things as to the way I do little things, not the way I do big things.
Because I might be out of my place. So the young man, if we allow me to use the term here.
He should build a house. Yeah, but live in it. You know, somebody said to me the other day, well, that's a lot of nice truth, but does it work? Does it work? I don't see it working for you.
Well, if truth doesn't work, it really isn't truth.
But truth does work.
But it doesn't work unless I really have it. Well, now let's turn over perhaps a word to those of us that are older in the 17th chapter of this same book. Now in this portion, verse 14.
You get the thought of a king, you get the thought of leadership, when thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me.
Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose.
00:35:01
Now God had a king in mind. You know, the Lord Jesus is a king, and God had a king in mind, and God has leadership in mind.
A St. you know, are like sheep, but they need a leader, they need leadership, and so this is a word for leadership.
In the first place it says, whom the Lord thy God shall choose.
Now if you would turn to Acts 20, you would read a verse like this. Take heed to the flock of God over which the Holy Ghost hath.
Made you overseer, I think. Maybe even says feed the flock of God over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseer. So that would be first, wouldn't it? Now we're living in days of weakness, I'll admit. And you don't really.
See all these things like they should be, and it's a wonder it isn't. A lot less we might say, but still this is instructive. The first thing is over which the Holy Ghost have made you overseers. Now we find that the Father steps into the Son's place in some cases.
And maybe the Lord hasn't directed the thing that way at all, but that's the way it is.
And you accept it that way, or a man with a doctor's degree, he's up to step into that place. Well, you don't say it's right, but due to the government of God, we do often have that type of a thing. But just from the instructive side here, the thing that is said here, that it was one over which the Holy Ghost have made you overseers.
And then it says further.
Who the Lord thy God shall choose one from among thy brethren, shalt thou set king over thee. Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother. So the one in oversight must be a brother.
Well, what is a brother? What's the meaning of a brother? Well, I often quote Mr. Penfield in this, but he said if you want to know what a word means, go to the first time in Scripture.
Where it's given and you get the definition. And so let's just turn over to the 4th of Genesis and get the what a brother is.
That's the first time it's mentioned, and it's mentioned a number of times.
But there's one thing that's rather remarkable about this, that Abel is called a brother 7 times and Cain is never called a brother. So Cain did not answer to the expression of a brother, but notice you can count them for yourself.
Verse two. And she again bear his brother Abel.
And then look at verse 8. And Cain talked with Abel his brother. And it came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
And.
Art thou, and now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brothers blood from thy hand? Well, I'm sure there's at least seven times that Abel is referred to as a brother, but Cain is never called a brother. So what would you say a definition of a brother was? Well, one thing would be one that had the right sacrifice.
Abel offered a.
A sacrifice that had blood and fat.
That would be one thing, and then the other definition would be or the other part would be one that sought the welfare of others.
Now that's a very evidence. You know, I'm glad that there are those that sought my welfare. They were brothers. They were brothers in the sense of the word. And we need to be brothers. We need to seek the welfare of one another. And this is what characterizes a brother. And that's the reason the one that they chose for to be their ruler was to.
00:40:17
Be a brother.
No, we don't choose overseers.
I mean, somebody here don't say, well, I'm an overseer here, no, but you're not an assembly long before you know who they are and.
Timothy at one time did choose overseers, but that passed off of the scene. They're not chosen anymore, but it's really one that would answer to some of these moral qualifications. Is he really a brother? And.
Is the one that the Lord has put in that place.
Well, now there's a warning to the leadership again.
But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply horses. For as much as the Lord hath said unto you, ye shall henceforth return no more that way.
Now what would it mean to to get horses, as it were? Well, the horse speaks of natural strength. Natural.
Something that you?
Force a situation there a horse is strong, a horse is attractive and how easy it is in a way to use this kind of a thing in leadership some.
Human.
Kind of thing.
Now, sometimes you find a man that's able to run a crew of men very well.
If I may be a doctor, you may find a lawyer. And so they come into leadership and they operate things just like they would in business. Well, that's the thought of multiplying horses. You cannot do that in the assembly. It may work good out in the construction field and on the farm and so forth, but it does not work in the assembly.
You know the Lord is there and you say, Lord, what shall we do?
How shall we handle this? And that's the spirit that we should have. But not to multiply horses, to get natural force and natural strength to do that. Because what happens is you 'cause people to go back to, to Egypt.
How many times, perhaps some of us have been guilty of turning a person back into Egypt by some some of these?
Ways that were really not of the Lord. I don't say anything I got ever happened here. Don't take me wrong. It's just the point that the word of God is given for instruction and maybe we can get some help from these, but the word is that if you multiply horses, if you're going to bring an organization and force things, the first thing you know, people are going back where they came from back to Egypt.
And there's a real warning against that now. It says neither shall he multiply wives to himself.
That is heart turn, not away. Now what would the wives be?
Well, the wives speak of affection and.
How solemn to have divided affection and leadership.
Now I am aware as like all over the country, that almost every assembly is related somehow. There's a lot of relatives in it and there's some that are not related. And so you sometimes hear this.
This complaint and I I don't really take it serious. It may be some truth to it that the leadership favors their own relatives more than they favor the rest of us. Well, sometimes that's just an unrest for unsatisfied spirit. But there is a warning that we are not to have divided affection. A multiplying of wives. You can hardly think of anything worse, can you, then multiplying wives?
I often appreciate Isaac that way. He had one wife.
And that's really a wonderful type of Christ in the church.
Well then, it says, neither shall he greatly multiply to himself sober and gold. Now this is a warning too, in the assembly, in leadership. And the world has a phrase, money talks, but really, money doesn't talk in the assembly. It has no voice in the assembly. I might promote a man with riches, but the word of God doesn't.
00:45:20
And so this again is a warning to us in relation to leadership.
Well, then if that's the more or less the negative side, but now we come to the positive side.
Now it says here verse 18 And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his Kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in the book of that which is before the priest and the Levites. Yeah, each king that came to the throne, he was to take the original copy and copy it out. And the next one that came to the throne was to take the original copy and copy that out.
And the next one, and so on. But you can see why, because supposing the first king would make a copy of the law, and naturally speaking, he would make a number of mistakes. Well, the next one copying it would make his mistakes plus some of his own. And so by time you get down the line, you would hardly recognize it. And this is what's happened to among us.
In this world, the the Bible has been translated and retranslated until.
You get ahold of some of these modern copies, you can't. You hardly recognize them. And So what a warning it is to return to the original. And I don't discount.
Mr. Darby's translation in any way I think is the most valuable book, but I still feel that God is honored the King James, and that that it seems to be of the Lord to stick chiefly.
To it we have the other for reference but but.
It's just sad to see what some of the young men and young ladies are picking up and using even in the meeting to read. They're just the beauty is gone. They're such a beauty in this book right here in front of us.
And that can be easily destroyed because when man puts his thoughts in, it's, he puts it in so the natural man can understand it. This is his aim. He wants to put out a book that the 1St man can understand. But you know, the word of God is spiritually understood. And what we have this afternoon, it wouldn't be worth anything if we couldn't see the spiritual teaching.
This well, he was to copy it and it says furthermore.
And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein over the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statues to do them.
That his heart be not lifted up above his brother. Now there's a real warning in leadership, isn't it? That our hearts might not be lifted above our brethren?
And that He turned not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, to the end that He may prolong his days in His Kingdom, He and his children in the midst of Israel.
Well, what a blessing that is to prolong the Kingdom.
And it's remarkable about this.
Other assemblies up and down the coast that have closed their doors never open again. Why are they dissolved? What has happened? It was a breakdown in leadership.
Go right down the line. Those of us that are a little bit acquainted and can see that it was not prolonged and.
Here by obedience to the Word of God.
Why? The testimony is going to be prolonged, and by disobedience there's a danger that it it may not be.
So we have now.
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The young man to live in his house.
To eat of his own vineyard.
To bring forth fruit at home.
And we have for leadership.
That he must be one chosen of the Lord. He must be a brother.
One that has a true care for others. Oh, how the Lord delights in a care for others. Because that's what he had. He had a care in others. He found the the man that was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and he found him had fallen among thieves and he was there to pick him up and take him. And so he was to be a brother and then not multiply horses.
Use natural means in the assembly.
And divided affection and that wealth.
In itself is right. I don't say it's wrong, it's needed, but for that to have a voice in the assembly like it has in the world, it has no place and then we need to write the word of God and the best way to write the word of God would be like a Corinthians 2 Says that ye are the epistles of Christ.
Known and read of all men.