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Uh, it was worth, I know.
Great.
World and I'm from home.
Let her cry together.
On.
1001, 129.
Which I forgot.
To tell her.
Without the rain.
Rotate in your head, Sunflower.
And.
Take my daughter's my heart and flame and you know all day long.
And plan to reach the rise of life and.
Umm.
Let's pray our God and Father we ask about.
Bless us and refresh us as we open Thy word.
We pray that.
Thou siege with, uh, joy and peace, uh, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
00:05:06
Pray that our faith might be increased.
Pray that our love for one another might be increased as we gather together in these.
Couple days, yes, that guidance.
That's how it leads us to that will, which will be for our blessing.
Yes, I help.
The name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Could we look, brethren, at the mind of the thank you? OK, Hebrews, chapter 12.
Perhaps, uh.
I don't think we get through the whole chapter this morning. There's only one reading, but.
You could read the whole chapter nevertheless.
The Mind of the Brethren, Hebrews, chapter 12.
OK.
Read from verse 32 of Chapter 11 as an introduction from chapter 12.
And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell Gideon and Aberic, and of Samson, and of Jacob, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith subdue kingdoms, brought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire?
Escaped the edge of the sword. Out of the weakness were made strong. Watch valiant in fight.
Turned to flight the armies of the aliens, women received the dead raised to light again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection than others. At trial of cruel mockings and S and scourging ye moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were saw asundered.
Were tempted.
Was slaying with a sword, They wandered about in sheepskins and goat skins, Being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy, They wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dams and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise.
God having provided some better thing for us.
That they without us should not be made perfect. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us laid aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Who for the joy that was set before him?
Endured the cross, despising the shame, and it sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest he be we read and think in your mind, Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin, and ye have forgotten the exaltation which speaketh unto you.
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As unto children, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him For whom the Lord loveth, he chaste in them, and scourge it every son whom he receiveth. If he endure, chase the name God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasing us not? But if he be without?
Chastisement.
We're off all our particulars then, IE ******** and not science. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of Spirit and live?
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His Holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the febo knees, and mix straight paths for your feet less that which is laying between our way, and let it rather be healed.
Follow peace with all men and holiness.
Without which no man shall see the Lord looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up, trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Let there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected.
For he found no place of repentance, though he started carefully with tears. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and campus, and the sound of the trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice that they that heard and treated, that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. For they would. For they could not endure that which was commanded.
And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through the dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the great assembly and Church of the first born.
Which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of justice, man made perfect.
And to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel, See that you refuse not him thus speaketh. For if they escape, nod. Who refused Him that spake on earth much more. Shall not we escape if we turn away from Him the speaketh from heaven, Whose voice then shook the earth? But now he have promised saying.
Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
And this word yet once more signifier the removing of those things which are shaken, as of the things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God.
Is a consuming fire.
There's so much in this chapter for us. We're not going to be able to, uh.
Cover the whole traffic stream time that we have, but uh.
Umm, Hebrews is a book of contracts. I think we are all aware of that. What characterizes Hebrews is the word better.
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And the apostle is bringing us onto Christian ground, no longer at the foot of Mount Sinai, where we would tremble, uh, in view of God's legal requirements which certainly were not able to meet.
But he's speaking to us in, uh, marvelous grace and, uh, bringing us on to Christian ground.
And, umm.
Our brother read the UH verses preceding UH chapter 12, where we have the description of UH.
The great heroes of faith, you might say.
Some of them delivered miraculously, but not all of them. Some of them had to endure the, uh, trials and the, uh, mockings and the scourgings.
But they are examples for us. There were failures in every one of them. Certainly there's failures in in our lives too. But we are presented with one in chapter 12 who never failed.
Is a perfect pattern for us example. Nevertheless, he went through the same world that we are going through and, uh, he never used his Godhead glory to shield himself from the necessities, the trials, the sufferings of this pathway. So that's one of the subjects of the book of Hebrews is the high priestly work of Christ, and it's in view of his perfect, uh, pathway down here.
Having passed through all that, we would be called to pass through, of course, apart from sin.
But we have an old nature, and so although we have that divine nature, the very life of Christ, still we have the old nature.
There was never chastening needed in the life of the Lord, but there certainly is in our lives because, alas, sometimes we allow the old nature to act, and chastening in our lives is because we have an old nature. But nevertheless, the Lord did endure all that a righteous man could endure in a world that was, uh, so opposed to Him in every way.
But yet he was a perfect man down here, so he is the example. The Spirit of God did what's before us, as well as this great cloud of witnesses that have been presented to us in the 11Th chapter.
MMM.
So it is that it speaks of, uh, the better thing for us that is that we have the object of faith that you're Speaking of the Lord Jesus. All those other people, it says in verse 39 of the previous chapter, these all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise we have something better. They did all that they did not having had.
The promise, the Lord Jesus Christ, we have that and so we have some better things than they had, and so we have the opportunity to look under Jesus.
The author and finisher of faith.
We sometimes use the expression the eye of faith. What does that mean? The eye of faith? It's the eye of immortal vision.
And we read, we didn't read it, but in verse 27 of the 11Th chapter, it speaks about Moses, that he endured as seen him who is invisible.
And so these that are on the honor roll of faith, they saw beyond their circumstances of suffering and were able to by the eye of faith to focus on the man of faith. The Lord Jesus was the true man of faith in this world, never faltering.
And so these are written for our learning that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope.
And so faith is just as important today, isn't it, as it's ever been, with a world full of distractions and the enticements and the the wisdom of this world so easily obtainable to to capture our time and rob us of the Word of God and dim the eye of faith. I think it's wonderful to have this read to us.
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Before we go into the 11Th, 12Th chapter, that are the eye of faith might be focused on the man of faith here before us who walked before us in this world.
The author and finisher of our faith.
It should be the subject and I'll object to it. I like to look at verse two and three, perhaps in the reverse order. Here we see that it talked about looking under Jesus and He gave us an example of who and what He did. And then at the end of verse three, He said, let ye be weary and faint in your minds. I'd like to go that way first because I feel that sometimes we fall into that trap, don't we? We become weary in this world.
As we look around, who's weary in this room? Who's fainting in the minds? Well, the trouble is when it's weary and fainting in the mind, it's very difficult to see, isn't it? If there was a stranger walking in who hasn't eaten for three days and he walked his way here, his weary, We can see the physical weariness. But when it's weariness and fainting in the mind, it's so hard to look after. Well, there's another thing about being weary. We know that when we're physical, we.
And tired. The first thing we need to do is to be fed, to drink, and so on. But for some of us who have been at that stage before, we know that we were weary. The first thing we feel we don't need is more nourishment. We tend to fight it off. We tend to think we're OK because our mind has changed. So here it says, let ye be weary and faint in your mind.
Well, why are we in that condition?
And perhaps we can even ask that in our own heart and say, am I weary in this pathway here? Do I feel like I am fainting along this way? Do I feel alone? So let's go back. It says, 4 Consider him that endure such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and think in your mind, Could it be because we are weary of faith? Could it be because.
We haven't considered him. You know, I think I believe more often than not when we feel weary and distracted, we can look back and say we haven't been walking closely with the Lord here. I believe the thought is and we reduce all of our thoughts to the Lord Jesus Christ.
For consider him. I believe this is one of the ways the way to take care of our weariness and our painting and our mind. And let's go back to verse two really should ought to start with that we are to look looking unto Jesus.
We see all this faithful man of old. Well, here it says he's the one, He's the author, he's the finisher of our faith. What did he do? He said, who for the joy do we see that? Do we consider that? Do we meditate on that? That he, for the joy that was set before him, endure the cross? The one who loved you, the one who came to do the Father's will, the one who would say to the Father.
Here am I send me the one who knew full well what would be before him.
The one who read off how he set his face as if it was a flinch to go to Jerusalem, The one who knew that man would despise him, to be despised and rejected of man. Here it says, who for the joy, not just for the sake of doing it, but for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and he sat down at the right hand of God. Oh, do we consider that?
And when we dwell on that.
I'm sure that the problems and difficulties we see in this world will become very small. Then we can truly stay in there. For consider him that endures such contradictions and for of sinners against himself less he be weary and faint in your mind.
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May be important to see here that, uh, we don't have the Lord's toning work on the cross. That is not the subject of that this passage. Umm.
That is not exactly an example for us. That is the work that only he could accomplish.
But here the prominent thought is, uh, the life of the Lord is not even, uh, looking to the Lord in the glory. That's important. We have that in, uh, in other passages of Scripture, but probably the primary thought is observing the, uh, pathway of the Lord down here in this world. He's the beginner and the, uh, the finisher of our faith. He began the path of faith.
Uh, imperfection. And he finished it An example for us.
And so we're called upon to consider which is the same word as is used in the previous part of the epistle. Consider him, uh, the apostle and high priest of our confession. It's inwardly meditate. So we look upon the Lord in his perfect pathway down here. And for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, not so much there, the thought of atonement, but.
The cross is the shame side of the death of Christ.
And we in measure, if we are faithful, endure the cross in that sense.
Uh, if we are going to follow the Lord, we are called upon to take up our cross daily is a reproach in following Christ. We are in a world that has rejected Him. We don't gather around the glorified Christ and now we gather around the rejected 1 And so the joy that was set before him.
Uh sometimes is applied to uh.
The Lord having his own with him in the glory forever. And I don't minimize the preciousness of that, but the real thought here is that I believe the, the primary, uh, meaning is that, uh, the Lord returned to the glory having completed that work of redemption the Father had given him to do perfect obedience and devotedness.
Uh, he returned to the glory having completed that work, uh, which uh, involved the cross of course, and the, the shame which he despised. We don't usually despise the shame. We make a great deal of it and is set down at the right hand of the, of the throne of God. So what an example we have.
But there's much that will militate against it, and that's brought before us in, uh, the first verse.
Where the apostle mentioned Wherefore, seeing we also are accomplished about with so great a cloud of witnesses. But notice, he says, let us lay aside every weight.
That's not exactly sin, but it's something that hinders us in the pathway of faith. Every boy and girl knows that if they're going to run a race, they don't put on heavy boots and a heavy coat. What's wrong with it? Nothing wrong with it, but they know very well that would hinder them in running that race. How many things there are in our lives which are a hindrance. We argue for them, we excuse them.
We're loath to give them up, but we know very well that they're a hindrance to us.
In the pathway of faith. And then there is the sin, of course, which is.
Which is, umm, something that must be guarded against in each one of our lives.
So the Lord ran the whole course of faith, from the beginning to the end, to the glory of God.
And the affections of our hearts will put our feet in that same path. We think of the apostle Paul that he so loved his master, the Lord Jesus Christ, that he found himself in that path. We may say, well, you know, I need to get in that path and I don't know how to do it, really. It's a section for the Lord Jesus that will put our feet in that path. And we have the privilege, as Peter said, to follow.
In his steps and as we run the course of faith, we don't run it competitively against one another.
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But we run with our eye on the goal.
To win Christ. And so if we find ourselves in a path of suffering and reproach, it's really not a surprise to us. But there is a sad possibility, is there not, that we may drop out of that race. That's really a tragedy, isn't it? But to run with patience and endurance, those two qualities, virtues, if I can put it that way.
Will hold us on that path. And to think of the joy, the shout of joy, when we reach the end of the course and we look into the face of the man who ran that course to the glory of God.
And our hearts were encouraged to run it too. But there's so much as the sin of unbelief and other things that our brother was mentioning. We find that this race.
Really is very disinteresting and it really isn't worth it and so we drop out.
But you know, there's awful loss, isn't there? And dropping out of the race of faith, the Lord help us in that race.
When it speaks of the sin which doth so easily be set up, we often hear of besetting sins, and it is true that we all have certain sins that we are susceptible to. But I don't believe that's what this is referring to. I believe what's referred to here, and we can see from the context, is the sin of failure in faith, giving up.
Giving up trust in the Lord.
And faith is something that is not just a conviction. I can say I have faith that that.
I'm going to do well at something, and that may or may not happen. Faith is, as Mr. Kelly put it, a conviction founded on the known character of God.
So I can't just say I have faith that's.
About anything I can say that I have faith that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come and set things right in this world because that is, uh, that's based on the word of God. Umm, I can't say that I have.
I mean, I can't say it, but I don't think I could rightly claim that I'm going to be blessed, let's say physically or, or, uh, our financially. I mean, the Lord does answer our prayers and blesses in that way, but that's not really the faith that I think we're Speaking of here.
It's been pointed out that that, uh, faith must have some revelation from God or some object, uh, or promise of God as its foundation. And so there is that which we know.
Uh, there will be eternal blessing for us. We can have faith in that.
Temporal blessing you're bringing out, brother, on that may or may come to us. We may have illness, we may have many other problems, but we can have faith that the Lord is going to bring us through and he can strengthen us through any of those difficulties that you bring, that you you speak of. And we know that it's all gonna end up well.
This chapter takes up the means whereby we're kept in the path of faith that was laid out in Chapter 11.
And so we have the verse brought before us in the prayer meeting that were kept by the power of God. But Peter adds, through faith, kept by the power of God, sovereign power of God in our lives. But how is it that the power of God keeps us?
Is by setting the objects that are proper to our faith before our soul.
That's how the power of God keeps us.
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And so that's the first thing that we have in this chapter, proper object for faith.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, but the next way that He keeps us in the path is through chastening.
And so these sorrows and afflictions that we pass through are His way in the school of God, of keeping us in the path of faith.
It's beautiful to, uh, think of the way that the Lord met the disciples after he was risen on the beach.
Umm, Peter had been endorse and chastening.
And he had gotten discouraged. And he says, I go fishing. And they say, well, we might as well go with you. They had. They had grown weary and faint in their minds.
Scripture says as the man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
And in another place the spirit of a man sustaineth his infirmities. So so the heart and the mind are connected in our preservation. So they had gotten discouraged and.
Then the Lord meets them, tells them how to cast the net, and you know the story, and it's filled with fishes, and they get to the shore and what's there? Fire and fishes. And they're on the beach. And the Lord is talking with them and restoring Peter and.
You know, it brought them back to where they had first begun with him. It seems to me their discipleship began on places like that. They were fishers and the Lord went up to them and said follow me. And so it's thinking of Stevens comments here. It's so gracious that there's that side of it that says in Psalm 23, he restoreth my soul.
So we know that it's not our circumstances which determine our our happiness, our energy and spiritual things. It's what we've been occupied with. And the Lord graciously comes in and reoccupies us with himself that we can lift up the hands which hang down with people's knees and run with patience or endurance, like it says in this passage, the race that is said before. So endurance is a big thing in the performance.
If you have a piece of equipment that only works once in a while, it's very frustrating. It's disappointing. It's unreliable.
Well, at best we're UN UN faithful servants.
Because we tend to be unreliable and get distracted. And that's what we're encouraged not to do here, to continue to endure. And to do that we have to maintain, as it says in the other translation, looking steadfastly upon Jesus.
Matter of fact, a note in the Darby translation on that says umm.
Under steadfastly, it says, looking away from other things and fixing the eye exclusively on one.
Looking steadfast.
OK.
Verse four. He could say He have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin.
We read in the book of Isaiah that he closed his mouth.
And when he closed his mouth.
He was striving against sin.
To think of the horror of sin before his soul.
It would collapse our minds if we were to enter into.
Sin and all its wretchedness, that the Lord had to face that in all its fullness.
And to think of that blessed mouth being closed.
Let his enemies reproach him. Let it look like he tried to bring good into this world and it ended in utter defeat.
Faith can see this afternoon or this morning as we look at the cross and see the blessed Lord Jesus hanging there, that He was the victor, triumphed over sin, death and the grave. That you and I might have a time like this together collectively to feed upon Him. Faith personified what a man God has given us to gaze upon.
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The bowl to run after, and soon to join there in the Vista glory, and to enter into the Father's house, where love divined at rest, all because he closed his mouth and resisted unto death, striving against sin.
We're back for a moment. That's encouraging to look at verse three, and in the new translation there's an additional word that is added that tells us how we are to consider Him, and it adds the word well.
I believe in the Spanish Antigua or Antigua edition of the scriptures.
The first part of this verse is rendered. Reduce your costs to Him.
At least room for nothing else.
Well, Stephen was speaking a little while ago. Chastening is one of the privileges of our family life.
When the Lord loveth me, chasten it.
It's a privilege. We've, we've, uh, now falls to us because we've been brought into the family of God.
He's concerned not just with the externals and look upon the outward, but God looks upon the heart.
He has been pleased to occupy himself with everything about us, including our inward thoughts and our character and what we are when nobody else can see.
This is a wonderful and blessed thing.
The very God of glory, who made the world and sustains them when occupying Himself.
Of our lesson.
Regarding us, so we bring circumstances into our lives.
Pours us from vessel to vessel like the fodder. He lifts us up like clay and squishes us back down again and puts us through things.
Things that would tend to be a test of pride, things that would be humiliating, things that would be embarrassing to go through, these things.
And we can always look past them in confidence that.
The one brother I knew in Maine had part of the scripture on his wall in his kitchen. It was just a part of the verse that said Your father knoweth.
And in the trials of his life, he always found that so sustaining and comforting.
Uh, whatever he went through, it was the wisdom of God and the love of God.
He used to say he knows what he's doing, your father knowing.
So this is a comfort sustains us lest we think under the chastisement as I'm sure others will develop as we go through this chapter, there's three potential responses that we can have to chastening.
One is to just as it says in the verse 5, to despise it. It just counted a small thing. Despising chastisement doesn't mean you just hate it, it means you just.
Something happens to you, you say, well, that kind of thing happens to everybody there. There's there's nothing in it. There's no hand behind it. There's no purpose. No, no larger theme in my life. It's just, it's just a thing. Fate and chance happens to all. That's to despise justice.
To faint under it is a form of pride where?
We just say, oh, we don't like to say this publicly, but we almost say to ourselves, well, I thought I was so good and now this is happening to me. How could this be? I don't deserve this kind of circumstance. I really don't need this. And we get all weak in the knee and blubbery and we faint.
Tend to tend to give up and get discouraged and and lose focus.
The best thing later on down the chapter we'll read is to be exercised about it. And that's what we should desire for one another, to be exercised by the chastisement. I have to jump ahead, but uh, just read that verse. Umm.
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I guess it's verse 11 now. No chastening, for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous.
Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Not not to jump us ahead, but but that's that's.
That's Wisdom justifying Wisdom's children justifying, God said well, and it's nice that it says there you don't have to understand it to get the blessing.
But you have to be exercised by getting less.
And and old brother, I knew the last part of his life he was stricken with leukemia like with the for the some of you would know him and he was constantly feverish and sick and weak man that had made his living in the woods.
And he used to say a couple of things. One was he's looking for the upper taker, not the undertaker. And then in quieter moments, he used to say, I'm looking for the after you.
And I'm sure.
Not only He, but the rest of us will see in that day the after yield for the trials and suffering that the Lord was pleased to bring into His life for those years.
So those are three.
Free that we see in this chapter of responses on our part to the good hand of God upon us in teaching us through circumstances which the Scripture calls chastening.
Brother tell brother Tom Knapp years ago, Vestal said. It's like three birds.
The chicken, the duck and the Robin said when it rains, it's for the duck. It's like water off his back he despises it doesn't matter to him for the chicken. He runs all around and squawks and flaps his wings and gets all excited. You know, that's like painting under. But the Robin, he said when it rains, he sings. He sings.
And.
I was noticing a while back in our lawn after a big rain, it was just loaded with Robins, you know, their brother said he was, they were getting the, uh, after yield, weren't they? Those worms came up to the top and they were reaping pretty well from that rain.
The only thought I might just add to that though, in connection with the the thought of the Robin singing is it does say no chastening for the present time cement to be.
Joyous, perhaps we go through trial. The Lord's brought into our lives. There's chastening, there's correction. And you know, it's like Isaac when he blessed Jacob and he thought he was blessing Esau, and then he found out that he'd not blessed Esau. You know, he trembled, he was stunned, He was under the chastening hand of God.
But He profited by it. He submitted himself to it. No chasing for the present time seemeth to be joyous. And though we may come to the Lord and take it from His hand and humble ourselves under it, it doesn't mean it's going to turn instantly to a joyous thing. It's grievous.
But he goes through it with us, or we go through it, I should say, with him.
Afterwards they yield at the peaceful fruits of righteousness. For the President seems to be joyous. Earth seems to be grievous, not joyous.
20 years ago there was a young man that and we were at a general meetings and this subject was being taken up and after the Gen. after the meeting was over with his brother, He's a contemporary with me. He said, you know, I hardly know what the brethren are talking about, about trials in their life. He says, I grew up in a good household. And he said and now I have a good job and I have a wonderful wife and I have children and I have a.
Uh, late model car and, you know, to look at them, you, you would say he was kind of our envy, uh, to talk like that. And, uh, I just filed that away in my mind.
And thank, in fact I even said that if we are without chastening, then are we ******** and not sons? I gasp as I think of saying that to him. And it wasn't long after that and his wife died suddenly and changed his whole life. That chased me. That grief, that sorrow cast him upon the Lord in such a way that if he couldn't have had the Lord.
00:50:28
He'd have lost his mind.
And I would like to add with this that in our home assemblies there are times that we experience some real difficult waters. The Lord, in his wisdom and grace, he drops an issue into the assembly and we all look at it and we all have different judgments about the matter of what we should do. And the undercurrent gets great and the friendships begin to kind of shake and so on.
What do we think about at that moment?
Or at that time, well, if you're anything like me, I've thought about, sure be nice to move away and get into an assembly where they don't have any difficulties.
I just wanna say this morning that if you're in those circumstances today, don't leave. You're in a grievous circumstance. It seems hopeless that there's no end to the controversy, but here we have, do we not the foundation to be able to go through the trial with the Lord and be gainers and when He reviews with us our life and glory.
We're going to find that we did spiritually better under those conditions than if the South wind was just blowing softly.
Is that right, Brother Paul?
This.
I was thinking the tendency, uh, with all of us under trial and pressure is to, uh, desire to be relieved of it.
Uh, Lord, Get Me Out of this difficulty.
But we really should.
Our brother.
Mentioned that we should be exercised to know why. Uh, what? What is the purpose of the Lord in this trial? What lesson has he got to teach us? Umm, through this discipline, this child training that we all need in our lives and that is where the blessing comes from.
Nevertheless, afterward a yield of the peaceable fruit of righteousness, notice those words unto them which are exercised thereby.
So, umm.
Discipline can take various forms. It can be purging like we have in John 15.
It can be preventative, like we have in the, uh, life of the Apostle Paul, who had a thorn in the flesh. We don't know the nature of it, but we know that it was grievous to him because he besought the Lord three times to remove it. Uh, but the Lord never did remove that thorn.
And it taught him dependence upon the Lord, It humbled him.
Uh, but we have those beautiful words, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. And so it really was a benefit to the Apostle Paul, although he thought he would be better without it. So, umm, we all need those, uh, those trials. I was just thinking, Steve, that you mentioned that.
If you mentioned about the Lord going through the trials with us, sometimes we bring these trials upon ourselves.
Countered all joy, my brethren, when you fall into divers temptations. But the children of Israel were scattered because they had been unfaithful, and he's addressing the children of Israel there.
And so some of the trials in our lives are become because of sin in our lives. That's part of chastening and, uh.
Even there the Lord is compassionate in all their affliction. He was afflicted, but they had brought that affliction upon themselves. But isn't it marvelous that the Lord goes through that trial with us now? He sympathizes with us, not with our sin. Let this be noted very carefully. The Lord has does not have sympathy with our sin if he calls upon us to judge that unsparingly.
00:55:05
But he does have sympathy in the trials and afflictions and difficulties in the assembly. I was thinking as our brother, uh, Ron spoke about the Israelites. I just can't put my finger on it. I think it's First Samuel chapter 13, where her fourteen maybe where they ran away and hid themselves when the Philistines attacked. Umm.
And that's the tendency. There's difficulty in the assembly.
Let's get out of it all. But why has the Lord allowed that? Let's not run away from the difficulty, but seek the Lord's help and guidance and humble ourselves in it.
I think it's the first Samuel 414.
Trophimus have I left at my LITM 6.
Met a remarkable statement. We might be sick of the circumstances, that we're in the local assembly, but Paul left Trophimus right there, said you stay here even though you might be sick and hard as it were, you stay here.
We need to be.
Careful about jumping to conclusions, especially with our brethren when they're going through trial.
Let's see.
Uh, David's brethren.
Jump to conclusions, Al Saul. Jump to conclusions about him when he didn't appear at the feast of the New Moon. Uh, he must be unclean.
There are many occasions in scripture like in the book of Job where.
His, uh, his friends were jumping to conclusion as to why this was coming upon him.
And though at times chasing maybe to the Lord addressing something current in our life, some weakness or some sin to purge us from it.
It is also it He also at times brings things into our lives to prepare us.
So what comes to mind is the first part of Second Corinthians chapter one where.
The the apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians in verse 4.
It's a blessing God in verse three, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, for all encouragement.
Comforteth us in all our tribulation. Why? That we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted with God.
So you probably like, like I have encountered older Saints, Saints that have more experience in the pathway and they see you're going through some trial and they come up and they remember one sister grabbed me right by their wrists and looked in my face and she said, she just said, I know what you're going through.
The Lord will come in for you. Just trust me. She was old enough to be my grandmother and I was maybe not even saved a year, but you know, I got this strong. I felt like this lady knows that she's talking about, she's been through this.
And so the Lord at times might pass you through something, not exclusively for your benefit, but to use you, to prepare you, and to soften your heart.
Especially, I suppose, as US men we tend to be hard hearted creatures.
And the Lord graciously gets out the tenderizer and puts us through things to soften our hearts that we might be more responsive in love to our brethren. Then further on in this same chapter, the same part of the chapter, second thinking is chapter one, verse six. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation and so on. So you can read it for yourself. So.
There are times when the Lord may pass you through something to prepare you to be a blessing to others.
Indeed, there are times too, when we pass through things in order to prevent something that's not true of us.
It doesn't say that Paul was lifted up, but he was given that thorn in the flesh so that he might not be.
So there are those sides to it too. The Lord knows all about that. We don't know all about it with respect to our brethren, but it behooves us to be compassionate, to show mercy, and to seek to bear one another's burdens and soul to fulfill the law of Christ.
01:00:01
Glad you brought that up because.
We are prone to look for causes.
And it's partly so that if we can find A cause in our brother that he has a problem, or our sister that she has a problem, then we know it doesn't come to us.
You know, so we want to find the 'cause that something's happening to them and that makes us safe. But the main thing is to be is the exercise.
To to realize that whatever it is, and we may not know what it is, we may not know why it is, but whatever it is, it's the hand of God and it will be for ultimate blessing, either for me or for my people or His people, maybe not for me.
Uh, but maybe for the people I might.
Have tremendous problems.
And be ruined in every way. Uh, but maybe God has some blessing for his people in mind through it. Uh, all things work together.
With them love God. That doesn't mean all things work together for good To me. That's for uh, I mean, uh, there may be something that doesn't work together too good for me, but it works together for the, for the people of God for good.
That we might be partakers of His Holiness.
You know, it's wonderful to be able to sit in the Lord's presence and sense holiness.
I enjoyed a statement our brother Lundin made quite a number of years ago. He said, remember brethren, holiness always leads to happiness and I've never proved him wrong on that.
And so the there when our brethren are going through deep waters, we can be exercised by that.
In certain assembly or locale or whatever, we can be exercised about the trial and be benefactors of the fruits of righteousness.
Remember, dear brother, saying to me, when we had on our hearts to travel a little among the Lord's people, He said, You'll do yourself a favor if you go and visit the brethren who have gone through a valley of sorrow.
That was a wonderful statement to my soul and to go and sit with them.
And reef as the Robins.
There and some of the things that have been.
Brought to our hearts from their lips and hearts. We've been benefactors of it to this day, probably will never go through that same kind of a trial, but a benefactor of it.
Peter says, casting all your care upon him for a care for you. But before that he says, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. And so we can wrestle, you know, in these kinds of things that in the perfect chastening hand of God, he brings into our lives. But as it was mentioned earlier, it's when we get to where we ask him why he's had to allow that and you know.
I think just like Isaac, he immediately knew.
When he realized he had blessed the wrong one, or he purposed to bless the wrong one, he immediately knew it was the hand of God. I think when God brings chastening in our lives, it doesn't take very long. Perhaps immediately we know as we feel His hand, exactly what He's dealing with. After that, we may wrestle a while and try to deny it or whatever, but when we get into His presence and we can just have our hearts open before Him.
And.
No, this is what He's reaching in our souls. That's when we can cast our care upon Him. Not till then. Till then the Spirit of God wrestles with us. That's when we can cast our care upon Him. That's when it can yield the peaceable. Not the wrestling, the anxious, the striving, but the peaceable fruits of righteousness. And is it just fruits for us to enjoy? It certainly is for us to enjoy. And as our brother brought out, for others too.
01:05:02
But he purchased those branches that they might bear more fruit for him.
I think that's very important, Steve, that those two verses are put together in Peter. Sometimes they're divorced. Uh, it's humble yourself. Therefore, under the mighty hand of God, my will is active. And, uh, there's something there that I'm not willing to judge. Like Jacob, he wrestled all night with the Angel and, uh, before he yielded.
Then then the casting all your care upon him comes after verse uh, six.
So humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God first, then we will be able to cast all your care upon Him. Sometimes the will is so active in us. That's the problem with every one of us, that we, uh, we don't have that, uh, that liberty to cast our care on the Lord.
Need difficulties. There's an expected end, isn't there? At least there should be just reading a few verses in Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11 for I know the thought that I think toward Youssef aboard thought of peace and not of evil. Well, we might say, well, the Lord is dealing with us harshly, but that's not so weird, is it?
That it says to give you an expected end and then going back to this seventh verse.
And this was on the calendar I believe yesterday on the Christians calendar. Quite impressed with it.
To then seek the peace of the city. Whether I have caused you to be carried away, captives.
Well, they were to seek the peace of that city. Naturally, they probably wouldn't do so, would they?
Then it says, And pray unto the Lord for it. So in the difficulties that come before us, earnest prayer is necessary, isn't it? Then it says, For the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
Someone has said we need to capitalize on our trials.
And if pieces the result we've capitalized, have we not? Not just peace, but peace is a wonderful thing to come to when there's terrific turmoil. Uh, we love to sing those words. Sweet peace, the gift of God's love.
Verse 9 says that he's the Father of Spirit, that one who brings us through his school.
I think would have the thought of his perfect discernment.
The Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword, and it divides between soul and spirited, divides so finally, so keenly in our hearts and consciences of that which is for God and that which is perhaps just Himself. Other motives, other things. He's the Father of spirits, perfectly discerning just where we're at, even if our brethren don't. Doesn't matter. He perfectly discerns.
What the needs are and, and uh is exacting in, in the tuition that he has for us. It's just perfect suited for us and he's doing, as Old Brother Hail said, the best he can do for us according to our present state of soul.
He sees those roots of pride that we don't like to talk about and that in our spirit a little less.
And so he goes to deal, to cut those roots of pride. And we resist. And as long as we resist, we can't live, can we? But if we just say, Lord and I will be done in my life, do what is necessary, then we will live.
The correction is the path of lightning property says.
01:10:01
We're given some instructions afterwards what to do as well for the time is almost gone. I was going to jump down to verse 14. It tells us to follow peace with all with all men and holiness. Those two are important, isn't it peace and holiness without much no man shall see the Lord. We find today that it's easy to talk about having peace with all men, but when it comes to holiness, we tend to have a a we tend to sort of staying away from it because.
It may be a hot subject. We're OK because they perhaps do not defile in every way. They're OK with this and that, but let's ignore something else. What we find here that holiness is very important. We find the apostle gave the Timothy a little bit further instructions similar to this in second Timothy chapter 2, verse 22, it says follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace within the calling the Lord.
Over pure heart.
Mm-hmm.
Well, we find in verse 16 a man who refused everything that we're speaking about this morning in respect to the discipline of the Lord.
And Esau never forgave Jacob. And to think of this world in turmoil over that small point.
Esau will not forgive Jacob to this day. What a root of bitterness. That root is too big, we might say. Not that God can't cut it, He's going to someday, but in judgment. But if we are insistent on resisting.
What the Lord has to work out in our lives, He will perfect that which concerneth me, David could say.
To have this meta have Esau brought up in this very chapter is very solemn, is it not?
Hello, time is gone. Just one more comment too at the end of the chapter. It's interesting to put as a brother for the last few verses at the beginning of the chapter. I'd like to reach at the last verse and the first verse of the next chapter because that tells us why we need to heed the chapter ends with this. For our God is a consuming fire. Let brotherly love continue.
Let's say #55 through waves, through clouds and storms, God gently cleared the way. We waited time. So shall the night soon end for blissful day.
And time. So shall I write.
Slow and you can't do anything for that call with a friend.
01:15:13
I want to breathe.
Now we are praying and and implying.
Oh, there's a lot of them.
On the throne.
I grow at all things well.
We also think 10 in the appendix.
#10 in the back.
OK. Mm-hmm. Oh, he said. Sorry like I.
Hear.
Yes, a superpower.
Love.
I'm pretty sure you're all friends.
Oh, where is your house? Oh God.
Sounds really grievous.
And brought in time.
On the headmaster's name.
Yeah, we must translate her.
And follow the same.
Broken gravel helped us fly through.
Morning.
Let's look for our gun, lung cancer and scream.
I pressed him against him.
All painful. I pledge that.
Right off, let me see my heart.