Grace

Just for your encouragement, at the conference at Brand in Manitoba last week, the last three brethren that spoke spoke on the person of Christ. Her brother Ian Gibson spoke on Exodus on Leviticus 30 and he spoke on the incense and the composition of it. Then John, brother John Meakin from Ireland, one of the good Irishmen, really appreciate brother John, and he spoke on Leviticus 14 on the law of the cleansing of the leper and he spoke on the two sparrows as speaking on Christ.

And I followed up on Song of Songs chapter 4 speaking on the myrrh and the frankincense in relation to the person of Christ. And after the meeting, a young man named Peter Enns from Porridge La Prairie, who'd been troubled for a while, professed faith in the Lord Jesus. He never heard a gospel meeting.

He heard about the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, my exercise is to speak to you about the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're going to read four scriptures and we'll start off with Philippians chapter 4. I'm just going to read four verses and you'll have to read the revised to get the thought that I have.

If you have a Mr. Darby or a Nestles Greek, you'll probably get the same thing. Verse 23, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. 2nd Timothy chapter 4. Chapter 4 of 2nd Timothy, a little bit different setting.

The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit, grace be with you all. The book of Galatians, that's the individuals. Galatians chapter 6, verse 18.

Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. And finally, in the little book of Philemon, that's just before Hebrews, verse 25, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Now we trust the Lord will bless to us the reading of his precious word. Now I know you might say to me, oh brother Dancer, you've finally done it. Where are you going with those four small verses? Well, we're going to talk about the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember in John chapter 1, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Under the law, there was really very little demonstration and the application of it, of grace. Although the grace of God was seen in his dealings with his people, it comes under the word mercy, and you find that in the book of Romans.

And we find that John could say, no doubt he's thinking of Mark 9, the same thing in the mountain, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now these two things were characterized in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, grace and truth.

Remember the woman in John chapter 8, the scribes and the Pharisees, they concocted a plan to ensnare the Lord Jesus. And they had this woman taken in moral sin, and they brought her to him and asked him what should be done. And I trust you know this story well, how the Lord roared on the ground and when he was finished, he said, let him that is without sin among you cast the first stone, and before too long they were all gone.

The Lord Jesus says to her, where are thine accusers? They're all gone. He says, neither do I condemn thee, go in sin no more. Now the Lord Jesus was applying the law.

The law says that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, someone can be put to death. But it must be in the mouth of two or three witnesses. You can't have one witness and put someone to death.

There were no witnesses. Now the Lord Jesus knew the whole story. Under the law, the man should have been there.

He wasn't there. The Lord says to the woman, your accusers are gone. She says, no.

And he knew exactly what had taken place. So he applied the truth of the law. Neither do I condemn thee.

Now he says, go in sin no more. But he also applied grace. He could have said, well, I do condemn you, I know what happened.

But the Lord shows his great grace in dealing with the woman. So we'll learn of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ with regard to this woman. The apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, he has got a thorn in the flesh.

And you no doubt have somewhat the same. It's a difficulty, a problem that won't go away. And it's finding, you're finding a difficulty in your life with the application of it.

And he sought the Lord thrice. And I sort of have in my mind, this wasn't at one o'clock, five after one, 10 after one. This would maybe weeks or months in between.

As this, whatever it was, Paul's thorn in the flesh, and whether it was his eyesight, or whether it was some other malady, or whether it was a mental aberration, or whatever it was, we don't know. The Lord says, I'm not taking it away, Paul, but I'll tell you what I'm going to do. My grace is sufficient for thee.

So Paul learned experientially in his life something of the practical effect of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life. And he says in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, ye know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's speaking on the subject of giving, and those who have given, and saints who have given out of their hearts and out of their poverty.

And he says, ye know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be made rich. So Paul demonstrates something in these chapters of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when he comes to the epistle to the Galatians, we have a church that has a problem with legality.

There is a problem with adherence to the law that they never should have had. And Paul is giving the antidote to the problems of legality, and he finishes up and he says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. When you come to the Philippian church, we find it's a problem of disunity.

There are saints that are discord one with another. And I don't know if it was over Iudaeus and Syntyche, and their various family members took part before, and what became a small thing became a big thing, I don't know. Although I think if you read Philippians carefully, there was some error in teaching associated with those around the church at Philippi as well.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. When you come to Timothy, you find a young man who is characterized with timidity, and Paul tries to encourage him that he wouldn't be fearful. And he's going to do that in chapter 2. He says, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

And the answer to a timid spirit is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we come to Philemon, Philemon is being asked by Paul to receive his runaway bondservant Onesimus. And he wants him to receive him back no longer as a bondservant, but as a brother in the Lord.

And he's asking him to show forgiveness and acceptance to Onesimus. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ will promote forgiveness. Very quickly then, we'll take a short look at those things.

Mr. Bunting wrote a book many years ago, Mr. William Bunting of Ireland. Brother Terry, there's a lot of good things came out of Ireland, a lot of good men, certainly in my history, and I know some today, so it's a good place. And Mr. Bunting wrote a book called Spiritual Balance.

And he told of God, there is nothing we need greater among the people of God today than to have a balanced spiritual outlook on the things of God. What do I mean balanced? I mean scriptural. The Lord Jesus Christ showed perfect harmony and balance in his life.

And we have a tendency to go one way or another, often depends on the company we keep, and how we're brought up. In the environment that I was brought up in, there was a tendency to find doctrinal teaching in the Old Testament. That's dangerous.

You will find your doctrinal teaching in the New Testament, but you will find the application and the pictures and the lessons in the Old Testament. And you have to have a balance in your use of the Bible. But as we learned today, that if you go to Luke chapter 24, you'll find that throughout your Bible, away back from the book of Genesis, all the way through the Psalms and the Prophets and the books of Moses, right in through the Gospels, you'll find it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the central theme in your Bible is the Lord Jesus. What's going to promote balance in my life, spiritual balance? Child of God is going to be learning about the person of the Lord Jesus. Now, I love the assembly.

I don't go anyplace else. But brethren, be careful. All our teaching should not just be about the assembly.

The assembly is not the house of God article. The assembly is house of God. It's the place of God's dwelling place in an area where he's pleased to gather with his people.

But the central person in the house of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he should have his place. And if we give the Lord Jesus Christ place, we'll learn something, as Paul could say in second Corinthians 10, speaking about the meekness and the gentleness of the Lord Jesus.

So it'll promote a balanced spirit. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ will deal with a spirit of legality, but we need to have a spirit of unity. Remember we mentioned the other day, I think it was here, the Lord Jesus, when he spoke to the father in John 17, and he spoke of the disciples being kept in verse 11 and 12, he goes on to pray that they may be one as we are one.

Now, the exercise of Paul in Philippians chapter one is that there be one soul. That's the idea. He wants them to have a like mind.

Now, let's be careful. It's quite obvious that brother Joel and I will never have the same mind on many of the interpretations of the scriptures. We love each other and we love to discuss the scriptures.

So I find brother and I discuss the scriptures with deeply. We're going to have things that we differ in, minor interpretations. But you know, around the central theme of the scriptures, there's a unity.

And the Lord Jesus wants among his own to be a oneness, to be a unity. Oh, what it is to have a unity in purpose. You know, you go to an assembly with a unity of purpose.

Dear brother Eric was at Scotland and Fife, Balingry. What was the prayer meeting like brother, before the gospel meeting? It was full because there's an assembly. Let me tell you, there's young men in it and there's older men in it, but they have one purpose.

It's an exercise in the gospel and the prayer meeting is full. They come with a single heart. You know, David, he wants men that could, there was men in David's day that could keep rank.

One hearted men, single hearted men, brave hearted men. And God wants you and I to be single minded, to be one soul, to have the same mind. How do we do it? It's only the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that will promote it.

How can we know something of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? We had a little bit about it. That's our meditation. My meditation of him shall be sweet and the psalmist on his bed in the night watches.

His meditation is upon the Lord. It's on spiritual things. You know, I say often to people and it's something I know very well.

If I go to bed and I'm mad at brother Jim, I'll waken up in the morning mad at brother Jim. Is that right? If I go to bed telling the father about his son, do you know this? I'll wake up in the morning telling the father about his son. How do you want to wake up? How do you want your day to start? If I start my day being occupied with Christ, I'll have no trouble loving my brother.

Listen to what the Lord says in John 13. As I have loved you, so ought ye to love one another. And the love of the Lord Jesus Christ was a sacrificial love.

Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 5. Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet savor. And the example of love is the Lord Jesus. How am I going to love my brother? I'm going to know something of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But when we come to Timothy, we have a timid spirit. And Paul tries to encourage Timothy. So in chapter two, he tells him, he says, I want you to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

What's Timothy got to do? Listen to what Paul says. The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be competent to teach others also. Now, who are the others? Well, I hope that you are not the others in this conference.

The Greek language is very expressive and it gives different Greek words for the word others. The Lord was on the cross and two others with him. Others of a different kind.

Corinthians 14, let the prophets speak two or three and let the others judge. Who's the judge? The other prophets, the others of the same kind. So in second Timothy chapter two, who shall be competent to teach others who are not faithful men, others of a different kind.

Those who are servants of God, can I give you some advice? I'm not as old as some of you. I'll never, I don't think I'll live as long as you brother Eric. I don't want to, I want to go to heaven.

Anyway, it's okay. Never get involved in local assembly problems unless you're invited by the elderhood and never stand up here and start dealing with local assembly problems unless you're invited by the elderhood. It's not your place.

Timothy is told to get together with faithful men and to teach them what Paul had taught him. By the way, I'm watching that clock. I'm just about finished.

Never be afraid to use another man's ministry. It's not his. Once I speak, once it goes out, it's yours.

Make it your own. And if you want to take, I'd be, I'd be proud if somebody took what I was speaking and repeated it. I don't hate the word, but anyway, listen, there's no such thing as a man having a ministry that's only his, whether it's in written form or in vocal form.

It's the word of God. And God wants us to pass on. And if I get teaching from another brother, from a teaching man, and I go back to my assembly, would to God, I can take that truth and teach it to my brethren.

And that's what Timothy has to do. And for a timid spirit, and difficult for a young man to speak to older men, for a timid spirit, he needs the same antidote. See, this is a common medicine for the Christian, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Finally, time has gone. We need a forgiving spirit. One of the most difficult things that you and I have to do, and I know what I'm speaking about for my own failure in my own life, is to forgive those who have wronged us.

All right? And you've been wronged. Every one of you, whether it's by someone your own age, whether it's inadvertently, there are, you know this, the things that I've suffered most from is not from the people in the world, it's from the people of God. And many of you can say the same things.

Jealousy, envy, careless speaking, we're all guilty of it. But what the Lord Jesus wants us to learn to do is to show a spirit of forgiveness. You know, that's why we go back to John 17, that they may be one.

How can we be one? We'll love like the Lord Jesus loved. We'll look at him, and we'll emulate him, and we'll let his grace wash over us. That kindness, that kind disposition to all, that mercy and gentleness that characterized him, that it might be seen in us.

Child of God, let the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.