'The Word of the Lord endures Forever

Well, it's a blessing to be with you all today again. May the Lord be glorified and may we bring honor to him. I thought of reading a few scriptures and those that want to or desire to can stand. Isaiah 40. Comfort, oh comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that you have served her term, that her penalty is paid and she has received from the Lord's hand doubled for all her sins. In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all the people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. A voice says, Cry out, and I said, what shall I cry? All people are grass, their consistency is like the flower of the field, and the grass withers and the flower fades. With the breath of the Lord blows upon it, surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Get up, get you up to a high mountain, oh Zion, hurl of good tidings, lift up your voice with strength. Oh Jerusalem, hurl of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, here is your God. See, the Lord God comes with might, and his own rules for him. His reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like sheep. He will gather the lambs in his arms, and will gather and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the heavens with his band, and closed in the dust of the earth, and in a measure, and weighted the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has instructed him? Whom do you counsel for his enlightenment? Who did he counsel for his enlightenment? And who taught him the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are counted as dust on the scales. See, he takes up the owls like fine dust. Lebanon would not provide fuel enough, nor are its animals enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are nothing before him. They are counted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. To whom, then, will you liken God? Or what likeness compare with him? An idol? A workman casts it, and a goldsmith will overlay it with gold, and cast it for silver chains. As a gift, one chooses small bare wood, wood that will not rot. Then seek God, the skilled artisan, and set up an image that will not tumble. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and his inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretch out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in, who brings princes to naught, and makes rulers of the earth as nothing. Surely, scarcely are they a planet, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth. When he blows upon them, they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. To whom, then, will you compare me? Or who is my equal, says the Holy One? Lift up your eyes on high, and see who created these. He who brings out their hosts and numbers them, calling them all by name, because he is great in strength, and mighty in power, not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, and the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youth will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted. But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, and they shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. I was encouraged with a picture I got from this of who God is, who we are, and how we, how we, I mean, God is just unsearchable, and he's able to take care of every one of us. He's not, he's just not, there's no surprise. Man is not going to surprise him. And he's, I just thought that we can trust him completely, that we can, we can, Robert was mentioning this morning about why worry, or why pray if we can worry. It's, we don't have to worry. We have a God, this great God, and somehow we tend to forget. I also felt like reading, or was encouraged with Hebrews 13. Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained the angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them. Those who are being tortured, as though you yourself were being tortured. Let marriage be held and honored by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled, for God will charge fornicators and adulterers. Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can say with confidence, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me? So we can say with confidence, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. We don't need to worry. What can anyone do to me? Our flesh is going to die, either from getting old, or from disease, or from persecution. It's going to die. There's no getting out of this life without death. And so, if the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me? Remember your leaders, those who speak the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. For it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food, which have not benefited those who observe them. We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals, whom blood was brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a burnt sacrifice for sin, was burnt outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the city gate, in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp, and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of the lips that confess his name. Do not neglect to do good, and to share what you have. For such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, and will give you an account. Let them do this with joy, and not with sighing, for that would be harmful to you. Pray for us. If we can obey the Lord with joy and with gladness and be obedient to him, that is not harmful to us. Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. I urge you all and more to do this, so that I may be restored to you very soon. Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in everything good, so that you may do his will and working among us. That which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Your thoughts. I've pondered a lot. I'm sure we all have. I see people struggling, being super spiritual, if you will. Doing things, I'm not sure if I'm describing this properly, but it seems to me like if we obey the words of our Lord Jesus, that he then somehow helps us to, in a supernatural way, he blesses our lives and our very being when we walk in his will, when we walk in his ways. And I realize probably, I don't know, I can't judge for sure, but it seems to me like most people are pretty sincere. I'm not talking outside of our group here as well, but like in the bigger, huge and big denominations where there's many sincere people, but the will of God is not the first endeavor and focus and will in their own lives. They will profess that in reality. When it comes down to it, I say fairly that we do not make that decision. We don't allow anything other than God to make these decisions in our lives. His word is sufficient. He has taught us. He has told us what to do. He's taught us what he wants us to do. And when we follow in his ways, I think he leads and guides us in ways that are supernatural. Our problem is to have faith in him and to really rely on him, instead of worrying. There shouldn't be worrying. We should pray. We should trust him. Praying actually means, if some wild beast is about to devour one of you and you know that I have the ability to save you, will you not pray to me? Will you not be asking me to help? Isn't that why we pray? Because we know God can actually do something. If we're praying because of some ritual or some reason, I think we're to us, we need to be praying to a God that is that alive, that we know that he can... I'm talking more to myself, I guess, than any of you. I'm not talking to any of you. I just need to pray in spirit and pray in understanding and pray in belief and trust in him because I just think, if I look at history correctly, and I'm sure there's many other ways of looking at this, but religion has it not nearly always, and maybe it's only that religion that we have history of, but I think very often religion, or Christians I should say, turn into a religious thing as time goes on because it becomes a ritual and it becomes a dead work instead of being alive. And I think what we should encourage one another to continue to be alive and trusting in God. Anyways, I don't know that I have much more. I'll just open it up to corrections and thoughts or whatever. Yeah, may the Lord bless us. Yeah, praise God for these scriptures. I appreciate you sharing them. And I think it was a good choice, a good selection of scriptures. Paul used that scripture too when he was there in 1 Peter 1. And then when I turned to it, I thought maybe something like a completion of your thoughts of that, how it works out, that okay, so, so just had to think of Jesus and the woman at the well. She told him how that you Jews say in Jerusalem is a place to worship, and the Samaritans say on a certain mountain is a place of worship. And then Jesus said, yes, you say that. But I say that, that true worshippers worship him, worship the Father, I think he said, in spirit and in truth. I think that's like the completion of spirituality, like in spirit and in truth, we worship him. And people try to just, just by deception or whatever they, they get let aside to where it's not that completion. That's kind of your thoughts, right? Or kind of what you were thinking about, just how we need to worship him in spirit and in truth. People want to be very spiritual, but without truth. And it's usually just a lip service. Okay, well here in 1 Peter, Peter quotes Isaiah 40 verse 8. But before that, I have a verse there that it's high, I highlighted it. It says, seeing you have been pure, you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfind love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. Just seems like that spells it out well, and how we purify our souls in obeying the truth. And it's not just something that we decide how to do it, it's through the spirit. And it says unto unfind love. And it seems like it's, that's kind of the pattern, I think, the way things happen, and it really fits with worshiping him in spirit and in truth. And then he goes on to say, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, for all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Amen. Brother Walter and Brother Atlee commented two powerful scriptures, all flesh is grass. And how many people do we see that, just when we drive around or walk in the cities that, look at me, it's all about me, my hair, my piercings, my tattoos, my clothes, my body. All flesh is grass, and it's going to be burned. And it's a good admonition for us all. That's not, that doesn't mean we have to be complete slobs and look like hobos, but in the sense that all flesh is grass is a thing that we're not concerned about the external appearances. And the Hebrews, one verse, comment on Hebrews, Brother Walter read, Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday, and forever more. And if you take that into context, the verse before and the verse after, don't be led away by strange doctrines. Brother Lloyd was talking earlier with me about some groups that have man-made commandments, and really basically false doctrine. And don't be led away by praying to Mary. By saying that divorce and remarriage is okay. By going to war, for dressing in modesty, for laying up riches, for doing all the things that many groups believe in. Because Jesus is the same today as yesterday. His doctrine is the same. A small thing that I've heard of, there's a radio station, and I don't listen to radio, but at Domino's they have a shaved ice place, buddy, a shaved ice, and they sell it right next to it, and they blast that music in the morning, and it's K-Love. K-Love is a quote Christian radio station. And they're trying, you know, they're talking about Jesus, the woman talk masters, they share their stories, and they're saying that people call up, and happy birthday, and you win a scholarship to the Ozark Bible College, and all the things. And I'm saying that I don't want to criticize them. I mean, they love God to a point, it's something like the dragnet, right? In the dragnet, you find both good and bad fish, and the angels will sort them out at the end. They do love God, you can't deny that. I thought K-Love was, you know, I didn't know what it was, but it's Christian rock, and I'm saying the songs, kind of like, I guess, I don't know what they call it, not heavy metal, but they were just, it wasn't peaceable, and pure, and easy to be treated. It gives you a headache to listen to, you know, in the songs they were singing, and they call it Christian rock. But, and I don't want to be condemning them. I mean, they, I pray for them. They're seeking the Lord. They actually think that this is the way we seek the Lord in the dragnet. But, anyway, thank you Walter for your lesson. The Lord be magnified. Yeah, this was my thought, Robert, is do the Muslims love God? Well, I believe they have a form of godliness. I mean, sure, yeah, I mean, I mean, I could say that somehow, like, what they call God, they love, and are dedicated to, but it's not, it's not, it's not my God. It's not my Lord, and that's what I think of false Christianity, you know what I mean? I, I think I did hear one time, when I was at Masio's and Monette, and they played Christian music one day, I think I did hear that song, Oh, the Grace that Saves, and it was, you know, quote, Christian rock. So, that's, that's, I'm not the judge, and I, you know, I know it's a narrow gate, but yeah, it's false doctrine, but I think we all were part of false doctrine at one time. I mean, we're still pressing forward, but there's certain things that, that, when I got from, from Catholicism, church, and Christ, all I went around doing for, for two or three years was sending out tracts on baptism. Baptism is the way, it isn't the sinner's prayer, it was baptism, but I didn't have any concept of a lot of the things that, I didn't know that the early Christians, or the, the Bible, or Sermon on the Mount is the way to go. So, but I, I, I, I agree with what you're saying, and I'd be magnified. Yeah, I was blessed by the reading of those scriptures, thanks. I'm enjoying the comments this morning. I just, I didn't have really a comment, I just had a question, Walter. Like, in, in both passages that you read, there was this phrase about, like, at the end of Hebrews, where it says, and also in 1 Peter, where Allie was pointing out that the word of the Lord would endure. Like, I have a little notation in my Bible that talks about the spoken word, and just, like, you didn't give a, a straight, necessarily, definition of what that's talking about, but like, what, what do you, what is the word? Is this thing on? Yeah, I, I was thinking of, might not have completed my thought on that, too, either, but like, when Jesus taught, like, specifically, more specifically, the Sermon on the Mount, and then the teachings, like, there in Hebrews 13, like, it's just, I think it's just such straightforward teaching. I, I take that as the word of God, and it will endure. These, these things will endure into heaven, into our judgment day, and the things we come up with, I have no confidence in, that they'll endure in judgment day. These words will. That's, I don't know if that explains it or not. Do you think, do you think, like, it's, includes, like, apostolic teachings, or just, just, like, the words of Jesus himself, or is that just getting too specific? Yeah, you're talking about the disciples? Well, the letters to the churches that we have? Yeah. No, I think they'd be sound. Um, they, the reason I take them as sound, I don't know if this makes sense, but it's because they, they did what Jesus, they started the church, in my opinion. Jesus came and taught them how to do, and they were the ones that actually started it, and therefore, I think they knew what they were doing. I don't know if that makes sense, but. No, it does. So, like, so then, like, to connect that all to your, the thoughts that you shared, like, that, that would be, that would be the part that you were talking about, that would be, like, obeying Christ's commands, and through that, we can be empowered, either by the Holy Spirit, or somehow, supernaturally, to, to be holy, rather than just speaking holy things, and having no regard for the word. Thanks for your message. God bless you. I was thinking about that whole, uh, difference between whether or not we should be, like, you know, these, these evangelicals that, that say they love God with their words, and whether or not we have to be, like, really highly theologically correct with them, and, um, but I think it's kind of like the, uh, two foundations in Matthew. It says, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who built his house upon the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and burst against that house, and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act upon them will be like a foolish man who builds his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and burst against that house, and it fell, and great was its fall. And there, it says, those that act, those that choose to physically, and mentally, and spiritually act upon what they are reading, not with their words. And I feel like so many times, going out witnessing, do I find myself stuck in these theological disgusting debates with these people who have no interest in God. But it's the, it's the lowly, those that are beaten down in society, that are far more willing to hear these words, that you will find that will choose to do something good. Um, concerning that subject of the word of the Lord, and then what all that is, and what it means, and what is not the word of the Lord, and why we can trust the apostles, and like, I think it again comes down largely to their life. If one of them speaks truth, and, and then acts contrary to what the Lord taught, then I wouldn't really trust their words anymore. But it seems, at least what I can understand, their, their writings, their lives, completely match up with what the Lord taught, and it just helps me to have confidence that their words are the words of the Lord. Um, especially when it comes to important matters. Maybe sometimes, Paul was speaking in terms that are hard to understand, and doesn't really apply to anything that, that affects our, our working out our salvation, and then I don't know really what to say, but on the things that are surrounding the Sermon on the Mount, and the important stories and parables that Jesus gave, they're right there. They just, they match up, and it just, I trust it, and I have confidence that it's the word of the Lord. And then, in the Old Testament, how many times was it when, when it says, and the word of the Lord came to, uh, so-and-so prophet, Isaiah or Jeremiah, and even lately I've been reading of the other, like lesser Hananiah, Robert, you know about Han, Hananiah? He, he prophesied to King Asa, remember that? Maybe, maybe something to discuss sometime, but I was kind of encouraged, and, and these, these prophets brought forth the word of the Lord to the kings. Oftentimes, it was for a rebuke to correct them, um, but in this instance, it was, it lifted them up where they made a, they made a holy covenant, or an oath to the Lord that they're going to stay committed and firm to him, Hananiah, 2nd Chronicles 13, or 14, I think. Anyhow, I think that would count as the word of God, because it says, the word, the word of the Lord came to prophet so-and-so, and he would go to the king and say, the word of the Lord says this and that, and if you do this or that, you won't have victory. The enemy will come and get you, and sometimes the kings would just get upset, and like Jeremiah, they stuck him in the dungeon because he spoke the word of the Lord. And I think today we have the, the ultimate prophet is the Lord Jesus. He is the high priest. He is the same yesterday as today, and, um, we need to count him as, as the prophet with the word of the Lord. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this beautiful day and this time we can spend together. Thank you for the protection we have from, from evil and many different ways, and we thank you for that. We pray that you would help us to increase more and more towards you, help us to strive, help us to be bold. Let your spirit be with us today, and as we continue, Father, that you would bless us with your, with your words and your encouragement that your will be done, not ours. In Jesus' name, amen. All his angels praise, proclaim, all his hosts together praise him, sun and moon and stars on high, he praise him, all ye heavenly gods above the sky, let them praise his name on all his high, and his glory is exalted, and his glory is exalted, and his glory is exalted far above the earth and sky. Let them praise his Jehovah, they were made at his command, and forever he established, his decree shall ever stand. From the earth, O praise Jehovah, all ye bloody dragons fall, iron, hail, and snow, and vapor, stormy winds that hear him call. Let them praise his Jehovah, for his name alone is high, and his glory is exalted, and his glory is exalted, and his glory is exalted far above the earth and sky. All ye fruitful trees and cedars, all ye hills and mountains high, priests, kings, and beasts, and cattle, birds that in the heavens fly, kings of earth and all ye people, princes, praetors, judges all, praise his name on men and maidens, ancient men and children small. Let them praise his Jehovah, for his name alone is high, and his glory is exalted, and his glory is exalted, and his glory is exalted far above the earth and sky. Every Christian lends an ear to hear the kingdom's splendor told, for he thinks that it appears to be prepared for their abode. But when spoken, and they hear it, of the cross that they must bear, when disciples we must be, to their heart to still agree. It is lonely when they're preaching, come to that heart every day, but it's hard to hear the teaching, enter through the narrow gate. When hosannas while they're singing, it sounds good, let's keep it ringing, crucify, atone, renege, families marry at new age. At the table when the Lord sits, he imparts what brings delight. But on college when you've got a sweat, no one stays awake at night. Praise to Jesus, hence his creator, when he's comfort to us gainers. But when he is face of time, straightway man is terrified. Christ alone to him abiding, all your love because he's Christ. For his sake you're self-denying, Christian can you pay the price? And should Jesus go and leave us, all numbers slowly leave us, Can you still say joyfully, I will still abide in thee? For your sake alone dear Jesus, worthy to be loved are you. You the soul's desire pleases, you are holy, pure and true. Your own nature undivided, way to love one has decided. We'll encounter by and by, all that earth can satisfy. Our esteem of joy and anguish, all I find to you pertains. Should my soul and body languish, yet I know with victory gains. For in every tribulation, Jesus, you're my consolation. And what loss I hear go through, I'm just as well as gaining you.