Wisdom's seven pillars
ID
na023
Idioma
EN
Duración
00:49:32
Cantidad
1
Pasajes de la biblia
Proverbs
Descripción
Wisdom's seven pillars
Transcripción automática:
…
I don't believe much.
Chapter 9, and then we'll go over from the 9th of Proverbs into the 3rd chapter of 1 Timothy.
And if we don't read any more than that at this point,
we will have to read several passages of the Word of God
as we go along with the Lord's Work.
The 9th chapter of Proverbs, verse 1.
Wisdom hath builded her house.
She hath hewn out her seven pillars.
She hath killed her eagles.
She hath mingled her wine.
She hath also furnished her table.
She sent forth her maidens.
She crieth upon the highest places of the city.
Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither.
As for him that wanteth understanding,
she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread,
and drink of the wine which I have mingled.
Forsake the foolish and live and grow in the way of understanding.
We'll read from the 3rd chapter of 1 Timothy.
Well-known verses at the end of the chapter.
1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 14.
These things write I unto thee,
hoping to come unto thee shortly.
But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know
how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God,
which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth,
and without controversy.
Great is the mystery of Godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit,
seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world,
received up into glory.
Received in glory.
I understand, of course, that expression is not just where he was received,
it was how he was received.
He was ejected, not just ejected, he was ejected here,
in gloriously.
He was received there gloriously.
Received in glory.
It covers, as we say, more than location.
It includes the character of his reception there.
Blessed thing to get that into our hearts.
These two or three verses, the first one anyway that I write is fairly well known, I take it.
I've never heard an address on it in my life.
I wrote a paper on it at one time or another when I was young.
If anybody was old enough to remember the man who gave the address that was published in the paper,
I'll tell you his name. He was a Londoner.
They called him Green, James Green.
I well remember when I was young reading a pamphlet entitled
Wisdom's Seven Pillars.
I'm not going to borrow James Green's Seven Pillars because I can't remember them all.
Some of them, of course, I remember.
But that's the only time I read anything about Wisdom's Seven Pillars.
The well-known verse, I know the preceding chapter is better known,
often alluded to in our morning meetings.
Our blessed Lord Jesus is presented, I believe, in these chapters as wisdom personified.
It was said some years ago, in order to bolster up the first teaching
that was thrust upon the saints of God and who were gladly welcomed by them,
that wisdom, in Proverbs, couldn't possibly refer to our Lord Jesus Christ.
I'll tell you the reasons they advance in a moment.
You know the setting of chapter 8. I'm not going to linger here. I must say a word.
But wisdom was there.
When God laid the foundations of the earth, wisdom says, I was there. I was there.
And wisdom is not just an abstract quality.
Because wisdom is personified in that chapter.
He says, rejoicing, he says indeed, and Mr. Burris, or a line anyway,
it's not that I want to dwell upon it, I haven't given any thought to that line,
but in view of the meeting, I'm not going to say I haven't given any thought to Proverbs chapter 8 before.
I would be wrong.
But he said, didn't he, speaking of the laying of the foundations of the earth, he says,
then was I by him.
And there's an expression that follows in our King James Version.
In America, they never talk about the authorized version.
Talk about the King James Version.
But in the King James Version, don't think I'm an American.
You're not brethren.
I'm not even Americanized, thank God.
So great.
We read, as one thought up with him, and I understand that expression,
literally could be rendered as his nursling.
It's the nursling of his bosom.
And the strange thing is that the wisdom in the Hebrew is a feminine word.
It's used to outline to us the peculiar relationship in which wisdom personified
stood in regard to another person in the Godhead.
I say another person in the Godhead because you cannot get away from the fact
if you read these verses in Proverbs 8, that wisdom personified is a person actually.
I ask myself the question, why should a feminine word be used to describe
the nursling of the Father's bosom?
Simply, I judge, because the application of wisdom
and its teaching in the book of Proverbs is of a subjective character.
If you go from chapter 1 to chapter 32 and reach the end,
you are irresistibly brought to the conclusion that God brings wisdom before us
in order that we be practically affected by it and live accordingly.
That's all I want to say about that.
Wisdom is of a subjective character, and that's why.
Wisdom. Though undoubtedly, according to Proverbs 8,
the speaker, the son of the Father's bosom,
is presented dramatically under a feminine word
because there's a subjective effect produced by the appreciation
of the one who is the object, as well as the subject, of the Father's bosom.
Well then, wisdom has builded a house.
We're going to dwell a lot on wisdom's house.
We're going to dwell a lot on these verses.
First thing we read is, wisdom has builded a house.
Wisdom's going to have a dwelling place.
She has hewn out her seven pillars.
If the Lord will, I want to speak about the seven pillars.
You'll notice in verse 2, wisdom has furnished a table.
And it's a blessed thing to know that there's a furnished table
for those who listen to wisdom.
And the furnished table, of course, speaks to the state of fellowship.
The table always speaks to fellowship.
Now fellowship, what did he do?
He did eat bread at the king's table continually.
He was introduced to a sphere of fellowship that naturally he had no title to.
And the Spirit of God tells us just after that.
You might think it's a remarkable thing that the Spirit of God should add to a man
who was so signally honoured that he did eat of the king's bounty continually
and he was named on both his feet.
I don't know what that means.
It means it's only there because grace was put on that.
It's kindness of God.
It's been shown too.
Well, wisdom has furnished a table.
There's a sphere of fellowship.
And it's spread with the dainties that divine resource has made available.
Wisdom can only build a house.
Wisdom doesn't only furnish a table and spread it with the good things.
Wisdom gives an invitation.
And we've got wisdom's invitation in verse 4.
Whoso is simple, let him turn another.
Why you say I'm not simple?
If you're not simple, you'll never learn.
We're all simple.
We're all simple.
And wisdom says, whoso is simple, let him turn in here, so on.
Come, eat of my bread, drink of the wine which I have mingled.
Forsake the foolish.
You can read that when you get the opportunity.
And you'll see the bearing of it.
Because even folly is personified in chapters 7, 8 and 9.
And obviously these are two opposing things.
Folly and wisdom.
So we read here, forsake the foolish and live and go in the way of understanding.
That's all I want to say about that.
And I say practically nothing about it.
But wisdom is divine resource.
Personified for us, of course, according to the third chapter of 1 Timothy,
in a real blessed living person.
I just want to add that to 1 Timothy chapter 3.
You might have thought, of course, I was going to labor to exhort a sense of God in regard to behavior.
We need it, of course.
Not my labor, but we need exhortation.
So I'm going to do that.
I hope with the Lord's help to be able to say a few things that might help us
to perceive divinely given exhortation in the Word of God in an appreciative way
and be glad to answer to it.
And we can only be like that when we become absorbed with a blessed theme.
On that next verse, I read verse 15, of course.
I'm referring particularly to verse 16.
Thy tarry long, says Paul, that thou mayst know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God.
Which is the church, the assembly of the living God, the pillar, the ground of the truth.
I'll just say two things here, or say something about two things here, as briefly as possible.
The pillar.
There are seven pillars in Proverbs.
I believe there are seven pillars, even in these two verses.
But the assembly as such is described as the pillar of the truth.
It may be in our western minds that we only think of pillars in a way of support.
Hold a ceiling up, hold a roof up, or something of the sort.
But in the Old Testament, if you were to just go back when you get the opportunity
and read of those two pillars that were put in the front of the oracle,
in Solomon's temple as we call it,
Jacob and Boaz, you'll find they held nothing up.
And if you take account of the measurements in relation to the measurements of the parts,
you'll find they didn't support anything.
They ornamented, and they witnessed.
Because pillars so often in the Old Testament are used not for actual structural support,
they're used for ornamentation sometimes, and they're used for inscription.
And if you've got an inscription, it's that you and I, or whoever is concerned,
might be able to read it and take account of it.
In other words, the assembly here as the pillar of the truth
is intended to be the vessel for the witness to the truth.
Of course, we couldn't witness to the truth if we didn't know what the truth was.
So the assembly is also the base of the truth.
Simply, if it is possible, all that means is, I take it,
I'm open to correcting, of course.
The moment we get to the point where we don't need teaching, there's something wrong with it.
But the base is the place where the truth reposes.
You know what the word repository means?
The assembly is the repository of the truth.
And once again, in 1st and 2nd Timothy, especially the 2nd epistle, we read of a deposit.
We read of a deposit in chapter 1 of Timothy.
There's something deposited.
But if it's deposited, it must be deposited somewhere.
And what is deposited, of course, is the truth of God.
The grandeur of the revelation of God.
And it's deposited in the assembly.
And because the assembly is the repository of the truth of God,
it can be a witness to the truth of God.
I just say that by the way.
What is the truth of God?
As far as this portion is concerned, we read in verse 16,
there's not any argument at all.
It's not that there was no argument.
It's not that there was no controversy.
There's any amount of it even in that day.
And many of these things are written to counter that kind of thing.
It's due in his day.
He says, brethren, I'm not quarreling.
Correctly, I know.
And it's what you might call paraphrasing.
You know, he says, I'd be delighted to write to you about the common salvation.
But he says, the state of things is so bad,
I've got the right to urge you to contend earnestly for the faith,
once delivered to the saints.
In the apostolic days, there was plenty contention.
There was plenty disputation.
Preaching the gospel here, we read a word, didn't we?
From Acts 17, Paul even in his preaching, he disputed.
What did he dispute about?
His opinion? Of course not.
The truth of God in contrast to the vain speculation of philosophy.
Well, anyway, he says here, without any argument,
he says, great is the mystery of godliness.
You might ask yourselves, what is godliness?
I'm not raising these questions and speaking humbly,
simply to answer them because I think you don't know them.
Don't think that for a moment, dear brethren.
The Apostle Peter says, I stir up your pure life by way of remembrance.
Well, godliness, if you read Mr. D'Armidore, he always used the word piety.
This means bringing God into everything.
Bringing God into everything.
And we've all got something to do with this matter of godliness.
Bringing God into everything.
Second epistle to Timothy,
in a day of failure, declension, breakdown, healing up,
all there that will live godly in Christ Jesus, etc.
The Apostle takes it, there are those who have a will to live
in this blessed fashion, bringing God into everything.
Well, what we get in this verse, of course,
is that bringing God into everything,
in the most perfect possible fashion,
brought into everything, livingly,
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I want to talk about him.
A few moments, I hope I'll be able, if the Lord helps me,
to devote myself to speaking about him.
First of all, I would just say this.
If you only write down the end, from the end of verse 16,
God was manifest in the flesh.
God was.
It doesn't say there was a manifestation of God, which is true enough, of course.
But you know there were manifestations of God in the Old Testament.
But God was manifest in the flesh.
It wasn't just manifested when our blessed Lord was here, God was here.
God was manifest in flesh, number one.
Justified in the Spirit, number two.
Seen of angels, number three.
Preached to the Gentiles, number four.
Believed on in the world, number five.
Received up in the glory, number six.
I said to myself, when I first really came face-to-face with this verse,
I don't mean to be, of course.
Why, in such a tremendous statement of truth, should there be only six?
Nothing.
You'd expect seven, wouldn't you?
Seven is a perfect number.
Six is incomplete.
Six belongs to the realm of feeling man's responsible character of things.
That's why when you come to the consummation of opposition to God in the book of Revelation,
you come to the number of his name is six, six, six.
Three sixes.
One, two, three.
Three speaks of fullness.
But it's the fullness of evil there.
Six, one short of that perfect number.
And three times over, it's repeated.
The consummation of evil personified in a man who's opposed to the Christ of God.
Well, we don't dwell on that in time, but wouldn't we?
But here, I ask myself the question, why should there only be six facets in connection
with the mystery of godliness?
I would have expected, as I've said, seven.
Well, I'm not the proprietor for what I'm now going to say.
Some of you will remember the late Willy Varnes or Solzhenitsyn.
I'm speaking of his son.
You know him, the brother who died down in Jordan?
Man of God.
Intelligent in the word of God.
In his house one night, I says, Willy, why do you think there's only six features?
At the end of the third chapter of 1 Timothy, you were talking about it.
Well, actually, I'll tell you a story.
That's a great story.
Nobody says the statement doesn't really start there, you know.
It starts in verse 15.
It says, the seventh feature is the assembly as the vessel formed of God to contain the
truth of what is presented to us livingly in the person of God, manifest in flesh.
In verse 16.
Well, I thought that would do it.
That's seven, isn't it?
But again, the number seven, the seventh word, last.
The first things we consider in verse 16 of this remarkable chapter, just touching them,
God was manifest in the flesh.
Brethren, there is need today, more than ever, for the repeated declaration of our
definite faith, scripture-wise, in the truth of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, God,
was manifest in the flesh.
Oh, you say everybody believes that?
Don't you think that at all?
It's not true.
Christendom, and we are part of Christendom, you know, don't think when I say Christendom
I'm looking upon ourselves as something magnificent because I'm not.
Christendom is rigorous today, more than ever it was, for the denial of the truth, the Godhead
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The great mystery of godliness, God brought into everything, is crystallized and concentrated
in the presentation to us of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, God, was manifest in
flesh.
I believe, of course, you could spend all the meeting on that one phrase, God was manifest
in flesh.
He was, to say yes, was.
This is a historical statement.
We'll twist it again if the Lord will.
God was manifest in flesh, justified in the spirit.
I wonder, and I wonder if you wonder, what does that mean, justified in the spirit?
I know when I read the gospels that our blessed holy Lord moved and acted in the power of
the spirit, I know that.
I know that Romans chapter 1 verse 4 tells us he was declared son of God, and he was
declared such according to the spirit of holiness, and I know he was declared such
by resurrection, not from the dead, but of dead ones.
See that in the gospels?
There'll be the widow of Nain's son, there'll be Jairus' daughter, there'll be Lazarus.
He brought them into life, but he brought them back to the condition in which they had
I would just say this in passing.
Questions have been raised, of course.
What happened to these people that the Lord raised from the dead?
I even heard a brother say he didn't believe that they would ever see death again.
But the condition in which our Lord was at the time of the resurrection of these people
determined the condition in which they were raised to.
Our Lord was here in the condition of flesh and blood before the cross.
They were raised to that condition, and that's all I'd say about it.
You can think it out for yourselves after that.
There were those, I know in the gospels, in the gospels, anti-gospels, when that terrible
climax was arrived at, and our holy Lord, Lord is head and eyes, my God, my God.
Why are you so forsaken, ladies?
Creation shuddered as he died.
The heaven was shaken that day.
His son.
And we read, many of the bodies, I know I missed a few words, but that doesn't matter.
Many of the bodies of the saints which slept arose and went into the city.
After his resurrection, and after his resurrection does not belong only to the expression, went
into the city.
It belongs to the whole expression, many of the bodies of the saints which slept arose
and went into the city after his resurrection.
They were raised after his resurrection.
And I would just simply repeat and leave it to meditate upon it.
When our Lord raised, and others were raised, and I say our Lord raised, and he raised people
in the exercise of his power.
He raised them to the condition in which he then was.
And those we refer until the end of Matthew's gospel, they were raised to the condition
in which he was.
All I would say is, I don't believe that they were left here to go through death.
That's what I say.
That's not our subject, I know.
Justifying in the spirit.
The spirit put its feet upon the whole cross on the blessed pathway of God manifest himself.
I believe that's true.
And probably that's the prime import of the expression here.
Now I'm going to say something else.
And it's not heresy here, brethren.
It's not idol conjecture either.
Do you know that the spirit of God has put his feet upon the way that our Lord moved
here?
And all that's manifested in the succeeding expressions in this verse, by sealing the
of our Lord's redeeming work, which includes you and me, we believe the gospel truly.
When you and I were sealed, and when I say you and I, I mean the Christian company, the
assembly.
We're sealed with the spirit.
The spirit was putting a stamp of approval on the manner in which God had drawn near
to man.
God was manifesting to us.
And you say that yesterday.
Leave it with you.
Consider.
And you don't just hunt, you've got to roast.
What do you take in the hunting?
Paul says to Timothy, meditate on this.
Paul said, I'm not saying this, I'm just repeating Paul's word for Paul's word.
Paul said, consider what I say.
The Lord will give thee understanding in all things.
I know I'm quoting a new translation there.
It's a little different.
I mean different from the authorised version.
Consider what I say.
The Lord will.
It's not a prayer.
It's not a hope that the Lord will give you, but he will.
What you've got to do is consider it.
You don't get anything for nothing in the path of the acquisition of the truth of God.
You might say simply, you're introduced freely.
You're recused with me into the scheme of divine blessing.
On the ground of the finished work of Christ's Calvary.
But after that you pay every step of the way.
I know I'm like that.
It's the idea that you're saying, I sit down and the truth of God drops out of your lap.
Doesn't do nothing.
You've got to do a bit of considering.
You've got to do a bit of searching.
A bit of meditating.
A bit of praying.
When I said to him recently, he said, I can't understand that.
You know you said something last night to me, didn't you?
And he said, I thought about it for two hours.
I said, my dear brother, I thought about it for thirty years.
You can't get it in seconds.
Give yourself, says Paul.
Well, I believe the Spirit of God has put the seal of his approval on the manner in
which God came near to man in the person of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, after whom
it is written, God was manifest in flesh, justified in the spirit.
The word justified means the Spirit has perfectly said, you are right.
The way you came was just the right way.
Justified.
Nothing to do with a legal idea.
It is down to you and me meaning to be made right with God.
The Spirit of God is declaring that the approach of God to man in the manner in which he approached
him in the person of his Son was just right.
And that was it.
Seal of angels.
Paul says Isaiah in chapter 6.
Wonderful chapter.
Beginning of the chapter.
He says, In the year that King Isaiah died, I also saw the Lord.
High and lifted up, and his train filled the temple, and the posts of the doors were moved.
There was something awesome, majestic, awe-inspiring about the presence of God.
And he said, instead of him there, he cried out, Holy, Holy, Holy.
Lord God of hosts.
I remember, I just did it by the way.
Lying in hospital at one time, somebody told me, they brought a fellow into that ward there.
He was in a little place in the main ward where they've done that.
So the fellow went, he said, he's a hobo.
You know what a hobo is?
A cunt.
Well, that's interesting.
So when I get out of bed, I'm going to say, the hobo.
I get out of bed, went down to the ward.
And you know, those days they didn't have hospitals, barbers, the way they were.
No, they had one man for the whole of Newcastle General Hospital.
It wasn't known as such then.
Of course, there was nothing that he could do.
Even as to what he had to do.
The fellows who couldn't shave themselves were glad for another person to go around what he said he was.
And a couple of people in Morley Blade, they called them, went off with a shaver.
I was hoping he'd say, oh, I'm not too momentary.
I said, sir, would you like me to shave you?
He looked at me.
He said, you know, it's hard.
He meant his beard was hard, but I noticed it too.
Probably was as hard as his was.
But I noticed something else when I saw him.
Apart from the stubble on his chin.
And I waited till I got him well flubbered.
And I said to him, I am of the true circumcision.
He was a Jew, you see.
He looked at me.
He said, you're a Christian.
I said, beg your pardon?
He said, you're a Christian.
Why do you say that?
Well, he said, two things.
What you've just said.
And the fact that you've offered to shave a man like me.
Well, anyway, that's by the way.
I just mentioned that.
I didn't mean to give him to the poor fellow.
I had a good conversation with him.
This all arises out of what I referred to in Isaiah 6.
And he said to me after some conversation, I'll tell you what I've got against you Christians.
Well, I said, what have you got against us Christians?
You've got free God.
Oh, I see.
Where did you find that?
Well, he said, you talk about God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost.
I said, beg your pardon?
First time in my life I met you.
I never talked about that to you, have I?
No.
And I said, I honestly wouldn't.
I don't talk about God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost.
Oh, you see?
Do you mean to say you stand there tonight and you don't believe that the Son is God?
I never said that at all.
I talk about God.
Because Scripture does.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Lord Jesus said at the end of Matthew, when he commissioned the disciples, baptizing them in the name.
Not me.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
So I said to this man on this day, and I'll have to get moving later.
Why do you think the holy burners, the seraphim, were crying, holy, holy, holy?
Why didn't they say, holy, holy?
Or why didn't they say, holy, holy, holy, holy?
Three times.
Holy, holy.
I don't know.
He said, do you know Hebrew?
Yes.
I'm not telling the whole story.
Just two numbers.
I said, do you know any old grammar?
Unlike our grammar, we've only got two numbers.
You've got three numbers.
Singular, dual, and plural.
And plural means more than two, singular.
I said, you tell me why the first noun in regard to God in the Bible is a plural noun.
In the beginning, Elohim created it.
Well, then I said, Isaiah says the holy burners said, holy, holy, holy.
There is a triunity of persons in the bloodhead.
And those angels had never seen God.
With twain they had six wings.
Twain they covered their faces.
Twain they covered their feet.
With twain they did fly.
They covered their faces whenever they had to hearken to the word of God, sending them on any measure.
They never saw God until they saw him manifest in flesh.
What a sight for an angel to see the august majesty of Godhead veiled in a charming grin.
And that blessed man moved in.
Well, priest, come and get that.
You can't confine this to Judaism.
It must be happening to Isaiah, Genesis 49.
Joseph, Jacob catches out the issue of tribulation.
What should we call him in the last days?
Joseph is a fruitful bough.
A fruitful bough by your way.
He branches.
Run over the wall.
I know what you call a wet wall, isn't it?
The reason that there's any meaning here at all in this place if it is called a wet wall
is because the branches of the true Joseph ran over the wall.
What wall?
The wall of partition.
The middle wall of partition.
Grace has broken it down because of the grace of God.
Salvation bringing for all men has appeared.
And it appeared in this blessed person.
God was manifested.
Was manifested, I should have said, in flesh.
Preached to the nations.
That's why you and I are here.
So blessed tonight.
And thank God.
Obviously, believe it or not.
In the world we see it gloriously.
All the glories we see them.
He was cast out, as we said, ingloriously.
The whole story of the cross is there.
But he was received in glory.
Think of the glory.
Throwing his gates open to us.
Ready to receive them.
Be seized in glory.
Psalm 24.
It has nothing to do with a verse, I know.
I'm only going to borrow now the poetic language.
Psalm 24.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors,
and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord.
Strong.
Mighty in battle.
He is the King of glory.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors,
and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is the King of glory?
The Lord of hosts.
It's Lord God of the earth.
It's the Lord of Isaiah, sir.
He is the King of glory.
I know the subject.
I'm not going to go into it.
It's nearly done as far as the cross is concerned.
Oh, it's a dreadful thing.
I've never looked cross enough.
Come on, I'm glad they are.
I'll treat you to more stuff.
Never mind.
We've got something better.
It's worth talking about.
I'm just going to run briefly now.
Briefly if possible.
I hope not casually.
Luther.
Wisdom and build a house.
It's you and I, the seven pillars.
The first pillar to take account of
in regard to the establishment
of wisdom's house
is the incarnation
of the Son of God.
Can't dwell on these things.
There's no time tonight anyway.
I'm just going to refer to them.
What a wonder
that grace should come here.
This is a particular theme of Luke's letter
in the Passion of the Son.
He means
that holy thing
which shall be born
shall be called
Son of God.
What a wonderful thing
to think that God
came down from glory to us
to dwell among men.
I heard my groom say,
to me who dwell in here,
are old enough to remember
hearing my groom,
you may have heard him say,
I heard him say more than once,
the creation
of man
necessitated Bethlehem.
You can feel all that
because there's something in it.
The creation of man
necessitated Bethlehem.
Of course, Bethlehem is associated
with reincarnation.
That's what he's getting at.
The creation of man
necessitated Bethlehem.
The fall of man
necessitated Calvary.
And so far as responsible history
on the part of man is concerned,
the story that starts
in Luke's Gospel
with the exercise of salvation
bringing grace
ends with these words.
And I quote them
from chapter 23 of Luke's Gospel.
When they were come
to the place
which is called Calvary,
there they crucified him.
A matter of interest,
for you who are interested,
put alongside of that
reminds me,
when you're reading,
when you get the opportunity,
the beginning of John 12.
Then Jesus six days
before the Passover
came to Bethany
where Lazarus was
whom he had raised from the dead.
There they made him a supper.
Put alongside of Luke 23,
verse 33 or thereabouts.
When they were come
to the place which is called Calvary,
there they crucified him.
There they made him a supper.
Two different stories.
Oh, how different.
One, he was the object of hatred.
The other, the object of attacking.
And it's great.
It's taken me out of the first circle
and put me on the other.
It feeds them
because it adores them.
So the story that starts.
The advent of the Son of God
takes us to Calvary.
The fall of man.
Necessity of cancer.
All the designs of blessings
from the heart of God
were for men,
not for angels,
but for men.
And that's why
the incarnation was essential.
Christ became a man
to implement
the design of the heart of God
and the blessing of men.
He went to Calvary because man fell.
And he went to Calvary
to do for God
and the blessing of men
what fallen men could never
do for themselves
in an eternity of endeavor
He established the glory of God
by dying sacrificially at the cross.
The first pillar was his incarnation.
The second was the temptation
in the wilderness
in which in obedience
to the word of God
he morally overcome the devil
who slunk away from him
morally defeated
only to gather his forces
in view of returning
to make another assault
upon our holy Lord
as he later did
as our Lord said elsewhere
the prince of this world cometh
and findeth nothing in me.
The third pillar
was seen in the transfiguration
of our Lord
his glorious preeminence
and supremacy
and his administrative ability
to fill out for God
all that broke down
in the hands of failing men
under the law
and the prophetic system
he secure all
and bring it out in glory
shortly in the world to come
and Gethsemane
number four
attests his perfect devotion
and obedience
father if thou be willing
remove this cup from me
nevertheless
not my will
but thine be done
number five of course
that we've touched a little on
is the glory
of his redeeming death
his crucifixion
his obedience
took him unto death
to establish the will of God
and lay the righteous foundation
for the glory of God
and the blessing of men
number six
brings before us
the triumph of his resurrection
death defeated
the tomb is empty
and the empty tomb
points to the glory
so pillar number seven
which we refer to particularly
in our consideration of 1st Timothy
chapter 3
verse 16
his reception
in glory
so he
the exalted man is now
at the right hand of God
and if we've looked a little
feebly
and very fragmentarily
at these seven pillars
we are looking forward to the day
when the glorious manifestation
of all the blessed issue
of God manifest
in the flesh
shall be universally seen
he shall be acclaimed
the universal government
shall be in his blessed
worthy hands
may we in our day
until we meet him face to face
be true to him
for his blessed
namesake
Amen …