413: Sam Snelling - Exhortation: Known by God, Redeemed by Christ and Examined by the Word

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:03

   Welcome to good Christophian talks. Thank you for. Joining us this week on this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our Daily News feed. Each week we post a talk that we previewed from suggestions sent in by listeners from around the world. Then we record a short intro beforehand as a personalized recommendation to you on why we are sharing the talk. And now let’s talk more about this week’s talk. Hello, it’s Levi.

2. 0:35

   I’m really excited to share Brother Sam Stelling’s exhortation Known by God, redeemed by Christ, and examined by the Word. Brother Sam presented this on June 21st of this year and that date’s kind of important because he does actually refer to all three of the daily readings in his exhortation, Ruth, Isaiah and Revelation.

3. 0:57

   And I really enjoyed that. I maybe it’s just, you know, being old fashioned, but I do enjoy when all of the by readings are included. This was a really excellent exhortation. Brother Sam is a doctor and he has lots of kind of doctor’s notes in the exhort as well as just a lot of really great one liners.

4. 1:17

   It’s a very well written exhort. He talks about how the God who examines is also the God who saves. He talks about how we are known and used by God whether or not we want to comply, like Cyrus in Isaiah. So really great excitation. Again, very memorable. Really excited to to share it. I wanted to thank all of our Co hosts through the summer, brother Bryan Adams, Gideon Ryan, Reuben Norton, Adam Stark, Levi McKinley and St.

5. 1:47

   Neal. It was so it’s it’s always a treat to kind of lay down the responsibility of finding a talk and and pass it on. I mean, I don’t know. It’s so much easier now that we have I only go every six weeks than I used to go every two weeks. But still very thankful to the to the brothers who who helped us out through the summer. So thank you to them.

6. 2:07

   So here is known by God, redeemed by Christ, examined by the Word, by Brother Sam Snelling. Good morning my dear brothers and sisters, It’s lovely to be back with you. Have you ever experienced that strange moment when someone knows your name and you have absolutely no idea who they are? Perhaps you’ve been walking through a shopping centre perhaps, and someone smiles warmly and says in my case it will be.

7. 2:35

   Hello Sam. And immediately your mind starts racing. How do they know me? Where have I met them? Is that someone I know from school? Is that someone I know from the inclusion environment? Is that is that a patient I treated once? Or is that someone from the hospital environment? I can’t place them.

8. 2:56

   And while you’re desperately trying to remember, they’re continuing the conversation with you very nicely, as though you’ve been known to each other for years.

9. 3:07

   There’s something remarkable about being known. Not simply recognised, not simply seen, but known. Because being known means that someone has paid attention to you. They have remembered. They have taken notice. In this example, perhaps you’ve not taken notice of them. But the point remains that being known means that someone has paid attention.

10. 3:39

    And the remarkable truth which is running through all of our daily readings today is that God knows people. Not generally, not collectively, personally. Isaiah 45 in our reading today opens with God calling Cyrus by name over a century before his birth. Ruth, chapters 3 and 4, they give us a story where God is quietly guiding the life of a widowed foreigner who probably felt entirely insignificant. And our readings in Revelation open with the Lord Jesus Christ walking amongst the lampstands, saying repeatedly, I know, I know thy works, I know thy tribulation, I know where thou dwellest, I know.

11. 4:31

    And perhaps there’s no greater comfort and no greater challenge then that simple truth. God knows, and it’s interesting for us to think about that that God knows before we do. And so with that, in the back of our minds, when we consider Isaiah 45, we can conclude that this is one of the most astonishing chapters in the whole of Scripture.

12. 5:02

    Imagine when you’re reading Isaiah 45. You’re a a Jewish captive in Babylon. Jerusalem lies in ruins, the temple’s been destroyed, the throne of David is empty, and everything which God has promised seems impossible. Then the words which Isaiah records spoken by Yahweh about 150 years before the events occur, says in verse one of Isaiah 45.

13. 5:29

    Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have Holden to subdue nations before him. Imagine hearing that not merely that a deliverer will come, but that God already knew His name. It’s too. I will go before thee, he says, and make the crooked places straight. I’ll break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder are the bars of iron.

14. 5:55

    And I’ll give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches, and secret places, that thou mayest know that I the Lord will call thee by thy name, and the God of Israel for Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect. I have even called thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

15. 6:15

    I am Yahweh, and there is none else. There is no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast not known me. And that word elect in verse 4 is chosen or selected in Hebrew. And the word for called in verse 4 is the Hebrew word Cara, which means to address by name.

16. 6:37

    I have called thee. It means more than simply identifying someone. It carries the sense of appointing them, summoning, summoning them, assigning them a purpose. God is effectively saying, Cyrus, before you exist, I know who you are, and I know why you’re here. Oh, Cyrus certainly didn’t know that. He had no idea. He believed he was building an empire, conquering nations, expanding influence. Yet Heaven saw something entirely different, as it says in four and five, though thou hast not known me. And one of the most striking aspects of Isaiah 45 is that in the contrast there between God and his knowledge of Cyrus, on the other hand, is Cyrus’s ignorance of God. I girded thee, though thou hast not known me. And the Hebrew word for known yadah often implies more than simple awareness.

17. 7:39

    It speaks of relationship. It speaks of recognition, of personal knowledge. Cyrus was known by God long before he knew anything of Yahweh. In fact, God had named him, raised him up, directed his path

18. 7:57

    way more than a century before his birth. And it’s a powerful reminder to us, isn’t it, that God is often at work in human lives long before we recognise his hand. Looking back in our lives, many of us can see moments where God was quietly shaking, shaping circumstance, opening doors, guiding events, before we fully understood his purpose.

19. 8:23

    The phrase I girded thee is equally significant. The Hebrew word there conveys the idea of equipping or strengthening or fastening on a warrior’s belt before battle.

20. 8:38

    Cyrus to the world appeared as a self-made conqueror, but Yahweh declares him that he is the provider of every victory. He gave him the opportunity. He gave him the ability to do what he did, and the lesson is a humbling one for us. Human achievements can often foster self-reliance. Yet God reminds us, He reminds Cyrus, that all strength and opportunity originate with him. The victories of nations and the experiences of individuals alike alike are under God’s control.

21. 9:20

    There’s also a sobering contrast in the life of Cyrus. He was chosen by God. He was empowered by God. He was used mightily in God’s purpose. Yet there’s little evidence that he ever truly came to know the God who is directing his life. There’s a stark reality, brothers and sisters, that it’s possible to experience God’s Providence without fully responding to his calling.

22. 9:53

    Cyrus was an instrument in God’s hand, but we as believers, we’re called to something greater than usefulness alone. We’re invited into a relationship with our God, our heavenly Father. The challenge of the verse is therefore personal. It’s not simply whether God’s been working in our lives, but whether we’ve come to truly know the God who has been working in our lives all along.

23. 10:24

    God can still use us whether we choose to respond or not. So in summary, the remarkable thing is that Cyrus is moving according to a purpose he cannot see. And brothers and sisters, it’s true, Isn’t ourselves most in our lives? Most of us would love a road map. We would love God to tell us what’s going to happen next week, next month, next year, the next decade. Where will we be?

24. 10:50

    What difficulties might arise? What opportunities might arrive in our lives? Who will we meet? What relationships will develop? What will happen with our children? Will we have children? What will happen as they grow up? Their careers, our careers, life events? What Providence’s are unfolding? We would love to know all of that, but instead God gives us just enough, just enough light for the next step, not the whole journey.

25. 11:22

    And that’s where faith lives. Faith lives in taking that next step. And Isaiah 45 then goes on to establish this almighty divine creator and it’s narrative. And then we’re introduced in verse 15. Come there with me. One of the most profound observations in Scripture. Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself, oh God of Israel, the Saviour.

26. 11:58

    And that word hidest is the Hebrew Hebrew word sotha, which means to conceal or to hide. A God who conceals himself, a God who works behind the curtain, a God whose fingerprints are everywhere but whose hand is rarely seen directly. As a doctor, one of the things which constantly amazes me is how much happens inside of each and every one of our bodies right now, completely unseen.

27. 12:34

    It’s interesting because we often spend a lot of time in our lives developing the things we can control. We practice a sport, we learn an instrument, we improve our fitness, we refine a skill at work, and perhaps after years of effort, we become quite accomplished at those things. It’s easy to feel that successes come from our own determination and ability. Yet all the while, for each and every one of us, there is something far more remarkable going on in the background right now.

28. 13:08

    All of you sitting here, me standing here. We’re not consciously telling our heart to beat. We’re not consciously telling our lungs to breathe or our digestive system to work. We’ve got what is known as the autonomic nervous system, which carries out its work quietly in the background. Autonomic just means that the bodily functions are going on spontaneously, without our conscious control. Moment by moment, whether we think about them or not, we hardly notice it.

29. 13:37

    Day in, day out, it continues keeping you alive. We simply assume it will be there tomorrow as it was today. Perhaps you’ve never even thought about it. But if that hidden system were to fail, suddenly all those skills we spent years perfecting become irrelevant. The table tennis bat gets put down. The instrument falls silent. The gym routine stops.

30. 14:01

    The office desk becomes empty. Everything we proudly control depends entirely on something we don’t control at all. And there’s a spiritual lesson in us, in this, for us. Because God so often works in ways that are hidden from view, we can become so absorbed in the physical parts of life, on the visible parts of life, the plans we make, the achievements we pursue, the problems we solve. Yet behind it all is that sustaining hand of God. As Paul tells the Athenians, in him we live and move and have our being.

31. 14:43

    The autonomic nervous system is a quiet reminder that the most important things are not always the most visible. Just as our bodies depend every second on processes we can’t, or we rarely notice, our lives depend every day on a God who remains unseen. And that’s not a discouraging thought. It’s a comforting 1.

32. 15:07

    The God who sustains us is at work even when we’re not thinking about him. We like to think we’re thinking about God all the time, but we’re not. His care for us is far more constant than our awareness of it. So we can be encouraged that what is invisible is often far more important than that which is visible. And Providence often works out in exactly the same way. We usually only see the symptoms of Providence. God sees and develops the entire processes and the underlying ’cause we see the immediate problem, God sees the final outcome.

33. 15:49

    We see chapter 1 and God sees chapter 40. And nowhere is that more beautifully illustrated than our readings and Ruth. Come back to Ruth chapter 1. So yesterday’s readings, Ruth chapter 1 and 2, Today’s readings, Ruth chapter 3 and 4. But let’s just get to the start of the story and Ruth. Naomi could not see chapter 40.

34. 16:22

    She could barely survive chapter 1. Let’s just remind ourselves what happens because it says in chapter 1, verse one. Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land and a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

35. 16:39

    The name of that man was Elimelech. In the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Malhan and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. Then Elimelech Naomi’s husband died, and she was left, and her two sons. Now they took wives of the women of Moab. The name of 1 was Orpa, and the name of the other Ruth, and they dwelt there about 10 years.

36. 17:02

    Then the brother, then both Mahon and Chilian also died. So the women survived her two sons and her husband. So her husband dies, her sons die, her security disappears, her future seems hopeless. And eventually we read in, in verse 20, she’s come back to Bethlehem saying call me Mara, call me bitter. Imagine the emotional burden she’s faced to get to that moment of declaration.

37. 17:33

    Imagine the questions, the prayers at night which seem unanswered, the Knights wondering why? Why is this happening to me? Lord help me. And many of you here will have known similar moments. The loss of health, the loss of a loved one, the loss of certainty. And perhaps like Naomi, we’ve, we’ve wondered where was God? Where are you?

38. 18:05

    Perhaps we’ve we’ve felt bitter. Perhaps we’ve called ourselves bitter. Yet the extraordinary thing here about the story of Ruth is that while Naomi is feeling abandoned, the God behind the curtain is orchestrating redemption. Every event is moving towards a purpose that she cannot see yet. And that’s the Providence we often miss and come to chapter 2, one of those beautiful phrases there and verse 3, she happened, Ruth happened to come to the field of Boaz or Hap, you know, in the King James humanly speaking, coincidence, biblically speaking, Providence.

39. 18:52

    Now I remember speaking to a brother many years ago who’s reflecting on his baptism. He told me about a seemingly ordinary day in his life when he missed a train and he was frustrated. He was waiting on the platform, sitting down sometimes, looking at the screen, trying to work out what he was going to do. This isn’t the days before everyone had a mobile phone, unaware what to do.

40. 19:15

    Unaware that what felt like an inconvenience at the time would become a turning point in his life. Because while he waited, he struck up a conversation with a sister lasted about 10:15 minutes. Nothing dramatic happened. There was no miracle. There was no sudden train which appeared, no vision, no voice from heaven. Just a simple conversation between two people. Yet that brief encounter led to an invitation to a Bible class. And Bible classes led to a growing understanding of the truth.

41. 19:45

    That understanding led to baptism. And a baptism led to embarking on a lifetime of service to God. And many years later he was looking back over the path his life had taken. And he said at that time I thought I’d missed my train that day. But then he smiled and added it turned out that God had a different journey planned for me.

42. 20:06

    What appeared to be a missed connection was in reality a divine appointment. What seemed like a chance hap was Providence. Looking back, he could see that God had been quietly directing events long before he recognised his hand. And that is the story of Ruth, brothers and sisters. Ordinary decisions, ordinary encounters, ordinary days, yet behind them all is the unseen hand of God, guiding events towards his purpose.

43. 20:36

    And perhaps that’s true for us in many ways. We often ask, why is this happening to me? Yet years later, we look back and realise the better question was what was God doing for me? For while we saw coincidence or disappointment or delay, our Father may have been gently leading us towards a destination far greater than the one we had planned ourselves. But as the story of Ruth unfolds, Ruth arrives at the feet of Boaz.

44. 21:07

    Varied. The language is full of covenant significance when here in Ruth chapter 2 verse 20, Naomi recognises that he’s a a close relative with a right to redeem their their family inheritance. He says the man is a near kin unto US, one of our next kinsmen. He becomes what is known as the goel in Hebrew, the kinsman Redeemer, the one who’s willing and able to restore what has been lost. And that word is beautiful.

45. 21:36

    The Hebrew word is not really a rescuer, not merely a benefactor. He’s a family Redeemer. And the theme with the goel develops through the book, particularly in in Ruth chapter 3 and verse 9 where Ruth asked Boaz to spread thy skirt. And that that Hebrew word there for skirt in chapter 3 verse 9 is the Hebrew word kenaf or wing. Spread it over her because He is the goel and that that connects directly to Ruth 2, verse 12, where Boaz has commended Ruth for seeking refuge under Yahweh’s wings, the the same Hebrew word, Kanath.

46. 22:15

    Ruth first sought shelter under God’s wings, and then God provided refuge through Boaz, his chosen Redeemer. And by Ruth chapter 4, Boaz formally fulfills that role of the Goel, the Redeemer, redeeming both the inheritance and Ruth herself. And we know it in that way. He’s a powerful type of Christ through whom God’s redeeming care is ultimately revealed. Our minds are drawn to someone who enters into your problem, although it was his own.

47. 22:49

    Our minds are drawn to Christ because that’s exactly what he did. Hebrews we know very well, tells us He shared our nature. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy Him that had the power of death. That is the devil.

48. 23:13

    This 18 of that same chapter in Hebrews Feridnad. He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted. Christ experienced our weaknesses, He faced our temptations, He bore our burdens. He became our near kinsman so that he might become our Redeemer.

49. 23:33

    And with the background concept of being known, having a God who notices, who knows us. There’s something else beautiful about Boaz because he notices Ruth. Others saw a poor widow, a foreigner, A Moabite S, someone gathering scraps. But Boaz, he saw faith, he saw character, he saw integrity. And brothers and sisters, Perhaps one of the greatest needs in our age is to remember that God notices things the world doesn’t.

50. 24:08

    The world around us notices beauty. It notices success, influence, popularity, self proclamation. But our God notices faithfulness, kindness, patience, quiet service, integrity, the things that are often overlooked by everyone else, the quiet attitude of service, dedication to our ecclesia. Perhaps you’re raising a family and you’re exhausted. You’ve struggled to get up today because all night you’ve been awake with a child. You’ve managed to get the kids ready to go to the ecclesia and you just about make it.

51. 24:49

    But perhaps you’ve had to run out with the little one, most of the talk, or most of their meeting, and you’ve just about made it. And you’re there in the lobby, the classically cramped cry room perhaps from most of our halls, and you’re trying your best. And yet you feel like that. Times whizzed by in an absolute blur.

52. 25:10

    You’ve barely heard the talk, you had little interaction, and then you’ve headed home. You may understandably sometimes ask, was it even worth it? Well, the simple answer is yes, because these moments are not missed by God. Perhaps you’ve got older children and the weight of concern for them leaves you weary and anxious about what challenges are coming in your life or going on right now.

53. 25:37

    Perhaps you’re carrying health worries, financial pressures, emotional burdens that seem overwhelming. Maybe loneliness has settled in, and coming along to the ecclesia itself feels difficult from a place of isolation.

54. 25:57

    You may be troubled by choices being made around you. You feel disappointed, conflicted, discouraged. And so the question arises, should I stay home or should I go? Yet it’s often those very days when attendance feels hardest that we actually need the fellowship of God’s family the most.

55. 26:24

    The Father sees the struggle that others cannot see. He knows the effort that it’s taken for you to be present here today. He knows you like Ruth, gleaning faithfully one day at a time. God notices those quiet acts of service in your life. He delights in those who continue to seek Him even when the path is difficult.

56. 26:51

    These actions are not missed by God. He knows who we are and who we serve. And as we live our lives in our eccleses, we’re reminded in our readings in Revelation 1:00 and 2:00 today that Christ is walking among the lampstands. Let’s come to our final reading today in Revelation chapter 1, because here we’re reminded that those types of the ecclesias, and they’re so relevant for us now in our lives, that in Revelation chapter 1, John turns, we read, and he sees Christ, not the suffering servant, not as the man hanging on a cross, but this glorified, majestic, powerful Christ. And where is He?

57. 27:36

    He’s among the lampstands, among the ecclesias. Let’s read from verses 12 and 13. And he says, I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw 7 golden candlesticks, And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. And that image should be deeply comforting to us. Brothers and sisters, Christ is not distant, He’s not detached, He’s not uninterested in what happens right here in your ecclesia.

58. 28:11

    He walks amongst his people. And seven times I alluded to it before, but in chapters 2 and three he says I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. 7 times not I’ve heard or I suspect or I’ve been informed or I’ve been told. He knows, and the Greek word for no implies complete knowledge, perfect awareness. Nothing is hidden from Him.

59. 28:42

    Nothing is overlooked. Nothing is forgotten. Which means that Christ knows. Every struggle that never appears in a prayer request because we’re too ashamed to say it. Every anxiety that nobody talks about, every private battle we’ve got going on in our life right now. Every act of faithfulness that nobody ever notices or acknowledges, every quiet kindness, every hidden sacrifice that we make, He knows.

60. 29:12

    And these lampstands are His ecclesias. And wherever our corner of the vineyard is, we need to make sure we are keeping our lampstand burning, shining as lights in a World of Darkness. And because He knows everything, we need to make sure we’re allowing ourselves to use the mind of Christ to guide our paths, to help us make decisions in our lives. We need to examine ourselves with God’s Word. And this is where conscience becomes so important because conscience is the internal witness that reminds us that we live before God.

61. 29:55

    Conscience is like a compass. A compass doesn’t decide or create where north is. A compass simply points to north. Similarly, conscience doesn’t create truth, it responds to the truth that God has revealed, Paul writes in Romans 2. For when the Gentiles, which do not have the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, their conscience bears and witness.

62. 30:26

    So our conscience, conscience bears US witness. It bears witness to us, it testifies and it reminds us. But just like a physical compass, it can be damaged, it can be misaligned. Our conscience can become weak, ignored, or distorted. Maybe there’s some magnetic field we’re influencing our compass with, with our own ideologies. That’s why we’ve must use and educate our conscience through God’s Word.

63. 30:58

    We need to make sure we’re pointing to God’s truth, not our truth. Once again, as a doctor, one of the most useful things in medicine is an early warning sign, a sign that something’s going wrong. Perhaps you’re coming in with chest pain, or a fever, or loss of sensation or shortness of breath.

64. 31:19

    Symptoms to me are gifts. The symptom to you may be unpleasant, but it alerts us to something deeper going on, because the real danger is not the pain, it’s not the symptom. The real danger is when the pain or the symptom disappears because the warning system is gone and the problem becomes much worse. When there’s no warning signals, eventually disaster occurs. Conscience works the same way.

65. 31:50

    Conscience is one of God’s early warning systems and when functioning properly alerts us to what we should be doing before we drift too far from God. Paul says in Acts herein do I exercise myself to always have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men. Acts 24 verse 16 he says he doesn’t hope for a good conscience. He doesn’t just wait for it, he exercises himself. It requires effort, it requires training, it requires practice and deliberate choices in your life. And the same is true for us.

66. 32:28

    The discomfort we feel before a sin is often a mercy. The danger is not hearing a conscience. The danger is no longer hearing it. If you notice when you hear a loud noise, it grabs your attention, but after repeatedly hearing it, you start to stop hearing it, stop noticing it, you habituate to it.

67. 32:50

    Conscience works similarly. Maybe a first lie feels uncomfortable, the second is easier, but eventually the discomfort fades and it no longer bothers us because the conscience is distorted and we’re warned about that. In First Timothy 4, verse 2, Paul warned the people, saying they’re in the last days. This Is Us brothers and sisters having their conscience seared with a hot iron.

68. 33:17

    What does that mean? Well, essentially we have seared our skin, our nerves. It becomes numb, numb and insensitive and able to respond. So a seared conscience loses responsiveness. The danger isn’t merely committing one wrong act. The danger is becoming comfortable with it, and we no longer even know it’s wrong. Medically speaking, when you see yourself with an iron, losing sensation is one of the things you see.

69. 33:50

    We think of burns in the old age. We used to talk about them as first, second and third degree, maybe more. Now partial thickness and superficial and full thickness. A shallow burn may affect the sensation, it might cause tingling, affect how we respond to our how our nerves respond to stimulus. But if we leave the iron on there for a long, long time, we result in a full thickness burn and from that the nerves may never recover. Following a burn, you get a scar. We have to choose how we’re going to try and restore our integrity of the scar.

70. 34:31

    Maybe you’re going to need to manipulate it, massage it, put special oils and creams on it. If you have got a full thickness scar there. Every time we ignore our conscience, we make it easier to ignore the next time. And spiritual numbness is every bit as dangerous as physical numbers. The challenge today is we live in a world which aggressively shapes our conscience.

71. 34:58

    There’s a battle for our our identity. Everyday voices compete for our attention. Advertisements, politics, media, social media, entertainment, algorithms. They’re designed to influence how we think, particularly our young people. The world constantly says follow your heart, but Scripture says that let this mind be in you. The world says express yourself, but Christ says deny yourself. The world says become who you want to be, but God says become who I am shaping you to be.

72. 35:39

    And those are fundamentally different ideologies, different ideas. And every day we choose whose voice we’re going to follow. Because small decisions build character. And it’s important to remember that most spiritual failures don’t begin with a dramatic rebellion. They begin with tiny, tiny compromises. A neglected prayer. Perhaps a missed reading, a tolerated attitude, a private internal rationalisation, A gradual decline in our physical ecclesial attendance. And if we think of conscience, like the monitoring alarms in perhaps the intensive care unit, initially every abnormality triggers a reaction, an attention. But if the alarms are constantly sounding and ignored, eventually people stop responding to them.

73. 36:38

    The alarm isn’t changing, but the listener has. The same thing can happen happen to us spiritually. The first compromise troubles us. The second troubles us less. Eventually we stop hearing that warning and we carry on regardless. And sometimes, in our journey of convincing ourselves, we create a whole new narrative, often directly impacted by secular society, and we frame ourselves to that metric.

74. 37:04

    And we can be guilty of forgetting that we are to be fitly framed to Christ as the cornerstone, not with new adjusted moral relativity based off our lived experience or our value system. We are fitly framed to the cornerstone. Which is why Scripture repeatedly says today, if you will hear his voice today, not tomorrow, today hear his voice, not ours, not yours.

75. 37:39

    We have to frame ourself to Him, not to any new age ideology. And that’s why I keep referencing that Philippians verse, Philippians 2, verse 5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, because developing a conscience is about developing the mind of Christ. And we think about Christ every time he was tempted in the wilderness. He didn’t rely on his feelings.

76. 38:04

    He didn’t rely on lived experience. He relied on Scripture. Every temptations written, answered with it is written. His thinking had been shaped entirely by God’s Word. And that’s why daily reading of the Bible matters so much. Not because we’re ticking a box, not because we’re trying to impress God, but because our conscience cannot be stronger than the truth we place into it.

77. 38:32

    The more we let Scripture fill our minds, the more accurately our conscience can guide us. And the simplest reason we have a conscience is because our faith, because of our faith. And we know from the Bible that that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. So for our final verse, come back with me to Isaiah 45 because it concludes with this remarkable Kingdom vision. It says in the middle of verse 21, There is no God else beside me, a just God and a Saviour.

78. 39:16

    There is none else beside me. Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else I have sworn by myself. The word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me shall every knee bow, every tongue shall swear.

79. 39:37

    And Paul applies those words directly to Christ also. The same Christ who walks amongst the lampstands today, the same Christ who knows our works today, the same Christ who examines our conscience today, will one day stand openly as king over all the earth. And when that day comes, nobody will wonder who controls history.

80. 40:01

    Nobody will doubt God’s Providence. Nobody will question His purpose. Everything will be revealed. Every hidden thread, every unseen Providence, every faithful act, every answered prayer, every deliverance, everything. And perhaps we can picture Naomi herself will stand in the Kingdom and finally see what God was doing all along.

81. 40:25

    So today, as we come to our memorial emblems this morning, let’s remember three things. Like Cyrus, we are known by God before we fully understand his purpose. Like Ruth, we’re redeemed by grace through a greater Boaz. And like the ecclesias of Revelation, we live before the eyes of the risen Christ. And because he knows us, let us cultivate hearts and minds that respond quickly when our conscience speaks. Let us keep our spiritual senses sensitive, let us continue shaping our minds through Scripture. Let us remember that Christ walks among the lampstands still.

82. 41:08

    And let us take comfort in this wonderful truth. The God who calls by name, the God who guides through hidden Providence, the God who redeems, the God who examines, is also the God who saves. And one day every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess, and every hidden purpose will be revealed to His glory. Thank you for listening to the good Chris Adelphian Talks podcast.

83. 41:51

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84. 42:08

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85. 42:41

    God bless and talk to you next week.