TO THOSE GATHERED TO THE NAME OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

THE PLACE OF HIS APPOINTMENT

C.H. Brown (1884 - 1973)
1961

Luke 22:7-19

This afternoon we want to speak of (1) the place of His appointment, then of (2) the remembrance of the Lord: (3) the spirit that is suitable to that place, (4) the advocacy of Christ to sustain us in that place; (5) the path of separation which becomes those that are in that place; and (6) prayer as the secret of power to keep us in that place. That is somewhat the outline we have before us, in considering the chapter.

So our first thought here is (1) the place of His appointment; v. 7 "Then came the day of unleavened bread when the Passover must be killed." The Passover was an old institution; it had been instituted about 1500 years before this. It had not been very faithfully kept.

The Passover was supposed to be kept every year but the children of Israel had not been faithful; they had let it lapse year on year. In fact if you will go through the Old Testament you will find very few places where they did keep it.

But every Passover that was kept, whether in Egypt or afterwards was just a fingerpost to this Passover here. This is the last one which had any significance for God. They might have neglected many another, but here is one that came at the time when the Passover must be killed. There is a "must" there. You know when God puts a must in His program it is going to be that way. When God writes down a thing and dates it, you know it is going to take place when and where and exactly as He purposed it.

The Lord Jesus realized that the shadow of the cross was already across His path; He knew that. He was not in the least taken by surprise; He had it before Him. So He sends two of His disciples to prepare the place where they might eat the Passover. "Go and prepare us the Passover" - "Us" - He is going to eat it with them. "That we may eat." (v. 2) "And they said unto Him, Where wilt Thou that we prepare?"

I think it is lovely that the disciples put the question to Him. It was becoming, it was in season. I wonder if we are half that sincere today? It is exactly the opposite of the common slogan of the day, "the church of your choice." I have heard that until I am weary of hearing it; and I hear it from those who certainly ought to know better. They profess to know their Bibles; they have certain degrees after their names as having graduated from some course which is supposed to give them some knowledge of the Scripture, and yet talk about the "church of your choice." To me it is the gravest expression. Does God have anything to say to these matters? Is He indifferent? Has God left some kind of manifesto to the effect that any path that you take will be all right with Me? Do you find anything like that in your Bible? "Where wilt Thou?" As I look back on my own life for years I was indifferent on this point; it was where I wanted to go, not, "Where wilt Thou?" There was difficulty in the place where I was going, so I said, "I am not going here any longer; I am going there," and so I transferred. I made my choice and went there for several years.

Then the time came in my life, not through any choice of my own, when God began dealing with me. It is a serious thing when God begins to deal with you; you had better stop and listen. As one old brother said to another, "Brother, you had better stop and listen, for God will not give in."

If God is dealing with you, beloved, about something in your path and you are refusing submission, you had better surrender, because God is not going to change His mind. I finally came to the point in my life where I said, "Where wilt Thou?" When I reached that point of surrender and willingness to know His will, He led me. It is 55 years ago this month (1906) that I found the place of His appointment. I have not spent five minutes regretting that I found it, and am not looking for another place. I am near the end of my pilgrimage here and want the trumpet to give a clear sound. I want to state God has a place in this world in His sovereign goodness and mercy, a clean place where we can meet with our Lord and be assured of His presence and favor. "Where wilt Thou?"

Did the Lord say, "Peter, you are a man of pretty good judgment, you go and find a suitable place, that will be all right with Me"? No, He did not say anything like that. Oh, nothing like that. He said, (v. 10) "You go into the city, and there a man shall meet you bearing a pitcher of water, follow Him into the house where He enters in."

Those directions could not be misunderstood. You go into the city and a man will meet you, not you meet a man. It did not matter what road they took into the city; a man will meet you. He will have a pitcher of water, which was important. You follow Him into the house where He enters in.

Typically that man represents the guidance of the Spirit of God. That man was the Spirit of God in type. No doubt the water He was bearing was typically the Word of God. Perhaps the vessel was some poor human instrument. I suppose you were brought to Christ through someone. Did someone labor with you, talk with you, give you the gospel and pray with you? Perhaps it was your father or your mother. But you did not come into the knowledge of salvation and the truth of God just all on your own. You were not born some place away from humanity; you have had people who helped you to find the way - poor earthen vessels. I look back and thank God for those who helped me in my spiritual life. It is a great privilege to help someone on in his soul. Dear brethren, it is a solemn thing to stumble other Christians.

How we need the help of one another! I need you, brethren, I need your help, your cheer, your encouragement, your prayers. We are dependent, we are inter-dependent. God has made us that way.

That is the reason He has said, "Forsake not the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhort one another." Do not hire a professional exhorter, and set him over you and say, "We are praying him to do the exhorting." It is nothing of the kind, but "exhorting one another." You need to exhort me, and if I may be permitted to exhort you, it is a mutual thing.

F R A G M E N T S

"Jesus said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost."
John 6:12

COVETOUSNESS

"Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth" (Luke 12:15).

The following true story was recently (Dec. 3, 2001) related to me by an older brother in the Lord. Through the years he has proved the appropriateness of Luke 12:15.

"Honey," my wife urgently said to me one day several years ago now, "Let's go see your sister." Now, we had not been close to her for years because of a family disagreement about an exercise to please the Lord that my sister did not agree with. But off we went in our city to the neighborhood that she lived in. As we drove up to the house and proceeded toward her front door a man from across the street hollered out: "She is in the hospital." So off we went to the local hospital.

As we came into her hospital room she clearly beamed at our presence as if she was fully expecting us to come and see her. But ... what we didn't know at that time was that my sister had asked a very close friend of hers, who was in the room at the hospital, to call and ask us to come ... but the friend had NOT called us. And for what possible reason? The friend was afraid that I - the brother of the sick woman - would claim the inheritance because my sister was at the point of death. Therefore she had deliberately not granted the wish of my sister and not called us because she wanted, and expected to get, my sister's property and other valuables.

But the Lord had directed my wife at the right time to think of visiting my sister after several years of estrangement. "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform."

We had a lovely visit and after a short time we left with the satisfaction that the Lord Himself had directed our path. My sister passed away later that same day . . . .

Who got my sister's property and other things of value? ... the close friend did. But my wife and I had the deep down-in-the-heart satisfaction that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth."

Thirteen Persons Referred to as Man of God

SOME TIME WE'LL UNDERSTAND
Not now, but in the coming days,
It will be in the better land,
We'll read the meaning of our tears,
And there, so soon, we'll understand.
We'll catch the broken threads again,
And finish what we here began;
Heaven will the mysteries explain,
And then, ah, then, we'll understand.
God knows the way, He holds the key,
He guides us with unerring hand:
Some day with tearless eyes we'll see;
Yes, there, up there, we'll understand.

PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS

"Ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children" (1 Thess. 2:11).

"Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph.6:4).

"Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers" (Prov. 17:6).

NOTE: Starting with the last issue of Notes of Interest, it was noted that a few books and/or pamphlets on the general subject of the family were to be extracted, Lord willing. The first reference in the series was "To the Parents of My Grandchildren — Meditations on Some Parents of the Bible — FOR CHRISTIAN PARENTS — By A GRANDFATHER" by GC Willis. Out of the about 67 sections one is chosen for this issue, as follows.

THE HOUSE OF ONESIPHORUS

You will remember that we have spoken of Jonathan, who was not willing to share David's rejection. Onesiphorus is a name that will live to all eternity, as one who not only was willing to share the rejection and reproach of Christ, but who very diligently sought out Paul, and found him, when Paul was the prisoner of Nero, chained in a Roman dungeon. From that dungeon he writes: "This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me" (2 Timothy 1:15). It was in these dark days that Onesiphorus came to Rome from Ephesus, "And," writes the Apostle, "he sought me out very diligently, and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well" (2 Tim. 1:16-18).

But it was the household of Onesiphorus we intended to consider ... The Apostle writes: "The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus" (2 Tim. 1:16). The whole household is linked up with the loyalty of its head: the whole household is especially commended to the mercy of the Lord for Onesiphorus' loyal and loving heart. Like Ittai of old, the whole household shared the rejection with its head. This is as it should be. May it be so indeed in our households!

CALL BACK

(Not included in the book referenced above)

P O E T R Y

"Be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." (Ephesians 5:19)

THE POWER, GOODNESS, AND LOVE OF GOD

(By William Trotter, with the Lord in 1865)

"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." — John iii. 16.
"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" — 1 John iv. 9.
"God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." — Romans v. 8.

Part III.

THE LOVE OF GOD
(Eleventh Installment)