Relationship With Our Lord, Pt. 2 (08/29/2021)

Now, what's cool about it is I was literally just about to get into some passages that I didn't have last time.

So the good news is, guys, as I'm going fast through some of these, we did record the one from August 1st.

So you guys, if you are willing to go listen to an hour and a half worth of that lesson, the recording is there and you'll be able to hear these passages again and even more actually.

But as I was saying, throughout the Old Testament, we see the Lord giving his people countless opportunities to have a relationship with Him due to their failure, their preference for self -worship, another problem that we're dealing with even today.

He adjusts the parameters by which they can have a relationship with Him. Now, this is a passage that Dad texted me last night as I was getting his help trying to find one in particular.

Thank you, Troy. I appreciate that for letting me know we weren't recording there.

This is one he texted me that I should have had last time because it is so relevant to this topic and especially what

I just read a second ago, Exodus chapter 20, starting at verse 18, it says,

And the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. And when the people saw it, they were moved and stood afar off.

And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

And Moses said to the people, Fear not, for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.

And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near into the thick darkness where God was.

So again, countless examples throughout the Old Testament where they're given the opportunity and they deny it.

In this case, fear, but think about Moses, he went into the darkness, the thick darkness where God was.

And of course, this wasn't the kind of bleak darkness that the Bible references in terms of the opposite of the

Lord. This is just talking about how awesome the presence of the Lord was at the top of the mountain.

It was, I'm sure it was a frightening thing. Point being, though, that, you know, when we see the results of the one that walked into that relationship, and the closest that he had throughout the rest of his life, and the result of those who were too afraid to take part in that close relationship.

Here's another passage I've added since last time.

Isaiah 1, verse 2 says, Hear, O heavens, and give ear. Remember, what we're talking about right now specifically is the opportunities that the people of God were given, and yet they refused to take part anyway.

O earth, for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

He gave them opportunities, he nourished them, and yet they rebelled anyway. Now just, let's see, that was

Isaiah 1, 2. Still in Isaiah 1, drop down to verse 11, and it says,

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Remember, circumcise the foreskin of your heart.

It's not just about the physical sacrifices or the token in terms of the physical circumcision that were needed in order to have this relationship.

So, Deuteronomy, Moses says, circumcise the foreskin of your heart to make sure your heart is in the right place. And then

Isaiah 1, 11 says, To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Sayeth the Lord, I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he goats.

It's meaningless without having our heart in the right place and actually yearning to have that relationship. Verse 12 says,

When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts?

Bring no more vain oblations, incense is an abomination unto me, the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies

I cannot await with. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth.

They are a trouble unto me, I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you.

Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

We're given these opportunities. We have for all of human history. We rebel against them.

We do the opposite. And this is the result of that. We're going to be looking at the result of not properly taking part in that kind of relationship even more pretty soon.

This is an interesting one. Isaiah 43, starting at verse 21, says, This people have

I formed for myself, and they shall show forth my praise. Again, a clear indication that we were created to show forth his praise to partake in a very close intimate relationship with him.

Now immediately following verse 21 there, this is Isaiah 41, 21, I'm sorry, Isaiah 43 verse 21 is what we just read.

I have formed them for myself. They show forth my praise. This is followed immediately by Israel's shortcomings, not calling his praise.

So verse 22 says, But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, but thou hast been weary of me,

O Israel. Thou has not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings, neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices.

I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor weary thee with incense. Thou hast brought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices, but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins.

Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. What's so crazy about that is that's Isaiah 43.

Just before that we read Isaiah 1 where he is saying, I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of the fed beasts and all this stuff, but they're basically meaningless because your heart isn't in the right place.

Down here, he's talking about, you know, you have brought me no sweet cane with money, neither has thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices.

It's just they were failing left and right in terms of what they needed to do to actually partake in this relationship.

First, they were giving sacrifices with their heart not being in the right place. Now they're not even sacrificing.

And again, we're just presented with so many cases of his people having the opportunity, but not doing it.

Now, in the New Testament, those were Old Testament examples. In the New Testament, we were given the ultimate opportunity to have a relationship with him while he was with us in the flesh.

And this was possibly the closest that he got with any group of people, at least physically with a group of people, since he had walked with Adam in the garden.

And he even told us, and this was the passage that I had to get a little bit of help dad finding last night.

And when I did this on August 1st, I had this particular bullet in here, but I had insert passage because I had never found it.

And so I just didn't cover it. Thankfully, we were able to find it because I could remember it, but I could not remember the way it was worded.

So I had to get dad's help finding this particular passage. But he even told us, and that being Jesus in the

New Testament, that if we would believe on him while he was with them physically, if they believed that he was the

Messiah as a whole, as a whole group, as the whole people of Israel, he would have been with them as their king and established his kingdom even then.

And we can find at least one of the passages where he was talking about this in Luke chapter 19, starting at verse 40.

This is another passage that I've added, even though we're still technically in the review phase here since the last lesson.

Luke 19, starting verse 40. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

I meant to add a couple of extra verses here for a little more context. But right above this, the Pharisees are saying, tell your disciples to stop.

They are blaspheming, they're praising you as if you're God or something along those lines.

That was kind of the context leading up to that verse. If they were going to be quiet, then the rocks would immediately cry out, he says.

Verse 41 says, and when he was come near, he beheld the city and he wept over it. Of course, he was weeping.

And Brother Bill just covered a detailed verse -by -verse study in Luke not that long ago.

He wept over it, knowing their ultimate fate because of their neglect and because of their inability, because they had the ability to do it because the

Lord provided them with the door to have a relationship with him. But because of their non -desire, for lack of a better term, to partake in a close relationship with him, he wept over him because he knew the fate of his people because of that ultimate, what could be considered a sin in many cases.

Verse 42 says, saying, if thou hadst known, even now, at least in this thy day, the things which belong into thy peace.

What's really interesting is if you look at the Greek word for peace there, it's talking about national tranquility.

So again, it's talking about his kingdom being ushered in, what we will experience in the millennial kingdom.

He's saying right here, as he is on earth physically in Luke, the things which belong into thy peace, thy national tranquility, you would have known, but now they are hid from thine eyes.

For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemy shall cast a trench about thee, encompass thee around, and keep thee on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

Now, here's another interesting one. That word visitation has always been interesting to me. I don't even know if I want to attempt pronouncing it.

Episcopate, I think is how you pronounce the Greek word, literally means an investigation or an inspection.

The act by which God looks into and searches out the ways, deeds, character of men in order to adjudge them by their lot accordingly, whether joyous or sad.

Dad, you may correct me if I'm wrong here in the chat, which I think would obviously be appropriate, because this is just based on a quick look last night.

But what this is talking about is because they didn't realize what the

Lord, that the Messiah was there with them in person coming to inspect their ways, their deeds, their character, because they didn't realize and because they totally missed that he was the

Messiah there, they missed out on the ability, on the chance to have their national tranquility, basically the kingdom established right then and there.

He came in person, physically, to provide them with the closest physical relationship anyone could have had with the

Lord, possibly since the Garden of Eden, and they missed it anyway.

Again, they were provided with the best opportunity up until that point. They missed out on their visitation.

They didn't believe on him. They ended up crucifying him. Otherwise, their kingdom would have been established.

And guess what? Not too long after they knew not their visitation, they knew not the

Messiah was right there next to them. They were utterly destroyed, not utterly, obviously, because the

Lord always provides a remnant of his people. 70 AD comes along, and the

Romans march in with 55 ,000 troops, Roman soldiers, and takes out half a million

Jews, and they destroy the temple and so many terrible things that happen because they knew it's not the time of thy visitation.

That was the result of them missing that opportunity. Again, just so many opportunities missed throughout the history of man.

So the common thing we run into time and time again is that man's rejection of that intimate relationship that he wants, by the way, the

Lord wants to have with us. We keep missing it. We keep missing those opportunities, and because of it, we reap the consequences of that.

So at this point in history, where we are today, and since the church began, we have the easiest opportunity to have that constant relationship with him.

The thing about it is, because we have the Holy Spirit as believers constantly dwelling within us, because we have the opportunity, what this means is that the ball, if you will, is constantly on our court.

The Lord is right there, ready to have a relationship with us, and yet, in so many cases, we neglect it.

So we have to remember the effort. We have to do our part and take part in that divine relationship that the

Lord has always wanted to have with us from before the beginning. Now, relationship through obedience is one way that we can partake in this relationship.

I'm going to read a quick passage here that I didn't have last time for the sake of time because I'm almost at the end of review, but then it's taking up quite a bit of time here.

Isaiah 1, 18 through 20. Come now and let us reason together, sayeth the Lord. One of the coolest phrases

I think he's ever uttered in terms of having an intimate relationship with us. Let us reason together.

Let us think logically together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the

Lord hath spoken it. So there's a good like sides of both sides of the coin there. If ye be willing and obedient, obedience is one of the first keys to taking part in this relationship with the

Lord, you shall eat of the good of the land. But if you refuse and you rebel, the consequences are pretty dire.

And then the New Testament passage, Luke 11, 28. But he said, yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.

So obedience. And again, guys, we covered a lot of passages during all of these sub points.

Of review. So you can go check the recording of the last one to get all the passages. But obedience is a huge key. Relationship through prayer.

Mark 11, 24 says, therefore, I say to you, what things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that you receive them and ye shall have them.

Dad, interestingly enough, has been talking a little bit about prayer in his Roman study, something he covered months ago and then revisited,

I think, just last Sunday. Of basically how what prayer can look like when done the right way.

That's paraphrased big time. But basically doing it the right way. All that means having a relationship with the

Lord, letting the Holy Spirit lead the prayers that we take to him and the things that we ask for.

John 15, 7, John 15, 7 says, if ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.

Again, prayer can be one of the biggest components of a strong relationship with him, because while the word and reading his word is him talking to us, being able to talk to him.

I mean, it goes without saying. It goes without saying what that can do within our own walk. Now, that is the end of review, 51 minutes later.

So now let's start looking through some of what we didn't have time for last time. Now we're going to take a look at his relationship through meditating on the word.

Now, we kind of briefly skimmed through some of this because at the time, I didn't know I'd get a second chance to finish up.

So some of it may sound familiar, but we didn't. It was very summarized at the beginning of the month.

So again, we're looking at how to have a relationship through meditating on the word, another component in which we can take part in that relationship.

Psalm 119, starting verse four. You guys can turn there. At this point, I'll try to slow down a little bit with the passage references as we dive into some newer material here.

Psalm 119, starting verse four. It says, thou has commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.

Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. I mean, it's just crazy already, just the type of relationship that David yearned for.

And you can see it so clearly in his psalms. Drop down to verse six. It says, then shall

I not be ashamed when I have respect into all thy commandments. Within my whole heart have

I sought thee. Oh, let me not wonder from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

Blessed art thou. Again, we're talking about meditating on the word here. Think about the potency of that phrase.

Thy word have I hid in mine heart. Something that we need to be working on constantly for sure. I'm talking to myself big time.

Blessed art thou, oh Lord, teach me thy statutes. Here's the key phrase here. I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect into thy ways.

I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word. Go to Joshua.

We're going to go back a little bit in the Old Testament. Go to Joshua chapter one, starting at verse eight.

It says, this book of the law shall not depart out of my mouth. But thou shalt meditate therein day and night.

That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous.

And then thou shalt have good success. Again, meditating therein day and night. Verse nine says, have

I not commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed. For the Lord thy

God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. That is following.

What that is saying is the Lord will be with us as we engage in this relationship with him.

And that is following, talking about how meditating day and night on his law, on his word, can, you know, be the catalyst for what verse nine talks about.

The Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. Excuse me.

Go over to Romans. Okay. At this point, you know, I'm going to kind of hit several chapters. So it'll be a lot of flipping through passages at this point or on your phone, whatever you prefer.

But we're going to go to Romans chapter 10, verse 17. Just this verse says, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Again, meditating on the word, letting the word be a huge part in us attempting to have this relationship with him is what we're talking about here.

2 Timothy 2 .15, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, meditating on the word, allowing him to talk to us through his word, once again, is one of the biggest components that we could implement in terms of engaging in this really close relationship.

Next up, another way that we can engage in this relationship is simply by having faith.

Relationship through faith. Over at Hebrews chapter 11, it says, but without faith, it is impossible to please him.

So again, we can kind of walk through the motions. We know, especially in this day and age, there are a lot of people out there in the modern church that can be in physical church attendance, can be out doing good works from the human viewpoint.

But does that mean, by default, they have a relationship with him? Well, unless they have true faith, which, as we know from studying

Hebrews with Brother Bill, just up until a couple of weeks ago, is impossible without having his faith, the

Lord's faith in us, it is impossible to please him. It is impossible to engage in any kind of relationship with him without that kind of faith.

And it says, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

That's an interesting phrase, because we're going to revisit this concept of being rewarded for seeking him, for allowing relationship with him to be an effect that can lead to many other causes, like we talked about last time.

So now, let's break this down a little bit. We're going to look at two things.

We're going to look at the results of what a close relationship looks like. What does it look like? How does it play out when we do these things that we've just been reading in other passages, whether that be through obedience, through faith, through meditating on his word, through prayer?

What does it look like when we engage in a constant relationship with him? The results of a close relationship.

We're going to start with Leviticus chapter 26, and we're going to read quite a few verses here if you want to turn there.

Leviticus chapter 26, starting at verse 1. It says, Ye shall make you no idols, nor graven images, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it, for I am the

Lord your God. Ye shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the

Lord. If ye walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and do them, then

I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield her fruit.

And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach into the sowing time. And ye shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land safely.

Think about how important that would be to us in a day in time like this.

Without going in too much of a rabbit trail there. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid, and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.

I guess I will start a rabbit trail really quick, because think about this for a second. It's crazy to me how you see time and time again, and the

Old Testament is just full of these vivid stories of how this is the case. When, you know, going back to the beginning of this passage, if you walk in my statutes, if you keep my commandments, if you do them, when his people would do these things, and sometimes that was initiated by a king like David or Solomon.

In this case, we're in Leviticus here, so you still have Moses leading the people. But as they would engage in these things, what would happen is the

Lord would then create this wonderful environment where it made it easier and easier for them to be joyful, for seemingly for them to be joyful and to engage in relationship even closer.

He would give them peace in their land. They shall lie down. None shall make you afraid. I will rid the evil beasts out of your land.

I mean, we're talking just day -to -day physical problems. Neither shall the sword go through your land. No enemies shall encroach on their borders.

He sets them up with an environment that is absolutely conducive to a close relationship with them and to have constant joy.

Now, think about what the enemy does. The moment he sees that little opening, could be the tiniest of openings, where we start, and we're going to look at some examples in the next section here, when we look at the results of neglecting the relationship, as soon as he sees that opening, he can get in there, and he can start creating an environment that is very, very, very tough to be joyful within, to even have a relationship from the human viewpoint because of our human nature.

When the things going around us are terrible, which happens when they start neglecting, and I'm kind of getting ahead of myself here because we're about to look at these passages, the environment around us is very, very tough for us to engage in relationship and to be joyful, like Paul tells us to do constantly in Philippians.

And so it's just interesting to me because we know that the Lord is sovereign. We know that he's in control of all things and that every other creature, spirit being, human is nothing more than a servant or a delegate of him to fulfill his will.

We can see that from his hand, when we take part in a relationship with him, he gives us a near perfect environment by human standards, for sure.

And it's when we, by our own choice, because the responsibility of man, as we know, is in perfect parallel in terms of importance throughout human history.

And we know that because it's how the Lord made us, because he wanted us to yearn for a relationship.

When we, by our own choices, decide things are great right now, so I'm going to focus over here on all this cool stuff and start neglecting the relationship a little bit, all of a sudden, the environment the

Lord created goes from peaceful, not having our enemies around us, not being afraid to the exact opposite of that.

And we're going to look at what that environment looks like in more detail in a second. So got ahead of myself a little bit, but just remember that.

Remember the contrast in environments that we find ourselves in, depending on how close we are with the

Lord, at least in the Old Testament, we have many examples of when that close relationship was engaged in. The Lord created that awesome, peaceful environment.

Verse seven continues, And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword, ultimate power from the

Lord, because of that relationship, if they keep his statutes, they keep his commandments. And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.

Ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new, and I will set my tabernacle among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.

That is obviously something that we would all hope for. We would never at any point want the Lord's soul to abhor us.

Now, of course, he's talking about his people as a whole. So we know that there were many times where he would abhor the people of Israel because of their gross sins, but the remnant, the elect, the men of God within that, even though they had to take part in Israel's punishments as well, they were still favored.

So I know that in this particular context, it's talking about Israel as a whole, but can we not extrapolate that out to us as a whole of the

Christian church? And what may come as we see the fabric of what was once an incredible, strong, you know,

Christian church of people, especially in this country, falling apart around us, we're going to have to take part in those failures as a group, but that doesn't mean that the

Lord won't still be with us as individuals, as men and women of God. So again, that's another slight rabbit trail there.

Continue in verse 12 of Leviticus. Where are we again? Leviticus 26.

And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. That is one of the results of close relationship that we want.

Verse 13 says, I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their bondmen, and I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you to go upright.

He created that environment for us, and it's what it can look like when we have that close relationship.

Can we go to Parker again? I think he's trying to come in. Okay, so now let's look at the, there's some other

Old Testament passages we'll look at, but going over to First Peter, apparently, because of the order I have these passages in, it says,

First Peter 5 verse 6 says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.

Those, that is a result of a close relationship. Okay, so that was First Peter 5, 6 through 7.

Now going back to the Old Testament again, Deuteronomy 31, 6 says, be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them.

For the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee, he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Huge result of a close relationship with him. He's not going to fail us, he's not going to forsake us, and you know, fear not, be of good courage.

All of these things, if we can do these things, then he will be with us for sure, and allow us to not, you know, have to be afraid of our various circumstances that we may go through.

Second Chronicles 6 14 says, and said, O Lord God of Israel, there is no

God like thee in the heaven nor in the earth, which keepeth covenant and showest mercy unto thy servants that walk before thee with all their hearts.

So as long as we walk with him with all of our hearts, we start to see some of these results. Going back to the

New Testament again, Romans chapter 8, and I'll let you guys turn over there, we're gonna, we're gonna look at a few verses in this passage.

Romans 8, starting in verse 31, it says,

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

And if you skip down to verse 38 in that same passage, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our

Lord. Now, parts of these passages, and some of these, especially this one here, you can certainly, you know, consider the implication of our eternal security, but I would say that, hand in hand with that, in terms of, utmost protection, utmost blessings in terms of what we can receive from the

Lord, all come into play pending how close we desire to have a relationship or to draw near to him and have a relationship with him.

Second Corinthians 5 17 says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. Again, these are the results.

These can all fall into some of these many results of very close relationship with him.

John 8, starting in verse 30, says, As he spake these words, and many believed on him, then said

Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

If ye continue in my word, you are my disciples indeed. Again, we seeing, if we do all of the things we looked at earlier, obedience, meditating on his word, prayer, these are how we can engage in what

Jesus is now talking about in some of these passages. John 15 5 says, I am the vine, ye are the branches, he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing.

Drop down in that same chapter, John 15 to verse 14, says, You're my friends, if ye do whatsoever

I command you. That is obviously a result that we would like to benefit from, but it can only happen if we do whatsoever he commands us to do, being his friend.

The next verse 15 says, Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth, but I have called you friends.

Something that is absolutely unique to believers that engage in a close relationship with him.

For all things that I have heard of my father, I have made known unto you. Think about how intimate a relationship that is between him and us.

Going back to John 17, Neither I pray for these alone, starting in verse 20, sorry,

John 17 20, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they may be one as thou, father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

In the glory which thou gavest me, I have given him, that they may be one even as we are one.

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect and one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.

And this is a passage we are revisiting from earlier, but certainly a wonderful result of that relationship.

Now, as is true with most situations, it's always good to look at both sides of the story, right? So now, unfortunately,

I say unfortunately, but it's very, very good to remember these kinds of things because it puts the contrast at the forefront and allows us to remember how important this relationship is.

Let's take a look at the results of neglecting that relationship and why we as individuals, even when the body of church as a whole may fail, we as individuals need to continually take part in this relationship.

So the passages we're about to dive into are the results of neglecting that relationship with the Lord just as his people have done for so many centuries.

Amos 5, 6, and we're going to stay in chapter 5 for a little while, for a few verses, but we're going to start in verse 6 of Amos chapter 5.

It says, Seek the Lord and ye shall live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

If you don't seek the Lord, if you do not continually seek that relationship, he will break out like fire and he'll devour the house of Joseph.

Drop down to verse 21 of that same chapter in Amos. Verse 21 says, I hate,

I despise your feast days. I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings,

I will not accept them. Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. This goes back to some of what we looked at in Isaiah.

Take thou away from me in the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy vials. But let judgment run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness of forty years, O house of Israel? That ye have borne in the tabernacle of your moloch and sheun your images the star of your

God, which ye made to yourselves. Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the

Lord, whose name is the God of hosts. Those are the results of neglecting the relationship, but even more than that, the components that it takes for us to take part in that relationship.

Doing the exact opposite, they are certainly not keeping his commandments. One of the most important of which is to not have any other gods before me.

John chapter 1, so now we're in the New Testament. There's really no rhyme or reason, apparently, in the order that I have a lot of these passages in my notes, which is funny.

Old Testament, New Testament, Old Testament. You'd think I'd put them in some sort chronological order just for the sake of being easier for you guys to go back and forth.

But jump over to John chapter 1, starting at verse 10. It says, He was in the world, and the world was made by him, but the world knew him not.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not. This is kind of a parallel to what we read in Luke earlier.

He was there. He said, If you knew the time of your visitation, your national tranquility would have been among you.

I'm paraphrasing, of course. But he came unto his own, his own received him not.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

So there we kind of see, we see him being there and his own receiving him not, certainly neglecting one of the best opportunities we've ever had as humans in relationship with him.

Going back to the Old Testament now, Deuteronomy chapter 30, and we will start in verse 15.

It says, See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil.

In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply.

And the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land, whether thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, which we just saw them doing in Amos, which is later on in the story, and serve them,

I denounce you unto this day, that ye shall surely perish, in that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whether thou passest over Jordan to go possess it.

So again, we're seeing the results of the neglect of this relationship, not keeping his commandments. Now, go turn over to 1

Kings chapter 11, and we'll finish out this particular sub point here, but we are going to cover the entire chapter.

And this was a chapter that I did not have in the study on August 1st, because I read through it in my

Bible in a year since then. Before we start going through this, I want to give you guys a little context, because this passage is just crazy to me in so many ways, as we'll see as we go through it.

So the context of 1 Kings chapter 11 is all of Solomon's life, basically, up until this point.

Solomon had lived a life in a close relationship with the Lord. He made heartfelt sacrifices.

He prayed for wisdom. He used the wisdom he was given. He built the house of God. He gave an historic prayer when dedicating the temple, one of the most unbelievable passages in its own right.

He was blessed beyond measure for these things. He then reached the pinnacle of his wealth, of his fame, his wisdom, after consulting with the

Queen of Sheba in chapter 10, the previous chapter, after he consults with her, gives her wisdom, and validates his fame from her land, verses 14 through 29 of chapter 10, following that, describe his vast wealth and splendor as a king and his kingdom.

So, I mean, it goes on to basically say he was wiser than he had ever been. He was richer than he had ever been.

He was blessed more than he'd ever been. And yet, it is followed up with this, and keep in mind, the subsection we are in at the moment is talking about the results of neglect.

First Kings chapter 11, starting verse 1, but King Solomon loved many strange women.

That is certainly a recipe for disaster, and as we'll see, that it culminates into a number of terrible things for Solomon.

He loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and the

Hittites, and the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come into you, for surely they will turn away your heart.

After their gods, Solomon clave unto these in love. So, just previously, we were talking about obedience being one of the main components of having a relationship with them.

Obviously, therefore, disobedience is one of the best ways to open the door for obviously not having the relationship, but also the negative results of not having the relationship.

Right off the bat, in this chapter, Solomon clave unto these women that the

Lord told the children of Israel, you will not go into them. So, it starts with his disobedience. Now, obviously, we see one of the problems here.

It's the disobedience. It opens the door for neglect. Now, verse 3 goes on to say, And he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines.

And his wives turned away his heart. Over a thousand wives, basically, if you want to just throw them all into one category for a second.

I mean, Solomon was obviously setting himself up for problems. Say what you will about some of the men of God, namely the kings, including

David, obviously Solomon, that took part in polygamy and obviously had many wives and things like that.

Say what you will about whether or not that was addressed, at least super explicitly.

But one thing we know is it certainly was not in following the ultimate model and standard that the

Lord gave all of his children to follow with Adam and Eve. He goes and gets a thousand wives.

I mean, again, he's just setting himself up for problems. Not only that, but more specifically, setting himself up for problems because they were of these other people that the

Lord specifically told him and all the children of Israel not to have relationships with.

Verse 4 says, For it came to pass when Solomon was old that his wives turned away his heart after other gods.

And his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.

So he's not like David his father. We know that the heart is of utmost importance in terms of putting our focus in the right place and keeping it there.

Remember that Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 16 passage we read earlier. Circumcise the foreskin of your heart.

If the heart's not in the right place, turning away the heart. And by doing so, Solomon was basically cultivating an area in his life for no relationship with the

Lord after, again, reaching the pinnacle of his reign. Verse 5 says,

For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the

Ammonites. How many times were the fathers of Solomon, whose acts were recorded for Solomon to study as often as he wanted to, he was well aware of the acts both good and bad of his fathers.

How many times were his fathers told that idolatry was an abomination in the eyes of God? We read passages earlier talking about that.

And yet here he is partaking in what is essentially spiritual adultery. So you have, again, reaching the pinnacle of his reign, of his life, of his wealth, fame, wisdom, and now he's committing spiritual adultery against the

Lord, against the relationship he had with him up until that point. Verse 6 says,

And Solomon did evil in sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. Then did

Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.

I mean, it's almost hard reading these passages after rooting for Solomon for all, you know, all the first kings leading up to this point and just thinking how awesome it was, the things that he was blessed with and the benefits of his relationship with the

Lord. And now you're reading this, it's almost heartbreaking. Verse 8 says, And likewise did he, why did he do all that stuff?

For all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. Now remember, what we're looking at here, the results of neglecting a relationship with the

Lord, what did all of that neglect lead to? Let's take a look here.

Pretty sad. Verse 9 says, And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the

Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice. Solomon not only had a close relationship with the

Lord spiritually, but he communed with him on two different occasions in a very unique, special way that the

Lord allowed Solomon to take part in. Verse 10 says, And commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods.

He specifically told him that, but he kept not what the Lord commanded, disobedience. Wherefore the

Lord said unto Solomon, For as much as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my commandment and my statutes, which

I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant. So, you know, how can we put this reality in the context of our lives now, you know, as Solomon is going through that?

Well, consider Solomon's kingdom as being the center point of his vast blessings.

I mean, his kingdom was awesome in so many ways. And consider the kingdom being, again, kind of the center, kind of the crux of all of his blessings, which he acquired initially.

How did he get them in the first place? Through close relationship with the Lord. When we develop a close relationship with the

Lord, but disobey and start opening up the door for the neglect of that relationship, which the

Lord wants to have with us every single day, our blessings, our blessings can be rent from us, just as Solomon's were for him.

The Old Testament, they are for us, they were provided to us as end samples, right? These are vivid, historical stories of what can happen to us in this day and age.

If we start doing what Solomon did, and we can commit idolatry in so many ways ourselves, it's not necessarily in the worship of false idols or false gods, but we can still be an idolatrous people as individuals when we start putting all of our focus off of the

Lord and the relationship with him onto everything the world has to provide.

When that happens, our blessings can be rent from us, just as they were torn from Solomon. Verse 12 says,

Notwithstanding in thy days, I will not do it for David thy father's sake, but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son.

Howbeit, I will not rend away all the kingdom, but will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, which

I have chosen. And the Lord stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hey dad, the Edomite, he was of the king's seed in Edom.

Now, before I get into that right there, isn't it interesting that because of the close relationship that David sustained throughout his life with the

Lord, because of that, even after he was in the grave with his fathers, the

Lord preserved a tribe for David's sake. Talk about how far a close relationship with the

Lord can go. If it hadn't been for that, humanly speaking, because we know obviously the plan, this was all according to plan, but humanly speaking, you could say that had

David gone away from the Lord like Solomon did, like his sons did, that not even that tribe would have been preserved.

And the whole kingdom of Solomon would have been ran away, not just 10 of the 12 tribes.

And so, again, that's humanly speaking, of course, but it's just interesting to note how far the close relationship that David had with the

Lord went. Now, back to verse 14, where it stirred up an adversary. It says, And the Lord stirred up an adversary.

Such a fascinating passage, because it details, once again, the sovereignty of God. God himself stirred up an adversary to go be a thorn in the side of his anointed king.

The Lord did it. We can't forget about what the neglect of our relationship may bring, and justly so.

You know, it sounds kind of crazy that the Lord would stir up an adversary to go after his own anointed king, but was it not a just thing for him to do?

And the same thing can be true for us as well. When we constantly neglect and push our relationship aside with the

Lord and partake in all of the above that the world has to provide, you know, some bad things could happen to us from the hand of the

Lord. And I say bad from the human viewpoint. We know all things work together for good, because those things that we may consider to be bad from an emotional standpoint can either bring us out of those sinful times, and our relationship will be even stronger for it.

Or, you know, it could play out further down the road in ways we may not understand. The point being, even if it seems bad to us, such as the

Lord stirring up an adversary for his own anointed one, it was a just thing for him to do because of what

Solomon, by his own responsibility, chose to do. Now, verses 15 through 22 of this passage,

I'm not going to read every verse by verse, but I am going to give the context of those. 15 through 22, it just details who this adversary was,

Hadad, and implies very heavily on how the Lord was the one that provided for him from the time he was a little child for the specific purpose of being

Solomon's adversary. So, it details how from a young child, Hadad was brought up and preserved, and now fulfilling a purpose that he was put there for, to be a thorn in the side of Solomon.

So, starting back at verse 23, it says, And God stirred up another adversary, Razan, the son of Eliadah, which fled from the

Lord, let's see, Hadadizir, man,

I pronounced this last night, now I can't do it. Hadadizir, that's it, which fled from the Lord, Hadadizir, king of Zobah, and he gathered men into him and became captain over a band.

When David slew them from Zobah, and they went to Damascus and dwelt therein and reigned in Damascus, and he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon.

So, two adversaries that the Lord stirred up, all the remaining days of Solomon, beside the mischief that Hadad did, and he abhorred

Israel and reigned over Syria. And Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and Euriphrite, the

Zerida, Solomon's servant, whose mother's name was Zerah, a widow woman, even he lifted up his hand against the king.

So, this, from the point that the Lord decided, you have neglected me long enough, you are going to reap what you sow, from that moment until Solomon died, he had adversaries at every angle, from every angle.

And this was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the king. Solomon built Milo and repaired the breaches of the city of David, his father.

And the man, Jeroboam, was a mighty man of valor. And Solomon, seeing the young man, that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph.

So, now, verses 29 -32, they detail Jeroboam's anointing by the prophet in private, and how he was to rule over 10 of the 12 tribes, because, remember,

God saved a portion of the tribes for David's sake. So, Jeroboam was made aware that he would be taking over part of the kingdom because of Solomon's sins.

Verse 33 says, Because that they have forsaken me, and have worshiped Astaroth, the goddess of the

Zidonians, Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, and Milcom, the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments as David his father did, howbeit

I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him prince of all the days of his life for David my servant's sake, whom

I chose because he kept my commandments and my statutes. So, I got ahead of myself earlier, but, again, seeing how far that relationship can go, if it is a good one.

But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand, and will give it unto thee, even 10 tribes.

And unto his son I will give one tribe that David my servant may have a light always before me in Jerusalem, the city which

I have chosen me to put my name there. It's just so fascinating. And I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and shall be king over Israel.

And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee. Now, this is the prophet talking to Jeroboam from the

Lord. So, the Lord is talking to Jeroboam through the prophet, and he's telling

Jeroboam, you know, walk in my ways, do what is right in my sight, keep the statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did.

I will be with thee, and will build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give

Israel unto thee. And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not forever. Now, what's crazy about it is, if we look at verses 38 through 39, because not only would

Jeroboam not hearken unto the Lord based on the commandments he just received upon his anointing, and totally neglect a relationship with the

Lord himself, Jeroboam, but he would also be the standard for most of the, you know, the rest of the historical books of the

Old Testament. Jeroboam was now the standard by which all other kings that did evil in the sight of the

Lord were measured by later. And so, he was given an opportunity, Jeroboam was, to walk in the sight of the

Lord and to be blessed for it. He didn't do it, he neglected it, and he ended up doing very many evil things to the point of being the ultimate standard for the rest of the evil kings of Israel and Judah later on.

Starting back at verse 40, this passage is almost over here, Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam.

And Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt, until Shishak, king of Egypt, was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

And the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book, the

Acts of Solomon? In the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was 40 years, and Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father, and Rehoboam, his son, reigned in his stead.

So, once again, here we are immediately following from 1

Kings 1 all the way through chapter 10, or from the point that Solomon was anointed, following the pinnacle of Solomon's reign, his wisdom, his wealth, his fame, his blessings.

In chapter 10, he ends his life with all but one tribe of his kingdom rent from him, adversaries risen up to afflict him, and ultimately died in the disgrace of totally neglecting a close relationship with the

Lord, which he had been doing all the way up until that point. So, a couple of lessons there are, one, the results of neglect are things that we as individuals do not want to take part in.

So, we should use that as incentive as human beings that are inherently terrible, and it being hard for us to engage in a relationship in many ways because of our nature, not because of the

Lord, certainly not, but because of our nature. But even when we have a close relationship with we need to always be mindful that that can be taken away from us if we start turning away like Solomon did.

So, again, that was kind of a long passage. I think you could take a lot out of it, but we're getting pretty close to finishing here.

So, that ends the little section of the results of neglect. Another interesting thing is relationship, as we have in many passages, is ultimately caused by the

Lord. So, we've been talking about doing our part, and we certainly have a part to play. Like I mentioned earlier, the ball is in our court, so to speak.

But what's interesting about it, Deuteronomy 30, chapter 30, verse 6 says, and the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart.

In chapter 10, Moses says, you need to circumcise the foreskin of your heart. Chapter 30,

Moses comes back and says, and the Lord will circumcise thy heart. So, again, the Lord is in all things.

It is ultimately by Him that we even have the ability to partake in a relationship with Him. In the heart of thy seed to love the

Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all that thou mayest live. Psalm 65, 4 says, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts.

We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. And then 1

Corinthians 1, 9 says, God is faithful by whom we are called into the fellowship of his

Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Again, it is ultimately the Lord that causes that relationship with Him.

So, now we are at our conclusion here, and we actually talked about the conclusion of what we've looked at so far last time, but I made a few minor additions, and I know we're at like almost 1240, so we definitely went too long again, but at least we'll have some proper closure to the study that was started at the beginning of the month here.

So, in conclusion, it is through constant effort that we have this relationship. It is through that relationship.

Now, I just want to pause just really quick. I say through constant effort. I say that because, once again, it is against our human nature to voluntarily take part in a relationship that the

Lord wants to have with us. We have to work at it because of our sin nature. So, that's what I mean by we have to put forth constant effort.

The same is true in our physical relationships with family, friends, spouses, children.

I mean, it's true for that as well. Effort has to be, energy has to be put into these relationships. So, it's through constant effort that we have that relationship.

Now, through that relationship, we start seeing a number of things here. It's through that relationship that we have any discernment.

Think about the importance of discernment in this day and age, being able to discern what's going on around us, what is actual truth, and what is just the enemy stirring up the children of the world to confuse us at every turn.

Discernment is so important, and it's only through this relationship that we have real true discernment.

It's only through that relationship that we have any real testimony that can be used to shine a light to many people out there that are looking for help and for hope from some of their fellow humans in some way, and seeing people that are different, that are a, in fact, very peculiar people, and someone to turn to for help when they need it.

It is only through a relationship with the Lord that we can have a testimony that can bring something like that. It's only through a relationship that we are holy in any sense of the word because it's the

Lord's holiness that we take on when we have a relationship with Him. It's if we want to be righteous in any sense of the word.

We can only be righteous if we have the Lord's righteousness, which is only possible if we have a relationship with the

Lord. The relationship is the only way we can have any blessings given to us the way

Solomon had many up until the point when he turned away from the Lord, and they were rent from him. Now, here's interesting.

I wrote this in this morning during Brother Bill's Sunday school.

Those of you who were on there, think about Brother Bill's Sunday school lesson this morning in James when he was talking about the only way we can control our tongue is with the

Lord's help. In Brother Bill, I mean, go back and listen to the recording of his lesson this morning later, but James 3 .6

says, In the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell.

And it goes on, let's see, verse 8 says, But the tongue can be no man tame.

It is unruly, evil, full of deadly poison. The ultimate conclusion was the only way it could ever possibly be tame is not by what we do, but through the

Lord's help. So that was one I just wrote in this morning, thanks to Brother Bill. It is only through relationship with the

Lord that we can tame our tongue, which can defile the entire body if we don't have control over it.

Now, we talked about this last time, and Dad and I have had some neat conversations about it since, but the whole concept of an effect, the cause of a

Christian walk is obviously salvation. That's the ultimate cause, which comes from the shed blood of the

Lord. But with the effects that follow that cause, those effects can actually turn into causes themselves.

In other words, salvation is the ultimate cause which can lead to the effect of a relationship with the

Lord, which is what we're talking about. That is the crux of the study, relationship with the

Lord. That's only possible through salvation, that we can have any sort of intimate relationship with the

Lord. But once we are saved, and once we have the ability to have that relationship with Him, we have to have the relationship with Him.

Because if we neglect the relationship, all of the other effects, such as, you know,

I think I have some of them here. Let's see here. You know, salvation is the cause of our works.

You know, the effects like the desire to go to church for the right reasons, the desire to get baptized, profess our faith, those are all effects.

You know, let's see here. You know, I thought

I had some of these written down. Let's see. The main cause in terms. Okay, picture it like this.

So picture, you know, all the effects that you can think of. Again, that could be good works, like James talks about.

That could be the desire to, you know, be baptized, to go to church, to grow in the

Lord, all of those things. Those are only possible to have those desires through that relationship with the Lord. So if you kind of extrapolate that out, and you think of relationship with the

Lord, which is an effect of our salvation. If you think about that kind of being like a domino effect, causing a domino effect.

If you think about that domino effect, the dominoes start to fall because of relationship with the Lord. If you take one of those effects away, namely having a relationship with the

Lord, the dominoes suddenly stop falling. All of the sudden, all of the other aspects and effects of the

Christian walk are impossible, because they're only possible through the first effect, which is a intimate relationship with the

Lord. We start missing out on many, many important aspects of our Christian walk. If we don't engage in a close relationship with the

Lord, it's not enough just to go to church. It's not enough just to do, you know, good, you know, awesome things to help people out.

Without a relationship, it's all meaningless, and I would argue that they're not going to go very far anyway. So I'm going to end with this, because this is something, again,

I said, I mentioned that Dad and I had a conversation about this, and he pointed this out to me. This is another one of the effects that we could possibly miss out on.

Think about that, the domino effect, removing the domino of relationship with the Lord, and all other dominoes stop falling.

Think about it in this light, Revelation 22 .12, and behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be.

Now, the Greek word reward there, misthos, it means dues paid for work or wages paid for work.

The reward used of the fruit naturally resulting from toils and endeavors.

So that's obviously talking about our good works, but our good works are impossible without a relationship with the

Lord. Therefore, it will be impossible for us to rack in any rewards in heaven without having a relationship with the

Lord. Now, remember, our work, our good deeds, if there be any at all, they all come not from ourselves, because if they did, we'd be able to boast about it, right?

That's Ephesians 2, 9 through 10. But it's through a close relationship that we are capable of doing good works.

So salvation, relationship with the Lord, the ability to do good works, and it's that that leads to glorious rewards that when given, when we are given the honor, when they are given to us, we are also given the honor of casting those right back to the

Lord from which they came. And that's an honor that we will not get to partake in if we don't constantly engage in a really, really close relationship with the

Lord. So again, the Lord is there. He wants to have a relationship with us.

I believe it's what we were created for, but the ball is always in our court. We have to do our part.

We have to take part in it. And we see now the results that if we do that are wonderful, and the results of neglecting that are terrible.

So we just need to keep those at the forefront of our mind for sure. And that is the ultimate conclusion to the study

I started. Obviously, there's so many more passages that we could cover. You can go back and watch the recording of the first one.

If you want to see a lot, hear a lot of the passages that I skimmed through fast and even left out in the review portion of this.

And as I continue the study in the Bible throughout the Bible in a year, I'm sure I'm going to come across many, many more that have specifically to do with this concept of the importance of relationship with the

Lord. So I'm going to end with prayer really quick now that I've had you guys for an hour and 45 minutes. I took the liberty of making sure

I finished this time because at least you guys are in the your own homes this time around, right? So let's end with prayer really quick.

And then I will let you guys go off the rest of the afternoon. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for this wonderful day.

Thank you for the very unique opportunity for allowing me to share things that I feel you've been showing me this year with my friends and my family out there, and hopefully can be as edifying to them as it has been to me.

We ask you to be with us the rest of the day, be with all of those out there that are continuing to battle sickness in any way, and we just ask you help us all recover, start feeling great, and that you bring us together in person again as soon as possible.

We know that by necessity we are joining together via webinar, but again we ask that sooner rather than later we're able to rejoin in person and have that close fellowship that we all yearn for all the time.

Thank you again for your many blessings and for being with us today, and we ask all these things in your name.

Amen. You guys have a good one, and we will see you next week. Okay, you can hang up.