Jack Jurgens's Ministry Library

Ministry from David Gilliland Friday night.

[0:00] Privileged to be here again, a joy to be here, and good to share together in the exercise of prayer in light of the conference.
We appreciate the warm welcome, and a privilege to share with the other brethren as well who, will be carrying public responsibilities.
Now, there are three scriptures that I would like to read just for a simple word.
The Gospel according to Matthew, and chapter 17 will be our first place of reading Matthew, chapter 17. It’s the Mount of Transfiguration. We know the passage well. Verse 1, After six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, bringeth them up into.

[0:48] A high mountain, a part was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And we have Moses and Elias. Verse 4, Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If thou wilt, let us make here three tower- knuckles, one for thee, and one for Moses, one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and.

[1:17] Behold, a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased here, ye him,” and so on. Now back to the Old Testament, to the book of Lamentations, just slipping in there after the long prophecy of Jeremiah and Lamentations and Ezekiel, just right into the middle of the book of Lamentations and chapter 3. Lamentations chapter 3 and verse 22. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust.

[2:27] If so be there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him. He is filled full with reproach, for the Lord will not cast off forever. But though he cause grief.

[2:37] Yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
And a last reading familiar from the book of Psalms and Psalm 73, Psalm 73.

[3:01] And verse 1, just for context, “‘Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped, for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.'”, And verse 16, “‘When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places. Thou castest them down to destruction. How are they brought into desolation? As in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors. Verse 28. But it is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.
Now that’s all we’ll read, just for a brief meditation at the close of the prayer meeting.
Trust the Lord’s blessing upon his word. I think amongst the other things that our, brother Hamilton mentioned in his announcements at the opening of the meeting, he expressed a desire that when the conference is over, that we might all be beneficiary, that’s the word.

[4:22] Word, beneficiary of the Midland Park Conference 2023, that we’d all be the better of, we’d be advantaged.
And I want to speak about things that are spiritually beneficial.

[4:41] A lot of things not beneficial, a lot of things injurious. We live in a world where many things are inimical to spiritual health, many things would bring us down and do us damage, but there are certain things that are good.

[4:57] And said the apostle in Matthew chapter 17, it is good for us to be here.
I tell you, that was some place.
That was sound play. Those three men, it was a small meeting, just a small conference, a few from earth and a few from heaven, and the voice of God was clearly heard.
The atmosphere was enriched with a sense of eternity. They’d never been in a venue like that before. They’d never been on ground that was so high, so holy, and so impressed was the, spirit of Peter that he confessed, it is good for us to be here. It is good to be here, isn’t it?

[5:55] You think of the many places where we might be, a Friday evening in a modern world, all, its pleasures, all its allurements.
Think of the possibilities and think of where we might have been apart from the grace of God, but we are here, just here, with all the anticipation which an annual conference brings, and I think I can hear an echo of this statement in the heart of many believers.
It’s just good to be here.

[6:30] This is where we might go and might be and might have been, but we’re here.
And what a place is this.
How rich and how relevant and how real it is.
It’s good for us to be here.
Then we have another spiritually beneficial matter, Lamentations chapter 3, it is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.
Are you finding it tough as a young person? good for you.

[7:05] It’s good to have challenges in your teens. We don’t want cotton wool Christians.

[7:15] We want Christians that are made of sterner stuff, stronger material. We don’t want to mollycoddle younger believers. It is good for a man to bear the yoke, and it’s you.
Good. It’s good to have the challenge of the difficult teen. It’s good to have the challenge of the difficult twenties. That’s something that’s good. And we’ll try and learn how it is beneficial, just not only to be here, but it’s beneficial. It’s good to bear the yoke in their youth. And then of course, he said, it’s not only good for us and not only good for a man.” Psalm 73, he said, is good for me. To draw near unto the Lord, and to the disorientation of his mind and soul and spirit. He slipped into the sanctuary of God, and he regained his poise, and his peace, and his perspective. And the conclusion which he drew from the experience was simply this. It’s good. It’s good for me. To draw near, Unto the Lord do you pray.

[8:41] Do you cultivate the habit of personal prayer, quietly slipping into the sanctuary of God unseen, by the public glare of human eye, and open up your soul just to the blazing light of God’s sanctuary and find the very interior of your being illuminated by things that can only be enjoyed when you come close and you draw near.” There’s a summit that’s worth remembering.

[9:16] He said, it’s good for us to be here on the mountaintop, a summit that is worth remembering.
There’s a shoulder that is worth yielding. It’s good to give your shoulder to the yoke, to bear the load, and you don’t shrink, and you don’t shy away, and you don’t faint, You don’t collapse, and you don’t resent, and you don’t complain.
He said it’s good, a shoulder that is worth yielding, and a sanctuary that is worth visiting.
These are the things that are spiritually beneficial.
I hope it’ll be a mountaintop experience just in the weekend of conference.
We could do with having our feet upon higher ground. Now, Peter was very well aware that they wouldn’t be there had the Lord not brought them.

[10:11] They didn’t arrange the meeting. I know there’s a lot of work and planning and thinking goes into the arrangement of the conference, and our brethren have done the best in exercise before the Lord.
But away and above any human arrangement, I trust we will become conscious as the days pass by, and as one meeting follows another, that the Lord has arranged that.

[10:39] And after six days, it’s almost…I don’t know that it was a Sabbath. I couldn’t prove that, but it was certainly a Sabbath experience. After the six days, we might say, and a working week, the Lord said, gentlemen, it’s time to go to higher ground and to get a taste of better things.
Isn’t that good to be here, dear Christians? After all the demands of city life, and all the demands of office life and all the burdens and all the cares, isn’t it good just for a weekend to draw a line, to step across into higher and richer and bigger and brighter and better things and say, it is good for us to be here.
The moment of the meeting, the mountain of the meeting, the majesty at the meeting.

[11:33] I tell you, these men got a glimpse of the glory of Christ such as they had never seen before.
They had been with Him for quite a number of months. They had been with Him in quite a number of travels.
They had been with Him in quite a number of situations.
But now just in the seclusion of that Galilean mount, on the summit of that particular place, The majesty of the Lord Jesus is in here in glory, resplendently shone forth, and they were bathed for a little while in the glory of Christ.

[12:10] It eclipsed anything that these men had ever seen, boats and fish and nets and villages, and clowns and Galilee.
Now, just for a short time, their souls are caught up and wafted up into scenes of glory.
And Christ, an Israelian person, becomes the focus of their attention.
No wonder this has got to be here.

[12:43] I hope we’ll all say that. And it is such an unveiling of the beauty of our glorious Lord.

[12:52] That we’d feel ourselves to be treated to a feast of celestial blessedness just to see the glory of Christ and to grasp something of His dignity and His deity and His distinctiveness and What is royalty?
Oh, I say, the majesty of the mount.
It was so impressive. Good to be here.
Haven’t you been at conferences where there was just that extra touch?
Wasn’t the preacher? Wasn’t the singing? Wasn’t all of those things?
It was nice to meet each other and to meet new… These fellows met a couple of nice, interesting kind, Moses and Elijah.
They’d never met them before.
Men from another dispensation, men from another country, men from another world, it’s good to meet each other.
Our brethren have been thanking the Lord for just those that have come from different parts, and there’s a social aspect to conference gatherings that is spiritually beneficial.
It’s good to be here.
But way above it all, you know, when Peter came to talk about this, the memory of this, meeting, he’s an old man now, and he’s putting down his pen, and he’s telling, he’s reminding the Christians that we were eyewitnesses of his majesty and we were with him in the holy mount and he says guess what we saw Moses and we saw Elijah never mentions Moses and Elijah.

[14:18] Never mentions them.

[14:24] Thirty years later, the only thing that Peter remembered was the glory of Christ.
It would have been great if we looked back in 2023 and we were glad to meet the Christians and have a little bit of chat and visit in the corridors and in the aisles and see people that maybe we haven’t seen for a while and people from another country.
All of those things are part of the ingredients of a happy occasion.
But when we look back, with a hindsight of appreciation, it wouldn’t be the people we met, just the Lord.
This is the only thing, the only thing I… The message of the mouth, he said we were there, and the presence of Christ was felt.
And he said the glory of Christ was seen.
And he said, best of all, the voice of God was heard.

[15:23] That’s what Peter talked about. That’s what Peter talked about when he came to write his second letter.
He said, we heard the voice.
We heard the voice that came from the excellent glory.
This is my beloved son.
Hear him. Would not be great, dear Christians, when all the externals were over and we were looking back just upon the conference and our times together, you and I and someone else would be able to say, I tell you, I heard the voice of God at those meetings.
There’s a message. This is my beloved son. Listen to him.
It’s not easy listening to Christ always. Sometimes Christ has very tough things to say.
This doesn’t feed us on platitudes.

[16:16] In fact, he just had told these disabled at the end of the previous chapter, take up your cross and follow me. And he said, I’m going out to be spat upon and to be mocked and to be vilified and crucified.
He said, there’s a tough road of rejection, scorn, shame and suffering.
Oh, Peter says, Lord, don’t you, shh, don’t speak like that.

[16:35] Don’t talk about those things. Don’t, we don’t, don’t speak like that, Lord.
Those are things that are not nice to mention.
We don’t want it. He says, Lord, be it far from you.
And Peter thought, I’ll tell the Lord what to say and what not to say.
When Peter got up to the mount, he heard the father’s voice.
The father says, he’s my son, listen to him.
He said, don’t you be telling him what to say.
He says, you keep quiet and listen to what he has to say. I said, dear Christians, I hope that beyond the voice of our good brother here from Mexico, and our brother, our brother Cain here, and above a struggling, rasping voice from Ireland.
I hope above, beyond it all, we’ll just hear the voice of God that will leave a mark upon us and will command attention in the very depths of our souls. And there is no wonder, it’s no wonder at all that Peter said, it’s good to be here. I tell you, what a place of rich and relevant experience that was. And actually, you say, why did the Lord give them a meeting like that?

[17:48] What was the purpose of it all? Well, there were a number of purposes, And one of them was this, this great meeting, it was just a miniature of glory yet to come.
When the Lord Jesus comes back and establishes His kingdom in this world and His glorious scene, and the Father’s voice will command global attention, and right across the circle of this earth, the message will resonate, my beloved Son, listen to Him.
Whether it’s Alaska or Australia or China or Chile, Every heart on planet earth will bow and listen to the voice of Christ.
Nobody wants to hear Him now, but in that coming day of kingdom glory, all will listen to the authority of the reigning Christ.
And this day on the mount was just a foretaste, a foretaste of bigger things to come.
I think that sometimes happens.
You’re in conference gatherings, you almost think it’s a glimpse of glory before we get there.

[18:58] It’s a little miniature of heaven, and you enjoy the praises that we’ve already been singing about, and you enjoy the fellowship of saints, and you enjoy the atmosphere of the Lord’s presence, and Christ is worshiped, magnified, and glorified, and you say, it can’t get much better than this.
It’s just heaven before heaven comes for taste. It’s good to be here. I think maybe there was another motivation in this great meeting. It was preparatory. Each of these men had very tough times ahead. Good old John. They had the dark days for John in the Isle of Patmos. James, Well, James will suffer by the sword. Peter too will suffer greatly. These men have dark days ahead, but you see the glimpse of glory in the mount, it It prepared them.

[19:59] It prepared them, it fortified them, it strengthened them, it fitted them for things which they didn’t know were ahead, but the Lord knew. And He gave them an experience, that just put within their souls a veritable body of spiritual strength equipping them for the road ahead. Maybe that’ll be true at the conference here this year as well, that some will hear a word from the Lord. I don’t know what’s around the corner for me, but the Lord does.

[20:31] Nor do you know what is around the corner for you or your family. We can leave it all in His hand.
Maybe there will be a preparatory ministry that will just set us up for situations in life which, Which none of us as yet has seen, but the Lord who is over, it is good, it is good, it is good.
Oh, it’s good, dear Christians, to be at a conference. May God grant, as our brethren were praying, I could sense within their prayers a positive attitude.
We approach this weekend just with the positivity that it’ll be a special time in the presence of the Lord.
And we’ll say, it’s good, it’s good, and has been good and will be good for us to be here.
A summit that is worth claiming.
A shoulder that is worth yielding, very quickly. I’m not going to, we’ll have a lot to say, we’ll have a lot to say, you’ll have a lot to suffer for the next two days.
So I’ll just cut it short.
Good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.
We have an idea, and I’m not saying it’s a misplaced idea, but oh no, shh, don’t, shelter the young people.

[21:55] You don’t want young people, it’s tough, you don’t want young people to have to face difficulties.
Shelter, shelter them as much as, we do try to protect young people, don’t we?
And we do our best, we do our best to create a safe spiritual environment where young people can survive and can thrive under the teaching of the Word of God.
But they can’t always be there.
Would you say what’s gonna happen to our young people? It’s a very tough old world, and there never was a society so challenging and so demanding as our society.
And we feel sorry, we feel sorry for our young people. And we say within our sinking hearts, they don’t stand a chance. Where did you find that in the Bible?
It’s good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. It’ll make him a man.
It’ll broaden his shoulders. There’s a flexibility in you.

[22:56] That doesn’t come with older year. You don’t travel too far in life until you become set in your way. And when you become set in your ways, really, really, when all is said and done, there won’t be much improvement. That’ll just be it. But an earlier day, the branch is still supple, or supal as you might say, and it can be shaped when it’s just a young branch. If it grows too long and becomes too strong and too stiff, it won’t be easy to shape. So it’s good, it’s good.
Young people, young people, you’re tough. University, the challenges of work, a very secular society, the winds of change that are blowing quite ferociously. And you say, well, we just give up.” No, no, don’t give up. It’s good that a man should bear the yoke in his youth. And the flexibility of youth will contribute to the maturity of youth. That’s, what will make the young person develop. If he’s almost put into a greenhouse of artificial protection. He will never strike down his roots deep. He will never develop branches that are strong. But if the young plant is exposed to a certain amount of test and hardship.

[24:25] It will develop into a mature plant. You say, well, I don’t know.
I don’t know, you say. I’m finding it very difficult. I’m finding it very tough as a a young person, I’m just about to give up. You have no idea about the temptations that I have had to encounter in my place of employment, the propositions that I’ve had to face. What about Joseph? One of the finest young men that ever left the soil of Canaan land and and crossed the border into Egypt.
The darkness of the pit and the solicitations of Potiphar’s house, you say, he’s spoiled.
He’s spoiled. That beautiful young lad of 17 that had such potential in the family of Jacob.
Look where he is now, detached from his country in a very alien environment, being propositioned by this scheming woman.
You say, this young man, he will be spoiled. This young man will be stranded.

[25:36] And he bore the yoke of temptation, and he bore it well, and I’m not going into the details of the story, the sense of God within his soul and the convictions that were wrought.
The day will come when what was just a pliable, fresh young man slipping down into Egypt, and you’ll see he was swallowed up in a secular culture. He will stand for God as the administrator of the whole land. He bore the yoke and as you, young person, don’t expect it to be easy.

[26:12] You be a man, be a woman for God. Maybe it’s in your family circle, maybe it’s in your place of employment, maybe it’s in your place of education, and the pressure is on. And, you say, I feel as if I’m being called upon to carry burdens that are beyond what I’m able to bear. Just keep in mind the little text from the 2023 Midland Park Conference, the book of Lamentations. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. Daniel could tell you that. He bore the yoke, all the pressures that went with dislocation from his country. We know the story of Daniel purposing his heart that he would not defile himself. Did David? David more the yoke than his youth, when with pure motive he went down to help his brethren in the battle, and his older brother said, what are you doing here?
You’re just here to spy. You’re just here nosing. You’re just here looking for a position.
Sometimes, sometimes it is pressure from the outside world that assails a young person.
It’s the criticism of carnal brethren.

[27:26] When you do nothing, you’ll be all right. But once you begin to stretch your arm for God, and put your head a little bit above the parapet and seek to live for His glory, you’ll find, you’ll find there will be people just step out of the woodwork, ready to down you at the first… You say, but it’s tough. It’s tough. It’s not easy for a a young person in assembly life, even in culture.
No, it’s not easy.
Was it expected to be easy? Was it easy in Bible time?

[28:00] Again, dear brethren, really what I’m saying is this, and I’m going to have to leave it.
We protect young people.
We prepare young people.

[28:13] We sympathize with young people. We make excuses for young people.
Some of the finest men in the Bible that stood for God, they developed character in their youth.
And it is good, it is beneficial, it is advantageous for a young person to have an easy time.
No, it’s good that a man should bear the yoke in his youth.
So don’t despair.
I can’t go to the passage, it also says, it’s good that a man should quietly wait on the salvation of the Lord.
Of the characteristics of you can be impatient.
Just finding it difficult to wait. All was wanting for a bigger thing, wanting to throw off the yoke, wanting to have a little bit of independence and just go for it.
And they’re impatient. No, no, he says, burn the yoke and sit and quietly wait.
Joseph had to wait. David had to wait. And the years passed by, and they counted the calendar and the clock, and it was all there. But Joseph became a great man, so did David.
But they had to wait for years, and they would tell you if they were here tonight that it was good.

[29:32] That they had to bear the yoke, and the young brother, young sister, and just all I want to get over tonight is this, it’s spiritually beneficial. I see in this text a back and a, burden that is to be borne, and a blessing that is to be achieved, a benefit that can be reaped.
Lastly, just as I sit down, well, it was difficult from the perspective of the psalmist in Psalm 73.
He saw the prosperity of the wicked and the righteous suffering, wickedness prospers, all of those things that are so obvious, and he wrestled with it and derangled with it, and the inequalities of it and the distortions of it.
He says, I couldn’t until I went into the sanctuaries, the sanctuary, and he said everything took on a different complexion.

[30:33] In fact, the word sanctuary in that text is plural.
I went into the sanctuaries. I’m inclined to think maybe that it’s a reference to the holy of holies, not that he went in physically.
He was a Levite, but in his mind, he went into the sanctuaries, the holy of holies.
Oh, he said, things were all right there.
Things were different there. He says it was all a cube.
Ten by ten by ten. He said there was no inequality there.
He said, I not only appreciated the cube, he said, I saw the chest, the acacia wood and gold. He said that impressive chest, he said, I had lessons.
And then he said, I saw the crown.
Then he said, I saw the cover, the value of atoning blood. Then he said, I saw the chariot, Ben.

[31:42] Then I saw the cloud of glory.” He said, when I spent my visit to the inner sanctuary of God, he said, I saw things that settled my spirit.
It’s good, dear Christians, to get into the presence of God just to see the glory of Christ, the crowned Christ, to see the cover and the value of Calvary, to see the custodians of God’s eternal throne, to see the shekinah glory that has never changed, to see the cube where everything is equal, nothing out of shape, nothing skewed, nothing distorted, such as we see so commonly in this world.” But he said, that settled it all. That settled it all.
He said, I discovered there’s a sphere where all is peaceful and where all is pure and we’re all as proportionate, and we’re all as perfect.” And he said, I drew the conclusion, it is good for me. I said, it was good for me. It was a tonic to my soul. It was the medicine that I needed for the pain, the heartburn of my inner being.
It’s good for me to draw on to the Lord. Good, dear Christians, we’re glad to have a prayer a meeting like this. You wouldn’t feel comfortable, sure we wouldn’t, just to march into a conference without pausing a little while to pray.

[33:11] Just to acknowledge that any good that might come from the meetings, and all, the activities, and all the expense, and all the labors, and all the preachings, and all the conversations, any good that might come, it comes from the sanctuary of God himself. May God grant that there might be a release of all that would be essential to make, Midland Park Conference 2023 spiritually beneficial for every one of us. A summit, worth remembering, a shoulder worth yielding to the yoke of responsibility and so on and so forth, and a sanctuary worth visiting. It is good. It is good. And I hope by the time Sunday afternoon comes, We’ll be saying, Lord, that was good, and that was real good.

Filed under: Conf Ministry, Conferences, gilliland-david