Jack Jurgens's Ministry Library

Ministry from David Gilliland on Sunday afternoon.

[0:01] Now, again, I express my appreciation of the kind invitation to be here, the warm welcome, when we did arrive, and the privilege of sharing with our brethren over the various sessions of the conference.
It’s been a very enjoyable time, and we appreciate the care of all the believers.
I’m glad to see all who have been able to stay for what I’ll call the siesta session, of the conference, and as our brother has said, sleep is a problem.
If you’re really tempted, tempted beyond measure, the only little piece of advice I can give you, just feel free to stand up and just keep standing.
It will help you not to sleep, and I’ll know exactly what your problem is, and it won’t, it won’t deflect the message in the slightest.
Now I’d like to read from the gospel according to Matthew, in chapter 14, Matthew’s gospel in chapter 14.

[1:11] And we’ll just pick up one or two verses to give us the context here.

[1:18] Verse 1, At that time heard the Tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus and said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist. He is risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works to show forth, themselves in him. Verse 10, And he sent and beheaded John in the prison, and his head was was brought in a charger and given to the damsel, and she brought it into her mother.
And his disciples came and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus.
And when Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart.
And when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.
Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.
Then we have the feeding of the multitudes. Verse 19, he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass and took the five loaves and the two fishes.
And looking up to heaven, he blessed and break and gave the loaves to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude and they did all eat and were filled.
Verse 22, in straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him onto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.
And when he had sent the multitudes away.

[2:47] He went up into a mountain apart to pray. And when the evening was come, he was there alone.
But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary.”, Now, I think maybe, I think maybe we’ll read verse 23 again because I’ll come back to it.
And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray.
And when the evening was come, he was there alone.
I think that’s all we’ll read and trust the Lord’s blessing upon his word and what I have in mind to say.
I think, speaking in general terms, there are two New Testament books that have very, much a Jewish background.

[3:38] Out of the epistles, we have Hebrews, and out of the evangelists, we have the gospel according to Matthew. We’ve already heard quite extensively and helpfully from the epistle to the Hebrews, in the earlier sessions of the conference and this morning. And that particular book presents the Lord Jesus as we were reminded as the priest. When we come to this other book that has a Jewish background to gospel according to Matthew, of course, this gospel is presenting the Lord Jesus as the King. Those were the two great aspirations, the two great institutions in ancient Judaism.
They needed a king, a king to rule. They needed a priest, a priest to redeem, a priest to reconcile.

[4:28] The king has a scepter. The priest has a sacrifice. The king has a throne. The priest has a temple.
And all of these things find their resolution in the glorious person of the Lord Jesus. We are thankful that he is, as we have been reminded, both king and priest. Great are the offices he He bears, and bright His majesty appears, exalted on God’s throne.”, I have four things particularly in mind, and I’ll maybe say just a little about each, some of them.
I’ll say quite just a very brief word.
I’ll say something about the book.

[5:15] Then I want to say something about a section within the book.
Then I’ll say something about a chapter within the section.
And then I’ll say something about a verse within the chapter. So it’ll be kind of a zoom lens.
We will take a broad view of the book in general, then we’ll think about a discrete section, then a single chapter, and then we will narrow our focus to consider a specific, verse. That will perhaps be the burden of my message when I get to the end, to that fourth different section. As far as the book of Matthew is concerned, one of the encouraging features of.

[5:57] The conference this weekend, very encouraging, very positive. As a visitor here, I don’t think ever I have been at one of the conferences here where so many younger believers were present.

[6:08] And where the interest was so keen, and the attention was so riveted upon the Word of God.
We commend the younger believers. Some have traveled quite long distances, not only by car, but also by flight and made quite a bit of a sacrifice to be here. Many have been able to stay for this particular session and we appreciate, we appreciate the diligent attendance and attention of these younger believers. That has encouraged our brethren just to give one or two little hints about Bible study. It has already been remarked in an earlier part of the conference that if we, can see the structure and the symmetry and the shape and the cohesion and the coherence and the the connections, the intertextuality, as the scholars call it, of Holy Scripture, and how one text shines upon another and feeds into another and sends those trajectories and tentacles from one section to another.
It’s a great book of organic unity. We see that very much as far as the gospel according to Matthew is concerned.
In fact, if just a broad parameter, if you take the Old Testament for example, Genesis Genesis chapter 1 speaks about the sun. Malachi chapter 4 speaks about the sun.

[7:30] The first reference to the sun in the book of Genesis, God set a great light and a greater light in the sky to rule by day and so on.
So that the sun in the first mention in Genesis chapter 1 is to do with rule, light from heaven for air.
When we get to the last chapter of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi chapter 4, the subject hasn’t changed.
And we are projected forward to that great day when the Lord Jesus will reappear as the Son, of Righteousness with healing in his wings. What a blessed day it will be for this dark old world of ours when the bright and balmy beams of the Son of Righteousness cast their heavenly light across this globe, and planet Earth will bathe in the benign benevolence of the millennial, mediatorial, messianic kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So that the boundaries of the Old Testament have to do with the Son. Come to the New Testament, it’s not the Son, it’s the star. We just commenced the gospel according to Matthew, and those men come, and they have seen his star in the east.

[8:51] They have heard the story of the messianic star and the Messiah who will fill the dark sky of human unbelief and depravity and ignorance. We have seen his star. What a wonderful phenomenon in the sky was that messianic signal that God’s Son had now arrived and light was now beginning to shine such as never shone before, the Messianic star, as we commence the New Testament.
Just come to the end of the New Testament, the final chapter, Revelation chapter 22.
It’s not the Messianic star, it’s the morning star.

[9:33] The Lord Jesus, in that final announcement, cheers the heart of the prophet John.
I am the bright and morning star. Morning Star. Dear Christians, before we go away from the Conference 23, I would like to strike a note, the great note of triumphant rapture. It won’t be long until the Saviour cleaves the sky and we meet Him in the air, gather around His feet. The swelling song of everlasting worship fills the vaulted skies. We don’t belong here. We’re not settlers, We’re strangers and pilgrims, and we scan the horizon of hope, and we long, we wait to see the morning star appear in glory bright.
This blessed hope illumines with beams most cheering the hours of night, and the cohesion and the coherence of the books of Scripture.
The sun at the boundaries of the Old Testament, the star at the parameters of the New Testament, But of course, Matthew’s gospel is a great, I suppose we could call it a bridge book.

[10:50] It’s making the bridge back across the centuries to the Old Testament, the book of the generation, the book of the genesis. That’s the Greek word for generation, the book of the genesis. You say, I’ve heard that word genesis before. I think you have. And you’ve heard the word genesis right at the beginning of the Bible. There was an old genesis. There was a genesis for the natural creation. And the head of that natural creation was Adam. And the book of the generations of Adam we find in Genesis chapter 5. And the book of the generations of Adam tells us, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. But thank God there’s a new genesis. Not the genesis of the natural creation. There is the genesis of the new creation.
And out of the wreckage and ruin of sin, God is going to have a great salvage operation.
And the one who will be instrumental in that great process of recovery is none other than, His blessed Son and the book of the genesis of Jesus Christ.
And you read about His generation, not a death mentioned, in the generation of Jesus Christ, you don’t read of anybody that died, and He begat, begat, begat, begat, begat.
You see, Adam brought her in death.

[12:13] And every entry in the line of Adam’s generation has died. The sentence of sin, the Savior has brought in life, a new birth. And there has been the opening of a window of new hope. What a Genesis there has been with the arrival of Christ. The book of the Genesis of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the bridge between Adam and Christ. Abraham is halfway, approximately round figures, 2,000 years.
Between Abraham and Christ, David stands at 1,000 years.

[12:49] And God is telling us that right as soon as sin entered into the world, he said, I have been measuring and I’ve been marching the century.
And after 2,000 years had gone and we reached the midpoint to the incarnation, I made special promises to Abraham.
Then he said, I made special promises to David, the son of David and the son of Abraham.
And we immediately have a bridge that’s built reaching back across the millennia, to let us see the continuity. Oh, it’s a genesis.
It’s something new.
It’s something fresh.
It’s something distinct.
But it has a link with what has already taken place. There is a connection with the Old Testament.
The son of David, the son of David, the son of David. What does the son of David do?

[13:43] You say, David did have a son. He built a temple. Yes, he built a temple. He was a builder.
The book of the generation, the genesis of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the builder.
You say, the son of Abraham, what did he do? Did he build a temple?
No, he didn’t build a temple. He became a burnt offering.

[14:06] The Son of David built a sanctuary. The Son of Abraham became a sacrifice.
You say, I often wondered why.
I often wondered why it was that way around, why the order of chronology was upset.
It didn’t say the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, the Son of David first, and then the Son of Abraham. That’s the order of the gospel.
In the early part of the gospel, the Lord Jesus is presented as the son of David. He’s the builder.
And it’s in this great gospel that he tells us he will build a sanctuary.
I will build my church.

[14:44] And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Here we are, dear Christians, they tell me, they tell me in some of the modernistic thinking that Christianity is on the decline.

[14:57] That Christianity is in a shamble, that Christianity is obsolete and dated and will soon be outmoded. It’s struggling for its existence and it will soon disappear and become nothing but a bare mention in the books of history and in the chronicles of antiquity. No, no, I tell you, we trust in the Savior and he said, I will build my church and some of the building blocks, some of the living stones are right here this afternoon and the Savior is building still.
View the great building, see it wry. The scheme, how great, the plan, how wise.

[15:37] Composed of every saint that owns no savior but the living stone.
We salute this afternoon the noble mention of the name of Jesus Christ.
We have trusted him for the salvation of our souls.
He has brought us into the incorporation of this marvelous spiritual structure, through which his presence will be mediated.
The church, which is a wonderful sanctuary, the church, which is his body, and through that body, the glory and the presence of Christ will be mediated and radiated throughout the universe of God until the furthest extremities are all touched by the glory of the risen and the reigning Christ, the son of David, then the son of Abraham. Thank God as the book comes to an end, He goes to the altar.

[16:34] And upon that altar, he stretches out himself in self-abnegating love, and he makes the ultimate sacrifice, covers the throne of God with everlasting glory. And we appreciate, we appreciate that Matthew is not only a book with, with a book that makes a bridge, and a book that makes a new beginning, and a book with interesting boundaries. In fact, in fact, that’s a little thing to look out for when you come to reading the books of the Bible, very pronounced in what we call the four Gospels.
Each Gospel concludes as it commences, almost. Concludes as it commences with a different.
You’ll see exactly what I’m talking about if for a split second you think about the, Gospel according to Luke.
The Gospel according to Luke begins with a man in the temple.
Zacharias is in the temple offering incense and so on and so forth.
The book of Luke concludes with people again in the temple praising God and thanking God.
So it commences in the temple and it concludes in the temple.
There’s a difference.
There’s a symmetry.
When it commences in the temple, there’s a man praying. When it concludes in the temple, they’re not praying, they’re praising.

[18:01] You say, what has happened? When Luke’s gospel commences, there’s a man in the temple praying that the Messiah might come.
When you get to the end of Luke chapter 24, they’re in the temple, not now praying, they’re praising because the Messiah has already come.
And there’s a great transition in this book. The same in the gospel according to Matthew, it begins with Christ being worshipped.
Concludes in chapter 28 with Christ being worshipped. But there is a difference.
When Christ is worshipped in the gospel according to Matthew chapter 2, there are human beings bring gifts and they give him presents, three presents. I think it’s gold and frankincense and myrrh or something like that. Three human gifts, very interesting presents, royal presence, and so on. And they worship Him, and they give Him presence.
When you get to the end of the gospel, again there get.

[19:00] It’s not three human presence. He says, all power is given unto me in heaven and on earth.
And he has been given now, not from the hand of human donators. He’s been given donors. He’d be given from the hand of God himself. And the executive administration of this universe is, vested in a man who has been to the cross and has exited on the resurrection side of the grave.

[19:28] And we represent him this afternoon. That’s what gives Christianity its dignity. So, through the book itself, and I could say quite a number of other things, I refrain from doing that, but the broad parameters, the framework of the book, many a picture, you know there are many pictures, many beautiful portraits and landscapes, it all depends the kind of frame. If you have a nice picture and you put the wrong frame, it will detract from the picture. If you put the right frame, it will enhance the picture and it will lead the eye of the beholder into the center of the picture and will actually facilitate focus. So it is with the books of the Bible. God puts His book in a special frame and when we begin to admire the frame, our mind, our souls, our hearts, our eyes are carried to the interior of the picture and the frame is an invitation to make a closer inspection of the contents. As far as this section is concerned, and I’ll just mention this very, very quickly. In fact, I should nearly omit it, but I’ll just mention it. This section of the gospel begins with chapter 4, verse 17, From that time forth Jesus began to see to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

[20:48] From that time forth. And that goes right on to chapter 16, and again you get this little key From that time forth, Jesus began to preach the kingdom of God. No!
When it’s chapter 4, He began at a particular point to preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
When it’s chapter 16, He began at a point to teach them the Son of Man must suffer.

[21:17] And from chapter 16 to the end of the gospel, it’s the passion of the King. We’ve been hearing about the priesthood and the kingship of the Lord Jesus already today. Our brother was reminding us about Melchizedek, the king of Salem. It’s not a very interesting, it’s not a very provocative title. He has already explained it to us, Salem. The first mention in the Bible of the great city of Jerusalem. It’s Matthew’s gospel that tells us that Jerusalem is the city of the great king.

[21:54] And all of that was presaged in the arrival upon the stage of history of Melchizedek, the King of Salem. The King will come back to that city of Jerusalem, and that very point on planet earth will become the pivot of his rule in the coming kingdom era. And fanning out from Jerusalem right across the world, there will be the global government of the glorious Christ, the city of the great King, the very place where the ground received the precious blood that he shed, the very place that knew his shame, that very same city will become the theatre of his glory.
And as we think of that great day of coming dignified honour and rule, we say with Francis Ridley Havergill within our hearts, Oh, the joy!

[22:52] To see Him reigning, worshipped, glorified, adored. What a grand day that will be. But Matthew tells us about the passion of the King. And from chapter 16, with a steady step, He moves to the cross. But in these earlier chapters, we have the great presentation of the.

[23:18] King. His words. Read about all that great so-called Sermon on the Mount. His works.
Those 10 miracles of chapter 8 and 9. His witnesses. He sends out those men in chapter number 10.
When Galilee has been covered with a message of the King, and they begin to make it clear that they don’t want his message, the Savior gives his warnings in chapter 11. He says, Capernaum. Alas, Capernaum! In Besseta and Chorazin, he says, you cities that have been so privileged to hear the messengers of the king, and yet you’ve rejected his message and his claims and his person. And he pronounces a warning, and then he follows it up with a beautiful word of welcome. There’s a tenderness in the heart of the king, and he has hardly spoken the warning until the welcome come unto me, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, learn of me, ye shall find rest unto your soul. Isn’t it great, dear Christians, to have rest? We already sang today.

[24:25] Rest in pardon and relief from the load of guilt and grief. Rest in perfect peace with God.
Rest in Christ’s atoning blood. Here we have quite a number of us this Lord’s Day afternoon, and we have found a place of calm repose in the blessed Savior.
Once we toiled and were troubled by the burden of our sin.
But what a happy day when we found a resting place in Crete.
I will give you rest, I will rest you, I will relieve you. There’s another link with Hebrews.
We’ve already heard about the epistle to the Hebrews. We which have believed do enter into rest.
And our brother Jonathan was telling us yesterday yesterday about the development of that great subject of rest in Hebrews chapter four, the creation rest on the seventh day when God rested from all his work.

[25:29] The Canaan rest that was partially enjoyed when Joshua brought the people into the land of milk and honey, the conversion rest.
The moment you put your trust in Christ, you find rest.
The Christian rest, the celestial rest, a sabbatismus for the people of God.
I say, dear Christians, in a troubled old world, isn’t it a great thing to find rest?
Just rest. The rest of Matthew chapter 11 is anapausis.

[26:02] The word for rest, the common word for rest, not the sabbatismus word, which is worthy of further investigation.
The word in Hebrews chapter four is not anapausis, it’s katapausis.
And I know that you’re really keen to have a Greek lesson just after a good heavy lunch this afternoon.
Well, you’re going to have it right now. This is the dessert.
This is the dessert for the dinner.
And pausas, well, anybody can see pausas. We get our English word pause, a breathing space.
Just take it in some fresh air. And the tension is all gone.
That’s pausas, the old Greeks.
And in the gospel, according to Matthew, it’s anapausas. And that ana-prefix refers to something that is lifted up.
When you get to Hebrews chapter 4, it’s catapulses, and that refers to something that’s led down.

[26:58] And that’s the rest that we have found in Christ. When we came burdened with our sin, according to Matthew chapter 11, He lifted it up. He took away the old yoke of sin, and our shoulders chafed under all the burden and the blistering heat of our sins. He lifted it up, and he gave us relief.
Happy day when Jesus took my sins away.
And I don’t know about you, but the night I got saved, I think that was the major feeling in my head.
Some people say you don’t feel being saved.
Well, I tell you, I felt it then and I feel it still.
I’m not a theologian. I’m not a theologian. I just enjoy salvation. It was a relief.
I breathed more easily. I had an anapausus and a load that I couldn’t bear.
Another day, the Savior lifted it up and he carried it away, and I’ve never seen it since.
Thank God for the anapauses of the uplifting rest of Christ.
But then there was another side to it in Hebrews chapter 4, the laying down.
I struggled for a while, actually, and I tried to get saved.
And no matter about my struggles and my trials and my tossings and my turnings, I couldn’t find any rest until at last there came a day when I just let it all down.

[28:20] And all the struggles were over, and all the strivings ceased, and He lifted up and gave me rest, and I laid down my useless works and found a resting place in Him.
I say, it’s great to have rest. here today with doubts? I would be, I would nearly be sure in a conference like this, there’ll be some Christian somewhere and you did have rest in Christ, but things have got a little bit upset and disturbed. We have a number of reasons, endless reasons in the Bible why people can have upset rest, nervous problems, physical problems, mental problems, age-related problems, family pressures, business pressures, all of those things can give us, you know what I would say to some believer?
You remember that day when you put your trust in the Savior?
Very simple, very straightforward, nothing sensational, no bright lights, no lightning strikes.
It was all so simple.
Times have moved on and things have developed and now today you’re a little bit at sea.
You know there’s a great verse in the Bible, you know what it says?
It says, return unto thy rest.
Is go back to where you rest at the start.

[29:37] Maybe you’ve walked away from it, just return onto your rest and again go back to where it all began.
And that sweet relief and repose when you stood upon redemption ground. Dear Christian, that rest can be recovered, but don’t be looking introspectively and looking for peace in here.
You will never find it. Just go back to the beginning. Thank God the firm foundation of Christ has never changed, and he still refreshes and he rests. And right in this very passage, that’s the great section, we’re in the section now where the Lord withdraws. Quite a number of times you read about the Lord departing, and he withdrew. In this passage, these sections of Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, every one of those chapters you read, he departed, He withdrew, and the opposition is stiffening, and the Lord Jesus withdraws.
Sometimes He goes to the shore.
Sometimes He goes to the slopes of the mountain.

[30:41] Sometimes He goes to the seclusion of the desert. You say, what do you go to the shore for?
And what do you go to the slopes of the mountain for? And what do you go to the seclusion?
Well, He’s going out to the Gentiles, and He’s going to withdraw from Israel, And he’s going to ascend the mountain slopes of glory.
And he’s going to bring blessing into the barren world of the Gentiles, and out to the shore of the sea.
And thank God he’s withdrawing. And now we have this great chapter 14.
Tells us in this one chapter, very, very quickly here, because I better accelerate.
This one chapter gives us three pictures of what things will be like.

[31:21] When the Lord has gone away. He has been rejected by Israel. He is withdrawn from the nation.
I’m sorry, I can’t elaborate that any further. You say, what will it be like when he has gone away?
Well, the first story in this chapter is John the Baptist is killed.

[31:40] Oh, you see, that’s a sad story, isn’t it? The great servant of Christ decapitated, just to satisfy the base lust and the bloodthirst of this ruthless king. It’s a sad story. It’s a story of sorrow. We’re told the disciples of John the Baptist came and they gathered up the headless corp and they buried him. You talk about a sad funeral. I often wonder why the Lord didn’t go to the funeral. I’ve often wondered why the Lord never visited John the Baptist in prison. You see, the man that served with such sterling dignity, why did the Lord not go to see him at least? If he didn’t bring him out at least, why did he not even go to his funeral? John’s disciple, there’s some sad funerals, dear.

[32:37] Christians. While the Master’s away, there’ll be days when we’ll follow the funeral cortege to many a grave. Story of sorrow, days of sorrow. Then the next is the days of service. The Lord brings these disciples and they have a great day feeding all these multitudes and taking the bread and distributing and a wonderful day of service it was. I think it was a high point in their experience. That’s a good story. Then the third story is the story of the storm.

[33:11] That’s what it’ll be like when the master’s away. Days of sorrow, days of service, and days of storm.
You say, how do you cope? How do you cope with the sorrow? How do you cope with the storm?
How do you cope with the service? Well, the passage tells us, when it was the sorrow, it says they came and told Jesus. They just told him. Maybe there’s a broken heart here here this afternoon, and I would encourage you, dear Christian, just tell him.

[33:47] When you’re sad, and when sorrow grips your soul, and when the tear trickles down the cheek, falling from the fountain of a broken heart, just tell him.
In our sorrow, we can tell him. He is an ear always willing to listen.
There’ll be sorrows that will crush your heart at times that you’ll not be able to tell your closest friend, thank God you can tell him.
When it comes to our service, it’s not a matter of telling him, it’s taking from him.
It says he gave, he gave to the disciple.
And the disciples gave to the people, and they just gave to the people what they took from him.
They didn’t bake the bread, and they didn’t make the bread, and they didn’t break the bread.
They couldn’t take any credit, they were just passing on. Just passing, that’s all preaching is, dear brethren.
It’s just passing on. We do a little bit of cooking and put things into the oven and get a few Greek words in one thing or another and a few headings, and we think we have done something great.
We’re just passing on what the Lord has given to us.
In our service, it’s a privilege.
So when it’s sorrow, tell him.
When it’s service, take from him and just give to others what he gives you.
When it’s the storm, what do you do?
You trust them.

[35:10] He says, O ye of little faith, he treads the way, and he comes with his presence, and he speaks peace into their soul. He says it as I, be not afraid, trusting as the moments fly, trusting as the days go by, till within the jasper wall, trusting Jesus, that is all.
Dear Christians, these beautiful pictures, days of sorrow, we can tell them.
Days of service, we can take from them. And He’ll always be giving more bread.
There’ll never be more mouths than there is provision in Christ. Human need will never outstrip divine grace and provision. And in days of storm, just trust Him, that he’s above the water floods. Every tempest-driven bark with Jesus as his guide shall soon be moored in harbour calms in glory to abide.” There’s another little thing that I want to mention and I’ll be finished. I’ve spoken about the book, the section, the chapter, and there’s a verse. And in this verse, it’s not now the royalty of Christ, that’s the book.

[36:30] And it’s not now the revelation of Christ in this great section, and it’s not now the rejection of Christ, it’s the reaction of Christ. You say, how did the Lord Jesus deal with all these different circumstances? Well, in his service, he becomes an example for us.
And I want to emphasize three things. It tells us in verse number 23, here’s a message for 23, See ya.

[36:59] I should have been here 10 minutes ago. But this is what I want to say and finish, my little message. This is 23, verse 23, for the year 23. Is there anyone here today and you’re finding it difficult to cope? You’re stressed. You’re distressed, D-I-S-T-R-E-S-E-D.
You’re not only a stress, you’re in distress, double stress.
Stress is one of the buzzwords of our society. Many people find it just almost impossible to cope at their tether, just at the brink, at the edge.
In all the pressures of these days, how did the Lord Jesus command his service? And I’m not speaking irreverently of him, but we find in him a pattern for our much lesser selves, how we can cope with the challenges and the pressures. I want to give you not only a secret for stress and distress, I want to think about de-stress, not D-I-S-T-R-E, D-E. I don’t know, if it’s a word, but it’ll do. D-E. It’d be great if you could get de-stressed.

[38:12] What did the Lord Jesus do? Well, there are three words in verse number 23. It says, when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray, day. And when the evening was come, he was there alone.” My three words are these, away.

[38:37] Apart on the mountain alone. That’s how to de-stress.
Younger people, just quickly. Older friends, this is how you find your soul being refueled, refurbished, refilled with what it takes to keep pressing on.
You need to send things away. There’s a multitude to be dismissed. You need to go up into the mountain apart. There’s an altitude to be reached, and you need to spend time alone. There’s a solitude to be cultivated.
And if you dismiss the multitude, and climb the altitude, and cultivate the solitude, I can guarantee it will greatly de-stress your life.
There are times, the Lord didn’t wait until they just all went home, He sent them away.
There are times, dear Christian, when you have to draw the line, and you say enough’s.

[39:50] There has to be a discipline, there has to be a boundary. I don’t know what the multitude is in your life.
Multitude of email, a multitude of Instagram messages, multitude of texts, a multitude of friends, a multitude of commitments, a multitude of cares, a multitude of worry.
There’s times when you have to draw the line and say, just stop there.
Every life in this building today, every life of this building is encroached by a multitude, of different worries and burdens that would upset our peace and take away our rest.
You need to learn. I need to dismiss it and say, that’s it.
Have you ever switched the phone off? I see people even using their phones in meetings nowadays.
Can’t even cut out the phone for a meeting.

[40:53] How we expect to hear the voice of God. When we’re always open to the voice and texts of others, I don’t know, you have probably more science in those things than I have.
We pray that God will speak to us, but we’re always switched on to others. Dear Christians, no wonder we have so much stress. It’s time to cut the light, draw the light, dismiss it, Send things away, a multitude of bits and pieces, and lesser things that must be dismissed.
Then go to higher ground.
The Savior not only sent them away, he went into a mountain apart.
Matthew’s gospel is the gospel of mountains.
Isn’t it great to get onto higher ground?

[41:39] You see things with a different vision. You see things from a different vantage point.
Just to climb into those altitudes of quiet retreat in the presence of God.
We have been with Moses on a mountain.
We could go with Elijah on a mountain. How many, even Abraham on the mountain.
Many of the people in the Bible, they got a special touch from God when they were on higher ground.
I know we sing that Mr. Oatman’s hymn. Lord lift me up and help me stand on heaven’s higher table land.
They gave that, a brother gave that hymn out. I was telling some of them recently in ancient times, give that hymn out in a meeting.
Lift me up, help me stand on heaven’s higher table land. Mr. W.W. Ferdy was there.
He said, no brother, we’ll sing something scriptural.

[42:32] He said, we can’t get onto higher ground. We’re already in heavenly places and praise Jesus.
He said, we don’t need to ask the Lord to lift us onto higher ground.
Was, well, I quite like the hymn. I like the tune, anyway. I don’t like all the theology, but I tell you, we could do with higher ground.
Get up to the rarefied air of communion with God and fill your soul with the oxygen of another world and the clear light of heaven to shed its beams into the very interior of your soul, and catch a glimpse of the better land across on the other side.
Dear Christian, always learn what it is for the multitude to be dismissed and for the, the altitude to be claimed.
I’m serious about that, dear Christian. Younger people, you make a space in your life for God.
Set it apart, set it up. Apart and above. And then finally, not only those two that I mentioned, there’s a solitude. He was there alone.

[43:44] Hard to be alone nowadays.
You carry a thousand addresses in your pocket. There’s nearly always somebody there. There’s someone invading your private space. You say, but I need me time and I need me space. No, you don’t. You don’t need me space or me time. I’m not talking about that. It’s not me space that we need. It’s space for us and the Lord. Not just time spent alone. Time spent alone with Him. Alone with Thee, O Master, where the light of earthly glory die. Misunderstood by all I dare to do what thine own heart would place. Young man, if you’re going to develop for God.
You will need to develop a private life with God. You cannot always be available for every cause, and for every call. When you’re alone with God, life becomes deeper. Loads become lighter.

[44:56] The light becomes clearer, and I say send certain things away. Go to the mountain apart and learn what it is to spend time alone. We find comfort in company. Company is good. We’re not meant to be hermits, but there are times we need to be detached from the human and touch the heavenly.
And it will give a depth and a richness and a gravitas and a ballast to your life.
And meetings are good. Oh, I’m all on for meetings. Been marvellous to see the great attendance at the meetings are good, but there’s something about time spent alone with God that is better, better still. Are you stressed? Is there someone here and you find in your service, you’ve lost your rest, your enjoyment of rest, and you’re all disturbed, and you’re all just in a whirlpool of anxiety.
Here’s the distress recipe of the perfect Savior.
Away, draw the line, dismiss the multitude.

[46:09] Above, upon the mountain top, alone with God. We mutter, we sputter, we fume, and we spurt.
And we can’t understand things, and feelings get hurt. We mumble, we grumble, and our vision grows dim.

[46:35] When all that we need is a short time with Him.
Away.
Apart. Alone. That’s my message for this afternoon, and I trust God will encourage us in the solitude, of a deeper spiritual life with Christ.
With Christ. May the Lord bless His Word.

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