For Christians in Perilous Times waiting for Jesus’ Call at the Rapture

All through this desert dry My path His footsteps trace, And He doth all my need supply

oasis

Hymn by John Nelson Darby (1800-1882)

Originally in Fench – Click here for French version.

1. All through this desert dry
My path His footsteps trace,
And He doth all my need supply
In this sad, empty place.
Up to the Father there
Doth He attract my heart –
Doth make this earth a desert drear,
And draw me quite apart.

2 In Christ I find repose,
Nor follow Him in vain;
My soul no loss nor sorrow knows
When He Himself’s my gain.
Though long and hard the road,
Faith’s eyes are on the goal;
He uses trials for my good,
And thus preserves my soul.

3 Thus joyful, bright and free,
I take the heav’nly road;
My soul vibrates with melody,
My song is ever – God!
To Thee I have recourse
When sorrow fills my soul;
Thy staff and rod are my resource,
To comfort and console.

4 O what amazing grace
To know Thee here below!
To this great end my steps I trace,
And onward, upward go.
Thy face I soon shall see,
O mighty Saviour, there;
I have in Thee full victory,
And shall Thy glory share.

Little Flock Hymnbook 1962/1973 No 228
Thought to have been written by John Nelson Darby in French and translated.

J N Darby – Rise, my soul, thy God directs thee

 

sung to Beecher midi score

J N Darby
John Nelson Darby

by J. Zundel (1815-1882)
(8.7.8.7.D.)

1 RISE, my soul, thy God directs thee;
Stranger hands no more impede;
Pass thou on, His hand protects thee,
Strength that has the captive freed.

2 Is the wilderness before thee,
Desert lands where drought abides?
Heavenly springs shall there restore thee,
Fresh from God’s exhaustless tides.

 

3 Light divine surrounds thy going,
God Himself shall mark thy way;
Secret blessings, richly flowing,
Lead to everlasting day.

4 God, thine everlasting portion,
Feeds thee with the mighty’s meat;
Price of Egypt’s hard extortion,
Egypt’s food no more to eat.

5 Art thou weaned from Egypt’s pleasures?
God in secret thee shall keep,
There unfold His hidden treasures,
There His love’s exhaustless deep.

6 In the desert God will teach thee
What the God that thou hast found,
Patient, gracious, powerful, holy;
All His grace shall there abound.

7 On to Canaan’s rest still wending,
E’en thy wants and woes shall bring
Suited grace from high descending,
Thou shalt taste of mercy’s spring.

8 Though thy way be long and dreary,
Eagle strength He’ll still renew:
Garments fresh and foot unweary
Tell how God hath brought thee through.

9 When to Canaan’s long-loved dwelling
Love divine thy foot shall bring,
There with shouts of triumph swelling,
Zion’s songs in rest to sing,

10 There no stranger-God shall meet thee,
Stranger thou in courts above.
He who to His rest shall greet thee,
Greets thee with a well-known love.

In Hymns for the Little Flock 1962 and 1973 and in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs 1978 – No 76

J N Darby: And shall we see Thy face,

Hope

J N DarbyAND shall we see Thy face,
And hear Thy heavenly voice,
Well known to us in present grace!
Well may our hearts rejoice.

With Thee in garments white,
O Jesus, we shall walk;
And, spotless in that heavenly light,
Of all Thy sufferings talk.

Close to Thy trusted side,
In fellowship divine,
No cloud, no distance, e’er shall hide
Glories that there shall shine.

Fruit of Thy boundless love
That gave Thyself for us –
For ever we shall with Thee prove
That Thou still lov’st us thus.

And we love Thee, blest Lord,
E’en now, though feeble here;
Thy sorrows and Thy cross record
What makes us know Thee near.

We wait to see Thee, Lord!
Yet now within our hearts
Thou dwell’st in love, that doth afford
The joy that love imparts.

Yet still we wait for Thee,
To see Thee as Thou art,
Be with Thee, like Thee, Lord, and free
To love with all our heart.

John Nelson Darby 1881

God is satisfied with Jesus, We are satisfied as well.

1 On the Lamb our souls are resting,
What His love no tongue can say;
All our sins, so great, so many,
In His blood are washed away.

2 Sweetest rest and peace have filled us,
Sweeter praise than tongue can tell;
God is satisfied with Jesus,
We are satisfied as well.

3 Conscience now no more condemns us,
For His own most precious blood
Once for all has washed and cleansed us,
Cleansed us in the sight of God.

4 Filled with this sweet peace for ever,
On we go, through strife and care,
Till we find that peace around us
In the Lamb’s high glory there.

5 On the living Lord believing,
We have righteousness and peace.
By the Holy Spirit given
We have joys that never cease.

Little Flock 1962/1973 No 410
J. A. v. POSECK (1816-1896) 8.7.8.7.

J N Darby Hark! Ten Thousand Voices Crying

The Endless Song by John Nelson Darby

“THE ENDLESS SONG”

J.N. Darby  1800-1882

  1. J N Darby
    John Nelson Darby

    O the joy of the salvation
    We possess around the throne,
    Countless thoughts of admiration
    Mingling leave that joy but one. 

  2. Hark! ten thousand voices crying,
    “Lamb of God!” with one accord;
    Thousand thousand saints replying,
    Bursts at once the echoing chord.
  3. Long with free and glad devotion
    Universal praise prevails,
    Till, blest fruit of deep emotion,
    Voice by voice in silence fails.
  4. Now, in wondrous adoration,
    Dwelling on His matchless love,
    Sway’d with power of that salvation,
    Silence fills the courts above.
  5. Then their richest thoughts unfolding,
    Each to each with joy divine,
    Heavenly converse blissful holding,
    Tells how bright His glories shine.
  6. Some on God’s high glories dwelling,
    Brightly beaming in His face;
    Some His First-born greatness telling,
    Ordering all things in their place.
  7. These of Godhead’s counsels deep
    Him th’ Accomplisher proclaim;
    These how Jesu’s self could weep,
    Of Godhead’s love the Witness came.
  8. All on love surpassing rest,
    That clothed in flesh the great I AM:
    Till from a heart divinely prest
    Bursts forth at length the loud exclaim,
  9. “Praise the Lamb!”–at once awaking
    The gather’d hosts, their voices throng;
    Loud and wide each tongue partaking,
    Rolls renew’d the endless song.
  10. Grateful incense this, ascending
    Rises to the Father’s throne;
    Every knee to Christ is bending,
    All the mind in heaven is one.
  11. All the Father’s counsels claiming
    Equal honours to the Son,
    All the Son’s effulgence beaming
    Glory of His Father’s throne.
  12. By the Spirit all pervading
    Radiant hosts unnumber’d round,
    Breathing glory never fading,
    Echo back the blissful sound.
  13. Joyful now the wide creation
    Rests in undisturb’d repose ;
    Blest in Jesu’s full salvation,
    Sorrow now nor thraldom knows.
  14. Rich the streams of bounty flowing,
    Common blessings from above,
    Life and holy joy bestowing,
    Tell of God’s unwearied love.
  15. Hark the heavenly notes again
    Loudly swells the air-borne praise ;
    Throughout creation’s vault, “Amen,
    “Amen!” responsive joy doth raise.

Selected verses Hymns for the Little Flock 1962 and 1973 and in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs 1978 – No 14

A note from Sosthenes

Years ago, Percy Lyon, a servant of the Lord well known for his colourful (in the right sense) language and intonation said to my father,  “We won’t be praising the Lord all the time, we’ll have reading meetings too!  Then he quoted JND’s lines ‘Each to each with joy divine, Heavenly converse blissful holding,  Tells how bright His glories shine Some on God’s high glories dwelling, Brightly beaming in His face; Some His First-born greatness telling, Ordering all things in their place.’ “

ADOSS Newsletter – February 2014

publication of hope of the Church, Faith once delivered to the Saints

Not the ruler of the synagogue but a brother - depiction from an icon in a Russian Orthodox Church
Sosthenes

Σωσθένης Ὁἀδελφὸς – Sosthenes the Brother

sosthenes@adoss.co.uk – 

ADOSS Newsletter – February 2014

 

Dear Christian Friends

Another month gone by – another month nearer to the Lord’s return – and we are still here!  Our times are in our Father’s hands.

What to do next

I have finished the summaries of both ‘Faith once Delivered to the Saints’ and the ‘Present Hope of the Church’.  I am now counting on what to do next.  The summaries need to be checked – by me, and at least three others (Offers of help required!), and then I want to move to publication, see below.

But then what?  I would welcome suggestions for the next series of Darby Simplified.  I do not have anything planned at the moment, and am waiting on God for guidance.

 

Publication of Darby Simplified

When the two series have been thoroughly checked I want to move to publication – first electronic, and then hardcopy.  A couple of my dear Christian friends have publishing facilities, and have indicated their willingness to help when the books are ready.

I have already made ‘Present Hope of the Church’ into an eBook, and it can be downloaded in .pdf, Apple (.epub), and Kindle (.mobi) formats.  This is currently a draft and not ready for widespread distribution, so I would like to know who has received it, not least so that I can send him/her the final version when available.

As I have said, any help in going though the summaries with a critical, and spiritual eye would be much appreciated.  Any who wish to help should e-mail me and I will send a ‘parallel version’ in Word format with both the JND original and the summary.

The Sad State of the Church

What a mess the Church is in!  I don’t want to down any sect – not even the Roman Catholics.  Indeed I have been in correspondence with an old colleague of my wife’s, who resigned his vicarship over the question of women priests, became a Catholic.  We had plenty of areas of disagreement – but two things we were in agreement on – the saving grace of our God and the efficacy of the blood of our Lord Jesus.

There are problems everywhere, and the more I think of it, the more we have to be humble about.  This side of the glory there will not be any group who is not affected by wrong judgments, worldliness, legality and the desire of people to promote themselves and their own ideas.

By faith we have to lay hold of the truth of the One Body.  There is no breakdown in the bride of Christ.

Pre-Trib

I am pleased to make contact with many who, like me, acknowledge that the only scriptural outlook is that the church will be raptured, then there will be tribulation on earth, and then the Lord will return to take up His rights in the place where He was rejected.

Of course JND’s writings were very influential in the 1800’s and the effect of them is still recognised.  So, I would be glad if you could tell others with this sure and glorious outlook about ADOSS.  I would be glad to hear from them

May you be blessed, awaiting our Lord’s near return!

Your brother

Sosthenes

PS – Thanks to many prayers my shoulder is progressing well.

 

 

 

The Proverbs, Classified By Subject and Topic

Not really on the ADOSS theme, but we were reading Proverbs at home this morning, and of course they jump about from subject to subject.  The Holy Spirit indited the sequence, but I am not spiritual enough to understand it.

I thought – has anybody classified the Proverbs by subject – and a bit or research led me to

http://fridaysunset.net/Articles/ClassifiedProverbs.pdf

Thanks to Hugh Buchanan for his efforts

Here is the table of Contents

The   Proverbs,   Classified   By   Topic

CONTENTS

Introduction………………………………….………………………………..            3

Adultery…………………………………….……………………………………         5

Adversity…………………………………………………………………………          6

Anger……………………………………………………………………..………          7

Associates,  Friends  and  Neighbors…………………………….………                8

Blessings  and  Curses………………………….……………………………               10

Child  Rearing…………………………………………………………………             11

Contention……………………………………………..……..………………            12

Counsel…………………………………………………………………………          13

Covetousness  and  Envy………………………………………..…………                14

Diligence  and  Sloth…………………………………………………………              14

Eyes………………………………………………………………………..……          16

Faith………………………………………………………………………..……          18

Faithfulness……………………………………………………..……………             18

Fear  of  God……………………………………………………………………            19

Folly.  Fools,  Foolishness………………………………….………………               20

Generosity  and  Greed…………………………………….……….………                 23

Gluttony  and  Drunkenness………………………………………………                  24

God’s  Commands……………………………………………………………             25

God  Hates/Loves……………………………………………………………              26

Happiness………………………………………………………………..……            27

Hatred………………………………………………………………….………            28

Heath…………………………………………………………………..………            28

The  Heart…………………………………………………….………………              29

Honey……………………………………………………………….…………           32

Honor…………………………………………………………….…………….           32

Hope  …………………………………………………………….……….……           33

Humility  and  Pride…………………………………………………………                34

Justice  and  Judgment…………………………………………….………                 35

Knowledge,  Wisdom,  Understanding  and  Instruction…………        36

Mercy……………………………………………………………….……..……          42

The  Mouth…………………………………………………………………….            43

Poverty  and  Prosperity…………………………..……………….………                 47

Promises,  Protection  and  Deliverance………………………………                   51

Relationships  Between  Parents  and  Children……………………                         53

Reproof  and  Correction……………………………………….…………                  54

The  Righteous/The  Evil,  Their  Rewards……………………………                  56

Rulers,  Kings  and  Authority………………………………….…………                  62

Seduction………………………………………………………………….…             64

Strength……………………………………………………………….………            65

Surety……………………………………………………………….…………           66

Truth  and  Falsehood……………………………………..………………                 66

The  Virtuous  Woman…………………….………………………………                68

The  ways  of  Man  and  God………………………………………………                  69

The  Wise  Contrasted  With  the  Foolish………………………………                72

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christ took me in!

You will never enjoy “Christ in you” unless you enioy you “in Christ”. And how did l get into that place? He took me in! He forgave my sins, He gives me help day by day in the exercises that come up,

Satan tempting me at every quarter, but l have a place in Christ, that
nothing, dear brethren, – nothing – can disturb. lt is a settled place of
favour in Christ. Then if l dwell on that the Holy Spirit is here that there
may be an expression of Christ in me. l think that is the great work of
the Holy Spirit, to form Christ in our affections.

From a Bible reading with our brother Bert Taylor, Glasgow, 5 October 2013

Published in ‘A Word in its Season,  January 2014

A Letter on Separation – By John Nelson Darby

I write rather because of the importance of the point than for any immediate occasion of circumstances: I mean leaving an assembly, or setting up, as it is called, another table. I am not so afraid of it as some other brethren, but I must explain my reasons. If such or such a meeting were the church here, leaving it would be severing oneself from the assembly of God. But though wherever two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, He is in the midst, and the blessing and responsibility, of the church are, in a certain sense also, if any Christians now set up to be the church, or did any formal act which pretended to it, I should leave them as being a false pretension, and denying the very testimony to the state of ruin which God has called us to render. It would have ceased to be the table of the people and testimony of God, at least intelligently. It might be evil pretension or ignorance; it might call for patience, if it was in ignorance, or for remedy, if that was possible: but such a pretension I believe false, and I could not abide in what is false. I think it of the last importance that this pretension of any body should be kept down: I could not own it for a moment, because it is not the truth.

On the other hand, united testimony to the truth is the greatest possible blessing from on high. And I think that if anyone, through the flesh, separated from two or three walking godlily before God in the unity of the whole body of Christ, it would not merely be an act of schism, but he would necessarily deprive himself of the blessing of God’s presence. It resolves itself, like all else, into a question of flesh and Spirit. If the Spirit of God is in and sanctions the body, he who leaves in the flesh deprives himself of the blessing, and sins. If, on the contrary, the Spirit of God does not sanction the body, he who leaves it will get into the power and liberty of the Spirit by following Him. That is the real way to look at it. There may be evil, and yet the Spirit of God sanction the body (not, of course, its then state), or at least act with the body in putting it away. But if the Spirit of God, by any faithful person, moves in this, and the evil is not put away, but persisted in, is the Spirit of God with those who continue in the evil, or with him who will not? Or is the doctrine of the unity of the body to be made a cover for evil? …

Suppose clericalism so strong that the conscience of the body does not act at all, even when appealed to; is a simple saint who has perhaps no influence to set anything right, because of this very evil, therefore to stay with it? What resource has he? I suppose another case. Evil goes on, fleshly pretension, a low state of things on all sides. Some get hold of a particular evil which galls their flesh, and they leave. Do you think that the plea of unity will heal? Never. All are in the wrong. Now this often happens. Now the Lord in these cases is always over all. He chastens what was not of Him by such as separation, and shows the flesh in detail even where, in the main, His name was sought. If the seceders act in the flesh, they will not find blessing. God governs in these things, and will own righteousness where it is, if only in certain points. They would not prosper if [they act in the flesh], but they might remain a shame and sorrow to those they left. If it be merely pride of flesh, it will soon come to nothing.

“There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest” (1 Corinthians 11:19). If occasion has been given in any way, the Lord, because He loves, will not let go until the evil be purged out. If I do not act with Him, He will (and I should thank Him for it) put me down in the matter too. He loves the church, and has all power in heaven and earth, and never lets slip the reins.

I have not broken bread, nor should do it, till the last extremity: and if I did, it would be in the fullest, openest testimony that I did not own the others then to be the table of the Lord at all. I should think worse of them than of sectarian bodies, because having more pretension to light. “Now ye say we see”. But I should not (God forbid!) cease to pray continually, and so much the more earnestly, for them, that they might prosper through the fulness of the grace that is in Christ for them.

Brethren do not Divide

charles-coatesI am indebted to our dear brother Bill in Wheaton Il for drawing my attention to the second of the following extracts from Charles Coates’s Outlines.  If we had more of the spirit of the overcomer in Philadelphia with us, we would, in brotherly love (‘Philadelphia’ means ‘brotherly love’), labour with one another so that we would be of one mind in Christ.

The first passage was one I alighted on myself whilst looking up the second.

1. Division among saints is the fruit of self-will.

Division among saints is the fruit of self-will. If no will is at work, brethren would never divide. If we are really brethren we shall never divide, but there are those among us who do oppose the truth, as we find in 2 Timothy 2:25. If they are not really bad they will be recovered by the servant “in meekness setting right those who oppose”. If there is nothing bad at the bottom of a man’s heart he will be recovered, but if self-will is working he may be allowed to go on and fall over the precipice.

CAC Vol 33 p 57

 2. Brethren do not Divide

The word to the overcomer gives it all a bearing on the individual conscience. We must never allow our personal exercises to diminish even though we might be surrounded by most devoted and spiritual Christians.

Philadelphia is a beautiful name — it suggests a company bound together in brotherly love. If you get a company in accord with Christ because Christ is formed in them, that company must be bound together in love. Brethren do not divide; it is because people are not truly brethren that they divide; there is something else at work rather than divine love. If brethren could not agree about some matter of truth or discipline, they would say, ‘We do not see alike on this matter, but we must see alike, and we will pray until we do see alike’.

Everything for God hangs upon Christ, and if nothing had place with us but His word and His name, we should be wonderfully bound together. If our coming together today has the effect of bringing us in that direction it will be a blessed thing.

CAC Vol 33 p 450

Excerpts From: Charles Coates, “CAC 033 Volume 33 – Miscellaneous Ministry on the New Testament Thessalonians-Revelation.” – Downloadable from goodteaching.org

 

%d bloggers like this: