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Thing 312.
Wait on all my day on.
The day.
Glory.
And grace all I.
Love.
Where God will bring home.
Connect him to the same tune.
All day.
Straight.
You give us You give us all the.
Our God and Father, we thank thee that we can be here this afternoon. This is the words of him. Lead on Almighty God, lead on to victory. We thank thee.
The South made us overcomers, David believed.
So Jesus is the Son of God, our overcomers, that has given us victory over death. And Lord, we thank thee. Thou art the God of the living, and so we just ask thee for help with the Word here this afternoon.
More than our hearts might be.
Prepared in our ears, willing to receive. That would set us up for us.
And let us give us instruction as we go over.
This land waiting path into the place that thou is prepared for us, we will hear that shout.
And so, Lord, we pray that while we're here, we might have a desire in our hearts to do.
Those things that are righteous, pleasing to my sight, to bring glory and honor to Thee and to thy precious name. And so we thank Thee again for this time and ask for thy help. In thy name we pray, Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
1St Corinthians 15 is where we've been reading and.
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Verse 29 be about right. I think so, but I'd like to make one little suggestion that when Jason reads this he go back and first of all reads 17/18/19 and then go on to uh, the 29th 1St because it connects good.
So first Corinthians 15 verse 17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins.
Then they also which are falling asleep in Christ or perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable than 29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead? And why stand me in jeopardy? Every hour I protest by rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die daily, if after the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus.
What advantages does it mean if the dead rise not let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die? You're not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
But some men will say, how are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come?
So fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.
And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain. It may chance of wheat, or some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him. And to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of man, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial, but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon.
And another glory of the stars, For one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is zoning corruption. It is raised in incorruption. It is zoned in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown in natural body. It is raised a spiritual body.
There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.
And so it is written, the 1St man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Albeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural and afterward that which is spiritual. The 1St man is of the earth earthy, the 2nd man is the Lord from heaven.
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy, and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall stand, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this incorruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality, and shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swelled up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks thee to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable.
Always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Just to put it in perspective again, you might wonder why we suggested that we go back and read those verses that we earlier talked about. But as we said this morning, that versus 20 through 28 are somewhat parenthetical. In those verses he does a couple of things. He brings before us the effects of resurrection and shows it's far reaching and universal effect also we have in those verses.
They pledged that an assurance that because the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, those who have died in faith are going to rise as well. And so that little parenthesis ends at the end of verse 28. And then he goes back to connect it with what Jason read in 1718 and 19 because he says if there's no resurrection, two things, those who have fallen asleep, those who have died in faith, they're they're, they're perished. That's it. It's over for them.
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There's nothing beyond the grave and for those of us who are living, we're of all men most miserable. But now he goes on to connect that with a couple of things here in verse 29. Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not again, Why are they then baptized for the for the dead? And so it's if I can illustrate it this way and it's certainly not original to be baptized for the dead is not the way it's been misconstrued and christened them sometimes.
But it's really stepping in and filling the ranks of those who have gone on ahead, those who have fought their Christian warfare, those who have stood for the truth, those who have been faithful, they're gone. But now he says, we need, others need to step in and take their place. And why would you do that if the dead perish, if there's nothing after this life, if it's all over, if it's annihilation, if I can put it this way?
The Apostle Paul, when he wrote to Timothy, he knew he was going to lay down his life. He had a special sense from the Lord that this was the end when he wrote the 2nd Epistle. And he encourages Timothy to take up the torch of the truth and what had been committed to him. He was to take and to commit to faithful men who would be able to teach others also. And it's like the the relay race, the battalion is passed from one to another.
But it's interesting that it isn't long. In that second chapter of Second Timothy, you can read, I think it's verse 8, and I believe it was alluded to in the first reading. He brings in the resurrection because why? Why would he pass things on to Timothy? Why would he encourage Timothy to go on in the truth, even amidst persecution and reproach and giving up and so on, all the things that characterized the last day? And why would he tell Timothy to encourage others of the next generation to take it up?
You know, there's there's a resurrection, there's something beyond, there's something far better. And then in verse 30, he says, and why stand we in jeopardy every hour? You know, the apostle Paul, let's just go back to it or over to it in second Corinthians chapter one, believe it connected with what he's saying here.
2nd Corinthians chapter one he develops this a little bit. Uh, verse 9.
But we have, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raises the dead who delivered us from so great a death and dust deliver us in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. You know the apostle Paul in another place, he said I die daily. Now don't try to spiritualize that. This is not Roman truth. This is not being dead and risen with Christ and so on. This is physical death.
Paul stood in jeopardy every hour. When Paul got up in the morning in his service for Christ, he well expected that this might be the day when he suffered physical death. And why would he do that? Because there was something beyond. There was a resurrection. Why would you put your life on the line for the gospel and the people of God if there wasn't something beyond? Many of our brethren are going out today in other countries and they're putting their life on the line. Many are laying down their lives for their testimony for Christ this very day. Why do they do it?
Because they've grasped hold of the fact that there's another world, there is a resurrection and there's something better beyond. So I say that's why we went back and connected it. There's a resurrection, yes. If you say there's not, then why would you? Why would you step in and seek to carry the torch of the truth for those who have gone before us? Why would someone go out and lay down their life, seek to put their life on the line for the gospel and for, for their their brethren if there wasn't something after. But brethren, there is. And brethren, I believe that I can only say this to my own soul. If I could grasp this more in my soul, it would make a difference.
In my faithfulness and your faithfulness in going out with the truth of God, if we just grasp the fact that what is what is ahead is far better than anything we can experience down here.
I would suggest too, that there's another thought that I believe is connected here. Jim, you made reference to that expression. I die daily. We don't have to go far for it, do we? Very next verse the apostle says, I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die daily.
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I suggest that the force of that is that when we take baptism, we turn our back on the life that we had before we were saved. We turn our back on the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. Not that they still don't get into the picture. I only have to think of my own life to realize how sad it is when it happens.
But in baptism we turn our back on what we were as children of Adam, we turn our back on what we were in flesh, and we take our place going into the water and coming out of the water as being identified with what a risen Christ. And he did it. First of all. He went into death, was put in a grave, and then rose from the dead. And of course, that is a line of truth that we don't have time to develop this afternoon.
It's developed in.
Places like Roman 6 and Galatians 2 and 20 and so on. But then when I die daily, what does that mean? It means, I suggest, that every day, not only was Paul, as we've seen in verse 30, in jeopardy, that is, as we would say, taking his life in his hands, so to speak, but also there was the continual appeal of those lusts of the flesh, of the lust of the eye, of the pride of life.
And it takes us back. We don't need to turn to it, but it's in 2nd Corinthians 4.
Where we have the expression always bearing a vote in the body, what the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body and so on. I may not be quoting that strictly accurately, but every day there was the challenge and in your life and mind it's going to be the same because the devil is going to attack and say look at all those things that you're missing out on. Look at all the good life that you could be having.
Why are you giving it all up? And I'm sorry to say, but most of you know this is true, that there is a gospel being preached out there today which in essence says you don't have to change your lifestyle. You don't have to give up anything you've been doing. You can be a Christian. You can know where you're going when you leave this world, but you can still be a Christian.
Not very good is it? And Paul says I die daily. Meaning that the application of what baptism means had to be made on an everyday basis in his life in order that he might walk the Christian pathway, give up those things that were a hindrance to him, in order what? That he might have something else down here he did in the sense of having joy in his soul.
So where is the reward? Where is it all going to end? In the glory? And that's what he looked forward to.
Is an interesting story that was relayed to me some time ago in connection with the truth that you brought out concerning baptism. It was an elderly couple that were saved in their late 70s over in England.
Was through the instrumentality of the Salvation Army, but both the husband and wife could hardly read they they had uh, fairly uh.
Low paying jobs and they were struggling to make things meet but they were truly safe and.
The husband said to his wife, I would like to wear one of the uniforms like.
The others. And so the wife was fairly handy and she, uh, made a uniform form that looked somewhat like a Salvation Army uniform.
But they both couldn't read. And he said, I'd like something written on that uniform. What shall we put on it? And the wife said, I don't know, but let me go out side and walk down the street, and if I see a word or something, I'll write it down and I'll embroidery it on the uniform. And they passed the store.
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And there were the words on the store.
Under new management and so.
Those words were embroidered on that uniform, and that expresses the truth that our brother Bill was bringing before us. And that's why they were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Because when they were finally on the Sinai side of the peninsula, they looked back and realized they were no longer under the authority of Pharaoh and the Egyptians.
Moses, a picture of Christ was their authority. Now he was going to lead them through the wilderness. It was, as you say, uh, new management. But I want to make this comment too, because we don't want to give the impression that God doesn't provide the Lord doesn't provide a present portion for us now as well. If we're faithful. I want to go back to Mark 10 and just read what the Lord said to Peter and something that perhaps sometimes we miss. So yes, we live in view of, of what's ahead.
The reward, the place we're going to share with Christ, that's all ahead and that ought to motivate or not motivate us. Christ is the motivation, but it's a little incentive to live for him now, not get entangled with the things of this world. But I want to read you what the Lord said to Peter in Mark 10. I'll start at verse 28. Then Peter began to say unto him, lo, we have left all and have followed thee. Isn't that the way we feel sometimes? He said, Lord, I've I've made a lot of sacrifices and and what am I going to get in in return?
And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sister, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake in the Gospels, but he shall receive a hundredfold. Now notice this. Now in this time houses and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, and per with persecution, and in the world to come eternal life. There was really a promise for both, wasn't there? So he says, Peter, if you've left anything to serve me and follow me.
I'll make it up to you in this life. Yes, you'll have you left family relationships? Have you left things behind? I'll bring you into new relationships. You know, there are a lot of brothers and sisters in this very room that I'm a lot closer to than I am to some of my own relatives.
By nature. And so we're brought into new relationships that's for this time. And then he promises something, something for him in the in the something in the world to come. So I just say that because.
If we seek to follow the Lord, stand for the truth, go act under the new authority, we're under the Lordship of Christ, it doesn't mean that everything is going to be bad down here and it doesn't mean that there isn't going to be a present portion and enjoyment. God is going to give us that. But the real, the real reward and the real what, what's really ahead for the believer is not connected with this life. It's connected with that which is in the world to come.
I think one thing that we would do good is to, uh, read daily Galatians 2 and 20 I.
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh are live by the faith, the Son of God thus and gave himself for us. It's not what I can do, but it is through Christ what I can do. And it'd be a good exercise every morning to think of that verse. Give it, encourage our lives.
Well, Paul had really, in a manner of speaking, thought with beasts at Ephesus.
It doesn't really bring it out as clearly in the account in the book of the Acts, but I believe that's the account that Paul is for the, shall we say, the occasion to which Paul is referring in Second Corinthians chapter one that was read to us. Paul really thought that that was going to be the end for his life down here, that riot in Ephesus over the silversmiths who were upset about their.
Trade to do with images of the goddess Diana and so on. He really thought that that was going to be the end, and he talks here about that occasion as if he was fighting with beasts. Terrible expression, really, but it bears out what the natural man in the flesh can become, especially in hatred to the things of Christ and to Christ himself.
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Man literally becomes a beast, and I believe that's brought out here because sometimes we don't realize what the world is really like. As long as you and I don't talk much about Christ, the world will say, yes, we like you Christians. You're good workers, you're honest, you're dependable, you're everything that a lot of people, sad to say, are not today.
But start speaking about Christ and see what happens.
I remember many years ago hearing the story of a young girl who was in high school and a brother who was visiting their home talked in terms of the reproach of Christ, and she openly said, well, I don't find it too bad. When I go to school, the other students treat me with respect and friendliness, and I don't seem to have any problem.
Older brother said try speaking to them about Christ. Try speaking to them about their need of a Savior. Try standing up for the honor and glory of Christ in an outward way and see what happens.
Well, the brother had occasion to come back to that home in about a year and he made a point of asking the girl. He said did you take my advice? And her answer was yes, I did. And you were right.
It it will happen, the nicest people in this world inwardly are at enmity with God. And of course so would you and I be, except for His grace. And so we need to realize that.
This world is ultimately even with the nice outward appearance it puts on, and we can be thankful in that sense for it. But the natural mind is at enmity with God, and you and I will soon find it out if we bear the name of Christ in the way that we should.
One of the important things in this chapter, and pardon me for emphasizing it because we mentioned it at the beginning of the meetings and I asked my own heart this question when I make a decision about anything in my life.
Am I making it with reference to how it will look in resurrection, or am I making it in reference to how it will affect the life down here?
Very searching, isn't it?
The world is increasingly getting the attitude that we get at the end of verse 32. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
We see it, if I could put it bluntly, even in the political world.
We are facing an election here in the province of Ontario within a few months and we have three political parties that are gearing up for it.
The government of Ontario, and I'm not particularly trying to throw stones at the government, pretty much they're all the same when it comes to this sort of a thing. They brought down an election budget and as you may well imagine, it had a pretty big deficit and there were a lot of handouts using borrowed money. And of course, some people are asking in honesty, who's going to pay for all this?
Don't worry about that. Don't worry about that. That's down the road. We don't have to worry about that. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. Let's spend the money, borrow the money, do what we can and have a good time.
And that is the attitude more and more of this world as men are losing hope in anything in the future, in this world, it doesn't look good. What a what a challenge I say to you and me who are believers who have a hope beyond this world and who have, I say, the privilege to make decisions with eternity in view. Only the believer can do that. Now, of course, the unbeliever needs to make that one decision.
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Concerning salvation with eternity in view. But you and I can live before this world and make our decisions with eternity in view. That is a testimony that carries tremendous weight in view of everything that's going on around us. And yet.
Again, I say pardon me for emphasizing it because in my observation and experience.
I see so many dear believers, and maybe I'm guilty of it myself, who make decisions based on how it will affect them in this light, but with very little thought of what is going, what it's going to mean in eternity. This chapter brings that out very solidly, and of course, ultimately on the basis of the resurrection of Christ.
In Acts chapter 17, the apostle Paul encounters two groups, the Epicureans and the Stoics, and the Epicureans were bent on pleasure, and we see that this world is going in that same direction today. The Stoics were just the opposite, but it's interesting to see what it says at the end of verse 18.
Says he preached unto them Jesus.
And the resurrection. So that brought them.
Or, uh, that brought them to a much higher plane than what the Epicureans, uh, could offer and what the Stoics could offer Jesus and the resurrection.
So I fly with Air Canada and they have a frequent flyer program called Aeroplan and it's always struck me what their slogan is. Aeroplan slogan is live for the moment. Now I realize that's just an advertising slogan to get people to fly with Air Canada and Star Alliance Airlines and so on. But I've often thought, isn't that, doesn't that really sum up the character of the age in which we live? And in Proverbs chapter 29 and verse 18, it says where there is no vision, the people perish.
And if we lose a vision of what is ahead and the glory, we're not going to live as Christians ought to live down here. Perhaps a little different, but I was struck one time to look up in a secular dictionary the word circumspect. Because we're told on more than one occasion in the New Testament, Ephesians 5 being one of those occasions, to walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. But the secular dictionary tells you that the word circumspect is careful to consider.
All circumstances and consequences, everything we do today impacts down the road. It may be for this life, but much as we've been saying is if we do is has an impact on eternity. And so we're not to live for the moment. We're to live with vision. We're to live with Christ and glory as the object. Paul speaks of himself on more than one occasion, as in an athletic event or an or a race.
And we understand very clearly when the athlete goes out to run the race or participate in the event, it always has the end in view, always has the prize in view. And what is the end for the Christian? It's resurrection and glory. It's Christ and and glory. That's the prize that Paul was was referring to in Philippians. And we're told to run with endurance, the race that is set before us. How can we do it looking unto Jesus?
To have Christ and the glory ahead of us. So brethren, let's be careful that we don't get caught up with the spirit of the age, but that we live in view of eternity, as we've been saying.
Yeah, this next verse, the 33rd verse.
Since we not received evil communications, corrupt good manners.
I think that can speak to each one of us.
Byrne will back me up in this. I think our parents used to say this, tell us this quite a bit.
Young people.
Be selfish when you choose your friends. What I mean by that is look around you.
Choose your friends.
Of those who are going to encourage you to go on for the Lord.
If I choose my friends, those people I associate with, they're going to have a big effect on my life. Evil communications corrupts with manners, and if I choose to hang out and spend my time with those who are going to bring me down spiritually, I shouldn't be surprised at the result. Evil communications corrupt good manners. Choose your friend of those who are going to encourage you to go on for the Lord.
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Choose your life partner.
Someone who is going to be an encouragement.
To help you go on to the Lord and to walk in the things of the Lord.
Might say.
Well, I've chosen I choose a life partner, a wife or a husband.
Who's a Christian?
That's not enough.
You seek to go on to the Lord.
Choose a help me who's going to help you.
That desire and not hinder.
Evil communications corrupt good manners, and I, I wanna apply that. It's not just strictly as we think of evil, but choose someone, choose your associates, your friends, your life partner as someone who's going to encourage you and help you to serve the Lord.
And those things that the Lord has told you to do.
Very important decision with evil communications, corrupt with matters. No matter what our upbringing, what our parents have taught us, there comes a point where we are on our own. We have make our own decisions. We are influencing so much by those around us and those we associate with.
All unpleasant with Corinthians Saints matters can be interpreted as morals. You know that they live carnally and there's a danger that that comes along with that is spoken of in the next verse there that this is awake, awake on the righteousness. It's not our own righteousness that we might devise ourselves and keep us in a pathway that's pleasing to God.
We can develop that.
We can justify ourselves by looking at perhaps with somebody else is doing.
And, uh, we can, uh, easily have a, a conscience, uh, that's, uh, arranged that way that we think that we're OK. Uh, perhaps the Corinthians Saints thought that way, that they were doing everything all right. They were, but they were living, uh, not to please God. They were living to please themselves. And, uh, their morals were corrupted.
And uh.
They, they, they didn't live. They weren't living according to God's righteousness and knowledge. It mentions knowledge here.
Well, knowledge is gained by reading God's word. You need to read the word of God to find out what God says. Knowledge is not an evil thing. Knowledge is good. We shouldn't know what the mind of God is. We have the Spirit of God dwelling within. That's a revealer.
Of the mind of God to us and so we need these things we leave them out there's this danger, but it's in the wake and so when it tells us to awake it means that there were some there that were asleep concerning these things so we need to be awakened to the.
And I believe that was happening there in Corinth, wasn't it? Because there were teachers coming in even among these believers, and some of them might have been believers themselves, but they were corrupting the truth that Paul had taught them. And, uh, they were trying, as it were, to take over the work of the Lord in Corinth, to take over the group there. And they were teaching them that which wasn't right. And I believe that is at least in part what Paul is warning about here.
And so for you and me today, I would suggest we need to be careful. I, I, I, I think, uh, Reg's warnings are very necessary, but even on a higher level, we need to be very careful where we get ministry to help us explain the word of God. The Internet today has made a tremendous amount of ministry and comment available from every source you could imagine. And all you have to do is go on Google with a question and probably thousands and even hundreds of thousands of answers will come up from every possible viewpoint.
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That is not a good way to find out what the word of God means.
Read the word of God for yourself, form your own thoughts on it, but then go to that which is reliable, which comes from those who have walked in the truth of God. Remember that you will never learn the whole truth of God from those who do not walk in it. I don't say you can't learn anything from them, that's that would be unfair. But you will never learn the whole truth of God from those who don't walk in it.
It's very, very clear in Scripture that I don't really have the truth of God until I walk in it. And if I try to keep the, if I could use the term, the knowledge of the truth in my head without the practice of it in my walk, I will eventually lose what I even have in my head. I can't hold on to it in a proper way without walking in it. And so to get the the proper view of the word of God, we need to read.
That which has been given to us or listened to, that which has been given to us by those who have lived and walked in, what the Word of God gives us. And it's a warning. I suggest that we need more than ever today because there is so much available out there that is not right.
Perhaps you will allow me to add this too to what you say, because if you read something by a contemporary Christian writer, and again, we want to be careful because it's not that all that they write is wrong, but if you read something by a contemporary writer that counts, contradicts what men of of past age have been raised up to rights and expound on the Scriptures, it's a red light.
It it's it's a warning.
I I trust I can say this carefully, but we were taking up a subject in a conference like this one time and there was a young man at the conference was very, very upset with the line of things that was being brought out. And after each several of the meetings he came to me and he, he was quite upset. I would even say angry. And I finally said to him, I said, young brother, if you go to the writings of brethren that God raised up in the revival of the truth.
And caused them to give us explanations and expositions of the scripture. You will find that what we have taught in these meetings is nothing new. This is what God has caused these writers to enjoy and present to us. And that it is not something that is brand new. It corresponds with that which has been expounded to us in the past. And I again, the word of God is our authority and nobody, nobody's infallible when it comes to writing and expounding the Scriptures.
But I say that because God did raise up men back in the 1800s and truth was being brought out again, truth that had been lost for, uh, for ages. And God raised up these men. And I believe we need to go back to the, to their writings and that what we read on a contemporary basis, we want to be very sure doesn't count contradict what they, they have written. We are thankful for many of them out there that are giving some food.
To the sheep, yeah. And, uh, but we are encouraged to, Ruth was encouraged to, to, uh, glean in the field of boats. And so, uh, that is our Christ. And if he has given us the truth of Scripture, why do we glean it elsewhere? But again, I say we're thankful that there are those who, according to what they know, are seeking to be, to help to some of the Saints of God and God will honor his.
Who puts it out and how it's put out?
But we don't have to go there.
What I find interesting is we're taking up the subject of resurrection. That's one of the teaching that the apostle Paul has for us. And I find among a lot of Christian group that they don't believe in a lot of false teachings and that should be a good guideline for us. What are the apostles teaching? We're to follow the apostles doctrines and fellowship, in particular ministry. Some would say, well, he's old fashioned. No, we can't.
Because if you start taking out Paul's ministry, you might as well take a good part of the Bible left. We have 27 books in the New Testament. At least 14 are written by the apostle Paul. God used to inspire him to write this for our for our learning. Isn't it that we are to follow the apostles doctrines and.
00:45:20
At home, we make a, a practice of part of our devotions to read, uh, a devotional called Our Daily Bread, which I'm sure quite a few have come across from Grand Rapids, MI. And when I read the monthly portion, uh, for the day, my wife will look up the, uh, King James Version. Then afterwards we look up the J&D translation and then we discuss it.
And, brethren, there is such a difference.
Between what you might read from the devotional.
Uh, and yet what you read from the truth, the understanding and the statements made between the verses is quite drastically different. A lot of it is missed. Her brother once said that you'll never get from the writings of the camp away or direction to the Lord's neighborhood. I think that's.
Important as uh, uh, whether they were saying here that, uh.
Umm, we need to, uh, very critical that uh, we get our information from the right sources.
One more little comment, and I don't think we need to flog the top too long, but there are a lot of young people here and I have heard this and I want to speak to it. Is there some thought that the brethren who take part in general meetings like this are simply parroting year after year what they've read in our written ministry?
Yes and no.
I am very thankful for what God gave us in our written ministry, and I believe that those who neglect it.
Do not grow in the same way, but we all have the Spirit of God. We all serve our own generation by the will of God. And so the principles of the truth do not change. The application of them may change drastically considering the day in which we live. And so some of the applications that we read concerning those truths that were developed.
By our brethren back in the 1800s, we smile at them today because we don't live in a, in a horse and buggy age, for example. And all of the things that characterized will say Victorian England or North America back in that day. But the principles that were laid out and the truth that they gave us, that does not change. And so we need the freshness of the present enjoyment of those things.
The freshness of the present application of it. And I'm quoting a brother who's long since with the Lord. He said, I can sit in a Bible conference and I can give out simply word for word what either some older brother said or what I read in some of our written ministry. He said, well, sometimes there's a place for that. But he said.
There's nothing like home cooking.
What did he mean? He meant that personal meditation on the things of the Lord.
Will give us the application of it for the day in which we're living and that is what we need. And so we don't just parrot something that someone wrote 150 years ago and say well don't ever challenge it because it's just about as infallible as the Bible. You know 1000 times no and those of us that have read a fair amount and I know there are quite a few here would readily say that they have seen minor.
Contradictions and disagreements in that written ministry.
But again, we don't need to flog the subject too long. There are other things here, but I wanna say that for the benefit of perhaps young people that are saying, well, all right, you're just, uh, parroting what you've listened to and the Muslim parrots what he's listened to. And so what's the difference? No 1000 times. No, we test everything by the word of God and even our, our older brethren in the 1800s. It's a kind of a bit of a laugh, but one time in a.
00:50:14
In a general meeting, uh, somebody actually challenged JND as to something he'd said, and when he repeated it and said, I believe that's the truth of God, they said, well, the synopsis doesn't say that.
Challenged him as to his own synopsis and his reply was well then the synopsis is wrong.
Got right to the root of it. The Word of God was the authority, and so we should always remember that.
I could just add, uh, two verses to what has been said on this subject in John 14, John 14 and 26.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.
When the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. And in the 16th chapter.
And in verse 51St part of verse 13.
Albeit when He is, a spirit of truth has come. He will guide you into all truth.
I don't believe there's any more.
Sure way of knowing what the interpretation of the word of God is that the Spirit of God showing it to us and revealing it to us and I might add that that Spirit of God has not changed from 2000 years ago to.
The early 1800s until 200 years later right now.
The Spirit of God will always teach us and reveal to us the truth of God, and He's not going to reveal something to you that is different from what He would reveal to someone else.
I think if we make these things good to our own soul, we can read word for word the books of the ministry and her talking to maybe mention already. But if you and I make it real.
Through our own soul, it'll come across through our ears, it's the same thing. It'll be real to them. So it's it's quoting scriptures or other ministry, but we need to make it real to ourselves and then it will come across as fresh.
288.
488 Sing up the 2nd stanza reserved by clothes graciously within thy sheltering forward Move them from every harm away, And in thy saves our hold, till thou shalt fully have obtained in US the spirit of grace, And we enjoys that never end. Shall see thee face to face.
In 250 years.
Just read that verse again. Verse 34. Awake to righteousness.
For some have not the knowledge of God. Let's pray. Our God and Father, we give thanks for these thoughts we've had today. And now we look towards the Gospel meeting. We know that some have not the knowledge of God. Some have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. And we are thankful that so many have been invited in and have have agreed to attend the Gospel meeting this evening. And Father, we just look to you for strength and dependence, as if there might be liberty of the Spirit and that their brother might have.
A sense of Thy presence and a message straight from the Spirit of God that would the Spirit could use to convict the souls of sin. Father, we just pray for those who would be coming in at their hearts would be prepared to hear the word of God. We just pray for the young people here in this room too who have heard the gospel many times and have a knowledge of God, but they have not accepted the Lord as their Savior. We commit them to you Father, and we just commit this evening to your hand and ask for blessing in Jesus name, Amen.