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#267 How fullness resides in Jesus. Our head of fullness abides to answer all need. Whatever distress awaits us below such plentiful grace the Lord will be stole, 267.
Whatever describe.
All the way to see you.
And silence are here.
And nothing can hurt us while she talks stands here.
When we are there.
I'm ready.
Again. And make us sing well.
Surround us, almighty good say.
And.
Savior will have.
231.
We are not.
Our World Peace, our praying on.
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Oh, my dream father. Well, well, from everyone.
We want to make our bride right.
Now our greatest and soul.
I will say a stranger.
Lord God bless you.
Lord says we say as well, rest all day myself.
Lord.
Bless themselves with your presence in.
Correct.
God and our Father, we thank Thee for Thy mercies to us this day. We thank Thee for what we've had already before our souls. And it is with fresh desire to be independence upon Thee that we are looking forward to this meeting and praying to thee, our God and Father, that Thou give us that which is suitable, that which is needful.
But we pray that they'll give us reality, each one in our own hearts, without this desire truth in the inward parts, and that these truths that we are enjoying in our ears might become the reality of our hearts day by day. And Lord Jesus, we.
Thank Thee that thou art that bright and morning star, that we have the hope of thy soon return before our souls and Lord Jesus, to see thee face to face and to be with all thine owns, to be supremely satisfied. Meanwhile, help us to be content as we go through the scene watching and waiting for thee, and we ask I blessing on the precious Word to our souls, our our heads, our head.
From whom all true ministry flows, and those joints of supply. And so we pray for leading of the Spirit of God. Now this meeting, our God and Father, we ask it and give thanks in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Second Timothy. Chapter One.
Beginning of verse 7.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel, according to the power of God, who has saved us, and called us with an holy calling.
Not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
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But it now may manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. Where unto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For the witch, 'cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed.
And to him against that day hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus, that good thing which was committed unto the key by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. This thou knowest, that all they, all, they which are in Asia, be turned away from me.
Of whom I felt jealous, and her homogeneous. The Lord give mercy unto the House of Omniscient for us, for he of refreshed me, and was not ashamed on my chain. But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me the Lord. Grant unto him, that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day, and in how many things he minister unto me at Ephesus.
Thou knowest very well.
Before we pass on just so there's no confusion, I.
I think it would be helpful to not belabor it, but just to say a word on something that was perhaps a little muddy this morning. And that is when we read this, it's in the context of Timothy not being afraid to stir up and use the gift that had been given to him for the blessing of the people of God and so on.
But giving out a hymn in meeting is not a question of gift, it's a question of priesthood. Praying in the prayer meeting is not a question of gift, it's a question of priesthood. It's the privilege of every brother to take part and utilize the office of priesthood in the assembly. Publicly. The sisters are priests too, but they don't take a public part in the same way. And so we need to not have fear in that regard either. It's true.
And I think sometimes that there are those who hold back and perhaps quench or grieve the spirit because they hold back. Some are too forward, some are too backwards, be not as the horse or the mule. The horse is impulsive and has to be held back. The mule stubborn and has to be pushed forward. And we're creatures by extreme in so many aspects of our lives practically and in our spiritual life as well. But I think it'd be helpful just to clarify that.
Again, to take part in the assembly meetings as far as praying, giving out of him, so on, that is not a question of gift, and it is the privilege of every brother to do that. Then there is the question of gift, and that's what the apostle Paul was seeking to stir up. Timothy regarding Timothy was reticent and shy, as we've had before us this morning, and he needed to be encouraged to use his gift. Now, I suggest that Timothy had a public gift.
And he wasn't using it. And the apostle Paul stirred him up. I want to look at a verse in Colossians in connection with another man, one of these men were not told a great deal about, but.
In the Colossians 4, the end of Colossians, the 17th verse and say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry that thou hast received of the Lord, that thou fulfill it. Now Timothy, as we've been saying, had a public gift that was to be stirred up and used and he wasn't to be afraid to use it because God hadn't given him the spirit of fear. Archippus were not told what is gift and ministry was was it public or not? We're not told and I think for a good reason.
Because everyone of us have been given a little gift and a ministry to fulfill for the Lord in our home assembly, some on a broader sphere. And again, we want to have spiritual courage to stir it up. Paul felt the Saints at Colossi were suffering a lack because there was a man by the name of Archippus there who wasn't carrying out the little ministry that God had given him to fulfill for the blessing of the Saints at Colossi.
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And I believe there are many assemblies who suffer a lot because there are those in the assembly who do not stir up their gift and their ministry, be it public or private, and the body of Christ suffers as a result. So I just say that I hope that clarifies things a little bit. But again, I want to stress to give out of Him or pray read some scriptures in the assembly is not a question of gift, it's a question of office.
I like to think about verse seven in in light of the gospel and talks about we're not given a spirit of fear, but yet sometimes we're afraid to hand out a tractor to say a word to somebody.
And because especially in this country, you're going to get moth or the track is going to get torn up and thrown out. And we were just down in the caves down in South of here a couple days ago and we were down a couple, 100 feet down under the earth. And the, the guide, he turned the lights out and it was very dark down there. He was telling us that people after 20 minutes in dark like that, they start to hallucinate.
And they lose their mind after. Some people lose their mind after so many hours.
I made the comment while the dark was there to the crowd. I said, boy, this is I'm sure hell is probably a lot worse than this. And there are a few chuckles and some people made some comments about it, but it wasn't a reality to them. They didn't believe in hell. So there's a fear because we're going to get mocked if you give the gospel, if you give a tract, but it tells us we haven't been given a spirit of fear, but of power. And so there's power in the gospel.
And so we can give the gospel, but as we give it.
We can give it in power, but there also needs to be given in love. If the gospel is given a perfect gospel given in power, but it's not given in love, it is nothing. It needs to be given in love. Also the love of the Lord Jesus, what he's done for us and to present that love to the souls that we're speaking to, whether it's a one speaking to one person on the street or to a friend or to a whole group of crowd of people.
To give it in love, but then it says.
We're not given the spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind. And so when we give the gospel, it's nice to have a sound mind. That is, I like to think of that as we need to know the gospel. We need to know the true gospel and how a person can get saved. We can give a lovely gospel message telling people of their need. We need to tell them how to get saved. So we need to have a sound mind to make it clear for them because if a person doesn't understand the message.
Well, then maybe it'll just fall to the ground, but I think it's good to give a clear message of how to be saved with a sound mind.
Related story occurrence that occurred several weeks ago.
There were several dozen young people that had an opportunity to take a tour through one of the caves.
Outside of an old city and in Romania.
And our brother Ernie Monk was with them, as well as brother David Bedwell and several others.
And the guide was talking about the wonderful acoustics.
In this case, and one of the brothers, I think it was brother Ernie said would you mind if we just sang hymn to test the acoustics? So they all sang together Amazing Grace and the other tourists that were going through The Cave, even though they they couldn't speak the language, they knew probably the words in their own language because that him has been translated into so many languages.
They stopped and when they were finished, they all applauded the group of young people. Well, we trust that they took some of the words to heart too. But here was an opportunity to testify the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It naturally we do fear, don't we, and I think that's been the experience of so many of us. But I just want to encourage young people too. Sometimes the Lord directs very especially I was in.
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Venezuela last year and Venezuela has become very anti American and is on a bus, quite crowded bus and it just seemed like the Lord.
Gave him by his Spirit, and gave me the desire to quote First Timothy 1:15.
By here I am in a crowded bus. Is that the place for a gospel meeting? Not exactly, but anyhow, there's a brother with me, so I said.
The Bible says Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
So I said to the brother with me, I said I'm a Sinner. So I guess that means me, doesn't it?
I said a loud enough so everybody could hear it.
So there's a lot of ways that we can share the gospel and sometimes we get fearful, but brethren, let's let it flow when the Spirit of God and gives you the impulse to do it.
Want to tell you another story? That's to my shame. The Dominican Republic, I was on a bus. It was very full.
And it seemed I was with Clem Buchanan. It seemed like the Spirit of God came up on me and said stand up and preach the gospel twice. Very definite impulse.
Lord, this is not the context to preach the gospel in the bus.
And I quenched the spirit.
A man behind us stood up and started ranting with communist propaganda about these Americans and made us feel quite uncomfortable.
So I say I felt it was a rebuke to me. If I would have given the gospel, I don't think he would have stood up to say his thing.
So it's not fear that God has given us. Think of the apostle Paul and the context he gave the gospel on Mars Hill in the midst of all those idolatrous philosophers. But he gave it with a sound mind in that he adapted the message to those people that were there. And I think that is included in a sound mind. Wise discretion, the New Testament says or the New Translation says.
So the Lord encourages, given us the power, the spirit of power, the Spirit of God dwells in us. You cannot limit what God will do by His Spirit and love. That's the thing that should move us and of a sound mind.
Thank God we can go forward with the message.
In the assembly context.
It has been pointed out that in First Corinthians 12 we have the power, we have the resource there we have.
The gifts that the Spirit of God has given.
Then in First Corinthians 14 we have the use of those gifts.
That the Spirit of God has imparted in the assembly wise discretion. We have instruction there for assembly order, but none of that is going to be a profit if it is not bathed in First Corinthians 13.
The love that should motivate any public ministry in the assembly if it's not motivated and.
Bathed in love, there's not going to be the prophet, as our brother has said. So power, love, a sound mind.
We have in those scriptures in the assembly character.
Little brother.
Christian ministry is the exercise of a gift that God has given. He'll not send us into any service without fitting us for it in some measure.
And so, as you say, corresponds the 1St Corinthians 12. But the motive, First Corinthians 13 needs to be love. And I thought of it this way. You know, if you came down the road and you came across an accident that happened, you might stop and maybe you really don't know much of what to do. But your heart goes out and compassion to the ones in trouble. And you might try and comfort and maybe there's a victim there. And you get a blanket out of the car and you cover them and put your coat under their head.
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And that's all you can do that that's all you know how to do. That's all you've been fitted to do. But someone comes along and maybe you get on the cell phone and you call 911 and someone comes along and their emergency first responder and they can do a little more and kind of keep this person from going into shock and or stop some bleeding or whatever it might be. And then an ambulance comes and they can do a little more and they get them in the ambulance and maybe get some blood going and off to the hospital and there they get to a doctor and he's able to get them.
Back to what they need to be. Each one has a different ability.
But the motive really on the part of each one, and that is care for the one that's been hurt, the one that's been injured. And so each one of us has something given to us of God, something that He's fitted us for in the Christian ministry. But it's exercised in love. And so it was brought out in the other meeting. If the Lord tells you to do something, do it. And I think that's in the context of He'll bring something before you.
And it's going to move your heart. You see a need.
You see a need in the assembly, or maybe it is outside the assembly, but you see a need. I'm thinking of the context of the assembly and you do what you can and maybe it's just this much and maybe that's all you've been fitted for and maybe that's your ministry and he's giving you what you need for that ministry. And then somebody else comes along, you know, they have a little different gift and they see that and they try and help out in the measure that they've been given.
And all works together, doesn't it? But it really starts with the heart seeing a need and the desire to meet that need, to be a help to our brother and sister or the assembly. There's the motive for the exercise of Christian ministry. He's fitted us. He's given us the gift for whatever that ministry is. But it's seeing the need and the heart wants to go fix that thing. The heart wants to do whatever it can.
To help my brother, my sister. And you see how that goes far beyond just public ministry. How many needs are there that reach the heart that we just wish we could fix? And maybe we can do a little. Maybe that's just what the Lord spitted me for. And then I can pray, as the apostle said, pray for better gifts, not for myself, but that the Lord would raise them up in the assembly to help that, to help the assembly or whatever thing has been brought before.
My heart where I see a need.
If there's something that's developed too, and I think that's how.
All of a sudden appear in a person.
But it's in the measure that it's used. And that's why I encourage you, any measure that the Lord puts something on your heart, do it.
Like I have a gift there. Well, maybe you don't, but if the Lord has put something on your heart, do it. It's the head that's directing, and we need to be sensitive as to his direction by the Spirit. But I remember Brother Albert Hayle, who is with the Lord many years now, but he told the first time about the first time he stood up to give the gospel in Toronto, and he was a gifted gospel preacher.
But he said I was so nervous.
My hands were trembling, and my hands were trembling so bad that my mouth went dry and I took a glass of water to take a drink. I had to hold it with two hands to keep it from trembling too bad.
That's the way he started. But as time goes on, gift develops and it's beautiful to see what the Lord is doing with young people. Tremendous gift. There is I, I have no question about it, that there's good gift right here. Tremendous gift, but it needs to be developed. And how does it develop? Through exercise. So be encouraged, young brother.
Young sister too.
Yes, Virgin, I think it was said no one jumps into the OR rarely does someone jump into the pulpit full grown. And that was the point he was making that just as you say, it takes development. But I'm glad you said something about the sisters because when we talk about the gospel here, we don't want to limit it to just the venue like we're going to have this evening. If the Lord leaves us here. The gospel work is often or more often.
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An individual work, isn't it?
And everyone of us can do the work of an evangelist. Maybe we're not all evangelists, but everyone of us can do the work of an evangelist. And one of the reasons God has left us here in this world is so that we will be lights. When the Lord Jesus was here in this world, he spoke of himself as the light of the world. But before he left, he said to his own, Ye are the light of the world. And Philippians tells us, we among whom ye shine as lights in the world.
Holding forth the word of life. And that's a responsibility that everyone of us, young and old who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior have. Whether it's going to school, whether it's in our neighborhood, whether it's at work, or wherever the Lord has placed us, All that this world is going to see and hear of Christ is what's seen and heard in your life and mine. But you'll notice in our verse in the chapter, there are afflictions connected with the gospel.
And so the apostle Paul says to Timothy, as we've had, he stirs him up, He tells him not to have the spirit of fear, but he doesn't tell him it's going to be easy either. So he says in verse 8, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner. And then he says, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, the afflictions of the gospel. It's not a popular thing to live and to speak for Christ in this world.
Now I realize in North America we don't know much about physical persecution. Many of our brethren, if they were to give out a gospel tract or speak for the Lord in certain parts of the world, they really suffer for it and they have to be very circumspect when it comes to their testimony. But I remember, some of us will remember Charles Whitaker, who was a missionary in Africa for many years, and he was fearless when it came to giving out tracks and speaking to souls.
And someone said to him one time after he had gone through a mall and given out tracks and spoken to souls, someone said to him, and the person who said it told me, so I got it first hand. They said to him, how is it that you're so fearless when it comes to giving up the gospel? Oh, he said, these people can't hurt you. He said when I was in Africa, I feared the headhunters. He said, these people can't hurt you. They might mock you, they might sneer, they might say something against you or the Lord.
And so it was to Brother Whitaker. It was all relative. And brethren, when we think of the opportunities that we have here and we're not afraid of having a gospel meeting tonight and the authorities coming in and shooting us, we're not afraid of going down town, Montrose or Scranton or somewhere and handing out tracks and being arrested. We might be told we can't do that or to move on, but we're not afraid really for our lives. And So what are we afraid of? What am I afraid of?
It's really a the reproach, isn't it, that we suffer. That's really the afflictions of the gospel that you and I suffer today. But he says don't be ashamed. Don't don't let the reproach of Christ. Don't let some shame, somebody sneering, somebody mocking you, stop you from propagating the gospel. And then he says there's the power of God. And so at the end of the verse, according to the power.
Of God, you feel weak doing the work of an evangelist.
That's OK. If you avail yourself of the power of God, there's a power there.
And he can give you the spiritual courage to overcome any little fear of reproach you might have.
Just a further comment here in verse 8 Beatbox therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. I think all of us here can.
Can picture.
Our brother Bob getting on a crowded bus in Venezuela and preaching the gospel.
Picture that in our minds.
It's not going to happen for most of us.
It's not going to happen to most of us. Most of us are probably not going to get to Venezuela.
We can also appreciate.
We can also appreciate the the two cave experiences that we've had our brother with real moral moral power to be able to make a comment in connection with the darkness of health.
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Our brother who's was in The Cave and and heard this, this, this, him Amazing Grace, you know, most of us are not going to find ourselves in those circumstances.
However, most of us have mundane, uninteresting lives it seems.
But how is it that we such ordinary people, not on a crowded bus in Venezuela, cannot be ashamed of the gospel? How are how are we able to do that? You know, it's interesting. Some time ago, I, I bought my gas at a gas bar consistently.
Not because it was the cheapest place to buy gas, but because there was a soul there that I was interested in.
And the time came when they quit their job.
And they went from that gas bar they went to, they went to Walmart. Well, you know, I started to buy things at Walmart.
And it was the same soul. I didn't buy gas there, but I found other things to fly there. I presently buy my gas at a gas bar. It's not the cheapest, but I bought it there for the last two years because there's a soul there.
There are many ways in which we can seek to share the gospel in our everyday lives as people that don't seem to have a lot of gift. But the Lord opens up opportunity. And yes, we may not be found preaching the gospel on a crowded bus, but there are many ways that the Lord opens up doors for us to share the gospel with some needy soul. It's good to pray about.
Opportunities to look to the Lord.
To give us opportunities and when they arrive, if we've been praying about it, we feel the Lord has opened this up to us and it seems like we've got a special boldness to go ahead because we feel the Lord is in it. So I think there are many opportunities and we all have a different way, I think, of presenting the gospel.
But surely?
There are Ways and Means that each of us can present Christ to another.
Now over in chapter 4 of this epistle, in verse two it says preach the word.
Be instant in season and out of season.
So I wonder.
What is the in season and the oddest season referred to Now I give the gospel one time to an individual and he said there's no place for this preaching here at this time. It belongs in the church. And his idea was preaching is okay on Sunday in the church. In other words, it's in season there.
But you know what?
I don't believe that should stop us from continuing to present the word.
The other six days of the week.
I didn't really take the hard work that man had to say, but.
I think there are situations maybe we need to consider, you know where it says.
No soliciting or no distribution and so on. Is it right to?
You might say close our eyes to signs like that.
And just go and start to distribute or to solicit with the idea. Well, you know, it's sort of an out of season situation.
Does somebody have a word on this in season out of season what this refers to here?
Remember one time.
You and I were on top of Machu Picchu and Peru.
And there was a.
Young couple probably living together, traveling around together, and you started giving him or her the gospel. She was an American.
And she got quite incensed. This is not a church. You shouldn't be talking about that here.
I don't think that daunted you, and you kept right on.
That I think that's maybe a place out of season.
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But I think those things you have to allow the Lord to direct in, in, in kind. In Muslim countries it is prohibited any kind of evangelization. So should we not do evangelization there? You have to leave that with the individual, with the Lord. He leads him. I say he has to work that kind of thing out.
Respect authority. We should always respect authority, but.
The first command is from the Lord to carry the gospel out.
The point is to be ready to give an answer to every man, to be in the state of soul that the Lord can use us. Sometimes, alas, we're not in that state of soul. We're careless and we don't have opportunities we allow to slip through our hands. But if we're in the state of soul and dependent on the Lord, He will certainly guide us and open the doors and give us strength to seize the opportunities redeeming the time.
Because the days are evil, buying up the opportunities.
Certainly they are there every day, but sometimes we're not to exercise to to.
Use those open doors.
Verse 8 Brethren, is beautiful. He says, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. I think that's beautiful. It's not our testimony, brethren, sometimes we talk about our testimony.
And sometimes our testimony is not really great. That's not the focus.
The focus is on the Lord.
I think you're mentioning this morning, Wally, when you consider the tremendous glory ahead, the earth is going to be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea and we are ashamed of Him. How can that be?
Another point, another motivating factor we have in Second Corinthians chapter 5.
Where it says, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
Just think of the terror of that judgment day as the things start to come apart in these countries. I think it's going to be awful here in the United States, president, awful right here in the United States.
When the Spirit of God is lifted his impeding hand.
On the course of evil and.
People in the United States are pretty well armed. You can just imagine the awfulness, the terror, the abject terror that's going to strike people in places, especially the big cities.
I'm thankful I'm not going to be around.
But it's going to be awful and knowing that terror of the Lord.
We persuade men, and so brethren, it's not the focus on ourselves. And I find that fear comes to me when I start thinking about myself. How are they going to treat me? How they're going to react? Because we all like to be accepted.
Brother, let's keep the focus on the Lord.
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.
Then he says, nor of me, his prisoner.
Timothy, you associated with that man in prison over there. He's so radical. Look, he got himself put in prison. You associated with him.
Don't be ashamed, Timothy.
Of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner. But what encourages me so much in this chapter, brethren, is what He says, and I've mentioned it before already. He says in verse 12, just to connect it.
For the which 'cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless I am not ashamed. There was that man in prison, in bonds, nearing the end of his life.
I am not ashamed. Oh, that's so beautiful, brother.
For I know complete certainty.
Whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed my deposit.
Unto him against that day.
So he's looking forward to that future day, and he was not ashamed. May the Lord grant that we would be encouraged in that same way.
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Colossians 3 verse 23 says whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord he shall receive the reward of inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. Anything that we do in our little spirit of activity or involvement that's done for the Lord will not go unnoticed and the coming day will be stood out and rewarded each in our own atmosphere. A word that we say and an action perhaps.
Prayer, whatever it might be, might be unnoticed by the world around us, but the Lord will point that out and you'll reward it.
We can each do something for handings, given us gifts as was mentioned, and the Lord will be pleased to.
And we should be satisfied with knowing the Lord is pleased, not looking for the approval of brethren or family or whatever it might be. It might be persecuted for it, but just to be satisfied. The Lord knows and He understands, and He appreciates and values it too.
Bible says go into all the world and preach the gospel and says their sound went out into all the earth.
Your spirit might just be your friends that you meet. Most, most effective evangelization, I believe, is a personal relationship with somebody, building a relationship with with a person and then giving them the gospel. Another sphere is your home.
Couple weeks ago there was a little girl.
She found her cat had caught a mouse and mauled the mouse pretty badly and she picked up the poor mouse. It was all.
I won't explain describe your mouth, but.
And her brother said to her, oh, you're going to die because that that mouse probably has rabies.
Well, the little girl, she got all worried and she was afraid and she was crying. Her mother could not console her. So that night her mother was talking to her, trying to console her, and she said, well, if I'm going to die from rabies, I'm not going to go to heaven. And the mother was able to talk to her and to give her the gospel, explain the gospel to her that she had heard before. A little girl got saved. And so the sphere for the gospel might be right in your own home.
In John Gospel chapter one, it speaks of Andrew says in verse 41 he first find us his own brother Simon. And So what does he do? He brings them to the Lord Jesus. My uncle Guilford used to have a little piece of poetry. I think I've.
Recited it once or twice and the supply on words and I'll repeat it several times. If each 1111, how many one ones would be one for Christ? So we're using the word WONNONE and I'll say it again. If each 1111, how many one ones would be one for Christ?
And certainly that speaks to my heart too.
Testimony of our Lord and of me as prisoner.
As well includes that which the apostle Paul received from the ascended Christ, and he called it his gospel, or when he included Timothy, our gospel.
And it was helpful to me years ago, it was explained he might go to court. Joe's on trial and you have to go to court. And the judge says, I want to hear your testimony of Joe. And you get up and you say all nice things about Joe, says no, I want to hear what Joe said, what you have to say about what Joe said.
That's what I want to hear, not what things, nice things you might have to say about Joe. And that was helpful to me in this thought of the testimony of our Lord and of me as prisoner. It's what the ascended Christ had to say and what the apostle received from the ascended Christ that he called his gospel, and we call his doctrine as well those points. And Timothy was not to be ashamed of what the ascended Christ had given to.
Paul, not the prisoner of Rome, but his prisoner. He was Christ prisoner.
And so I think as well as the gospel which was mentioned, the afflictions of the gospel here, it's also Paul's doctrine that would be included in this. And that was certainly under attack in that day and being discounted because Paul was a prisoner.
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Has false doctrine was connected with heavenly position and place and christ's present position there in glorious head and.
It is in Christian circles even it's sometimes.
Spoken against because.
It removes us from the political workings of this world. And so Paul, in giving that truth, was made a prisoner. He was not appreciated. And so we need to appreciate that brother. And it it is a treasure.
What we have from Paul's doctrine wonderful, wonderful treasure.
Testimony of our Lord and me, His prisoner goes together.
And you go on with Versailles. Time is going. Here he is who has.
Saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. So it was in God's mind and thoughts to bless us even before the foundation of the world, and in time we were called. Our Calling, brethren, is a heavenly calling.
We're passing through the world as we have had before us, to be a testimony.
Is a wonderful privilege, but Our Calling is a heavenly calling. Certainly we had no part in it but our sins and God has a purpose to honor his beloved Son to give him the highest place and he wants you and I to share in that purpose. That's the the outcome of the gospel that we would share all the glory of the Lord Jesus. God has that purpose. It hasn't come to pass yet to but it's not going to be frustrated in any way.
And it's all the grace of God that has brought this, these marvelous blessings to us. And and then the teaching that we have in the 10th verse shows us that now we have knowledge of the kind of body we're going to have in the glory. The Old Testament St. did not know that we have now a divine life, eternal life.
Which is of a different character than the Old Testament Saints had. We can now we have the very life of God. We can enter into his thoughts, into his purposes, into his counsels, and then we have a body. It should be here incorruptibility. I believe this was not brought out in the Old Testament scriptures. Life for the soul, a divine life, very life of God now and incorruptibility for the for the body.
We're going to have a body that's like Christ's body.
Perfect, a glorified body that will, that will be just like his, apart from the marks of his sufferings. And it's through the gospel that Paul was given a special revelation as part of Paul's gospel, this glorious truth that we have of an incorruptible body and the very life of God, eternal life.
To enjoy.
That's an interesting expression too. He is abolished Death. That's in the new translation. It's an old death because death still exists, but it doesn't have its power now. It's annulled.
But it hasn't completely disappeared in the world we live in. I like to connect three scriptures in connection with this brethren.
Death has been annulled and in.
Hebrews chapter 2 we have another detail as to death.
And verse 14 it says that through death he might destroy or annul him that had the power of death, that is the devil. So not only has death been an old, but he that had the power of death has been an old.
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And then one further word in First Corinthians 15.
Verse 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption?
And this mortal shall have been put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory. Isn't that beautiful wonderful the work of the Lord Jesus? Death has been annulled. He that has the power of death has been an old and here is talking about a future time when?
There will be resurrection.
Death will be completely swallowed up in victory.
That word? Immortality.
And corruptibility, the verses you read there in Corinthians, we're going to have a body that's immoral with immortality, and that's incorruptible. Immortality means it cannot die. Incorruptibility means cannot sin. There is no sin.
And so we're going to have a body that's incorruptible. That means there's going to be no more sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. So we have bodies that are dying because of sin. But when we're when we're have our new body, it will be both immortal and it will be incorruptible. And so we'll have bodies that will not die. We'll have bodies that have no sin.
Won't get old.
No wonder the Apostle Paul says, for the which cause I suffer these things. Nevertheless I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I believed and and persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. New Translation Read uses the word my deposit.
I like that.
Paul had lost everything down here.
Was he ashamed for the way he lived?
I am not ashamed my deposit.
He has it for that day. O brethren, where are we depositing?
Somewhere here in this world.
It won't last down here. God grant us to deposit.
For that day.
I lived in Bolivia and we lived in Bolivia at the time of hyperinflation and it really impressed me, brethren, because.
In one year down there, while we lived there, it was 40,000%. Inflation almost has no meaning.
But the Bolivian peso went from 20 to the US dollar to 2,800,000 to the US dollar in the space of two years.
You think those people hung on to those paces?
You want to lose what you got, hang on to it. Hang on to it. That's not the way to do. It's using it and that's what they did. If they got pesos, they went and used it and.
That way this value is preserved.
But it was an impressive thing to me to live in that country at that time and it really makes us think, brother, and everything down here is losing value.
In Israel they had what they called the Year of Jubilee.
There was seven years. Every 7th year was to be a sabbatical year, and then after 7 sevens, 49 years, the 50th year was to be the year of Jubilee and everything would return to its original honor. So that if there was 50 years to go, you wanted to buy a piece of property from me, Bruce. Why, you might pay a pretty good sum.
Because you got 50 years in front of you, but if there's only one year in front of you.
And you'd have to give it back again. I don't think you'd be that interested in giving me much for my property.
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And it was because it's all going to go back to the original order. We're getting close to those times, brethren. Things don't have that much value anymore.
It's evident in the world we live. May the Lord help us to use what we have in view of that day that He speaks of here. Take it as the day of manifestation of the judgment seat of Christ. So.
In as you say, I want to read you what Pete, what the Lord said to Peter, because you are Speaking of percentages and the value of things. Just read it in Mark 10 here in verse 28. And Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake in the Gospels.
But he shall receive notice this on hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the world to come, eternal life, you know, a hundredfold is 10,000%. I don't think you'll get a return on any investment down here. 10,000% in return. That's pretty good investment, isn't it? But that's what the Lord was telling Peter. Peter might have felt he, he did feel he'd given up everything.
We know Peter of all the disciples had a wife and he might have felt, well, I've given up more than the other disciples to follow the Lord. But the Lord said, I'll make it up to you. I'll give you new relationships now. I'll provide for you now and in the world to come, eternal life. And that's really what the apostle Paul had before him as thinking of how he speaks of this, this holy calling in Timothy, you know, three times you have the calling spoken of in a different way.
In Hebrews chapter three, he speaks of it as a heavenly calling. Why? Because in Hebrews it's contrasted with Israel. Israel had an earthly calling and their blessings were connected with this earth. But the apostle, when he writes to the Hebrew believers, he connects them with the Lord Jesus as the risen glorified man at the right hand of God in the third chapter there living for them as their high priest and the apostle of their profession and so on.
And he says, there you have a heavenly calling. It's not connected with this life. That's what the Lord Jesus was telling Peter, I've got something better for you than just things down here relate holding on to relationships and investments down here. It's a heavenly calling. In the third chapter of Philippians, the apostle Paul refers to it as a high calling, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Why? Because the apostle Paul before he was saved.
He felt he had a calling. It was a calling that had to do with earthly religion. It was a calling, but it wasn't the high calling that he received when he got saved and he was pressing then toward the mark. He could give up all those things that he once counted dear. Was it difficult? Not really. When he got a glimpse of the high calling, he got a hold of a better calling, and he had Christ before him as the object.
Here it's a holy calling because in Second Timothy it was a day of ruin. It was a day when there was a lot of things being introduced that weren't holy. And he takes that up in the next chapter. And we're to separate from that which is unholy and defiles and so on. It's a holy calling. And we are, as he says in Ephesians, to walk worthy of Our Calling, whether it's a heaven in the sense of a heavenly, a high, or a holy calling. We're to walk worthy of that, as Bob said, with the sense in our soul like the apostle Paul.
That there is something of eternal value, an eternal weight beyond this life. And when he speaks of afflictions, how could he suffer? You know, you think of Paul, and he didn't go out and look for suffering. We don't go out and look to suffer. There'll be opportunity if we're faithful. But he suffered much. How did he? How could he do it? Oh, he had the glory before him. It was a light affliction. Why?
Because it was but for a moment, and he had an exceeding and eternal weight of glory before his soul. And if you and I can get a hold in some measure of what is ahead and what is laid up for us there in the glory, then it's going to help us. Not to lay up treasure in heaven where moth and rust corrupt and thieves breakthrough and steal, but to lay up treasure not on earth, but in heaven where moth and rust do not.
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Corrupt and thieves do not breakthrough and steal.
And those are the things that are of eternal value and weight.
It's one thing to be laughed and mocked at by unbelievers when you're giving them the gospel. It's another thing to have other Christians mock you and and ridicule you because you're following the, the, the apostles doctrine. And Paul had had given Peter and I'm sorry, had given Timothy and Titus and these others an outline of truth.
And it says in verse 13, hold fast the form of sound words.
Which thou hast turned in me and faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. Hold fast the form of sound words. That's the form. There is like an outline. We need to have an outline of truth. What do you believe?
The way we practice is being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that really the way God wants us to meet? Is that the really way He wants us to practice and function as a church on the ground of one body? We do it. Do we believe it? Do you have an outline of sound words that can prove what you believe? It hurts even more when brethren who are gathered with us start to ridicule the teaching that they've been practicing.
In law.
And mop those who continue to to be gathered to the Lord's name.
And so it's important to hold fast the form of sound words in verse 15. All they which are in Asia be turned away from me. They started turning away from the teachings of the apostle Paul and the apostles doctrine. And I'm sure he felt very discouraged because of that. And so he's telling Timothy, he's warning them him about this.
It's helpful to the outline of sound words. You mentioned the truth of gathering, but I think it's very helpful to go through, especially the New Testament Scriptures because the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and go through those New Testament books and get an outline of them. There is a way they're written.
That if you spend some time reading some of the good ministry, get an outline of First Corinthians, for example, extremely important because it is really a universal epistle. It's written to those who are at Corinth, but to all those in every place who call in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. And so it is written for all times, for all places. And so to get an outline of.
Of assembly order that is taught in First Corinthians is extremely important, very helpful I must say. I noticed that those young men who take time to read some of the good ministry and get an outline of scripture. What was Romans written for? Written for? Give the truth of justification by faith. What is the first and second Peter about?
Peter speaks of the Kingdom of God and in the House of God in.
The first Timothy, and I'm saying first Peter and in second Peter, it is in the world, the government of God in the world. So if you get the outline of of the epistles, John's epistles take up the family of God. And so those things are very helpful. If you can get an outline of Scripture and that's what Paul is speaking to Timothy about it is very useful and helpful and I encourage especially those who are younger, but.
If we're a little older, let's get the outline too. It's very helpful.
14 The power of God brought in.
As that which is at our disposal.
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In order to keep.
That good thing or that the positive truth in order to be able to carry it out in a practical way, which I think.
Sought to bring before Timothy the importance of not only knowing the truth, but also carrying it out in his manner of life. But it's all through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Which dwells in us. So we need to keep that in mind, don't we? That greater is He that is in US than he that is in the world. So we have the power of God at our disposal to carry out the truth of God in a practical way.
I was going to say what to follow up with. Wally is saying there that there is such a departure from Paul's doctrine today in Christendom. There's such a confusion that has come in.
Recently or in the last 100 years or so in Christendom applying Old Testament.
Promises that have no application to the Church bringing them in, spiritualizing them.
Calling them covenant to theology and so on. A person who is affected by those things will not have an outline of sound doctrine.
There's compromise and it's not rightly dividing the word of truth. So we can be so thankful to the Lord for His goodness in preserving to us the apostles, doctrine and fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers. Then in the last part of our chapter, it's beautiful to see onospheres. He identified with the prisoner, the apostle Paul.
He put forth energy to look him up.
And his family perhaps more reproach to it, says the House of Onus Ephraim. But he sought out the apostle and was not ashamed of him.
Probably had to go to many different prisons in Rome. There probably was a number of prisons there. But he put forth energy to find the apostle to comfort him.
Strengthen him, He sought him out diligently. The Lord valued that service of love that was shown here by unacciferous and it's recorded in the annals of eternity to be rewarded in that day. Well, it didn't. It wasn't something public that perhaps men would look up to, but it was a service for the Lord that was valued. And so I think of the sisters who work behind the scenes, we might say.
We don't need to mention specifics, but they do much work behind the scenes.
Not seen by the eye of man. It's going to be rewarded. The Lord sees those precious things and that sacrifice will will be rewarded in that coming day.
#31.
The Father.
In my bride, Jesus and Grandpa, I love grave rain time.
Before the world, we made our worlds.
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All our trust, our deployment of life and glory.
And soon thou bring us to my place.
Where we shall sit in place to pray and glory, if I glory.
Rain, rain, sandwiching and burn. Sing, sing, tell me.