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He received the recording and with the appendix #42 Tobacco.
My.
Prayer wing and stop mirroring and God.
One great.
People.
Whoever I love, who are the Lord for me?
God our Father, we look up this morning and we give thanks for the opportunity to be gathered together like this, to give thanks for our brother and here locally, having the courage and the willingness to host the conference. And Lord we're we're gathered here for the reading meeting this morning and we only have many needs.
We have need of comfort, we have need of encouragement and we have need of excitation. Lord, you know that there are so many areas of our lives.
That we struggle in and we struggle because no doubt there's lack of faith and.
There's lack of obedience to the Word of God. There's lack of many things. We just pray this morning that our hearts should be open to receive Father. We pray that the Spirit of God would have liberty to minister to the needs of our hearts.
Father, we just, we give thanks that you have allowed us this privilege. We knew what it was like to go without conferences and to go without coming together. And Lord, we feel the effects of the enemy pressing in and the world around us and the coldness of our own hearts.
00:05:09
We're just so grateful for the open door again. And we cry out to thee for a blessing. Father, we just think of these ones too that have been mentioned in the prayer meeting. We think of ourselves. We just cry out to Thee for him and his dear family. Lift him up before the throne of grace. We think two of our brother in Cuba. Lord, we just remember our sister Karina Clausen. We just commit her into high care. Lord, there are many that are going through deep waters and deep struggles and afflictions.
We just commit each one. We give thanks to God that thou art will able, and that though we feel pressed, we know Lord Jesus.
That you don't willingly afflict us, but your desire is that each of us would turn to you with an open heart, that we would look through the eyes of faith to that one, our Lord Jesus Christ. And the by your grace, we would have the privilege and the opportunity to prove you every step of the way in this wilderness journey. We just, we give thanks and we ask all this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
I'd like to suggest a possible chapter for us to take up Second Timothy chapter one.
Reason I have it before me and I've been on my heart for several days.
And well, we can go into it in a few minutes, but it brings before us on the one hand.
The difficulties that we are expected to encounter.
In these last days, but also brings before us every kind of encouragement in order to meet those difficulties with the Lorde help.
Would my brethren be happy to look at that chapter, at least for this reading meeting?
Had the same chapter on my heart brother. In fact, I thought perhaps we could go on to chapter 2. We get through chapter one, We have 4 readings. We have 4 readings. I hadn't noticed. Well, that's excellent. If you have time to get into chapter 2, that would be all the better.
Maybe our brother could read chapter one course then, if everyone's happy with that.
Second Timothy chapter one, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dearly beloved Son, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience, that without ceasing, I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day.
Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy.
When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also.
Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us to 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 hath saved us, and called us with a 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, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and mortality to light through the Gospel.
Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which '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 unto him against that day. Hold thou 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 thee. Keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.
This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia he turned away from me, of whom are I jealous and homogeneous. The Lord give mercy under the House of onus Sephorus, for he OFT refresh me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently, and found me. The Lord granted to him, that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. And how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus thou knowest.
00:10:28
Very well.
It might be good to go over a bit of background to this epistle, although most here will be familiar with it. But we know that the 2nd epistle to Timothy is the last epistle that the apostle Paul wrote.
It would seem that after he was imprisoned initially and wrote what are commonly known as the prison epistles.
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Although scripture does not explicitly say so, it would seem that Paul was released from prison, at least for a short time, and was able to be out and traveling at least to some extent. But then he was evidently re arrested and this time he wasn't under what would be.
In our day termed house arrest the way he was the first time in perhaps slightly more comfortable circumstances. This last time it would appear that he was in a real prison in Rome under somewhat harsher conditions. And the Lord revealed to him that this time he was not going to be released. And so at the end of this epistle he has to say, I am now ready to be offered up.
And the time of my departure is at hand. But in the meanwhile, Paul had taken note to his sorrow that things were starting to go downhill, at least in some of the assemblies where he had labored so strenuously. And that's why, he says toward the end of this chapter, all they which are in Asia be turned away from me.
And I have remarked before, thank God, that all Paul's laborers weren't in Asia.
It didn't mean that they had turned away from Christianity, but rather the full truth, the full measure of that precious truth, what Paul calls all the counsel of God in Acts 20. All that he had labored so strenuously to give them, They were evidently beginning to give up.
And so here's Paul writing to an individual, one who had spent a lot of time with him, one who was like a spiritual son to him, one who could be relied upon to carry on faithfully in the footsteps that Paul had marked out. And we find Paul here writing to Timothy in that tone, on the one hand.
Greatly burdened because of the condition of things amongst the Saints, but on the other hand, as I have often said before.
While Paul was greatly burdened, greatly saddened, yet at the same time there is not one hint of discouragement in the whole book, not a hint of it. Sorrow, yes. Burden, yes.
Concerned, yes, but discouragement, no. And I believe there is a voice for us all in this epistle in this day and age, because you and I are in the very last days to which Paul refers in Second Timothy. And we too are facing a giving up. We are facing trouble and difficulties of every kind. We are seeing them not only in the world around us, we're seeing them.
Within within the profession of Christianity. And yet it is not a day to be discouraged. It's a day, as Paul exhorts Timothy, to go on in faithfulness, knowing that the Lord is coming soon and that there is a reward for those who carry on in the pathway of faith.
00:15:20
It's an interesting comparison.
Into trick or chapters of the Old Testament.
And Ezra chapter 2 and again in Nehemiah Chapter 7 if we read a few verses in Nehemiah 7 first.
We have a list of some here.
For example, verse 10 and the children are 650 and two. Then it goes forth with a further enumeration.
And we see it when we compare this chapter with Ezra 2. For the most part, the numbers are greater.
And Ezra 2 There was a decreasing and yet in some cases there were. There was an increase in. We see that Nehemiah's list was a revised list.
There were those that came down.
With Zerubbabel but lost heart, but then there were some that did not.
And their numbers increased, which was encouraging, and that was due, I believe, to a later exercise in their hearts. So what's all discouraging news that we read about in Nehemiah Chapter 7?
One individual who I believe was greatly discouraged was Jacob.
He could say all these things are against me.
But we have the antidote in Romans chapter 8, do we not?
All things work together for good.
Yes, the word discouragement is the opposite of encouragement, isn't it?
Encouragement is to have courage, to take courage.
To be willing to go on counting on the Lord, whereas discouragement and I speak now particularly in spiritual terms, means that I have lost my courage and ultimately lost my faith in the Lord. It has the sense of fainting or losing heart and feeling that I cannot go on.
Because the pathway is too difficult.
And there were those in Paul's day who found it that way because it is not an easy path to walk through this world as a heavenly citizen and yet at the same time to walk in all the dignity of a Son of God through all of the difficulties of the pathway down here.
The world does not understand that kind of a person. The world does not respect that kind of a person. Essentially, the world does not want that kind of a person. Is that right, Brother Bob?
Yes, I find it interesting kind of along that line to see that the word ashamed is used three times in this chapter. Maybe you've noticed it first time is in verse 8 where he says to Timothy, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoners.
But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.
Then he says himself in verse 12 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 says persuaded. It means that there is evidence is being presented to you. And I've come to this conclusion. Given these evidences, I think the Apostle Paul who went through so much suffering in his life, but there was a time when he was caught up into the third heavens.
00:20:05
And afterwards, he could say, the afflictions of this life are light and momentary in comparison with the exceeding great weight of glory that's before us. And brethren, that's it, when you consider what's before us.
Is it worth doing here, Paul? They probably said to Paul.
Oh, aren't you ashamed? There you are. You got yourself in prison.
And they're going to cut your head off and couldn't you just be a little bit more?
Conciliatory.
Paul says, I am not ashamed. I know whom I have believed. I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. I like the way it reads in the Darby translation. Is that deposit? In other words, we're depositing into a heavenly bank account rather than oh.
Are you working for something down here? Are you struggling to get material means that's going to pass very shortly and those that struggle so are going to be ashamed in the future. Paul says I'm not ashamed, but there's one more here and it's in verse.
16 The Lord give mercy unto the House of Anissa for us.
For he aught refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently, and found me. Here's one who was not ashamed either.
Is this something that we're talking about, brethren? Is this something to be ashamed of? Oh, what a challenge that comes to my own heart, I have to say to taking into account.
The different things, brethren, that we go through, yes, there are real difficulties in the path of faith.
But, brethren, in comparison with that coming glory.
I am not ashamed. I'm persuaded that this is the pathway of faith. Lord help us pray. There's a difference between being ashamed and discouraging and when we have mixed emotions and maybe depression and things coming in. I understand my brother's question to answer it directly, Webster's 1828 dictionary says.
The act of disheartening or depriving of courage. The act of deterring or dissuading from an undertaking. The act of depressing Confidence that which destroys or abates. Courage that which depresses. Confidence or hope. That which deters or tends to deter from an undercaving. You can distinguish that you're having several emotions by the red flag that you're feeling like giving up.
That's it.
You're feeling like giving up because discouragement, if it keeps going on, you quit. You give up. And you may feel that way, but when you meet that head on with what our brother Bob's been saying, I am persuaded. You can be depressed, you can be sad, you can even be discouraged if we go through all of those things. But when you start getting to the point where you say, I think it's not worth it, I'm going to give up, you may not be ashamed.
But you've lost courage. And when you encourage somebody, it literally means to pour courage into someone. And if we see somebody that is discouraged and we get a note of that, maybe a sense that they're about to give up, we can actually be Effective in coming alongside someone like that and pouring courage into them and seeking to lift them up from that. Where? Just hang on, brother.
Don't give up, it's worth it. And when you're reading these words here, I know who I have believed. And maybe you are discouraged, maybe you're depressed, maybe you're feeling beaten up. But you can still say I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep. That's what which I have committed unto him against that day. And then pick yourself up and say, Lord, I choose you in the midst of this trouble.
I choose you, you're worth it all, and take one more step forward and hopefully the Lord will send somebody along like we have here in our chapter. Some brother goes out of the way, tracks him down and finds him. Have you ever done that with someone? Go out of your way, track him down, find him, come alongside, encourage them.
00:25:21
Well, perhaps he was concerned that Paul might have some discouragement that he needs needed encouragement.
Somebody to come and say I'm with you, brother. Well, that is. That's how you dispel discouragement.
Of thinking of a resource that we have with the story true story told some years ago there was a Scottish settler that had a homestead in Canada and often would face very severe conditions working out the woods and they.
Open And one night the storm came in and found shelter in the woods and returned to his cabin. The next day his wife was there weeping bitterly. And he said to her, what's wrong? She says. And of course the storm and snow covered the windows. She said I couldn't see out. But he said.
You can still see up. So there was a resource there for them and I was thinking of some of the Psalms that we have. David expressed a word of discouragement. Some of those Psalms, one of the Psalms that I think of as Psalm 124. It begins if it had not been for the war, who was on our side. So he had that confidence that the ward.
What's on his side? And verse seven of that Psalm says our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the flowers. The snare is broken. We are escaping. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.
I'd like to say too as we start this chapter.
That it has been a help to me realize that First Timothy, we have the House of God.
In its order, look at chapter 3 and verse 15, it says, But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself.
In the House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So in first Timothy you have the House of God in its order, whereas in Second Timothy was a time of ruin of the public testimony, so much so that the mention of the house.
In chapter 2.
It really doesn't say the House of God. It says in verse.
20 A great house. And so it has become a testimony in ruins. And brethren, it's been a help to me to realize that even though the testimony in ruins is in ruins, there is a path for faith in the midst of it all. And that's what he's encouraging Timothy with and giving him the principles.
But that has been a help to me to see the general outline of these two epistles.
Remember the first Timothy, the House of God in order, Second Timothy, the principles for when the testimony is in ruins, the testimony of the house. And so we still go on, brethren, even though there's ruin, there's a path for faith. Remember that.
Yes, that's very good, brother Bob, because.
God allowed the declension to begin before the apostle Paul had passed off the scene. Otherwise we might today throw up our hands and say well.
What do we do now?
But God has given us, long before it happened, instruction as to how to deal with things.
00:30:04
When the church is in disorder, how? Because he allowed the beginnings of it before the apostle Paul passed off the sea. And we might mention as well. And if I may be allowed to as a grandfather and recently a great grandfather, believe it or not.
To say a word to the young people.
Paul doesn't minimize the difficulties.
They're real.
And one of our sisters in our local assembly said to me the other day, Bill, be glad you're the age. You are not a young person.
Meaning that by leaving us here a little longer, the Lord was going to fill his house. No question.
But that things would get much more difficult and it would be the younger generation that would have to face them. That is true. But the same Lord that met the difficulties in our day is prepared to meet them in your day and give you everything you need. He knows, for example, and I don't know whether it's as bad in this area, but up in our area many young people find it almost impossible to.
Buy a home, they're so expensive, can't hardly manage, can hardly manage to do it. Interest rates going up, making it all worse and worse. Many young people through COVID have had their careers interrupted and faced all kinds of difficulties. It's very real.
And perhaps some of you look at people in our generation and say, well, they are easy for you to talk. You didn't live in that kind of a day. And when you grew up, things were relatively smooth, which they were.
But the Lord knows how to provide for you. He knows how to provide for all the difficulties. And his advice way back in the Sermon on the Mount was, seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Is that a promise? Yes, it is. Will the Lord keep His promise? Yes, He will. The pathway may be more difficult, but He is going to provide for you in every way. But first and foremost, He is going to provide a pathway for faith. As Bob has been bringing out, no matter what the pathway may be, no matter what the conditions I should say may be light, there will be a pathway for faith.
That doesn't deny the truth of God right to the end.
That's why it's so important these in these first verses.
The different expressions, the will of God.
In verse 3.
A Pure conscience.
Verse 5.
Unfeigned faith.
What? What tremendous things to have before us, brother? Does God have a will about things down here in this world?
Yes, he does.
But it's going to be, like you say, against the current and it's going to take unfeigned faith, not just a pretension of faith, but real faith to be able to make make the challenges. What kind of a God do we have anyhow? Is he real? Does he know about these situations? Yes, he does. We have evidence in the Scriptures of how he.
Met the difficulties for the people of God in the wilderness 40 years.
Some 2 to 3 million people out there in the desert. Can you ever imagine how much water they need? Where did they get the water?
It came out of a rock, of all things, out of a rock. Who's ever heard of that?
But that's our God, brethren, and fruit for all those people and clothing.
Were all their animals too, the food necessary? I say it's incredible amount of that's what was needed. What was God up to that?
00:35:11
Brethren, our God is a God of infinite characteristics that we cannot measure, and he wants us to prove that we trust Him. And so he sends into our life difficulties to see if we're really going to trust Him. And so everyone has different set of problems in their life. Problems you face are not what I face.
But our God is up to it, rather than He really is. Lord help us.
Play.
It's probably natural for us when we get into a difficulty.
And we sit there and we say, Oh my, now what have I done or what have I gotten into?
And we question ourselves and we say, how did I get here?
And to me, in the first verse, when Paul says I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, that it was a.
A great comfort and assurance to him that he had gotten where he had gotten this, his brother Frost was saying in prison.
Because he was following in the footsteps of his master. For him I'm here because it's the will of God. He could say in one of his prison epistles, not that he was in a prisoner of Rome, but a prisoner of Jesus Christ. So what a comfort this is to have.
As has been mentioned, unfeigned faith.
Conscience. There's much about the conscience when Paul writes to Timothy in the 1St and 2nd of this. What a valuable, necessary thing to have a good conscience. So when all is said and done and we're sitting there shaking our heads sometimes, well, I believe the Lord has me in this path and I can leave the results with Him. And this is what encouragement can. This is how encouragement can be experienced by us in the midst of difficult circumstances.
In contrast, we were reading with some other brethren through the book of Acts.
And Paul goes back to Jerusalem.
And it's not Paul's finest hour. Just say that. And finally he gets he's, he's trying to make defense and he gets the Sadducees and the Pharisees all wound up with each other and it's just a mess. And he gets extracted by Roman soldiers and he ends up in prison. It's very interesting. Acts 23, it says the night following the Lord stood with him. I believe the Lord let him Stew in his juices a little while that first night.
And Paul must have said, look what I've done.
How how good was this? I, I know I'm a child of God. I know the Lord has sent me, but that was like, you know, Jacob's voice in Esau's hands that that just wasn't right. And the Lord the next night the Lord stood by him and graciously said, you've been as you've been a witness to me in Jerusalem. What a gracious master we have. I could say you're going to bear witness for me in Rome and so.
What a comfort it is to not have a bad conscience. And so I believe he starts it off here. He could have said all kinds of things in this, in this, in this opening of a letter, you write a letter, all kinds of things could come to mind. But he says an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.
I appreciate it. Last night one of the brothers prayed it's It's so easy to get all doom and gloom.
As Billy said, to look within, to look around, to look even further around and in this Western world, and to be all doom and gloom. But this brother catalogued in his prayer last night all the things that are unassailable by you or by me or by any government or anybody. There's still a head in heaven who loves us and who is the head of the church, which is his body. There's still a Holy Spirit indwelling.
Together, this word is forever settled and is never going to change or be undermined in any way. And we have all things one for us by Christ. There's so much to be thankful for. So yes, we feel, we feel our responsibility and outward testimony and we ought to. Well, that's not the whole story. And I appreciate the comments about Paul being here and being not discouraged. The Lord Jesus was never discouraged.
00:40:24
He wept, He was sorrowful, He was indeed the Man of Sorrows, but he was never discouraged. His meat was to do the Father's will. That never changed.
The joy before him he endured, what he endured for that joy be formed the reward. And so the apostle Paul says, the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, that hadn't changed either. That was still there before him and.
He was pressing on for it.
Two Christians could be in the same circumstances and see things exactly opposite.
What's the difference?
Yeah, the story of David, who arrives on the scene. Every single soldier, including the king, are trembling in their boots, afraid.
He comes upon the scene.
It's interesting the brother and I were talking about this.
Finally, when he comes before Saul.
Chapter 17.
He says.
And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him.
Well, how come his heart wasn't failing?
He's just a kid. Some of you young people, sometimes you feel all alone. As it has been expressed, there is a path of faith. Your act in the path of faith may affect a whole bunch of people.
That are afraid, that are discouraged, that whole army was What does he say?
He's told all you, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him rather out, buddy, you and he a man of war from his youth. David said unto Saul. Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a line and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock, and I went after him.
And smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he rose up against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear. And this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing that he hath defied the armies of the living God. He had a different perspective.
And a young person who comes upon the scene, I mean, his brothers want to send him back home. They say he's foolish for being there, but he believes in the God who delivered the bear and the lion. He grabbed the lion by the beard. That's an African lion. He grabbed him by the beard and he stuck a knife into his heart. He saw sheep in trouble, and he went after them and he knew that it was God that delivered it. What's the difference here? This giant, the whole army is discouraged. They're afraid. And here's a young man saying, don't be afraid.
We have this in verse seven of our chapter. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. What if those realities kind of go by the way because of our circumstances? Can we not read this verse and say, well, wait a minute, I don't need to be like this because God has given us not the spirit of fear. I don't need to be afraid. There's power and it's God's power.
And he's given me and filled me. He said, let his love abroad in my heart. The love of Christ constrained with me. And he's given me a sound mind. I don't need to think this way. And what if you acted like David? There might be a whole bunch of other young people and others that took courage and went on from there. It certainly changed things. And it's interesting to see. When David goes out to meet Goliath, he runs at him, not away from the trouble.
That's a good example for us.
Is to have courage. Sometimes we can have an inner conversation that we need to have with ourselves and the devil's good at getting us to go down a negative path.
But what if you just remind yourself once in a while? Is Jesus trustworthy?
Is God trustworthy? And your answer, if you're a believer, is going to be yes. Well then, trust Him.
00:45:05
Right. And I know from talking to a lot of young people that many often feel very alone, even though when they're in a group and things that are going on, you can be made by the enemy of your soul to be felt very alone.
Are that you don't belong, or that somehow you don't fit in. Well, you fit in within.
And if you can just stand in that moment and take courage in the Lord, it says, David says he encouraged himself in the Lord when no one else was there to encourage him. He encouraged himself in the Lord and he found encouragement there. We can do that. And us taking a stand with the mustard seed of faith may actually have an effect on others.
In a positive way to go on for the Lord has been pointed out in this chapter. Things are coming unglued and in our day, as brother Bruce was saying, it's there's a lot to be just upset about. There's a lot that just looks horrible. We wonder what's coming on this earth and if the Lord carries, will we see persecution here in this country? Who knows. But as our God changed, Brother Bob made it very clear he has not. And is Jesus trustworthy? Yes he is.
So why don't I just trust it?
Problem with the sand, with the Israelites where they saw themselves against Goliath. David had a different perspective. It was God versus Goliath. And that changed the whole picture. And that's what gave him his confidence. And that's what it is with us too. And I think we need to be refreshed by this. Timothy was a young person.
He evidently was a timid young person and so he's encouraging in here and I just to go on to verse three and speaks of thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience.
Thou ceasing, I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day. Like Briscoe, I mentioned it mentions the conscience a number of times in First and Second Timothy.
Look how back at First Timothy chapter one and verse 5.
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience.
And of faith and things, verse 19.
Holding faith.
In the good conscience which some, having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck important, that is that good conscience here in our chapter.
Verse 3 It's a pure conscience and there's a difference, I believe.
And he says, I served from my forefathers with pure conscience. Even before Paul was saved, he was doing what he thought was right.
But when he met the Lord, the Lord said unto said to him, It is hard for thee to kick against the bricks. When he saw Steven die with his face shining like an angels, he must have had terrible ****** of conscience. Was a pure conscience, perhaps because he was acting according to the light that he had, But it wasn't a good conscience. And so it's important to have a good conscience.
Notice what Paul says in Acts 24.
To me, this is such an interesting statement.
Verse.
16 I believe it is.
Acts 2416. And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.
Interesting statement. Conscious is what man obtained when he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God had said don't eat of that tree.
And they ate of it and immediately they had conscience. Before that they were innocent. You take CON off a conscience, it's science that's left with knowledge. And so we have the knowledge of good and evil. It's in each human being. Even the youngest have conscience. And so we need to exercise ourselves, like Paul says here to have.
00:50:23
Always a conscience void of offense, He doesn't say. I always have a good conscience.
No, he says. I exercise, brethren, it's a daily exercise to walk in the light of the Word of God and to be conscious of the fact when we fail to get into the Lord's presence and get it straightened out before it becomes more complicated.
Lord help us, brother. It is so important to have a good conscience, to exercise yourself, to have a good conscience. Is there something in your life right now that you know is wrong and you're trying to cover it up? Don't do that, you. You won't be prospered in that.
Get it out, confess it to the Lord, and perhaps to others too.
Oh my God, against you whom you may have sinned, but.
Practice the matter of having always a good conscience toward God and toward Him. Very important.
Well, Paul prayed for Timothy, didn't he?
Remembrance of Thee at the end of verse three in my prayers.
Night and day.
What earnestness in prayer, night and day.
Greatly desiring to see thee. But he was mindful of something, mindful of Timothy's tears.
Why were those tears there? Was Timothy shedding tears for his own sake?
Because things were getting rough and things weren't going very well with them.
I don't believe so.
There's nothing wrong on occasion with shedding tears for our own sake, shedding tears because of things that have happened. But I believe Timothy's tears in this case were of a higher order. They were tears because of the condition of the profession of Christianity, tears because of the state of the Church of God. His brother Bob was bringing out the House of God, was in order in First Timothy.
And there the House of God could be acquainted with the Church of the Living God, And God calls the Church of the Living God the pillar and ground of the truth. The Church was called to be that. It always should be that very, very important, but, sad to say, no longer could.
The Church of God always be called the pillar and ground of the truth.
In fact, in fact, if we go through Second Timothy.
We do not find the Church of God mentioned at all.
Very significant. No mention of the Church of God. Why? Because it had failed.
And no longer could the church be looked to as the pillar and ground of the truth.
Anoto Timothy shed tears because of that.
Paul was mindful of those tears. I'm sure Paul shed tears too. And Paul, as we said earlier, could have been the most discouraged man. He could have looked back on his light, whatever time it was, 25 years, maybe 30 years that he spent.
Seeking to preach the gospel.
Preach the things concerning the Kingdom of God as we get in Acts 20, and then I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
And at the end he has to say all they were chair in Asia be turned away from me. Paul could easily have said to Timothy, Timothy, we must be doing something wrong.
We've got to change. We've got to modify the message a little bit. Something isn't working. This isn't working.
00:55:06
Let me tell you a story. This happened many years ago when we lived in Hamilton, ON, and that's only a little over an hour away from Buffalo, NY. And I was put in contact with a Christian there whom I didn't know, but who wanted to meet up with me. So I drove down there and we had lunch together.
It was a very interesting conversation, he said. Bill.
I want to start a church.
And I understand that you've had a bit of experience. A friend of mine told me he knows you.
He said, you've traveled a little. You've been here and there in this world and been involved with people in different cultures, different areas. I want to start a church, he said. Tell me what works. Tell me what works.
I don't think he liked my answer.
Because I turned into this passage, I said, well, let's see what worked for the apostle Paul. Wouldn't that be a good example to go to? Well, yeah, I guess it would after all. So we turned to this passage, and I said, here's what worked for the apostle Paul.
And I quoted him those verses from Acts 20. And then I said, look what happened. Did it work? No, it did not work, rather worked in the opposite direction. People started defecting it saying, Paul, what you've given us is too much. We can't walk in that pathway.
Well, we parted good friends, but I don't think he liked my advice and I don't think he took it. The point is, we're not called upon.
To say what works, we're called upon to shed tears because all the precious truth that God has given is not being walked in.
The point is, it's not about us, is it? It's not about us.
And if that blessed man in the glory were to step into our midst and hold out his peers at hands this morning and say.
For me, it was worth it. It was well worth it.
To go through everything in order to have you with me in that glory in the Father's house.
Is it worth it to you to walk in the pathway that I have marked out for you?
Would anyone of us stand there in front of him and say no, Lord, that's too much to ask, I can't do it. It's too much.
I can't believe any of us would stand there and say that. And yet it happens practically, doesn't it? And Timothy sheds tears on that account.
What does Paul say if I can see your face up filled with joy? Why?
Because there would be mutual encouragement in knowing that here was one, a spiritual son who was ready with the Lord's help. And as Bob has said, he was a timid man. He wasn't a forward man. He wasn't an Apollo's. Someone that could stand up for himself. Normally, no Timothy could do it, but only with the Lord's help.
And the Lord was going to use him. And it's that kind of a man that Paul confides in.
Recognizing his tears, but the one also who brought him joy.
I There is a verse in Philippians 112.
That I want to read.
Andre Lavoie.
And crystal interpretorio.
Yeah.
Los Hermanos cobrando animo.
Presiones treven mucho masala palabra, verse 12, verse 12 to verse 14.
I would should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather under the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places. And many of the brethren, and the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the Word without fear.
01:00:15
La preuntes germano que piazos.
The question, brethren, is what has happened to you and do you have reson experto?
The devil is an expert at trying to use what has happened in your life to discourage you.
But for those that love God, all things work together for good.
It uses an expert to para convert and God is an expert at converting those things that are against us to work for us.
Recognizes that the things that happened to him worked for the blessing of the others.
I was thinking also of the fact that the world notices our countenance, and not that we would have a sad look on our countenances all the time. I think of one who served the Lord in Burma many years ago, missionary by the name of Adenorum Judson, and the Burmese had a name for him, and translated into English that expression or name was.
The man with the shining face.
So his face just shone with love and it was a testimony to those roundabout. But I think of another scripture that's before us. When I was thinking, when brother Bill was talking about the tears that were shed of Nehemiah in the second chapter of Nehemiah and in verse two it says, Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy count and said.
Seeing thou art not sick, this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, and said unto the king, Let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my father's sepulchre's lieth and waits waist, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Well he had.
The welfare.
Of the children of Israel and mine, and when he saw that deplorable condition.
That city in ruins. His heart went out and he wanted to do something. We see that the Lord answered prayer in connection with Nehemiah.
The king granted him his request to go to that city. We see the extent of the ruin, but the ward honored the faith of Nehemiah, so should be an encouragement to us. So he had reason to be sad, and in our chapter 2 There was reason for those tears.
It was mentioned that we have in Second Timothy that the resources to meet difficult days, as well as the difficulties themselves and.
I've appreciated a couple of these resources. Well, I might say three of them here in verses three and four and five you have.
Paul says I serve from my forefathers. He reminds us of those who have gone before. And then in verse five he does it again. He says the unfeigned faith which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice. And I am persuaded that in thee also, you know, over in the display here, there's a lot of biographies of Christians who have gone on before and there's others that you could obtain from other sources.
But I find those things to be a tremendous encouragement to read of how other Christians have faced difficulties that are far more than I've ever had to face. And the Lord has brought them through and and blessed them. So I would just like to encourage.
01:05:00
Perhaps those that haven't read those things to to read them and find encouragement for your faith. Also there's this other.
At the end of verse three, I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day. And certainly that's another thing that another resource that we can pray for each other and what a wonderful service that is to be able to take up. We don't use it. At least I speak for myself near enough.
But what a what a help to pray for each other. And then there's this verse 4 greatly desiring to see thee. And you know, that's why so many of us have come to this conference. I don't doubt is to see each other and to encourage each other.
And that's another resource that God has given us in difficult times.
Could we sing #19 in the appendix?
#19.
With me.
Going on, Father, we thank you for this chapter, for this portion.
And above water, it's an encouragement to remind us that no matter how dark the day gets, there is a path to walk for each one of us that is pleasing to be. And we know from that word, Lord Jesus, that as long as we are left down here, there will be attack that we can walk, which Thou won't sustain us and help us.
So we thank you for that, Lord. We think to our God Father, how the apostle Paul worked his last epistle. Look through this assembly and to an individual and it reminds us, Lord Jesus, that we all individually have to make that choice. Walk before me.
Even when we think of that word, we're thankful to that. We're not left the moment we can look around us right this very moment.
You just thank thee, Lord, thy goodness to us that thou hast put us in a place where there's so many. The Abbott is there to walk that path to and to encourage one another. Lord Jesus, we just pray us we're here to get it for at least three days.
We all will make a real effort, Lord, to be those that build up, those that encourage one another.
Just commit the rest of the time to be Lord Jesus and pray and Thy word, the most precious Name, Amen.