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So first one.
Now therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things that thou hast heard of Maine, among many witnesses.
The same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
No man that wore it entangled himself with the affairs of this life, but he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
And if a man also ascribed for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strived lawfully?
The husband man that laborers must be first partaker of the fruits.
Consider what I say, and the Lord give the understanding in all things.
Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.
When I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound.
Therefore I endure all things, for the elects sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him.
If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.
If we deny him, he also will deny us.
If we believe not yet hereby the faithful, he cannot deny himself.
Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no prophet, but to the subverting of the hearers.
Study to show thyself approved unto God.
A Workman that need us not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodlyness, and their word will eat as duck the canker of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have urged, saying that the resurrection is passed already, and overthrow the faith of some.
Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure.
Having this sealed, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and that everyone that nameth the name of Christ.
Depart from iniquity.
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor.
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.
Flea also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned questions, avoid knowing that they do gender stripes.
And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men.
Apartment to teach patients in meekness, instructing those that impose themselves if God for adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will.
Back in the first chapter, the 15th verse that says this, thou knowest, and that word for knowledge is something that we can see that there's a podium up there, but this is a different kind of knowledge. This is the knowledge of communion that only probably Paul and Timothy knew this. Thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are by jealous and homogeneous, and I I wonder if the first verse of our chapter.
00:05:27
Doesn't morally connect, therefore.
Son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
First mention we have of Timothy is in Acts 16 I believe, where Paul, as he begins one of his missionary journeys, takes Timothy seems to have found him already a believer. And so it seems that Paul was a spiritual father to Timothy, perhaps not the instrument that God used in his salvation.
Although we're not sure of that, but still an instrument that God used very strongly in Timothy spiritual development. And it's beautiful to see this relationship between Paul and Timothy, especially in this epistle, which is probably the last epistle that we have that Paul wrote. It's not to an assembly here, it is to an individual.
Because in our days, brethren, it is a question of individual exercise in the path of faith. I think it's so important to realize that. And the day we live in. It's not going on merely collectively, although that is a result. But it is going on, each one individually exercised as to the principles of God's Word. And as we go on in that way, we'll find that there are others that we can associate with.
And have fellowship with, but I think it's extremely important to see that in these last days it is important the matter of individual exercise in the path of faith. And so Paul speaks to Timothy here in the first verse. My son. That's beautiful and just a real encouraging thing for those who perhaps are a little older to.
Take a real interest in those who are younger and have a desire to please the Lord.
Take an interest. And as Paul advised Timothy and exhorted him many times, I can say in my own life what a blessing it has been for me when those who have, who are older, have taken an interest, and have had the courage to perhaps give a word of correction, a word of exhortation. In the first chapter we see that Paul exhorts Timothy to.
Stir up the gift of God that was in him. He was a young man, according to First Timothy, where it speaks of his youth, and evidently he was timid, But still there was a gift there that God had put there, that Paul recognized and exhorted him, and spoke of the laying on of his hands, which evidently should his fellowship in the exercise of Timothy's gift.
It's amazing what you can learn if you put yourself in the position of being a pupil.
And willing to listen.
And so we see in Timothy that.
Desire. He was willing to listen to what the Apostle Paul had to say.
As you, as one brother I think has already pointed out, in the previous chapter there were those that turned away from Paul's doctrine.
They no longer listened.
And as our brother Buchanan has.
Brought before us already today.
The word says he that hath an ear, and let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And so it was a joy for Paul to have somebody that would listen to what he had to say.
And Timothy was willing to do that, and so consequently he receives the blessing. And we too can receive a blessing if we're willing to listen to what God has to say to us.
00:10:04
I was thinking relate related to this statement be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
She might turn to Acts Chapter 20.
For a very familiar verse, but yet a very important one.
Acts, Chapter 20.
Verse 32 Acts 2032.
And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the Word.
Of his grace.
Now isn't that wonderful? It brings the grace of God before us to the Word.
Of his grace.
So we go back to our scripture. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And I think if you put some other words in there.
You'll see that they don't fit.
If it said, be strong in the law.
Well then you would, we would say, oh, Oh no, no, no.
I I won't find any benefits there that that won't do me any good.
Well, maybe, it said said. Be strong in your history and your own personal faithfulness.
We would say no, no, no, that won't work either. Don't, don't encourage me to look at my path of faithfulness, because it doesn't exist.
And don't take me back to the commandments and the laws.
What will fit and what will do us good, especially in the day of extreme confusion? What will do us good is a sense in our souls of the grace of God, his favor towards us, even though we don't deserve it. And so Timothy is encouraged to fall back.
And lean upon and rest upon the grace.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I think that's a very encouraging thing because.
None of us can claim any faithfulness.
At all or anything else to fall back upon. And we just love to think that there's a solid foundation that will always be there and even if we fail.
We can come back to the grace that undeserved favor of our Lord Jesus Christ and this will stand firm throughout the entire churches history. And so Timothy is encouraged to keep in mind and.
Strengthen himself in the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is gracious.
The supply of this grace is limitless, isn't it? Says of all we received, of His fullness and grace upon grace. Do we need more grace? Will he giveth more grace? And I think it's nice to see this in Second Timothy, because, as has been pointed out, Timothy found himself in days that are parallel to the days in which we find ourselves perilous. Times, times when it's difficult to stand for the truth, times when there's every wind of doctrine and this type of thing.
And we might say, is it possible to go on in a day of ruin? Where we look about in Second Timothy, we find the breakdown of everything, the breakdown in government, in the home, in the assembly, the truth being given up, compromise on every hand. And we say, is it possible to go on in days like this?
But the supply of that we need to go on is always there, God's people in any dispensation.
And whatever circumstance He placed them in were always given everything that was needed. When Israel passed through the wilderness, everything was supplied. When they were hungry, fed them. When they needed water, he gave them water to drink. Their shoes didn't wear out. They had the pillar of cloud to guide them, the pillar of fire to protect them. All these things were God's provision, and God never asked us to live in circumstances or days where He won't supply everything that's needed.
And Timothy might have looked around and said, well, we used to believe those things, and the older brethren have told us those things and the apostles and so on. But these are different days. Oh, brethren, he was exhorted as a young man to continue. If we go over, I believe it's to the third chapter. It says, continue thou. In other words, Timothy, there's no excuse for looking around at what you see, whether it's in the world or Christendom or in the assembly, and giving up. And I say that to those of us who are younger, because sometimes we might look at the circumstances around us and say.
00:15:11
Well, we have to give a little bit here and there. These are different times than our fathers lived in, than the apostles lived in, and so on. Oh, no, we're we're never given an excuse in Scripture for giving up, giving up. We're given all things that pertain unto life and godliness. And as we look at Second Timothy, I think it's nice to look, to realize that we have, though we live in days like Timothy live, we have the supply of everything that's needed to live the Christian life.
To be faithful to that blessed one until that day when we're safe home in the glory.
Law expects from man, and grace expects from God, and that's the secret brethren. If we're going to be looking to ourselves, to our faithfulness, we're sure to fail. We're going to look up to the throne of God and to God, whose supply of grace is limitless, Then we have a reason to go on.
And so this is what's going to make us strong in these last days.
Sometimes we get the feeling perhaps, when everything's slipping and sliding downward morally and in every other way in society, let's put on the brakes. Let's lay down some laws and enforce them rigidly. But the Old Testament was enough of a manifestation of the fact that man under law cannot produce.
And neither can it now, dear brother, So what is it that's going to make us strong? It's the grace that is in Christ Jesus and always carries me back in my mind when I read that expression to the cross. The love that was displayed there in the awfulness of man's treatment of God's beloved Son. What was it that God? What was God's response to it all?
It was over. Abounding grace. Dear brethren, this is what we need to feel. We need to stand at the foot of the cross. We need to see that agony of our Savior. And then, dear brethren, we will be strong in the grace. How can I, after standing at the foot of the cross, to see my Savior suffer there? How can I submit to the moral decadence all around it? It doesn't fit.
I cannot go that way. Not because somebody is put a rule in the regulation on me that you shouldn't do that and you shouldn't do this. It's because his love has won my heart, and grace is what wins the heart, and the heart is the mainspring of life. Dear Brittany.
So we see in the chain of succession in preserving the truth that it is not a first generation.
Birth thing like it was with the priest. And it's not Apostolic succession. In fact, in the chapter Ronald was reading from just before that.
Paul says, I know that after my departing shall grievous wolves that are in not sparing the flock also of your own self. So men arise to speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Then he says, therefore watch.
Remember. And then we have the 32nd verse that Ronald was telling us about. We are commended to God and the word of His grace, Two things that everybody who is a believer at least always knows and has, no matter where you are.
And they don't fail. There's a full supply of the Omnipotent one and the grace that he gives.
So how is the truth, which was committed to the Church to be the pillar in support of, in chapter three of the First Epistle, going to be carried down as a witness in this world? It's this second verse, the things which I always heard of me. There's Paul. He was the one to whom church truth was given. He passed it to Timothy and I says Timothy.
00:20:14
You turn it over to somebody else. Who does he tell him to turn it over to?
Faithful man.
That's what's required.
Back in let's look at it in Luke 12, Peter asks a question.
Which I think bears on what we have in our second verse.
In the 12Th of Luke, the Lord had put forth a parable and Peter asked the question about it in verse 42.
And says who then No verse 41.
Lord speaketh now this parable unto us, or even to all. Now that's Peters question. Now the answer. Here's what we want to get, the Lord said. Who then is that?
Faithful and wise steward, Here's that. Here's that quality one who takes what he hears and is faithful to the truth and wise and handles well what has been committed to him. So this is the chain, Timothy, you give this the faithful man who shall be able to teach others also. And brethren. I believe it comes down to 1991.
How am I wrong in that? I believe the truth comes down that chain into 1991.
Faithful man is not one who merely listens and nods his head to what is said. Faithful man is one who obeys what the Scripture tells him. And that's so important in our days, dear brethren. It's not great feats.
That we should seek after but simple obedience to the word of God. And there were those who did great things, and sometimes we think of doing great things for God the brethren is just the simple going on day after day after day of obedience to the Word of God, the word that is spoken of in.
Genesis How about Enoch? Always impresses my heart.
Enoch walked with God. 300 years. That's tremendous. How long have we walked with God? I don't.
I don't know. The Lord knows. But to say that he walked with God consecutively 300 years, no big mighty acts that that Enoch did. He didn't slay a giant like David, those mighty acts that manifested faith, but the simple walking day by day with God? That's faithfulness.
And that's what God values, and those are the ones that God will use.
To carry on his testimony down through the ages, as our brother has pointed out the four generations that we have mentioned in that second verse.
It's interesting too, in that second verse, to notice that Paul says.
The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses. Paul didn't speak these things in secret. No, there were many witnesses that he spoke, those things amongst who could attest to what he spoke about. So these are not things that we speak in secret, the Lord Jesus himself said in secret. Have I said nothing?
No, it was in public, and so there are public meetings, but maybe not many appreciate the truth. But it is there in those that place that the truth is committed to faithful men to carry on and teach others also. There's a responsibility, if in any measure you and I have received some of these things.
Way, then, we are responsible too, brethren, not to keep them for ourselves, but to share them with others who also will be faithful men.
00:25:14
I wonder if those of us who are younger here this afternoon really value those, our older brethren who seek to pass on the truth to us and who have walked in the truth for years, those who have experienced it in a very real way. And I say that because I fear that today there is the thought with some that, well, the older brethren are A and I'm going to speak plain, are a force that are to be tolerated. But if you're just hanging in and the Lord leaves us here, they'll be gone.
And then we can do things in a manner that we would like. I feel that that's a very poor spirit, and it saddens my heart. You know, in the world around us today, it is ingrained in us in our schooling to rebel against authority, whatever authority it may be, whether it's governmental, whether it's parental, whether it's at work, whatever it is. And I'm sad to say that which characterizes the world in any given age, eventually seeps in amongst the Lord's people.
And I fear that perhaps today there is that in our hearts, and I speak to my own heart, that rebellion against authority. We don't like by nature to bow to authority. But I just say to those of us who are younger, God has raised up those brethren. He has left them with us. They are guides in the assembly. They have experienced the truth in a way that those of us who are younger have not, And in faithfulness they seek to present the truth of God to us.
Be willing to listen. Are we willing to submit? Or Brother Buchanan was Speaking of those representatives in the seven churches and how we're all responsible in the assembly. But I wonder, and I dare to to be corrected, but I wonder if there are perhaps those who are more responsible in the assembly, those who have been given the truth and those who seek to commit it to us. And then we are responsible too, of course, to bow to what they say and to walk in the good of it. And so I just say that we value those who seek to bring the truth.
God before us, Timothy, was exhorted to go on in the truth that he had heard from an older brother. And we need those older brethren. They have wisdom that we who are younger don't have. They look back over many years, they see things perhaps in a little different light. Well, may we seek grace to go on together in happy fellowship, one with another. We need each other as members of the body of Christ.
Let's read.
Chapter 3, verse 10.
The 10th verse of chapter 3.
As we're considering this word faithful.
Verse 10 of chapter 3 but now is fully known my doctrine.
Manner of life.
Purpose. Faith.
Long-suffering charity patience.
And so on. I think that verse somewhat explains the thought of faithfulness.
Not only just knowledge in our heads, but coupled with that I was fully known my doctrine, manner of life.
And I don't believe you can disconnect.
Your manner of life from the doctrine that you hold and still be called faithful.
Now in the world in which we Live Today.
There are scattered around a lot of very learned.
Bible teachers.
And they know their Bibles quite well.
Maybe they have radio programs.
And maybe they say a lot of things that are good.
But what about their manner of life?
What about their fellowship?
In the 22nd chapter of Luke.
When the disciples were told to the by the Lord Jesus where they would find.
The proper place to meet, he said. When you go into the city, a man shall meet you.
Bearing a pitcher of water.
Follow him into the house wherein he goes.
Now that verse is often spoken to me, I know it can be applied to the Holy Spirit.
00:30:03
Ask ourselves this question is this great Bible teacher that we're listening to.
Is he walking to the place where the Lord is in the midst?
Can you follow him into the house where he enters? Can you?
As all his great Bible knowledge equipped him to go to the place where the Lord Jesus.
Is the center.
Well, better, better think about it. So let's not disconnect doctrine from manner of life.
And that goes together to make faithfulness.
And I think a lot about this brethren. As I say, there's a lot of Bible knowledge.
Everywhere.
But can you follow that teacher?
To the presence of the Lord Jesus.
Has his Bible knowledge got him that far?
Or as he got a side door somewhere where he escapes and does not go to meet the Lord Jesus. Well, I just want to make that point as strong as I can.
We must connect doctrine with manner of life and.
Our doctrines and teachings will have no power if they're not connected with faithful walk to please the Lord in obedience to His precious word.
A book known as Some of Us by CS Lewis.
Really had some real merit is called the case for Christianity. And he makes a statement in there which I think is very important that don't tell me that Jesus is a good man if you don't believe what he said, because if he don't believe what he said, well then he's a liar. He's not a good man. So there are some very nice things and as you're reading along you you, you're very thankful that here is an Oxford professor.
That got saved and he's bringing out some very vital things in tension with salvation, the curse of Christ that you just say Amen to have a copy of my desk at work. And I read it years ago and I come to a part that he says, well, now I I brought you into the building of Christianity and he said, you know, there's a lot of different rooms of fellowship and I just kind of leave it to you.
Which room you choose for yourself and my stomach just goes through you know I it's too much. And so I'm thankful for many many dear things to God and their faithful. And so Moses went back into the camp but Joshua stayed out and and I I have to say for myself that I've never listened to a preacher outside the assembly that I didn't find something.
Is that I said that contrary to the wound? And how important is the verse in Second Timothy 314 and I remember as a young brother, as a young person being in the Los Angeles conference with brother Clifford Brown making this statement.
Now read the verse, and then the statement he made about it. Continue thou and the thing which thou has learned, and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. He said, That does not speak the Spirit of God, of whom is plural, knowing of boom, thou hast learned. And so in the process of the second verse of our chapter it says the same. Commit thou to faithful man who shall be able to teach others also.
More point, there's a young man from the Tiago Falls assembly that's coming to Pittsburgh to go to Carnegie Mellon. No, you mentioned his name, but not particularly the .9 years ago his brother came and he's now graduated and they're both taking up computer engineering.
One graduate a few years ago, now he's younger brother is coming and he made this comment. He said the emphasis, the increased emphasis on computers and how their approach is 180° different when my brother came years ago. Brethren, it's true in case with computers, but it's not true in connection with the word of God. It's exactly the same word that was committed to Paul, that went to other witnesses and came down.
There is nothing lost from one to the other.
And as we go back, and we from Scripture, we can be assured, and we might be assured, that there is nothing lost in passing a baton. It's not dropped it. It's not a different baton. It's exactly the same word. I can accept progression in computers and if there's any computer explosion, but not in the word of God, it's exactly the same as what they're pumped. And Paul gave us the word of God, the Word of God gives us.
00:35:33
Pole is rather special, Very special.
Chosen.
Separated from his mother's womb, he says in Galatians.
For a special purpose.
Given a special ministry.
Faithful in it, so much so, that in First Timothy one he says a pattern to them which would hereafter believe. That's Paul, we can go to him. He's here in this verse, the things which thou hast.
Heard of me? If we go to Philippians chapter 4, it's enlarged upon by a whole.
And very interesting in Philippians 4 verse nine he could say is those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in.
Me do what's going to be the result, and the God of peace shall be with you. Now this is Paul's duck and set here in Scripture.
For us to get ahold of by learning, by receiving, by hearing it and then practicing it.
Make a I'll tell the remark that Eric Smith.
Told me years ago.
Bearing on witness, he said.
It snaps so much.
What you say that counts?
It's not so much what you do that counts.
Your Christian witness is what you are the sense now that gets right down.
Inside.
We hear what we think about Father, Brother Hale used to tell us, making a verse of Scripture simple. As he thinketh in his heart, so is he. So it comes right back down for me. What do I think about? That's what I am. Am I thinking about the doctrine that Christ had brought to us in the church through poem? It gets right down into the very language of Scripture.
So that it says down here further in our chapter rightly dividing the word of truth and.
It also says.
Not to strive about words and no prophet. These are verses 14 and 15. We are not to be.
Arguing about the meaning of words.
Words convey meanings from one person to another.
We were told years ago that.
Language is the only vehicle upon which thought can travel, and we're using English language now here because we all know English and.
I hear a word and I use a word and I have an interpretation for the meaning of that word. And your hearing and your use of the word might be the same, might be a little bit different. So we don't want to get down, get bogged down on mere words, but to read.
The Scripture and let the Spirit of God give us the sense from it.
And listen to it and rightly divide the word. Cut it in a straight line.
No to whom the Word of God is addressed, about whom it's speaking, but all of the Word is for us. So the doctrine of Pole, the doctrine of the Church, the truth as it was revealed, is now out and here in this chapter, and turn from Paul to Timothy, who had been brought up under faith. He had a godly mother.
00:40:02
And a godly grandmother, the first dealt in them.
Doubtless it wasn't.
The truth of the grace of the gospel that Timothy got, his mother might have gotten that. I don't know. It doesn't. She was of another generation, but now it has come. The truth is here, the first epistle tells us, as we've referred to, the church is sent here to be the pillar and support of the truth. There gets to be an argument down the end of our chapter, and the wise man is to.
In meekness instruct verse 25.
Those that oppose, When the truth goes forth, there's opposition in this world. It's not always received. It's not always accepted. Now here's the matter. To combat that and leave it with God in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves if God for adventure will give them repentance, a change of mind, change of heart. What for do they acknowledging of the truth? The truth abides.
And in the ruin that was here when.
The Hanford profession became the great House. Then there comes in separation.
The characteristic of truth is that it stands the temp of light.
So the Apostle Paul, when he was communicating truth, he did it in the presence of witnesses, because he could do it publicly and stand the test of light. But Paul's practice, which was in conformance to his doctrine, was a life that was lived in the life as well. It wasn't necessary for Paul to have a certain manner of life among his brethren.
And a different manner of life in his own home, or among other friends, that he might have had so his practice, his life, he could say to those about And thou hast fully known my manner of life, because his life was a life that was lived in the light, because it was a life of truth. And so perhaps for us there is a certain way in which we might question ourselves concerning either.
That which we hold to be truth, or that which we hold to be truth in practice, and that is, is what I say and what I do. That which would be acceptable if all were to see it and examine it, Could it be said in the presence of witnesses? Could it be done in the presence of witnesses? And if it couldn't, then we have strong reason to question in our souls.
If there's a reason why we prefer in that thing the darkness.
Like to ask you a question, Don back in Galatians. It's not difficult. It's not hard. It's just a question I puzzled about a bit in connection with witnesses and the beginning of Paul ministry in Galatians 2 when it goes up to by Revelation to Jerusalem to communicate with the apostles that were there before him, the second verse.
Galatians 2 verse 2.
Just an interesting point. And I went up by revelation and communicated unto them that gospel which I preached among the Gentiles.
Now this is Paul preaching before he had been with the 12.
Preaching the gospel, the grace of God, then it says, but privately to them, which were reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run in vain.
What do you say about that? Was he a bit puzzled about?
What he was preaching or what? What did he want to get in the communication with the trail?
I believe that none of us is the final judge of whether we have all the truth and all the light. And it is not wrong for us to desire and to expect that there will be others that the Lord will use to at times give a judgement in something in which we may find ourselves not to have done it.
00:45:09
Perhaps directly according to the mind of God. Now in the case in Galatians 2, Paul had absolutely no question in his soul that he had a revelation from God concerning the gospel, and he doesn't go to them to be sure or to check with them as to what the message that God had given him was a message from God or not. It was the revelation, and he understood that, but he was also conscious that there may have been something in the way in which he presented it.
Or the way in which he was going about.
To among his the people of God that might have needed some correction and so on. For myself I believe that it was.
Privately.
Because not everything while it will stand the test of life.
Not everything is wise to be brought out among every person, and to me he went to those that he had respect for, and he put before them what he was doing that he might receive from them any correction or adjustments in his thinking or his ways that might have been necessary, rather than can I say falling and assembling, meeting and saying, well, now, brethren, if anyone here has something that they have seen in my life.
That isn't quite in conformance to the word of God. I'm here, I've called you all together with someone like to tell me that isn't necessarily wise or the mind of God. I think because even here we see an example of it.
That addresses that. That's what I was expecting to hear. It's very nice to go on in that.
2nd of Galatians. And to see that it worked out that the communication between them fit together and they understood one another, and then they they they found out. Well, Paul, you're the possible, the Gentiles and Peter's the Apostle, the circumcision.
And so they had the same ministry to carry just just communication between them. So they felt comfortable with what they were all bringing. And so I think those were some of his witnesses that he had as to what he.
Spoken and what he taught verse 9 Brother Clem of that chapter.
Is helpful because it shows that.
His lowly spirit in doing so.
Resulted in him getting the hand of fellowship from these leaders.
And that's what he wanted. Beautiful, isn't it Today.
Well, we ought to be in accord, brethren. We have the same message if we get it out of the same book and get it right.
Connection with faithfulness.
I was thinking what you mentioned Iran in chapter three of the definition of faithfulness in verse.
Ten I just like to read the 1St 2 words of verse 11.
Persecutions and afflictions announced buzz. It's easy to talk about faithfulness and being faithful to the truth.
Until a test comes, we come down to the question of persecution. When it comes to the point of afflictions in our lives, what is our response? That's where the real test of faithfulness comes in.
It's all right when everything is going normally and everything is going fairly positively. But when things go contrary, and as it's been mentioned, we live in a world, brethren, that is contrary to God. And if you're going to, you and I are going to live by the principles of the word of God, sooner or later we're going to be put to the test. There's going to be opposition to that, and we get we need to.
Really meditate on these things. I speak to those of us who are younger to make sure we've laid hold of these principles because the test will come. Still, remember when I left home and.
00:50:02
I came E to work in the Chicago area. I've been taught so many things in my home life. Thank God for it, and they've gotten some kind of a hold on it.
And in the assembly meetings as well, I'd heard a lot. But I still remember that times I was violently shaken in my conviction by those who came and really shot me down.
Say this is where the test really comes and I was.
I really had to start getting back into the word and digging, and when I did that I was almost surprised at times to find that there was basis for it. I had been.
Been brought up and I could say this is the way I've been taught.
But I never come to the point where I say I believe because God has said, and that's where you and I will have to come. Sooner or later the test will come. As I say again, faithfulness to me is an extremely individual matter. You cannot really speak of faithfulness in a group.
But there are maybe faithful people in that group. But faithfulness is an individual matter, and to me it comes down to the time when there's opposition afflictions. Persecutions will be the thing that God uses to test.
How much I am truly.