Address—W.J. Prost
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Could we sing together the 1St 3 verses of #168?
168 The 1St 3 verses.
Several years ago I gave out this. Him and a brother afterward remarked to me. He said, Bill, you give out that hymn pretty often.
And I told him I said, brother, yes, I'm afraid I do, but I don't apologize for it.
I guess it was brought home to my own soul.
Back in the 50s when a brother gave it out at a Wheaton conference in Illinois and I remember enjoying it so much even as a teenager.
But it has sentiments in it that are just as true today. 168 and will sing just the 1St 3 verses.
The night and.
It's just.
Look to the Lord in prayer. Loving God our Father, we thank Thee for the words of this hymn this afternoon. Words that we know are taken from Thy precious word. And yet how much more true today. The night is far spent and the day is at hand. And our God, we thank Thee that this thrills our hearts, quickens our footsteps and makes us look on.
With anticipation.
To thy coming.
Perhaps today.
But then we know, Lord Jesus, that it speaks to our consciences too, as we consider our walk and our ways in view.
Of the fact that the night is far spent and the day is at hand. We pray now for thy help as we open thy word this afternoon, and pray that thou wilt speak to each one of us from it. Above all, may the Lord Jesus Christ be brought before us, but we pray that each one here, from the youngest to the eldest.
00:05:05
May be encouraged in the Christian pathway. We know our God that it is not meant to be an easy path, but we thank Thee that Thou hast given us, as we have had before us in these meetings, all things that pertain unto life and godliness in Christ. So we commend our time together to Thee and look to Thee with Thanksgiving in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
But what I have before me this afternoon?
I feel is a very down to earth subject.
Something that has been much on my heart lately, and something, I suppose, which most here have heard talked about.
And that is, I want to talk this afternoon a little about the subject of accountability.
And I want to say before all of you that in Speaking of this subject, if there are things that are brought to bear on our hearts and consciences, I want you to know.
That they apply right here.
Three times as much at least as they apply to anyone in the audience.
Bear that in mind.
And I hope that all of these things I am taking much more to heart than I am impressing them on anyone here.
Let's turn first of all, for a verse in Job chapter 33.
This verse was read to us in the Gospel meeting.
Last night.
But.
It's a verse that has a universal applicability.
And we're going to read it again, Job 33 and verse 13.
Why dost thou strive against him?
For he giveth not account of any.
Of his matters.
I suggest to your heart and mind that this is a starting point when we talk about accountability. When we talk about accountability, we have to realize that there is one.
Who is accountable to no one?
God does not have to give account to you and to me of any of His matters.
Oh, perhaps you and I say, but that's elementary. That is so obvious. Why do we have to dwell on that? We have to dwell on, beloved brethren, because way back, way back in history, in one of the oldest books of the Bible, there was a very godly man, a man whom God himself testified to as to his godly walk.
A man in whom even the devil could not.
Point out openly that which was wrong.
Imagine even the devil could not pick holes in Job's character, and yet there was a man who thought somehow, some way, that he had the right to call God to account for what he was doing. And a much younger man by the name of Elihu, through whose mouth these words were spoken, had to remind Joel very forcibly. Job, the starting point in your life.
No matter what you face has to be that God acts in his own right, if we could say it that way, on his own prerogative as God.
And does not have to account to you and to me for what he does.
That is a very, very solemn verse to read in the Gospel meeting, as our brother did last night, and I am sure it has been used many times to impress upon those who are lost their responsibility toward God.
But remember, those words were not spoken to an unbeliever. Primarily, they were spoken to a man whom the Spirit of God identifies as a righteous man, and whom God singled out in front of Satan as being one who was like no other in all the earth at that time. And yet somehow he could not understand what God was doing. And he thought that if only he could get the Lord, as it were at the negotiating table, if he could only get the Lord in front of him.
00:10:23
Then he could successfully argue his case and somehow they could come to terms on the matter.
I speak to my own heart. Do we sometimes do that with the Lord? Do we sometimes feel that what God has allowed is unjust? I can still remember a situation many years ago, and it is many years ago, so I think I'm free to speak about it because no one will recognize whom I'm talking about. But I was speaking to a sister whose daughter had a very serious medical problem.
Oh, there were Ways and Means around it, and God had provided medical science with the ability to deal with it, but it wasn't quite a problem. Well, I think, I hope I did. I hope I sympathized sufficiently. But after a while I said to her, and she was considerably older than I, so I was careful how I said it. But I said to her, you know, we have to recognize that the Lord allows all these things in His wisdom.
And we have to accept it from him.
And I'll never forget the scowl that crossed her face as she said. Well, it's mighty inconvenient right now anyway.
Oh, I cringed when I heard those words.
To talk about what the Lord had allowed in her life as being, quote, mighty inconvenient.
Oh, let's justify God first of all, and recognize that when God acts, he doesn't have to give account to you and to me.
You and I know God is a God of love. Wonderful. And we know him as the one who sent his Son to die on Calvary's cross. But may I suggest that this verse in Job in one sense transcends even to all of that?
Because had God chosen, and I hesitate even to say the words, but has he chosen not to send the Lord Jesus Christ? Had he chosen to put you and me in hell for all eternity, none of us could have called him to account for that. God acts in His own right.
Well, where do we go from there? Let's turn over now to the verse that is mainly on my heart and that is in Romans chapter 14.
Romans, chapter 14.
These are all very familiar verses to everyone here. We hardly need read them in order to refer to them. But here it is in Romans 14 verse 12.
So then every one of us shall give.
Account of himself to God.
As I said earlier, we hear a lot about accountability today, and among Christians we often hear the concept of being accountable to someone.
People form relationships with others on the understanding that one will be accountable to the other, so that one man holds another one to account and calls him up every week and says, How are you doing in your Christian life? What have you been up to this week? What did you? What sights did you go into when you surfed on the Internet?
During this past week, how did you behave at work? And so on. And sometimes if he isn't satisfied with the answer, he says.
Let me talk to your wife for a few minutes.
Let me hear what she says about how you've been acting this week and how you've been treating her. And supposedly this is a way by which one is kept from doing those wrong things in the Christian pathway that are so easy to fall into.
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Well, I'm not going to condemn that altogether.
But may I say that in the word of God we don't find a strong emphasis on that.
Yes, we are accountable to one another, and I trust that if my brethren see that in me which they feel is a hindrance to my Christian life, that they will draw to my attention.
And I know there are many, and perhaps all in this room who would say the same thing. But in the word of God we have one much higher than our brethren to whom we are held accountable, and that is the Lord Himself.
You know, this verse has very, very long reaching implications. Again, we often hear it quoted in the Gospel, and I have used it many times myself.
Everyone of us shall give account of himself to God, and if there's anyone here that isn't saved, let me tell you.
In the middle of a meeting that is primarily for believers that God is going to hold you accountable someday for how you have lived your life and perhaps even more important, what you have done with His beloved Son.
God is going to hold you accountable for that.
But this verse is spoken not primarily to unbelievers, but to believers.
It's a rather strong word.
I am not a Greek scholar and anyone can verify this, but the word that is used here and is translated account.
Is a word that is used many, many times in the New Testament.
Look it up if you have the opportunity. It is a word that in Greek is logos, from which we get our word logical in English.
It kind of frightened me when I discovered that some time back.
Because it is the same word that is translated in John's Gospel chapter one and verse one.
In the beginning was the word.
The same word has translated here. Account is translated word there referring to the Lord Jesus.
Many other times it is translated by saying or speech or something like that, and if you look up that word in a Greek lexicon you will find that it has a very far reaching meaning that has to do not only with what I say.
But with the thought behind it.
Isn't that solemn, a very solemn thing, that God looks down at you and me, the objects of his love and grace, the ones for whom he sent his beloved Son to die as we remembered him this morning, the one who loved us enough?
That he wants us to spend all eternity with them.
And yet, he tells us in love.
So then everyone of us shall give account of himself to God. What does that mean? Oh, I suggest that on the one hand, if it is a little bit frightening, and it can be frightening, can it?
It's a frightening thing, isn't it? Young people, children, if mom and dad find some mischief has been done and they call you in and say, what about this? A little bit scary, isn't it? Or if the principle of your school finds something has been done and he calls you or others in and says, what about this?
Don't think it never happened to me. It did and a lot more than one time. It's rather sobering, isn't it? But at the same time, may I suggest that there is an implication to this that I believe speaks to our hearts because what God is essentially saying to us, I suggest in this verse, is I want to impress upon everyone of you the importance.
The wondrous privilege.
The responsibility of living before me as an individual.
00:20:01
You know, we're gathered here together, and I don't know how many people were at these meetings when the largest number was here. How many, Mark?
4 or 500 beautiful to have all those beloved Saints of God together. And when we go back home and there's a local assembly of which we are parked, it's wonderful to enjoy the fellowship together. And in the larger sense, when we meet other Christians, perhaps those who for one reason or another are not gathered to the Lord's name, there is a bond. We are part of the family of God, and that is wonderful, and God has given that to us.
But ultimately we have to live and walk before God as individuals. And I want to impress upon my own soul and perhaps impress upon each one of us here, that in these last days it is going to become more and more important and more and more necessary that there be a walk as an individual in fellowship with the Lord.
It starts at a very early level.
Let's start off with children here. Would that be all right? And with young people, and I'm not pointing the finger at you. It doesn't seem very long, not very long ago, that I sat in those seats the way some of you children are.
I had another hymn on my heart that I was thinking of giving out rather than the one we sung at the beginning. And as I was pondering that hymn.
I thought back to a day.
41 years ago today.
Right to the day.
When a brother, now with the Lord by the name of Paul Wilson, stood up at a meeting in Detroit, MI and gave out that him.
And suddenly I realized as I was thinking about it, pardon me for saying this.
I realized, Bill.
You were only four years younger now than Paul Wilson was when he gave out.
And it hits hard. I never thought we'd be here that long.
Dear brother's long since with the Lord. He's been with the Lord nearly 40 years.
You young children, you young people, if the Lord leaves us here.
You are going to have to assume.
Responsibility as individuals and when you go to school.
And when you interact with the outside world, you are going to find out very quickly that you have to stand.
As an individual.
I remember reading a few years ago about a young woman. I say young. She seemed young to me. She was about 35.
And she undertook to teach in an inner city school in one of the large cities here in the United States. I think it was probably New York, but I'm not sure.
And that school had a reputation for having some tough kids in it. They were from all kinds of different ethnic backgrounds.
And when she went there, it wasn't all easy. She had a rough time because some of those boys especially figured they'd have some fun with this young woman that they didn't think knew very much.
And she recounted. And I have no reason to think that she was a believer. She might have been, but the story?
Has the same principle. Either way, there was a situation that came up.
And the students treated her very badly.
And she didn't react the way they expected that she would.
And afterwards one of the boys came up to her and said you didn't act the way the other teachers usually act when we do something like that, what's different about you?
She said if you fellows choose to act that way, I don't have to react in the same way. I play by my own rules.
And of course, the response was typical. And all the young people here will understand that the response was, hey, that's cool.
00:25:07
Can you appreciate that expression? I think you can.
They didn't understand somebody that played by, as she said, her own rules.
Beloved St. of God, we don't play by our own rules.
But God has, if we could use the expression rules, and he has something even more than rules, even more important.
His beloved son.
You and I can be guilty of wrong actions in our lives and sad to say we all, if we look back on our lives, would have to say we have been guilty of wrong actions and there needs to be confession and repentance. But what is even more difficult in the day in which you and I are living is not only wrong actions.
But wrong reactions. And as we've often heard, two wrongs don't make a right.
And very often you and I, as believers, shall we say it, we'll use the excuses.
Relative to the failures of others.
To justify our own failure. And in that way we will turn the spotlight away from our own conscience. And it's very easy to shine that spotlight on others, either an individual or a situation or whatever it may be that supposedly has.
Forced us, caused us to act in a certain way.
No.
Let's go on a little bit. What about the workplace? It's becoming increasingly difficult to live for the Lord in this world. It is becoming increasingly difficult to honor Him and our Christian pathway.
And sometimes is it possible? And I'm speaking about things that are very basic. I hope this doesn't insult anyone. I know I need it. We're speaking about things that are very basic because it is possible. It is possible to have one line of conduct.
That I present to my brethren and another line of conduct perhaps.
At other times, a brother whose name is well known to us by the name of Charles McIntosh, Chapter Macintosh and he made a comment in his writings which I took to heart.
He said a brother may be ever so eloquent in preaching the gospel. He may be ever so faithful in ministering the truth.
And he may present.
To fellow Christians, everything that seems to be of Christ. But he said, if I want really to know what characterizes that man in his soul, let me go into his home. Let me go into his home and see how things are there.
Dear brother, and I hesitate to make this remark, but I'm going to make it because I believe it's needful. And again, right here.
We are seeing among those gathered to the Lord's name.
Maybe the word is too strong, but I'm going to use it anyway. An appalling demonstration.
Disunity in homes and marital disharmony, and you and I know very well that.
Perhaps what we are seeing is the tip of the iceberg.
And that many more things go on underneath.
But do not come out in the public eye.
And I suggest to your soul and mind that this verse needs to get a hold of us. Every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Again, not with the sense of, Oh my, what is the Lord going to do to me at the judgment seat of Christ? No, that is not the thought, but rather the thought is being objects of the love and grace of God as being those who've been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as being those whom He has sent back into this world.
To be living witnesses of all that he has done for us.
I say to my own soul and to yours.
There is a moral character which is due to that blessed One, and of which he is so worthy.
00:30:09
Oh, you say I can't do it. Circumstances become overwhelming.
And I admit that sometimes they do.
And I know that some of you are facing circumstances that I at least have never had to face.
Most of you know.
That I had a serious automobile accident just under 2 weeks ago.
And it hit me pretty hard.
But when I heard about young Braden Clawson being taken home to be with the Lord in an ATV accident.
I said Lord, I don't know what that feels like.
When I see dear brothers and sisters who have lost.
Their help me, I say, Lord, I don't know.