Address—D. Mearns
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I had something else in my heart, but it seemed it would be a bit of a jolt to dislodge from what we've had, so I think we're just going to carry on.
Going to need special grace to do that though.
You know.
The Apostle.
He didn't come equipped.
Knowing these things, that's not how he was saved.
And you know, as I look over this audience.
I'm not sure, Don, if you were enjoying these things 40 years ago.
So there, there's some here that are perhaps quite a bit older and maybe there's someone here saying, you know, I just don't get it.
And maybe a read a verse like like what we have here in the eighth verse that says, and maybe you read it this way. You say, you know, I'm troubled on every side and I am distressed.
Says here we are perplexed but not disparate. You say, well, I am in despair. I persecuted and I feel forsaken. I'm cast down and I feel destroyed. Maybe that's that's, that's your portion. Maybe that's the way you feel. You know, I'm sure the apostle felt that way sometime too.
And we know that.
Because he writes to the Philippians and he says.
I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. He learned it. He didn't come equipped with it.
He didn't come equipped with already having laid hold on eternal life, and we don't either.
That's not something that we come equipped with. It's something that takes a laying hold of as our brother Bob has been trying to, to tell us in his address. It's, I'm not sure, Bob, 40 years ago if you would have given exactly the same address as you gave here a couple days ago and.
Sometimes we struggle with these things.
And so when it says here.
That the excellence of the of the power may be of God and not of us. You know, I was I've been enjoying a little bit. I'm in job in my personal personal readings, but I I was thinking a little bit of a statement. Let's turn to it in in second Timothy.
Second Timothy.
Chapter Chapter 4.
Second Timothy chapter 4 and verse 11 and justice a statement here.
That's this statement. Only Luke is with me.
Only Luke is with me.
Now turn to.
Turn to the book of the Acts.
Acts 27.
We had a portion brought before us.
Acts 27 We have a portion brought before us in the in the open meeting with regards to regards to Martha.
And how?
You didn't turn to a portion, but in in Luke's gospel, she's cumbered about much service and her.
Her specific difficulty.
Was not so much that her sister wasn't helping her. That wasn't her. Yeah, that was bothering her, but that wasn't the specific difficulty. And that's not what she mentions first. The first thing she mentions is, Lord, don't you care? Don't you care? That's first and foremost. You know, she's not unique. She's not unique because if we were to turn to.
To Mark's gospel. In fact, let's do it. Hold your finger here in Acts 27 and let's look at Mark's gospel.
The 4th chapter I believe it is.
Mark's Gospel chapter.
4.
We have a similar scenario in in verse 37.
There arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full, and he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him, and say unto him, Now notice what's first and foremost. They don't say, we're going to perish. Water's coming in First and foremost is Lord, don't you care?
00:05:18
That's what it says here, Karis, that we seen a little hymn. Karis, thou not that we perish? How can thou lie asleep? We sing that.
Lord, don't you care?
So let's go to Acts 27 now.
Acts 27.
I enjoyed them.
I never put this connection before that.
Martha being cumbered with much service.
And you move from Luke's Gospel to to John 12 where?
Where there's the same scenario, exactly the same. I hadn't put that together that it's exactly the same scenario. You have Mary, she's doing the same thing. You have Lazarus, he's sitting at the at the at the table with the Lord. And you have Martha servant, exactly the same thing, but a much different spirit. And, and often our, our, our, our viewpoint is, is.
Really effects our outlook. It does. I'll just use an example.
A month ago.
I went to visit my, my daughter and son-in-law live in Saint Louis. Of course, they've at that time, they've been married two months now. At that time they were married one month. We get it for breakfast and we're sitting down for breakfast and my, and my daughter who's been married a month, she says, you know, back when we were first married.
And I thought, I thought, are you kidding me? Back when we were first married and they've been married for four weeks. And I'm thinking and yet dead serious, absolutely serious. And, and you know, we, we have a tendency to, to present things as if everybody sees things from our viewpoint. We have that tendency.
And because of that, sometimes we can present things and they go right clean over somebody's head. But I was just appreciating so much that.
Martha's outlook was so different because her viewpoint was different at that in in John chapter 12 as opposed to what we find in Luke's Gospel. So look at let's look now at Acts 27.
So we have.
We've got a storm here and you know the enemy, perhaps there's some here even today that the enemy is blowing with his hurricane force winds on your soul. I think many of us have experienced. Some of us are experiencing it now. It's very, very real. Well, there's a storm here.
And we pick up verse 14, and not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind called Eurocloudin.
When the ship was caught.
Could not bear up into the wind. We let her drive.
Running under a certain island is called Plata. We have much work to come by the boat.
Which when they had taken up, they used, helps undergirding the ship, fearing the shape should fall into the quicksand strike sail. And so we're driven, and we being exceedingly tossed with a Tempest. The next day they lighten the ship. The third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship.
Neither sun nor stars, many days, and so on. Let's go on down to.
27 And when the 14th night was come, as we were driven up and down, and Adria about midnight, the ship and Dean that we drew near to some country and sounded and found the 20 fathoms.
When they gone a little further further, they sounded again, and found that 15 fathoms. Then, fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast out four anchors out of the stern and wish for the day. And as the shipment were about to flee out of the ship, when they let down the boat into the sea under a color as though they would have cast anchors out of the four ship. Paul said into the centurion and to the soldiers. Except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved when the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off.
And.
Let's go on to.
Let's go to 39. And when it was day they knew not the land, and but they discovered a certain Creek with a shore into which they were mined, if it was possible to thrust the ship. And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves under the sea, and loosed the the rudder bands, and hoisted the main sail to the wind, and made towards shore. And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground.
00:10:18
The four boats post stuck fast and remained unmovable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.
And the soldiers counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out and escape. But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose, and commanded that they would which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and get to land, and the rest, some on boards, some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land. Now why do I read that?
I preface this with only Luke is with me.
You know, it's interesting.
I live in an assembly and there's.
There's 8 widows.
There's also ten men, 10 gentlemen with their wives that are in their late 80s or early 90s.
They are perfect gentlemen.
Just.
You're speaking about an order of sweetness, Steve. If ever there was an odor of sweetness, it's from these ones that are elderly in our assembly, these widows, these elderly gentlemen with their wives.
I daresay it wasn't always so.
And why?
The vessels are broken.
They've been broken.
It didn't happen overnight.
But through tremendous pressure over a long period of life.
Vessels are just sweet, sweet vessels.
You know the, the psalmist in the 4th Psalm, he says in pressure, I am enlarged. We, we like the enlargement, but we, we don't, we don't particularly like the pressure. I know there's, there's those here that have struggled with, with health issues. There are those here who have struggled with, with members of your family. There's perhaps those here struggling financially their, their struggles that the Lord puts us in that.
It is part of the breaking of the vessel, and as I look at these older ones in our assembly, I realize.
Wow, I just love that sweetness.
But what about going through what they went through for that sweetness to come?
You know, as the apostle wrote to the Corinthians, and I dare say the Corinthians themselves perhaps didn't quite enter into these things. Yes, I appreciate, Steve, what you're bringing out. And yet when you think of him writing in the first epistle, he writes to them. He said, you know, I wish I could give you a little bit of meat, but all I can give you is milk. And less than a year later, he's writing this epistle. And as you look at the end of the epistle, you realize perhaps they weren't exactly enjoying the same things that we were enjoying today.
With the struggles that they were passing through.
Well, let's back up now in this chapter and read two statements. One is this verse 20.
All hope that we, as the end of verse 20, all hope that we should be saved was taken away.
That's a statement. Now let's read another statement, verse 25.
Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God. You look at those two statements, one Luke makes it, and the other Apostle Paul makes it. And you look at these two statements and say, Are they in the same boat?
Yeah, they're on the same boat. They're on the same boat, but a little different viewpoint and a little different outlook. And Luke is saying it's hopeless there. There's no use, absolutely no use whatsoever. Sometimes we feel that. Sometimes we feel what we've been taking up in in First Corinthians where there where there's there's tremendous pressure and we we don't quite.
Enter into the the fact that as it says.
In.
In our in our eighth verse, troubled on every side, yet not distressed. And we think, well, yeah, we're troubled on every side, but we're stressed. And so, so what's the difference? So, so the the the Luke, he makes this this comment and he just looks at the situation situation. He says it's absolutely hopeless. Any, any, any, any speck of hope whatsoever that there was there, it's gone. It's totally gone. It's not there.
00:15:11
And the apostle Paul, it's not like he's even on the same boat. He just says, be of good cheer. I believe God and he goes through and he says, let's have a good meal. And you think this, this boat, you know, and it's not like with the, the, the apostles in the 4th chapter of Mark where they're starting to take a little bit of water on this boat was being smashed to bits.
And Paul says be of good cheer.
You know, that's what it is. That's what it is. That's what it means in the seventh verse when it says that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. It's got nothing to do with us and it's got nothing to do with the circumstance that we're in, but it's the viewpoint and it's the outlook, you know, in my personal reading.
Let's look at it in in job. Job makes this statement.
That's interesting.
He makes this statement in verse chapter 28.
Chapter 28 of Job and verse 11, the end of the verse, it says the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.
I turn over to the 34th chapter.
Very similar. Very similar statement.
Chapter 34.
And verse 32.
Job 34 verse 32 That which I see not teach.
Thou me, you know, often there are things in my life that I don't see that really need attention. It's interesting all my brother can see it, but I can't see it. We we have this this it's interesting. We have this conception that that we're walking on the pathway and we're right in the middle of the road and some of our brethren are off on the right hand side and some of them are off on the left and but we're right down the center. Every one of us have that concept. And yeah, maybe I need a little bit of.
Here, a little bit of adjustment there, but pretty much I'm right down the center of the road and not realizing, you know, that there are some things that need attention, as Job says here, he says. You know the thing, things that I can't see.
And the Lord knows how to bring those those things to our attention. But but notice what what what we have at the end of the book in Job chapter chapter 42.
Because I've enjoyed this in connection with, you know, you can look at many people in their lives in the word of God that had their vessel broken. You know, you think of a person like Nebuchadnezzar and you think of this man had the world by the tail.
And the Lord broke him down to the point where he says the Most High Ruth.
He recognized it was not him. You know, we have a similar situation with Job. You look at the earlier chapters of Job, you see, You see.
A life as pipes up and he has his comments that job and job responds and you have you have Bill dad does the same thing and job responds. You have so far says the same thing and job responds and it's getting worse and and it's it's less than good and you see the spirit that's in job and it's it's as the Lord seeks to work with them. You know it's interesting because in the early earlier chapters you have.
Satan comes in and all his force, and then he disappears. It's gone for the rest of the book.
As the Lord deals with them.
And as the Lord deals with us.
As he seeks to break the vessel, why as we've had before us and the vessels broken, then the light shines beautiful to see that. But what does Job say at the end in in chapter 42? It's just like Job says. Then Job answered the Lord and said on a paraphrase. He just says I get it, I get it. He says Job answered the Lord and said, I know that thou canst do.
Everything.
And that no thought can be withholding.
00:20:01
From thee you know we shrink, don't we? From the vessel being broken.
We don't like it, we shrink from it.
We like what we see in others.
What happens when the vessel is broken?
But we don't like the vessel to be broken.
We really shrink from that.
But it's the only way.
It's the only way, as the Lord seeks to bring us into conformity with Himself to that moment when.
When the vessel is completely broken and as I remember a brother, brother Armistead Barry taking up not the, not the 4th and the 5th chapter, we took up the 5th and the 6th chapter. And so he said the 5th chapter is the is the breaking of the vessel and the 6th chapter is the dissolution of the vessel. That's what you're bringing before us, Mario, the thought of the dissolution. And why is it, you know, I was appreciating a verse that you didn't turn to yesterday.
In Second Corinthians chapter 2.
You were thinking in Portuguese.
And you were trying to spit this out and it didn't quite come out. So we haven't Second Corinthians chapter one.
Correct me if this is not the verse, but we have in the third verse that says blessed be the God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforted us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them that are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. Wasn't that diversity we're trying to. I thought it was that you were it didn't come out quick that way and I wouldn't have been able to quote it either, but the Lord puts us through things and it isn't something when.
The Lord puts us through something and you know there was a time that.
I held two babies in my arms. One of them is here. The doctor told me I had cancer, said I had two cell types, one treatable, the other not. I am holding these two babies. I'm saying, Lord, really?
The ones that were a real comfort.
Were those that had cancer.
They were the ones that could be a real can, a real help.
The Lord gave us 2 little twins, my wife and I, and he took them home after lived for just a short while.
It was a tough time, but the ones that drew alongside him, my wife and I at that time were the ones that had lost the Lords. And so the Lord puts us through things just like it says here, in such a way.
In his perfect way.
So the vesicle can be broken, the light can shine. You know, I had a we speak about how do we.
Had a man come to me just this spring. He called up. I hadn't preached this man. He said, Dave, I have no peace. I want your peace. I want your peace. Said I had two aunts that passed away and they had peace. I have no peace. I want your peace.
Came over the house and we spoke about these things we.
I asked him how real it was. Yeah, it's real. I said, is it real enough to talk to God about it right now? Yeah, it was real. And just to hear him pour his heart out to God, it was really sweet as he went over his life and just poured his heart out as to what a Wretch he'd been. And thank the Lord for dying for him and for saving his soul.
You know.
We struggle sometimes.
In our.
Seeking to manifest.
What the Lord would have us and I had I had occasion just a short while ago. I wanted to present to this this man.
The need to spend some time in the Word and how it was very needful. And I'd been in turn to Luke's gospel because I was enjoying the parable of the sower, not from Matthew, not from Mark, but I was enjoying it from Luke's gospel.
Turn to it in the.
The 8th chapter of.
Of.
Of Luke. Luke chapter 8.
So I was reading in my personal reading in the sixth verse, it says, and some fell upon rock. And as soon as it was sprung up, it withered because it lacked moisture. It's different in, in Matthew, it says there was no, there was no deepness of earth. But in, in Luke, it's, it's, it lacked moisture. And so it withered. And I wanted to present to this man that because he told me he, he, he'd read everything, but he was having a hard time reading the word.
00:25:09
So I get in my truck and I'm, I'm driving over and I'm thinking, you know, how can I, how can I present this to him in a way that he's going to be able to receive it?
That his, his soul is going to be just ripe, that he'll be able to take this and it'd be real for him. And I, I get halfway over and I pull off to the side of the road and I just cry to the Lord that as I present this to him, he'd be able to, he'd be able to receive it. And I, I drive into his driveway just as he's taking a sprinkler and putting it on some fresh grass that was just up this high.
You know.
You couldn't orchestrate that. You couldn't. And it's not different in our own lives as the Lord seeks to orchestrate things in our lives. They're just perfect. We don't see them as perfect. We see them sometimes as disastrous, but they're absolutely perfect. Oh, that we might, as we've had before us, seek to.
Recognize as we have here.
In the very chapter that we've been reading.
That the Excellency of the power may be of God.
And not.
Of us, I wonder if we could just.
Finish by singing 311.
311.
Till an everlasting union we attain our resting place.
To several positive.
We are.
Pilgrimage person.
May are shall birds safely hiding still be kept in constant view?
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah scom.
Soul and breast.
Till then, however, lasting union, we obtain a rusting place, we commend ourselves.