Buena Park Conference: 1978
Table of Contents
Luke 12:24
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Luke's Gospel in the 12TH chapter. The 24th verse. Consider the Ravens, for they neither soul nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much more are you better than the fowls? And which of you is taking thought can add to his stature? 1 Cubit. If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
Consider the Lois. How they.
They grow, they toil not, they spin not. And yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothed the grass which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
Sell what ye have and give alms.
Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not where an old thief approaches, neither moth corrupteth, For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto Him immediately.
Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching.
Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them.
And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find themselves, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the Goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not.
Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?
And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom is Lord, when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But And if that servant say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat the men's servants and maidens.
And to eat and drink, and to be drunken. The Lord of that servant will come in a day that he looketh not for him, and in an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
I was just thinking of this passage, brethren, and its practical effect, how it ought to speak to each one of our hearts. And I'm sure that it speaks to my heart as I read something like this, because it's so easy for us to become attached to this world through which we pass, to get occupied with those things that pass away. But here we find the Lord Jesus bringing before His own the importance of living in view of that coming day.
A watching and awaiting people.
And that ought to be what characterizes our pathway to as we realize that the time is short, we only have the rest of our time, and it may be exceedingly short. Surely we would desire that our lives might be lived in such a way that they would be with his approval, and in that coming day that he would be pleased that we had sought in some measure to live for him.
Well, we know as it introduces the subject here, it brings before us those things which so often occupy our minds, the things that we wear, the food that we eat, and all those other things that constantly take up our mind. And you know, I think it's lovely to see the habit of the Spirit of God to set our minds thoroughly at ease and then bring the truth before us. I think that's so lovely.
Just as we find in Philippians, he says, be careful for now.
But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving, make your request. Let your requests be made known unto God. Having set our mind free from cares, then He tells us what to think about and says whatsoever things are, pure, honest, good, report, and so on. Think on these things. Isn't it true that if we invite someone to our home and we think they're worried, we want their minds to be at ease before we start to talk to them about serious things?
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And so we find this graciously on the part of the Lord Jesus here in talking to his disciples. He knows the turmoil of life. He knows what it is to go through a world like this where things are around us so constantly to take up our minds and take up our attention. And so in the verse we began, to me, it's very touching, shows the wonderful grace of the Lord Jesus.
Because if you or I had been writing this, I think we might have said consider the doves.
Or perhaps some other clean bird. But isn't it quite remarkable here that the Lord says, consider the Ravens? Why does he do that? Well, you know, when we, if he had said doves, we might have looked in and thought, well, I'm afraid that I'm not always what I should be. Does He care about me? If I was a faithful believer, then I could say that he did care. But seeing I'm not always what I should be, is he really concerned about me?
In this marvelous here, consider the Ravens. Think of that bird so unclean that an Israelite wasn't even allowed to eat it. And then it tells us about how God cares for them and God feedeth them. He had an interest in this unclean bird. No matter how far any of us may have got away from the Lord, let us be assured of this one and glorious thing. He always cares for us.
Indeed, as we read in the 23rd Psalm, it doesn't say that we should be restored, but it says He restoreth my soul. That is, He's at work. He feels anything that has come in between ourselves and him. He feels it much more than we do. Because, brethren, He didn't only die to save our souls from hell. He died because He wanted our company. He wanted to have us with Himself.
As the little hymns.
That His love cannot rest till all His own are with Him, supremely blessed. That's the kind of a love He has. And so He wants us to know of this. And if we have wandered away, isn't it good to see as it tells us here? God feedeth them. He cares for these birds that are unclean, and He cares for each one here. And if there should be anyone in this room tonight, and you feel what I've got.
Far away and I wonder if the Lord is really interested in me and cares about me. Isn't this a very precious word. Let us think of this care that he has for those birds and then he says how much more are ye better than the fowls? Because in the 16th Psalm where we read about the about the Lord Jesus and his pathway here it says my goodness, extend us not to thee. That is to.
But to the Saints that are in the earth, to the excellent, in whom is all my delight, And who were these that are classified as the excellent? You know, the world has a book called Who's Who and it sets out very important people in society. But who are the excellent of the earth? Doesn't it impress you as you read through the Gospels to find out who these people were, those disciples who are spoken of as?
Unlearned, an unlettered man, that woman that was by Sychar as well, whom the Lord Jesus saved blind Bartimaeus, All these ones that were specially brought into blessing in the Lord's pathway here. They were the excellent of the earth. They weren't the ones that were high and mighty as the world would speak. And so it says here. How much more are ye better than the fowls? Again, I say if.
Has an interest in these Ravens. Can we doubt his interest in us? Can we doubt that he cares about us? Well, I say this is part of how he sets our minds at ease because perhaps as you said in the meeting, you might think, well this message is for people that are specially spiritual. Well, isn't it lovely? It's for all that he's that's just exactly what Peter said. He said, Lord, are you speaking this for certain ones or is it for us all?
And the Lord said.
As it were in his reply, Well, just apply it to yourself, Peter. And that's what God would have each one of us to do, and the speaker also to take this passage. And it humbles us as we read a passage like this and try with His help to apply it to ourselves.
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And he talks about adding a stature to our cubit as the thing that is least. We would think that was an exceeding great thing to add a stature to our cubit. But he said that's the thing that's least. And he said if you're not able to do the thing that is least, then why take ye thought for the rest? And so he might think, well, I have some great problems. Well, I would say it would be a great problem for me to add 18 inches to my height. But he says that's a small thing.
He says I am able to take care of all those things that concern you. He has, as I say, an interest in them all. And so he says why take? He thought for the rest. That is, He would have us to cast all our cares upon him because He cares for us.
Well, he's talked about the things that we need for our food, one of the big problems of life.
As a mother often says, oh you just always thinking of what are you going to have for dinner? What are you going to have for supper? Well, isn't it nice to see how the Lord relieves our minds here? And then he talks about other things. This is a second thing that surely takes up a lot of attention is clothes. And it says consider the lilies, how they grow.
They toil not, they spin not yet. I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. I think this is so loudly because again I say, if you or I have been writing it, we might have taken up some particular flower that was not so beautiful and say, well, we shouldn't be occupied with looking nice, because now that might lead to our pride. But he takes out one of the most beautiful flowers, the Lily. And he said.
That's far nicer, far more beautiful. And Solomon in all his glory, is he concerned even about our appearance? Well, he's shown that he is when he's so close the lilies of the field and makes them beautiful. And so he says that he is concerned about these things, but he doesn't want us to be overly anxious about them because he cares about them and we can get so taken up with them that it's actually distracting and anything that.
Distracts us from himself, is a hindrance to our spiritual progress. Anything that distracts us from him because our position in this world is something like an ambassador. You know, the ambassador has everything provided for him by his country. It tells us in the scripture what man goes to warfare at his own charges. The soldier doesn't go to warfare.
At his own charges, he doesn't have to provide the things that are necessary.
His food or his clothes, this is all provided for by his country. And so this is what the Lord is telling us here, that He cares about the food, even about the Raven. You say He cares about our clothes. He wants them to be nice. Well, as we look around and see the beauties of God's nature and all the way He has made everything so beautiful, He does care. He is concerned and He would have us to realize.
That he is interested.
All those things that interest us. But He doesn't want us to be overly occupied. And so it says in the 29th verse. And seek not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful minds. The margin, my margin says live not in careful suspense. Or I think another translation speaks about being overly anxious.
And aren't we all?
I'm overly anxious about a lot of these things.
But the Lord would have us to realize that he is concerned that he does care about there are far, far more important things, and we need to learn to have what the world often speaks of as right priorities. Things are put in their proper place. You know, there can be the idea in our minds that the only thing that we're interested in.
Is in spiritual things, but I think it's so beautiful to see.
Again, I say the Spirit of God setting our mind at ease about those things that seem to take up so much of our time and attention and everything in order to occupy us with those other things, those things that are eternal. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal.
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So he tells us that this is the way the world lives, for all these things do the nations of the world seek after.
Then it doesn't say, but you don't need to think about these things. Isn't this beautiful? But and your Father knows that ye have need of these things, has not blessed to see this the concern of God our Father about all those things, He makes us his care, like the little hymn says.
The protection of his child and treasure is a charge that on himself he laid. We didn't ask him to take on this responsibility. He did this because he loved us, just as we with our children when we loved them. We take on gladly the responsibility of their interests, their cares, their concern. We're concerned about their food, we're concerned about their clothes. But we're most concerned, I trust.
We're believers, we're most concerned about their spiritual good. So your Father knows that ye have need of these things, and then He gives us the right order. But seek, rather seek ye the Kingdom of God and all these things. What things? Well, the necessary things of life. All these things shall be added unto you if we put the Lord first, just as He said to.
Samuel.
The Lord said to Eli, he said them that honor me I will honor, and those that despise me will be lightly esteemed. And so he tells us, He not only knows that we have need of these things, but all these things shall be added unto you. I might know someone has need of something, but I'm not perhaps able to supply the need that they have, because I don't have infinite resources.
But the one who is?
Interested and says that he knows we have the need, he also has all power. And we're just reading yesterday back at the house how it tells us no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. And then we read too in James that lovely verse. Do not err, my beloved brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from above from the Father of Light.
With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning? Why does it say there do not err, my beloved brethren? Well, every time we think we're going to get something good through our own lusts, we err because the good things don't come through our lusts. They come down from the Father of Lights. The Father of Lights, that is the one who knows our needs better than we know them ourselves.
We think, oh, if I could just get free of such and such a thing.
Well, I think I could serve the Lord better. That was the way Paul felt about that thorn in the flesh. He thought he would be much more free to serve the Lord if he could only be free from that thorn in the flesh. That was a hindrance, he thought, to his service. But the Lord said, no, Paul, you're going to have that the rest of your life. I'm not going to take it away. But my grace is sufficient for thee. And as he looked back in retrospect over his.
Life, he said most gladly. Therefore I rather glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. He saw that even that thing that seemed to be holding him down was really a blessing, like the little boy who was flying a kite. And it was a beautiful day for a kite flying, and the kite was going up higher and higher, and he was.
Tugging on the string because it was such a strong wind and a passerby said.
Why are you holding the kite down? It's trying to go up. Why don't you let go of the of the string and let it go up? Well, we all know what happened when he let go, when he let go of the string, why the kite came down. He found out what many of us find out in life, that the things that hold us down are the things that keep us up. The things that hold us down that we think we just like to get rid of and get loose from maybe the very things that are keeping us up in our souls helping.
To have what the psalmist called Heinz feet, feet that can rise above the situation without the situation being removed. The little hind can go over the fence. You have to open the gate when the cattle come, but not for the little hind. It can just give a grateful a gracious spring and up it goes over the top and he makes our feet like Hinds feet.
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So that we can ride or walk upon our high places. So.
He says seek ye the Kingdom of God, just a little word, unless the Kingdom of God, because that's really the subject in Luke's gospel particularly is the moral side of things. And we are told in Romans 14 what the Kingdom of God is. It says the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Now that is the Kingdom of God.
Is something that is moral and we're told to seek that and So what a what a lovely thing righteousness seek to walk to please the Lord righteousness and peace and just to go on in a world full of confusion in peace as we were noticing the other night that verse in Proverbs that says about wisdom's ways her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her.
Our peace and then joy, not always in circumstances, but joy in the Holy Ghost. And that's what he tells us to seek after. Now. That's what each one of us should desire, that we would seek after that. That is to walk in a way consistent with the name that we bear, for we bear the name of Christ. Walk.
In in righteousness and then in peace, having that peace.
God garrisoning our hearts, What is the peace of God? Why, it's the very peace in which God dwells. I've often said, was God disturbed by anything that happened in the world today? Oh, you say he knew all about it. He was in control. Well, God says, I want you to know that peace. I want you to walk in that peace. He says, little Garrison your heart because we're going to be bombarded with tears all the time. But what will Garrison our hearts? The very peace.
In which God dwells, the peace of knowing that God is over all the circumstances of life. And then joy. As I said, not always in circumstances, but always when the Spirit of God opens up to us, as He did in the three days meetings, what our portion really is. How could we help but be happy if we're really enjoying our portion? Dear friend of mine had a text that was given to them when they were married.
And the text was the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And he had it hang on the wall. And a businessman came in and we're talking a bit about business. And then he went out of the room for something. And when he came back and the businessman pointed to this text and he said, do you really believe that? And as Christian Brothers said, yes, certainly I do, He said, no wonder you're happy.
Well, surely it is so if we really believe this, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So we're told to seek the Kingdom of God, and the God will take care of these other things, the meat and the drink and the other things that are necessary he cares about.
And then fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. This, of course, was to prepare the disciples for the pathway of rejection. They were following a rejected Christ. And yet.
Paul could say in writing to the Corinthians, he could say as having nothing and yet possessing all things. Isn't that a very wonderful thing? It goes through the world and you might think of all the things you might like to have, all the possessions that you might like to have for yourself. But isn't it another thing to go through this world and know that we actually are in Christ?
Possessor of all things.
Things it says, another verse in Corinthians says all things are yours, whether life or death or the world or cephas, all are yours and ye are Christ and Christ is God's. We belong to that which is abiding. And so the Lord Jesus is the one to whom everything belongs. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and.
Always enjoy that verse myself when difficulties arise that Christ is head over all things to the church, which is His body. It brings comfort to my heart because a wife has a husband who is looking after all her interests and his resources are infinite. Why? She's certainly not going to have a lot of worries. She's going to say, well he has resources and he cares about me.
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I can just leave it with him. Well, such is the one whose head over all things to the Church, which is his body.
And so he tells us it is the IT is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. These words are so precious, the Father's good pleasure. Sometimes we give and we give because we feel we should or we must. But not so with God's giving. He gives because that's his very nature. Enjoy to remark. That was in Mr. Darby.
He said. He said God is love.
And no one has made him. So he said God is light, and we make him a judge by our sins. And so we make God a judge by our sins. Thank God in love. Those of us who are saved can say that our sins were born, but it was because he is loved and no one made him so He just is that, and He is that toward us.
And so it tells us here, it's your father's good.
Pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
This little expression, little flock, just doesn't refer to a particular company of Christians. It refers to all believers. It's true. We can and we should seek to be gathered according to truth. We ought to seek to be gathered according to the truth of His word, not as part of this world, but part of that company in this world, the one body who really belongs to Christ.
But in comparison to the vastness.
Number who are going on without him, it certainly is a little flock and we're not going to get our rights in this world by trying to stand up for them or work through government or something like this to try and get certain privileges and rights. It's your father's good pleasure. We're waiting for his time and meanwhile he's caring for us now.
In all that we need along the pathway, it always says sell that ye have and.
Give alms. I was a little bit perplexed, perhaps a little about that expression cell that you have and give alms. Does the Lord really want us to just sell everything we have and not to have any possessions here in this world? Well, it has struck me this way, and it speaks to my own conscience and heart when I think of it. Before we were saved, everything that we had, we called our own. It's my car. It's.
My house, my clothes, it's my this and that and everything we had, we just figured this was ours. And that expression, it's mine that that adds to our importance and pride. But what really happens when we get saved? Well, you know, there's something happens and what is it? There's a change of ownership. And as though we said, now this car really belongs to the Lord and I'm just his steward and he wants me to use it for him, this house.
That I live in it really belongs to the Lord, and I'm just his steward to use it for him. And in that way we sell out, we say it's no longer mine. The early disciples did this in a very practical way. And it says no man said ought that he possessed was his own. Wasn't that something No man said ought that he possessed was his own? And so he felt that what he had really belonged to the Lord, and he was willing to use it for the Lord.
Well, this is what is what it means it means.
I believe, and each one of us can ask ourselves as we look over whatever possessions we have, are we saying that's mine? That's mine? Are we saying that's his that belongs to my Savior? And are we asking Him how we can use what He has given us day by day, our time, our ability, our possessions, all for Him?
Love that transcends our highest powers demands our.
Soul, our life, our all.
And so then we provide ourselves with bags that wax not all the treasure in the heavens that faileth not, as the Lord said in another place, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, For neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves don't breakthrough and steal. So he was telling them that the treasure that really abides is that which is in heaven.
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In the 16th of, Luke takes this up and tells us.
That we can, it says, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it failed, he may be received into the everlasting habitations. That is, money is going to fail. It only belongs to this earth, but the way we use it is going to abide the way we use it. That's all part of what is going to be manifested at the judgment seat of Christ.
How did we use what he gave to us? And so that's why he is.
Saying a treasure in the heavens, that faileth not whatever is given a cup of cold water has thought upon his name or anything. David gave very, very generously for the building of the House of God. As you read in Chronicles about the tremendous amounts that he gave, you're just astounded. But then you know what he says afterwards He said, all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given.
The you know when you read it, you're just overwhelmed. It was really into millions of dollars, the amounts that he gave, and he didn't think of it as very much. He told Solomon thou mayest add thereto and then he says to the Lord, he said, I've just given back to thee what thou gavest to me has not lovely to see that. And that's the treasure in heavens that faileth not how easily we can lose the things that we have here.
Thieves or moths, we can easily lose the things but that which we have laid up above the time, whatever has been spent for the Lord or given to the Lord, whether it's our possessions or our ability or what God is not going to forget one of these things. I've often said I've gone to people's homes and they have what they call a book where they ask you to write your name for the visitors who come to their.
Performs but God has a book when we just think on his name. They they put the name down when you visit the home. But isn't it wonderful that God has that record when we even think upon his name And you know I've enjoyed too about that widow when it says she cast in all that she had. Why does the scripture tell us that she cast in two mites which make a Farthing?
You know if you or I have been writing it, we would have said she cast in the Farthing because that's all it really was. Why does it say 2 mites which make a Farthing? Well, if she only had a Farthing piece, she would have had to make a choice. Will I throw it all in or will I not? But when she had two mites, then she had a choice. Was she going to keep one for herself and give one to the Lord? And so she had a choice to make and the choice was to give it all to the Lord. And isn't this beautiful here?
That he's telling us all that we have really belongs to him, and it's a privilege to be able to lay it up in that storehouse where nothing can ever touch it, and it's out of love for him. Then why? There must be a motive. So now he starts to talk in these verses about the privileges that we have of living for him. As I say at the first part, he's setting.
Our minds at ease. He's saying now just leave the matter of what you eat and your clothes and those things with me for a little while. And we just talk about other things, things that really matter, things that really count for eternity. And he says all those material things you can leave to me and you can just commit them to me and you're just my steward in the way you use them. But now, isn't this most beautiful here that he shows us that we do have?
A privilege of living for him.
And so here he first speaks about our hearts, where your treasure is, and there will your heart be also. Our hearts, as we know, speak of our affections, our our affections with him. I'm sure some of you older ones have heard little expression my father used to make. He used to say we can have as much of Christ as we want and our lives show how much we want and I believe.
This is what it means here where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. If your heart is set on something you don't mind spending money to buy something in connection with this thing that you have your heart set on your car, it's your home. We don't mind spending money because you're really hard is set in making this thing more and more attractive more that which will satisfy.
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Your feelings about you like this, You want it? Well, he says where your treasure is. Where is our treasure? Oh brethren, it's up there. We have nothing that abides down here. And perhaps when God allows sickness and trials in our lives, it's just to say to us, I want you to loosen your grasp on things down here. It's all going to pass away.
But what really counts is what's up there. Oh, may our hearts.
Be up there.
At verse, At verse it says, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Now we have first the heart, and then it says, let your loins be girded about. So we have first the heart, then let your loins be girded about. I believe the loins being girded about bring before us a readiness to serve the Lord, because if we really love him.
It's a pleasure to do something for him. If you really love someone, you even actually try to think of things you can do to please that person, things you can make for them, things you can give them. And you do this because you love them. It isn't that you have to do it. Why? It's your pleasure to do those kind of things. And so if our hearts are taken up with the Lord Jesus.
And that portion that we have up there in him.
What will be the result? Well, I believe then there will be a desire and not to settle down here, but our loins would be girded about. Now it speaks in one place, the loins girded about with truth. I believe this is important because it's not just that we pick the kind of service that we would like to do, but like Saul of Tarsus, he said, Lord, what will thou have me to do?
And it's so important.
And in our Christian life that we do what is pleasing to him, that we follow the light of his word, because over and over again through the Scripture we find how that what God values is that which is done in obedience. He says obedience is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of Rams. And so he tells us here your loins girded about. And again I mentioned in Ephesians, I believe it says your.
Gird about with truth. And then too in Peter, he says gird up the loins of your mind. We have to watch. Our minds will run from one end of the earth to the other. We get taken up with all kinds of things. While I'm sure all of us have had this experience come to the meeting and we really want to listen, but first thing we know our minds are in the ends of the earth. Wander away. Well, we have to gird up our minds. We need to have them girded about with truth.
And we need to to allow affection for him to cause us to desire to serve him. That's the kind of service he wants. He wants the service of willing, loving hearts, just like how it pleases us when our children do things just out of love for us. I've got little things that have been given to me by my grandchildren. And you know, if I show them to you, say that's, that's just a script.
But I know that it was done out of love. It means something to me because there was a loving heart behind it. And so the Lord wants us to to have our hearts set upon Him, our loins girded about. And now we have the loins are more connected with that which is inward, that willingness to serve according to truth. And then the outward thing, your lights burning.
Your lights burning, that is. There's a testimony to be born before this world. The world is looking on. We might think that our light doesn't mean very much, but you know, the darker the night, the brighter a little light shines. You can take a small candle or a little light and you hardly know it's lit in daytime.
Because all around it's so bright, but the darker it gets.
That's the more even the very little light will show. And this world is getting darker. How very little light will show. And he says, your light's burning. How may we be in this world? Like the children's hymn says, Jesus bids us shine first of all for him. And then the next verse says Jesus bids us shine next for all around. Many kinds of darkness in this world abound.
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So I remember dear old brother Anise, who some of you will remember many years ago, I remember hearing him make a little comment in his broken English. He said don't do a lot of talking about what we're doing. He said delight, don't make no noise. And so it is, isn't it nice that if we say, well I can't do very much talking, well, delight don't make no noise. That is, there can be a shining for him.
A testimony in our lives that the world.
World will see even though we say perhaps very little, many of us feel how unable we are to say the things that we'd like to say but we can always live for the Lord this little girl over in Africa many years ago and she.
I went to school to learn to read, but she was rather backward and the teacher had to tell her, well, I'm just afraid you can't. You can't make it. I'm afraid you can't learn to read. She was so desirous to read to her folks when she went back home and they said, well, it's just too difficult for you, but you can go back and shine for Jesus. She couldn't read. She didn't have that ability, but she could shine.
And you yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, Now we have the waiting for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Well, is this our attitude? Are we really waiting? Is this our daily expectation?
As a little hymn that says, What weight I for most blessed Lord, accept thy face to see.
If such the earnest thou hast given, what must thy presence be? Many of us are waiting for certain things in life, waiting for certain things, perhaps at school or at work, waiting until we get through school, waiting for things to straighten out and certain matters. And we say, when this is all cleared up, I'll do this or that. What is the thing that's most important that we're waiting for? Are we really like those Thessalonians? They were waiting.
For God's Son from heaven, waiting for God's Son from heaven. Is this really our hope, brethren? Not just a doctrine that we hold? I think most of us here hold the Lord's coming as a doctrine, but are we really waiting for it? I speak to my own heart. So easy to think we're waiting for so many things down here, and they often are disappointments. But are we waiting for him? Waiting for their?
Lord and then till when he cometh and knocketh, that they may open to Him immediately. We know how often, if things aren't just ready, we don't want to open the door immediately. But if things are already wise, the door swings open without any hesitation because we're expecting the company, we're expecting our friends to come, and there's no hesitation.
Is there anything in your life or mine that should be straightened those things?
Around the house that we'd like to straighten up before we open the door. But are we, are we walking in such a way that we can say, well, I want to have all these things straightened so that if the Lord came tonight, there wouldn't be anything that I wished I had done before He came and called me to himself. There is such a thing, brethren, and it's a searching thought of being ashamed before him at his coming. There is such a.
And it's just those things that we have allowed that the Lord gave us an opportunity perhaps to clear them up, Those things that weren't right in our lives or in our relationships with others. Oh, may the Lord give us grace that we might be opening to Him immediately as to our attitude, for soon we're really going to hear that voice and that door opened in heaven and that triumphant shout Come up, hit her, that's what.
Waiting for.
And now he goes on, and speaks of another aspect in the 37th verse. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them.
So he's been speaking about girding ourselves for service. And now he adds a little word here about watching. Not only waiting, but watching. Now that perhaps is a little more than just waiting because we could be waiting doing other things. But watching means that this is something that we really are expecting because as a person that we love, who is coming, we watch if it's a person that we love.
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And saw there's waiting and there's watching. And now what follows here is to me one of the most wonderful verses in the whole Bible. It says.
That He shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. Oh, brethren, I I don't know of anything more marvelous than this. We think of how short life is. We think of how little time we have left to serve Him, to do His will. We think of how He has left us here in this little while, and He has given to each their service, and to each their burden.
There but to think that when we get home to glory that he's going to say now your time of service is ended. You just sit down and I'll serve you. Oh, it doesn't that touch your heart? It thrills my heart when I read it. I just can't understand it because it tells us in another passage, the 21St of Exodus that using the type of the Lord Jesus as the Hebrew servant, it says.
That he shall serve forever.
Just to think that the Lord calls upon us down here to live a little bit of our time and how short it is. And then he says when your little time of service those few short years is over, then he said you can sit down. I'm not going to ask you to do something. I'm going to come forth and serve you. He girds himself and comes forth and forever brethren above, he's going to.
Minister to our happiness, He just is so desirous for our happiness that he's going to find the eternal satisfaction of his own affections in the service of his own in that glory above.
He shall gird himself and shall come forth and serve them. What caused this Hebrew servant in the 21St chapter of Exodus to be the servant forever? It says He plainly said, I love my master, my wife and my children. I will not go out free, and the Lord Jesus is going to remain a man forever.
In order to have our company and to make us happy. Oh, when you think of this.
Doesn't it thrill your heart? Doesn't it make us want to live what Peter calls the rest of our time for him? He's so worthy of it all. And then it says, And if he come in the second watch, or come in the third watch and find them, so blessed are those servants. Perhaps this comes in because it's so easy for us to put on a spurt and do things for a while, but we get discouraged. Perhaps no one.
Seems to appreciate what we do. No one says thank you, perhaps even get a little bit of criticism and we say, well, I just give up and there's no use. No one appreciates what I've tried to do. But who are we doing it for? Is it the Lord? Is it the one who has won our hearts, who went to Calvary and died for us, and who's going to serve us forever? He's serving us now as our great High Priest and advocate.
And he tells us here.
If he comes in the second watch or in the third watch and find themselves, find them what?
Now just doing what it says.
Have their hearts taken up with Him, their loins girded, their lights burning. They're waiting for the Lord, they're watching. And then when He comes, this is his answer to it all. Well, brethren, the point is, let's not give up. When they spoke about stoning, stoning Moses, he turned to the Lord and he said, what will I do? They're ready to stone me. And what was the Lord's answer? Go on before the people.
Go on before the people, as though the Lord said, well, I love those people, are you going to give up? And so Moses went out, and he was used of God to draw water for the people, so that they might drink. And then it tells us in the 39th verse, and this know that if the Goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.
Be therefore ready also for the Son of Man cometh.
At an hour that ye think not?
00:50:00
Just a little comment and I believe this is in keeping with what we have in the Gospel of Luke and that is.
There are little things that come in the show that there's a message here for anyone who's not saved. Is there anyone in this room tonight? And all I'm saying has no thrill to your heart because you've never learned to know the love of Christ. You're not ready. His coming strikes terror in your heart. It makes you afraid, as the little hymn says.
Who are they that fear to meet Him, such as now? Love, not his voice. And so he gives a little warning, and I just pass on this warning. If there's anyone who's not saved, it's joy to us who are saved to think of His coming. It's a blessed hope to us. But Are you ready when He comes? Can you say that you have been washed in the precious blood of Christ?
Or are you going to have to see him at his coming in judgment instead of his coming to ******?
His own away, for this is what it talks about here, when He comes in judgment upon all those who have rejected him.
And then we remarked on this 41St verse, Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all, and the Lord?
Said Who then is that faithful and wise servant whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household to give them their portion of meat in due season? Isn't it strange how?
We're ready to apply the truth to others, but often so hesitant to apply it to ourselves. Peter says, is this for everybody? Is it just for us disciples? But I believe the Lord's answer shows here as one remark. Before that he's saying, well, Peter, you can take this to yourself. Remember on another occasion how Peter turned and saw John following.
And he said, And what shall this man do?
And the Lord said, if I will, that he tarry till I come. What is that to thee? Follow thou me? And so there is something for each one of us to do. We're very likely to be just like this, thankful. Who does this apply to? Is this Israelis talking about or who is it? Well, I speak of the moral sense of it, and that is, we can, and I can, I trust, apply it to myself.
And that is what is the Lord.
Value that we should be doing in his absence, it says. Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?
And I think Peter must have been thinking about this later on in his epistle when he said neither as being Lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock. And then he says feed the flock of God, which is among you. He must have remembered what the Lord said. It must have sunk down into his heart at this time. And sometimes we can get occupied with our own importance and we're a little bit hurt if people don't recognize this as being kind of important.
Important people. But here we find that the Lord says that the important thing is not the person, but what He's doing. It's what He's doing. And that is, He is looking after those who are dear to the heart of Christ. He's appointing them their meat and due season. I used to wonder a little bit why it said that if a man desired the office of a Bishop, he desireth a good work. And why?
Should a man desire to have a place of prominence? And then I began to think, why? What the Lord values is that if we have an interest in His people, that is a good work to Him. I can say this, that when somebody does something for someone that's dear to me, it pleases my heart, because the kindness they showed to the person, perhaps my child or my wife, the kindness they showed.
Someone who is dear to me is much appreciated by me. And you know, when we do anything for the Lord's people, he values it because they're dear to him. And notice these two things, faithful and wise. God always keeps us in the middle of the road. You know, we can be very faithful sometimes and not wise. We can, we can lay down things that should be done and they should be done, but not always.
Wise in the way we say things and do things.
Well, there's lots of good food, but I don't think that we always put on things for breakfast just because they're good food. There's certain things that are suited to breakfast and some other things that we might serve at dinner time or perhaps for lunch. They just don't seem suited at breakfast. They're not really the thing for breakfast. And so, you know, we can say the thing. That's right.
00:55:22
But we can say it at the wrong time, in the wrong way, and how careful we need to be. Isn't it good that we have one who can help us not only to be faithful, but wise? I think it's so lovely to see the way Nathan came to David when David had sinned. And if it had been you or I, we might have just told him right away what was wrong. But he didn't. He said a little parable before.
And tried to get him to see that there was something wrong in his life without telling himself, Oh, the Lord can give us that kind of wisdom. I remember reading a little article about that. It really struck me. It said, do you know how to use a parable? And so sometimes we don't know how. We're just blunt and we don't say the thing in a way that perhaps might reach the conscience. God always gives space to repent. So here. Isn't it lovely to see this?
Faithful and wise servant, A timely thing in due season. Blessed is that servant whom is Lord, when he cometh shall find so doing. And so I say again, brethren, let us not give up. The Lord is coming. Are we going to be seeking the good of His people when He comes? Are we really interested in their good and their blessing?
Have often said that we can even get occupied with things.
Like certain truth, which is not food for the soul sometimes said you could sit down to a meal. And if the Hostess said, now before we start to eat, I'd like to tell you how many minutes it took to prepare this and headed right down to the very minute and how many slices of bread there are here on the table and how many ounces of butter. And I always say, why are they telling all those? Well, the Hostess had to know this.
In order to prepare that nice meal. But when we sit down, what we're thinking about is food. And what she's thinking about is that we would enjoy the food. And you know, there's a lot of details that we need to know, but I believe, brethren, what we need is food for our souls. May God grant that we'll be desirous that our hearts should be fed as we come together so that we might get up like we do from a meal table and say, oh, that was a good meal. I really enjoyed that. And there ought.
Be that as we seek the good of the people of God, that they got a blessing for their souls. And if there was someone perhaps whose appetite wasn't what it should be, that we would like to see that person, well, what for so they can enjoy the good food.
And now just one more thing before we close, and that is the 45th verse. Just a little word, and it speaks to our hearts. But and if that servant say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming.
He didn't say it out loud, He just said it in his heart. And what did he do when he said this? There were two things that says he began to beat the men, servants and maidens. And secondly, to eat and drink and to be drunken. And the point that I feel from my own heart, and perhaps you feel it for yours, is that when we lose sight of the Lord's coming, when we're not really expecting Him today.
Two things are liable to take place.
We're liable to become exceedingly critical of the people of God. Or on the other hand, we can get so taken up with worldly things that we're really not living for the Lord Jesus. We're living for the things that pass away. That's what is the warning here given in the end of the chapter, because the whole burden of the apostles heart is, he says, of the Lord's heart. I should say the whole burden on the heart of the Lord Jesus here.
Is I want to tell you that I'll look after all those material things that you're concerned about, but I'm going to give you the privilege of being interested and caring for my interests, my people, all that are dear to me and living for me. And I'm not going to forget anything that you do for me. You can forget those cares that are perplexing you, but you can do these other things. And he said it won't be forgotten.
In that day. And then if we don't, oh, how easy it is for us, brethren, and we know our own hearts only too well. We then begin to beat the men, servants and maidservants. We begin to say things that we shouldn't, hurtful things often. And then too, perhaps we get occupied with worldly things turned aside because.
01:00:20
What we have lost that blessed hope, Oh, May God grant that the blessed.
Both, and I say it for as much for myself as anyone here, will so grip our hearts that we'll really be a watching and awaiting people because the Lord's coming is near.
Normal Christian Growth
Gospel
Gospel—G.H. Hayhoe
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Returns tonight at Eighty. 16th chapter of Acts.
Beginning at the ninth verse and our vision appeared Paul in the night there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us.
After you have seen the vision, immediately we endeavor to go into Macedonia, assuringly gathering of the Lord had called us, for it preached the gospel unto them.
Therefore, losing from Troy as we came with a straight course, the sound of Gratiot and the next day to Neapolis.
And for friends to Philippines, the chief city of that part of Macedonia and a colony, and we were in that city abiding certain days.
And on the Sabbath we went over the city by a Riverside where prayer was won't to be made. And we sat down and spake unto the women which we suffered.
And a certain woman named Lydia, the seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of fall.
When she was baptized at her household, she beside us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us.
And again to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed by the spirit of divination met us, which brought our masters much gain by soothsaying the same foul of Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most High God, that show unto us the way of salvation.
Did she many days but fall be in grief, turned and said to the Spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her, And he came out the same hour.
One of our masters saw that the hope of their games was gone, they can't call him Silas and drew them into the marketplace under the rulers.
Brought them to the magistrates, saying, these men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe being Romans.
And the moment she rolled up together against them, the magistrates ran off their clothes and commanded to beat them.
When they had laid many stripes upon him, they cast them into prison, charging the door to keep them safely.
Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks.
Anakin Knight, for all his eyes, prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened.
Everyone's bands were losing.
The keeper of the prison awakening out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, the door restored and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. The foul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here.
And he called for the light, and sprang in, and came trembling, fell down before Paul. And Silas brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all of Green's house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized.
He and all his straightway, and when he had brought them into his house, he said, leap before them and rejoice.
Believing in God with all his house.
Well, it's a long chapter that we have before us, dear friends, and brings before us the very first time that gospel was preached in Europe. And we see how that God had his eye upon those who are marked out for blessing. He wanted to bless them. And so tells us that Paul had a vision in the night, a man of Macedonia saying, come over into Macedonia and help us.
God revealed it to his servants that he wanted him to go over there.
As you know, and the Lord Jesus was going away, he said to his disciples, go ye and do all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And so you know friends, God has an interest in you here tonight, not only in the people of Philippi long ago, but he has an interest in you too. As I often say, you're not lost in the crowd to him. There may be a number of people here tonight, but he looks upon you sitting in that seat and he knows all about.
00:05:06
He knows the thoughts that are going through your mind. There's a verse in the Bible that says I know the thoughts that come into your mind. Every one of them just think. He not only knows what we do, not only see the places we go, he actually knows the thoughts that come into our minds. And if there's someone who is coming here tonight and there are very many questions in your mind, there's one who knows all about those questions.
And who has an answer for your soul?
Answer a face an answer a blessing.
So just as the Lord sent Paul and Silas over there to Macedonia, to Philippi in order to bridge the gospel, so he has a desire for your blessing tonight.
You know what we see in this chapter 2, that there are different kinds of people here. We find Lydia. She was evidently a very religious person, a very honest person. I would say she was really a seeker. She did want to know about the true God. She did want to know about the way of salvation. And then we find another person here, this young damsel, and she was actually under the power of Satan and you know a lot of people in this world today.
That are going on under Satan's power. We find in these last days especially that people are turning glorious sort of thing, anything for the miraculous. And so they're satisfied with a display of something miraculous. And I want to tell you, dear friends, that there are two powers that are superior to man, the power of God and the power of Satan. Satan has power to work miracles. And after the Lord has come and taken us on the glory, the Bible tells us that.
There will be wonderful working empiricals by the power of Satan, and I just need you not to be deceived by this kind of thing because.
Can the power of Satan can lead you astray? And Satan certainly wants to lead you down into a lost eternity. But there's one who has greater power. There's one who overcame Satan at the cross. There's one who accomplished a mighty word, a great victory. And just as David went out and slew that giant that no one else and all the armies of Israel could overcome.
Who came out day after day and terrified the people of Israel?
There was one who was able to overcome him and cut off his head with his own sword. And we tell you tonight about one who is greater than Satan, One who is overcome Satan's power, One who has accomplished a money victory and has returned to share the results of that victory with all those who will receive Christ. Well, the second one we have in our chapter is one who is actually under the power of Satan, and no one could.
Free of the Lord.
And then at the last we find one, but we might say seem totally careless. He just had no interest in these things whatever. He was just fulfilling his job. That was all he was thinking about. But God had his way of speaking to that man too. And perhaps in this room tonight, there may be some who are in these different classes, perhaps if someone can't come in here tonight.
And today I came here because I really would like to have peace with God.
I really would like to know. I'm saying I read my Bible, I go to church, but I still don't know what I'm saying. I don't have peace. Well, do not want you to have that assurance. He wants you to go out of this room rejoicing in the knowledge of salvation. And then I say there may be someone here and you're definitely going on in Satan's service, for he has different ways of bringing people into *******. And it seems to me especially.
People in this generation, as men and women turn away from the Bible, it seems that Satan has more power to lead them through all kinds of ******* into false things, false religions, becoming in of these eastern religions into these lands which are only.
Save his power who is working through all these things to lead men astray. We have all kinds of things, drugs and to break down a Society of neurology. Everywhere we see Satan's power manifested. Or if there's anyone here tonight who has just been in the ******* of Satan who is a slave to some of these sins, there's one that can set you free.
And then it may be either someone who says, well, I just don't care.
Somebody persuaded me to come here, but I'm really not interested. I just came here. Perhaps you're like the boy who came to the gospel meeting because his his parents persuaded him. But he made-up his mind that he wasn't going to hear a word that was said. He plucked his ears with cotton so that he wouldn't hear anything. He didn't care. But God hid his lying, that boy too.
00:10:22
And he allowed a little fly light at the end of his nose when he went to swamp the fly.
The cotton fell out his ear and he heard the preacher say he love ears to hear. Let him hear. He's not even listen. God has something to say to him and perhaps there's someone like them. Isn't it nice to see all these brought together in this scene? Because you know, we're not all alike, as I say.
But God so loved the world and if.
The world and I know you are. He loves you and He loves you enough and that he showed that love in the gift of his beloved son.
Well, it was this call from.
From this man of Macedonia deployed themselves to come over into Macedonia and help us. And there we see the willingness of these servants. Isn't it lovely to see these two men? And promptly Luke 2 And that tells us that they assuredly gathered that the Lord had sent them. And so, you know, the work of redemption was all complete.
Calvary, I had no part in it. The Lord Jesus did it all. He said it is finished and nothing can be added to it and nothing can be taken from it. There's nothing that I can do that can save your soul, dear friends, but I do have the privilege of announcing the good news.
God has given to us for saying this wonderful privilege. And Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and his salvation to everyone that believeth. And so we find here that Paul has such a love for souls that he was willing to go into this place knowing that it might be easy and it certainly wasn't.
Because there's another verse in the 20th chapter of Acts that tells us a little more of the kind of experiences that Paul had as he went about preaching the gospel. When I came here tonight, I didn't have it as hard as Paul did. But this is what he said in the 20th of Acts. In every city, bonds and afflictions abide. That is, as he went from city to city, he knew just what kind of treatment to expect.
A few more whipped parts on his back.
A few more stone marks, a few more days in prison are all kinds of things that he endured. Why did he give up? All because he had something of the heart of his master. He knew that God loved sinners and he didn't want to give up. The news was too good. In 2nd Corinthians 4, he says, seeing we have this ministry.
As we have received mercy, we faint not, and then again at the end of the chapter.
He says, For which 'cause we faint not though the outward man perished, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. There must have been times when Paul must have felt quite discouraged. But he says, I have such good news to tell, I just can't get the scourge and giving out this news. Doesn't matter what happens to me, the news is so good I can't keep it in.
Another servant of God, Jeremiah, he said he made-up his mind.
And he wasn't going to talk anymore with God's message, but he said, thy word was in my heart like a burning. And he said I couldn't be silent. And so your friends, there is such good news to tell. How can we be discouraged in telling it out? How can we stop telling out the best news that was ever told? Every one of us liked to bring good news. He often hear young people run over to some other young person say, you know what?
Good news to tell, but nothing half as good as what we have to announce. The best news I've ever told that it has to do with this world is only for a short time. Life is so short after all. The joy is here only are fleeting and passing. But the news we have to tell has to do with eternity.
It tells us in the Bible, at my right hand, there are prayers forevermore. And then there's not only good news, dear friends, but there are serious warnings.
Sometimes dangers arise and people will stay up all night and oz to the public the dangers, people will risk their lives in order to tell people about danger that's coming. And so if people are so interested in telling good news and if they'll even risk their lives to bring warnings.
00:15:20
How much more so with this bland, glorious message for all.
There is an awfully solemn morning connected with it too, and that is that you reject God's way of salvation.
To refuse God's pardon.
Is to go to a lost eternity and I just can't tell you how terrible it is.
I lost some thought here, friends, upon the Lord Jesus said on the cross.
It is finished, those glorious words that mean so much to the soul of every believer, because we know that He finished the work of our salvation there at Calvary.
He completely settled it so that not one sin can be charged against for one who has trusted in Christ. But you know, the sound side of it is that if you die without Christ, you will never be able to say those 3 words.
No friends you want God says that those who go into a lost eternity will never never see the end of the judgment of God. Oh how Saul. So those 3 words is finished are tremendously important. If you receive the message of what Christ has done, what a glad and glorious deliverance. But I say if you're rejected in a lost eternity, how will you long?
Hear those words, but they'll never be uttered in that place. There's no ending to the sentence.
As we said in the meeting, this is never ending now. Or how dreadfully some.
Well, let's energize Paul Silas and perhaps salute to go over there and when they came over, it says they were in the city abiding certain days.
This is nice to see that they were waiting for the Lord to give them an opening.
And I think this is very beautiful to see their patients and waiting because, you know, God has the right moment that he wants to speak. And so he just waited for the Lord to give them the opportunity, shall I say, to meet the man who was calling them to come over so that they might bring this good news to him.
Really heard that there was a little prayer meeting going on and somebody went out by this. Riverside wasn't a special building. You know, you don't need a special building to get saved. You don't have to be in somebody'd home or in a special career room or something. You could say this little meeting was just beside a river. Now this is how God works. He can meet a soul anywhere.
People have been saying how different kind of places.
And Lydia was brought to the Lord at the Riverside. Well, as I say, she was evidently a seeking soul, and God had his eye upon her, because he tells us that she was a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira. Perhaps if you had him back and spy a tire up, and you had heard the conversation, he would have heard her telling her friends.
I'm going down to the Philippine to sell some of my.
I hear there's a good market there for purple cloth, and I'm going down there to sell some of the cloth. That was perhaps as far as things went in her mind, but that wasn't the way it was in the mind of God. And you know, sometimes we have plans, but we don't see how that God is working behind the scenes. But she came down to sell her purple cloth of Philippi. She didn't realize that God.
Was behind this and was bringing her there so that she might hear the gospel. And perhaps you've met some friend and you say, oh, just by accident I met him, or just by accident I met her. And I don't know why they asked me to come to a gospel meeting. Well, it wasn't an accident threat. It's no accident when you meet someone who brings the good news to you.
It's God's plan, it's God's way, and everything is planned.
In God's way, it says the preparation of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. And God caused Lydia to come down there just at that time in order to sell her purple cloth. And then he sent a message to his servant to come to Philippi and that he might go over there. There was someone that needed help. You see how God works.
00:20:14
Yes, it's a grand thing and many of us as we look back in our lives.
We see a lot of things that only look like accidents, only look like something that seemed a little bit unusual, that demands somebody or something happened. But God had his way in it. And God has brought you to the gospel meeting here tonight, and He wants to save you too. He wants you to go to this room rejoicing and acknowledge your salvation. He wants you to go out saying it was the Lord who brought me here and he brought me to himself.
Well, we're not told about all the other people that were there. I don't know whether they paid much attention to what Paul said or not, but often in a big crowd or in a small company, there may be just one person that God had his eye upon.
The Bible says that one soul is worth more than the whole world. What shall it confident man?
If he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul, so one soul is worth more than the whole world.
Well worth his trip for these men to come over to Macedonia just for one soul, because Lydia is going to be in heaven.
She's going to be among the company of the redeemed. And her heart was open. She listened to what was said. She believed, and she acknowledged this in a public way in being baptized. Isn't it beautiful to see how God worked in her heart? As I say, she was seeking and God was also seeking her.
It's a wonderful thing when seeking soul, it's a seeking Savior because the Lord Jesus is the one who is going to seek and to save that which is lost. And he was seeking Lydia and he brought her to himself.
And as soon as she her heart was open that she had received this message, what is so nice to see here is the the fruit of an inner life. She wanted to bear the name of Christ. For that in a simple way is what baptism is. It's just bearing the name of Christ. And so she wanted to bear the name of Christ. For in baptism it says as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ and so.
He wanted to bear that name. And it says she was baptized and her household. And then the next thing that showed the work in her soul was that she said that she wanted these men to come in and stay. I don't know where these men were staying. Perhaps it was hard for them to find the lodging, but now here's a home open to them.
I think this is lovely and old and hard and an old. That's the way God works, you know. When you open your heart to the Lord, then your home becomes different too. It comes a place where you want to give the Lord Jesus his rightful place.
Now, before you're saved, you might possibly let some Christian come in and talk to you for 15 minutes or half an hour. It might be a little bit more, but you might be polite enough to let that pass for half an hour. But I'm quite sure that if you're not safe, you wouldn't like it to have three preachers staying in your house. Know you feel pretty uncomfortable because they just might be talking about the Lord in the morning.
And in the afternoon.
The meal table and if you're not saved, you're just couldn't enjoy that at all. But you see what happened here. Why as soon as she say she wants different companions when you're saved, you do want different companions. You're born into a new family and it isn't just because we're forced to do these things. What I enjoy about reading this chapter is that we don't agree about Paul asking her to be.
We don't read about Paul saying, would you open your home and let us come in? But this was just the voluntary result. In her heart, she had been saved. Now she wanted to bear the name of Christ. She wanted the company of those who love the Savior. What a wonderful thing this is. All friends, I say again, it's a real thing to be saved. It's not joining a church. It's not just a literal question.
Some special words that you repeat and somebody pronounces. You say no friends. It's a work in the heart. It's what God does. I couldn't say. Yeah. One time Dr. Moody was visiting in a place, I was told, and there was a man who had to profess to be saved at his meeting. And as we were walking down the street, this man was walking down the staggering here and there.
00:25:22
Evidently quite drunk and someone said to Mr. Moody, there's what I'm your convicts.
But it looks like one of my converts, your friend, is when God does the work, it's an abiding work. Anything that we do might be just like that too. But when God works, he gives a new life. The blood comes from sin. And we see this lovely change that took place in the life of Lydia.
Now we come to the next one. Here there was a girl, and she was possessed with an evil spirit. It says here a spirit of divination. Evidently she was forced to tell her margin says a Python. And Python, as we know, are this name, and Satan is called a serpent. So this poor girl, she was under Satan's power.
And just it's surprising for us to see what she did. She started shouting and she started when they were going down to this little prayer meeting, she started showing these men are the servants of the Most High God, which shown to us the way of salvation.
I wonder, well, how could this be? And that she was possessed of an evil spirit and yet she was doing this kind of shouting. Well, you know, when you're reading the Gospels, you find that hello, men and women didn't always know who Jesus was. The devil's always did. They always knew. It says they said to him, We know thee, who thou art, the Holy one of God.
And Satan is not.
He deceives people by he's not deceived himself. He knows how to deceive them. He's had almost 6000 years of experience with human nature. He knows this pretty well and the kind of people that we are. And so he just knows how to receive. And sometimes he deceives people in one way, some in another. And this poor girl, perhaps she was deceived religiously, perhaps because she could shout this out.
I sounded very, very nice and.
No, it's a sad thing to think that Satan sometimes tries to mix with even the work of God. You've got to beware. Some people think that as long as you have a Bible under your arm, everything must be all right. But I want to tell you there's a lot of false prophets in the Bible under their arms. There's a lot of people that tell the Bible and they don't believe that Jesus is God. They deny the blood. They don't believe in the finished word, all the.
Things that I could say, and yet they carry the Bible. You know, Satan knows how to mix himself up with a little God. And our decision will be your friends to be careful. When Paul came to Berea, the people searched out to see if what he said was so. It didn't say, well, he's a preacher, we ought to know what he's talking about. No, they got their Bibles and they searched it up. And nothing would make me happier than to think.
That someone said, I want you to show it to me from God's word. It would make us very happy if you asked that we would remain behind the story from God's word because your friends is only by resting upon this precious word that you can really know that you're saying Jesus said heaven and earth shall pass away.
But my word shall not pass away.
Table by the name of the Lord Jesus and cast out this evil spirit. But it's made quite a stir as we see how the people in that city didn't like it that this girl was delivered from Satan's power. And you know, the world is going on its way and it doesn't like any disturbance.
And you know that pretty well.
If they were going on their own way and not the place to work just this past weekend and they didn't like me get here, they didn't like you to tell them that you belong to Christ and the two ones that would begin the new year by acknowledging Jesus as your Lord, that you wanted to get a permit instead of us gathering for revelry. They didn't like that. That upset them and the people here got upset.
When this girl got delivered from Satan's power. And so, dear friends, the world is going on its own way. My Bible says this will arise in the arms of the wicked lion. There's one who's stronger, one who's come in, one who can deliver from Satan's power. Well, he stood up the whole city, and it can't fall in Silas.
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Drew them to the marketplace under the rulers and the and they said these men being Jewish.
Do exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive neither to observe being Romans.
And the world is just the same today.
As I was saying, they don't like to be disturbed.
And they don't like your way away. If you're living like a Christian, they're very likely to say that the customs of your life are so contrary that you're stood on this 5th, that you're just different. Well, we are different. We're a peculiar people. We're in the family of God. And the Bible says the world more of us not because it knew him. Not So here were Paul and Silas.
And if I might say it, they hadn't met the man yet. They.
Today here have I done some blessings. They see this girl and they can't have the evil spirit of perhaps we have a business. We came over here, we remained around for today. We haven't met the man yet. They knew there's been some blessing, but here it tells us that now they're cast into prison.
Well, God still had his way. He had a man there in that prison.
And as I'm there that this jail keeper is probably a very hardened, indifferent kind of a man from a day after they had laid all these stripes on the back of Paul and Silas, they told the jail keeper to keep them safely. And it says when he received this charge, he thrust them. No subtle expression, he thrust them.
Get it in a prison. It seems to me indicate that.
He just was a very hard hearted person because there wasn't any particular need for him to thrust them into the inner prison. I'm quite sure that they weren't offering resistance to him The whole way they were acting and the way they sang in the prison shows that they weren't the kind of prisoners that had to be treated roughly. But here was his jail keeper. But we don't find.
The wrong silence showing any of these weapons at all. Isn't it lovely to see?
Spirit of Christ manifested and let me say, you've got many Christians in this room. Sometimes we all get a very fair deal and the world is pretty rough with us. Maybe the boss of work isn't very nice because we're Christians. I know a brother who worked in a place and there were several Christians working there and the particular man was over. The section said we could do without all these Christians we don't want.
Around here, well, that's the way the world often feels toward those who love the Lord Jesus. And so here for Small and Silas now they're thrust into the inner prison, their backs bleeding, their feet made fast in the stocks. Oh, it didn't seem like they had accomplished what they would like to accomplish. But isn't it good to see that they were happy in their souls, they were enjoying.
The Lord, and as another one has said in our testimony to the world, is our joy in the Lord.
I'm sure as the prisoners heard the singing that night, they thought, why, whatever has happened in the prison of Philippi, they didn't have comfortable prisons like they do today, where often there are many, many things that are quite pleasant for prisoners. Oh no, these were miserable places to be and here were fallen Silas, not growling that they didn't get justice.
Not totally the truth, but they didn't seem to have accomplished their desire.
No, instead of this, they pray and they sang praises to God. Oh, a triumph of faith. It's lovely to see, uh, God working here in the hearts of his servants. And I just want to say that sometimes in our lives as Christians, when you try to do things to serve the Lord, there are a lot of reverses.
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There are a lot of disappointments. Maybe remember Apollo 5 this year. They prayed and they sang praises to God. They accepted their life as from him. Later on, when Paul was in prison at Rome, he called himself the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Those beloved attitude. No wonder there was a testimony.
There, in that person, no wonder the jail the prisoner didn't fled.
Finally, doors were all open.
Well, it says here in the 26 birds and suddenly there was a great earthquake.
Now we know that this was a little earthquake. The ground actually shipped, the prison doors flew open, the stocks became loose on their feet, and they were actually kind of released by this little earthquake, but do not like to apply it in a spiritual way. But very often, dear friends, God stands an earthquake into a person's life in order that he might be saved.
I don't know if you mean that you're the earth I'm actually shaped.
But there's some illness thing to match. You know, you can have such a thing as your whole home getting it out. You can have such a thing as losing a job and having a whole lot of financial obligations over your head. And it just seems like an earthquake. Everything seems to go to pieces. And you can go to the doctor and he can give you some bad news.
That really very much like, I think it's worse than an earthquake. It just really shakes you up, really, don't you? Don't, you know?
Dog has his hand with all kinds of things. He has to use things like this very often to bring people to himself.
I mentioned this perhaps before, but there was a dear brother. I call him a brother because he died in the Lord.
He was throwing a tree down in Kentucky and there was a tree. This tree fell down in the back and broke back.
Wasn't too long after his back was broken that I am accurately just going and visiting him while he sat in a wheelchair. He remained in that wheelchair for about 20 years but it was just shortly after when I visited them and I still remember our space brightened up and he said this. The water had to break my back to save my soul.
Dear friends, going to do this sometime and if there's someone here has gone.
Taken out of your life, he's shaken up your health and perhaps you feel just like this man did. What did he do? Just what a lot of people are doing today. It's a lot of it's not worth working. I have to put a man to do it all. And just exactly the thought that came into the mind, he said life's not worth living. I know that tomorrow morning the woman's prisoners have escaped. My life's going to go over there and I'll be a dead man.
And I really kill myself that have I had been decoupled yet by his powers, the authorities. And so he drew sword, and he thought he was going to put an end to it all. But I want to warn you, dear friends, that death is not the end. Death is not the end. If you die without Christ, it is appointed unto man who wants to die.
But after this.
The judgment.
Perhaps when that rich man died in the 16th chapter of Luke, if you had died in a Funeral Home, the people would have been saying, well, all these troubles are over now. You don't have to worry about bridges anymore, doesn't have to worry about things anymore. It wasn't so.
It wasn't so it was a good thought after he had died and while he was living here in this world, even he did have some problems because the scripture says in hell. He lifted up his eyes being in front.
And I want to warn you, dear friends, that the idea that people have that death is the end of all in the greatest illusion of Satan. I say to you again, Satan is not deceived, but he deceives men. The Bible tells us in the book of James, thou believers, if there is one God, thou of Jewish, well, the devils also believe and sinister and verbal. And when the Lord Jesus was here, they knew.
God, but they knew he was the best and they said to him on one ourselves come together to the tormentors before the time they knew the judgment was coming. They knew he was the judge, even though blind man is called and they recognized him an old friend that the 1:00. But when another day will have to be the judge wants to be the state.
00:40:22
He wants to be the savior tonight. You're one of the Savior.
Suddenly earthquake to make him put an end to his life. He didn't send the earthquake to make him.
It wasn't worth living. I'm glad I was born because I have a glorious future ahead of me. If you die in your sins, the Lord Jesus said it was better for you. That's.
Far, far better. But all that you're saying, it's well worth it all friends, to have the joy of celebration in this life and eternity with Christ. At the end of the journey I say it's 1000 times worthwhile, even if life is difficult.
Well, Paul saw it was going to happen and he prevented this suicide. Yes, he he saw probably up to the shadow of the door. He looked where the door was flung open and there was the jail keeper in the door at the balls, as Paul would tell. He saw it was going to happen, cried, shouted and said do thyself no harm for all dear, no one's bled. You don't need to do this.
Well, this jail keeper must have been.
Greatly surprised because ordinarily such an occasion would give them an opportunity to all run for their lives.
But God kept them from doing this, and especially Paul. He didn't want to run away. I suppose he was well acquainted with Roman law and he knew what would happen to that jail keeper. So he stayed right there. Perhaps this was the man in Macedonia that needed help. I think he was, yes, at last, Paul admitted now. And he called. And this man, Jo Kiefer, calls for life, and he comes in trembling.
And astonished, he falls down.
From Paul and Silas says, Sirs, what must I do? Say the most important question of your whole existence. You say, where am I going to find a job? What do I do when I go to school? And all these kind of questions may rise up in your mind. Did you ever ask that question, What must I do to be saved? That's far, far more important.
I know the teachers at school.
Will be perhaps help you in the guidance class to get you into some work that you can earn a living. But I want to say, dear young people, your children, the most important question is what must I do to say are the same? What does it mean to be safe?
Boy came to our Sunday school some years ago. He had been to a number of other Sunday schools and then he came to the little Sunday school that we have and he said, I've done to quite a few Sundays clothes. I never heard about these say if this is the only place to talk about being saved. What do you mean? Well, your friends, the Bible uses that word a great deal. People don't like it because.
They don't like to acknowledge that they're lost.
Y'all, everybody knows what it is that he saved from a burning building. Everybody knows what it is to be saved from drowning, but people don't know what it is to be saved from hell. But I thank God that I've been saved from hell and I've been saved for heaven. Yes friends, it's a real thing that he's saying, and this man wanted to know how.
And I think it's nice the way Paul and Silas must have both spoken together because it says and they said that's the way Christians are. They just can't get the answer quickly enough. And usually when you get talking and someone's interested, you find sometimes have a couple of Christians can't help but speak at once. It's so wonderful to see somebody that wants to be saved in full set together.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and.
Thou shalt be saved. They lie to that man to be saved.
Well, they could have said, oh, that guy that treated us that way last night. Oh, no, he had a precious soul. They wanted him to be saved and.
So in this block, dear friends, I want to try to make this very simple for your soul to. And he didn't tell them to wash their backs. He didn't say that they had to, that he had to make right some of the wrong things that he had done. No, they just chorused this lovely answer they leave on the Lord Jesus Christ. And thou shalt be saved. I ask you, what do you believe in one writer?
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Why is a man an infidel?
Said because he believes in himself.
And he said, why is a man a Christian? And his answer was because he believes in Christ and not in himself. And firm don't want to tell you that's why I'm a Christian, because I don't believe in myself. I don't believe in my filthy rags. They're not good enough for God. I don't believe in my feelings because I find that they change from day-to-day. And even Christians, when they trust their feelings, they get full of deaths.
No one will believe in my feelings.
I don't believe in my words. I don't believe in a church for salvation. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I rest everything on a person.
A person who died for me on Calvary, a person who settled a question of my sin. If there's anyone here tonight and you're resting on anything else, I know that you don't have peace with God because there's absolutely nothing in yourself that you can rest on. It's like, as they say, trying to lift yourself by your own shoelaces. You just can't do it. And there's absolutely nothing in yourself. Nothing. Friends, you've got to have a power outside of.
And I to say to you to look away from yourself, look to Jesus tonight, God's beloved son, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Where they say I have believed in him, but I'm still not sure. Makes me think about a lady who came to the gospel meeting.
And she said, well, I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but I couldn't say that I'm saved. And this dear brother was speaking to where he said that. Well, let me read the verse again. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
And he said, you say you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you're not saved, but this verse says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He said, did you make a mistake with God? Make a mistake All she said, I said, I'm saved. Thank God she was saved. And here, Frank, it's that simple.
It's that simple because the Lord Jesus did the whole work on Calvary and for you tonight in the greatest simplicity, just come and believe. Not of yourself, not in your feelings. Your feelings don't mean a thing.
Sometimes there somebody came and questioned whether I owned my house or not.
Thankfully, I do own my house and so if somebody came and questioned that, I certainly wouldn't start talking about my feelings.
If they questioned it, I'd probably say, well, I have the papers and if you wish to check it, you can go down to the registry office and it's all recorded there. I wouldn't even mention my feelings. I wouldn't think of saying that. If I feel pretty good about it, you know, I've been in this house quite a while. I feel quite sure. I feel so good about it. No, I wouldn't talk like that. I rested on something outside of myself. I've got some papers.
Instead of red seal on it too, a red seal tells tell me.
Now that my title at the Glory is By the Precious Blood of Christ, and my name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and yours will be too if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, something happened in that man's heart. Something happened in his home. He too like the like Lydia, he gets baptized and Paul didn't ask him said now you should wash our backs. They're awfully sore on the fruit of grace immediately began to show he was a preacher. He washed their backs.
He sent me before them. He also invited them into his house and his.
Said I want you to tell everybody in my family about this wonderful good news. This is the way God works, my friend. This is the way I wonder.
All and Silas were rejoicing inside the jail. Now there's rejoicing in the House of this jail keeper, and there'll be joy in heaven tonight. If you take Christ as your Savior, there'll be joy in your heart and will be joy in your home too. Oh, may the Lord grant that you will. How many Simplicity? As I say, we find different kinds of people, and I'm glad the Lord saves different kinds of people because we're just not all alike.
00:50:06
We all have different personalities brought up in different homes and in different ways, but the Lord says all kinds, but they're all sinners. They all need a Savior. And if you just are willing to acknowledge tonight that you're one of the sinners that Jesus came to save, while He's willing to save you and Christ has done it all. And so I just can't make it any more simple or anymore blessed than those precious words.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that thou shalt be saved and I just want to have that little expression that's in the verse and the thy house. Now I say that because I've heard people say boy, when you come to the meeting, it seems.
So many families or friends that's God. That's the way God works. He always works in families he'll find back on me. Art was a preparing Noah prepared an art for the saving his house. When God told him to prepare a lamb, he said a lamb for a house. When he saved the jail keeper, he said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house and I met so many Christians and they say perhaps.
But my brother was the first one that got saved.
But God truly works in our family and there's quite a few of them say now, or perhaps they say I was the first one, and now there's quite a few more old friends. God delights to work in this way. And I want to say to those who have families, this is a very wonderful thing. Come upon the Lord, look to him, present Christ to the children and the Lord, He likes to work in this way.
He delights to bless families and the Bible says.
Inhabitant Violet says I pull every family in heaven and earth is made. What a wonderful city here he is. When May God grant that blessing will come to your soul tonight. It may be the beginning, a blessing to others too. Don't put it off though. Tomorrow may be too late. Now is the unaccepted time. Behold, now is the.
May installation.
The Work of the Spirit of God
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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There are two scriptures I'd like to read 1St and the first one is in Second Peter chapter one, Second Peter chapter 1 and verse 21. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
And then again in John chapter 16.
John, Chapter 16.
And the 13th verse.
Albeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.
But it was on my heart tonight to speak about the activity of the Holy Spirit of God. And I've read these two scriptures because they bring before us 2 very important points. I believe the first one is that all scripture has been given by inspiration of the Spirit of God. Wasn't man just writing as they thought best? But it says holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And so if we hear anything and it isn't according.
To God's word, then we can be sure that it's not the truth of God because there could not be anything that could be spoken of as the truth of God, which would be contrary to God's precious word. And then the second thing that we noticed in the 16th chapter of John, and I believe it's a very important truth that is brought before us here.
That the work of the Spirit of God is to glorify Christ, it says.
In this 14th verse He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. 1 is often made this comment, that we can make a very simple test of any doctrine that is presented to us by asking one question. Does it exalt man, or does it exalt Christ? If it's the truth of God, it will exalt Christ.
Now there may be times when we find it very difficult to find the scripture.
To answer some of the arguments that people bring up, but we can be absolutely sure of this. If what they are saying glorifies man instead of the Lord Jesus Christ, then it isn't the work of the Holy Spirit of God because his work is to glorify Christ.
Now take one of the things that we often hear. We hear people say that a person can be saved and lost again. Well, what is at the back of this teaching, isn't it, That there should be some glory brought to man, that he's been able to do something for his salvation or to keep his salvation? And so there's some glory for man in that teaching. But when we turn to the teachings of God's Word, we see that the whole work of salvation.
The whole work of bringing home.
The redeemed is all the work of God, and so the glory is not to man, but the glory is to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Savior. He's the captain of our salvation. He's the Good Shepherd that holds onto the sheep and carries it home rejoicing. Now there may be a difficulty sometimes in answering some of the verses that people bring up, but when we realize that what they are saying is giving glory to man instead of glory to Christ.
We can be sure that it's not the teaching of the Holy Spirit of God, because this tells us very plainly here that the Spirit of truth guides us into all truth, and He glorifies Christ. Well, there are many other things there. Meet people who say that unless you're baptized with water that you can't be in heaven. Well, doesn't that give some glory to man too? Because there has to be some man then that puts his hand on you and puts you under the water.
And He is the one that part of His work was necessary to make your soul fit for heaven.
Can't you see how that this is adding something to the finished work of Christ? And so perhaps some of the scriptures they bring forward might be a little difficult to answer, but I say we can make that simple test. Does what they're saying exalt Christ? Because the work of the Spirit is to glorify Christ. The truth of God is that the whole work was finished at Calvary's cross. The work of bringing us home is the work that the captain.
Our salvation is doing. He's our great high priest to keep us. He's our advocate when we have failed. And he is going to bring each one of his own safely home and all the glory is going to be to him when we get there and the shores of eternal glory. There's no one that's going to boast and say I did this in order to get here. No, everyone is going to say it's all of himself. I was drawn by the work of the Holy Spirit.
00:05:23
I was brought to know the finished work of Christ. He kept me, He restored me, He brought me home. Oh, how blessed of them to see these two very simple things that I want to start out with. And that is that the Word of God and the Spirit of God are always in perfect harmony. And when you hear anyone say that He's LED of the Spirit to do something and it's not according to the word of God.
It can be absolutely sure that the spirit.
Of God is not leading Him contrary to the Word, because this word that we have before us was inspired by the Spirit of God. And how could God by His Spirit lead us to do something that His Word by the Spirit tells us not to do? So I think we can see very plainly these two very important things in connection with the work of the Spirit of God, Very precious, and yet very important.
Now we know the Bible reveals to us God.
In Trinity and it has been said that every work of the Godhead is in Trinity. So when we read of creation, we read that God created all things by Jesus Christ. And then there's a verse in the 26th chapter of Job that says by his Spirit he garnished the heavens. So when we think of the creation, we think of the counsel of God in connection with it. We think of the Lord Jesus as the One.
By whom all things were created, as it says in John's Gospel chapter 1. By him all things were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made. So other scriptures too speak of the Lord Jesus as the one by whom God created all things. And again I say it was by the Spirit of God too, because it tells us in that portion in Job that it was by his Spirit that He garnished the heavens.
So the work of the Godhead is in Trinity. So with the saving of the soul, the Lord Jesus said, no man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. Then the Lord Jesus did the work for our salvation on the cross. He bore the judgment. He glorified God his Father about the question of sin, and now he's a risen Savior.
We're drawn by the Father, we learn the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then it's the Spirit of God that gives new life to us as dead souls. Or we'll turn the scriptures that show this work of the Spirit within us. I'll only mention this at the beginning because it's very important that we should see this order through the Scripture even in the resurrection of Christ.
It says God raised him from the dead. The Lord Jesus said I have power to.
My life down, and I have power to take it again. And so he it was God who raised him. But the Lord Jesus himself had power and raised himself. And then we turned to Peter's epistle. It says he was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. So the Spirit of God was engaged in connection with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Well, these are only a few instances that one could speak of, but over and over again we find this blessed truth in.
God's Word, and I wish to say at the beginning that it's so important for us that we cling closely to the importance of the deity that is the Godhead glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And also the Lord Jesus is spoken of as being with God, and the Word was God. Then we find also the Spirit.
That we find the whole 3 brought before us in Hebrews where it says that Christ.
By the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God. And I might just mention here in passing that that is the reason baptism is in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, because baptism brings one into what we might speak of as the Christian position. Now I only speak of it as an outward thing. Doesn't save a person's soul, but it brings him.
Into the sphere where God has been fully revealed. In Christianity, God is fully revealed in the Old Testament. He dwelled in the thick darkness. The word used in connection with creation in Genesis chapter 1 is a plural word so that when it says in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, it's a plural word and it means the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
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When man was to be made, it says, let us.
Make man in our image.
So that although we don't find the Godhead revealed in the same way in the Old Testament, we find that truth hidden all through the Old Testament. But now in Christianity, God has come out and made himself known. He no longer dwells in the thick darkness. He has revealed himself. He has made himself known in the person of his Son. And that Blessed One came down. And as it says in John One, no man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son which is.
From the bosom of the Father he hath declared him that precious Savior came down and revealed the Father. And how is it made good to our souls? Well, Romans 5 says, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Well, isn't it very blessed to see these things in God's word? And in these days, when we hear a great deal made of the Spirit of God, I do believe, brethren, that it's important that we should see.
About the Word of God brings before us in connection with the activity of the Spirit. So let us turn first of all into Genesis chapter 1.
Genesis chapter 1 and verse one.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
In the first verse, as I mentioned, the word that is used in the Hebrew is the plural word for God and brings before us the three persons of the Godhead in connection with creation. But now when we come to the second verse, there was a condition of things that is brought about. God hasn't told us how that though earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep tells us in Isaiah chapter 45.
God didn't create the earth in that condition.
That he hasn't been pleased to tell us just how between the first and second verse, it got into this condition where it was without form and void. And now isn't it lovely to say the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters? Here we see the work of the Spirit of God in connection with that which is about to follow. How God in six days made the earth a suitable dwelling place for man for God's work by the Spirit.
Is going to reveal God, but it's also to bring blessing to man. And I think it's most beautiful here to see this. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Here was this vast expense. There was no earth appearing. It didn't appear until the 3rd day. But here's the activity of the Spirit of God over that desolate scene. It's all covered with water. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Oh, I think to my own soul, it's very beautiful.
See this activity of the Spirit of God as the time had now come when God was to bring this earth into such a condition that He could place man to be the head of His creation, and His purpose was to bless man. His purpose was that man might enter into and enjoy all those good things that his hand provided. But what did man do? Well, he listened to the tempter instead of to God.
He took of the fruit that was forbidden, and sin came in, and the place was spoiled.
As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin saw death passed upon all men. For that all have sinned. Sin is now spoiled. This earth that God had previously pronounced very good, and man was there to enjoy that wonderful creation, but He spoiled it. And I don't need to tell you that it's spoiled. There's not a person here that doesn't know that it's spoiled. We see the evidence of it everywhere.
Here you come to the meeting tonight.
And someone has showed his fallen nature, I suppose, in taking off some of the equipment. Well, we see how man is so often displaying his own heart. His wickedness is evil, so is the heart of man. But all isn't it wonderful when we come over to the 6th chapter of Genesis and the third verse and the Lord said.
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My spirit shall not always strive with man.
Or that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be an 120 years.
Here the earth had gone on for some time in this condition. It was now filled with violence and corruption. God said man's history was downward. Man likes to think his course is upward. He'd rather be an exalted ape than a fallen Adam, because if he's an exalted ape, he thinks he's climbed up. But if he's a phone Adam, why? He was created, as God says he was in the image and likeness of God, and now his condition is.
The result of the fall.
You say, well, I never thought of that. Well, that's exactly why people like evolution, because it gives them a little pat on the back that they think they've climbed up and they've mastered a lot of things in this world, and so they give themselves credit. But we wouldn't need medicine. We wouldn't need a lot of the things that man has discovered if man hadn't sinned and spoiled this world. Now he goes to work to try and help out the conditions, but he brought them in by his own sin.
But here we see God's Spirit striving with man. And if there's one unsaved here tonight, God's Spirit is striving with you too. And he's very patient. He said his days shall be an 120 years. This was the warning that the flood was going to come on the world of the ungodly. And maybe God has been very patient with you. Maybe he's been striving with you. Maybe you felt a pull at your heartstrings and God has convicted you of.
The fact that you're going on in sin and you've been rejecting Christ and He's thriving with you, but He won't always strive if you go on and reject all his overtures of mercy, all those loving entreaties. What an awful thing if you should someday find yourself in a place where the Spirit of God will no longer strive, where you'll be in outer darkness, where there'll be no one constraining you to come in and receive the blessings of salvation.
Because you didn't yield to those strivings of the Spirit of God. But I think it's so lovely. We find the Spirit in creation. We find when it's in a ruined state, He broods upon the face of the waters. Then it's all made beautiful and man spoils it. And God says, my spirit shall not always strive with man. To me it's so precious. And I say again, if God is speaking to you tonight.
And if you feel something of that compelling.
Of the Spirit of God that wants to bring you to Christ and all the peace and the joy of salvation. Don't say no to the strivings of His Spirit. He wants to bless you. Authors want unsaved here tonight. May God by His Spirit cause you to yield and to receive the One of whom the Spirit loves to speak, the One whom He delights to glorify the precious Savior who did that work on Calvary's cross.
Whenever we.
Find Also let's turn to Chronicles Two Chronicles chapter 20.
And the 14th verse.
Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah the son of Lebjael the son of Mataniah, Levite of the sons of Asaph.
Came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation.
And he said, Hear ye all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou, King Jehoshaphat, thus saith the Lord unto you, be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's. Well, I won't read on because I want to turn to quite a few scriptures tonight, but I just call attention to this verse to show that the Spirit of God came upon different ones through the Old Testament and at work of the Spirit.
God was constantly and over and over again repeated. We see this was a critical time in Israel's history. The enemy came up against them. They were unable to handle the enemy. Now the Spirit of the Lord comes upon this man and he tells them that they didn't need to fight in this battle of the Lord was going to come in and deliver them. The battle was not yours, he said. The battle was the Lord's. I mentioned this particularly to show what.
The work of the Spirit in the Old Testament was not indwelling believers as today, but the work of the Spirit of God was to come upon different ones, just as He used different ones to write the Old Testament scriptures, as we noticed.
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That holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, so He came upon them. But in the Old Testament, as it tells us in John Chapter 7, the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. I call attention to this because in the Old Testament, while the Spirit of God was active, He hadn't yet come down to this earth as He is now.
To gather out a bride for Christ.
Now we might also mention too that the work of the Spirit was giving life to dead souls even in Old Testament times. Let's turn to John chapter 3.
John, Chapter 3.
And verse 5.
The Lord Jesus is speaking now to Nicodemus.
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
And passing on to the 12TH verse.
If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?
Would you also turn back with me to Ezekiel 37? I believe it is. And there we'll see what the Lord was speaking about, because the Lord told Nicodemus that He ought to have known these things. Ezekiel chapter 37 and verse 25.
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Will I cleanse you a new heart? Also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the Stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
So here we find that Nicodemus ought to have known even before the coming of the Holy Spirit, who came on the day of Pentecost, that the work in the soul was by those two things, by water, which is a figure of the Word of God and the Spirit of God. And that's the way God gives life to a dead soul. That is, you come to the gospel meeting and you hear the Word of God, and the Spirit of God applies the Word of God.
To the soul and the Spirit of God then gives life to a dead soul for you know, in God's account, every person who has not received Christ as Savior is dead and trespasses and sins. That's the way God looks upon the natural heart of man dead toward God, spiritually dead and he needs new life. And so all through the Old Testament times was a work of God going on.
And God was using His word, and by the Spirit of God giving life to dead souls. And so Nicodemus ought to have realized this, because it was always necessary that anyone who would be fit for the Kingdom of God was made, and must be a work of the Spirit of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Man in his natural state, without new birth, could have no part in the blessing that God.
Has to bestow. He must be born again. You know, if a person who hadn't been born again got into heaven, he couldn't feel happy there. He'd be just like a fish. A fish would not be happy here on the floor because it has a life that's suited to water. And if a person that hasn't Christ in his heart was to get into heaven, he wouldn't be happy there at all. He doesn't have a life suited to the place.
Well, I'm sure that there are many, many people.
In this very area, in this county, and if you brought them in here for an hour, they'd be most uncomfortable and they couldn't get out quickly enough. How would they ever be happy in heaven for all eternity? They just wouldn't enjoy that element at all. He must be born again. It was necessary in the Old Testament. And God, by his word, which he spoke through the prophets applied by the Spirit, gave new birth to dead souls, and that's still the same way.
By which new life is given to a dead soul and every one of us who can say that we know the Lord is our Savior. It has been a work of God in our souls by the Spirit and God has used the word. The word of God has shown us how sinful we are in God's sight. The word of God has shown us what Christ has done to accomplish that work of redemption and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. And if there's.
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Anyone here tonight who doesn't have peace with God, let me say that if you're going to have peace with God, you must take God at his word. You must take God at his word and the Spirit of God applies that word. And many of us can say I know I'm saved because I believe John 316. Another one might say, well, I know I'm saved and the verse God used was.
Romans 10 and 9 Thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe.
Thine heart that God has raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. And there are ever so many verses which God has used that has brought life to dead souls.
So we can see that it was the work of the Spirit always to apply the word for the new birth of a soul.
But now there was something that the Lord Jesus spoke of that would take place. Let's turn to that verse I mentioned in the 7th chapter of John. John Chapter 7 and verse 37.
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Now please turn over to Acts.
Chapter 1.
The fourth verse, and being assembled together with them. This is the Lord speaking here what he commanded them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he he have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
The eighth verse.
But ye shall receive power after that. The Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
The Lord was Speaking of something in the 7th of John that hadn't yet taken place in the 1St chapter of Acts just before He ascended. At the end of those 40 days that He was with His disciples after His resurrection, He told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem because the Holy Spirit hadn't yet come. He hadn't yet gone, taken His place as a glorified man at the right hand of God, and He told them to wait.
For the coming of the Holy Spirit, and at that time, as He said, He shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Now we can very plainly see that there is a change. Now, it's not going to be as it was in the Old Testament when the Holy Spirit came upon individuals or used those who might be used by the Spirit to write the Old Testament Scriptures. But now the Spirit of God was going to come down to earth.
He was going to come. The Lord spoke a great deal of this in John chapter 1415 and 16, telling them about how the Spirit of God would come. He said He would send another comforter who would abide with them forever. So there was something very special that happened on the day of Pentecost. It was the coming of the Holy Spirit of God here to earth as a divine person.
Something that had not been so before, but something that took.
Place and his only characteristic of what we could call the church period. Because the Spirit of God has come down here to gather out of this world a bride for Christ, and he is here now. And when that work is completed, then it tells us he who now hindereth will hinder until he be taken out of the way. The Spirit of God remains with the church. And when the church leaves, the Spirit of God will go back and heal, abide.
Church forever. So there was something special, I say, that happened on the day of Pentecost. Let's read of it in the second chapter of Acts.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with 1 accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where there were sitting, And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
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The seventh verse. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying, one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how here we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born Parthians, and maids, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, and Pontus, and Asia, and so on?
They heard, as it says in their own tongue, the wonderful works of God.
But we'll speak of that in a few moments. But here we find what took place in the day of Pentecost. The Spirit of God came down and you noticed two things. He sat upon each of them, and He filled all the house where they were sitting. Now, I believe it's important for us to see this distinction that we have brought before us.
I haven't time to turn to all the scriptures, but for your own help perhaps you can turn to them later. But in First Corinthians chapter 3 we have the Spirit of God dwelling in the house.
There it says, Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
And it says perhaps we should turn to it because it mightn't just quote the verses exactly as they are. First Corinthians chapter 3.
Now the one I quoted was verse 9.
For we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry. Ye are God's building.
Then the 16th verse Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. The temple of God is holy. Which temple ER?
And another verse in Ephesians chapter 2.
Asians chapter 2.
The last verse, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto unholy temple in the Lord.
In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. I think we can see from these two passages that he's talking about the Spirit of God dwelling in the house. That is in a collective way, so that believers are builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. The Spirit of God dwells in the house, and believers collectively are God's building. So on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit filled all.
Where they were sitting, he also sat upon each of them. Now in First Corinthians chapter 6, it says your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods. So the Spirit of God dwells in the House of Christendom. The Spirit of God dwells in the bodies of believers. That was very precious for us to see what actually took place there.
Everyone who has received.
The Lord Jesus as his Savior has been indwelled by the Spirit of God. Your body, if you're a true believer, is the temple of the Holy Ghost. He dwells in you. But then also we notice that He dwells in the house. And that's why when we meet together, we recognize the presence of the Spirit of God. Collectively, we not only have the Spirit of God indwelling us, but where, when we meet together, we.
Recognize that the Spirit of God is here upon earth as a divine person. We give him place, and so when we come together in an assembly meeting to remember the Lord, or in prayer, or perhaps for the study of God's Word, why we wait for the leading of the Spirit. He may use whomsoever he would remember Many years ago a brother who had been accustomed to a system where the whole service was conducted by.
Man. He was invited to come to a little meeting where it was not conducted by one man, where the Spirit of God was in control, where his presence was recognized. And so he came in and sat on the back row on a Lord's Day morning when they were gathered to remember the Lord Jesus and His death. There were only a few there that morning.
And to his surprise, there they were gathered around and the table was in the center and.
And the cop was there and he said to himself, he told me, he said, well, I thought that the minister must be late that morning. So when 11:00 came and he didn't appear, why I wondered what they would do. And he said then somebody gave out a ham. And he said, well, I, I suppose they're filling in because the preacher hasn't come. And he said.
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They all seemed to sing the hymn together and then after a little pause then.
Germany else gave out of him. He thought the preacher was pretty late that morning, but however, they sung to him and then somebody got up and prayed, and nobody called on anybody. Oh, he said. It dawned on me that I was in a meeting that was being conducted by the leading of the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God dwells in the house. We are to recognize His presence. Well, that dear brother, if I were to mention his name, at least some of his relatives are well known to us. He was so happy that it wasn't long until he wanted to be identified with that company that recognized the presence of the Spirit of God. Wasn't a man conducting it? In the Old Testament we know that there were priests ordained by men to fulfill.
In place. But now something has happened. The day of Pentecost has come. The Spirit of God has come to fill the house as well as to indwell the bodies of believers. Well, I believe it's very important for us to see this. And now just a little word in connection with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, because this is an expression that I think is much misunderstood in Christendom today.
We find here that when the Lord was talking to them.
And he told them that they would be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
He And then when the day of Pentecost came, the Spirit of God came down and this took place. They were baptized with the Holy Spirit. And now let's turn over to 1St Corinthians chapter 12 and perhaps we'll have a little explanation about this and what it is.
First Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 12.
For as the body is 1 and hath many members, and all the members of that one Body being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by 1 Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
Now whenever the baptism of the Holy Spirit is spoken of and is spoken of in the second of in the 1St of.
And again, in the 11TH of Acts, and in that passage that I read, you'll notice that in each case there was always, in a collective sense, no individual was ever told to wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It's true that those disciples were told to wait because the Holy Ghost was not yet given that. What were they waiting for? They were waiting for the time when the Holy Ghost had been given.
But once the Holy Spirit has been given, you never find.
Paul as he went about telling somebody to wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There is no such thought anywhere in the Scripture, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit is always looked at in a collective sense in the Scripture, and it is that by which all believers are united to one another and Christ the Head in glory.
So that on the day of Pentecost there were about 120 in that upper room. They were individual believers as they had been given new life by the Spirit of God. The Word of God and the Spirit of God had given them new life, but now they were going to be indwelled by the Spirit and united to Christ and to every other believer on earth.
As someone has illustrated it very aptly, just as if you had 120 beads.
And then you took and put a string through them, and you say, well, now we have one necklace. Well, perhaps we could use that as a very simple illustration of what the baptism of the Holy Spirit really was. It was that which formed on earth the Spirit of the the body of Christ, that which is the true church. And so every true believer is indwelled by the Spirit of God, and by that he is.
United to every other believer on earth and to Christ the Head in glory. And no one, I repeat, since the day of Pentecost, has been told to wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
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Well, now let's speak a little of what it is. The ceiling of the Spirit. Let's turn to. I'll speak about tongues shortly, but I would like to go on and speak about the sealing of the Spirit first. Second Corinthians, chapter one. Second Corinthians, chapter 1.
Verse 20. For all the promises of God in him are, yeah, and in him Amen unto the glory of God by us. Now he who establishes us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
I want you to notice here how the all three persons of the Godhead are brought before us the promises of God.
He's he has established us, us in Christ, and we are sealed by the Spirit, it says, who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Now it tells us in Ephesians chapter one, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed by that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory.
When a person is indwelled by the Spirit of God, he is sealed. He has the earnest of the Spirit in his heart, and he also has what is spoken of here as the anointing. That is, the Spirit of God anoints us for service and for the understanding of the Scriptures.
So I might just speak of those three things. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is when one believes the gospel, then he is indwelled by the Spirit of God. And when it says, Who hath also sealed us. Isn't this very beautiful?
An official document has a seal on it. That's really what makes it official that seal upon it and you know one who has believed the gospel of his salvation is marked out officially as belonging to Christ. Oh, if you know the Lord Jesus as your savior God has sealed you and will turn to another verse shortly, but I quote it right here. It says grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by.
Whom you are sealed unto the day of redemption, that is, and the seal is there, and you can't be lost. You're sealed until the day of redemption. Just as that piece of that paper with that official seal on it makes that an official document. Isn't it very blessed to think that every believer has been sealed with the Holy Spirit?
And then another thing. He's anointed.
God has made us kings and priests unto God, we're told in Revelation chapter 1. And then he also tells us in John's epistle that he need not, that any man should teach you, for the same anointing which ye have of Him teacheth you of all things and is truth. So the Spirit of God is the anointing. How could we understand this book? I suppose there may be some here who are unbelievers. And you say, well, the book is just like Greek to me.
I don't understand that book at all. No, of course you don't, because you have to have the Holy Spirit of God to understand it. The Scripture says the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them for their foolishness unto him, because they are spiritually discerned. And unless a person is indwelled by the Spirit of God, he will always say, I can't understand that book. God has written the book. It's one of the most wonderful proofs of the.
Of this book God has written the book that can only be understood by having the spirit of the one who is the writer and when you receive the Holy Spirit of God and many a Christian I'm sure right now is saying Amen. The Bible just became a new book to me when I got saved. I wanted to read it. You see the Holy Spirit of God is the anointing to teach you. Now I might be able to be a little bit of help, but I will say this that you could listen to all I say tonight and it's not going to be.
Unless the Spirit of God makes it good in your soul, it's only it's not listening to words. The Spirit of God must take of the things of Christ and show them to you. And there's a verse in John it says they shall be all taught of God and it's the Spirit of God that makes it good in your soul.
So then we have the anointing and then we have the earnest. I like that word earnest because you know, when you buy a piece of property, the earnest money is the pledge you're going to carry through the deal. And so God not only speaks about us being anointed, indwelled and having the seal, but.
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Till I put it this way, we only have half our salvation, yet we have the salvation of our souls. We're waiting for the salvation of our bodies. When we get the salvation of our bodies, we'll have our complete salvation. Is God going to complete what He has begun? Well, you know, when you buy a piece of property, there's a certain amount of money that's set there called the earnest money, and that's really to show that you intend to complete the deal.
And I sometimes use this rather homely illustration, supposing that I was going to buy a piece of.
Property and it was worth we'll say $25,000 and the agent says well how much will you put down on it for earnest money if you want that that piece of property well I say I'd be glad to put $100,000 down on it what do you mean it's only worth $25,000 you'd put $100,000 yes, I don't I want to be absolutely sure I get it and so.
I put $100,000 down on a piece of property that's only worth 25,000 and the next day some person says, has that property been sold? And he says yes, it's been sold. Well, do you think he might back out of the deal? Back out of the deal? He never will. I never heard of such a thing. He gave $100,000 and it's only worth 25,000. Well, Brandon, what are you and I worth and what is the what is the earnest?
But the little hen says, If such the earnest thou hast given, what must thy presence be? The Lord thought so much of the ones that he wanted to be up there with him in glory. He gave such a wonderful earnest, the Holy Spirit of God, to indwell our hearts, to assure us that He's going to complete what He's begun. What a blessed thing. So we have them, the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Well, this is all ours and because we have received.
The gospel of our salvation are now indwelled by the Spirit, and as I say, the baptism is the collective thing. Now there's a little exhortation that's given in Ephesians chapter 5.
It says in the 18th verse.
And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess.
Might be filled with a spirit.
And if you'll just turn back the page to the 4th chapter in the 30th verse which I quoted before.
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day, a redemption. Here we find about.
The fact that we're exhorted to be filled with the Spirit. How every believer is indwelled with the Spirit, but every believer is not filled with the Spirit.
Now when a Christian is acting in the flesh, the Spirit of God is still in him because we're sealed to the day of redemption, but we're certainly not filled with the Spirit or we wouldn't be acting in the flesh. And so in the early church we see that it tells us that they, they were filled with the Spirit, They were yielded to the leading of the Spirit of God. And so there was great power, there was great grace, there was great blessing there in Jerusalem.
Because believers were yielded to the leading of the Spirit of God. Let me use a very simple illustration and you can see the thought. Supposing I have a car and I have a very powerful engine in it, and here comes a steep hill, and I start up the hill, but I refuse to step on the gas.
And the car stalls before I hardly get started up the hill and someone says your engine's no good. There's nothing that matter with the engine. I just didn't draw on the power that was there. Now that's the thought, brethren, we sometimes do just that. God has given his power. It says in John chapter 3, God giveth not his spirit. By measure. Every believer is indwelled by a divine person. But I'm afraid that sometimes we don't draw on the power.
We don't yield to the leading of the Spirit of God. The result is there isn't that which was seen in the early church, great grace, great testimony, testimonies often spoiled among Christians because we display the flesh instead of walking in the Spirit, says walk in the Spirit and ye shall not, ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And isn't it often true that real Christians instead of walking in the Spirit, they fulfill the less of the flesh?
Yet the Spirit of God is there. Well, this exhortation then to be, to be filled with the Spirit, to yield, and then again grieve. Not the Holy Spirit. Why? Because the Spirit might leave us. No, we're sealed to the day of redemption. But every time I do something that is not according to the mind of God, is led by the Spirit, and is LED according to His Word, I have grieved the Holy Spirit of God.
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Because he was given to shed a bride.
Love in my heart to give me the power in this world to be a testimony for him and to understand his mind. And will says, be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
So we can grieve the Holy Spirit of God and want to sometimes set it. A Christian can be the most happy person in the world or the most unhappy because if we're yielded to the leading of the Spirit, we're going to be happy Christians. But that divine guest doesn't leave, and when we grieve him, he can't make us happy.
He makes us unhappy till we come to confession and own it to the Lord. And so some Christians are very unhappy because the Spirit is grieved within them. Well may we not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom we are sealed to the day of redemption. Now just a little word about the.
Gifts of the Spirit, for that is something that concerns a lot of people. You'll pardon me if I go a few minutes overtime because it's a little bit longer subject than can take in an hour, I guess. First Corinthians chapter 12.
In verse 4.
Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. There are diversities of operations, but it's the same God which worketh All in all. Notice again the Trinity there.
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. For to 1 is given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom to another, the word of knowledge by the same Spirit to another, faith by the same Spirit to another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit to another, the working of miracles to another, prophecy to another, discerning of spirits to another, divers kinds of tongues to another, the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one in the self.
Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will. Here we find brought before us the gifts of the Spirit of God, and in the end of the chapter again, we see even such a thing as helps. These also are gifts of the Spirit. Now you know there were certain ones of these that were given as signs and were told in the end of the Gospel of Mark.
That God would confirm the Word with signs following. And so there were.
Signs given and what we read in the 2nd chapter of Acts on the day of Pentecost, there were people from every nation under heaven and they heard these people who had received the Holy Spirit speaking in the tongues wherein they were born. That is, the Spirit of God gave to them the ability to speak in other tongues that they hadn't learned. And it wasn't something that was a language that wasn't spoken in the world. These were languages that were known.
Well known that we're spoken in the world and it was a real testimony to those people. They said why these people are all Galileans. How is it that we hear them speaking in our own language? They couldn't understand how these people who are Galileans could communicate to them. Some people say, well, a miracle was on their ears. No, it wasn't because the Bible says they spake with tongues. So it was a gift that God gave to the ones who were.
Speaking that they were able to speak to those who were there in languages that they had never learned. Now I believe it's very important for us to see this and if you connect this with First Corinthians chapter 14.
First Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 21.
In the law it is written with men of other tongues and other lips. Will I speak unto this people, and yet for all that they will not hear me, saith the Lord. Notice this is very significant, this 22nd verse. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not, but prophesying service not for them that believe not, but for them to believe.
Now you can see the significance of it because God said.
That He would give this sign. The Lord spoke of it before He went away. It was. It took place on the day of Pentecost, and we hear a lot of people today that speak of the gift of tongues as a prayer language, but that isn't what we find here. We're told that tongues were for a sign to those who believe, not not to the person himself, but always to others. On the day of Pentecost, the gift of tongues was assigned to others.
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When the Gentiles received it. Life.
It was the others that came down with them that heard them. It was assigned to them and distinctly tells us the purpose. It was a sign to others. It was assigned to those that believe not that God was doing something. Shall I say something new? In the Old Testament God was dealing with a particular nation, a favored nation of Israel. Salvation is of the Jews. The Lord Jesus said any who wish to be blessed must recognize.
That the true God was known in Israel. And as we find, we're told that Naoman was to learn that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel, so that the Jews were not sent out to preach the gospel to every creature. People had to come up and get the blessing at Jerusalem. It was God's center. It was the place where He had put His name. It was the favored nation, but they had rejected their king. Now God is showing that He's going.
To do something new, He's going to reach out beyond the bounds of Israel. He's going to reach out to every other nation. And there was a real purpose in this. And it was clearly demonstrated on the day of Pentecost when they began to speak in other tongues. And these people from all these other nations heard in their own tongue, heard in they were born the wonderful works of God. I've heard people say, but in First Corinthians 14, it's it's different.
Now I beg to say it's not because the apostle is very clear to tell us in this very chapter that deals with the subject that it was for a sign to those that believe not.
Well then you say, well, why was the instruction given? Well, you know, even although God gives gifts.
And the scripture says the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Men can use the God-given gifts for their own display and for their own importance. A man could preach the gospel to exalt himself. I could talk to you tonight to exalt myself. A man could use the gift of tongues to display his own knowledge. That's why he says he says in malice be children, but in understanding be men. He said don't use the gift God has given you for display. God didn't give it for the purpose of.
Displayed He gave it for a particular purpose and if you have that gift which some of them had, unless there was an interpreter, they were to be quiet. Well, some have had a little problem over the verse where it says let him speak to himself and to God. Well, to me that's also very simple. That is there was no point in him speaking out when no one there could understand.
So he simply speaks to himself and to God. And if I were to go to.
Meeting, and we'll say it was in South America, for I don't understand Spanish, and I was sitting there in the meeting. I wouldn't get up and talk in English unless there was an interpreter there. But I tell you what I would do. I'd speak to myself and to God and I'd speak in English because I know God understands English and I know he understands Spanish. But I wouldn't confuse the meeting by getting up and saying something in a language know and understood.
So I would just sit there and enjoy.
The Lord to myself, you say, well, does the Bible tell us to speak to ourselves? Yes. The 103rd Psalm tells you to speak to yourself. The psalmist was talking to himself. He said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Who's he talking to? He's talking to himself, isn't he? He's calling on himself to bless the Lord.
And again in another place.
He talks to himself, and he says, Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disguided within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. So this I believe this portion, read in its context and in simple connection with the rest of Scripture, makes it very clear the purpose of the gift of tongues.
Now if people who profess to have it today really had.
In the scriptural sense, they would be able to do what was done in the second of Acts. They would be able to do what Paul says in First Corinthians 14. They would be able to give that, use that as a sign to those that believe not to speak to someone. If I could speak to a person in another language and I had never learned it, wouldn't that be a testimony to him? Of course it would.
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What, have you heard me talking some jiggery? So that would be no testimony to him whatever.
And so you can see the purpose of it clearly set out here and how it's regulated that they were not to use it for self exaltation, but it was to be used for the purpose that God intended. And unless they could use it for the edification of the church, unless there was someone there who understood or someone at least who could interpret, they were just to be silent.
Well then there's also healing, and when we turn over to Acts Chapter 6.
Perhaps they could turn to it, just for a moment.
Acts Chapter 6.
Chapter 5. Pardon me.
And the 15th verse.
Him so much that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might over shadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about under Jerusalem, bringing sick folks and them which were vexed with unclean spirits. And I want you to notice this last phrase. And they were healed, everyone. Now there's no mention in this passage at all, but asking the people that they had faith, there's no.
At all about even whether they did have faith, but simply that there was power there to heal. And no one went away disappointed. No one went away and said, well, my case was too difficult. They couldn't handle my case. No, they were healed. Everyone. God was confirming the word. And when God was confirming the word, he was confirming it in such a way as to bear testimony to his power and.
If there wasn't power to heal everyone, then they might say, does he have power? So there was a demonstration of this. God was confirming the word. And I wish to add this, I won't turn to it, but you can look at Deuteronomy 13 and you'll see there that in Israel's history sometimes there were those rose who showed signs and wonders. And the great and important point to the Israelite was not whether the sign or wonder came to pass, but whether.
The sign or wonder was being used for the purpose of confirming the things of God, or whether it was used for something that was contrary.
To His word and leading them away from the true knowledge of God.
And so you'll usually find in connection with all this sort of thing that is going on in Christendom that there is so much connected with it that's not according to the Word of God sometimes said to young people. If you want to go and see all the spectacular sort of thing, you'll have to go places where you'll have to go in disobedience to the Word of God. You'll have to go where you'll find that there's a great many things going on that are not.
According to God's Word, and if they want to see the signs, that's where you must go.
So if if these things existed today, well, then we would expect to see that there would be great multitudes come together and everybody would be healed. We'd expect to see it possible for people to speak in such a way that those who had never learned the language would be able to communicate the gospel to others. But what we have today is not as it was in Scripture.
And I just ask you to test these things by the word of God, like Paul said, that we would know not the speech of them, which are puffed up, but the power.
And if we test these things by the Word of God, we'll find that what is going on today is so often associated with truth, with the denial of part of the truth of God, or setting aside certain parts of Scripture. Whereas if you and I seek to walk in the truth, it will be like it says in Revelation. There will only be a little strength. We don't look for these things. It tells us God confirmed the Word with signs.
Following, someone said, well why didn't God say that these things would cease? Why didn't he say that they wouldn't continue? Well, I often say I have a very simple answer to that.
God intended that the hope of the Lord's coming should be a present hope in every generation. And if he had told them that these things were going to cease, he would have been saying the Lord's not going to come and you're a generation or in your lifetime because the time is going to come when these things will cease. So God didn't say that, but he did. He did do something in his word, and that is he promised that the gifts for the edification of the church, the evangelist, the pastors, the teachers would continue.
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You till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Now isn't it remarkable that when he makes the promise, he omits all the sign gifts. He doesn't say that they were going to they weren't going to continue, but they, as we know those early believers were looking for the Lord to come in their lifetime and rightly so. And so he just in the all wise ways of God, he just leaves that, but he promises something would continue. Thank God they do continue.
We still praise God for those who proclaim the gospel. We still thank Him for those who can pastor His people and who can teach them the precious things of Christ.
Could I look at just two more scriptures that I'd like to look at? Romans chapter 8?
Romans, chapter 8.
Because I believe this is a very important portion.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit.
Even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to whip the redemption of our body. Notice he doesn't say waiting for the faith healer. He says waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. What are we as believers waiting for? We're waiting for the time when we're going to get glorified bodies like Christ. That's our blessed hope. And we're waiting for that. Now. I don't want to be misunderstood. I believe that the Lord answers prayer and I believe.
In its governmental ways, He often passes us through things, and if we learn what he is seeking to teach us, then he comes in and raises us up again. But that's entirely different from what we have in the early acts, the signs that were manifested to unbelievers. What you have in.
Praying for others and for the sick and so on, has to do with believers. But when there was the signs and wonders, they were given as a sign to those that believe not. They were a testimony to the world of the truth of the gospel and of the fact that Christ was risen, and that He was a glorified man at the right hand of God.
And now I just look at one other passage, and that is, I already mentioned it, but I'd like to look at it in John.
Chapter 14.
And verse 16.
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another comforter, that He may abide with you forever. Perhaps I could connect that also to one in Romans 8, another one in that 8th chapter of Romans.
And the 11TH verse.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Reason I call attention to this is the Lord Jesus promised that the Spirit would abide with us forever. And so we've noticed how He does His blessed work in us. He helps our infirmities as it tells. It doesn't say He removes them, but likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities. I didn't read that verse. It's also in the eighth of Romans. And how often in our sickness we have found the help of the Spirit of God in what we have to endure.
And then He tells us that He's going to quicken our mortal bodies by the Spirit, because the Spirit is down here, that if the Lord gave the shout right now, the Spirit of God who is indwelling the bodies of believers, who is shedding abroad God's love in our hearts is making these things precious to us. But immediately, if I can use the expression, He would complete that which has been begun.
And these bodies then would be changed into the very likeness of Christ.
And just like the servant who presented Rebecca to Isaac, so the Spirit of God will go back with the church and we'll enter into the presence of our glorious bridegroom. Then we'll be with him and like him, but he's going to abide with us forever, brethren, and in heaven, the Spirit of God will be doing his blessed work there, but down here in this world, the Spirit of God.
Is doing 2 Things you won't have to do in heaven. The Spirit of God is.
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Helping our infirmities, and we won't have any infirmities there. And He is also helping us to overcome the activity of the spirit of the flesh within. For it says the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. So when we get home to glory, we won't have that fallen nature. We won't need the help of the Spirit to overcome the fallen nature. We won't need the work of the Spirit within to help our infirmities, and the Spirit of God will be free.
Through those endless eternal ages to bring before our hearts all the excellencies and glories of Christ, fill our hearts with the rejoicing in that glorious scene. Wasn't it blessed that God has brought us into His purposes in His Word, and that He has given us these precious things so that we might be LED astray with how much that goes on, that goes on under the name of the Spirit of God, but that is not according to the Word of God, doesn't.
Glorify Christ. And so if you find that it's not according to the Word, you find that it doesn't really exalt Christ. And one has been surprised to find that in many of these systems, at least back in Canada, where there's so much about the work of the Spirit in those very places, they'll tell you that you can be saved and lost again. They're denying the finished work of Christ, and yet they're talking about the work of the Spirit.
Well, let us beware that we don't allow this sort of thing to.
Lead us away, follow the Word of God, seek to test everything by the Word, ask whether it exalts Christ. And I believe that God by His Spirit will preserve us in the path of the truth. May He grant it so until the Lord Jesus comes and takes us home to be with Himself, and then the Spirit will be unhindered for eternal ages.