Burbank Conference: 2001
Table of Contents
David and Jonathan
Open Mtg.
Open—C. McConnaughy, H. Brinkmann, D. Jaeger
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These little tired beasts. So what's the schedule of these meetings for three days? Says as to this time to be announced.
It is expected that this would be an open meeting.
And justice to be sure that there is no confusion as to what's meant by that expression and open meaning.
We feel it necessary to read a little from First Corinthians chapter 14.
Now some few suggestions here. That is the course and conduct of.
Such a meeting.
We might read 1St Corinthians 14 verses.
8:00 and 9:00.
What if the trumpet give an uncertain sound?
Who shall prepare himself to the battle?
Some anticipation that there be.
Certainty.
Not uncertainty, not speculation.
And verse 9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue.
Words easy to be understood.
We can all get a handle on that I think. Words easy to be understood, not convoluted fancy.
Language that's just too hard to get into the system.
Simplicity.
Verse 29.
Let the prophets speak.
How many?
Two or three.
And let the other, that's all the rest of us, judge.
The next verse.
If anything be revealed unto another that sitteth by.
Let the 1St.
Hold his peace.
And verse 32.
And the spirits of the prophets are subject to.
The Prophets.
And verse 33.
For God.
Is not the author of confusion.
But a piece?
We are with my heart.
Old us with my powerful hand.
Spread of heaven feed us now and evermore.
Get up here but our brother prayer.
You know, we do have exercise of heart.
And I have a little exercise that I like to bring forth for justice a few moments.
Our brother Chakra had the hymn 193 before us.
Jesus, my Savior and our mind and what I'd like to speak this afternoon, George, for a few moments, is for those that are his. This morning we were gathered around the Lord Jesus, remembering his death.
We were here remembering his death and I would like to speak for a few moments for those that were here.
That could say it says Lord Jesus's mind.
But perhaps there's no exercise that you didn't remember the Lord with us this morning.
And I just have a few verses I'd like to read a this morning we had.
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We had Luke chapter 22 reads of to us I believe.
I like to read it.
Small verse here.
And Luke 22.
And verse 15.
Just for a few words it says with desire.
I have desired to eat this Passover with you.
The Lord Jesus, the night that he.
Betrayed by his own, the author shook him. That night he gathered together with his own, and he had the Passover with him. He said with desire, I have desire to eat the Passover with you, to thank the Savior desired. And then we had First Corinthians.
Chapter.
11 read to us this morning.
And for justice a word.
1St Corinthians 11 and verse 23 he says.
For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.
The Lord Jesus had a desire to have the Passover.
To eat it with them.
And Paul?
And the Lord Jesus met him somewhere, talked to him and said, Paul, I want you to frame before the Lord's people my desire for them. And Paul could say, I've received it from the Lord.
You know, this isn't just a formality of things we go through.
These churches today, they gather on Sunday morning and they have what they think is worship, and there's no worship really, because worship is the God Word. And what they have, I think, is to man.
So.
The Lord told Paul, I want you to let my people know what my desire for them is.
Now his desire.
You know, it was such a strong desire that Paul put out that the brethren daily broke bread.
But then as the cares of the world came along, I suppose they couldn't just come together daily, and so it got to be a major first day of the week.
And the first year of the week the brethren came together, and they broke bread.
And so the Lord has laid on our hearts to follow this truth that Paul gave us.
And so I would like to speak to those this morning.
That love the Lord Jesus. But you haven't had that exercise. It's what the Lord wants you to do and the time is short. The coming of our Lord is very near.
And so I'd like to spring before our young people and any others.
That the Lord's desire that we might remember Him.
And I like to leave that with the hearts of any that did not break. Bread with us belong to the Lord Jesus.
The Lord bless His word.
One Corinthians 11 we read for as often as he eats this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he comes.
You know.
This indicates that we should be able to do this.
In the way as he has appointed, until he comes.
I believe that these events that have taken place.
Have brought the truth of the coming of the Lord Jesus.
To the mind of his people, over and over again.
And I believe we can say that it cannot possibly be long anymore before he comes.
What we see is happening in the Middle East.
And what is happening in Europe?
The States is being said for what will happen after we are gone.
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What we have witnessed.
Is comparatively little, may I say it kid stuff compared to what will happen after we are gone.
But when this incident happened?
On September 11.
A scripture that came to our mind is in Zechariah.
We had been reading in Zechariah.
To get an eye at home.
And.
I believe that is what took place.
On September 11TH.
Zechariah 12/3.
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. All that burdened themselves with it shall be cut in pieces.
Mr. Darby surrendering is shall be wounded and, the footnote says sorely wounded. I don't think the United States does wrong in supporting Israel.
They need help and protection against these millions of Arabs who want to wipe them off the map. God has allowed the West and will, even in a more greater way.
Support the West.
Or help the West to support Israel. But those who burden themselves with Israel, with Jerusalem, will be sorely wounded. You can expect more of that kind of thing.
But what a comfort it is for us as Christians that our hopes are not in this world.
That we are looking for the Lord Jesus to come.
And take us out of it.
In Revelation chapter 3.
The hour of temptation, we will be kept out of it. We'll never get into it.
That's the tribulation.
Already.
Chuck has red verses in Two Thessalonians chapter 2.
You know the day of the Lord will not come. That's the correct rendering there. It's not the day of Christ, it's the day of the Lord before the man of sin be revealed, the Antichrist. And that man cannot be revealed until he and that which hinders is removed. That is the Church indwelled by the Spirit of God, but when the Lord Jesus comes back himself to judge.
It's the day of the Lord, but even before He comes back to personally judge the living.
Matthew 2531. There will be these judgments coming upon this world.
The seal job judgment, the trumpet judgments, the vile judgments to prepare the earth for the glorious rain of Christ. But that all will happen after we are gone.
We will not be here when these judgments fall. How can we prove that already? Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians is one and Revelation chapter 5.
What do we have in Revelation chapter 5?
To 24 elders round about the throne, and they worshipped a Redeemer.
They are the redeemed.
From the Old and New Testament.
They will already be there round about the throne, and there is a book in the hand of him that sits on the throne sealed with seven seals. Who is worthy to take that book?
Nobody was worth it. But then the lamb, he comes and takes that book.
But a Clem called it the title Deep to deserve. I like that.
Yes, the Lord Jesus has A2 fold claim on this world first of all as the Creator and that's how he's presented in Revelation 4 by Him and for him. Refining Revelation in Colossians. All things were created for His pleasure. They are and were created Revelation 4.
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But when he makes his claim known, he doesn't make it known as the Creator.
He makes it known as the Redeemer and he takes that book.
And then one seal after another is opened up, and these judgments are put out. No judgment has yet been poured out, and the book is not even in the hand of the Lord Jesus, and the redeemed are already round about the throne.
These pictures should clearly prove to us that we will not.
Be raptured in the middle of the tribulation, as some people tell us, or at the end of the tribulation. We will never get into it. The hour of temptation, we will be kept out of it. Never get there.
We certainly sorrow with those that lost loved ones.
In these attacks.
But we do not with pleasure.
Look forward.
Of what will happen after we are gone, but his judgment are righteous and true. We find that repeatedly in the Book of Revelation.
We will fully agree with the judgments that will be poured out upon this earth.
The one that at the present time is standing there with outstretched arms to receive sinners, He comes back to judge.
But there is a wonderful side in the Book of Revelation and that is that he will mark 144,000 of Israel that will go into the Millennium. They are assured that they will not be killed and there is a great host.
That will receive the gospel of the Kingdom. That will also enter the Kingdom. They will be preserved. Some will die for the word of God and the testimony they bear, or those who will not bow to the image of the beast. Then they will all be raised to enter that Kingdom from the heavenly side. But for us, we don't look for the tribulation we might still have to face.
Quite a bit of turmoil before the Lord Jesus takes us out.
But whatever we will have to pass through is not going to be anywhere close to what will happen to those who will be left on the earth.
Well, in Revel in Thessalonians, First Thessalonians.
We have another scripture that clearly shows that we will be taken home.
Because we know that when He comes back, He comes back with all his Saints. That is when He appears or when His manifestation takes place. He's coming for us is never connected with His manifestation or appearance. There is no public knowledge or it is not witnessed publicly of what will take place.
But in One Thessalonians.
Chapter 3.
The last verse.
Clearly shows that He will come with all His sayings. The end of verse 13. Now if He comes back with all His Saints, of necessity, they have to be taken first of all to be with Him.
And then in chapter four, we have the wonderful truth of the Rapture.
And it is so important to notice what Paul says. Let's read these verses from verse 13 on. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that we sorrow not even as others which have no hope for, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, Even so them also with sleep.
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In Jesus will God bring with him for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we notice that that we which are alike. He includes himself. That was a present hope at the time of.
When Paul was here in this scene.
We which are alike and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent or get ahead of them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alike and remain.
Shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the ear, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. It was a present hope at the time when Paul was still in this world and is a present hope today. People say, well, 2000 years ago already almost people were talking about the coming of the Lord Jesus. He still hasn't come.
What are 2000 years with God?
1000 years is one day.
But one day is 1000 years for those who end up in hell.
One day will appear as an awful long time when you end a flame of fire, the lake of fire. But how wonderful they were in Thessalonica. Here say only, I understand, five or six weeks before this epistle was written, and some had passed away, and they were afraid that they might lose out.
And so Paul says don't worry about them, they will not lose out. As a matter of fact, he says they will be raised 1St and then we who are alive shall be changed.
And then we go to be forever with the Lord Jesus. But what helped me is to see that he says the dead in Christ shall be raised first. He is referring to those who had died as Christians.
Only Christians are in Christ. The Old Testament Saints never were in Christ. They are Christ, said his coming 1St Corinthians 15.
But he is comforting here in Thessalonians, the Saints who had become Christians and had lost some of their loved ones, they had gone to be with the Lord Jesus. And so he uses the term the dead in Christ.
Robert Tony helped me understand that and I appreciated it ever since that we have here the debt in Christ in First Corinthians 15, those who are Christ's at his coming when I was a young believer.
I thought that the rapture only had to do with the Church. Those who had died as Christians would be raised and we who are living would be changed. I learned different.
All those who have died in faith will be raised. They are all Christ's. Through the work of Calvary's cross, they became His.
Their sins were not atoned for until the Lord Jesus came and shed His blood. The remission of sins that are past refers to the sins of believers that died before the cross. Romans 3.
They too are his as a result of the atoning death of Christ, and they will be raised all those who died in faith.
Of course, those who are alive on earth at that time will be the Church. We will be changed and then we go to be with the Lord Jesus.
A lot of comfort to look forward to that and to have it as a present. Hope you.
Yes, we can say it might happen this very day, and how wonderful it would be if it would happen that very day.
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Can there be anything more blessed for any of us who know the Lord Jesus then?
To see him come and for the first time to.
See that blessed face?
And to be with him and like him forever.
You know, we know from 10/14.
As we have it here.
That the Lord himself will come. He won't send an Angel, He will himself come.
And fetch us.
And we can look forward to that.
And I hope we will remind ourselves again and again of that hope.
The virgins that went to sleep in Matthew 25.
Why did they go to sleep?
They had forgotten about the coming of the Lord Jesus, and they were aroused out of their sleep when their cry came forth. Behold the Bridegroom going forth out to meet him.
I've said more than once, if you want to go to sleep spiritually, forget about the coming of the Lord Jesus and you certainly will go to sleep spiritually. So we have to make an effort to remind ourselves again and again. We're looking for the Lord Jesus to come, and we hope he might come today.
But there are many in the audience here that are getting old and feeble, sickly.
There is a wonderful comfort connected with his coming.
Because when he comes.
We will have a body.
Like unto his body of glory.
The redemption of our body.
In future, we heard something about that during the meetings.
And that body is going to be like the body that we see in the risen Savior. It's not going to be a new body, but the body that we have now will be changed and brought into full conformity to the Lord Jesus like unto his body of glory. Philippians chapter 3.
What a wonderful thing that is. You want to have an idea what that body is going to be like.
Look at the Lord Jesus.
The disciples were gathered behind locked doors.
He said either him from getting in.
May I put it this way? He walked right through the walls.
And he could eat.
Have you anything to eat to make sure that they didn't think he was a spirit? He says the spirit has not flesh and bones.
As you see, I have He could eat, but he didn't need to eat to sustain that life.
When he went up to heaven, did he need a rocket to get up there?
No.
We will be going up in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, we will be changed and going up to meet the Lord in the air, and we shall be forever with Him.
The body that we now have is still subject to death.
As we learned in First Corinthians 15, another truth of what will happen when he comes, that which is corruptible must put on incorruption, and that which is mortal must put on immortality, no longer subject to death. You know there are many of the Saints of God. Their bodies are corrupting in the grave.
You know that can never happen to any who are alive. When the Lord Jesus comes, their body is going to be changed.
And it will be incorruptible and those who will be raised.
They will have their party raised in corruption. We will never have to be afraid of death.
Death Race thy stings, Death Race thy victory.
And you know, that is very encouraging that in First Corinthians 15, after he presents this wonderful truth of the resurrection and that we do not have to worry about.
00:30:09
What can possibly happen to us because if we are dying, if the Lord.
Does take us individually through death. That's not the end.
And even if in the service for the Lord, we might have to face death, never mind.
How can we understand the last verse of that 15th chapter of First Corinthians?
Well, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. I take it this way, that Paul is trying to tell them that whatever you might face in the service of the law, even if you might have to face death, never mind.
There is the resurrection.
And a lot of comfort. The truth of the coming of the Lord Jesus is I'm looking forward to seeing my mother and my father. I'm looking forward to seeing my son.
I'm even looking forward to seeing Abraham in those Old Testaments sayings. We'll see them all.
And it will be wonderful to see them. But the most wonderful thing is that we will see the Lord Jesus for the first time.
And tend to be with him and like him.
You might have heard me tell that story before.
I was in.
This part of the country and I was talking to the children about the Lord Jesus.
And after the Sunday school, two boys were standing there.
Together I walked up to them and I said, tell me when we get to heaven.
Will we have to stand in line to get a chance to talk to the Lord Jesus? There would be a long line, wouldn't it?
A boy about 10 years old. No, he said he'll be everywhere. Beautiful answer, wasn't it? He is with every believer today, whether they are in Russia, China, Africa, Europe or the Americas. You think it's going to be different in heaven? I enjoy this thought. You and I will have the Lord Jesus just for ourselves.
Yes, we will have him just for ourselves and be with him forever.
And then we can, with perfect lips and tongues, praise and worship Him, and even worship the Father.
He will even then assist us as the minister of the sanctuary in our praises. He helps us now.
But it will be doing that throughout eternity. And one brother at the conference in Hima Bay made this statement once. I enjoyed that so much, he said. That new song that we will sing.
Doesn't mean we're repeating the same words over and over again.
I'm sure there will be things repeated over and over again, but he suggested new glories and beauties will unfold to us and we have new reasons to sing praise and worship well may be encouraged. Beloved Saints of God, the Lord Jesus is coming soon and don't get overly occupied with what's going on in the world. Not that we shouldn't be sympathetic.
In connection with the sufferings that people have to endure.
Don't you think we should be sympathetic with the sufferings that the people in Afghanistan endure?
Yes.
And those deceived people who think that they're doing God a service in killing the unbelievers.
They deceive us on the news media saying Islam is a peaceful religion. It is not.
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Right into Quran that says that it is the obligation of all Muslims to kill all unbelievers.
And all non-Muslims are unbelievers. The word love doesn't appear once in the Quran.
Well, and these people are deceived. What a rude awakening those pilots had the instant that they were killed.
They came to realize that they were doing the devil's work.
And they are already in Hades, in torment.
But how wonderful we who have grown up in the truth.
Have learned to value this book. I can say in my own case, like Timothy from a child, I have known the Holy Scriptures to have parents. Young people thank the Lord for parents that tell you about the Lord Jesus.
That read the Bible to you and to give you the truth of God and that you can go to meetings.
Where you can learn more.
About the blessed person of the Lord Jesus and the truth that this book contains. That is the truth.
And.
Thank the Lord for it. If you haven't done that, you better start thanking him for it that he gave you Christian parents.
I grew up, my mother would quote the Scripture many times. Anything that happened to you would try to bring the Word of God in connection with that which happened. And I came to realize I was getting older. What had conveyed to me was bring always the light of the Word of God in connection with anything that happens.
What a wonderful thing to grow up under that kind of an influence, but how solemn.
If that is all ignored.
And people may collect.
To accept help so readily provided, you know, I'm afraid there might be some who grew up in Christian homes that we'll end up in hell. I believe I have an uncle that grew up in a Christian home. That's where he is.
Neglecting and rejecting.
To receive the Lord Jesus. My dad talked to him two weeks before he was killed in a bombing rape.
And he brushed it all aside. My grandfather administered the Word of God very capably for many years and sought to bring up his family for the Lord.
This uncle neglected, brushed it all aside. My dad had an opportunity to talk to him two weeks before he died in a bombing raid.
I wasn't home. I was evacuated because of bombing, because the government wanted the kids out of the danger zone. My mother wrote a letter.
As she said, Uncle Fritz died in a bombing raid, and I couldn't help but think of the scripture. He that is often rebuked, hardeneth his neck, shall be suddenly destroyed and dead without remedy.
Could you have quoted beta verse?
Yes, I hope there's nobody in the audience here.
That has neglected accepting the helps provided by the parents and by brethren or by the Assembly.
You will be judged more severely than those who have never heard the truth.
Well, I thought, I hope there's not one in the audience that will be suffering in health.
And having to remember.
How often have I heard the gospel? How often was I exposed to the influence of the Word of God and I.
Wharton accepted. Well, I'm happy for everyone in the audience that has accepted the Lord. And you know who is even more happy than I or anybody else can be? The Lord Jesus.
He will joy over us with singing, you know.
And we are looking forward to seeing him.
But don't you think that He is looking forward more anxiously to have us with Him than we could ever desire to be with Him? So may the Lord encourage us to go on for Him. That cannot be long, and He will come and take us home. We will not be able to be a testimony for Him anymore, as we are presently. We are not able to do for Him what we are able to do now. Yes, we will serve Him forever, but.
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What a privilege that we can begin here on earth to serve Him in a way that we will not be able to serve Him anymore in heaven. And that doesn't begin when you're 30 years old. Then you should be exercised about doing something for the Lord Jesus. You can start becoming exercise about that. Even as it does so, may the Lord encourage us very much on our hearts and minds the events of.
September the 11TH and I just like to share with you.
A thought that occurred to me.
That what was very striking was that the building in New York City that were leveled had many people in them from other countries, it being the World Trade Center. So only God, you might say, could look upon that as a message to this whole world. And I think it's the Lord speaking to this world, including, of course, our own great country, that the time is short.
There is word that the sale of Bibles.
Grew very rapidly after that. It should be our prayer that people will read them.
And seek God's mind, but it's a sign to me that the.
End is near that the Lord is warning this whole world and that the issues are very clearly.
Between light and darkness, as our brother just indicated, and that we have the truth as our brother spoke to us in the previous hour, which is wonderful and we can be thankful for that. Now, one of the things that occurred to me, which is on my heart now, is thinking about the last time. And so I like to read the last verse of the 2nd Epistle of Peter. We all know that.
Peter, Second Epistle and Second Timothy are often thought about as epistles for the last time and what struck me, and it relates a little bit to what we just heard.
Is direction for us as believers.
For these last times, so I'd like to read.
The last verse of Second Peter. So think of this as Peter who makes it very plain in this epistle that he had been.
In the sense told by the Lord that his time was limited and he was writing to his brethren, this is the word that he had for them. And I think it's a word for us. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen. So if we are concerned about what should occupy us in the time that's left to us before we hear the Lord's assembling shout.
I think it's very clearly told to us here and it's lovely to think about. We are told to grow. That means we're not stopped. We may have a knowledge of God's word. We, some of us are naturally speaking closer to the end of the path by far than we are to the beginning of the path, but we should still grow. And we have this wonderful book. It's an encouragement to us to keep, you might say, growing in it, and I'll tell you.
Some of you know this, but the one who brought the gospel to me was the father of our brother **** Loggers who laborers amongst us. And I clearly remember him telling me as I accepted the Lord, he said, **** you're now entering a school from which you will never graduate, and that's reading and learning this book. But what a joy it is, and it'll keep us too. This has been before us in the previous speakers.
Because if we're occupied with Him and there are many things for us still to learn, at least I feel away for myself. And I think it would be presumptuous of anyone to say that, well, I've learned all there is to learn. So we are to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So we have this book. This gives us clearly knowledge.
And sometimes we know, in fact, I had a business trip for two weeks where I was pretty much by myself and so I got into.
00:45:09
The reading of the opening chapters of Proverbs where we have knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, and I did a lot of thinking about that, What are the distinctions between knowledge, understanding, and wisdom? And I'll just share it with you. What I concluded knowledge is to learn facts. It's to know how things work, it's to know things that have happened and so on.
Now what's understanding? Understanding is when you take that knowledge and you relate it to other knowledge, and now you come up with some sort of a conclusion. And having been an engineer, I learned a lot of facts.
Knowledge about the systems with which I work. But sometimes when you related this bit of knowledge with that bit of knowledge, all of a sudden you saw a new association and that was understanding, and that was useful. So understanding is useful, that is to take these facts.
Put them together and say, well, because of that I really should act this way or begin to see other relationships. That's but the final one. The highest one, of course, is wisdom. And wisdom is to have the help of God because the Lord Jesus is unto us wisdom. And so wisdom transcends both knowledge and understanding. It's the highest level and it's timeliness. It's what's appropriate.
Wisdom, of course, relates to our relationship to our Lord and Savior. So I just share those things. But here in this verse, which is on my heart, there are two things, grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And as we read this, we learn of our Lord and Savior. And as we do, we study his life, we study the way He acted with other human beings. And oh, our Lord had wonderful grace.
And dealing with sinners, they might bring up issues with him that he would just ignore to get to the very important thing that they needed, that is to see that they were sinners and they needed salvation. That the woman at the well in John's gospel is an excellent example of that, where she wanted to talk religion and the Lord just didn't do that. So we can learn, you might say, how to deal with our fellow human beings, and particularly those who are not saved by just.
Studying how the Lord did it, but there were a couple of things I'd like to just relate to you in the connection of our Lord. So right in this very epistle that we're in second Peter, turn back to chapter. Let's see.
Chapter.
I'm sorry, I thought I had it. Oh, I'm looking in the second. It's in the first epistle. I'm sorry.
Yes, for chapter 2, the first Peter and verse 21, which we are familiar with, but I'd just like to point something out there.
Verse 21 For even here unto where ye called because Christ.
Also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps.
And verse 23 has impressed me overtime, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, He threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Well, the Lord Jesus is a perfect man, as we well know, walked in full dependence on the Father. He was a man of prayer. And so this is something I think can help us as we go on as brethren together seeking to encourage one another.
That if something comes up where we feel offended, we feel we're not properly understood. If someone says something about us or to us, one is the word here. The word here is committed himself to him, the judges, righteously.
And I remember once up at Gordon Hayes Cottage and on our length in the fall for the men and they had a little time apart and usually in September that he pointed out in connection. And we might just turn to it briefly. And that is in the book of Colossians, something I thought that was very interesting. First chapter of Colossians.
00:50:14
And verse ten of the first chapter of Colossians. That he might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful, and every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.
Strengthened with All might. Think of that that we should be strengthened with All Might, and we know how great All Might could be. But for what? Strengthened with All Might, according to His glorious power unto all patients, and long-suffering with joyfulness. It's not marvelous. We can have all power to be patient.
Now I don't know about others here, what they might say about themselves, but I can tell you I often and and I never seem to learn impatient. I want things to happen right away or I look at people that are ahead of me and why don't they do this or that and so on. So that's a lesson that I have to learn. But what an encouragement here that was strengthened with All might according to his glorious power to what all patients.
Show that as a little example of the treasures we find in this book as we learn about our Lord Jesus Christ, that we have this power, we have God for us, We have this wonderful, hopefully force. But I'd like to add just a little addendum to what our brother Heinz just said, that as we are awaiting the coming of the Lord, and surely we all are, let's remember what Peter said.
That we.
And to read the verse accurately.
That we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Savior Jesus Christ. Now there are just two more things about our Savior that I can quote one of them to you and the other one will turn to. But this one, of course, is a favorite verse of all of us. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That though he was rich, yet he became poor. That through his poverty we might be rich.
Now, one of the reasons I cite that one is.
Because it teaches us that this is a linkage of grace and knowledge. It's the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. So one of the things I didn't mention, but I intended to in Second Peter, the last verse, was to grow in grace.
And if someone were to ask you to say a new young believer and say, well, that's an interesting verse and I can understand how I am to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have this wonderful book. God has given us the things that we should know. And by the way, I'll just mention in passing that I heard many years ago, and I've always valued that it's just as important concerning what God did not tell us as it is about what he did tell us in this book.
Because there are those who would like to speculate about things that God has not chosen to tell us and I'll give you my quickly very an example. We all know the story of Abrahams servant who went to and sent the servant to find a bride for Isaac. Now if you have any knowledge of geography and you know the terrain that was covered to go from what we now call Israel.
Over to what we now call Iraq.
It's just as dangerous today, I understand even if you had an automobile to reverse that same bit of geography. Well, what was it traveling on camels? And he had wealth with them that serving but covered many miles. And then he came back, of course, with Rebecca.
Well, I know how I am. I think that would be a very interesting story. Why did they do to avoid thieves and robbers and so on. But God tells us not one word about that, does He? It's not profitable. It's not for our spiritual growth or health. So it's good not to speculate upon what God hasn't told us. So I just submit that now I quoted the verse of in the Lord Jesus though he was rich.
00:55:06
And I just point out that it's sometimes good to remember as much as we treasure a verse such as that, to remember the context of it. And I wonder how many here would be ready right now to say, well, the context of the verse is why did the apostle Paul write that? It had to do with the generosity or lack thereof of the Corinthian Saints giving, contributing, and they had been delinquent in it. And so he uses the Lord Jesus as an example. So I just showed that. Let's not forget, we love the thought of that because.
He suffered through his poverty. We have eternal riches, and that's a perfectly valid way to understand that. But it's interesting to see the broader application. Now, the other one is in the portion we read earlier today and Philippians chapter 2.
And this is the portion where the Lord takes those, and with steps He sets aside all of his heavenly glory. You've got it not robbery to be equal with God, and so on. Therefore God hath highly exalted him. But why is that portion here? Do we think about that? So let's read from the first verse of chapter 2 because it's a verse for our learning.
If there be therefore any consolation?
In Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit and any bowels and mercies fulfill ye my joy. This is the apostle Pauls joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of 1 accord of one of mine one mind and I'll just stop and say right there. This is a a secondary theme I think of for the book of Philippians.
The matter of Saints being of one mind.
And how do we get to be of one mind? We get to be of one mind when we have the Lord's mind. I may have a notion about something and a brother may have a notion about something. And sometimes these things can become heated. As a matter of fact, if you flip the page over just to show you how important this is, if you look at the beginning of chapter 4 of Philippians.
The apostle, and writing to them, wrote this in the second verse. I beseech you, odious, and I beseech sin ticky two sisters, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.
Well, it doesn't say it quite clearly, but it's quite obvious that two sisters disagree had a contention and what it was affecting the whole assembly. That's why Paul said I beseech what that they be of the same mind, but more than that in the Lord. So that's just a little example to us of one mindedness. Now going back to where I was reading in the second chapter.
So.
And it says verse three, Let nothing be done through strife or Vainglory, but in loneliness of mind. Let each esteem other better than themselves. This is to achieve 1 mindedness. This is for, you might say, for an assembly to go forward in a way honoring to the Lord and being fruitful.
So let not things be done through strife or Vainglory, but in lowliness of mind. Can we do this in ourselves? Some of us, and with no offense to our brother Brinkman, because I have the same heritage he has and letters is Teutonic, and sometimes it gets competitive. So we need the grace of God. We need the help of God. We have to be on our knees about it if we differ with one of our brethren.
Just consider this, they may be wrong.
I may be wrong or we both may be wrong, but what we really want is to be right in the Lord. So when there is a difference we should get on our knees and say, Lord, you have given us to be of one mind and to do it in loneliness. When you get on your knees and say, Lord help me, you're starting to be lonely.
So esteem each other better than themselves. Look, not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. And I don't think that means to look on and see who has a bigger car or things like that is to look on each other to see if their needs, if we can help, if we can encourage, if we can show the love of Christ to our brother. Now with that introduction we come to the verse we so often read, verse 5.
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Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, and we know what follows. What an example. The Lord of glory, the Creator, the One to whom every knee shall bow. He took that low place and became at the end of these verses, obedient even to death, but death of the cross.
Let this mind be in you now. Have you thought about that? That's why this is here. We love it and properly so, because it reminds us of fresh of what our Lord and our Creator has done for us, that we might be safe for all eternity. Put away our sins, but He had the mind.
To be lowly and it's in this very portion I've been reading as I show you that we should take that low place with our brother. So I just leave that with you. Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. What a wonderful example. And we have the example of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And some here know I've been meditating on grace for years.
And if someone were to ask you, and I think I raised this question earlier, what would you say to them? If they would say, what do I do to grow in grace? And I don't think that's very easy. We answered, because grace is such a broad subject. And I'll mention things that, you know, as we read this book, we know there's the grace of God, there's the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's grace given to us, there's grace given to Christ. Grace is an immense subject.
The Lord Jesus came full of grace and truth. We had that before us today. Marvelous to think about. Grace is in the salutation of every epistle, and this is what the epistle writers wanted for us. Grace.
Do we understand that? I'll share with you just what I where I stand at the moment, but I can assure you that I'm still meditating on this. But grace, I think, is uniquely connected to this dispensation. This is a day of breaks. We use that example. And Christ is the one who is full of grace and truth. Now, what sets this dispensation apart?
This is the day of the individual creature, the individual human being, whosoever believeth in him should not perish. That's God's grace to us, just faith, just belief. And in some of the references which I won't turn to because the time, but we often well, I'll quote one for you, which you know very, very well. For by grace are ye saved.
Do we stop there? No, through faith and that not of yourselves and it is a gift of God.
But the point I'm making is that you will find that invariably.
Oh, God's wonderful promises.
And to count upon them and walk in them. I think that for me is for me to grow embrace that is to count upon God's loving promises for me and that's what I how I would answer that question. But I'm sure there's a lot more to grace. It's such a lovely subject and our Savior, the one who we would get knowledge of King full of grace and truth.
Lordy, Lordy Lord.
Maker see all.
I.
Make money.
For thy mind again.
The Lord.
I may be blessed.
And I.
Call you.
Fallen of God.
He said.
All I say my.
Heart.
Is only dead with you.
John 3:1-13
John 3:14-4:19
John 4:20-
John 7:37, John 14:15-31
Are You Being Led … or Being Driven?
The Truth
Address—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
For 193.
193.
Jesus, my Savior.
Thou art mine, the Father's gift of love divine.
All thou hast done and all thou art are now the portion of my heart.
193 Someone raised the tomb, please.
I want to talk on the truth.
The truth.
Jesus, my Savior.
Now we sang that together.
Is that true of you?
Is he your personal savior? We didn't sing Jesus the savior, we sang Jesus my savior. We didn't sing Jesus our savior either, but we made it very personal, Jesus my savior.
Thou art mine. Can you say that really truthfully? Can you sing that in truth?
Is he yours? That's the first question that we have to put to our souls. Jesus, my Savior, thou art mine.
Who is he?
The Father's gift of love divine each.
Line of these hymns brings out this glorious and wonderful truth.
The Father's gift of love divine. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
The Father gave his only begotten Son.
All that thou hast, all thou hast done, and all thou art.
Are now the portion of my heart tremendous truth, we sang.
All thou hast done, and all thou art, are now the portion.
Of my heart.
If we were in the good of that, we wouldn't see a sour face on any of us.
We'd all be happy and rejoicing in this wonderful truth.
Poor, feeble, wretched as I am.
That the truth is that the way you think of yourself as you examine your own heart and your own ways and your own thoughts and life.
Can you? Can you truly say that?
Poor, feeble, wretched as I am.
I now can glory in Thy name. In ourselves we are that.
And now we can glory in His name.
Now cleansed in thy most precious blood.
Did you partake this morning? When we remember the Lord in his death ate the bread and drank the cup.
If you did and you're not real, you did a lie. Because the Lord's Supper is only for those who are cleansed by the blood and members of the body of Christ. It's only for them, for an exclusive company, those that have made the Savior theirs.
And come into blessing.
Now cleansed in thy most precious blood, can you say that? Is that true of you? Are you in the conscious enjoyment of that tremendous truth, that all your sins, so great, so many in His blood, are washed away?
And made the righteousness of God.
We who were.
Nothing but sin in ourselves by nature and by practice. Far, how very far from God. But made now the righteousness of God in him. That's tremendous truth.
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All that thou hast, thou hast for me.
All that thou hast, we're talking to the Lord all that he has.
Thou hast for me if we are children.
We are heirs, heirs of God.
Heirs of God.
I like to think of it this way. If we're children, we're heirs.
We have two uncles and 1 is very rich and the other one is not very rich at all and we hear that one has died and he's left us something. Which one was it?
Well, it was the rich one, Uncle John.
Very rich.
Heirs of God, very rich.
He owns the universe. How much did he leave me? What am I an heir of?
Joint heirs with Christ. Joint heirs with Christ. That's the measure.
Of what our inheritance is.
By nothing.
AM all that thou hast Thou hast for me. All my fresh springs are hid in thee, and thee I live, while I confess I nothing. Am yet all possessed while we sang that hymn.
Is it true of you? Is it true of each one of us?
I want to talk about truth and I want to read some scriptures that bring before us wonderful truth. Turn to Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40.
Verse 8.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever.
Simple statement of scripture. Everything I read from this book that I'm going to read this afternoon is the truth. The word of our God shall stand forever.
It will never be proven to be wrong.
Because thy word is truth.
Thy word is truth.
Verse 28 Wonderful truth.
Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the eternal God, the Lord Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faded? Not, neither is weary. There's no searching of his understanding.
Wonderful truths we read through these verses so oftentimes.
Without pondering them a little word in the Psalm Sila, pause and reflect and consider what we're reading. The everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary.
There is no searching of his understanding.
I could read more but.
We will pass on.
Chapter 42.
Behold verse one, my servant whom I uphold.
My delect, in whom my soul delighteth. Now it's God the Father that's speaking here.
And he talks about his servant. That's the Son, that's the Lord Jesus.
And then he says, I put my spirit upon him in that one simple verse.
Of the Old Testament we have the Trinity, God the Father.
Saying, Behold, my servant, that's the Son, and then saying, I put my spirit upon him.
Wonderful truth that we gain from the Word of God.
Verse 5 Thus saith the Lord God to the Lord he that created the heavens and stretched them out.
Scientists found out recently that the universe is expanding. Anyone that had his Bible in hand could have told him that.
God is stretched out to heavens. It is expanding.
All truth that we need.
Is in this book verse eight. I am the Lord, that is my name.
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And my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. We were mentioning in the readings that all the other gods are false gods. There's no there's only one true God, and he is the living God, and all the others are false and dead.
The product of man's imagination.
This book reveals the true and living God.
Just pick out a few more wonderful statements of truth.
Verse 11 of chapter 43 I even I am the Lord Jehovah, all capitals. It means Jehovah. We know that I believe and beside me there is no savior. So we don't have to look elsewhere for a savior, it must be him.
It must be Jehovah.
His name in the Old Testament is Jehovah. His name in the New Testament is Jesus.
Acts 4 says there was number other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. But the precious name of Jesus here it says Jehovah says beside me there is no savior. They're one and the same glorious person. These are truths that we learn as we read the word of God.
Now I'm I'm going over truths that 90%.
Of this nation and other nations in the world know nothing about.
We take so often for granted these precious gems of truth that are in God's wonderful Word.
Verse 15 says I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.
Jehovah speaking their king over the cross, they wrote. This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Yes, Jehovah, their king.
Zachariah 9 says, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee lowly, and riding upon an *** and a colt the foal of an ***.
How could God, Jehovah write on an ***? He had to become a man. He had to come down here and be called Jesus when he was born.
Yes.
You get the truth when you put these passages.
Together.
Verse 25 of chapter 43 The Lord says, I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions.
For my own sake, it will not remember thy sins. We have a forgiving God.
A forgiving God.
So many of the deities that have been created by man don't have that attribute for that quality.
Verse 6 of chapter 44. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts.
I am the 1St and I am the last and beside me.
There is no God.
Beside me there is no God. Get a hold of these truths, young people, especially when you are fed the lives of Satan in the universities and schools of the land.
By people that don't know the Lord and don't believe this book because this book is the truth and it contains what we need to ward off and fight the the lies of Satan.
The lives of Satan.
But I think that's enough.
To go now to the New Testament, John's Gospel.
And chapter 1.
Just wanted to touch on a few points and there are many many more.
But as we read these truths, store them up in your mind and make them part of your, of your belief system. What you believe, what they would ask you, what do you believe? What is it we are to to hold fast to the faith that was once delivered to the Saints? The faith once delivered to the Saints is the whole body of revealed truth, and that's what we believe.
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If we are intelligent in the Scriptures, John 1 and verse 14, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And I'll skip the parentheses full of grace and truth. And again in verse 17, the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
You can't have it anywhere else. It came by him and he is.
The truth himself, outside of him. I'm talking about moral and spiritual truth. I'm not talking about mathematics or history or geography or any of those sciences. I'm talking about moral and spiritual truth. Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? This book, and only this book answers those 3 questions.
Tells us where we came from.
Science has stabbed at it with their nonsense of evolution, but anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that won't fly.
We didn't get here by evolving up from lifeless matter by nothing.
Now God, I enjoyed what a brother said. God took inanimate clay from the dust of the ground, and he breathed into it the breath of life and man.
Became a living soul, and only he, only God, the living God.
The true and living God can do that.
Man cannot create life. Only God can do that. And he did it and He is.
A life giver himself.
In the 4th chapter.
In the 3rd chapter, verse 34.
For he whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God.
For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
He is the one that has the fullness and power.
Of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 23 of chapter 4. The hour cometh, and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
There's so much worship that's going on in Christendom that is not worshiped in spirit. It's worship in a material mechanical contrivance, such as an organ or a piano or an orchestra or whatever it is. Instruments that have no life, that have no spirit and no soul, they can make sweet sounding music to the human ear. That's not Christian.
Christian worship is worship in spirit and in truth by the Spirit of God.
And according to the revelation that he has been pleased to make of himself.
In Christ.
We need to know what that truth is to worship spiritually. God is a spirit. Verse 24.
And they that worshiped Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
In truth.
Now let's turn over to the 8th chapter.
To the 8th chapter of John.
Verse 29 The blessed Lord is speaking, and he that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him.
A lot of children here. You have a father, mother.
Is there anyone here that can say I do always those things that please my father? I couldn't say that, none of you can. But there was a man in this scene that could utter these words of truth. The Father hath not left me alone. He was always in that perfect communion with his father. He says I do always those things that please him. Wonderful truth.
And it's only true of him.
As he spake these words, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word.
Then are you my disciples indeed?
And ye shall know the truth.
And the truth shall make you free. It's only the truth of God that can free you.
00:20:03
From the the thoughts and the opinions and the ideas of men.
One of the most worthless and evil things that have developed in the in this century of ours are the talk shows. I don't know if you know what they are. Everyone expresses their own opinion on the different subjects that are before them, and if The opinions expressed are not formed by the word of God, they're absolutely worthless and wrong.
And you can you can get positive injury.
Your soul by listening to that.
By listening to that, because that will put thoughts into your mind which may never have come there except that you heard it.
Someone asked me recently.
We were talking about some of the errors of Effie Raven back in the 1890s where he denied that the Lord Jesus was eternal life in his person.
And he said to me.
What was the thought process that he must have gone through to arrive at that? And I said, well, if I knew, I wouldn't tell you because that would be putting into your mind something that you should never even consider hearing because it was a lie. It was wrong. If you know that something is is a lie and not the truth of God, don't pursue it. Don't go farther into it because it will only defile you.
Be content with the truth and only the truth itself. And that's what sets us free from the opinions of men. Some of the awful opinions that have been expressed on certain verses of Scripture and the wrong interpretation placed on them in order to support some of the evil theories that have come out in Christendom. Many of you don't know what I'm talking about.
But I've looked into some of these things, the measure of detail.
And they're very defiling.
I know the way I felt when I got through reading some of Mr. Ravens statements. I felt dirty.
Felt like I had to take all my clothes off and get in the shower and get a good clean bath because of the the the evil thoughts that he advanced.
Denying fundamental truths of the Bible said, Be wise as to that which is good, what is good, the truth and simple concerning evil. Follow that and you will avoid many a snare in your life. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Verse 36 he says if the son, therefore he who is the truth.
In his person shall make you free, He shall be free.
Indeed, he engages in a conversation with those that hated him, and in verse 40 he says, Now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham.
Verse 44 Ye are the Lord used very strong words to these Pharisees, these hypocrites. He says ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father he will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it. Strong language. There is no stronger language it's ever been uttered than that which the Lord Jesus spoke when he was dealing with religious hypocrites.
Because I tell you the truth, he believe me not. Which of you convinceeth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe me?
I passed over it. You don't have to turn back but I'm just going to read it. It's in the 3rd chapter where he says he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
The truth.
These wicked religious leaders.
Blind leaders of the blind.
Both fall into a ditch.
00:25:02
Well, he turned to the 14th chapter.
I have much to cover, I don't want to get stuck on too many details.
Verse 6 very well known verse. Jesus sayeth unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me when I was in Canada some years back now.
They elected a new president to the UMM.
The Canadian.
Amalgamation of some churches.
The Union.
And someone quoted this verse to the one that had been elected to it supposed to be a man that knew the Bible.
The Lord Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
His idea was that there's many ways of coming to God. This verse says there's only one.
And when he heard that verse, he said, is that in the Bible? Is that in the Bible?
I'll have to look it up.
That's so ignorant. Some of these religious leaders are of the word of God.
He is the truth, objectively.
As you trace his footsteps, hear his words, see his works as they're portrayed to us in the four gospels, you see the truth lived out in perfection in a man.
The question is not what would Jesus do? That's often put, you know, nowadays.
That depends on what I think he would do. No, you the question is what did he do?
What did He do? How did He act in the various circumstances of life? And there you see the truth being expressed. And then in verse 16 of chapter 14, he says, I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever. There's another verse that has the whole Trinity in it. The Son prays to the Father, who gives the other comforter the Holy Spirit.
Even the spirit of truth.
Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him.
For He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. Just remember that young people, that the people of this world do not know the truth, but we do We do.
And he's called the Spirit of Truth. He's called that in the 15th chapter.
Verse 26 But when the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father.
Even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father He shall testify.
Of me and he also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
That's why he's here, to bear witness to the Son. The Son was here to bear witness to the Father. And now we're here too, to bear witness to the Lord Jesus.
Verse 5 of chapter 16 he says, Now I go my way to him that sent me.
And none of you asketh me, whither goest thou, but because I have said these things unto you.
Sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you. The suggestion by our brother that we take up in the readings the Spirit of God was a good one, because, and especially in John's Gospel, because He is the one who is the truth subjectively.
He is within us, Christ is outside of us. He is the truth objectively, and the Word is called the truth. We have all the equipment, if I can put it that way, that is necessary to walk in the path that is pleasing to God. 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.
Brother was talking to another that professed to be a Christian and.
He said, well, what what goes on in your group?
And well, basically what was going on was the Spirit is doing this and that and the other thing amongst them, and it was all being occupied with the Spirit. Now the Spirit of God is not here to occupy you with Himself, He is here to glorify the Son.
00:30:00
And if it's all the subjective line, mystical subjective line.
Very dangerous indeed.
Anytime you get occupied with what the Spirit is doing within you, you're occupied with the wrong thing.
Be occupied with Christ outside of us who is the truth Spirit of God will occupy us with him and you can judge where whether a message is spiritual or not by is it? Does it exalt Christ or does it get us occupied with How am I doing in the Christian life?
That's not what the Spirit is here for. We can greet Him and we can quench Him, and if we grieve him, we we will, we will experience a loss of his power. But he's not here to occupy us with himself. And as we get occupied more and more with Christ and study the beauties and the preciousness of Him, study his words, hear what he said, and trace his footsteps and see.
He did. It's all the revelation of the Father. Beautiful.
No book like it. John's Gospel.
The truth. Now we have the spirit of truth within us. We have the truth objectively in Christ outside of us.
And we have the word of truth right here that I hold in my hands. This is the greatest miracle, by the way, that was ever committed, in my opinion, is how did we ever get all these different books put together in one volume? That's tremendous miracle, tremendous. The most precious possession I own is this book. If I had to make a choice, it would be an easy one. This would be the last to go.
It would have to be. I can do with everything else, but I can't do without the word of God.
And whether you know it or not, neither can you.
Neither can you.
Because it contains, it is the truth.
It presents to us two persons, the Son and the Spirit, who are both called the truth.
Who is it that they're the truth of? They're the truth of the Father. He is the one who is being revealed.
Chapter 17.
Chapter 17.
And.
17.
The Lord is praying to the Father, Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth.
The word is truth.
This blessed book and that's how we can be sanctified and set apart now. Chapter 18.
Verse 36 Jesus answered, My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom are of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews?
But now is my Kingdom not from hence I have therefore said unto them, Art thou a king? Then Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I might I should bear witness unto the truth.
Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice, Pilate said unto him. What is truth?
I can just hear the sneer in his voice. What is true?
He was a politician.
No such thing as absolute truth. I think I've told this story before. Some have heard it, some have not. So I'll tell it again.
There was a brother that had written a book and he was being interviewed by one of these modernistic liberal women and she said to him, how do I know that what you wrote in that book is the truth?
He said, ma'am, you can't know that it's the truth unless you know the truth itself.
And you can never know the truth itself unless there is a truth to know.
This is the truth that we are to now occupy yourself with this book. It is the truth.
And it tells us the truth about God. It tells us the truth about man. It's the only book that says the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. Who can know it? God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand in that that sought him. And he said they're all together become corrupt. They're all turned aside. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. You won't read that in any other writings of men. You won't read that.
Because they don't present the truth.
Of man's real condition, they present the lie that everyone of us has a spark of the divine within us.
And all we have to do is hand that into a gigantic flame. That's the lie of Satan.
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We had that before us when we were considering the new birth.
Why is it absolutely necessary that we must be born again because the nature with which we were born the first time?
Is incorrigibly bad and we need a new nature, a new life.
Everything new and this book tells it. This book tells us, and only this book.
Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4. Just a verse.
Verse 20. But ye have not so learned Christ, if so, be that ye have heard him.
And have been taught by him as the truth is.
In Jesus.
That's where the truth is. It's found in Him and only in Him. All the leaders of other religions are false prophets and deceivers. Now turn to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2.
Some of you have heard of the book Left Behind.
Tim the Hay, the author.
And he does teach in that book, he said. I have read it that if you miss the Rapture, you'll get another chance.
Well, let's see what the scripture says, The scripture of truth.
Chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians.
For the mystery verse 7. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now letteth or hindereth will let until he be taken out of the way.
That's a reference to the Holy Spirit who is hindering the full development of iniquity. And then shall that wicked one, that's the Antichrist, be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, Him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders.
Very same miracles that the Lord is reported doing in Acts 2 are done by the Antichrist. He's an imitator. I once handed to a child a counterfeit dollar bill. I said this isn't the real thing. What does it prove? It proves there's a real 1. You can't counterfeit nothing.
You have to have the real the real article in order to make a counterfeit. So if you have a counterfeit piece of money.
It proves that there is the real thing.
Verse 11 For this 'cause verse 10. Verse 10. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. Notice this now, because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. They didn't receive it, they refused it. They willfully rejected it. The love of the truth is John 316 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
It's God, not just truth, but the love of the truth, the love of the heart of God, and giving His beloved Son that he might save your poor wretched.
Hell bound soul.
If you're not saved.
Because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved for this cause.
God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.
That they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure.
In unrighteousness, the Word of God clearly says that if you've heard the gospel, I mean heard it and understood the offer of salvation that God has made to you, and you say no, as it was said last night, no, I'll put it off. I'll wait till another time.
And then the rapture would take place and you are left behind. You're not going to believe the truth. You've already rejected the truth.
In the person of Christ, you will believe a lie.
And you will be damned.
There will be many, of course, that would never have been guilty of rejecting the truth because they'd never really heard it, and only God can determine if you have heard it and in your will rejected it. You won't get a second chance.
That's what the word of God says, which you are going to believe the fiction of that book.
Or the truth of the Word of God.
Philippians says whatsoever things are true, Whatsoever things are honest starts out with whatsoever things are true. Don't read fiction.
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Don't read it because it will, especially if it's on religious subjects, because they can let the mind of man just go wild on those things and plant ideas into your mind that are not true. Absolutely not true.
May you cultivate getting your scriptural you get getting your spiritual knowledge from this book.
And from men who fear God and have written upon it, but especially from the book itself. Second Timothy 3.
Second Timothy 3 No one. Timothy 3 First Timothy 3, verse 15 if I carried long, that thou mayest know how thou Artest to behave thyself in the House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Now the church is not the truth, Christ is the truth, the Spirit is the truth, the Word is the truth, but the church is the pillar and ground of it. It is taught.
By men that are given by God to teach.
The truth from the Scriptures and then once taught, it is responsible to uphold and maintain the truth, the church. But the church is not a legislative body. It does not determine what is right and wrong. This book does, God does and he's the author of this book. He is the he's the legislator and the assembly administrates and is a judicial body when it has to. What is the cardinal truth?
Uphold the 16th verse tells us First Timothy 316 without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory.
That verse gives us God coming down, becoming a man, and then man going up into the very glory of God, and that's where he is.
Tonight.
How do I know this by this book? I didn't dream it.
Didn't come to me in a vision at night. It's here. The truth is here and you can know it just as sure and certain as anyone. One thing we have to be careful of. God has given teachers in the church. Yes, He has, and we can be thankful for them and shepherds and evangelists.
But don't make any teacher. I don't care how well taught he is to be your standard of truth.
It's the Spirit of God who is the truth and he will not mislead you. Men have misled many, sad to say in the history of the church. Gifted men, well taught men.
I could name.
Those that followed Mr. Raven in 1890 and it would make you leap.
He didn't do that. He didn't go with that, did he? Yes, I could name them.
Just tells us we're not to trust in man, we're to value them.
And be thankful for the truth that they bring. But this is the truth. We don't establish what the truth is. None of us does it if we ever get to that point.
We are in sorry shape indeed. I'll turn to the second epistle of Timothy in chapter 3.
He says in verse 14 to Timothy, Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned.
And has been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Now I couldn't appropriate that verse to myself because I wasn't taught the truth as a child.
I was pretty much raised as a heathen. I was saved, the first one in my family saved and I brought the gospel home and then my my mother got saved, and then my sister and finally my father.
But I didn't, I wasn't raised as a Christian, raised as a heathen in this so-called Christian land of ours. And there's, that was 50 years ago. What is it today? It's far worse. Most young people have never heard the gospel, never heard it. They wouldn't be among those that had not received the love of the truth. They've never heard it. I never heard it till I was 19.
There are many are like that today. You who have been raised in a Christian family and have been immersed in the truth and Bible reading and and prayer meetings and and and reading meetings of the assembly and meetings such as we've had. You are have a tremendous advantage.
Tremendous advantage to bend.
In the truth you value it, that from a child verse 15, thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, but you're able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Timothy was taught the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures by his grandmother and mother from a child.
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Then wonderful truth, verse 16 all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
And is profitable for doctrine. That's teaching.
For reproof, we need to be reproved. We need to be corrected for correction.
For instruction in righteousness, we need to be taught, we need to be reproved if we're going the wrong way or doing the wrong thing or having the wrong thought, and then we need correction and being being shown the right thing, destruction in righteousness.
That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all.
Good works.
Chapter 4. I just want to read the fourth verse. It says verse 3 the time will come, and this time has come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
But after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth.
And shall be turned unto fable.
Fables.
Now turn to.
First Epistle of John.
First Epistle of John.
Chapter 1. I won't comment on many of these verses, but I'll set them before you. Verse 6. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, with him who is light.
And walk in darkness. We lie and do not the truth verse.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth.
Is not in US verse 4 of chapter 2. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar.
And the truth is not in him. Say you know him and you walk your own way. You do your own thing.
You're not responsible to act according to the teachings of Scripture.
You're not in the truth. That's what John is saying here.
Then when he talks about the little children in the family, chapter 2, verse 18, he says little children. It is the last time families divided into fathers, young men and babes or little children. Now it's to the little children that he warns them against error and against antichrists. Striking, isn't it?
It is the last time, as ye have heard, that Antichrist shall come, even though are there many antichrists, whereby we know it is the last time.
They went out from us, these apostates. They were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were all not of us.
But he speaking to the babes in the family, ye have an unction from the Holy One, that's the Spirit of God.
The anointing and you know, all things that they had, the potential, they had the divine teacher within them.
I don't have to go to men to learn to men. I don't mean gifts, teaching gifts in the church, but I'm talking about men in their wisdom.
You have an unction from the Holy One. Ye kneel all things, Verse 27. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you. Ye need not that any man teach you, just man, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and His truth. There you have again the statement, The Spirit of God is the truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, you should abide in him.
Now we have just a short time turn to Second John. Second John.
I want you to notice how many times the word truth appears in this epistle. These two epistles, second and third John.
Second, John the Elder unto the elect Lady and her children, whom I love, and the truth.
And not only I, but also all they that have known the truth, for the truth's sake, which dwelleth in US and shall be with us forever.
Grace be with you, mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
I rejoice greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.
And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another, and this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment that.
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As as ye have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it, for many deceivers are entered into the world. Second, John is warning this elect lady and her children about deceivers, and how she's to conduct herself to herself, towards them, herself and her children.
Many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not Jesus Christ coming in flesh. This is the deceiver and an Antichrist.
Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, that's the truth of his person, that he is very God and very man.
Doesn't abide in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.
Either divided in the doctrine of Christ, yet both the Father and the Son. He is giving her instruction, true instruction as to how to recognize someone that comes to her door peddling literature.
Professionally a minister of the Gospel.
Bringing their false literature to your door. They don't bring the doctrine of Christ. How is she to deal with that? And her children? Notice the children are included in second John.
If you're, if you're a child here, if you're a young person and you've accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, I'll hear this, hear this. You should know who Jesus is.
That's the most basic truth that you should be held accountable for the elect lady who should have known and so should the children. You should know who he is. He is God. If anyone comes to your door and and offers you literature that denies that truth have nothing to do with it.
Don't let them in.
Whosoever transgresseth verse 9, and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God he that divideth in the doctrine of Christ, yet both the Father and the Son. Now here's instruction to this elect lady and her children, if there come any unto you, purportedly being messengers of the gospel and of Christianity, and bring not this doctrine.
Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and you could go on and on and on and name the different cults.
That are in Christendom, that are peddling their poisonous literature.
They don't bring the doctrine of Christ, the truth of this person. Receive him not into your house.
Neither did him. Godspeed. Don't even give him the common courtesy greeting of the day.
For he that biddeth him Godspeed is a partaker of his evil deeds.
Because of time, I'm going to read 3 John. Notice how many times the truth occurs. Second John is negative. It instructs this woman whom not to receive over. Second, John has written God is light over Third John is written God is love. It's instruction how to receive friends, those that bring the gospel of Christ, those who are friends, those who are four times in this epistle called Beloved, not once.
In second John, because he is warning. In two John, he is warning this elect lady and her children.
About Antichrist and deceivers and those that bring a false gospel.
And present a false Christ, don't receive them.
3 John tells us whom to receive the elder unto the well beloved Gaius.
Whom I love in the truth.
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth, For I rejoice greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I've got no greater joy than to hear that my children, thy children walking through. Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest, through the brethren and to strangers. Men had come to Gaius's door that he'd never seen before.
They were strangers, but they were bringing the truth of God. And He welcomed them in, He fed them, He put them up for the night, sent them on their way. That was proper, because that for His name's sake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. Both. Both of these two epistles, second John, are those that go about peddling error and a false Christ. Those in 3rd John are presenting a true Christ and the truth of God.
Dear friends.
Which have borne witness of thy charity before the Church, Verse 6. Whom, if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well.
You sent them on their way, because if for his name's sake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles, we therefore ought to receive such.
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Second, John tells us elect Lady and her children who not to receive. Third, John tells Gaius whom to receive.
Now, in order to know who I should receive and who I shouldn't receive, you have to be able to recognize who are enemies and who are friends, who are holding the truth and who are not.
And in order for you to recognize that, you have to have the truth yourself.
If you don't know the truth yourself, you will be at a loss to recognize the difference between truth and error.
You've got to be acquainted with this book.
It's got to be very well acquainted with this book.
Because after his name's sake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such.
That we might be fellow helpers to the truth.
And then Diatrophies is mentioned and I'm going to skip him and read in verse 11, He's the one that was out of tune with Gaius. He wouldn't receive John. He wouldn't receive those that came that were real friends and he put them out. Verse 11, he says beloved follow not that, which is evil. Verse 5, he says beloved. Verse 1, he says beloved. He's talking to the beloved.
That word doesn't even occur once in Second John because it's a stern warning.
Against those that were enemies to the truth. Here there are friends, Friends to the truth. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. Either do as good as of God, either doeth evil hath not seen God.
This is a letter accommodation for Demetrius. Demetrius hath good report of all men and of the truth itself. Yeah, and we also bear record, and you know that our record is true. I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee. Notice this last verse in 3rd John. But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. The friends salute thee. Greet the friends.
By name.
Second John. He's dealing with enemies.
He's warning this elect lady and her children to refuse them, not to let them in, not to show fellowship to them. They're Johnny's dealing with friends. He's dealing with those who are beloved.
Those who are true to the Lord, we got to know the difference. Don't treat.
An enemy like a friend. Don't treat a friend like an enemy. We got to know the difference.
And once you know the difference from the Word of God and the Word of God will tell us, you can ask a few questions.
To believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Yes, Jehovah's.
My Sins Are My Title to the Savior
Lessons from Joseph
What Must I Do to Be Saved?
Four Towers
O Man of God; What God Has Done for Us
John 4:14