Carolina Conference: 2007
Table of Contents
Ephesians 5:1-11
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How far do you want to read the whole check the whole chat. Ephesians chapter 5. Be therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor at fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness. Let it not be once unnamed among you has become a Saints, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting.
Which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks for this. You know that no homelonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light.
For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. But whatsoever does make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give the light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wearing his excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things under God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as under the Lord, where the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church and he is the Savior of the Body. Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also has loved the Church and gave himself for it.
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the Word.
That he might present it to himself, a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So what men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. For no man ever hated yet his own flesh, but nourishes it, and cherish it even as the Lord, the Church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother.
And she'll be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is amidst a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself and the wife see that she reverenced her husband.
That first verse in the new translation reads Be therefore imitators of God as dear children, as.
As God has dealt with us, so we ought to deal with others. Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself.
For us and offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.
I I think of that passage in X2 it says they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers.
How often do Christians in the United States of America and Canada great bread?
Very seldom. Instead they go to hear a preacher.
It's sad that that which is the central theme of all our blessings, the cross.
Is so little thought of.
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Today.
I made the comment that I think in this land that is so favored.
80 to 90% of those who are real Christians don't even know what a real Christian is.
They're here to improve this world. That's not why we're here. We're not here to improve this world. We're here to present Christ.
And the most perfect object that we can be occupied with, that which fill the Father with joy unspeakable, this is my beloved Son, he said, in whom I am well pleased and whom I delight. And that's why you're here, and that's why I'm here, is to manifest Himself who has given His all for us. Christianity is the only religion.
That gives.
And gives and gives.
Who? Which, when it's properly done, I mean and manifest love. These other religions, Muslims and others, they don't know what love is. They don't know what grace is, they don't know what the chief features of Christianity are. Do we?
Do I the way I treat my wife?
The way the wife is subject to her husband will come to that.
Well.
The imitators of God.
He couldn't have done more.
So the likes of one like me and you.
And walk in love.
How it tells us what we're to be like, why he's left us here.
Walk in love as Christ also loved us.
Never did anything for himself.
The creator of the universe.
Always serving.
When the Lord Washington washed the feet of the disciples, Peter said Thou shalt never wash my feet if I wash thee not Peter, thou has no part with me, not my feet, only with my hands in my head. Peter always made mistakes like you and I did.
He washed their feet so that we might see how we're to conduct ourselves.
Wash one another's feet.
Bring Christ before them. Bring the Word of God. We've had a lot of the Word of God read in our conference so far. You can't improve upon this book. Impossible.
As Christ has given himself for us.
An offering and a sacrifice to God by a sweet smelling savour. Oh what that was to the Father. A sweet smelling savour.
First thing the Lord said was Father forgive them.
For himself, they know not what they do.
And then the last thing he said, It is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
And the simplest thing, I can look back at the last numbers of Lord's days. It seems that each Lord day the remembrance of himself gets more precious, more wonderful. We don't go to Hiram Preacher, we go to give him the worship, adoration and praise which he is so worthy of.
To be able to imitate someone, you have to know that person.
And the better you know that person, the better you can imitate them. There's an expression we sometimes use. You get to be like the people you live with. That is, you unconsciously begin to I am imitate them in various things. Maybe what you say, maybe in your actions, maybe even it comes out in your personality. And if we're going to be followers or imitators of God, we must know God. Now it's true, it says no man has seen God at any time, but it goes on to say the only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
And we don't have to wonder who God is. We don't have to wonder what the heart of God is. It's been fully revealed to us in the giving of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you wonder about the heart of God, just look to the cross.
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Just meditate on the mighty sacrifice that was made there, God giving His Son the Lord Jesus, as it says here, offering Himself as that sweet savor. The whole pathway and work of the Lord Jesus was one that glorified God, the only Begotten who's in the bosom of the Father. He hath declared Him. We beheld His glories as of the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And so this book has revealed to us.
Recorded by Inspiration, the Life and work of the Lord Jesus, the Epistles, the types and illustrations in the Old Testament.
And the more we get into this book and read it and have Christ before us and see who God is, then the more we're going to, shall I say, unconsciously or subconsciously be imitators of God. It's going to show in our lives. But I say, you cannot imitate someone if you don't know that person. And so let's be encouraged to get to know who God is. He's been fully revealed to us. His heart has been fully manifest. And now we're exhorted to not only know him, but to be imitators of him.
What a privilege that is. What a privilege as we walk through this SER this, this world, this world that hates him.
Doesn't want him showed what it thought of God's greatest gift when it nailed him to a cross and they said we will not have this man to reign over us. We say we do have a man that reigns over us that is everything to us who we're now to imitate and to represent That's our privilege. That's why we're left here we're not left here so you'll you'll you'll gain $1,000,000 prize or and all these things that the world.
Holds out and dangles before the eyes of men, no.
That they they don't attract us anymore. Maybe they did when we were unsafe. They shouldn't attract us at all.
Yes.
We teach you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.
For the compassion of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable under God, which is your reasonable or intelligent service.
There is a living sacrifice and we get himself a sacrifice.
And an offer to God for a sweet smelling snake. In Isaiah 58 we get a fast that God has chosen.
And it's that which sets forth his character, what he's like.
And that's, that's our privilege. What an immense change in the early part of Romans to be.
Uh, have our guilt gone and have delivery from sin and to be brought into blessing to where life itself can be a sweet savor to God?
Immense change, having been poor lost sinners. What a what glory for his name.
And then we have a list of the things that the flesh must.
After first one that heads the list is fornication.
Please.
Sell, Please sell.
Fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness.
But if not, we once named among you, has become of Saints. That's so sad as we look at the Christian world now.
How often times that kind of thing is just looked at, looked over?
To misrepresentation of God.
We're not here for that. We're not here to minister to ourselves at all.
But to manifest Christ.
Could we say, Brother Chuck, that the perspective here would take us back to the beginning of the Epistle? We didn't take up or we aren't taking up the what we would call the doctrinal part of Ephesians. This is the practical side. It's the responsibility side, and I'm thankful we're taking it up, but it's always based on what God has already done for us and the position He's put us in.
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And as we've often been reminded before, Ephesians, I suppose, gives us the highest truth as to the privileges that God in His grace has been pleased to confer on man. And if we read those first 2 1/2 Chapters of Ephesians, what do we find? We find that there is One who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. There is One who says, and hath made him to be head over all things to the Church, which is his body.
What the fullness of him that filleth? All in all, I cannot carry these exhortations out without reference to God and reference to Christ and throughout this chapter.
I've had to remind myself of that because if I simply say well I shouldn't do this or I shouldn't do that, or this isn't becoming to a Christian. I may say to myself all that is true, but if I don't look out, I will find myself back in Romans 7 and find out to my horror that that which I would not that I do Why? Because I have lost my view.
Of who Christ is, and what He has done for me as our brethren have been bringing out.
Because His love and all that He is and all that He has done for me no longer has that tug on my heart.
The position I've been brought into, I've lost sight of that. And then as you say, brother Chuck, I'll start pleasing myself. I'll start saying why not? I want to. And the bottom line, as we read here in this third verse.
Is covetousness.
Pardon me if I lay a little emphasis on this.
I hope no one is offended.
But I well remember our late brother. I say our late brother Harry Hayhoe been gone for 45 years. But anyway.
He used to remind us, he said, when someone has to be put away from the Lord's Table for a serious sin, it is never an occasion of a man being overtaken in a fault, or a woman either for that matter, as in Galatians 6 and one, he said. It's always a course pursued.
It's always a number of red lights being run until finally it manifests itself in something so serious that it involves the assembly. This verse brings that out. What is the root of fornication? Covetousness. That starts off in the heart, The uncleanness. Let's be honest about it. That has to precede that. And finally it manifests itself in the sin of such a character that it has to be.
Something the assembly takes up. What's the answer? The answer is to deal with the covetousness.
The answer is to say, am I desiring that which God has not rightfully given to me?
And stop it in its tracks right there. But I can only do it with a reference to Christ, to God himself, to all that he is and all that he has done for me. And then it won't be simply a matter of my conscience saying I mustn't do that, although that's there. It'll be a matter of my heart saying I cannot do that.
Before the God who loved me enough not only to send his Son to die for me, but to bring me into such a wonderful position before Him.
Scripture says that covetousness is idolatry. I think of Judas Iscariot. What was his sin? It was covetousness. Now Ananias and Sapphira, they lied about how much they sold their land for. What was it that motivated them? It was covetousness.
Just let me just finish my thought. I just took a breath. That's alright.
Umm. The last thing that John says in his first epistle is keep yourselves from idols. Keep yourselves from idols.
From covetous, from covetousness, from desiring whatever we might want to desire to please ourselves. I just want to tell this little story. It's a little bit off this, but I think it illustrates it nicely. Young man was walking with a lot of books in his arms down a hallway and another one came and the other one didn't try to get out of the way and he hit him and all the books went down on the ground and the one that was hit said.
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Oh, why did you do that? And he said.
Because I wanted to. What you're gonna do about it?
The one that had had all his books knocked away, he said, well, I'm going to pick up all my books and then go my way. Would you have done that?
To pick up all my books and then go my way.
He didn't say something that produced a fight. Well, that's just a little illustration that you hear from time to time where we're doing things for self. That's what covetousness is, isn't it?
So the basis for our walk through this world, our Christian walk, is divine revelation. As Bill brought out in the first part of the the epistle, he sets before us the truth. And we often have said that in the epistles, you get the doctrinal part of the epistle at the beginning, and then in view of the light that has been given, the revelation made, then you find that there's a practical exhortation in connection with our walk. And so the basis for our walk is divine revelation. We're not going to know how to walk through this world.
Again, if we don't open this book and read it, God has given us, uh, light for our pathway. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. But the motivation is what we have in the second verse, and that is, uh, the heart must be affected. And so as we think of the love of Christ, that's really the springboard or the motivation. I was thinking of it in connection with the verse Lemoyne pointed out in.
Romans chapter 12. What is the motivation for us giving ourselves as a living sacrifice?
It's to realize what Christ has given for us. It's to realize that in love Christ gave himself as that mighty and supreme sacrifice.
And in the measure in which we enter into that in our souls and it touches our hearts, I say that is going to be the springboard or the motivation then to give our lives in service for him. But you know, there's a lot of people that are sincere. A Christian may be very sincere. They may have a heart that goes out to Christ, but they need light for their pathway as well. We need light and direction. We might be sincere in something, but sincerely wrong. I just want to point out without.
Caught very with very little comment, I want to point out seven scriptures in Ephesians that bring before us our walk. You can meditate on these, but they're very important because again, as Bill said, we have an Ephesians, perhaps the highest, the deepest truth committed to man. But they're also in light of it, 7 exhortations in connection with our walk. The fifth one is in our second verse of our chapter, but just back up to the second chapter.
The first one is in connection with our past walk, what we were by nature verse two of chapter 2, wherein in time past he walked according to the course of this world. That is, he reminds these Ephesians brethren who'd been saved by grace, and we're now positionally seated in heavenly places in Christ. He says now remember there was a time when you walked according to the course of this world then in.
Chapter in verse 10 of the same chapter For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them now in the, uh, interim versus he has brought before us very clearly that we're saved not by works, not of works, lest any man should boast, but we're saved by grace. But after we're saved, we are to be careful to maintain good works. There ought to be.
That evidence in our walk that there has been a work of grace, umm, in our souls. Then go over to chapter 4 and verse one. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation or calling for with your calls. We've been called to a wonderful calling. We're heavenly citizens. We're the children of God. There's the walk that is in keeping with what has been laid down in the earlier chapters.
Of the epistle. Then you have the 4th one in verse 17.
This side, therefore this I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds. In other words, he says, don't go back to the way you once walked.
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And the way others are walking around you, unregenerate man, he has to remind them, He has to stir them up. Then we have our exhortation in the verse. We have been considering walk in love and then just to drop down to we'll get to it later. But the eighth verse, the end of the verse, walk as children of light. We've been brought into the light. We're to walk in that way in keeping with that. And then we'll get to the 7th one in the 15th verse. See that you walk circumspectly. So just to show.
That our walk is very, very important. And as these verses we're about to consider and have been considering are taken up, remember that we need these exhortations, brethren, because the flesh in a believer is just as rotten as the flesh and an unbeliever. And the tendency, if we're not careful, if our hearts aren't motivated by the love of Christ, if God isn't before us and Christ is our object, then the tendency of our hearts is going to be to go back to those things.
That we have left behind, and that ought not to characterize those who have been brought into this wonderful position by the grace of God.
It's like to make a mention of the fact that, uh, someone has mentioned that, that the talk, it sometimes doesn't match the walk. You know, you've heard the saying that, uh, he, he talks the talk, but he doesn't walk the walk. Now you could actually substitute as our brother is bringing out these verses, uh, talk. Uh, you can put the word talk in there. And so when we look at our birth and talk in love.
Well, sometimes our talk far exceeds our walk, and you know the world looks upon us.
And also our Christian brethren looked upon us. Uh, uh, there's a little verse to say as you were writing a gospel, a chapter each day by the deeds that you do and the words that you say, then read what you write with a faithless or true say. What is the gospel according to you? Uh, I've heard so many people use that phrase here lately. Even the, the news media one time I was, uh, listening then they, they said about this person, he, he talks the talk, but he doesn't walk the walk. So I, I believe as imitators of Christ.
The Lord Jesus said that he that has seen me has seen the Father.
Other words, I mean, he's the one that if you look at his life, we're to walk as he walked. What? How did he walk the lowly? He said in that verse that that that came to me this morning in the prayer meeting. I am meek and lowly of heart and the Lord Jesus did not identify himself with the great and mighty of this world, but with poor illiterate fishermen and he didn't aspire to be great.
He, he was a, a, a loving, kind, gracious savior condescend the men of lowest state. I mentioned that because I've met some Christians in different denominations. It seems like they aspire to people who are high up in the world. And I think that what we ought to re realize is that the scripture tells us that we're the condescend to mentally doesn't matter how, uh, spiritual you may claim to be or this lady claims to be, but.
She hasn't learned that verse that she should condescend to men of low estates.
And so.
It's a beautiful verse, but it but the thought I want to leave with us is this. Let us not only talk to talk, but let us walk the walk.
The Lord Jesus that walked the walk perfectly, didn't he? And I'd like to call attention in that verse 2 about The Walking and love that were to imitate it says Christ also hath loved us, that is his love was towards us. But it refers to God then and the rest of the verse and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor, that love that Christ had for his church.
Wasn't just directed towards us, but it was directed towards God and he took our our place there, giving himself up not to us or for us just, but it's to God he gave himself. And so the love here is responding to God, Godward as well. That's the self sacrificing. He wasn't just doing this for what he could get out of it. He was doing it for his God as God.
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On our behalf so that we could be presentable to God, He gave himself so we could be presentable as a sweet sacrifice He gave himself. And so I think that's helpful in connection with the next verse. It's a rather abrupt change here from verse two to three where you immediately turn over to fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness, because those are the opposite.
What is fornication? It's self pleasing. It's getting something for yourself.
Well, when you have a happy marriage, usually reference is made to who gives this bride what? Where did she come from? From her parents and they usually give her away. But where did they get them from God who instituted marriage, God, who is love God. And so the source, it goes back here, reference to God. And so we need to have this in before us.
And not just to be struggling to keep ourselves from these unclean things here mentioned in verse 3.
If our souls are occupied with what God has given and him as the source, like the Lord loved, it says of the servant of that, that who was wanted to be a servant forever. I love my master, my wife and my children. He loved all three. And so that love to all three, uh, caused him to do what he did to take on that.
That, uh, perpetual servitude for those he loves. And that's what Christ did. And so love always seeks the good and blessing of the object.
We perhaps may become dry or find difficulty in loving umm, as Christ loved, unless we get back to the source and the example of the Lord Jesus. So I think to me it's helpful to see how that umm, uh, fornication, covetousness really deprive God of His rightful place.
And are seeking the pleasures of those sins without reference to God. Would you go on in verse four that that's part of verse three, Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. Well, that's going back up to God to the giving of thanks. There is that. Uh, what were your thoughts, brother Chuck?
Well, that was under. I wanted you to continue what you said.
Bill, help us.
Well, I don't know that I can add much to it. It's pretty straightforward and I guess I speak for myself. I have to hang my head because I have a penchant for some of this foolish talking sometimes and I have to admit it. But the question is, I suppose here is Christ. And when it talks about a sweet smelling savor for God, it refers, does it not, to those what we sometimes call voluntary or sweet savor offerings in the Old Testament?
The burnt offering, the meat offering, the peace offering, those that were offered directly to God without in that sense, so much reference to sin, although you can't separate in that sense sin from them, but they were offered up to God as voluntary offerings and they were for His enjoyment, not so much for anyone else. The sin offering, the trespass offering, they were compulsory. If there was sin that had been committed, it had to be offered. But the others.
We're a sweet smelling savor to God, and they were for his eye. And I suppose the question at least it comes to my own soul, whatever I do, whether it's something as serious as fornication or whether it's something as it mentions here, like jesting or foolish talking. And of course filthiness goes beyond that. Is it a sweet smelling savor to God? Or is it really just the reflection of part of that old sinful self that occupies itself with nonsense which ultimately can lead to difficulties?
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The blessed Lord was never foolish or digesting the very ideas is repulsive. He was the Man of sorrows going through a world that has turned its back on God.
Through the words, but rather giving of thanks.
They, uh, giving a thanks, a thankful spirit is from being occupied with the Lord Jesus and God and all that he's done is the second verse there that our chapter were occupied with his great sacrifice.
Than giving a thanks will replace all these other things in verse three and four.
Just like to call attention to uh, Proverbs chapter 23 and justice read one verse there in verse 15 of Proverbs 23 and it's, uh, ties in well, I believe here it says, my son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. And so the sun is mentioned. That term, my son is mentioned, I believe 24 times in the book of Proverbs and has the thought of being the builder of the family name, building upon the family name, walking in wisdom. And there is a course of wisdom through this world.
And it's the course of following the Lord Jesus who is personified by being the power and the wisdom of God through the scene and soul. He, he just, uh, gives that instruction for the to the heart as beloved children walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us. And so he walked in perfect wisdom through this world and this world walks in foolishness. And the sooner you and I realize that that this world is filled with foolishness and sin is foolishness of the natural heart of man opposed to God.
And we need not have anything to do with it. And so we identify with Christ himself as beloved children, and we walk in the dignity as the sons of God through this wicked world. And so if we walk in wisdom, what does it say says here in Proverbs 23, if thine heart be wise, if our affections were taken up with the wisdom of God, Christ himself, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. And so we often say that, you know, there's rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one Sinner that repenteth. And that's true.
But there's joy in the heart of the Lord Jesus himself and God himself as he watches and he sees each individual believer walking in wisdom through this wicked world, following the Lord Jesus in the path of faith.
Never says the Lord laughed.
Says in the Psalms, it says, He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh at man's under inability to oppose him.
But he was things are too sober down here. Things are too important. And audiences, they laugh at the most foolish, stupid, idiotic things. And yet that's entertainment to this world. We have something infinitely better. Should never spend our time doing that. I I'm I'm guilty. Guilty that you can say you're guilty.
But he never did that.
We've been talking about the negative things here. I'd like to get on with the things that are good. So verse seven of our chapter says, be not ye therefore partakers with them. For we were sometimes darkness, but now.
Are we, are ye like in?
Uh, light in the Lord Waukee as children of light. So I, I would just like to suggest that, uh, we talk about things that are more positive. This world is so full of darkness these days. We're surrounded by it. If we're, if we belong to Christ, we have a sensitivity to that. We're repelled by it and the, and this connection. So versus the five pole and 2nd Corinthians.
Uh, came to mind and that is, uh, it's in Second Corinthians chapter 5. It's familiar verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.
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All things are a God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation about there, but where no preachers. All things are passed away, all things are become new, and I think for myself, I would like to see more emphasis, you might say, on the good thing to be simple concerning.
The the things that are bad, white concerning the things that are good. We've been talking about the Lord Jesus as the perfect example.
And in some of the comments that have been made, I was thinking of an example in the life of the Lord Jesus where He rejoiced. But it wasn't foolishness. Just just let me read a portion in Luke 10. And in fact, I think this is the only time you read in the life of the Lord Jesus that He rejoiced because it's been pointed out He was the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He groaned and wept as He traversed this earth and saw the effects of sin.
And what he had brought in. But just let me read this verse. Luke 1021.
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and then notice this and said, I thank thee, O Father. Now there's the perfect example. It was a very difficult point in the life of the Lord Jesus. He had to look around earlier in the chapter on the cities he come to bless and those he loved, and because they had rejected him, he had to pronounce judgment and woe. But he rejoiced in spirit. Did he feel it? Of course he did, but he rejoiced in spirit.
There was this sobriety, but there was a rejoicing. Why? Because he could say, Father, I thank the old Father. He committed it all into the hand of the one who he knew was in control of the whole situation. And so in the midst of these things that are listed, and I agree with Brother **** we don't want to go back and go over these things we that it's defiling, but we need to be aware of them. But in the midst of it, he says, but giving of thanks. And I believe, brethren, one of the things that will preserve us in our Christian pathway and in our purity of walk.
Is a thankful spirit to always have before us the blessings that are ours in Christ Why these Ephesians had had a vast panorama of spiritual blessings brought before them earlier in the epistle where they thankful are you and I thankful I would however, like to make this one comment before we go on and it presses on my soul and I'm going to make it and that is that I believe the great difficulty today not just for those who are younger but for all of us is.
That the line of demarcation between right and wrong in the world today is not just blurred, it's been completely removed and taken down. I've sometimes said that when I went to high school in Smiths Falls, there was still, albeit somewhat blurred, there was still a line of demarcation between right and wrong, and moral evil was looked at to some degree for what it was. And so on.
But when I sent my children to school, it wasn't that the line was blurred. The line was removed. Rather, we live in not in an immoral society, but in our moral society. You know, in Latin, if you put a in front of the word, it gives it the opposite meaning. Now I just want to say this too about foolish jesting. And I want to be very careful because I, I'm as guilty of this as anyone. But, you know, this is the day when the enemy is using amusement.
To keep first of all, the unbeliever desensitized to his ruin, and to keep the Christian from enjoying their portion in Christ. You know the word Muse.
It's a Latin word to think, and the word amuse, I say, means the opposite. It means not to think. And when has foolish amusement ever permeated?
Society like the day in which we live. And I, I say this, I can only point at my own heart and leave my finger pointed there. But rather, we need to be very, very careful that we don't get taken up with the amusement of this world. It's going to rob us of our enjoyment of our heavenly blessings. It's going to detract us from being followers.
Imitators of God, it's going to take our hearts away from the love of Christ and it's going to lead to all kinds of disaster, moral ruin and disaster in our lives. Let's be careful that we don't become engulfed in the amusements of this world, but that as we walk as the children of light has been pointed out in our eighth verse, that we walk as those who are heavenly citizens and not part of this world. I I want to say I object to what some of the things that have been said.
00:45:14
If if we can ignore the negative versus who are we to ignore them? They're there to tell us what's hateful to God.
For this know that no *********** nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater. And what does he say about such half? Any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God. Such are outside of that spirit of blessing.
That no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
A child of disobedience is not gonna end up in heaven, is not the Lord's, and they're characterized by these evil things.
Thee not ye, therefore partake with them. We have to be warned about this because we have a nature that will respond to it. We're not capable of saying I'm gonna choose this verse. It's positive and this one is negative, no.
We need them all. We need the buses and we need the minuses because God has given them to us to warn us so that we don't, uh, disallow that which I may be guilty of. So I don't like that one. No, we, we need the whole scripture. Yeah, but we have to have it balanced, don't we? And that's what the Word of God is. It's perfect balance. What umm, brother, umm, Jim was bringing about the difference between the past generation and the present generation, I think is really, I believe is really illustrated in these versus 4:00 and 5:00.
Umm, verse four is, uh, the, the, these acts that are not becoming, they le left unchecked lead to verse five. And perhaps in a large way, our, our society has bridged that gap And there's, there's not the check. It's openly practiced these things today. And so we have to deal with it in that way. Uh, and so God always wants us to stop evil.
As soon as it appears and we have, we are confronted this and we have to deal with these issues in life. And it's good if we can deal with them in the small things before they advance and progress like in verse five. Uh, and so in our individual dealing with this, if we don't take the heart verse 4.
Umm within umm we are umm liable to be drugged down into verse 5.
Because evil will overcome us and our old nature will follow its inclination under the power of Satan and the world around us. And so we do need to, to deal with that. I'm, I, let me brethren, just add a thought. I, I like to keep things balanced, uh, in connection with, uh, foolish gesting, jesting and are talking and jesting, uh.
I don't believe that all humor God forbids. I believe there is a godly way of practicing humor, irony and sarcasm and so on. The very verse that was quoted from the Psalms about God laughing, there is a certain sentiment there that is used in a godly way. What this verse is is describing is.
Using these things apart from God to entertain the heart of man, and that is wrong. It's leaving God totally out and being occupied, occupying souls. You walk into a bar or someplace like this where these things are liberally practiced and they're jokes and the humor and the whole environment leaves God on out. If one person would stand up and quote a verse of Scripture, it would run the whole thing. It would run the whole atmosphere.
Because they have an environment that is seeking to entertain the heart of man apart from God. And that is wrong, brethren. And we can fall into that and may the Lord keep us from it. Uh, so we have to deal with these things, but we have the positive side too. And the example of the Lord Jesus and walking in love and the, the godly, the way God instituted marriage and the various relationships that we.
00:50:15
Enjoy are able to enjoy in life. There is a holy way of enjoying these things.
And so may the Lord help us to to be occupied with that. And it's seeing both sides really helps us to steer a course of walking as as Christ walked. Here I want to read in connection with these thoughts from 2nd Corinthians 12.
Verse 20.
We're right here. Now. This is the same writer that wrote Ephesians 5, where I fear lest when I come talking about the Corinthians, there was a case of moral incest and so on. Evil that he had 10 foot away from among yourselves, that wicked person. But at the end of this epistle he says, I fear less when I come, I shall not find you such as I would now. The way he wants to find them is the way it's outlined here in Ephesians 5. And they have to be warned against those things they used to do.
And that I shall be found unto you, such as ye would not, lest there be debates, envyings, rats, stripes, backbiting, whisperings, swellings, tumults, and less. When I come again, my God will humble me among you. He was their father. They had many instructors, but only one father. He was. He had a father's heart. And he says, God will humble me among you, and that I shall be wail many.
Who have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed. There was more to be done there at Corinth. And so it was necessary to bring these things out and say that's what you used to do, that's what you came from, that's what you were. And you still have that nature that likes to do those things. It has to be curbed and stopped and that's you gotta put all the scripture together and.
That's why I wanna keep the balance here, right?
Bring something else. So Brother Chuck, while we're on the subject, just so we're clear on it, when it says in verse 5 here that a covetous man who is an idolater doesn't have any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God, what? What does that mean? If a believer finds covetousness in his heart, does that mean that he loses his salvation? Or what's the force of that expression that he has no inheritance in the Kingdom? Well, I think of Ananias and Sapphira. They sold the land for so much.
And they lied about it because they wanted to keep some of that for themselves. They wanted an inheritance, so to speak. But here he says, those that do that they, they, uh, have no inheritance in the Kingdom of God. The things that really count, you don't, you're, you're forfeiting that inheritance for something like who wants to be a millionaire and all that kind of nonsense. Does that help? So Ananias, we probably, we believe Ananias is possible that they were saved souls that probably were real, genuinely saved souls. And they'll be in heaven, but they'll lose, they lost out.
In, in, in their act of they did of selling and keeping back part of the price of the land and the God, the government of God cut them off.
In this life, uh, and so in, in that act, they lost out that inheritance. I wanna add to that, Doug, I've been asked so many times, a certain person is named that has fallen into some kind of a sin that is bad. And they'll say, do you think he said it? And my answer is, now you want me to play God? The Lord knoweth them that are his. I don't know if he's saved or not. He's done something, which if he pursues that and consistently goes on with that, no, he's not. But I, that's not for me to judge.
What, where to judge, is the act itself that's wrong and the act what the act of Anodio and Sapphire was so serious that they lied to the Holy Ghost?
That was worse than anything else that they had said they lied to. The Spirit of the Spirit of God dwells in the assembly, and to lie to the Holy Spirit is the most serious offense. Well, umm, I think that helps. I'd like to mention the fact I think here it more or less deals with the lifestyle. There's no one in this room has never covered it. Covered just simply means desire. Now, Scripture tells us we should covet the best gifts and so forth, but there's no one in this room.
00:55:14
Has never told a lie. That's just a little baby. There's no one in this room has ever coveted something that God did not want you to have.
But basically, I think what we're talking, what he's saying here, because in versa 80 says for ye were sometimes darkness. There's not a sin, uh, that you and I or any other human being is not capable of, but by, by God, by God's grace. So when, when it tells us here about, uh, ************ and, uh, uh, and uh, cognitive people, that's people I feel that have adopted this as a lifestyle.
And uh, of course we, I remember and I think I mentioned this before.
But I, I was talking to a man, he was quite a very powerful man and it was a very mean man. He was in you don't want to cross him, but I don't know how I ever got the energy to say what I said to him. His wife was complaining to me about he was going to leave her and so forth. And then he was complaining. The fact that he didn't his wife was, this was I, you know, but I, I, I quoted that scripture to him that marriage is honorable in all things and the bed undefiled.
But ************ and adulterers, God will judge. Now I can say I, I don't know how I got the nerve to do it. Only the Holy Spirit, I think maybe forced gave me the power to do that. But the The thing is that there's a man who has adopted this as a lifestyle and, and, and if a Christian falls into sin, any of these sins, there is forgiveness. God Forgives and we should forgive. I've heard the cases where.
Uh, someone brings up the fact, oh that that brother did this or that brother did that and and they still hold it against him. But listen, we're all belong in hell but for the grace of God. And so as a brother sins and falls alone a wayside.
There is restoration, there is forgiveness, and who God Forgives, we should forgive. But he's making a contrast here in these verses, isn't he? He's contrasting what characterizes the children of disobedience in the end of the sixth verse and what ought to characterize the children of light in the end of the eighth verse. And what he's saying is that these things that characterize the world, that characterize the children of darkness, Why, brethren, they're not so much to be named among Saints.
These things aren't to characterize you. You put off the works of darkness. You are the children of light now. And these things ought not to come in and characterize us in our individual lives and in our relationships one to another. And so that's why he's speaking about this one who doesn't have an inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God, because the children of disobedience don't. And but, but we're not the children of disobedience. We're the children of life. Now I will say this.
That for those who know are the children of light. And allow these things to come in. There will be loss at the judgment seat of Christ, not lost as far as our salvation, but there will be loss as far as that which He can reward us for and that which will be our part in the Kingdom. Because our faithfulness now is going to place us, give us a part in the administration of the Kingdom. Be thou over 5 cities. Be thou over 10 cities.
And the Kingdom is the manifestation of the rewards that are given at the judgment seat of Christ. According to those rewards, we will have a part. Now, brethren, He wants us not just to have an entrance into the Kingdom, but He wants us to have an abundant entrance. And if we allow these things that ought not to be named amongst us, ought not to characterize the children of light, if we allow these things in our lives, there's we're not going to have an abundant entrance. Oh yes, we're going to be there.
Oh yes, there's going to be something that He can reward us for. Oh yes, we're going to have a part when Christ comes forth to reign. But He wants us to have an abundant entrance, not just an entrance. But I think we missed the point if we don't see here in the context that he's contrasting that which characterizes the children of disobedience and that which ought not to characterize the children of light. Will you agree, Doug? Yes, and there's the children of disobedience, verse 6.
And, and verse eight children of light and those are that's a position before God. But a child, a child of, of light can fall into sin and he can practice one of the things on the list he needs and he needs to be restored. And God is faithful with such. But because, uh, we are children of light, we ought not to practice those things. And we have a good example of that in the two of the 12 disciples.
01:00:20
The Lord said one of you going to is going to betray me, Peter said. Though I'll deny thee, not yet, will not I?
It turns out that he, he said. I know not the men. I don't know him, I don't know him. Three times he went out.
Judas went out, sold his master for 30 pieces of silver. Who was saved and who wasn't?
Judith hanged himself.
Peter repention with tears. He was real, and yet he did a terrible thing. I've done terrible things. Have you?
I remember a brother speaking about someone who had fallen into sin and he referred to them as as a person who wasn't wasn't concerned about their present condition. That's a bad sign, brethren. If we fall into sin and it isn't bothering us if we fall into sin and we're miserable, that's a good indication because God is dealing with this and there's something in us that shows that we are are really the Lords. So that's what verse seven is be not ye therefore partakers of them who?
The children of disobedience, he says you're the children of light. Now don't go back and partake of what the children of disobedience go on with every day. Somebody's illustrated this way. A pig lives in the mud. A sheep might fall in the mud, but a pig lives in the mud. The unregenerate man, he only has the old nature. And so he goes on with the lust of the flesh and fulfilling the lust of the flesh and of the mind and so on. But we have divine life, we have the Spirit of God, we have the light of God's word. Now he says, you who have been brought into this position of light, don't be partakers with them. And that's why I say he's making a contrast here.
Yeah, I'll never forget when my optometrist, I got saved as a freshman in college, I needed glasses and uh, he gave me a book to read and uh, it was a book put out by the Moody Press and it says Heaven or Hell, which, and I read that book. And in that reading of that book, the author said.
Which one is it for you, reader? Heaven or hell? And I said I'm going to hell.
I'm going to hell.
But that wasn't very long, but I could say I'm going to have it wasn't very long. And that's what verse eight was. You were sometimes darkness. I was darkness, but now light in the Lord. So now I'm to walk as children of light. It's true of all of us.
Brother Chuck, you mentioned about the Peter Finney, the public restoration of Peter, I believe was the fact that the Lord wanted to reinstate him, of course. But Can you imagine that if he did not have that public restoration, they would have been brethren who would have come along and said, wait a minute, Peter, you did a terrible sin. YYY You take a, a, a back seat here. That was John 21. Yeah. And so I think www.whatweseethere.
Is that when God Forgives and restores our Lord Jesus that that we should not be like those people who would have been with Peter, David, Peter, stand up and say, wait a minute, Peter, don't you remember you, you, you, you designed your very Lord that died for you. What right do you have, you know, to do this or do that? So, so we'll let you remember that coming back, that if a Christian does fall into sin, when he's forgiven, we forgive him and we don't let that.
Re retain it I I remember I just had a just telling my wife of this amazing story.
But I disagreed with a certain person in in on a certain issue. It wasn't having to do with, with, uh, with, with Christianity. But she said to me, she said I had trouble with you ever since we were in grade school.
So, well, this is something this poor woman has Harvard something against Mayford for 60 years, you know, And so we shouldn't do that. I mean, we should, we should be able to to if God has forgiven them, he's forgiven us.
We should forgive them too. It does say of the other ten. They all forsook him and Flint.
So they couldn't point the finger at anyone but themselves. That's what we're made out of in the flesh.
01:05:07
Just wanted to comment on this first at the end of it, at verse eight, it says walk as children of light. And uh, in the 84th Psalm you get a little indication of those that walk in darkness. But uh, in, in verse 10 of the 84th Psalm, it says this a day in thy course is better than 1000. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God than to dwell on the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory.
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Oh, Lord opposed, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. What we find when Eve fell in the when man fell in the garden of the Lord. It says this I'm just gonna read it. It says in verse 6 just partway through she took of the fruit thereof. She took she reached out with her hand and took something that God hadn't given her. And so the the one the child of light walks in the light and knows the father of all lights with whom is no variableness, no shadow of turning every good gift, every perfect gift cometh from above.
And he lifts up his hand under the Lord for a blessing, and it says this, he walks in faith, and he says no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. And so we need to have a sense in our souls that everything that we acquire in this scene, whether it's a piece of clothing or a vehicle that we can use for the family or for the Lord's people, we ought to have a sense that we're receiving it from the Lord and not taking out and reaching with our hands and taking something that God didn't give us and in faith.
The child of light says to himself, and understands by faith, that no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly, and so he waits for the Lord to provide. And so This is why he says here that.
In verse 10 proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And so we need to have a sense that what we have.
Is either going to be acceptable under the Lord or unacceptable and in the course of life?
Is going to be acceptable to him or unacceptable?
Give a thought to brother. Verse 9 says the fruit of the spirit. Darby has it, the fruit of the light. Have a thought on that.
Fruit of the light is in our goodness and righteousness and truth. It's the same, same truth, but.
Well, the Spirit of God, if we walk in the Spirit, we're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. But it had just said in verse eight block is children of light for the fruit of the light that goes together, doesn't it? But it's all by the Spirit of God. It's a wonderful thing to realize that we have a power that lives within us to keep us from sinning. We have the flesh, yes, but we have a new life and the power of that new life, which is the Spirit of God.
To enable us to walk above sin.
I suppose these verses exemplify what we get in the last verse of Romans 12. We don't need to turn to it.
Uh, it says there be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. And so here the fruit of the light is what it is, that which commends itself first of all to the Lord, but also commends itself to.
The consciences of those who may be walking in darkness, and so it says they are going on to verse 11, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. What does that mean? Well, there is time, of course, for me to open my mouth and reprove someone, but I suggest that perhaps more of the force of what we have here is a life.
Lived for the Lord.
And an atmosphere, if I could use that expression, that surrounds the believer that by itself reproves. And then there's the opportunity. We think of a man like Lott who was living in Sodom, and he had a righteous soul, it tells us. And he was vexed from day-to-day with the terrible things that were said and done in Sodom, but he had no testimony that he could offer. And when he tried to warn his sons in law.
01:10:01
Of the judgment that he knew was coming, they didn't have any any ear for him. It says they, what does it say? They seem to him as idle tales or something like that. I can't remember the wording. But anyway, he had no moral power to reprove them or to say anything because he was doing the very thing he shouldn't have been doing. He should have been separate. But here you and I are called upon to be in the world, but not of it. And there's a character that, as it says in verse, thi verse 13, all things that are reproved.
Are made manifest by the light. If the light shines, it will illuminate.
What is wrong? And it won't have to be my forcing myself in getting into a knock down, drag out argument with somebody so much. Yes, there may have to be some pretty straight words sometimes, but it's really what I live that carries far more weight than what I say, doesn't it? When we get to heaven, all the negative things in this chapter won't apply. We won't be capable of sinning anymore.
But we are now, so they're there, and we need them to warn against allowing that nature to act. But that's going to be the greatest, one of the greatest privileges of heaven is it'll be impossible for us to sin because we'll only have the nature of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the flesh will be forever gone. What? What a wonderful day to wait for.
All right.
I might just tell a little story that's told a long time ago when I was a young man in a reading meeting of a, a brother who in the workplace, uh, he was confronted with the world. And as usual, there were times of jesting and fi and unclean jokes. And one day us UN unclean story was told and everybody laughed in the workplace, but the brother didn't laugh. He was quiet.
In silent and somebody called attention brother, or they didn't call him brother, but so and so did you didn't laugh.
And his comment was?
Man, I live in the presence of God. I live in the presence of God.
The laughing stopped It. It was a reproof to them, just in a simple way. In a simple way, uh, it, it. He didn't have to say more. He didn't have to say this, and this is wrong. Uh, uh.
That was understood and it's living in the presence of God and so that I, I, I really believe that's the, the reproving here have no fellowship lot. He might, his life must not have been that separate. Maybe he laughed at the jokes. I don't know. Uh, there was something about him that he was not separate so that when he did speak his, his life testimony did not have power.
Abraham was separate from that. We live in the world, but if we are of the world while we're in it, we will lose our power and the testimony to reprove.
We are in the light, that's positionally, we are the children of light. We are light in the Lord. And 1St John brings that out very clearly that that is our position. But if I can just use this illustration, because I think what the statement Doug made is the key, living in the presence of God. And this is perhaps a feeble illustration, but if someone is put in a room in an institution and the authorities are afraid that that person is going to do something they shouldn't, what do they do?
They put a light on him 24 hours a day so that he's consciously in the southeast, consciously in the light at all times. And brethren, in the measure in which you and I walk, in the conscious sense that we're in the presence of God and that we are in the light, we'll never get out of the light. We are positionally, we are light in the Lord. We're the children of light. But if we lose sight of the, the conscious sense that we're in the presence of God.
And that we are the children of light. Then we're going to allow these things. If we're not careful, these things are going to come into our lives that we've spoken of.
In this meeting at some at some length, and the Lord Jesus too, in connection with our testimony, he said ye are the light of the world.
01:15:03
When the Lord Jesus was here, he could say I am the light of the world. But he also says in Matthew's Gospel, in that same book, he says ye are the light of the world. Do you know the Lord Jesus is not the light of the world today?
The Lord Jesus is back at the right hand of God, but he has left his people here to be a testimony and a light. And what light is this world going to see? It's really only what is reflected in your life and mind. And especially in a day when they've closed the pages of the light of God's Word, they don't read it. It's not in the schools, they don't pray. They they've turned their back on the light of God's Word. What light is this world going to see in our neighborhood at work?
At school, wherever we operate from day-to-day, the only light this world is going to see is what is manifested in your life and mine. Are we walking then as the children of light? You know it's interesting in contrast to lot that of Daniel, when they tried to find something against him, they finally concluded his coworkers in the 6th chapter. They finally concluded that they could find nothing against him except it be concerning the law of his God. You know, that's about the equivalent of you going off to school or going off to work.
We're going to the store and people trying to find some fault with you and they finally conclude, you know, the only thing we have against that person really is that they're a believer. They're a Christian. Now, isn't that, wouldn't that be a good testimony? I, I would cover the testimony like that. And that's why it says in Philippians 2 That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. We live in a crooked and a perverse nation. It's a Dark World.
And the moral and spiritual darkness is deepening over the Western world every hour. But we're to be here, to be harmless and without rebuke, because we are to shine as lights in this world until the Lord takes us out.
Uh, and I'd like to suggest that we can carry away from this session 2 verses in this portion that illustrates the what I believe is the real message that was intended. The first verse, of course, is the first verse of the chapter be therefore followers of God as their children. The second verse is verse 7.
Thee not ye, therefore partakers with them those that are spoken of in the year earlier verses.
And that's why I thought and made the comment before about being, uh, simple concerning good and wise. I mean, why is concerning good and simple concerning evil? But the point I believe with this portion is in counting out all of these sad behaviorisms, the word to us as believers is being not part takers. We're believers. We're kept by the power of God.
He's gonna finish that work in us. We're gonna spend eternity with him. This is a word for our current ward. We're surrounded by evil. Be not partakers.
Choose your friendships carefully, your activities carefully. Be not a partaker in any of these things that we've had before us.
Tribulation
Address—Bill Prost
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Could we sing together a very well known hymn 46 in the appendix?
I can well remember this, him being given out when I was a young person.
But you know, I've got a problem already.
I was talking to a brother just a little while before the meeting and we were discussing which one of us had Alzheimer's.
And somebody's gonna have to get me my proper glass.
I don't like bifocals, but I have to learn to wear them.
#46 in the appendix on the Sirius side though.
This hymn was written by a man, George W Fraser, and probably some of you know a little bit about him. He lived back in the 1800s, and to use common language, he was a Rascal when he was a young man, had no use for the gospel, but then was brightly saved at a gospel meeting and went on to be gathered to the Lord's name. And I think I have it right that he wrote this hymn, if not a few days, at least very shortly before he was married.
So it shows you really where his heart was 46 in the appendix.
My heart and teeth. Oh dear sleep, my name is late 'cause I want to put it in the fridge and it's cracked and I may call my heart.
Of crap to survive.
And they're getting pretty good.
Let's pray together.
Loving God our Father, we thank Thee for the hymn we have sung together and for what we have expressed in it.
00:05:04
And we do trust our God that we have spoken honestly from the heart as we sung these words together. Be thou the object, bright and fair to fill and satisfy the heart.
We thank the Lord Jesus.
That thou art before us, that thou hast gone before, that thou art now therein glory.
And that shortly we too will share that glory with thee.
And now we pray for help as we open Thy word together, pray for wisdom from thyself, and we pray that Thy Spirit might speak to each one of our hearts as we are gathered here together.
We do realize, our God, that we are living in the last days. We trust that we realize the solemnity and yet the blessedness of the days in which we are living.
And so we commend our time together to Thee, where we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I would like to turn together.
Just a one verse.
A verse that was already read before us in the prayer meeting this morning in Revelation chapter one.
Revelation chapter one.
And verse 9.
I, John.
Who also am your brother?
And companion in tribulation.
And in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.
Was in the aisle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
I'm going to read it again as it appears in the JN Darby translation. If I miss a word, pardon that, but I think it'll be in substance the way the Darby renders it.
I, John, who also am your brother and fellow partaker in the Tribulation and the Kingdom and the patience in Jesus.
Was in the aisle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus.
I have often enjoyed this verse.
I can well remember a brother ministering on it in an open meeting.
Well over 4045 years ago.
And I well remember the impression it made on me then.
Why did it?
We know that the Apostle John lived out all the rest of the apostles, and probably wrote the Book of Revelation a good thirty years after the Apostle Paul went to be with the Lord.
And I suppose by that time all of the other apostles had either died or, as history tells us, been martyred. And I believe most of them were martyred, if not all the others.
And here is John, at the end of his life, banished to the Isle of Patmos.
And given the responsibility of writing the Book of Revelation.
It's a book of judgment, primarily.
And it is primarily the judgment of God on that part of the world.
That has known the gospel, That has had an open Bible, That has known the testimony of Christianity.
The Word of God tells us about the judgment of God on other parts of the world, but Revelation primarily talks about God's judgment on that part of the world that has known something of Christ and of Christianity.
00:10:02
But if God is going to judge this world, we read in Peter that judgment must first begin at the House of God.
And so before God takes up the judgment of this world.
We find in the early chapters of Revelation that God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, gives his verdict on the testimony as he saw it.
We don't have time to go into but, but we know that the various assemblies that are detailed for us in the second and third chapters of Revelation.
Taken in the the order in which they occur.
Give us a panoramic history of the Church down through the ages, beginning with the time when the apostles had passed off the scene until the time when the Lord comes.
We must remember that when God speaks in Revelation, it is not so much His grace in meeting us in our need, although thank God that is always there. It is not so much His provision for our failure, although thank God that is always there. But it is the Lord Jesus in the character of a judge saying if this is the place, if this is the position that you profess to take.
Here is what I see.
We're not going to go into Revelation chapters 2:00 and 3:00, but I suggest that in this verse that John speaks.
Revelation One and nine. We have perhaps the seeds of the difficulty in declension that afterward became the problem for the people of God.
Now we know that John and his ministry does not primarily give us assembly truth. That's Paul's ministry. In fact, I am not aware that John and his ministry at any point ever speaks of the church in its broad character. Individual assemblies, yes, but the church as we know it composed of every true believer. I am not aware that John ever speaks of that anywhere in his ministry, whether in the Gospels or the Gospel of John, I should say.
Or whether in John's epistles, or whether in the Book of Revelation?
But the testimony that you and I have in this dispensation of God's grace was of particular interest to John. And I suggest to your heart and mind that God, in this verse, among others, is showing us those things to which each one of us needs to pay attention.
I don't want to speak only to the conscience. I hope it will come through to the heart as well.
I enjoyed from this vantage point looking out over you all as that hymn was being sung at the beginning.
And I could not help but be impressed with the number of people.
Who obviously were singing it with all their hearts.
The look on their faces spoke of real.
Feeling in their souls as they sung those words together.
Young people, middle-aged people, older people. Now obviously in a company this size, I did not scrutinize every face, but I could not help but see that and it did my heart good.
And as I look into your faces, I know that there probably are very few here, if any, who would say I don't care. I'm not interested in the kind of testimony I bear as a Christian. I'm not interested in what the Lord thinks of my walk and my ways. I am not interested in whether I am getting the gospel out to a lost world.
Or whether my life is that of which the Lord could approve. I doubt if there is anyone, I hope not in this room who would talk like that.
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I have heard people talk like that. I remember well a young man my own age, and I am persuaded to this day that he is the Lord and that I can remember that there were some young people that were going out with gospel tracts and he showed no interest whatsoever. And finally a young sister, maybe a few years older than he, but not much, two or three years older, said something like this to them. Well, aren't you interested?
In getting the gospel out to these people.
Who need to hear about the Lord Jesus and I will never forget his words. He said something like this. To tell you the truth, I couldn't care less.
That was a long time ago.
45 years ago. Perhaps that young man is still alive, but what about his life? Oh, it has been a story of sorrow and difficulty and all kinds of problems.
Again, I am persuaded that he is the Lord's, but the Lord knows. But again I say, as I look into your faces, I am sure if I were to go to each one here and say, do you want to enjoy the Lord Jesus in your life, you would say yes. Do you want to walk through this world for His glory? Yes, I do. Do you want to stand before Him in a coming day at the judgment seat of Christ and hear his words?
Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Oh, I am sure that each one here would say.
Each one that knows the Lord. Even the younger children would say yes I do.
What then is the problem? What is the problem? And let's point the finger right here with me. Why is there not more faithfulness? Why is there not more blessing in my life? Why is there not more energy for Christ, more passion for Him, more enjoyment of His things?
I don't pretend to have all the answers because it can be different for each one of us.
But I suggest that the Spirit of God through John.
If we could use this expression was getting to the core of matters here.
In Revelation 1:00 and 9:00.
Here is John having been faithful for these many years, and I suppose by his life and his age he had the moral weight to say some of these things.
And here he is on this island. I've never been there, but I have spoken to those that have.
I suppose there were no other believers there. We don't read of any. I suppose that he was deprived of Christian fellowship and of that supreme privilege about which we spoke this morning of remembering his Lord in death. He was probably deprived of much that you and I would enjoy and hold dear. At least I hope we do. But here he is, and what does he talk about?
I, John, who also AM your brother. We're not going to dwell on all of these things, but there are some comments we want to make on them and perhaps leave you and me too to fill in the gaps.
He says I also am your brother.
And fellow partaker or companion.
I love that because here was a man who had a wonderful place. He was one of the 12 apostles. He was one who had known the Lord intimately during his earthly ministry.
And that, you'll remember from the early part of the book of the Acts, was one of the qualifications of being one of the apostles.
He had seen the Lord, he had accompanied with him, and so in the beginning of his first epistle he can say that which we have seen, which we have handled, and so on of the word of life, Speaking of the person of the Lord Jesus.
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But when it comes to writing to those with whom he identified as his brethren in Christ, how does he write your brother and companion?
I say to my own heart, and I say to each one here, let us each remember that no matter how much we may know of the word of God, no matter how faithful we may have been in walking before the Lord.
No matter what privileges the Lord may have conferred upon.
When it comes to other believers, when it comes to those who are also members of the body of Christ and part of the family of God.
We are simply a brother or a sister and a companion.
You know, it's a wonderful thing to be a companion, and here was John speaking in a situation where I suppose on the human level, he had no companionship. He probably did not have another believer in whom to confide. It's wonderful to be able to talk to someone, isn't it? It's wonderful to be able to unload on someone. I was glad to get a phone call from her brother several months ago.
He said, Bill, I just need to talk to somebody and he unloaded a serious problem that he was trying to deal with. I felt honored that he felt free to call me and tell me about it and that he felt free to speak about something that perhaps he didn't want to speak about to everyone.
And you know, there are times in our lives when that is most necessary.
But I do say this, that suppose you don't have that Oh the Lord himself, and we'll find that later on in this.
Book of Revelation, which we won't go into this afternoon, the Lord himself comes in and says.
I will be your companion, I will be your confidante, I will be the one who will listen to you and allow you to pour out your heart. And I will never get tired of hearing from you.
And so John takes that lowly place. But what I want to focus on this afternoon are the things that he mentions here.
Companion.
In what three things, three things here that he mentions companionship in their very much put together these three things here, tribulation and Kingdom and patience.
What is Tribulation?
Tribulation is a very strong word.
I am not any special scholar, but the word tribulation comes from a Latin root that is connected with flogging or scourging. Oof.
Not a very nice thought. Roman scourging, as most of us probably know, was a terrible thing.
Where they took this awful whip of leather thongs and sewed to it fits of broken glass and fits of jagged metal and little rocks and anything else of that nature that they could come up with. And then the poor victim was tied up and that was laid across his back by a man who was a professional, if you could use that word to describe.
Such an occupation.
He knew just how to do it.
And how to get the maximum amount of pain out of that awful whip? And the word tribulation is connected with that.
And John says I am your companion in Tribulation. What does that mean?
To you and to me.
Turn back, please, to a verse in John's Gospel.
Chapter 16.
John 16.
Verse 33. The last verse.
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These things I have spoken unto you, that in me might have peace.
In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.
This is one of two places in the Lord's life where He speaks of himself as being an overcomer.
It's one of the two places where he himself speaks of being an overcomer.
And what the Lord is bringing before us here is that you are going to be following a rejected Christ. I will give you an inner peace, but in the world you are going to have tribulation.
I want to lay before each one of us what has often been said but bears repeating, and that is that when it comes to salvation, for you and for me, it is free.
But discipleship is costly.
I say salvation is free.
But was it free when it came to the work on Calvary's cross? Was it free when it came to my blessed Savior in the three hours of darkness? No.
And yet you and I, as a result of that work, can sing in hymn 137 in our hymn book, the Father's face of radiant grace shines now in light on me.
May I reminisce again.
I can well remember.
Back, I suppose, in the 1960s, when I used to go to conferences like this, when I was the age of some of you young people.
High school and later on in college.
And I can remember how some of us young people used to gravitate to a brother long since with the Lord. He wasn't the only one, but he stands out. A brother long since with the Lord by the name of Eric Smith.
And we used to love to spend time in his company.
We would seek him out after the meeting. We would try, if we could, to sit and eat with him at the table. We would raise questions with him. We would ask him all kinds of things.
And we marveled at the hidden sight he had, how he could bring things out of scripture, how he could appeal to our hearts.
How if he stood up And mind you, I am not trying to.
Glorify a man? No, it was only a reflection of Christ. But how? When he would stand up in an open meeting and minister?
Young people would walk out with tears running down their faces.
Because of their hearts had been so touched by what he said.
You know, as I got to be a little more mature, I realized that all of that was not just some natural gift. All of that was not something that just happened, that just came because of the kind of a person he was. Now I realized that as I got to know him better, there had been a price to pay for that nearness to Christ.
There had been something that he had learned as we get in Philippians 3, where Paul says.
That I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
And the fellowship of his sufferings.
I learned that that dear brother had been through the fires of persecution and affliction.
For 40 years in South America, many times alone by himself, having been through all kinds of difficulties and troubles, I learned how that he had had to sit by and watch his first wife die of cancer when they had been married only a matter of a few years, I learned how that he had watched.
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His second wife also die of cancer.
And his third wife, whom I knew well. I watched her almost die of cancer too. I learned how he had been in prison for Christ under circumstances that were most difficult.
Oh, there was a price to be paid for the beauty and the sweetness.
Are you and I willing to pay that price?
Are you and I willing to put up with the tribulation unless I should be misunderstood? Yes, there are our dear brethren in other lands who right now, at this very moment, as we sit here enjoying peace and quiet.
Being imprisoned for Christ, being hounded, who would if they could meet together like this, but often are prohibited? And who if they do meet together?
Are always looking over their shoulder to see who might be following or who might be after them. There are those at this very moment who are laying down their lives for Christ.
And yet there are those who are rising up and saying, yes, by God's grace, I will pay the price.
I will take the risk.
I read a little while ago.
About a girl who grew up in fairly recent years in China. Her name was Ling.
And her mother was a believer.
But she had a very difficult upbringing because her father was very, very sick and he was not able to support the family, so that her mother often had to work very hard. And when she was about 9 or 10 years old, her father died of the cancer that had been eating away at him for many years. And there they were in a very difficult situation and laying along with her younger sister, turned their back on Christ and on anything to do with Christianity, because their attitude was what has it given us?
And the mother was heartbroken.
Didn't know what to do with these two wayward girls. No father that seemed to be able to be a help to them.
And here she was not very well herself, working very, very hard, and the authorities were not too.
Kindly toward her Christianity either.
And so she prayed.
She prayed.
And one day, Ling overheard her mother pray.
And her mother was saying like this, something like this, Lord.
I want one of my children at least, but preferably all of them, to follow you.
But I want you to take the one that is the most difficult and the most rebellious.
Because underneath it all, she has the most to offer. Lord Jesus, I want to offer you Ling.
Ling was about 14 at the time.
And she was furious. She was furious when her mother had got finished praying, she said, Mother, I heard that. What are you saying? Are you telling me that you are going to offer me up as a sacrifice to your God? And on and on she went.
Her mother said, knowling no.
But you have turned your back on the only one who can give you joy and peace. And if you would only follow Him and accept Him as your Savior and I believe the Lord could use you.
You know, that went right home. And it wasn't too long after that. I can't remember the time frame where Ling is. A young woman knelt down with her mother with the tears running down her face and accepted Christ as her Savior. And you know, from that point on, there was no turning back. Yes, she ended up in all kinds of trouble. She was taken by the authorities, ended up in all kinds of difficulties, spent years in prison.
Alka, I won't bother you with the details.
The point is, she was willing to pay the price of tribulation. Oh, but you say I don't live in a country like that. I live in the United States. I live in Canada or somewhere like that.
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You know, it's very interesting.
That when Ling started to become active for the Lord.
Sad to say, sad to say, and I hesitate to repeat this, but it's true. Those who at least once or twice and maybe several times she wasn't sure, turned her into the authorities.
For those who took the place of being Christians, those who were envious of the Lord's blessing on her work for Him, and who were envious of her bright testimony.
And they wanted to use a common expression to take her down a peg or two. Be prepared for that. I suggest that sometimes the tribulation in these favored lands comes from within. But there is tribulation. And in Second Timothy chapter 3, it tells us, yeah, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And the connotation of those words in Timothy.
Has to do, I suggest, with persecution, not always from the outside world.
But from within the great House that is spoken of in the second chapter.
Tribulation. Are we willing to pay the price? If you are willing.
Or as someone else has said, if you are willing to be made willing, the Lord I believe. I don't say we should go and look for tribulation. I don't say we should ask for it. That's not the thought.
But let's remember that that is the pathway that the believer needs to face. And that is one of the very areas I suggest, and I'm not pointing the finger except here, but it's one of the areas where there was failure that eventually was the downfall of the church's testimony was being unwilling and unhappy to face the tribulation. The devil said compromise a little and I'll give you an easier path. You don't need to do that.
After all, you don't need to mean what you say. Just say what they want and then go and do what you want anyway. You don't have to.
Be so difficult to live with, just go along a little bit. After all, the Lord understands, no?
Children of light, children of darkness, things are black and white. Let's go on.
In the Kingdom, the Kingdom. Why does it mention the Kingdom here?
We had a little bit about the Kingdom this morning because it was mentioned in our chapter in Ephesians 5, and it spoke there of some things which, if we carry on with them, prevent our having any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God. And it was well brought out that there it's not so much a question of eternal salvation, but a question of what is characteristic of God's Kingdom as opposed to Satan's Kingdom.
Why does John bring that in here?
Why does it say, and you don't need to turn to it, but it's in Acts chapter 20 where the apostle Paul and it's significant that he's talking to the Ephesian elders, the same people.
To whom the book of Ephesians was written, That is that assembly, he says. I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the.
Kingdom of God will see my face no more. Why the emphasis on the Kingdom of God?
Why do people who are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ?
Why do people who are already risen and seated in heavenly places in Christ?
Why do people who are part of the bride of Christ, the fullness of him that filleth All in all?
Have to be told.
As it tells us in Ephesians, not to tell lies to each other, really not to steal, not to get angry and lose their temper with one another. Why do they have to be told not to engage in serious immoral conduct? Why do they have to be told not to engage in filthy talking? Why do they have to be told to treat their wives and their husbands in a proper way?
Aren't we beyond that? Aren't we beyond all that? When we get into Ephesians, haven't we put all that behind us?
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You know the answer, don't you?
You and I know the answer.
That within my heart and yours, there is an old sinful self that is capable of doing anything that it did before I was saved.
And if I don't walk with the Lord, it will do it and do it and do it again. And the trouble is that we get to thinking we're beyond it.
And then the devil gets a wedge in there. And that's why the Kingdom of God is so necessary, because the Kingdom of God.
Is a moral state which is characteristic of God Himself and which God expects to see in His Kingdom. Now there isn't a visible Kingdom today, is there? The Lord Jesus as the rightful King was rejected, and so the Kingdom today is a Kingdom in mystery.
But if you and I by grace acknowledge the rightful king, God says there is a moral character.
That is in keeping with that.
I hope this isn't a sweeping statement, but allow me to make it.
In an observation and experience, both in my own life and in the lives of others, I have seen many dear believers who were exposed to much precious truth from the Word of God. And I have seen dear believers who were exposed to much of that which we could talk about in terms of Ephesian truth, the precious truth of the one body, the precious truth of the Lord's coming for us at any moment, the precious truth of gathering.
To the name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And on and on we could go with those precious truths.
And I'm not speaking only of those who have been exposed to all that, but many other precious truths in the Word of God.
And it is true that I can lose my desire to walk in the good of all that. And that's why Paul says, I suggest in Ephesians chapter three, he says, please don't faint at my tribulations for you. That is, he wants them to enter in and walk in what he's been bringing before them.
But again, many times in my own observation and experience, and again in my own life and in the lives of others, the beginnings of declension have been because I have not paid attention to those things that become the Kingdom of God.
That's why Paul preached it so strenuously. That's why he says over and over again.
The Kingdom of God. This is not characteristic of the Kingdom of God. No, you can't do this. And so on.
Just driving down here in the car, my wife and I were talking about a dear brother that both of us knew many years ago. Very, very dear brother. I remember him well. Lovely wife, lovely family and we enjoyed that brother. I well remember being in his home years ago. I remember his being in our home with his family. And to all outward appearances, he is a very, he was a very godly brother. Where is he today?
Oh, his marriage broke up and all kinds of problems came in and he was the one that was at fault. What happened?
He didn't pay attention to the Kingdom of God. He didn't pay attention to his own heart.
He allowed what we had before us this morning to creep in. Something got a wedge in there and he didn't deal with it and it got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
Until it ruined his life, ruined his testimony, ruined his family. I'm not saying it'll come to that. But you know, you and I are surrounded by all kinds of temptations. And the devil makes it so easy, whether in magazines or on the Internet or on the television or in talk with people with whom we work, with whom we go to school, to become so well. It talks about it in First Timothy, about having a seared conscience.
We get immune to so many things that we hear that eventually we don't react against them the way we should, and pretty soon little things creep into our lives until we find problems in families, problems between husbands and wives, problems in workplaces, problems with simple down to earth moral things that ought to be, if we could use it, something that the believer doesn't even have to think about it. It says in our chapter, not even named among you.
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And yet they're being named.
John says I'm your brother and companion in the Kingdom.
Of what?
Of Jesus Christ. I like it the way Mr. Darby puts it.
In Jesus? Why are these three things in Jesus?
Oh, Lord is a title and Christ is a title. Lord brings before us his lordship, and that is necessary that we recognize the lordship of Christ. Christ is simply the Greek for the Hebrew word Messiah, and it means the sent one. And it's his title as the one who came to fulfill those prophecies and to take his place as the rightful king.
But Jesus is the name that he took coming into this world.
As the one who came to say, and Jesus is his personal name. Why is that brought in here sometime? If you have an opportunity, may I suggest that you go through the New Testament and you might have to take a Darby translation to help you out. And notice the few times, and it isn't all that many, where something is connected simply with Jesus but leaving his titles out.
Another one, for example, is in that same book of Ephesians that we're talking about. It's in chapter 4.
Where it talks about the truth as it is in Jesus.
Why is that brought in here? Why his name without any titles?
I suggest a thought, and it's not the only thought, but I suggest a thought when it says tribulation.
Lennon says tribulation in Jesus.
It brings before me that Blessed One in what He is essentially in His person and in His love to you and to me. It brings in a personal relationship.
The Kingdom. It doesn't say the Kingdom of God, although it is that it says the Kingdom Inn.
Jesus, it draws out my affections and what we need more than anything today, and I speak to my own heart, is to have my affections drawn out.
Because, as we said earlier, we are living right at the end of God's dispensation of grace.
And there is not much time left and I ask myself as I ask you each one, what am I doing with what the Lord has given me in North America? Here we have much. And at sometimes I can say it very openly. It proves to be a bit of an embarrassment sometimes, especially for some of us that visit foreign countries. And when people say do you have this, do you have that, do you do this, do you do that?
I don't believe on the one hand that we need to be defensive and apologetic about what the Lord has given us.
I liked what our brother mentioned this morning. I thought it was very, very good about how the scripture never talks about my going after things. He talks about our receiving them from God.
And I can well remember sitting in our home, and I was only a boy, if I suppose, in grade school, and brother Clifford Brown, formerly of Des Moines, afterwards of Burbank, CA.
Was sitting at our table. He traveled, of course, in the work of the Lord, and quite a few here will remember him. And I remember my mother saying to him, what does that verse mean in First Timothy 6 where it talks about?
God who giveth us all things richly to enjoy.
Clifford Brown looked down at his plate. My mother was a farm cook and I thought she was a pretty good cook, still do. And he looked at his plate and he said, I think this is what he meant. I think this is one thing he meant. And he dug in.
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That was good. I think he was right. And if the Lord has given you and me much in this world, I can be thankful for it. If He's given us good food, let's be thankful for it. If He's given us the means to come to meetings like this, let's be thankful for it. If He's given us the opportunity to have more than perhaps some parts of the world, we can be thankful for it. The question is, what are we doing with it?
What are we doing with it itself, at the bottom of it, or Christ?
Am I just enjoying it so that I can have it? And that is where it's at. And if I may pardon me, speaking directly to some young people here, and perhaps all of them, because I know you want to please the Lord and you're not growing up in a very easy world. Because when you go out there, I know dear young people that find that they've gotten a job, perhaps in a big city. And then when they get settled into that big city and go out to buy themselves a home, they suddenly find that the homes that you could have bought.
30 or 40 years ago for reasonable money, now have run up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now what are we going to do? How are we going to afford this home? And then pretty soon there are all kinds of arrangements being made. And I'm not pointing the finger because I don't have the answer for all of us. The Lord will give you the answer as to what you should do. The whole point is, I have to say to myself, how is all this going to stack up?
When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ, what am I doing with what the Lord has given me? Or am I willing to say, like the Apostle Paul could say in Philippians, that Christ may be magnified in my body?
Whether by life or by death.
If you want to, God will show you the way. But remember that verse that says if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine? It doesn't say if any man will know his will. I know I've said this before, so pardon me if you've heard it before, but sometimes you ask a close friend for a favor.
And if it's a good close friend and you say, will you do me a favor?
There sometimes will be the response, sure, whatever. Tell me what it is, because that friend is willing to go just about to any length.
To do you the favor.
But other people you might go and say, will you do me a favor? And maybe a slight glimpse of a guarded look passes over their face.
What is it? What is it?
And implicit in that answer is, when I know what it is, I'll make my decision. Is that right? Have you all experienced that? I'm sure you have.
You know the Lord.
He loves each one of us.
And the Lord is glad to accept whatever we are willing to offer. What the Lord is looking for from you and me is a response that says Lord.
What is it? I'll do it.
Yes, Lord, just tell me what it is and with your help I'll do it. He doesn't want that guarded response that says, Lord, tell me what you want me to do and then I'll I'll think about it for a bit and I'll decide whether I can pay the price or not. I'm not going to find out the will of God if I'm going to do that. No, He wants total commitment.
And finally, here our time is nearly gone, it says.
Patience in Jesus. That word could also be translated endurance.
Endurance.
You know, you can read stories and sometimes you read them if you read the Reader's Digest, which I don't, unless I happen to sit in somebody's office waiting for them. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, but I don't see it very often. But once in a while you'll read a real life story and sometimes it will be a situation where somebody had incredible endurance.
In a terrible difficulty and finally made it through.
And there are stories down through the ages of people who have exemplified endurance.
God is looking for endurance in the believer and what we are finding today, and I admit that there is the tendency in my heart just as much as yours, is to say I am at the end of my rope.
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I don't think my wife would mind my saying this that occasionally when we've been doing something and working hard.
One of us will say to the other one, I'm about at the end of my rope or I'm at the end of my rope and that's the signal for the other one to back off from making too many demands at that point because the rope isn't gonna get any longer and a little rest is needed. A little rest plate or something like that. That's good. We understand that. And you know, sometimes though, we as believers do, we find that our rope is a little on the short side.
Do we find that we get to the end of our rope, that the devil just keeps on bringing trial after trial after trial? And maybe it doesn't seem all that bad when you look at it in the broad picture, but it just seems one thing after another. That's what he likes to do. Sometimes he comes down with some major blow calculated to smash you and me, and he does that perhaps in countries where there is open persecution.
I read another story not too long ago about a family where that happened to them and it was.
Just about enough to turn the poor woman's mind when she had to see.
Those who did not want Christianity come into her village, savagely break up her whole family, watch her children flee in all directions in order to get away, and find out later that her son, who was about 10 years old, had been brutally killed with a machete.
And thinking about that, thinking about that poor boy and what it must have been like in his last few minutes of life.
To face those wicked men and have that happen to him.
But she endured. She endured. You and I may not be called upon to face that, but the devil knows how to bring one thing after another into your life and mine. Maybe it's a personal problem.
Maybe it's a problem in the family, Maybe it's a problem in your local assembly.
Maybe it's a bigger problem that affects more than one assembly. It doesn't matter. But. And you say, Oh no, not again.
I talked to a dear brother a few years ago.
He and I knew each other very, very well when we were younger. We went to college together, shared the Word of God together. Together. We're gathered to the Lord's name together.
And don't think for anyone here that is listening to this that I am throwing any stones at believers who are connected with so-called denominations know. But he is connected with a denomination and I know he is not happy there. I know that in his heart he wishes it were otherwise. I said to him what happened? What happened?
Now we parted company as far as coming quote to to meeting well over 30 years ago.
But now I said what happened?
All he said, just so many problems, so many difficulties. He said my wife couldn't take it anymore. She said I can't take it anymore. I can't go through anymore like this.
Could I identify with them? Indeed I could. Can you identify with them? I'm sure you can.
Endurance, Endurance.
But what if I get to the end of my rope?
Oh, isn't it wonderful?
He gave us more grace when the burdens get heavy and so on. You know the words of that hymn.
And it ends up in the chorus by saying, for out of his infinite riches in Jesus.
Give us and give us and give us again.
I will tell you, and pardon the personal reference.
There have been a number of times when I have been on my knees and said, Lord, I'm at the end of my rope.
The Lord graciously has said yes, I know you are.
Now I want you to take a piece of my rope. I know your rope comes to an end, but I'm gonna give you a piece of mind.
01:00:01
And I'll keep giving it to you as long as you need it until you get home. I have to keep going back because sometimes I get to the end again and I say, Lord, I'm coming to the end of that rope again. I can't do it anymore. The Lord says, yes, I'll give it to you again.
Somebody mentioned this morning that phrase an abundant entrance.
I say to each one of us here into my own heart, that's not just nice phraseology, it's reality. Every one of us here can have an abundant entrance.
And so the end of this verse says, why was John experiencing tribulation?
In the Kingdom and the endurance in Jesus for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus, the testimony of Jesus, that name is not liked, not wanted anymore in this world than it ever was.
But it's a blessed thing to bear His name, and He'll give us everything that is needed. Let's pray.
Loving God our Father.
Surely it humbles us as we consider these things in Thy presence.
And we freely own before thee.
How little we walk in the good of it all, and how easy it is.
For all of this to become.
Good sounding words at a conference like this.
With a lack of reality.
In our life.
We pray our God for thy help, pray that thou will give us to walk in the good of all this, that we may be willing to be a brother and companion in the tribulation and Kingdom and patience in Jesus until we are called home. For we ask it. Lord Jesus, for thy sake and in thy name, Amen.
Ephesians 5:11-22
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Ephesians 5 and verse 14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead.
And Christ shall give delight. See them that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wearing a success, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart.
To the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves 1 To another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves into your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the whole of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the Church is subject under Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the Word, that He might present it to himself. A glorious Church, not having any spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that I should be holy and without blemish. So what men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherished it even as the Lord, the Church.
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery.
But I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself and the whites see that she reverence her husband.
That 15th 1St see then that she walked.
Carefully, it says in Mr. Darby's translation, Not as fools, but as wise.
We have so many opportunities redeeming the time because the days are evil again. He's got a note on that, which I think is worthwhile reading. Redeeming the time.
Is seizing every good and favorable opportunity. I'll give you a little illustration. I was talking when I was just had recently been saved and I was very evangelist and evangelistic and I was talking to a friend of mine who wasn't the Lord and and he used the Lord's name in vain and he would been talking about his mother. And I said to him, why don't you talk about someone you know?
Oh, I know my mother. I said, oh, no, no, no, no. I don't mean your mother. I met that other person you were talking about. I didn't talk about anyone else. I said, oh, yes, you did. You use the Lord's name? Oh.
That resulted in a 2 hour discussion. I'm just using that as seizing every opportunity. We don't realize how many opportunities the Lord gives us, whether it be at work or at school or wherever it might be. He gives us opportunity upon opportunity and we should seize those opportunities to witness for the Lord.
I'd like to just say a word about the exhortation in the previous verse that we began with in connection with sleeping because it's something that I trust we all take to our own heart. It's a warning to us. It shall I say, a wake up call. And let's just read a similar portion in similar words in the book of Romans.
Romans, chapter 13.
Romans chapter 13, And I'll begin reading at verse 11. And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. And so here we have another exhortation to awake out of sleep. And sleep is looked at in different ways in the Word of God. When a person dies in faith, they're looked at as sleeping. The body sleeps, not the soul, but the body sleeps because it's a temporary state of things. We lay the body of a loved one who's died in Christ in the grave. It's a temporary thing until the resurrection.
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There's also, uh, so there, there's also physical sleep. Of course. Last night we lay down and we slept. It was a temporary state of things in the normal course of things of life. We had every expectation that we'd wake up this morning and we'd go on our way. But here sleep is taken up a little different. This is, if I can put it this way, spiritual sleep. It's sinking into a lethargic state as to our position and our responsibility here in this world as the children of light.
We're not to sleep. We're not to become spiritually lethargic. I've often thought that it's a very solemn thing when you read the parable of the 10 virgins. And when we read that, we often take it up in the Gospel.
And we stress the fact that the five foolish had no oil and so on, and rightly so.
But there's a remarkable comment made about those 10 ladies. It says they all slumbered and slept. And I think there's something very good for us to consider in connection with these exhortations and what we have in our chapter. If you looked at those 10 ladies sleeping, you couldn't tell from outward appearances who was real and who wasn't. What a sad condition those five wives had fallen into. Now, brother, if we're not careful, we can fall into that condition.
Fall down like eudicus to the level of the world outwardly it seems that there's no life. Thank God. The Lord knows them that are his. Thank God for one in a lethargic state like that there can be an awakening if there's a heating, the warnings of God's word and so on. And so we're told in our verse. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead are among the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Then it says, see them that you walk circumspectly earth, as brother Chuck has pointed out carefully.
I looked up this word circumspect in Webster's dictionary one time because I wanted to see what a secular dictionary would say. As to the word circumspect, I was struck by what the dictionary said. Circumcise circumspect to careful to consider all circumstances and consequences. You know, brethren, that is how we are to walk through this world. Careful to consider all circumstances and consequences.
In the light of God's word and the light of God's presence, of course. But every step we take, we talked in the previous meeting about our walk and how we are to walk. Every step we take in the path of faith has a consequence, a consequence for good and blessing, a consequence for for that which is not so good. For sometimes we bring down the government of God even in our lives because of the steps that we take and the consequences that we that result. And so let's be careful to walk circumspectly, careful to consider.
All circumstances and consequences, and I'll just say that. That's why in Proverbs 29 it says where there is no vision, the people perish. If a person only lives for the moment and isn't careful as to their actions today, considering the consequence tomorrow, then it's not there's not going to be blessing and fruit in our Christian life. Let's seek to reawake and to walk circumspect. It says Jim, not as fools, but as wise.
When we waste time, that's foolish. We should use every moment He gives us to promote the gospel and to reach souls, redeeming the time.
Well, we don't have to get up in the morning and pray for opportunities. What we need to do is get up in the morning and pray that we will be walking in a way that we will avail ourselves of the opportunities as they present themselves. Because we all have to admit, if we're honest with ourselves, there is no, are no shortage of opportunities to live and speak for Christ and to be a testimony and a witness in this world. They're there on every hand. For myself, what I have to hang my head and say is there's sometimes a shortage of diligence.
And watchfulness on my part to use or buy up the opportunities that present themselves. And that's really, it's been said, the thrust of this, uh, this portion to redeem or to buy up every opportunity. So it's always good to have some tracks in your pocket so that you can hand it out when needed.
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The nice question here in verse uh 17 because it says wherefore be not unwise, but understanding.
What the will of the Lord is. So we have to always say, dependent upon the Lord and say, Lord, is this the right thing for this person or is this the right thing for this time? We can ask him and He will always answer if our desire is to honor him. But it, it makes it very plain. The implication surely is that, uh, we could be unwise and not understanding what the will of the Lord is for that particular sort of situation.
So dependence is always appropriate. So go ahead. Can we apply it perhaps from a little bit different standpoint I was thinking of here. Perhaps it's not a direct application, but think about how we ought to know what God's time is for us. We know where to redeem the time, but then God has His own timetable written for us in the Word of God. The example was given of all the 10 virgins who fell asleep.
Well, we look at that and then the example given of how Utica's two fell asleep. We know that there was a picture in a sense of how the church will fall asleep, and we know that through the Dark Ages the church as a whole has fallen asleep. But was that the end of that? No, there was that revival in a sense, wasn't there? Eureka was brought back to life. Paul came down, in a sense, if you think of Utica's case.
Paul's ministry was not heard.
We knew that from the Word of God that his ministry was sort of forgotten and throughout those ages, those times it was forgotten, but then it was revived and we find that the truth going to the Word of God, uh, showing us what the period would go to. This afternoon, our brother mentioned about the seven churches. Can we look at that in a form of redeeming the time? As we go through, we see the degradation.
Of the churches, perhaps we can look at it from the individual standpoint. Perhaps we can look at it as a church space, can we not how things begins with we have left our first glove to the very point that at the end we say to the Lord, I don't need you Lord, I'm rich and I need not of nothing. What I'm trying to say here is we need to learn more what the word of God tells us what what being really.
Amazed me the last while is in my work, I come across, uh, some contact with Christians and I find how many Christians want to do good. They want to present the gospel, which is very well, we ought to, don't we? But I find that the Lord's coming is almost not mentioned. Uh, don't they don't want to deal with that at all. Oh, we know that the Lord has a time. And one of the things that the truth was recovered back in the 1800s was that.
The the coming, the soon return of our blessed Savior should be fresh in our hearts. In fact, let me digress just a little bit. There was a few things that that I believe the Spirit of God recovered for us. Uh, one was that the word of God was the supreme authority to our lives that has been forgotten by many Christians. We want to do things our way. We want to come up with reasonings. We had a brother that left US1 Time he went to another church.
And because of the knowledge that he had on the Word of God, they made him an elder. And before long he got in trouble because they said every time a decision was made, he would open up his Bible and contradicted the decisions. So he was told not to bring his Bible with him. And that was enough reason to let him know that he was in the wrong place. So the Word of God should be the supreme authority. The other thing, let me digress a little bit. Is that the truth of the one body?
Oh, and the power of separation that was forgotten, that's in the Lord's timetable, isn't it? That's been brought back and the Lord soon returns if we have those objects before us. And then the way we redeem our time, brethren, I believe would be very different. Knowing that there are many problems in this world we cannot fix. We can pray for the government of this world to take care of things, but we know the Lord has that table for I say and that.
00:15:09
Not to forget his soon return.
Sorry, I remember the time in my 20s, I had recently gotten saved and I was with the KLCS at the time, Brother Walter Wise. He was an evangelist, very bold man. And he used to go up and down the street and he'd see a bar, a Tavern, and he'd go in and he said real loud voice, I want us.
Strongest drink you've got?
And the bartender brought one out.
He didn't, I don't think he's just, he said, no, it's not not strong enough, not strong enough. And by the time he got through and going through that ritual for a while, he had the attention of everyone that was in the Tavern, everyone in the Tavern. And then he preached Christ to the no, I didn't. I wouldn't have the boldness to do that, but he did. And so it says, be not drunk with wine, wherein is in excess.
He wasn't drunk with wine, he was drunk with the, the word of God and he gave it to them and they listened. They listened. Umm, I'm, I'm using that as another example of redeeming the time. Every opportunity God gives the summer much bolder than others. I like that turn to Luke 21, uh, in connection with understanding the will of the Lord and what we're talking about here, umm.
Because I think it'll help us in our Christian pathway.
It doesn't take a lot of scriptural knowledge to to know what God's plan is for our lives the the day we live in. And the Lord himself gives us some warnings here in Luke 22 about the signs preceding his coming and what's gonna come as a snare. And I think this is very applicable to us today in Luke 21, verse 34.
The Lord speaking says, And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting.
And drunkenness and cares of this life. And so that day, that's the coming of the Lord.
Come upon you unawares, for as a snare shall it come up on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Wherefore a watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
The Lord is speaking here of the signs that were would proceed His coming, and it's a warning to watch and He specifically tells them that.
Drunkenness, surfeiting, and the cares of this life would so engross people that they wouldn't discern the time and they would be taken off their guard and the judgment would come. I believe, brethren, we're getting close to that today.
The and especially in the Christian so-called Christian lands, Christianity has reduced itself down to be somewhat of an earthly blessing.
And things occupation with earthly things and people get so engrossed and so.
Taken up and so busy in their lives that they forget the heavenly calling. They forget that the Lord is coming to take us out of this world.
This is where we need to be widespread. We need to be careful that we don't let the earthly side of our life take such predominance in our lives. We sit so and get so engrossed with sometimes what we may think of necessary cares. And there are some necessities in these, in these lines, but we can let it have too much of a part of our life and then it becomes a care and it, it, it defeats our purpose. Our purpose isn't to live long on earth. Our purpose is to be taken home to heaven.
And in this book of Ephesians, this is what the truth especially brought out, the heavenly calling, and that we're waiting for the Lord to come. And so I think these verses in Luke are very appropriate to consider with understanding the will of the Lord.
Forward we we so many Christians don't realize. They forget that the rapture is coming and we're gonna be taken home before the judgments fall on the earth. I know it doesn't distinguish here between the rapture and his coming and manifestation and glory, but we have to distinguish those things. And these things have been taught among us. And I believe in general we are understanding these things.
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But as to a practical reality, sometimes our walk isn't that close to what we, the doctrine that has been taught among us and that we hold. And so brethren, it's, it's good that, uh, as you have a family, let me just be in just a little bit practical here. We had a family and grew up and you have to be careful if you have a family that you let too many activities take precedent in your family. So there's no time for Bible reading or time for prayer meeting.
And so on.
This is one of the places we're being attacked on, brethren, maybe with not the open persecution that it I that we've been hearing about in other lands, but I believe that Satan has been a little more successful in this country and the other Christian lands around us here.
In dragging Christians down in their Christian pathway by getting them taken up with the things of this life, I'm not talking about necessarily the bad things.
It can be good things, it can even be going to shopping or things like that. It can be sports, it can be lots of things that in themselves, maybe they're wholesome and clean. But brethren, if they they get to taking so much a part of our life that we are losing sight that the Lord is coming. And if the Lord came tomorrow, what would that matter? Really? What would it matter? And so that's understanding the will of the Lord.
He's called us to be a heavenly people.
To take us out this snare that's going to come. We're we're seeing it it it didn't Christ Christians. It's getting nominal Christians taken up and for some of them that's all they they they see in it. They're not maybe a real born again Christians. We all that are ought to be awake and wise as to these things and not sleepy and and UN understanding.
Mm-hmm. 19 I think it's directly what you've been bringing before us, Brother Doug, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord that can fill up the time much more profitably. You can. It's not.
There's two thoughts in the thought of redemption here. Redeeming the time. It's buying it back and setting it free, both because, you know, the enemy of our souls wants to steal our time, take it captive. And today we have the habit perhaps of maybe not subscribing to one newspaper, but maybe two, and maybe not one trade magazine, but maybe two or three. And pretty soon we find our time is taken. But we need to.
Buy it back, as it were, and set it free for the Lord to use for the Lord's things. I just wanna refer to a verse in, in, uh, Proverbs chapter 4 that, uh, brings out a little bit of what Jim was talking about earlier in verse. Uh, we'll read the three verses, 2526 and 27. Proverbs 4 and 25, it says, let thine eyes look right on. Let thine eyelids look great before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet.
And let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left, removed by foot from evil. And this word ponder means to weigh carefully, weigh carefully in the presence of God. So you could read it this way. Wake carefully in the presence of God, the path of thy feet, and let thy ways be established. And so that's a present thing. Every one of us needs to take stock and to buy back as much time and those things that are frivolous, that are stealing our time.
And that's, uh, really, quite frankly, rob us from the time to read ministry and to read the Word of God and to perhaps attend every assembly meeting. Those are the things that we need to judge and to remove from our lives.
Verse 20 is something I feel for myself. I am not sufficiently attentive to giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I have to confess that I readily accept all of the comforts of modern living. Uh, for example, just consider how easy it was for us to come here from distances.
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All different directions. What would it have been, say, 150 years ago to have a conference like this for all of us to get together? The modern day in which we live affords us many conveniences, affords us, uh, many opportunities, discretionary years of our time. So what we're being told in this portion is we must keep time for the Lord, seeking to ourselves in psalms and hymns and so on.
And being thankful.
I know every time we can relate to the Lord in prayer, He knows what's in our hearts and when we can articulate and say, Lord, we thank thee for this shelter we have, we thank Thee for the food we have, we thank thee for the country and let's we live with freedom. We have No Fear this afternoon of anybody in government coming in here as a well might in other countries. We have so much for which to be thankful.
And I think there's another place someone probably named it immediately, though it makes it very plain. Every time we pray, we should do so with Thanksgiving. We have so many blessings we can hardly count them on. I'd like to just say a word about singing before we pass on, because singing has always been a way for the people of God in any age to to express their appreciation of the truth and their joy in the Lord.
I say in any age that is from a redeemed people on the banks of the Red Sea.
Singing in the 15th chapter of Exodus till you come to Revelation 5 and you find a little thief into the heavenly scene.
Where the redeemed are gathered around the Lord Jesus in a coming day, and there they're singing the song of redemption.
And I fear brethren, and I'm going to say this very practically, and I'm going to be very blunt for a moment, because I fear that the breath, the Saints of God are not the singers that we once were. You know, when I was growing up, if you went to visit somebody, I'll remember often as children my father and mother would take us out to visit somebody. And some of the brethren on a Friday night or a Saturday evening, why you always stood around the piano and sang some hymns before you left.
When we were young people, if there was nothing else planned on a Saturday night, why we got together and we had a hymn sing. We sang in the home when I was growing up and I just want to encourage those of us who are parents. First of all, I know some of us can sing better than others, and some can carry a tune better than others, but learn to sing in the in the home. I'm thankful that when we our girls were younger, we had the exercise to sing in the evening around the table before we.
We've, uh, closed our Bibles and before we prayed and I believe we need to teach our children and young people to sing. We can't expect our children and young people to all of a sudden open their hymn books one day and have a, and have a desire to sing. And brethren, we have a wonderful heritage, a rich heritage of good scriptural hymns, hymns that are based on the doctrines of God's Word. And let's learn to speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
And I know you've experienced it, too. You're driving your car. Something's pressed upon your soul, and the words of a hymn come to you, and it's a comfort to you. You wake up in the night and you're praying about something, You're exercised about something, and you go over the words of a hymn that you've memorized. Real help and blessing. You ever notice, sometimes in ministry, in a public way, that the brother who's ministering will quote the words of a hymn? Why is that?
Because there's perhaps no better way to express some truth than has already been expressed in the lines of a hymn.
You know, God raised up hymn writers in the days of the recovery of the truth. God raised up hymn writers to put these things down in a way that we could express them in, in, in a song. And I believe that the Spirit of God allowed that. And so we have these hymns and we sing them in our homes. We sing them individually, we sing them in the assembly. But let's learn to sing, brethren. We're going to sing for all eternity. And I know there'll be no discordant note there, but let's learn to speak to ourselves. And it's interesting in Colossians, there's a similar verse.
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It says admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You talk to somebody or again in ministry, something's brought out and it's expressed in the lines of a hymn and you remember it. But Brother Jim, I got a question. Won't an iPod do what? What was that? Well, not an iPod do for singing. Well, I believe that that the very that's the very difficulty and one of the things that has led to the fact that we are not the singers we once were. It is so easy to plug something in.
Go for a walk to drive in our car. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with I I enjoy ACD or whatever of good, good singing, scriptural hymns. I like good music as well. But let's be careful, brethren, that we don't let that replace opening our mouths. You know, it says the fruit of our lips not giving thanks to his name. And he's put a new song. Not in my heart that I trust that's true, but in my mouth.
Even praise to our God, whoso offereth praise, not silence, but whoso offereth praise glorifies me. Brethren, I believe we need to learn to open our mouths and to praise the Lord in song. Yeah, and you need to go farther down than the mouth. You gotta start from the heart and that's the difference in an iPod and, uh, and a thing, uh, a him out of the heart. Uh, I again, I don't wanna be, uh, facetious and find fault with our.
Modern technology of music.
Uh, but there's a difference in listening to ACD or uh or uh.
Any other form of modern music but brethren, uh, as uh, those means, umm, are the not starting from the heart. I'll suggest briefly that difference if we, if our heart is enjoying what God has given us, the song starts there comes out of the mouth sometimes in some of our mouths. It's not quite in tune even.
But the heart can be in tune even when we can't carry a tune with our mouth. And I suggest that the emphasis is a little backwards and the other way around. If we just listen to good music, uh, I mean, I, the music in itself, I'm not trying, trying to find fault with that. But brethren, it's, it's a, let me, let me go back and recount the memory I have of my, one of my grandmothers.
She was a a happy woman. It was said of her by somebody prominent in the community that when she passed away, the most influential person in the county was gone. Not because she sought a place, because her her Christianity came from her heart out. And every time she worked she was humming a tune. I can still hear her humming a tune a little bit off.
And it created an impression to me. She was always happy in what she was doing, singing and making melody in her heart. And I, I would suggest that we seek to cultivate that rather than putting the melody in our heart from the CD or iPod. Get the melody in your heart and then let it come out.
What are those three things? Would you give it? Give it to us? Psalms and spiritual songs, what are they?
And I'll give you, I'll give you 2 of them and let the third one for you.
Are are are songs that are directed towards God and sung to Him, not about him, but to Him. We address God in hims and they are to His ear to hear. It's not for the audience ear necessarily. We joined together.
But hems are the highest order of, of character for us to sing, I believe, because we sing to God and give him praise, whether the Father or the son by the Spirit of God. And so those many of our hymns in that little flock and other hymn books are addressed to God. Spiritual songs are songs that are umm a about spiritual things, but they're re relate to our Christian walk and other things that we experience.
00:35:06
They're more Christian experience songs about life and difficulty in overcoming etcetera. And those are spiritual songs. And I'll leave you for the for the Psalms Bill, you help us. What's the Psalm?
Got 150 of them.
The way I handle the, the hems, uh, I love hems and I, I let everything about me suggest him to me. If I see one word, that's enough to recall to him to me. For instance, I looked out the window a number of times and I saw this crossover illuminated. So right away I repeated the, the cross, the cross. So that's our game. Because on that the land was claimed was there the Lord?
Was crucified was there for us, the Savior died. What wondrous cause can move thy heart to take on they are cursed and smart while knowing that we should ever be so cold, so nitrogen of thee. Because now when I come to the Las Sanja, the cause where it says the cause and so forth. Tears were in my eyes. Why? Because I was thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ. If I'm standing in the bank line and I see the word gain up there.
I I I would think of a hint.
Be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood died he from me who caused the pain. I don't care what word it is. My wife will tell you. I'm riding down the road. I see a word. I think a hymn with it. I like you got it in your heart, brother. It's been a blessing to my soul.
It says speaking to yourselves on him here, who you know, And one thing I'd like to say about him, uh, it's, it's, it's, it's a great teacher. Hims are a great teacher. Some of them are very deep. Now you mentioned him that are directly addressed to God. That's the highest type of worship. And I was just going over with him. Uh, we were talking about him that, that breakfast table and you have some of the deepest truths in him. Like for instance, I think it's wig room's hymn.
And, and umm, what raised the wondrous thought, or who did it suggest that we the Church, the glory brought should with the sun be blessed? Oh God, the thought was thine, thine only it could be fruit of the wisdom, love, divine, peculiar unto thee. I love Him. And I know, I know hundreds and hundreds of them, but they're a big part of my life and they've kept me walking in communion with the Lord. I would say to young people here.
Memorize him.
Memorize him so lovely, beautiful hymns and there's some of them are not worth memorizing and you well know that some of them take us back to du du day and ground. Some of them don't even rise up to the level of of a a finished work of salvation.
What's this song?
Well, I can only say this that to me a Psalm is that which is distinguished from a a hymn and a spiritual song because it was written and expressed in a day before the truth of God as we know it, and the whole revelation of God was given out. And so we can enjoy the Psalms and we can, if we know that people in past generations put them to music, we know that.
Even in our Little Flock Him book, there is, I suppose, the 23rd Psalm in so many words brought out in song, and it's perfectly correct. On the other hand, there's a limitation there in some of the expressions in the Psalms that we have to watch because there are expressions in the Psalms that don't entirely suit Christian experience. But there's wonderful devotedness and wonderful expressions in them that are very appropriate for you and me to take up. And so I guess I would just simply distinguish them from.
Hymns and spiritual songs as being that which does not necessarily embody all the light that you and I enjoy under Christianity, but yet still bring before us God's love and His care and what He is to His people. I, I can't go any further than that. I'd just like to add this. Don't get accustomed to seeing an unscriptural hymn or song or whatever, right? If it's in, if it's not according to Scripture, put it on the shelf. Mm-hmm. The same truth, in other words.
Same truth, and then you'll get established in the present truth. Amen. I agree with that.
00:40:00
Only in your heart, without a song, a hymn, or a spiritual spiritual song.
They were helping this all might help on our music and sometimes helps to bring it out in a in a way that expresses well, have you ever been in a condition or a place in time where it was scripture that was brought before you and it brought joy in your heart? Yeah. What happens if you just sing it out?
It's not a something that isn't indicated. Isn't it song? I know in some of the deepest, darkest moments of my life, there's been a verse or something that God has brought before my heart, and in those dark moments I began to sing it.
I can't hardly hold a tune, but it helped my soul and that's how the Lord used it to raise me up out of a dark, dark moment. There are times of great joy too, where some verses come across.
Sing it out.
Because it says speaking to yourself and psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So they don't have to be melodic, they have to be meaningful. Let's sum up what we've said about singing with the words of a hymn. Let's practice what we've been speaking about.
Oh Lord, we know it matters not how sweet the song may be. No heart but of the spirit talk makes knowledge of thee. Melody would come in under singing too, wouldn't it?
And the Lord knows that we are emotional creatures. He's made us that way, and He's made us with a sense of music, as you say, to a greater or lesser degree with some of us. But the world knows that too. And if the world wants to impress something evil on your heart and mind, they will put it into a song. And then the constant repetition of that song.
They know, and the devil knows we'll have a an effect on you and me.
Whether we want it to or not, that is the way to get the point across, put it into a song because man is made that way. And that's I believe, why God has put it that way too. I know I can still remember a dear brother who was, I wouldn't say he was tone deaf, but he didn't have a lot of appreciation of music. And he made a comment one time in a reading meeting. I forgave him for it, but he said, you know, it's just noise.
And uh, yeah, I can see some of you wincing. I winced too. And he made that comment. Because if that's the case, then we ought just to read the hymns. We ought just to read them out, just so we got the words. But singing them has a far, far deeper effect on us. Doesn't. Oh, yes, yes. And that is why we have this here. And that's why, as you say, Brother Sam, sometimes the Lord put something in my heart. And.
Maybe.
As you say, bursting into song is wonderful, but maybe I'm in a situation where I can't do it. It would be inappropriate, but I can still enjoy it in my heart. And then there may become another occasion when I can give it out. So what a wonderful thing it is to have the precious truth of the Word of God expressed in song. And we are very, very blessed because I think I'm probably on safe ground by saying that.
In the English language, there are more good hymns than in any other language that I'm aware of.
With the Jewish, uh, people, even as of today, when they read the word of God, the when they say they read it, they really don't read it. I believe they sing it now we often thought of the songs that we have is what they sing, which is true. I believe they sing even the almost anything in the, as they call the Torah, the five book of Moses, when they read, they sing. It's a special way of singing it.
As a different donation, if you ever listen to them saying it's like they were, they were chanting, it's not the melody that we're, uh, accustomed to. And, and psalms often spell out words to help us understand. I just wanna go back a little bit. And, and I believe sometimes the reason we don't think is back to what we've been talking about. We have not been occupied with the Lord. We have not been enjoying the Lord. I'd like to turn to a Psalm just to Ill illustrate that. Psalm 22.
We, I'm sure we know that chapter very well in the 22nd Psalm, the psalmist says.
That the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want what? We say that too, don't we? And we have set this probably since we were a child. I mean 2013. I'm sorry. 22nd song, our 23rd Psalm. Thank you.
00:45:10
I'm a little bit dyslexic on that.
And in verse 2 is what I had in mind. There he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. But why does he have to make me to lie down? Well, I, some of you know, when I was in Lawrenceville learned that I really don't know much about farming. And I remember quite a few came up to me, made remarks to me saying they'll teach me more about farming. But I dare to say one more thing and please correct me if I'm wrong.
With cat oats I understand that when they eat.
They eat quickly and they put in one stomach, and when they have that quiet time to lie down, they kill the cat, do they not?
We need to do the same, do we not? We, we, we tend to gorge things down, you know, sometimes to tell the story when I I hope my wife doesn't mind. The first time I met them going down to meet this Americans, I was sitting down at a family meal and not used to eating quickly. I remember I was still cutting my meat when I looked up. The rest of them are looking at me because they finished. They learned to inhale food. And I think that's how we often do it here. Well, it doesn't do much good, does it? We need to chew the CAD We we tend to bring this in.
And I don't believe the word of God tells us to to learn it quickly. Think on it. We're told to meditate on his words, are we not? In fact, the Psalm, the book of Psalms start off by saying that blessed is demand. What is the blessedness about that man? He meditate on his word. We need to have those time to set aside and this world has created a condition so that we have no time to think, you know, when it comes to the gospel which we present that the people do not have time to think about.
Salvation, we hear that all the time we find tell story how even grave sites now have tombstones that are lying flat on the ground so there's no reminder of debt while they can go a bit further as we've been reminded now He attacked us in a way that he takes that enjoyment away from us by using the lack of time that we created ourselves. And here is what's been happening. He attacked our enjoyment and what happened when we do not enjoy the word of God.
We do not enjoy the Lord. The next thing is then the family fabric started to get destroyed. When the family fabric got destroyed, the next thing we see is we see the problems of this world that brought into the assembly. We run the assembly as if it was a business world and eventually He thinks that He can destroy that. So brethren, we need to redeem the time. We need to be able to meditate, spend the time to read His Word.
Moses and the children of Israel saying they contemplated the Lord's great deliverance at the Red Sea.
I knew Moses couldn't say turn to such a such a number in the in the song book because it was he was just contemplating with the Lord just done and delivered them and and he sang this song with the chore of Israel must have been wonderful. It was spontaneous from the heart.
And uh, and his sister Miriam sang with the with the sisters. How sweet it is to be in a state of soul so enjoying the the precious things and what, what the Lord has done.
That our heart burst into song may not be a song that's been written before. That's the first song in the Bible, isn't it? Yes. And the enemy was destroyed, and they were set free, delivered.
I wanted to just, uh, mention a couple of scriptures, David, it's good for us to have the word of God to, to just reinforce what you just said in uh, Chapter 9 of Ecclesiastes. In verse 17, it says the words of wise men are heard and quiet.
Very important. We need to have that quiet time ourselves with the Lord. The world is noisy and it doesn't want the quiet. Otherwise the conference will be exercised. And then the other verse I think that helps us is, uh, Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 27.
The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting, but the substance of a diligent man is precious. And so here we are at a conference. We're hearing things, we're enjoying things. The definition of hymns and spiritual songs and psalms are given. Are we going to go home and meditate upon these things, or perhaps even in our room tonight just to meditate upon them and chew the cut, as it were, roast that which we took in hunting. And they're going to have to be diligence.
00:50:26
Individually to meditate upon the word of God, that it might be of good to us.
At the risk of, uh, being forced to walk the plank.
I would like to make, uh, some comments about contemporary Christian music because I'm sure it's a question that many people's minds.
First, I'd like to go back and the very first comment that was made by Jim, uh, why we don't sing as much, You know, in the economic world, there's, uh, producers, there's consumers and in the main with music tend to be consumers rather than producers. And that's just, uh, seems to be just a, a fact both in our culture and certainly among Christians.
So how did you say that? We observed that there's quite a proliferation of contemporary Christian music right now. And it seems that there is a cycle. There's been many cycles in the Christian, uh, uh, era where there's been more music kind of put out and there seems to be a lag. And then there's other years when there's more music put out. And for some reason, we seem to be in a time right now when there is a, a growth of Christian music. There's at least two factors.
One is that there is an audience that we are consumers of music, and the other is, at least in Christian circles, there's now money involved, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it is a factor.
Some of these contemporary, uh, Christian, uh, songs are very good. They really are. And, uh, a lot of the lyrics I quite frankly don't always follow because number one, I'm not very musically, uh, inclined and sometimes I need an interpreter, if that's OK. Uh, I find that there are some very, very good things that are being produced in contemporary music and there's things that are very shallow.
And I want to comment on that because it seems like in Christian circles for centuries, there's always been songs that have been shallow.
Even reading the preference of our Little Flock hymn book that when some hymns were culled from the original version that Mister Darby says that he was. I'm gonna not say the exact words, but anyway, it was hard, hard pressed to find a replacement.
So even though we might look back in time and say, well, they had a more spiritual outlook, and I think that they did, but we're a client just to write that off and just and think that every song that came out back then was.
Was a great him, but that's not true. Mr. Darby had to go through lots and lots of hymns to find ones that he thought were suitable. And there's lots that he had to leave by the wayside and the same now, yes, there's a lot of contemporary music out there, Christian circle and some of it is good. There's a lot that should be cold and maybe not made popular among us. So I was just, uh, I, I trust that, uh.
Some helpful comments and I hope balanced as well.
That we do need those songs that are according to the word of God and that bring forth a, a scriptural and, uh, godly perspective. And there are some of those hymns being produced nowadays that we would commonly call contemporary Christian music. But be careful, like always be careful.
You need to prolong this, but we see consistency from scripture that.
Singing Satan would try to destroy that. Just a quick example won't take long. If you go to Azure chapter 2, we saw the remnant of the people when they returned back to the land and you'll see that there were very few that were seniors. Uh, just quote a couple of quick verses here as you were chapter 2 in verse 64. You'll find that in that verse, it tells us that there were 42,360 that we turned back to the land. And how many were singers? Well, they want to make sure they weren't a whole lot in verse 65.
You'll find that only 200 or some of you can do percentage faster than I can. You'll find out that's a pretty low percentage. Isn't a 200 singers? The Lord want us to be able to sing praises to Him. There were more ***** and camels than there were singers that we turned back to their land.
00:55:09
It was enough that the, umm, Exodus 15 is the first time seeing this.
Mentioned in the Bible. I think that is because The thing is the privilege of those who are conscious of being redeemed. We notice that angels don't sing. Angels don't sing. They haven't experienced with them. We have experienced with them and that is the theme of all our songs. I believe all our Christian shores are based on that theme of redemption. I think that's very important, David, because angels pray. They do give praise and glory. But it's interesting that it's always saying.
At at the Annunciation to the shepherds, they were saying.
And if I just want to give you this little hint, when you go through Revelation four and five, when it's just the redeemed, it's singing when all creation joins in, it's saying the Spirit of God is very careful. And I think it's very helpful to realize, as you say, that it is only the redeemed in Scripture that sing the world has its light song for the world has the song of the.
Right, and that's one who doesn't know the peril of the position he's in. He's unconscious to the peril of the position he's in. That's the state the world has to be in before he can see. But the question privilege is to to recite songs that speak of redemption. And I like to think too of this verse as speaking to yourself. You saw psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making no view in your heart to the Lord. Did he say anytime?
No, it's something that goes on continuously and I like to like that link that with that continual phone offering, those that voluntary offerings that we bring to the law, not just on Wednesday morning, but day by day. Maybe when we're at that work as as humans pass through our mind or around the house, doing things around the house. There's that continual firm offering going up to the Lord from every all the questions in the world as they have these thoughts and they have brought to them in form of the song in their heart. And there's that control.
But isn't that the sacrifice of praise to God continually? That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. And just to get back to our chapter now in the next verse, the 20th verse, if the 19th verse is true of us, brethren, if we have, if the joy of the Lord is such in our souls that we're singing and making melody in our hearts, and the singing and making melody in our heart is based on the Word of God and good scriptural hymns and so on.
Then what is going to be the result? Giving thanks always. I Mr. Darby's translation is the same, almost, but it gives a little deeper thrust to it. Giving thanks at all times for all things. You know, that's not my experience. I have to hang my head and say I don't give thanks at all times for all things. But if verse 19 was true of me, was true of you, then we would give thanks at all times for all things you say at all times.
You know, I think of the Apostle Paul, he had a lot of times of sorrow in his life, no doubt time when he felt down and discouraged and right at the bottom, but he said sorrowful yet always rejoicing. He had the song of the Lord in his heart. He had that melody in his heart and he could rejoice. Doesn't mean we're always bubbling over, doesn't mean we're always vivacious and so on. But to have that joy in our soul so that no matter what happens at all times.
For all things. That's to me even harder than at all times. For all things? Yes, for all things. Does that mean that everything is going to be sweet in our lives? That every circumstance is good in our lives? Not necessarily. But we know it comes from the hand of a good God and a good Father. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. And brethren, it's easy to cultivate.
A grumbling spirit. It's easy to get under the circumstances. It's easy to become like the children of Israel and complain and even murmur. But brethren, what we need to do is have the song of the Lord in our hearts so that we can give thanks at all times for all things. You really have to know your true Christian position to to do this. For example, if you don't have eternal security, how can you really be a worshiper of God if you look thought you could lose your salvation?
01:00:01
Or if you doubt that all things work together for good, how can you give thanks, uh, in all things?
It's it's when we know our position before God through in Christ that nothing can be against us and that how we are chosen to be the bride of Christ and we're called to be a witness to praise God for what he's done. When you know your position in that way, then you can fulfill this verse of giving thanks as it says.
Umm, and in that connection, uh, some of the Psalms for example.
Speak of the Jewish position of things, and they called on the vengeance for their enemies. Well, we brethren, that's not Christian position. We don't call the vengeance on our enemies. We seek to save them. We seek to bless them. We preach the gospel to them. That's Christian position. And so it's important for us to, to, to understand, uh, distinguish at what the Lord's called us to and then to fulfill that role in the giving of thanks.
Uh, it, as Diver says before we get off of the hymns, that I think the first hand in the English language that was sung in the church was written by Isaac Watts, if I'm mistaken, not back in the 1600s. And prior to that it was all psalms and hymns and so forth. But one of the things I've made an observation on is that some of the women hymn writers have given us some of the deepest hymns. Mary Boley.
Look, in the little plot book on the mayor, bolder Francis Bevins, and of course we have Bandy Crosby. I mean some of these women.
Had had.
A great theology. They, they, they really put it into such beautiful language. I mean, I was really impressed as I think of the some of the the songs that have come from women.
One Lord Steve morning every SAS song that we sang was Mary Bowie's Everyone I just want to read in Acts 16. It says in verse 22 in the multitude rose up together against them, Paul and Silas.
And the magistrates read off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely through. Having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them.
What a testimony that was. Hmm. I remember some time ago brother track one chapter was commenting on that passage that he said no, that it wasn't until midnight that they sang praises and I I appreciated that because in the book of James it does seem that the Lord would allow that if I am suffering evil. He said let me pray. It doesn't say let him sing songs. I hardly agree with everything that's been said but.
So that we wouldn't have a bad conscience if we're not rising up and singing a song when, when some evil has overtaken me. James does say, does anyone among you suffer evil? Let him pray.
Is any happy Let him sing songs. Could we allow that? Yes, it's beautiful that the God held back the earthquake until they sang.
Brother Chuck, you read in the 16th chapter of Acts, I'd just like to refer to the 10th verse. Go ahead. And it says there that after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. And so here they had a conscious sense of doing the will of the Lord, and that they were sent to Philippi. And here all this tragedy seemed to descend upon them.
And yet they could see it from God's perspective, from the perspective of faith, that God was working something out here that they didn't understand. And so they could pray and they could sing. And so when those circumstances come into our lives.
We can trust the Lord for them. I just want to repeat something that our brother Gordon used to often say, you know, at Otter Lake in, in Hammer Bay used to say, you know, young people, life is not going to turn out the way that you thought it would turn out. There is going to be tragedy and sorrow. There's going to be heartache. But when you have a trial that the Lord sends in your life, you get down on your knees and you thank God for that trial. You may not understand why the trial is there, but you thank him anyway. And there may be tears flowing down your cheeks.
01:05:10
But you thank them on your knees, and he goes, he's going to bring a blessing into your life if you'll just submit to the trial. And here, isn't it lovely, the apostle Paul, who writes in Ephesians in this way, he could do that. He practiced what he preached.
So these things are often a testimony, as we've been saying, to the world around us, not just to one another, but to the world around us. The world can sing and have a sense of happiness when things go well. The world can be thankful when things go well. They get their grades at school, they get their promotion at work, they get the house they wanted and everything seems to be going well. But you just introduced something adverse into the unbelievers life. He's not thankful for all things at all times.
He's not singing because that song isn't in his heart. That song, that happiness, depends on his outward circumstances. But I've often thought again of Paul and Silas when they sang at midnight. Perhaps they realized the import of that verse in the 119th Psalm that says at midnight will I arise and give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgment. They realized, as Robert has said, that what God was doing was right.
That he had allowed them to be in prison. They weren't considering the second 'cause which was the ones that took them and put them there. And the jailer who was in charge of them, they were, they were considering the right, the first 'cause and that the Lord had allowed this and that if he had allowed it, it was right. I think I would have been grumbling and saying, well, Lord, I thought I got a vision to come over here and to help somebody and what good am I going to do now? I'm, I'm, I'm sore. My, I'm cold. My feet are fast in the stock. But their tongues weren't fast. They couldn't hold their tongues. And so they sing. And what was the result?
Why? The jail keeper got saved. The prisoners heard them. It was an assembly established in Philippi. It was a wonderful testimony because the joy of the Lord that was already in their hearts was expressed in songs of praise and Thanksgiving.
Again, not to prolong this, but it is, I think, important to realize that God has given man the capacity to produce music. And I know you didn't mean it this way, Brother Dave Perry, but everything that the world writes is not always the song of the drunkard, is it? There is that about it. But God has given man the capacity to write.
Beautiful music and to sing beautiful lyrics. I'll mention one name that is familiar to everyone here in the United States, Stephen Foster. I don't believe he was the Lords, but if you listen to the tunes he wrote and the verses he put together, beautifully English, beautiful music. But what is this world's music, essentially?
It is, for the most part, the sorrow over the loss of paradise, or the wistful anticipation of, we'll say, a transfigured world, that something better is ahead. And all of man's art ultimately has that underneath the surface. That is, it is a seeking from a creature that was made for eternity, not for time.
To have that which he knows his inner being wishes for and strives for, and yet ultimately is not available to him. And so man produces beautiful music, and even when he is sad, he can produce the most beautiful melancholic music. And some of the great composers were men who had terrible fits of depression and difficulty. What is the difference for the believer?
Again, I heartily agree with brother Dan Leaning. There are times when the believer may not feel like lifting his voice and singing.
There are times when he may bow in prayer. I can still remember quite some interesting articles in.
Uh, FW Patterson's, FT Patterson's periodical words of truth over whether it was appropriate to sing at the funerals of our brethren. And one said, yes, it is because it's victory over the grave. The other one said, oh, I haven't got the heart to sing. When sudden tragedy hits like that, we're both right. Yes, they were. And so it's a matter of discernment before the Lord as to what is appropriate. But the difference for the believer is.
01:10:20
That he can look beyond at all. He can see the end of the journey. And so he can lift his voice and sing because he knows that there is going to be a transfigured world. He knows that long before that he will spend eternity with Christ. And so he doesn't have to sing a song that in essence.
Celebrates regret of something that was lost or something that is not there. He can say thank God I have it in my heart. That's the difference in what the believer can sing.
Verse 21 Says submitting your.
Yourselves one to another in the fear of God. And then those precious verses to the wives, to the husbands.
We're right there, wives. Submit yourselves onto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.
And He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything, and then the husbands love you wise, even as Christ also loved the Church, gave Himself for it that He might sanctify, and plants it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself. A glorious church, without having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.
That it should be holy and without blemish. Sought men to love their wives as their own bodies. In the love of his wife loveth himself. Or no man ever, yet hated his own flesh. But nourisheth and cherish you did, even as the Lord, the Church. I've I've in bookstores, I've seen book after book after book written on marriage. Nothing can come close to this passage.
The wife being subject to the husband, the husband loving the wife. What does the wife want? She wants her husband's love. What does he want? He wants his wife's submission to him owning his headship that leads to a happy marriage. You can't improve upon it. It's right here.
So precious.
It's interesting that all this is umm. Verse 21 is introduces this part of the.
Subject matter here submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God. He says that before speaking to the wives of her special place of submission that so we all of us, uh, are under the fear of God or under God and we are all in that place of submission 1 to another. I think this is sig significant brothers between brothers. We, we need to learn to submit to one another. Uh, God is.
Allows our brethren to contradict us, to say, say things, to straighten us out, and so on. And we need to recognize one another. Younger brethren, older brethren and older brethren, younger brethren submitting ourselves one to another, don't we?
MMM.
I'd like to make an observation about the last two birds that we've been talking about going back to verse 18. It starts off with be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess and I think we all know how to get drunk. Just drink enough alcohol and you get drunk. The contrast brought as Christians is to be filled with the spirit. And I think we've just spent the last half hour or 40 minutes. We just touched on the last subject. There's three.
Words in the verses 1920 and 21 That end in ING and they start off with three different ideas that we've been discussing. One is speaking in verse 19, the 2nd is giving in verse 20, and the third is submitting in verse 21. And I believe what the Scripture has been before us here is if we practice these things, we'll find that our life filled with the Spirit of God and that will enable us to live the kind of life.
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That God wants us to live and help us to do the things.
That are gonna be brought before us in terms of family relationship, work relationship, our connection with the world. And so I've enjoyed for myself.
That, uh, these are three things that I can practice in my life to, uh, enable me, not that I do it well, but to, uh, practice and to enable the Spirit of God to fill my life, to have the kind of rejoicing and joy in my life that the Spirit of God would generate.
If that's, uh, that is the way to, uh, answer the problems we talked about in the first part of the chapter.
Hope
Gospel—J.N. Hyland
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Let's begin the Gospel meeting this evening with hymn #3 on the gospel hymn sheet. My hope on nothing less is built than Jesus and the blood He's built. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on his blessed name. Let's rise to sing this and if someone will please start it #3.
Oh my God.
My name is praying about the heart and.
All of it, right? All the time. It's all the airplane.
Underground near spring stains.
Let's ask God's help and blessing our blessed God and Father. Our hearts rejoice as we sing of the Lord Jesus Christ tonight, and we're thankful for each one in this room who truly knows the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. We thank thee for that firm foundation on which we rest. We would pause for a moment and echo in the language of Scripture. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift, but now we're solemnized to think that there may be someone in this room.
But perhaps even joined in the singing of this hymn and still is lost and on their way to hell.
Our God, we pray that as the gospel is presented tonight, that it might be clearly and simply from my word, in the power of the Spirit.
We pray that thou work mightily, that there might be much fruit for thy glory and for the eternal salvation of the lost. We pray for Thy word wherever it's going forth around this planet. But particularly in this room, we have a burden. We pray for much blessing. We pray, too, that the hearts of thine own might be refreshed and encouraged. As we hear again the sweet story of Jesus and his love. So we commit this time to Thee. We ask for blessing. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
We're going to start the Gospel Meeting this evening by reading a fair number of scriptures. In fact, there are 9 portions that we're going to turn to, and we may not have time to comment on all of these nine scriptures, and I think you'll see the common thread in these scriptures. But my burden is that as we begin the Gospel meeting, we would have the Word of God presented to us because this has often been said on an occasion like this while there is room for preaching and explanation of the word.
00:05:13
Yet it is the Word in all its living power that is going to cause fruit and blessing tonight, because we are born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God, that liveth and abideth forever.
And my burden is that at the beginning of the meeting while we're fresh and I have your attention.
That you would at least listen carefully and perhaps turn with me if you can in your Bible, to these Scriptures, and let the word of God speak for itself. Turn with me first of all to the book of Ephesians, Ephesians, chapter 2.
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 11.
Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh.
Who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands.
That at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise.
Having no hope, no hope, and without God.
In the world. And then I want to read a verse in the book of Colossians, Colossians chapter one.
Colossians chapter one. I'm going to start part way into verse 23.
And be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven.
Where have I, Paul made a minister? First Timothy, Chapter One.
First, Timothy chapter one and verse one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
By the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
Which is our hope, Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8 and verse 24.
For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope.
For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not?
Then do we, with patience, wait for it?
First Peter chapter one.
First Peter chapter one and verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a living, lively, or living hope.
By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible.
An undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you.
Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed.
In the last time and then in Second Thessalonians.
2nd Thessalonians, Chapter 2.
Second chapter Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and Good Hope through grace.
Comfort your hearts, establish you in every good word and work.
Hebrews Chapter 13. I'm sorry, Hebrews chapter 6.
Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 18 that by that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation.
Who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.
And which entereth into that within the veil whether the Forerunner is forest entered.
Even Jesus made an High priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Just two more portions.
Titus, Chapter 2.
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Titus, chapter 2 and verse 13.
Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the Great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Last portion First John Chapter 3.
First John chapter 3 and verse 2. Beloved. Now are we the sons of God?
And it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him.
For we shall see him as he is, and every man that hath this hope in him.
Purifies himself even as he is pure. Well, I know this was a good many scriptures to read, but as I say, I trust that these scriptures will sink deep into our souls and I have it on my heart as these scriptures suggest.
In presenting the Gospel tonight to speak a little bit about hope, someone has said that hope is an indispensable quality of life.
You tell a person that all is hopeless and they'll curse the day they die.
There's a day they were born. There's nothing worse than a hopeless situation.
Wouldn't it be awful to be taken into the doctor's office to be told that after review your case is hopeless?
Isn't it awful to be told that financially you're in ruin and things are hopeless?
And you know there are. There is a very hopeless state in this world, naturally speaking, and not only in this world, but man, left to himself, is ruined to the point of hopelessness. Not an awful word, hopelessness.
And that's why I began where we read in Ephesians chapter 2, because here he tells us.
That there was a time when we were without hope, and I trust there's nobody in this room this evening.
Who falls into the category of being without hope? Because if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you rejoiced with me as we read the following scriptures as we read from the word of God of our hope.
The hope we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. But oh, tonight we want to begin on a very, very solemn note.
We want to bring us right into the presence of God tonight and realize first of all that in our sinful natural condition, as born into this world, as part of Adam's fallen race, as part of sinful humanity, we are without hope if there isn't something else brought in by God. And you know we only have to go back to the Old Testament and find that God in testing man for 4000 years.
Had to declare at the end of it all that there was number, hope, and we come over to the book of Romans, and the verdict and the sentence are handed down.
There is none good, No, not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Solomon, the wisest man, perhaps, whoever traversed the earth apart from the person of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Had to declare there is not a man on the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Sounds pretty hopeless, doesn't it? And not only is man a Sinner.
But he's hopeless in the sense that he can do nothing in himself to better his position.
Before God, it tells us again in Romans that all our righteousnesses.
Are as filthy rags, in other words, all the best things that we can do.
Are only a pile of filthy old rags in the sight of God.
No, something must be brought in, and that's where the gospel comes in.
And that's why I read in the book of Colossians. Because there we have the hope of the gospel. You know, wonderful that we don't have to end the story after 15 minutes by simply telling an audience that they're sinners, ruined through and through, and that there's nothing they can do to get rid of their sins in themselves. What a hopeless situation that would be. But no, there is hope tonight. There's the hope of the gospel. There's the glorious gospel to present.
The good news that Christ Jesus came into the world.
To save sinners. The good news Let the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us.
From all sin. Isn't that good news tonight? Isn't that tremendous news?
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In a wonderful story, the best news that has ever been presented.
To mankind. And yet, sad to say, people don't want to hear it. I don't know how many invitations were handed out locally during the lunch hour earlier today, But you know, as I look into the faces of this audience, I realize that very few of those invitations were responded to. Maybe you did come in tonight because of an invitation, but very few of those invitations were responded to. Why?
Because people don't want to hear the good news of salvation.
They don't want to be told that they're sinners and that there is a remedy for sin.
Through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross, in that remarkable, people will line up to buy the Daily News. People will switch the channel to watch the horrific events that are going on around this globe today. And they'll shake their heads and they'll walk away and they'll say, where are things going and what hope do we have. But when you try to present the good news of the gospel.
Are they willing to listen to that? No. Why? Because man has to put himself down to get saved and exalt Christ.
Man wants to think he's an enlightened society and that things are getting better and better.
Right here in the mountains of North Carolina some years ago, my wife and I had opportunity to visit a couple.
It was just after the Gulf War and this lady told us, she said. She was an older lady, she and her husband.
And as we sat in their home, she said, You know, I believe that this world is now on a course.
After this war, that's going to lead to better and better things. Just think of the past few years. Did the Gulf War solve all the world's problems? Has it led to better and better things? No. We see, if we're honest with ourselves, the deterioration of things on every hand, the breakdown in every level of government and society, and sin more open and rampant than it ever was. Not just.
Sin practice today, it's always been practiced.
But sin is preached and glorified today. But oh, there is hope, the hope of the gospel. And who does the gospel present? It presents the one that we read of in Timothy, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our hope. I'm not here to preach Reformation tonight. I'm not here to preach sociology tonight. I'm not here to preach the betterment of society. You can't turn over a new leaf when the leaf is dead. We're dead in trespasses and sins.
Know what man needs is a new life, and that life is available in Christ.
Because the rest of the verse I quoted earlier, the wages of sin is death, goes on to tell us. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Do you have that hope tonight? Where are your hopes? What are your goals? What are your dreams? Are they only connected with this sad, sin, sick world? If they're only connected with this sad, sin sick world, oh what a shaky hope that is at best.
Because if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Are you miserable tonight, or do you have a hope beyond this life? You know, I think one of the most awful things about a lost eternity will be the fact that there's no hope. I remember this pressed upon my soul One time I had the privilege and opportunity of visiting and speaking in a large state penitentiary just outside of the city of Boston, MA.
It was a pretty nice facility. I've stayed in lots of hotels. I don't think we're quite as nice. It was a very nice facility. We were there on a hot sweltering July evening. The place was fully air conditioned. There were different, what they called pads with 12 cells, which meant 24 men opening onto a common room where there was a ping pong table, there were shuffleboard, there were all kinds of activities.
There was a place where they could get snacks and there was a microwave and a coffee maker along one side.
Glass doors opened out onto a courtyard where there was weight lifting and a basketball court and so on, and it just seemed that naturally speaking, these PR prisoners were provided with a lot of luxuries. We had opportunity to go to various pads and to give out some gospel material and speak personally to some of the inmates. And then there was a gospel meeting scheduled in the Chapel and I went in a little early to the Chapel and I sat at the back with some hymn books in my hand.
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To hand out to the men as they filed in for the gospel service, and as I sat there handing out the hymn books. I listened to the conversation of those men as they congregated before the gospel meeting. And almost invariably, their conversation was centered around when they were going to get out of that facility. Their parole was coming due, their release date was up, they served their sentence. They were going to have a retrial.
All kinds of reasons that gave them hope.
Let's say we're going to be released from that facility, and I pondered that because it seemed they had everything that they could desire, everything provided for in three square meals a day. But I realized that you take away from man the one thing that he wants most, and he's dissatisfied. And what is the one thing he wants most? His freedom nations have been built on the principle of freedom. Man desires his freedom more than anything else.
And give them everything else. But take away his freedom. And he lives in hope of the day that he's going to be released from the confines of whatever it might be. And when I stood up to address those men, it was so pressed upon my soul that I turned to Luke's Gospel. And I read the well known story of the rich man and Lazarus, told by the Lord Jesus himself, and how that rich man in hell lifted up his eyes.
And you know, it's interesting that that man did not ask to be released from the confines of hell.
I believe he realized that his destiny was fixed and that there was number hope of release from hell.
And rather than ask for release from the confines of that awful place, he simply asked that one drop of water be brought to him so that he could have momentary relief in his awful place of torment.
And confinement. And I think the most awful thing about hell is that there will be no hope of release.
Some years ago, the S4 submarine went down off the coast of Massachusetts, never to rise again, and many ships rushed to that spot and divers went down to see if they could help or rescue the crew that was stuck down in that watery prison. And one of those divers that went down put his helmet in the ear to the side of that submarine as he heard out tapped.
In Morris code.
Is there any hope? You can just imagine what it must have been going on inside that submarine and that message sent. Is there any hope?
But oh, tonight there is indeed hope. You don't have to go on in your sins. You don't have to go to a lost eternity, because the Lord Jesus God has provided the Lord Jesus that Savior of sinners.
And the Lord Jesus came down, down into this world. He went to Calvary's cross.
And there he died. There he shed his precious blood. There he rose again. And that's why I read in First Peter, where it speaks about a lively or a living hope.
Based on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Because while it's true, tonight we want distress in the gospel.
The death and the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus vital. It's the basis of it.
We want to stress it, but we want to stress too that he rose again the third day.
According to the scriptures, because if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain.
Ye are still in your sins, but thank God he was raised again for our justification.
And after the Lord Jesus came forth from the tomb, and that tomb was opened so there could be testimony.
The stone rolled away. There could be testimony, but after he came out, he remained on earth.
Long enough to give ample and complete witness to his own that he had bodily risen from the dead.
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Showing himself not only to his disciples, but to about 500 brethren at one time.
Saying to his own on another occasion, handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bone.
As you see me have, And what a glorious truth that God has raised him from the dead.
And seated him at his own right hand. The work of Calvary is completed.
And the resurrection is God's. Amen to the work of Calvary. If you want proof that God is satisfied with the work that was accomplished here in this world, I'll just look up my faith and see where the Lord Jesus is now.
Have you looked by faith to the Lord Jesus as the savior of sinners? Tonight there is a Savior on high in the glory, a Savior who suffered on Calvary's tree. A Savior is willing to save now as ever.
His arm is almighty, his love great and free.
Do you want riches in the next life? And I don't mean temporal riches, but do you want to enjoy now and forever the unsearchable riches of Christ?
Do you have this hope? You know, we read in Romans that were saved by hope. What does that mean?
Well, it means again that unless a person has hope, they just cast off all restraint.
We understand this. If you're sick, there's always hope that tomorrow you'll be better. You can grin and bear the pain today.
Because there's hope that tomorrow the medicine will kick in and you'll start to get better. If you're on a financial downslide in your business, you can get through today with the hope that things are going to start getting better tomorrow. If sales are slow, you get through today with the hope that the phones are going to ring tomorrow and so on. We're saved by hope. We live for hope, but we're talking of not about hope in this world, but we're talking about eternal hope and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't often get a chance to read a newspaper, but I was sitting in a cafe with Brother John Mark back in January in Nassau, Bahamas, and we had picked up a My Miami Herald on the way to breakfast. And I glanced over the headlines of the Miami Herald that morning and a headline caught my eye. The headline was something about getting rich, and that headline went on to say.
That a survey had been taken.
Of American freshmen.
Young people and they were asked a number of questions, but one of the questions was what do you desire more than anything else in life?
And 75 percent, 75% of the freshmen young people interviewed in the colleges of north of the United States of America said their hope and goal was to make it rich and be prosperous in this life.
And that's sad. What shall it profit a man?
If he gained the whole world and lose his own soul, you know Solomon in the Old Testament, he had it all.
You know, Israel reached its pinnacle in the Old Testament. Solomon had a throne of ivory with six steps.
Roundabout Speaking of the pinnacle of human glory. In fact, he was so rich that the silver was counted for nothing.
In Israel that day, that's how plentiful it was. And in the book of Ecclesiastes he makes this statement. He says he didn't withhold himself from any pleasure. But did it satisfy him? Not for one moment. I've crossed it all, he writes. Vanity and vexation of spirit. You know, I like to contrast him with the apostle Paul. In the New Testament, Solomon on the throne writes vanity and vexation of spirit. In other words, it's empty. It's nothing.
Doesn't satisfy. You know the Apostle Paul from a prison.
With nothing of this world's goods, he writes. These words rejoice in the Lord always.
And again I say rejoice. It was interesting in that article that one of the young men interviewed was quoted, and he had made it pretty successful. But he said he realized, to be quite honest, that materialism had not satisfied him. He said I have a nice, apt I have a fine car, I have all I can I want. But he said it has not satisfied.
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Oh, what is your hope based on? I've often told about Michael Faraday, reputed to be the father of modern electronics. And Michael Faraday was lying on his deathbed, and a friend came to comfort him on his deathbed. And this friend said to Michael, he said, what is your hope for eternity? What is your what are your speculations for the next life? Michael said speculations.
I'm not resting on speculations. I'm resting on certainties. I'm resting on the word of God.
And so we found that we read, we have a Good Hope, we have a Good Hope, and it is a Good Hope. And I know there are just so many in this room this evening that rejoice as we speak of the hope that we have in Christ, and we often delight to speak together of the hope of the Lord's coming.
The hope of the Lord's coming. What does that hope mean to your soul tonight?
You know there are many verses we can quote, but one verse comes to mind.
The coming of the Lord Draweth Nigh. I know there are just so many that thrill as we think of the nearness of the Lord's return. We love to look up and in our souls say Amen Even so Come Lord Jesus, I'm longing for that moment when I'll see my Savior's face. But I want to warn you in all faithfulness that the coming of the Lord Jesus is going to mean different things for different people.
For those who are washed in the blood of Jesus, it is going to mean to be transported from this planet of sin.
Into a sinless scene, the Father's house to be with and like the Lord Jesus for all eternity. But maybe there's someone here and you start to squirm a little bit when I talk about the Lord's coming. Because you've heard about it from the very early days of your childhood. And you start to look at the clock and say, I hope Mr. Highland will get run down in a little while and we can go on our way and have some fun. And we won't have to hear about these things if the Speaking of the truth of the Lord's coming bothers you tonight.
Oh, I want to warn you. For you, the Lord's coming will mean that the opportunities to be saved.
Are forever gone, forever gone, it says, when once the master of the house hath risen up and shut to the door.
Then they become, they come, and they begin to knock. And they say, Lord, Lord, open unto us.
Why do they say Lord, Lord? Because they're those who knew the name of the Lord. You know who they are.
Listen and listen well to who they are. They are the sons and daughters.
Of fathers and mothers who brought them to gospel meetings just like this. They are the young people.
Who sat at the dinner table and saw a Father open the Bible and read it to them every day? There are those who knew the name of the Lord, and they come, and they say, Lord, Lord, open unto us. Is the door of mercy ever opened again? No.
Not to let so much as one soul in there are some awful words.
Some solemn words that come from the other side of that closed and bolted door.
Depart from me. I never knew you.
You know to whom much is committed, the same shall much be required.
You know, you young people who have come to conferences like this many times. Much is required of you. I dare to say this on the authority of God's Word, but if you go into a lost eternity.
You will be some of those of whom the Lord said they will be beaten with many stripes.
It is so solemn, beaten with many stripes wide because you are more responsible, and you are going to be more responsible when you walk out of this door around 8:30 than you were when you walked in this door.
At 7:30.
Interesting that when Elijah was caught away to heaven in a whirlwind and in a chariot of fire, he's a picture of the coming of the Lord taking his people out.
And when he was caught away to heaven, who was it that missed Elijah? You know it wasn't the general populace in Israel that missed Elijah. It was the sons of the prophets.
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But you know what's so solemn too to realize?
That if you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, you too will be sent a strong delusion, that you'll believe a lie. I can hardly take it in. But so twisted will your mind become as a work of Satan that you will believe some lie and be convinced in your soul that what you heard in this gospel meeting.
Was not even the truth of God. But all again the solemn end will be.
That you will end up in the lake of fire with no hope.
But there's a Good Hope, you know. When I read this verse in Thessalonians about a Good Hope, I am reminded of a little segment from history. I remember studying about a man by the name of Bartholomew de Diaz. And Bartholomew Diaz in 1488 rounded the southern tip of the continent of Africa. The Europeans at that time were looking for a trade route to the east so that they could bring the silks and the spices.
And the TS and they could bring them to England and, uh, Europe, to add to the culture of what they felt was a growing, enlightened society. It was a great hope. And he Arkansas, he rounded the tip of Africa, finally the first European on record to do it, And he rounded it under such adverse circumstances that he aptly named it the Cape of Storms. But you know, when he returned to Portugal.
King John the Second, under whose auspices he had been sailing, decided that the name Cape of Storms.
Would not encourage further exploration. And so he renamed it the Cape of Good Hope. And if you look on a map to this day, it bears the name the Cape of Good Hope. But, you know, it probably was better names A Cape of Storms. Was it a Good Hope? Well, it did provide a trade route to India and the East for some time. But, you know, I don't think it was really the hope that the Europeans had had desired. It was the Cape of Storms. But when we talked about a Good Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the hope of his coming, That is exactly what we mean. It is a Good Hope beyond anything that you and I could ever anticipate. Or if you could just get one inkling of what is ahead for the believer, would you want to turn aside? You know by faith. Moses had that before his soul. He let for Sookie Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, esteeming the reproaches of Christ greater than the treasures.
Egypt and I have had the opportunity to be in Egypt and to learn something about the glorious nation.
The glorious Kingdom that it was at that time and under the Pharaohs. I didn't realize really, the import of that verse I just quoted.
Until I realized the glory of Egypt at that time. Egypt is a base Nation Today, but it was not a base nation at that time. And justice to view a few of those treasures in the Cairo Museum and other places, it stirs you. But Moses saw something far better by faith. And Moses is going to be in that scene of glory. Think of him on the mount of Transfiguration. Think of him in the coming day when all the redeemed are there with the Lord Jesus. Will he be sorry he gave up?
The treasures in Egypt? Oh, not for one moment. Oh, tonight I plead with you to come to Christ. If you don't know Christ, you don't have this Good Hope that so many of us have. But it's yours tonight. It's offered to you tonight.
And I read in the book of Hebrews because there we find it is not just hope IN the sense that we usually use the word hope.
But it is a sure and a steadfast hope, you know, every hope connected with this life and the natural man.
Is uncertainty at best? It is uncertainty at best.
There were many people hoped to be at this conference this weekend. They're not here. Things came up, sickness, circumstance beyond their control that hindered them from being at this conference. If you had talked to them a week or two ago, they would have told you, Oh yes, we have everything in place and we hope to see you at the conference. But they're not here. Even the children and young people understand what it is to have our hopes frustrated.
You hope to get something special for your birthday.
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And it just didn't happen. You hoped to go out with your friends or some activity that you were promised.
And it didn't happen for one reason or another. But when we talk about hope, Indiana Christ.
It's not uncertainty in any sense of the word. We often speak of the hope of the Lord's coming.
It's not uncertainty. We're looking for the Lord to come with certainty.
It's only hope IN the sense that we're not in the full reality of it yet. That's one reason I read again those verses in Romans 8. Because what a man hath, why does he yet hope for? You know, if someone promises you something special for your birthday, they may tell you that they're going to secure it. They may even tell you that they have secured it and that it's hidden away and waiting for the right moment. But you know, with all those promises and you're sure that that person is really.
Going to carry through yet? You're not in the full good of it yet. There's that hope. You live for hope the day when your birthday comes, and then finally the gift is brought out and it's presented to you. Now you have it. You're not hoping for it anymore. You have it. You're in possession of it.
And there are again there are so many here who are waiting for that moment when the Lord Jesus.
Is going to come. What a hope it is. It's a reality. These things are real.
We're passionate tonight about what we're preaching. We're in earnest tonight because these things are real.
It's life and death is not a joke. Life and eternity is not a joke.
Oh, things are made such light of today. Everything is a joke.
There's comedians on every hand, and joke books fill the shelves.
Of the bookstores. But these things are not a joke tonight. That's why we're not here to entertain you tonight.
We're here to plead for your soul. We're here to impress upon your conscience in your heart.
The reality of passing out of this world without Christ.
I'm going to tell you another little incident happened some years ago in the town of Smith Falls, where I live.
I had an aunt, an elderly aunt.
She had known the Lord for many, many years, probably 75 years. She had known the Lord.
She was looking for the Lord Jesus to come, but you know, the time came when the body broke down.
She was taken to the hospital and we knew she wasn't going to live very long.
But she was looking forward to seeing the Lord Jesus. If the Lord Jesus didn't come, she was looking forward.
To being absent from the body and present with the Lord through death.
And I'll never forget standing at her bedside as she gently drew those last few breaths.
A glad smile crossed over her face, and I knew that she was absent from the body and present with the Lord.
But you know, as I stood there, my mind went back 24 hours before to another incident just down the hall in that same hospital ward.
For an elderly man had come to the end of his journey down here, the journey of life.
And he knew it too. And he was a man. His name was Mr. Dolby. He was a man that had been for many years in the town of Smith Falls, a fine, upstanding citizen, I suppose he was what we would call a philanthropist. He was a benevolent man, very wealthy, had done well for himself in business, had used his money in a charitable way, had donated much to the town of Smiths Falls that the youth benefited from.
But you know, he came to the end of life and all those good things that he had done meant nothing.
In the face of eternity. And I will never forget the whales and the shrieks.
That echo down that hospital corridor as he took those last breaths and entered eternity.
What a contrast.
One who had hope beyond this life. Hope, Indiana Christ, to gently draw her last breath knowing she was going home.
Another to come to the end of life in the very same town.
Probably about the very same age, but oh how different.
And I have never done it. But people who have talked or tended the beds of infidels and atheists as they lay dying, have said that they would never do it again. The nurse that attended the deathbed of Voltaire said not for all the gold in Europe would she ever again attend the deathbed of an atheist or an infidel. It was so awful.
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No hope, but our hope is sure and steadfast, which hope we have as an anchor.
Of the soul.
Just recently I saw a full page ad. I think it was in an in flight magazine and it was for a well known insurance company.
And it said replace uncertainties with guarantees.
Replace uncertainties with guarantees. Now granted you it was just a secular ad.
For a well known insurance company in the United States of America. But that headline, that caption caught my eye.
Replace uncertainties with guarantees life insurance.
Replacing uncertainties. Oh, maybe it does provide a little help for those who are left behind when one is deceased.
But it certainly is no guarantee as far as the next life is concerned.
No, the only guarantees for the next life are to be trusting in the work of Christ, to be washed in the blood of Jesus, to know the risen glorified Savior, and to have the hope before your soul of His soon return. I said earlier that to whom much is given of the same is much required, and I want to come back to that for a moment.
Because I am burdened. I am very burdened as I look into the faces of our own children and young people. You know, two young people were heard to say just before a gospel meeting like this, oh, it's just another gospel meeting.
It'll probably be over around 8:30. Yes, it probably will be over around 8:30. But no, Gospel meeting is just another Gospel meeting.
To whom much is given, the same of the same is much required.
I was struck in reading a story about a man.
A young man by the name of Jeff, and he was out for mischief one day, and he went up on the overpass of one of the interstates in the United States of America with a cement block in his hand.
And he just waited for a car approaching and he timed it very well.
And he dropped that cement block. And that cement block went right through the windshield of Vicky Prantel's car.
It not only damaged her car, but it tore up her face and she needed several major surgeries for any kind of facial restoration. I won't tell you the details. It was awful. Eyes, nose, teeth, the whole thing.
But you know, as Vicki lay on the hard tarmac waiting.
For the paramedics to arrive, she prayed.
That the Lord would give her grace to forgive the perpetrator of that crime.
I don't think I would have had the grace to do it, but Vicki is a sweet believer and that was her prayer, and her prayer was answered.
She sent a message to the judge in that courtroom, though she could not attend herself for medical reasons. She sent a message pleading that the judge would have mercy on this man, she said told the court she would not press charges.
And that she would pray for the salvation of this 20 year old man by the name of Jeff.
She prayed hard.
The judge was very lenient.
This young man got 90 days in boot camp, that's all. And he was set free.
And this young man made a public statement about how thankful he was and.
Listen to this How thankful he was that Dickey was a Christian.
And that she had pleaded for mercy for him.
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But, you know, neither Vicki nor anyone else knows to this day.
Whether Jeff has ever received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior.
I think that is so solemn.
To have a Christian.
Plead for mercy for him in that way to have a Christian give him public testimony.
As to why she was doing it and telling him that she was praying for his salvation and he knowing the gospel and then to turn away and say he was thankful that he got off and didn't go to prison like he ought to have.
But not to make any confession of being a Christian himself.
You young people who have Christian parents, you ought to be very thankful for it.
It has spared you from many things. It has no doubt spared you from the raw side of the world. But you know it's not enough. It is not enough to have Christian parents. You know Timothy had a godly mother. He had a God fearing grandmother, but he was told.
That he needed to have faith in Christ Jesus himself, and that he had known the Holy Scriptures from a child, which were able to make him wise unto salvation through faith.
Which is in Christ Jesus.
Have you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? You don't inherit salvation from your parents. You're not going to go to heaven just because your parents.
Are on their way to heaven. No, it just doesn't work that way. You know, sometimes in this world, we get to do things because of not necessarily who we are or even what we are, but who we know and who we're related to and who our parents are. And we get to do certain things because of it. But it isn't true about salvation. You're not going to get into heaven.
Just because you have saved parents, you're not going to get into heaven just because you know somebody who knows the Lord Jesus as your savior. No, you must put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you have this hope? It is a blessed hope, we read in Titus. Looking for that blessed hope or happy hope? Are you looking for that hope or you? Do you dread the Lord's coming?
And for those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, it tells us that as the children of God.
We have a hope that purifies us, that causes us to live as Christians here in this world.
Because, you know, sometimes at the end of a Gospel meeting, there might be somebody who says, well, I'd like to get saved.
But I know I could never live like a Christian. I could never be like a Christian. But when you get saved all, you're given everything you need. You're given all the tools, so to speak, to live like a Christian. And one of the wonderful tools you're given is the hope of the Lord's coming. And in the measure in which you have that before you, it has a practical, purifying effect on your life. You have the Spirit of God indwelling you. You have the divine life.
The very life of Christ. You have the word of God to guide and direct you.
Oh, don't stay away because you feel you could never live like a Christian. No. Come, because God is a giving God because he has something wonderful. He has salvation through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
You have every expectation of walking out one of these doors in a few minutes.
But what if you draw the last breath? What if the Lord Jesus comes? You know, I've taken some hard funerals in my day. Some very hard funerals, but bar none. The hardest funeral I ever stood up to preach was the funeral of a 92 year old woman who hardened her heart to the very end of her life.
Her grandchildren, who were the Lords and who I grew up with and knew very well, asked me.
To say a few words at her funeral.
I talked to different ones that knew this lady before she passed away to see if there was any threat of hope, if there was anything that would give us some hope, that maybe there was a breakdown at the end and that there had been repentance in turning to Christ. The more I talked to people, the more I realized the person in the coffin was probably in a lost eternity. I say one of the most difficult things to do to stand up and not have any hope.
00:55:01
To be able to give nobody hope, but I was able to bring us into the presence of God and to say that for the person in the coffin there was number hope.
But for those that were living, there was still hope and that we had opportunity to receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior.
And I'm not going to tell you tonight to wait till you get across the street or back to your room or after the thing to get saved. No, behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. And what I'm going to tell you at the end of this gospel meeting is that if you do not know Christ as your Savior, I plead with you, I beg you not to get up out of your seat before you receive Christ. You know, sometimes at the end of the Gospel meeting, I think people don't really know how to get saved. They hear they need to.
But this is how simple it is. All you have to do tonight is quietly in your heart, because God hears what you say in your heart without uttering one word aloud. But all you have to do in your heart tonight is speak to God, Repent. Tell him you're sorry for your sins. Receive the Lord Jesus. Tell him you want to be saved. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And if you from your heart.
Speak to Him in faith. Tonight before you leave your seat. I will guarantee you. I will guarantee you on the basis of God's Word. And this isn't like the idle guarantees of this world and the manufacturers of it. But I can guarantee you, on the basis of God's Word, that you will rise from your seat with the most wonderful, blessed hope in your soul, knowing the Lord Jesus as your Savior, knowing that you're on your way to heaven.
Do you want to have that wonderful hope tonight before you leave this room? Oh, I'm going to pray now. You pray in your heart. By faith receive the Lord Jesus Christ. He's bending low from heaven to hear you. Just breathe in your soul and receive him by faith. Oh come now to Jesus. That dear loving Savior receive him this moment and peace shall be thine. Let's pray our blessed God and Father.
Our souls are stirred at the end of this Gospel meeting, and we pray that no one will leave this room without being saved.
We pray that there might be a real work of Thy spirit and that thou continue to draw souls to Christ.
That there might be fruit and blessing for Thy glory and for their eternal salvation.
We ask blessing on thy word here and wherever it's proclaimed, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Children of Light and Children of Darkness
Children—Cecil Roossinck
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Good morning, girls and boys and everybody.
Another fine morning, isn't it?
I think I see more girls than boys on the front row.
But that's good. So we're going to give the girls the first choice of a song. Is there a girl who has it? Now? I'm going to give you the microphone. You are the first one. You give out the number.
#5 #5, she says.
Alright #5 I gotta be careful I don't trip over my own cord here.
#5
Just don't get old, kids. She has got to get these glasses out to see. Put your teeth in in the morning. Number 50, Happy day. That's a good 10. Happy day.
On the great transaction.
Done. I am my Lord.
And am I?
Followed.
That good time now?
135.
1, 23945 in the way.
When there is no fall on my fingernails.
Rest my heart in my in my face.
It's not my blood that sent the rest.
My lordy part.
With him of everyone.
Happy days, Happy days.
Days for his dreams, that's why my sins away till watch and pray.
Well, it's a real happy day to be here at the conference, isn't it? Are you glad to be here? Are you? So am I. But you know, it would be a even happier day.
And a much happier day if you accepted the Lord Jesus as your savior today. And that's what this song is about. A happy day. And for me, that happy day took place many years ago now. A happy day when Jesus washed my sins away. Because you know, it's nice to be here at the conference, especially on such a nice, beautiful, sunny day, but then comes tomorrow and you gotta go home.
00:05:16
And maybe back to school or whatever. So happy days. Like, uh, being with our friends.
They all come to an end after a while. But you know if you receive the Lord Jesus, you have a happy day and it'll never end. So who's got another song? Maybe a boy this time. Let's see a boy way on the far end. Now I'm gonna you meet me halfway so you can give out your number into this mic. You wanna come up? I'm not sure how long court I got. You Tell us the number you'd like. Set the 363. No. What did you say, 30?
33 Thank you.
Gonna have to get some of these on the Backpage too, but this is 33. Nothing either great or small. Let's sing the first and last. Is that all right? We sing the first and last verse of 33.
Somebody start that one.
I'd like, umm somebody to give out one on the last page.
The last page Yeah #44, nice and clear. Thank you 44.
In to attend one of my favorites.
Nobody ever has told me before.
He didn't follow me up for it no more.
I'm not doing finished, but I'm good. I didn't call joy.
Nobody ever the story of soul.
Tell your heart.
Down your heart here, I don't think Some stories we did, horrible and all.
Milton, Transdale and Children of Men.
Oh.
00:10:00
And them for me.
Again, salvation story we keep on.
01/10/31 Children of porridge nobody advertises.
Again, that's what we're doing this morning. Tell him again.
I remember I loved this song as a real small youngster when I could hardly understand the words and I thought boy, that poor little boy never had any pajamas to wear because it says he was dying in the clothes of the day.
But I got the wrong.
I got that little mixed up, didn't I? All right, let's have another song. Let's have another one off the back page. A girl this time. Which one? You girl. There's a girl that wants 1.
464646 Thank you.
46.
A spelling song. We always like those. I hated spelling when I went to school, but I like it in this song.
Glad to.
Hear.
It.
I need all and he calls all the GIRLS and he wants all the real life to to be on him and see him.
Good. Let's have a boy.
Yes.
16 everybody hear that 1616, Yeah.
Not on the Backpage, but we'll sing it.
Whosoever heareth.
Whosoever.
Is the joyfulness, wherever it is.
So ever will make us.
Whosoever will.
And the proclamation over there and death is a loving Father called the one to call whosoever will may come.
Now the door is open and surviving.
Jesus is the truth.
I think we're going to have just one more and then maybe we can sing another one or two later, OK? I see hands on this side and boy, it's hard to know which one to pick.
Whose hand was up first? Both of yours. We'll take yours 4040. Thank you.
I was hoping that someone would give out 40. I'm so glad that you did.
On this one.
Is there any boys or girls who?
Know how to speak the deaf person's language, You know? Yes, Jesus loves me.
Some of you know that I think if we all tried it, even the grown-ups. And when we get to the course, I don't know the rest of it, but I did learn the course.
Let's try on the course to sing as well as sing it with our mouth. We'll do the motions and if you follow me, I don't know if you have it right or not, but you'll have it the way I have it anyway.
00:15:12
So when we get to the course, we're going to try to do the deaf person's language. OK, Are you ready?
Jesus loves me.
Wrong they are with my tears come as he does not stop me.
Yes, she's like love me.
Because he does not love me, but I won't tell me.
About this 1:00 To be able to die and take your love, and blind he will washed away thy sins.
Yeah, I'll see some.
Oh, help me go.
Umm, first we're going to do a little different. I want you all to make believe that you're deaf and you never learn to say a word. So we're all going to sing the chorus on the last verse only with our hands. You think we could do that? I know somebody is going to forget and say the words, but that's all right. If you do after the first word, you'll change your mind anyway.
So it's going to be a very silent course, but we're all going to be singing it, OK, with our hands. So when we get to the course, not a word from our lips, Just with our hands, all right.
Jeez.
And I trust you shall I die.
He will take the long time.
Very good. The only problem is not gonna be too good on the tape recording.
But that's all right now before we.
Go any farther? We're going to ask the Lord to help us because, boy, we sure need his help this morning, don't we? Let's bow our heads and pray. Loving God our Father, we thank this morning for the Lord Jesus Christ.
You came from heaven, the light into this Dark World that boys and girls and men and women might have life. Lord, we just thank thee.
For this opportunity to speak once more of the Lord Jesus and His love and mercy and care over us. Lord, we pray for Thy blessing. Pray for every boy and for every girl that's on this front row. This morning and throughout this room we just pray to that some dear young person would have that happy day today when they receive the Lord Jesus.
00:20:23
As their own personal Savior, we pray Thy help. Lord, give us understanding of Thy word. We thank you in Jesus worthy precious name. Amen.
You know, we were singing that song Jesus Loves Me one time, uh, on a little town on the South Coast of Newfoundland where there's there's no road to get there. And the boys and girls there have never, a lot of them have never ridden in a car.
Or never saw a red light. I wish I saw a few less of those sometimes, but they they don't have any cars, any roads. And so I took a boat down about 3 1/2 hours I think it was or something like that and got to a little place called Gray River. And uh, we were having a little outdoor meeting on the Wharf and there was, uh, three boys there that couldn't hear one thing.
All from the same family, same relation here. Two of them are cousins and uh, we sang Jesus Loves Me. And some of the boys and girls there were saying it. They they knew it, they'd heard it before. And when we got to the course, I just automatically started doing the sign language and I never thought of those three boys. I forgot all about them being there. And you should have heard them. The other kids, they.
Shouted at those boys. Look, look, look, look.
And then then they could get the words for the first time. So we might get the in this sign language. We get the words a little mixed up. I do. But those boys, they heard that wonderful chorus of Jesus loves me for the first time. They learned that language. They had to go away to a school in Halifax to learn that language. But they learned it. Wonderful to have good ears, isn't it? Well, you have ears this morning. So I hope that you'll use them.
You know, in these meetings the last couple of days.
We've had quite a bit about the children of light and the children of darkness and I thought as I looked at the boys and girls and the men and women and the young people in this room this morning, that really there's only two kinds of people here today.
Oh, there might be quite a few different nationalities and quite a few different levels of education.
But really there's only two kinds of people that are here this morning and they would be that we're talking to the children, so.
There's the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness.
Well, I would like to thank everyone in this room is one of the children of Light.
It's wonderful to know the Lord Jesus to be and to be brought into the light. There's a verse in the Bible in John Uh chapter five. I think it is. Umm.
I'll have a look.
John Chapter 5.
If you have your Bible, you can.
No, it's John chapter 8 and verse 12. I'm gonna start at the second part line of that verse. It says I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life. That's a wonderful verse. Uh. I think it was the memory verse. I don't know how many of you learned the verse that's in the messages of the love of God papers.
I think about 3 weeks ago it was the memory verse, wasn't it? Maybe 4 weeks.
Ago, probably 3 or 4 weeks. And uh, I was in Grand Rapids at the time and they asked me to open the Sunday School. So the boys and girls there like to say the memory verse. It's a good practice to learn a verse from God's word, learn it and hide it in your heart. So anyway, that was the verse.
On Sunday morning.
So when I ask if any boy or girl would like to say the verse, there was a hand that shot right up real quick. It was Cameron. So he wanted to be the first one to say the verse. And he was, he said the verse. And then there was a quite a few more that said it and I was so glad they said it. So after we said the verse, I said, uh.
00:25:19
Who said that I am the light of the world? Who said that? So Cameron's hand shot up real fast.
And I said Cameron. Who said that? He said I did.
Well, that was true. He did say it, so I had to give him credit for that, he had said. But I said, well, Cameron, what I meant is who said it first? And Cameron's hand shot right up again. I said Cameron. Who said that verse first? I did. And it was true. He was the first one to say it.
But what I was getting at, of course, is who said that long ago, years before Cameron was born, Who was the first one to say that verse? I am the light of the world. Who said that?
Can you tell me, Jesus? Jesus said that, and I'm glad he did. Well, it's wonderful to know him who is the light of the world.
And then you become a child of light.
Born into this world were Children of Darkness.
But the Lord Jesus wants us to be born again by trusting in Him as our savior. And it's so important to come to know him while you're young. While you're young, some people think you know you. You just wait till you get older and you can figure these things out and you just gotta go on.
The way you are and forget it. Years ago there was a young boy. His name was Bobby.
And he came to the gospel tent and Reedville town called Reedville. And Bobby was born with a bit of a problem on his with his leg. I don't know if he had a a hip out of joint, but he couldn't walk very good. He never had any any operations on it or anything. So when Bobby walked he he had quite a limp.
Give myself a limp here.
He had quite a limp and uh, but he was a nice fellow. He came to the gospel tent every day this year that we were there and uh, I was visiting. His mother had a store in the town and I went to the store and I was visiting with his mother and his mother said to me and rather a cross way, Bobby came home yesterday and told me he got saved.
Oh, I see. That's wonderful. Oh, she said. But I told him.
Forget that, I told him. Think about when you grow up. You're too young. You're way too young to think about that. Well, I assured his mother that God's time was now to be saved and Bobby wasn't too young. And I was so glad to hear that he accepted the Lord as his savior. Well, you know, that was in August, September, school started and everybody, all the youngsters went back to school.
And Bobby being a little lame.
You know, wasn't too good at defending himself and that. And so the boys and the girls too, I guess, were doing a lot of pushing as they were waiting for the bus. And uh, they're waiting to get on the bus. So the bus was ready to go and somebody gave Bobby a big push right under the wheel and the bus went and ran over Bobby.
And Bobby was in eternity.
Bobby was crushed by the wheel of that bus. Was he too young to be saved? Was he? His mother said to him. Oh, you're too young to think about that. Forget it. Bobby wasn't too young. He was saved just in time, Just in time. We sometimes sing a song. Oh, won't you come to Jesus while you're young, boys and girls? We don't know what tomorrow may bring.
We just don't know. You're not too young to be saved, but tomorrow.
Could be too late forever and ever.
Are you saved?
You're not too young.
No.
My nephew Timmy, he was seven years old.
00:30:08
And uh, one day I was visiting at his house.
And he climbed up on my lap and he said he had his daddy's Bible in his hand. He's just seven years old. He said, Uncle Cecil said, will you read to me? Oh, I said sure. To me, I thought that was a surprising request from a 7 year old boy and a Bible in his hand. And I said sure, we read some verses from the Bible and one of them was John 316.
Anybody know that verse?
Who would like to say it into the mic?
Oh, I see. A few hands went down.
OK, now you change your mind. You would like to say it in the mic. Come on, then, you Right. You come right up here. I'll just turn this this way. And you say it right into there. For God to love the world that he gave the only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have a lasting life. John 316. Very good. How old are you?
You're eight. OK, Timmy, we're talking about WAS 7.
And we read that verse and we talked a little bit about it. And Timmy looked up at me and he said, Uncle Cecil, will you pray with me? I was so surprised. He seemed so serious. So we got down our knees and we prayed. And I believe right then Timmy received the Lord Jesus as his Savior. 7 years old. You know, that was the last time I ever saw Timmy. Never saw him alive again the next time I saw him.
He was in a little casket just a few days later, a couple weeks maybe.
They were playing and they were gonna cross the road. And he and his brother and his sister, and they crossed the road and Timmy didn't have any shoes on his feet. He was barefoot and he got onto the rocks on the other side of the road and they hurt his feet. So I'm going back to get my shoes. And he went across the road, but a car was coming and Timmy, Timmy was in eternity. Was he too young to be saved?
No, he wasn't too young to be saved. Thank God I just praise the Lord.
For that day when Timothy, at 7 years old, received the Lord Jesus as his savior.
And he didn't live in this world very long after that home with the Lord Jesus.
Oh, what a wonderful savior we have.
Well, boys and girls, there's nobody here that's that can hear what we're saying. It's too young to be saved you. There's a verse in the Bible that says behold.
What's the next word? Is the day of salvation. What's the word? Behold?
Now, thank you, is the day of salvation, not tomorrow. You never know what tomorrow's going to bring. And the Lord Jesus is coming. He's coming so soon. Are you ready to meet him?
We started off mentioning a little about darkness and light. There was lots about that in these this conference so far. So I don't wanna turn. I wanna turn now to a verse in First or Second Corinthians chapter 4, Second Corinthians chapter 4.
And verse six, Second Corinthians 4 and verse 6.
It's got a few hardish words in it, but umm.
I'm gonna ask one of the bigger boys if they'd come up here and read this verse 4 Second Corinthians 4, verse 6, who'd like to volunteer. Would you? OK, come on up.
You stand right here on this side and you read Second Corinthians 46 parts for God who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness shyness in our hearts to give the light.
Of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Thank you very much.
Now there's something kind of different about this the other day when we were over across the way.
It suddenly got very dark, didn't it? Lights went out and it was dark and we needed light.
00:35:06
Here it says God.
Uh, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness? We needed, I thought we wanted light to shine into the darkness.
We want to shine, and some people had.
The lights to turn on flashlights.
So they could see and to shine into the darkness, to see where they were going. I didn't have a flashlight, so I was really in the dark. I didn't have any light and.
Yesterday, a very kind sister who's here in the room this morning I suppose I don't see her, but I'm sure she's here. She had gone to the store and bought a bag full of flashlights. Wise woman. And she gave us this flashlight as a free gift. She didn't charge a cent for it, she bought it. She paid the price it cost her, but she freely gave it to poor people like myself.
And my wife who had no flashlight in case the lights went out again. So I still have it and I'm not going to give this away as a prize or anything because I kind of considered a bit of a prize in case the lights go out. I don't want to be without a light, so I'm very thankful for this flashlight.
But you know, when I turn it on, I shine it into the darkness. But here, this verse we read, God, who caused the light to shine out of the darkness, Out of the darkness. How could that be? Light shining out of the darkness? Well, I think here's the here's what I've enjoyed about this, boys and girls. But there was a very, very dark time in this world's history. The darkest time, probably.
Ever in the world's history. And that was a couple of thousand years ago. What happened 2000 years ago, very, very wicked thing was done in this world and a very sad thing. Do you know what I'm talking about?
And then nobody could hear that. So I'm going to have you say it again. Do you use that on the cross? That's exactly right. There wasn't a darker time ever in the history of this world when, man.
And women.
Took their creator.
Who came in love, who came to bring light into this world, and they crucified him.
Nail him to cross to die because they hated him.
Because they were envious of him, Because.
Way back from the Garden of Eden, you know the Devil's holy that if you'll.
Do your own thing. Disobey God. You will be like God.
And man has wanted to be like God. Man has wanted to be in the place of God ever since.
And so when God came in the person of the Lord Jesus and said we don't want him.
We're the ones, We're the important ones, so they kill them on the cross. Now. God, it says. Who caused the light to shine out of darkness in that? Our time is getting gone. We've got to hurry.
That dark, dark hour of Calvary. There's where the light shines.
Out of that darkness, right to my heart and to yours, he says to you this morning, come unto me.
Oh yes, he wants to bless and forgive and save you.
And give you light so that you'll be a child of light. And you can spend eternity with him in that glorious place. So that's where that's the source of blessing. Oh, it's not being a good girl or a good boy that's going to get you into the light. And all that light that shone out of the darkness of Calvary's cross Shining to you today. Same way you receive it. Will you have it? Will you come?
We have come. Well, there's lots of other wonderful verses in the Bible that talk about that light being children of light and coming to the light. Have you come to the light? Have you come to the Lord Jesus? He's the the one who said I am the light of this world.
00:40:02
You come to him. He wants to save you. Tomorrow may be too late.
While you're young, come today. He's calling now. I promised you we'd sing one more song. And there was a girl down on this side who had one that I couldn't pick. Where did she go? I think she disappeared. She must have been more upset than I thought about not getting to give out to him. So we'll get one from somebody else. Did you have one yet? You did have. You didn't have. All right. Go get your song. And then we'll pray and be done.
42 Thank You 42.
A little child of seven, and I'm glad you gave that one out because we were talking about a little boy of seven.
A little child of seven or even 3 or 4 May enter into heaven through Christ.
The open door.
Just before we pray, I'm going to quote one more verse I never like to.
Tell out the gospel without quoting this favorite verse of mine. And I am quoting because.
If there's a boy or girl who wants to be saved, maybe you're not just sure what to do.
Here's a simple, wonderful verse, and we heard it last night in the gospel too.
It says, Whosoever means you or me shall call upon the name of the Lord.
Saved save. Isn't that a wonderful verse?
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, Lord, save me.
That's what. That's what Peter prayed when he was sinking in the water. And the Lord saved him. Just like that. Lord save me. And that's how simple it is. You realize this morning that you are a Sinner and you need to be saved while you're young. Call on the Lord. Just ask him to save you. Tell him, Lord, I'm. I'm a Sinner. I want to be saved. And he'll save you. He'll save you.
The older you get, the harder it is to do that. Let's just ask his help. Thank you, Our God, our Father, or if there's a boy or girl here this morning.
Whose desires to be saved, Lord? Give them the help, the courage, the strength, the wisdom, just to simply call on the name of the Lord. Say Lord Jesus, save me, Lord. We just pray for every boy and girl that's here and every older one. We pray that none would go from this meeting still in their sins, still a child of darkness.
We just pray, Lord thy blessings. We thank thee in Jesus worthy and precious holy name.
Amen.
Ephesians 5:22-33
Reading
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I suppose it's rather.
Shall I say difficult for us in a meeting like this, because here we are as brothers commenting on this chapter, which is writing proper according to God's Word, and yet we are speaking not only to ourselves, but to our wives.
But the Word of God addresses both, doesn't it? And it's interesting that when God addresses those in a place of submission and those in positions of responsibility and authority, almost invariably he addresses those in submission first. Wives before husbands, children before parents, servants before masters, and so on.
And I suppose the reason for that is that God expects.
That if we are in a position to submit, we should do so without particular reference as to whether the authority is always exercised in the right way.
But to balance things out, I can still remember the comment of a dear brother in our written ministry. I think it was Mr. Wigram and it stuck with me. I read it many years ago and he said that in his experience and observation that whenever God sets up a sphere of authority or a sphere in which authority is exercised.
That if there is failure and confusion within that sphere, it is usually the member in authority that has failed first.
Now I don't say that that is invariably so, nor can we take that, as shall we say, coming from the Word of God. But I have to say in my limited observation and experience that He was right. And so I suggest to my own heart, as I suggest to each one of us, that in what we have before us here, it is incumbent on each one.
To read his or her own mail.
I've had the occasion from time to time and it's not a happy thing.
To speak to husbands and sometimes wives who are having serious trouble in their marriages and it's very humbling because.
Under those circumstances, it makes me very much aware of my own shortcomings. But generally speaking, the accusations fly thick and fast and it's always well, she did this or she did that, or he doesn't do this or he doesn't do that, or something like that.
And many times I have had to remind them and remind myself. Read your own mail and act on it.
And you will find that generally speaking, the Lord will look after the rest.
These are very serious things, but it's wonderful the way God puts it here. And I know others will go into it in more depth than this, but I mentioned those things at the beginning because very often there's a tendency for me to want to apply something to my wife when really I ought to be reading what the Scripture says to me. And there can be the tendency for the wife to want to apply to her husband what it says to him, when really she should be reading what Scripture says to her.
The woman's place is in the home and, uh, in World War 2 when all the young men had to go out to, to war, who's going to take care of the factories and everyone else? Well, the woman, the women came in and they got a taste of that and Satan knows exactly how to upset things and, uh.
Once you got a taste of that, she preferred that many times to the home and her place is in the home. And if she fails in her place, it's really the husband's fault. That's what you were saying. But uh, Satan knows that the, the, the stronghold of the family is, is, uh, is the man and the woman.
00:05:09
And uh.
Uh, if you can just break that somehow, some way, which he has succeeded, uh, uh, he has destroyed one of the most important.
Things there is established of God, that's the family, the home, and then the kids get farmed out to some, uh, someone else or another school or whatever it might be and, uh.
The family is gone.
There were two great institutions set up and established by God for the blessing of man on the earth. The first was the family. The second was the assembly. And I suppose that the enemy, being opposed to everything that God has set up and established on earth for the blessing of man, has always been busy from the very beginning, to tear down and destroy it, if he can. And when was there ever a day when the enemy has been as busy to destroy not only the home, but the Christian home?
Because the enemy of our soul, Satan, understands that if he can attack the Christian home.
The assembly is no more than the individuals and families that make up the assembly.
And so he gets to the very heart of the matter, the very core of the matter, and he seeks to destroy the home. But it's important to realize that God has set up authority, as I say, on the earth, various levels of authority for the blessing of man. Sometimes authority is looked at today and submission and so on as a hard thing. And there's a tendency, naturally speaking, we don't like to be under a yoke. We don't like to be under authority. The natural man doesn't like to submit. He wants his own way and so on.
But what man has failed to realize is that much of the turmoil that is in the world today in the society which we live is because there has been the breakdown and the turning aside from the authority that God has set up. But it really it's not God doesn't mean it to be a hard thing. He means it to be for the blessing of man. And that's why he takes it up in in this chapter and he goes on. He's got we won't get to it, but he talks about children and parents in the next chapter.
Servants and masters, as we would say today, employers and employees and so on, all these things are for the good of man. And when, when these things are exercised in their proper way, then there is a happy, uh, there. There's happiness for the individuals who are involved. But it's not a hard thing. It's for man's blessing. The woman really doesn't want to be the head. She wants to look up to her man to be the head.
That's that's that's natural.
The the child wants to look up to daddy and mommy to guide them. The servant wants to look to his master as to how he's concerned in a pleasing way. Umm, and to change that order. I mean, what is the MO? What does the woman really want from her husband? He wants, she wants his love. She really wants his love. And what does he want from her? Her submission. And when that is done?
It, it works fine. The child really wants to obey the parents, but it doesn't look like that because everything is. So you send the kids off into, uh, some school as a training place and, and uh, you've destroyed the family in order. But when the daddy comes home from work, the child wants to, wants to be with daddy and he reached them to them and so on.
Umm, that's, that's normal, that's normal. That's, that's not abnormal. And Satan knows that and he's, he's a master at destroying God's order.
Had a father who had a broken home and living alone say to me about his boys. He said, well, I don't suppose my boys will ever wanna have a normal marriage relationship. They've seen so much disorder in in in their parents family that and he was bemoaning this and it's true. Umm, when we do not practice these things of this, these verses here and disorder comes in and.
Breakups and problems result. It has an effect on the children if they aren't there, and it has effect on all the other people. But I would like to suggest too that this is even above all of that. The whole purpose of this, these verses here are to show us the relationship of Christ and the church and to teach us about that and the proper order and where you have a happy marriage and where you have.
00:10:27
Submission and love practice as it should be. It is a beautiful display of what God intended not only marriage to be, but what God intended Christ and his church to be portrayed to the world and those about us. And so it really gives us an added motive in considering this subject to think of what we're really portraying when we obey these verses.
When we follow, when the wives are submissive to their husbands, we see a beautiful example of what the church ought to be to Christ and so on, the love as as a husband to his wife in the same manner. And so, umm, I know I, if you go to a, a wedding and where it's a Christian wedding and verses like these are red, we, we really enjoy, uh, that happy occasion, not just in the sense that it was.
A beautiful bride and groom and how happy they're starting out their lives together and, and, and all but every time I go to a Christian wedding, I, I fall in love with the Lord all over again, as it were and, and I, I am encouraged to realize how how much the Lord cares for me as, as my bridegroom and so on. And this gives this gives us a real.
Motive for fulfilling these uh.
These umm.
Requirements or these, uh, this Christian order given to us here. MMM Brazil, but she talked about.
That the leader is the one that sets the course, sets the steps, the marching in the home or in any organization. When you study leaders, you study any book about leaders where they have good information about it. Guess who the buck stops with when there's trouble, when there's problems, it's the leader. He's the one that has the answer. When a leader, the father in a home is loving and kind and walks with the Lord.
We often see a home that displays love and kindness in return from the children. From the wife. It becomes easy to follow a man who is kind and loving towards you. A father who does not provoke his children to wrath. A father who does not pro broke, a husband who does not provoke his wife to rap. They're our homes where it's upside down, where the father has the children.
And the wife under his thumb to keep them as he thinks in their place. That is not in accordance with this scripture at all, but a kind, loving leader. Not a girly man, because there are too many of them today too, but a real man of God who walks with the Lord, who loves the Lord and displays kindness and a heart. He will have a wife and children who are more likely to follow him because grace.
In a heart filled with Christ is a lovely thing, an attractive thing to follow.
Yeah, this morning, uh, this morning, uh, brother read in Exodus chapter 21. I believe in that chapter, it gave us a very nice godly order as to how a man ought to walk and how they ought to behave. If we can turn to that, just for a quick reference there Book of Exodus chapter 21.
We read about that Hebrew servants there. Just going to turn to one verse in verse 5.
That verse is says and if the servant shall plainly say, now listen to what he says here, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go out free. Very simple verse here. I love my master, my wife and my children. I believe that is the godly order given in here. Sometimes we hear one would say he loved his wife more that hinder him from other things.
No, here it says I love my Master. The Master come first. I heard a problem in family and in the assembly they said, well, my children wouldn't want me to do that. Well, is that the godly order I love my Master do We obeyed what our Master has set for us first. Now does that mean I don't love my children anymore? No, it's the proper order, my master first my wife and then my children.
00:15:26
Hmm, very good.
Submission is not to be subservient either. And I, I think we need to keep it in, in what it is. And I want to repeat that to be submissive is not to be subservient. And I've sometimes said when speaking at a wedding that when Eve was taken from Adam and formed, she was taken from his side. She wasn't taken from his head to be over him. She wasn't taken from his feet to be under him. She was taken from his side, close to his heart, but to be at his side because the woman has a very wonderful place, especially in Christianity.
In fact, it's Christianity that has given the woman, has given a woman a place that she never enjoyed in the Old Testament, even under Judaism. And some of us have had opportunity to travel in lands where something other than Christianity is the profession of the day. And you see there that women do not enjoy the privileges that they do in Christianity. And that's why I said earlier that God has these disorder for the blessing.
Of man on the earth for the blessing of his creature here. And the reason that there's so much difficulty and sorrow and turmoil in society is because man has stepped out. Men and women have stepped out of their position. They felt it's hard. They felt it's restrictive. But submission is not to be subservient. And a wife, a wife's place is that her husband's side and close to his heart.
In Genesis 2, umm.
472 verse 18 and the Lord God said it is not good. I will make him an help a little louder, please. Uh, Genesis 218 and where God says I will make and help me for him. And so we see thee, I believe thee. The question now it should be a partnership.
It's not, as you say, a subservient relationship. Umm. Nevertheless, of course there may be times when.
Despite being the prayer before the Lord concerning the matter, there may still be some difference of opinion between the husband and the wife. And under those circumstances, it says here, why submit yourself unto your own husbands as unto the Lord, recognizing that the husband has a responsibility to the Lord. And so we umm, uh, there there is that chain of responsibility that we get there, but.
Just remember our wives are giving to us to help as helpless. They are not given to us in a as you said, subservient relationship.
Abraham was told by the Lord to listen to his wife.
I was thinking of that very incident, David, and I think it's helpful because on one occasion he didn't exercise his headship and it got him into a great deal of trouble. And the people of God have suffered for it. God's earthly people have suffered for it. And there's still turmoil in the Middle East today because he didn't exercise his headship. But it's interesting that it's after that he's told to listen, to hearken unto Sarah, thy wife, and all that she says unto thee.
Because it wasn't a question of his headship there, it was a question of her discernment. And there arose the situation where she had more discernment in a matter than he did, and he was told to listen to it. But I wanna read a verse in First Corinthians 11. Connection with what we've been saying here, what you've just said, First Corinthians 11.
And verse 3.
But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ.
And the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. And here we have a fair, the proper order. And I've said this many times, I'm gonna repeat it because sometimes when I'm visiting in homes, especially over the kitchen table or something like that, I see this little model. Christ is the head of this home. That is not a scriptural expression. Christ is the head of the man. The man is the head of the home. So we need to keep these in their proper things, in their proper order.
00:20:19
I would like to repeat what's already been said.
So pardon me, but it is it is interesting and and and we should just emphasize it again that here where it speaks of husbands and wives is in this passage that the Lord uses to speak of Christ in the Church. And I don't think we can under emphasize that.
And we look around because in a second I want to talk about problems because that's very important. But we look around and as we see failures in our own marriages and marriages around us, we know or we should know that this is going to.
Disturb the assembly. Now that's not the only type of failure that disturbs the assembly, because anything I do at any level in my life.
Whether it's work or otherwise is going to have an impact on the assembly. You say, well, sorry, that's, you're stretching it there, but I don't believe I am. And the attitude that we have the things, the, the way that we manage things in, uh, our secular life and so forth is sooner or later gonna come back and have an effect in the assembly. And so the way that we behave at home.
Whether if I'm younger, how I behave as a young person, whether I'm older, how I behave as a wife or as a husband, these things are going to sooner or later have their impact in the assembly. And so I'm not exactly fond of the expression practical ministry, because I would like someone to point out to me some ministry that's from Scripture that's not practical. So I, I, I, I don't like that term, but.
We do use it. We kind of understand what we mean by it, but perhaps there's some reasonable advice that can be helpful to us.
You know, we are different as women and as men and of course across the room and probably in back of me somewhere. So someone is going ease up, but.
We we should recognize some very, very interesting differences in Mr. Hendricks has pointed out twice in the course of these meetings that the woman once loved. And I think that that's really important. And that's not to say that guy doesn't want love also, but it seems like one thing that seems to be pretty important to a man is to have that respect. And it's almost a a a.
Sending them to this submission or being in subjection, it is a showing of respect.
And, you know, we go to school and we learn about positive reinforcement. And so the guy comes home and says, I'm gonna really use this positive reinforcement stuff, and I understand it. And so he says, thank you, sweetheart, for cleaning the house today.
You know.
That doesn't mean a lot to a woman, I'm sorry to say. Not sorry to say, but but just, it just is that way.
And, and we learn about this positive reinforcement thing and, and, and we don't seem to distinguish between men and women. And, and because a woman wants to hear, sweetheart, I love you. And then sweetheart, you're pretty.
Or something else as #2 not as the first thing. Positive reinforcement is not really changed behavior.
Of a woman because it is not what they're listening to.
Not what they're listening to.
Now a guy.
He wants to hear the front yard looks good.
Hey.
And because because as a head, he is responsible for accomplishing things.
And if those things are accomplished and mentioned and appreciated, then that is listened to.
And, uh, guys, I, I kind of hesitate to speak for the women because I don't feel that.
00:25:02
As a woman does. But I can say as a guy that those are the kinds of things. And that's why when a man loses a job.
We had a situation, Bonnie said. Well, good, this is a chance to go to Yosemite. We can now take off for a few days, but it doesn't work that way.
Because I had to find a job. And that that is what makes us tick. We're ahead. That means that we need to accomplish things and that's how we think and respond.
You know, there's lots of things that start way back in in the romance things, and I might as well mention that too because there's a lot of young folks here. You might as well get going on the right step.
The young lady figures that the man is going to change.
And the young man figures that the woman is not going to change.
And they're both wrong. They're both wrong, but you think we think differently and and and we better respect the way that that we think and along the line of thinking differently.
Let's bring up one more very very important thing and it goes like this if he loved me he would know what I wanted.
And then we say the exact same thing. If my wife loved me she would know what I wanted and that is way off base. Imagine if God looked at us and sent us an empty and blank book saying.
If those people down there really loved me, they would know what I thought and what I wanted. But he doesn't. He sends us a book that is full of what not his requirements, but what he's thinking. And so we need to tell each other what we're thinking, actually what we're thinking, and not assume that that the other person magically knows what we're thinking. Because they don't. They can't. That's not even possible.
So there's there's quite many other things that that people can contribute wisely, but I do want to mention problems.
Because this is very real. We were talking about this on the way here even.
And I mentioned some years in our marriage year #5 year #7 year #12 are very commonly worldly or Christian are very difficult years in marriages.
And.
A little addition was made there.
By my wife and she said probably the most critical time is, quite frankly, the first couple weeks.
If you're a Christian.
And you get married.
Some of the first things that you should do is to read your Bible and pray together. And if these very simple habits are not started in the first couple hours, quite frankly, but certainly in the first couple of weeks.
You're not gonna make it. Year five and year seven and year 12 are gonna be potentially disastrous for you.
So we need to.
Be on the right step. And so let's say that we do get into trouble, and a lot of marriages among Christians are in trouble. And we go to this chapter and we say, Lord help us.
Let's read this chapter together and let's learn from it. And you know, I might pull away and say, you know, if I get my head together and I love my wife, she will respect me.
Don't expect that.
Sorry, but don't take it as an expected goal. You love your wife because that's what God wants you to do.
That's where we leave it because this is instruction from Scripture. And on the other hand, which is really I think a little more common, is a young woman and sometimes an older woman because our marriage is in trouble. I will be in subjection, I will be more submissive, and then he will love me.
Don't expect that.
It's not an expected goal from those two things. We do these things because the Lord shows this as the way to function in a marriage. Will the Lord work things out? Yes, if we're submitted to Him. Both of us submitted to him. Let me give you an example of of again, this goes to Abraham and Sarah and it's in the book of Peter. She called him Lord.
00:30:16
Read that whole passage. I wanted to read it, so let me go ahead and read it.
To seven.
28.
Likewise you wives be in subjection to your own husband, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning? Let it not be that outward adorning of placing the hair, and of wearing of gold, or putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the hearts, and that which is not corruptible, even the ornaments of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great Christ.
Which is a very special word, I might add a great price. For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorn themselves, being in subjection unto their own husband, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are, as long as you do well and are not afraid of any amazement. Likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together the grace of life.
That your prayers be not hindered.
And in, uh, uh, verse one, but I was thinking of the expression, especially from uh, verse 6, where she called him Lord. It is not necessarily a guarantee that it's going to elicit a response from the husband. It may, and it gives that in verse three, as it does also in Corinthians, that they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wise, but it's not.
It's not an A goes to B goes to C type situation, 100% of the cases. But yet in 100% of the cases that this is followed, God will give his due reward in his own way and say with the husband in verse seven, he is to give honor to the wife. He is to give honor to the wife, and yet it doesn't say directly that he's going to, uh, to get a particular reward from the wife for doing that.
Their prayers, uh, there's encouragement in connection with prayers, but again, that's with the Lord. It's left with the Lord to follow the Lord and to act properly as a husband will have its own due reward. And you know that due reward may not be.
The respect from your wife it may not be and that doesn't mean I go ahead and stop loving my wife. Imagine if the Lord Jesus.
And said I really want to show my love to all those people down there. I'm going to wait for their submission and subjection first and then I'll really show them love.
Well, thankfully God doesn't think that way. And we ponder the incredible love that the Lord Jesus has shown us. And yet let us think as men.
That the Lord Jesus has shown us incredible love. Have we always responded in quietness as men? Quietness and submission to our Lord and Savior who leads us. And the answer is no, we have not. And yet we sometimes expect that of our lives. We expect for our lives more than our own response to our Savior.
So.
Uh, there, there's a lot of, lot of things and it's, it's, it's nice to hear these things among us Christians and in the assembly, quote UN quote, I'm afraid that we are needed to go outside of our common acquaintance of Christians to get help. And there's reasons for that. One of them is fear factor. The other is peer pressure, and the other is gossip.
But there's lots of other factors too. But, but we need to, to hear these kinds of things from the mouths of our parents. We need to hear these things from the godly women who are older among us, as they're instructed to teach the younger women. And we need to hear from the older men, uh, these things that are what we commonly call practical, but encouraging and helpful to realize that.
00:35:15
We do have problems, let's not, let's not pretend otherwise, but God has answers and we need to follow through on his, his way of bringing of solutions. I think it's very important that, as you said, the husband and wife together should pray and read the Word of God.
The opinions of men not are, are not.
Important, but what God says is important, and she should hearken to what he says to her, and he to him, and together they should seek to carry this out.
Umm, the women, the way the world goes, they're always dialing up the female sex, make them look pretty and so on. But Peter says no, not that. What does he say? He says, uh.
Uh, it says be clothed with this is one of the chief shepherds shall appear ye shall receive a crown of glory that fate. It's not a way he's talking to the women. Likewise, you younger submit yourselves unto the elder ye all of you be subject to one another and be clothed with humility for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.
That he may exalt you in due time. So it's it's instruction.
To the to both the man and the woman. But it's not an outward thing. It's, you might say, it's an inward thing.
Quick word here and I hope it's appropriate. I think one of the key things.
In marriage and making it work, if you will.
For believers particularly, it is recognizing that God has said what he's joined together. Let's not man put asunder.
And we know he wants our joy to be full. There's no question about that either. So if there are strains in the marriage and they're both godly people, male and female.
They can say openly to the Lord, Lord, we're not happy, we're not getting along. They can both get down on their knees and they can say with open hearts, focus, show us what's needed so we can go on together as a husband and a wife, honoring the and counting upon.
By clear work that you join us together and to put it asunder one or the other of us would have to leave or divorce. That is man doing it.
So by faith, we consider the Lord, help us, show us what's needed now. We don't have to get involved with the marriage counselors. We don't even have to get involved with older men or women who have been married a long time. Every union is unique. There are two unique precious souls there, and their union is unique. But they have that power together on faith to say, Lord, you've joined us together.
We don't want it to go with Sundar. Help us.
And that is worth all of psychology counselors and what have you all put in one barrel and not worth anything. But the Lord is the one who can open your heart. And I might say this one more thing. If there is a couple that's that way, both of them in doing so have to do it acknowledging to the Lord beforehand and say Lord, if I have to change, show me and I will change, not saying I'm OK.
Change the other one you follow. But if they're both open hearted and they wanna please the Lord, he's gonna make it work.
Children are born. What should they see? What should they really see? They should see that daddy.
Loves mommy.
And that she is subject to him. That's just summarizes it just clearly from scripture. They should see daddy loves mommy and that and she loves to be subject to him, to honor him and take that place that is his. And then it'll be easy for them to take the place of subjection as well.
00:40:07
I'd like to read a scripture in the book of Titus. And before I do that, I just want to, uh, make a comment or two as to why I'm going to read this scripture. And that is that here in a setting like this this afternoon, it's the brothers that are free to take part as led by the Spirit of God. Uh, the sisters can't take part, of course, and that's right and proper in its order and scriptural, but there are many godly sisters here this afternoon.
And you godly sisters, have a responsibility in connection with what we've been talking about, because you have a responsibility to teach, not to teach in a setting like this, not to teach men, not to usurp authority over the man by teaching. But you do have a responsibility. I'm just going to read these verses in Titus chapter 2.
Verse 3 the aged women likewise that they be in behavior has becometh holiness, not false accusers not given to much wine. Now notice this teachers of good things that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children to be discreet chaste keepers at home, good obedient to their own husbands that the word of God be not blasphemed. And so you sisters have a responsibility and I'm thankful.
That I have seen in my experience, godly sisters who have taken up this responsibility in teaching.
The younger sisters to do these very things that are brought before us. And I, if I remember there was a difficulty in an assembly one time was in connection with a younger sister and was a matter that needed to be handled delicately and discreetly. And it was brought to the attention of a brother or two. And these brothers very wisely said that they felt that it was the responsibility of an older sister or sisters in the assembly and that there were those who were capable.
Of taking up the matter with this young sister. And I'm happy to say that they did and the matter was, uh, taken care of and there was correction and, and so on. I believe that's God, the order. But I wanna say this is a warning that I don't believe we have a precedent in scripture for brothers, young or old, to take sisters aside and teach them privately and, and counsel them in these matters.
That I believe that's very, very dangerous. Make no provision for the flesh.
And so we need to be very, very careful. Again, God has an order. And I would just encourage sisters, if you see difficulty in another sister, something that needs to be addressed, that fits into the category, one of the categories that we've read here in Titus chapter 2. Seek grace to go to that sister and from the word of God in humility and grace to teach them to carry out these very practical things.
There's been many, uh, man who has been one to the Lord through, uh, his wife being submissive as unto the Lord and vice versa for the men too, where they love to his wife, even though unconverted or, uh, not, uh, what the spouse not walking according to God. And I just wanna go back and re emphasize in connection with these practical things that.
We've been discussing that it's been mentioned about saving marriages and being a good example for our children, and these certainly are worthy modis of discussing this whole subject. But brethren, we need to remember that the the really the highest motive of all this. And I I don't believe we've really arrived at the right point UN unless we see this that if I want to just.
Be submissive or my wife to be submissive to save my children or to or to.
Uh, save my marriage. I haven't risen to the real Rhode Island. The best reason yet. What's the best reason? It's the reason that my home is a testimony of Christ and his love and it I need to save my marriage for His sake.
So it says here in the wise to be submissive as unto the Lord, and likewise it says that about the husband loving his wife as Christ.
Love the church and so, umm, to me it gives real nobility to to to address these problems. Then we all have to deal with these practical things. We get tested on these things and as if we go through these tests in our relationship one with another.
00:45:20
With the view of what how I am portraying my my my savior and how I am given example to it.
For his sake.
It it really gives nobility to the whole cause. Uh, even beyond the other reasons too I think my brother mentioned. I love my master, my wife and my children. You get the order right there brethren. The master is a picture of God. The the Lord is to God and then his wife 2nd and the children 3rd and tho that's the order in God's word.
Hmm, just like to refer to a couple of scriptures to reinforce that it says in Hebrews chapter 3. I'm just gonna read a couple of verses there. In verse 13 it says or encourage one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers or companions of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.
And so our brother Red and, uh, Genesis chapter 2 and I think it's verse 18, umm, I will make and help meet for him. And so we're made partakers or, or companions of the Christ. And so the home is to reflect that companionship and that loving relationship that Christ has with the church. And we are companions of the Christ as we walk through this scene and the church is evidence to.
The angelic beings and to those that are in this world as they observe the church subject to Christ and loving returning the affection of the Lord to the Lord. Now I want to just refer to Proverbs chapter 31. We often read this chapter and we think of, uh, perhaps very lightly if some of these words, but I want to read the first verse of Proverbs 31 and then.
The verse 30. The almost the last verse 12. Maybe we'll read the last two verses.
It says in Proverbs 31 That the words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. And then you read verse 30. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates. Lemuel means a man dedicated wholly unto God, and so his mother had taught him something of the word of God.
A man wholly dedicated unto God. And then the woman, she feareth the Lord. She's afraid to displease the Lord. She walks closely in communion with the Lord and doesn't want anything to break that communion with himself. And so you have a picture here of a man of God who walks in communion with the Lord. He's dedicated unto the Lord. And a woman that's dedicated unto the Lord, and they walk with the Lord together. I just wanna repeat what the brother Gordon Hale used to say.
Oftentimes many of us heard him speak at funeral or at weddings and he would say that it's a threefold court is not easily broken. And so it's, uh, the man or the husband, 100% for the Lord and the woman 100% for the Lord and both of them 100% together, 100% for the Lord. And so, you know, we're, we can reflect that companionship and I might say this.
That you know what the husband wants, what the man wants. He may not say it in so many words, but what he wants really is a woman that fears the Lord, you and I, that no, Christ is Savior. That's really what we want in our lives. A woman that is afraid to displease the Lord and she wants to walk in that godly order that is hers to walk in. And the wife, what does she want? She wants a man that's wholly dedicated onto the Lord and he walks in communion with the Lord. That's what she wants. She may not say it, but.
That's what her heart's desire is. And the husband doesn't want a wife, a real pretty wife and all that sort of thing. He made me appreciate her good looks and but that's not really what his heart yearns for. His heart yearns for her companionship and that she will walk in obedience to the word of God and love and affection for Christ, and that there will be that mutual, uh, just a reflection of Christ in the church, in the home. That's what she longs for.
00:50:04
Would that not be what it means to Mary and the Lord? It's, it's not just marrying a Christian girl or a Christian young man, It's marrying in the Lord. It's that one that you're going to have has the same desires and goals to please or Savior and wants to walk with him and you too will walk together. It is the the key that will hold marrying in the Lord. Now how do we know? How do we know we're doing that? We have to become very acquainted, both the man and the woman.
With Scripture, what does Scripture say? What is my place as a man? What is, uh, her place as a woman? I wanna read 1St Corinthians 11. We read some verses from it, but we didn't read the passage entirely. And let me just read it. It won't take but a moment. Uh, first Corinthians 11/3 but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man.
And the head of Christ is God. So in the echelon, it's God, Christ, man, woman. It's not, as some have drawn it, God, Christ, man and woman coming. No, no, man and woman. You see the difference? The woman is not put in the same place as the man. And that's important. I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ. The head of the woman is the man. Christ, of course, is, is the Lord in, in his manhood.
And the woman is the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonor his head.
I've noticed in looking at the news and so on, and some of these conferences, President Bush has that the, the, the, the, the man, uh, whether he's a Jew or a Muslim, and that he always has his head covered, totally contrary to scripture. Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonored his head. And again, the woman, she no longer.
Covers her head, just the opposite of Scripture. Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head. Who is her head? The man. For that is even all one, as if she were shaved. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be Shar.
I mean, take it all off like a basketball player has, and that's not for the glory of God. But it would be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaved, which it is. Let her be covered. And it's not the hair that covers her covering. That goes on to explain that for a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory of God, who is his head. Christ is his head.
If he covers that, he is dishonouring Christ. And if the woman doesn't cover her head, she's not showing the honor she showed to her husband. A man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man, For the man is not the woman is not of the woman, but the woman of the man.
Eve was taken from Adam's side. She came out of him.
He was created 1St and then she came to be his helper. The man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. Now this is a passage that so many nowadays, even Christians don't like it. They say, well, he was just a bachelor and and he he had it in for women. That's that's just denying this is this is the inspired word of God we're looking at.
For this cause, ought the woman to have a a a symbol of authority, power on her head because of the angels. The angels are looking down. They should see that she manifests that position that is hers in creation. It's not headship. And that's Adam's place. She has her head covered that she's in subjection to.
Her head, which is the man, and he's in subjection to Christ, and Christ is in subjection to God. That's the order.
00:55:00
Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man and the Lord. We need the woman to bear the children. And that's why that's put in there. For as the woman is of the man, Even so is the man also by the woman. She came from him. ** *** came from him in the 1St place. But then I was born of my mother, and you were two of yours. And so that's what's that it? And then he says.
As the woman is of the man, Even so is the man also by the woman. But all things of God judging yourselves. Is it comely that a woman prey unto God uncovered and we've come to the point it used to be when I was a boy and I didn't go to church or anything, but every time I'd see anyone going to to their church in that the women had head coverings always did, that is no longer the case.
Not only does she not cover her head anymore, and does she show her place of subjection to the man, but she's taken the his place by preaching. There can't be anything more contrary to scripture than those things.
The angels look down, they ought to see God's order in the man and the woman. The man doesn't have his head covered, otherwise he would be dishonoring his head. And she, she does have her head covered, covered to honor her head. Judging yourselves, Is it comely that a woman should prey unto God uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a shame unto him?
That's not his place.
I remember.
At a, at a, a picnic, umm, it was in Denver and, uh, young people were running around and there was this young man there and he had a long hair went way down to his shoulders and that and I went and I sat next to him and I said.
You know you're having long hair is a shame and I read in this first.
Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? And he said, is that in the Bible? I said yes, and I don't read it again. I let him read the verse the next time. The next year I came there. He was there, but his hair was cut. His hair was short. He, he, he did what Scripture said. That's basically what we have to do. We have to bring the Scripture to bear. This is God's order. This is not an opinion of men or women.
It's God's order. If a woman have long hair, it's glory to her.
For her hair is giving her for a covering.
If any man seemed to be contentious, and there's nothing that's more contentious about than this particular subject, we have no such custom needs of the churches of God. But I wanna back up to verse seven. A man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God. But the woman whose head is covered is the glory of the man. She's the glory of the man, and her long hair is of symbol of that. And that's the teaching of Scripture. It's not my opinion. It's not your opinion. They don't count for anything. But what does God say? That's why.
The man and the woman. When you first get married, you should sit down and open your Bibles and read these passages that give man his place and the woman her place. And the woman does not have an inferior place.
She's not inferior.
Not at all, but she's in a different place than the man.
Hmm. Uh, I just say a word, if I may, on a matter of objection. What has happened in place for years is hem lift and white or women supposedly being liberated from the restrictions that Paul talked about here for the female. And that's clearly what it was. And I believe it's all satanically inspired.
But I point out something very practical. If you reach the age, you finish your education and you're employable and you're hired by a firm. The firm says, alright, your assignment is gonna be in this group and let's say it has several layers of management and so on, and you'll be in this group and this person is your supervisor. No, you're not there in a pace of subservience as the word was used before. You accept this very readily. You you don't even question it. You don't even say.
01:00:08
Well, I know I'm smarter than that person or better in some way or other. The company says that's your boss, you're the in that group and you go on with that. It has no effect. There's nothing of subservience in there or being in a place that needs liberation. Men and women going in the workplace except that readily. We all know it makes sense. Let me submit that starting right in Genesis, as has been noted that Eve was.
To help me for Adam.
What we have just had here in Corinthians is that man is the head of the house and the woman is to be subject to her husband Is this she's in the workplace. Nothing in there of subservience. God has set up this organization, if you will, of the family and that's the way he set it up and we should accept it just the way we wouldn't actually in the workplace. Now I'd like to fill it finish this little.
Interruption, if you will.
In this way.
God made man, created man, as we refer to, uh, right back to Genesis, he made the male and female. And if we look at that in a simple way, we say, OK, it needs the mail and the woman to, uh.
Uh, populate and that will result in a child and continue the race. But God expands on it and says it's not good for man to be alone. And he made a woman as a suited help meet for him. So right there he appointed the supervisor and he appointed the one who was working in that group, if you will. This is a would be in a large corporation. Now I'm gonna jump to the end of the whole scene now the whole world course.
And I'll point out along the way you'll never find.
When God was appointing spiritual responsibility, He never chose a woman. Throughout the whole test. All prophets were men when He set up the Jewish dispensation, all the priests and so on were met when the Lord Jesus came. Beg your pardon.
Well, yeah, prophet sign is foreselling the future. The Lord may have used them to do that. Every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered to sign her with her head. I mean, but well, if we're gonna just a little bit more than on the Old Testament.
The two books named after a woman, women were both walking in this path that the Lord had. Ruth and Esther, very different ones. If you think about it, it's interesting. Ruth was a very humble Moabitess who came back with Naomi, who you know that, and she's married by Moab and LED right into the lineage of the Lord Jesus.
Boaz, Boaz, Boaz, thank you, my helper here. But when we came to Esther, what was that Esther replaced bash time who was fasten? She was the queen of the largest.
Uh, what is the word Kingdom or dominion in the world at that time and why don't you go?
When her husband wanted to do something, she rebelled and.
So we had a big concrete with his advisors and they got with her and she was replaced by Esther.
Who following the teachers of Scripture was a good subject wife, I just mentioned that in the Old Testament. Now going on into the New Testament to make this shorter, the Lord Jesus when he chose his disciples, never chose the woman to be a disciple to go out, uh, given delegated authority to go out, do healing and to preach, uh, repentance and so on. And, uh, take nothing and, you know.
And all those things.
And of course, it'll lead right on into the apostleship. No women. The Lord did that.
So the woman clearly through the whole scripture maintained what was set up right back with, uh, Adam and Eve. Now I'm gonna bring it quickly to an end. One of the things, and I believe it's seitanic now, trying to show that Paul was wrong and he changed his mind. I've heard this poll from me by a clergyman. Oh, Lu Paul. I said, who's new Paul? Well, old Paul wrote all this business about women being subject to their husbands, but new Paul?
01:05:11
Fiscalation 328, that's when Paul saw the light and said there's neither mail, you know, bonds are free of mastering servant or male or female. But what is there, and I think this is the key point of all this is what was established.
In uh, back at the time of Adam and Eve was for our course as human in this life.
Now just to add to that, we know that God, when he creates us, some of us are artistic, some of us are MU musical, some of us are athletic, some of us are smart and some of us are not so smart. Some of us become leaders and some become followers. God creates us, creates us all differently, and He makes it very plain. And this is the key to what I'm saying.
When the time of judgment comes.
He's not a respecter of persons. We know that he's not a respecter of persons. What does that mean? A king will be judged as a king. A pauper will be judged as a pauper. A farmer will be judged as a farmer.
Whatever he created individual that way will be judged on that basis, but males will be judged as males and females will be judged as females instead of in that place, but they'll all be judged equal. This is a wonderful thing. Look ahead to the glory. There's no gender in heaven, no gender in heaven. And I think about it in this way. I'm going to be.
The bride of Christ. I'm a male, but I'm gonna be the bride. But every believer is gonna be of the bride. Isn't that lovely? Heaven is not gonna be like earth. So at the end of the earthly path.
When we stand in judgment for God, who is true and justice, he says, alright, I made you a king.
Let's judge you in your path with the responsibility I gave you. You were a peasant walking behind the wooden plow. Judge you as to how you carried in on it. You were a servant. You were a master. Those are individuals. But males will be judged as males, females will be judged as females, as we find it in this wonderful book.
But that time we'll all be equal, equally valuable to Chrysler. In other words, he loves a woman as a distinct human created by him, just the same as he loves the man, just as the same as he loves the king, just the same as he loved that servant. Because God loves us all. We're all precious in his sight. But what he's done, and that's what we're talking about right now, is.
The basic role he's given us starting right back in the Garden of Eden.
And going up to the end of this age when we're going to stand before him in judgment, then he'll be escalation 328 where those who try and use this to explain that Paul got straightened out. Finally. It's ridiculous Paul that Paul was writing is the end of the story for there is neither male nor female bond nor free. All are the same in the Lord Jesus. So for us right now we have two things. I'm a male.
I'm married and I have children. I have that responsibility. I have a lovely life and I like the thought that was expressed before it was my gym. That woman was not made from Adam's feet or his head, but from his side to walk right next to him. And she has an intellect, see? She's a seated suited knight for him to help me so they can talk intelligently together.
Fully communicate, understanding each other.
But different physically. We know women are different physically than men. Emotionally they're different. And I always take great delight to think about. My wife's sensitivities are entirely different than mine. I characterize men, by the way, having a characteristics of big Navy battleship going through a rough sea but going on a straight course. But aluminum is like a little sailboat that feels every little ripple and knows what's going on.
And that's true. I mean, you think about it, women have a different level of sensitivity than men. But in the marriage union that mating is perfect for the family with the responsibilities that were given. So I just finished this up to say.
01:10:15
We're all on this earthly path. We're on the way to the glory. We in this room are surely blessed. We know Christ as our Savior and our Lord. We know.
That the weaknesses we have in the old nature now have been taken care of by his work in Calgary. We're on the way to heaven. We believe that if we believe what he's told us about our need of salvation, the evils of sin, His nature pure and holy, we believe that. We believe what he says about men and women. We believe what he says. He even gives us direction. Who are those who should in the Christian Conqueror Congreg congregation, the Assembly.
The characteristics of the men husbands of one wife consider Christendom today where they are advocating female clergy. I can remember as we were leaving one of the big denominations to walk in the path that's gathered Saints. I talked to the pastor I was leaving and where they had elders and I and now that we're getting women elders, I said how come one of your elders be the husbands of one life?
You know, just to use God's word, so simple and flame. So what we do, we walk in obedience to this, the light the Lord gives us male females, bosses, employees, all of those different things. Recognizing if I happen to be big and strong and can play basketball, the Lord needed you that way. If I can't do that, he may need that way if he made me so hard to play the violin or piano, so it was musical.
He may be that way. If you're pretty, a female, he may do that way. There's no reason for vanity because you are his product. But you are responsible and you're gonna answer to him. At the end of your pathway, the judgment seat of Christ, the wooden hay and suburb will be burned up. The precious things for Christ and your pet, your responsibility will be carried on into eternity. So thank you for listening. We've spoken a great deal about the family relationship and we've had to hang our heads and admit that we have seen the breakdown of it, not only in the world.
But right in the Christian, uh, sphere and the Christian profession, the Christian circle sometimes sad to see, say we see it amongst those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But brethren, we ought not to end there because I believe, as Doug, I think pointed out earlier, what we really have here is Christ in the church. And when Eve was taken from the side of Adam, God had something far, far greater in view than even the blessing and happiness of man on the earth.
It's true, he said. It is not good for man to be alone and he provided a helpmeet for Adam.
But what was God really looking on to by the time when his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, would have a bride and brother? And I think it encourages our hearts to realize that, yes, we see much failure. Yes, we see the breakdown of everything, every sphere and level of society in the world in which we live. And Satan has done a masterful job. But, you know, it's interesting that in Ephesians we find that Christ is incomplete.
Without his bride. I think that's a tremendous thing to consider. Just as Adam was incomplete without Eve, so the chapter, so Christ is incomplete without his bride. Because in Colossians you have what Christ is to the church. He's the head of the church, and we're incomplete without the head. But in Ephesians, and you can hardly take this in, He's incomplete without us. He.
He, he's the we're the the church is the fullness of him that filleth All in all. You get that earlier in the in the epistle. And so it's not what Christ is to the church. It's what the church is to Christ. Now to get the church in her beauty.
You have to go to her in her beginnings in the first part of the Acts or in her ending in the end or end of Revelation. In between is not such a beautiful sight, outwardly speaking. But brethren, he is going to present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. And I'd like to suggest that we just go to the end of Revelation and read these verses just to lift our spirits, brethren, and to realize that we're going to be part, as you say, of the Bride of Christ.
01:15:05
We're gonna be part of a scene where sin is never going to interfere again. There isn't going to be the breakdown of anything. The things that we feel and see now and the breakdown there is now. It's not going to exist in the in in that day. Let me read first of all in the 19th chapter.
Revelation chapter 19.
Verse seven. Let us be glad and rejoice.
And give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife hath made herself ready. Well, brethren, we rejoice to be called to a marriage, especially has been said if it's a marriage in the Lord. And uh, we, we rejoice at that. But oh brethren, do our hearts rejoice to look on to the day when we are going to be part of the bride of Christ. I was at a wedding a week ago Saturday, and we all rejoiced to be there. And there were guests and different ones that had different functions.
But whose special day really was it? Who's Who shared the real joy of that day? Why, it was the bridegroom and the Bride, and you could see it on their faces. We all rejoiced. And brethren, when the marriage supper of the Lamb comes in a future day in heaven.
Who is going to share that special joy? You know, John the Baptist said he rejoiced because of the bridegroom's voice. John the Baptist is not going to be part of the church. He's not going to be part of the bride. He's going to be there and he's going to rejoice as a friend of the bridegroom. But brethren, to think that you and I who are part of the church, the bride of Christ, we're gonna be ushered past the angels, past Moses, past Elijah, past John the Baptist, of whom the Lord said there hath not risen to greater. And we're going to, on that occasion as it were, be ushered into the very presence of the bridegroom. And who is going to share the special joy?
Of that moment, oh, it's going to be the Lord Jesus first as the bridegroom and then the bride as the bride. But let's go over a page and jump ahead in time a little bit to a scene where there is no time. 21St chapter and verse one. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the 1St heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
Coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. Now just to get the context and the time frame here, we've jumped ahead now to the eternal state. This is the bride after she's been with Christ about 1000 years and she still viewed in all the freshness and loveliness as the bride. Oh, it's true. She's become his wife because the wife.
Seats of relationship and we'll be the wife of Christ for all eternity and there'll be a a deepening and an enjoyment of that relationship for all eternity. But we will retain our bridal freshness and his bridal affections for his bride will be maintained and retained for all eternity. That's why I say there will be no breakdown there. We see the breakdown now of the marriage tie and the family relationship. But brethren, let's be encouraged. We're going on to a scene where a bride for all eternity.
Will never lose her freshness to the bridegroom now if that doesn't motivate our hearts to to walk in the in obedience to the word of the Lord and and for the glory of God as the Church of God now then I don't know what goes on within our hearts. It ought to as we think of the fact that we're going to be part of this scene. And so brethren, what a day it's going to be the bride of Christ for all eternity that ought to motivate our souls to live for his glory now.
Open Mtg. 6
Open—R. Boulard, D. So
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M #23 in the appendix.
Oh Jesus, precious Savior.
For when without record.
Our hearts with woven.
Today our hearts occurred. Our world is thy Lord.
Great, that's hard.
And all my heart.
Nor hide, nor thy shall have.
Lost God in the faith created man.
On the ground.
For us to meet us in the clouds and to be presented by himself. And to thy home above of peace and love. We just, uh, rejoice at this time as soon to happen, or Jesus are so anxious to have that bride which thou has paid such a great price for him. And so we know that thou is longingly wait, uh, to have us with thyself to show us all the glories that thou does have with the Father. So we long and wait for thee. And in the meantime, we're thankful that thou has a provision for us in this scene.
That that was enabled us to be together and that we too now can, after having the joy of, uh, remembering thy death, that we too can open that precious word and by the Holy Spirit be fed and, uh, directed. And so we would pray that there might be that which would be suitable to each one here. We know there's many, uh, different ages and many different stages in the spiritual walk. And so we would just pray and earnestly plead that there might be that which would be for the benefit of each precious one, that their faith might be deepened and that their heart might be encouraged.
That they may go on faithfully until that has come, Lord Jesus for us. So we wait in thy presence and expectation that the person in work of Lord Jesus might be exalted in in all his benefits to us. And so we just look to the and ask these things as we pray and thy worthy precious name, Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
00:05:35
Just like to open the word of God up to the book of Acts chapter 18.
And just read a few scriptures in connection with Aquila and Priscilla.
We've been speaking a little bit about what takes place in the home and how wonderful it is to have a hymn sing in the home and, uh, to have the home devoted to the people of God and to the enjoyment of the things of God in the home. And isn't it wonderful how the word of God points out this couple who use their home for the Lord? And so let's just use just read in Acts chapter 18 and verse one.
After these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla. Because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them, and because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers. And then just a little bit further on, we'll read about 5 passages here, verse 18.
Chapter 18, Verse 18. And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria. And with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Sanchez, for he had a vow, and he came to Ephesus and left them there. But he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. Then just down to verse 24, and a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria.
An eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord.
And being fervent in spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.
And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquiline Priscilla had heard.
They took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.
And when he was disposed to pass into a care, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him.
Who when he was come, helped them much, which had believed through grace, for he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ and then Romans chapter 16.
And verse 3.
Romans chapter 16 and verse 3 greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give thanks.
But also all the churches of the Gentiles likewise greet the church that is in their house. And then one last portion in First Corinthians chapter 16.
Verse 19.
1St Corinthians 16 and verse 19, the churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord with the church that is in their house. All the brethren greet you, greet you one another with an holy kiss. Well, we just turned back to Acts chapter 18 and and verse two. There it speaks of the introduction. The Spirit of God introduces us to these two dear ones, Aquila.
And Priscilla, he came with his wife and he had been commanded of Claudius, had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. And so he came unto them because he was of the same craft he abode with them. So, you know, the first thing I want to point out is here that these deer ones equivalent, Priscilla knew what hardship was. We don't know what they left in Rome. We're not told what they had to leave in Italy, but they had to leave everything perhaps that they held dear and they had to.
Leave and go to a place that they didn't know and they had to live as strangers and pilgrims. And so their household then became characterized as one that was in the wilderness and as strangers and pilgrims. In this scene they sought to use their home for the Lord. You know, in umm, I'll just tell you a little story and I some of you have heard this story. Brother Ian Hurlbut told me this winter little story. I asked him how his family ever came to be among those that were gathered to the Lord's name. And he said this to me. He said.
00:10:24
He had a great grandfather, Clinton Hurlbut. And Clinton was, uh, lived in a little town called Myrtle, Ontario. And in the 1880s and, uh, he was a, part of the, the Methodist, uh, church there. It was a, a religious organization, perhaps the most prominent one in that little town of Myrtle, Ontario. And, uh, he was a Shoemaker, he repaired shoes and, and he was a cobbler and he went to that Methodist Church and then, you know.
As time went on, there were those that came into the community that read the word of God and that were gathered to the Lord's name. There was a testimony there of those that were gathered to the Lord's name on divine ground. And he went to the Bible reading meetings there and, uh, started to attend the meetings. And very soon he went to the Methodist minister and said he, I'm going to have to withdraw my fellowship from this church system because, you know, I found what I believe to be the truth. And so he withdrew from that organization.
And he began, he took his place at the Lord's Table. And very shortly thereafter, the minister stood up in his pulpit and he said, you know, I don't want you to go to Clinton Hurlbut's.
Little shop, I don't want you to do any business with Clinton because you know, he's not one of us anymore. He's withdrawn from this establishment and, uh, they starved him out of Myrtle, Ontario. They starved him out of town. He had to leave that town and he went to Toronto, ON and he started from fresh started, had a home, uh, built her home again and started business. And then, you know, his son Percy was, uh, began to grow and his son was.
Percy was gathered to the Lord's name, and then Umm Clayton was born and he was gathered to the Lord's name, and Ian Hurlbut was Clayton's son, and on it went, you know. But you know, I thought of that. Clinton hurled, but paid the price to be gathered to the Lord's name. And you and I here today, perhaps we've paid nothing to sit here in our seats and to sit under the sound of a good news of the grace and kindness of God and what it is to be gathered to the very precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, help you ever thank the Lord for what it is to be gathered to the Lord's name. It's a precious, precious, precious privilege in this scene. What we find here that what's characteristic of Aquilin Priscilla is that they knew what hardship was. They knew what it was to identify with the people of God. And then it says that they were tent makers and they had the very precious privilege of opening up their little home to the apostle Paul. And so he was there in their home and it says.
I think.
A little bit further on that, he was there perhaps about a year and a half. I can't find it, but it says that, uh, he was there, he stayed with them in about a year and a half, and he was there, and perhaps in that very place in Corinth, he wrote those two letters, those two epistles, First and 2nd Thessalonians, perhaps one at the beginning of that day, and then one at the end of his stay there about a year and a half. And, uh, what a precious privilege, what must have been for Aquila and Priscilla to see.
That apostle writing to the other Saints. And so their home was a simple home perhaps, and it was characterized, as I say, of being strangers and pilgrims, and they desired to have the people of God in that home. Well, I just want to encourage one another here. Many of us have homes. Let's use them for the Lord. They may be simple homes and we may not have a lot of extravagance, but we surely can have the Lord's people in the home and invite one another and encourage one another. You know what says that in Hebrews chapter 10? That we ought to be encouraging one another and so much the more as we see the day approaching.
One another and I like that you know that statement because it's not a work to stand up perhaps or to encourage a multitude as it were. But the work of encouragement is a one-on-one work. Every one of us needs to encourage one another and you young person, you can encourage someone else. You know, I was very encouraged as a young man and I saw my twin brother reading the Bible and he he read some ministry. He was reading the Pentateuch by.
CHM And that was an encouragement to me to read some ministry for myself. Every one of us, I say, need to encourage one another in that way. Well, it says in verse 18 that he sailed and in verse 19 he came to Ephesus and left them there. And then in verse 24 we find that there was a, a man, Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man. He was a gifted man. He had a gift from God. He was exercising his gift.
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And he was mighty in the Scriptures.
Not nice. You know, everyone of us could be mighty in the Scriptures if we would just read the Scriptures. We'd read the Word of God and have an appetite for the word of God to read it for ourselves. And he says that he was mighty in the Scriptures and he came to Ephesus and this man was instructed in the way of the Lord. It's nice to be instructed. You know, we can be instructed if we go attend the reading meetings and we take time.
To read a little bit of ministry for ourselves, read a little booklet, something that speaks of the Word of God and gives us a little better understanding of the things of God. And this man was instructed, but it says here he was instructed in the way of the Lord. Being fervent in his spirit, he taught diligently the things of the Lord. I believe, Mr. Darby says of the Lord Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquiline Priscilla had heard, they took him under them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. Well, you know, here was a home.
Being used for the Lord and there was one that really had a gift for go in spiritual things and umm, perhaps wasn't as acquainted with the truth of God as you ought to have been at that time. But he, he loved the Lord, He desired the things of God and he desired the people of God to be instructed. And so he went into the synagogue. And you know, there was a very small private work that Aquilin Priscilla did with that man, perhaps that no one else knew. No one ever knew. But the Spirit of God records it here for us in the, in the book of Acts. He says, you know, Aquila and Priscilla love that man. They took them. He they took him very quietly into the home, perhaps gave him a meal.
They enjoyed something of the Lord together, and He became instructed more perfectly in the things of God. And so, you know, beloved brethren, I take the encouragement as the thought. You know, the Lord Jesus never scolded his brethren. He spoke, you might say, very sternly sometimes, and he spoke faithfully to them, and He quoted the verses of Scripture to them that applied to certain situations, but He never scolded them in that way, you know. And so these dear brethren, they didn't stand up and oppose what He was saying in the synagogue.
But they took him home to that lovely home, and they just expounded the way of God more perfectly under them. And then there was a bond of love between them.
And it says then that there was fruit for God in verse 28. He mightily convinced the Jews and that publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Well, I just like to encourage every one of us here, you know, to have others of the precious faith into the home, whether they're those of us that are gathered to the Lord's name or perhaps those that aren't. You know, we need to have one another in the home and to sometimes just encourage one another and correct sometimes those things that are not quite right and to.
Perhaps point out things that might be a little more correct and that would magnify Christ. Well, let's turn to Romans chapter 16, and we'll just read that again in verse 3.
Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles likewise greet the church.
That is in their house. Salute my well beloved Epineus, who is the first fruit of Achae unto Christ. Well, now we find that Aquila and Priscilla, they had a little home. They had been displaced. They knew what it was to suffer the loss of the home and to leave the country that they lo loved and lived in perhaps, and and to go to another place. And now they find themselves perhaps in Ephesus and umm, we find that they're helpers.
The Lord has here recorded that they were helpers in Christ Jesus.
And we don't know, I don't know that it's recorded in the Word of God, but maybe someone could point it out to us later. We don't know when they laid down their necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
And so, you know, they identified with a man, the apostle Paul, who spoke the truth of God and who was harassed and hunted by those that despised the truth and wanted Judaism. They wanted the vineyard, but they didn't want Christ himself. And so these dear ones, they identified themselves with the Apostle Paul. Well, you know, it's a wonderful privilege for us to identify ourselves with Christ. You know, I, I'm ashamed to say it, but when I was a boy, they.
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Boys on the school ground used to sometimes say, you know, what church do you go to? And I would hang my head, I'm ashamed to say it. I would hang my head and I say, well, my parents go to a place and they're only gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. There's no sign on the building. They're just gathered to the Lord's name.
And I was ashamed of that and I hung my head and I'm ashamed to say that now. But you know, now I thank God that I'm only associated with that blessed name, the name of the Lord Jesus. It's a wonderful thing.
To be gathered to the Lord's name. It's a normal thing in Christianity. God desired all of us to be gathered to the Lord's name.
And it just in very simple way to remember him in the circumstances of his death. He said this do in remembrance of Maine. And he just wanted us to associate with him in his rejection while we wait for his coming. And so these dear ones, they did that and they laid down there who have for my my life laid down their own necks. And we're not told when or exactly how perhaps, but the Spirit of God records it. And God will record everything that's done for himself. And if you and faithfulness identify with the Lord Jesus in rejection in this scene of his rejection.
He's going to take note of it and there's going to be a thankful remembrance in the coming day. He's going to come very soon for his own. We sang that to him as we've begun this meeting. He's going to come. And when you have identified with the Lord Jesus and you've identified with him as a rejected Savior, scorned his own, not a popular Christ, one that was crucified, cast outside the city of Jerusalem, dragged from place to praise place in scorn.
And disowned and shamefully treated and crucified, you identify yourself with that person.
That One who loved you and gave himself for you, why, in the coming day he's going to thank you for identifying with himself. Well, it says here that they had a little assembly in their home. And what a precious thing it is. I know that there are many here, and the home is open and there's a little assembly in the home, a place set aside for the Lord's people, a temporary dwelling place, as it were, in the presence in the wilderness, in the presence of God, just for the people of God to enjoy.
Christ in the wilderness scene just while we wait for his coming and so equivalent and Priscilla alright there's that record is given that the assembly was in their house and then in first or first Corinthians chapter 16.
And verse 19.
It says there the churches of Asia salute you, Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. All the brethren greet you, greet you one another with an holy kiss.
Well, I think of how the people of God were on the hearts of this man, this husband, and this wife, and they love the people of God. They didn't just say that they loved the people of God. There was an act of love and kindness in their home to have the assembly there. They had the apostle Paul there. They would take a policy in and just minister the things of God to him very quietly, in a very quiet way. And none of it was publicized, but God records it in His Word here.
And then it says that Aquilin and Priscilla saluted you much in the Lord. Why isn't it nice? Isn't it encouraging to just salute one another? You know, I wanna just say this, that Brother Hammer is at home in Hammer Bay, in the apartment there, 89 years old and can't get out much anymore. And he longs for those visits on the phone. He rejoices when he goes to the gets a ride, goes to the mailbox and there's a card and in the mailbox. And one of the brethren is saluting him, as it were, and encouraging him, giving him strength just for the last little step in this pathway of.
In the scene of the Lord's rejection, He longs for that and we ought to just encourage one another. It's a lonely day. Sometimes there's small assemblies and we need to greet one another fervently and express our love and affection for one another. I'll just give you one last little example of that as and then close. You know, in days gone by, there used to be a little assembly in San Antonio, TX and Eva Chris was there.
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And, uh, there was one other sister, but often times when I had business in San Antonio, I would go there and there would just be Eva Chris and myself at the breaking of bread. And, uh, you know, I went there one day. I think it was the first time that I went there. And dear sister Eva Chris, she was in her 90s. And, uh, I sat down on, we remembered the Lord together. And then at the end of the meeting, you know, she very solemnly went over to the end table at the end of the sofa that I was sitting in. She opened the drawer. Very, very.
Very carefully and she very solemnly took out a big book. It was.
Probably as as large as this podium, maybe half the size. And she opened up the book very carefully and she flipped to the page that was open and I said, what, what book is this? He says. It's my book of remembrance.
And she said, I want you to put your name in my book of remembrance. And I tell you that book, it wasn't all full, but there were so many names in that book. I was, I was stunned. And then, you know, I looked, I went to sign my name in that book and the name on the top said Philip St. Vincent and gave the date. And I said, dear Eva, I said, I was in Phil Saint Vincent home for that very weekend. I, he couldn't have been here at the same time.
Oh, she says, oh, he wasn't here, but after you left, he phoned me and we had a nice visit on the phone. Oh, I enjoyed that visit so much on the phone. I wrote his name down in my book of remembrance. You know it's going to be like that, brethren, if we just encourage one another. If you don't, it says I'll just read in closing Malachi chapter 3 there it says in verse 16, they that feared the Lord.
Spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it in a book of remembrance.
Was written before him for them that feared the Lord.
And that thought upon his name, you know the book was written for them because they were going to forget.
That they ever spoke one to another, they were gonna forget. And in the coming day, the Lord is going to open that book. He's going to show those dear ones that it was such a precious thing in his sight that they spoke one to another and their purpose of their speaking was to encourage one another. And he's going to say, I appreciated that and I wrote it down in my book of remembrance. Well, I just trust these words spoken in this example of this household of equivalent. And Priscilla might be an encouragement to us to use our homes for the Lord.
For the Lord's people, and in these very last days, that there might be fruit for himself and the strengthening of the things that remain.
And that we might just long to just be together and just strengthen one another.
I'd like to turn to the book of Acts chapter 27.
I was thinking of how.
We had a nice meeting in the last reading meeting where we talked about redeeming the time and I think comments were made that.
It's nice, too, to see what the Lord's timetable is and to know how we ought to walk when we understand what He had before us. We won't have time to go to some of the things I wanna talk about. We have only about 20 minutes or so, but I was thinking of how we need to know that God has an overall time frame for this world. We know that He created this world to be inhabited in. We know that Israel is the center of His thoughts.
But then we know, too, that Israel is set aside for a little while.
So we as Gentiles can be brought into blessings. We know that.
The one who has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ will become part of that church. We know that the Lord said he's gonna come back and he's gonna take us out of this scene, rapture, out of this world. We know that, don't we? And that this world is gonna face tribulations.
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And then after that, Israel will be brought back into blessings.
We find that throughout his word. He tells us that repeatedly. We look at the seven fees of Jehovah. We'll find some of the events outlined.
We find the seven parabola in the book of Matthew. We find the events outlined in there as well. We find in the seven churches more detail about the church. But I have on my heart this afternoon this passage in the 27th chapter of Acts in regard to Paul's shipwreck.
I trust that with the Lord. Hell, perhaps it will give us a little bit of a picture of what we are going through.
What has passed and perhaps see how the Lord has warned us and with the Lord's help that we can use that to encourage to walk faithfully for him. So let's just begin by a few verses here. We won't be to the chapter 2. We'll just read a few verses at the time just to save, uh, some time here.
Uh, perhaps we can umm, begin by verse nine. And now. Now, when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous because the fast was now already passed, Paul admonished them and said unto them, Sir, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much and much damage, not only of the lading of the ship, but also of our lives nevertheless.
The centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship more than those which were spoken by Paul.
We see here in the beginning of this passage how Paul has warned them of the dangers to come. We find too that Paul, through the Spirit of God, has written many things for us. We find in the beginning of Acts, it sets that those early Christians, they continue on a few things that we value. They continue on. Perhaps let's turn to that Acts chapter 2.
I wanna make sure we quote that properly.
Acts chapter 2 verse 42, it says that and they continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, in breaking of bread and in prayer and in prayer. So we find that the apostles doctrine and fellowship. Now here is a picture of the apostles doctrine, isn't it? We know too that throughout the ages the apostles doctrine was forgotten.
The church as a whole has given up the apostles doctrine. Yesterday our brother mentioned how this world tried to change what some of the doctrines should be from the word of God. For a long time, as they say, call this the dark ages of the churches. We've gone through that the church have fallen asleep and it's so precious to see that the truth.
Was recovered the truth of the apostles doctrine and fellowship in breaking of bread and in prayers and perhaps as we go through this we'll see how this is being given up in this voyage and that it will be recovered again. And so let's let's go down a bit here again and we see here in this passage Paul warned them how dangerous it is by not heeding to his his word that the ship is going to be damaged even our lives.
But here we find that man, we as man, we like to use our wisdoms, we like to consult those that are experts. So here it says, nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship. You know, even today we find that they, when things happen, people were asked the so-called expert for experience, experts for advice. And we can even now buy books at times that have expert advice. And we find Yvonne among Christian books in the back there are pictures of the expert and the qualifications of the expert.
Why people think they're experts?
And if you look at that in contrast to many of the brethren's writing, you'll find that when the Lord, when the Spirit of God, directed them to many of His truths, often they do not put themselves as experts. You'll find many of the brethren's writing would not even bear the name, perhaps with a little initials at the back, because we trust that it is from God, not from man. So here they go. Nevertheless, they look for the they believe the Master and the owner of the ship.
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Let's go on to verse 12. And because the haven was not commodious to winter in.
And more part advise to depart, and also if by any means they might be attained to Finisse and there to winter, which is in Haven of Crete, and lieth toward the South, uh, West and northwest. And when the South wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, losing fans, they sailed closed by Creed. So we see here that there is another reason that we find here. They were in this little place called Fair Haven. What they find this little place of Fair Haven was not commodious.
It to winter in. I'm not too sure exactly what that word means, but I do believe that it means it's not very comfortable here. Just further down here is with a place called Crete that done a Crete. They have a nicer port, perhaps there are more facilities for them. It's more comfortable, it's more convenient. So they decided to leave before winter sets in. Now notice here they didn't depart very far from what they ought to be. They just want to go a little further and find a place that is convenient.
And they left the apostles warning behind them. And you know, sometimes when we ignore the warning from the Word of God, we feel that we were redeeming the time because we feel from our heart perhaps what we think is right. And sometimes the Lord allow for that too, doesn't He? Here we see that even the South wind begins to blow softly for those that have taken a path that is different than what the Lord intended.
The initial path does not always mean a dangerous path. The South wind begins to blow. Can you picture these men looking at Paul and say, I told you so, there's nothing wrong. Look at this. Everything seems to work well. The South wind blows softly. They're sailing smooth sailing as if it were. And it looks good, so good. And that is that they obtained their purpose.
There's always a purpose behind what we want to do. Is it God's purpose? And then the next two word is interesting too. If you look at it here, it says losing events, losing advance. I'll let you meditate on that. When you choose to go your own path, are you losing events? So they sail close by Creed verse 14. But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous win.
Call Europe London, and when the ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind, they let her dry and running under a certain island, which is called Clouda. We have much work to come by the boat, which when they had taken up, they used, helped undergirding the ship, and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksand straight sail, and so were driven, and we being exceedingly tasked with a Tempest. The next day they lighten.
The ship, ah, the South wind blew softly, just for a little while, and then the storm came along. And we find that in our lives at times that when we want to go our own way, the things looks good. And before we know it the tempestuous storm of life came along there they were caught. They thought they can hide behind that island in the sand and that and the other side of where it's not as windy.
They try to fix things their own way. Now they're girding up the ship. They're tying cables underneath, hoping to fasten it to the point that it would not crash or break up in the tempestuous water that they are in. And they find that they no longer in are in control. The circumstances before them are greater than they can handle. So what do we do when things get really tough? So here we find they did just that. They let go.
Just let it be, let the wind take wherever it drives them to be. So man's efforts find out that it's all in vain. Isn't it sad to see that? Have we seen that in our own lives? And we are redeeming that time, aren't we? And when we leave the Lords out in the decision process, when we do not follow what He has for us, When we think using our wisdom and the counselors of our friends.
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We too can easily fall into this tempestuous storm, and then we try to fix it ourselves.
And getting to further and further trouble. So what did they do? Let's go further into the chapter. Our time is running here, verse 19 and.
And the third day, we cast out our own hands, that tackling of the ship. I'm sorry, I missed verse 18 there. And being exceedingly tasked with a Tempest. The next day they lightened the ship. And on the third day, they cast out with their own hands the tackling of the ship. Oh, isn't it sad? They had supplies on the ship. Now they have to pass them overboard. Things that they needed to lived on, things that they needed to sustain the journey.
Now they have to take it and toss that overboard. Are the things that we do required for our lives, other spiritual needs, other things that we have learned since we were youth, since we were a child? And when storm clouds come, when that tempestuous time come, what do we do? We're told to buy the truth and sell it not.
Have we bought any truth? What are the truths that you have bought?
And now when problems come, do we just take these truths, this truth that we have learned?
And just toss it overboard. Not only so is that the third day, on the third day, what else did they do? It says it takes the tackling of the ship. I'm not a sailor, as many of you know, I get motion sickness, so I won't make a good sailor. But I believe a tackling on the ship is something is probably necessary for the navigation of the ship. Oh.
They picked that up and they said with their own hands, they toss that overboard too. What is the guiding, guiding force in your life? Have you given that up to you? Because they are tempestuous storms in your life and the sets here and the third day, you know, in scriptures, third day is mentioned often.
And as many redeem one here we know the third day is the picture of the resurrection scene. Isn't it the third day we find in Abraham on the third day he lifted up his eye. What did he see? He saw the mountain that God told him from afar off. We find a third day is that that new life, new resurrection day. But what happened when the Lord is out of our mind, when we cast and not heed the apostles doctrine, we find here that.
Verse 20 And we, when neither sun nor stars in many days appear.
And no small tempers lay on us. All Hope that we have should be saved was then taken away. Isn't it sad? Instead of looking for that resurrection, looking for the one who conquered death, looking for that one who is now risen, seated on high at the Father's right hand, It says here they gave up all hope. They didn't see the sun, they didn't see the stars. They have given up hope.
Are we just like the rest of the people in this world? We had that before us yesterday, without hope, without God in this world.
God didn't leave us to be in our own devices, did he? So here they have to learn. Verse 1121 But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have parked in unto me, and not have loose from creed, and to have gained us harm and loss. Oh, what happened to Paul all this time, that they were trying to fix all the problems on their own?
We do not read up any that we know of Paul saying anything throughout this dark, terrible time, Did we? They have ignored the apostles doctrine. Now it's time for the apostle to speak up. For many years Christians have forgotten the blessed hope of the Lord's soon return. We have given up. We live as if this world is ours.
And we still find many today trying to fix the problem in this world, trying to fix this sinking ship. But the apostles doctrine was revived. Oh, you have before us. He reminded us of the coming of our blessed Savior, that we are not of this world. There are many other doctrines we don't have time to go into. He brought back and reminded us the doctrine of the one body. How precious it is to think about one body that every believer is part of that one body.
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Regardless of who they are, they have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are. We are part of that one body. And that our fellowship should be wide enough to embrace every believer, but from his doctrine it should be narrow enough to exclude the world. Oh, there is that that oneness, but then there is that path of separation to walk in a way pleasing to our blessed Lord.
So let's go on here. What did he say to them? Verse 23. For there stood by me this night the Angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, beat up good, be of good cheer, for I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me.
So how precious to see the confident that the Apostle Paul has here. What a testimony here. The apostle was taken as a prisoner on his way to Rome, but yet he was a testimony to all those that were with them. How we can assure them amidst all these confusions, amidst all these dangers and sadness, he can say to them, fear not, fear not. How did he know that? Oh, he believe in God?
And he said, God told him so he said, For there stood by me this night the Angel of God, who, who told me and whom I serve, how precious to think that he would declare to them the God that he believed in, the God that he served. Oh, we have his doctrine before us. We have the full word of God before us. Brethren, may the Lord give us that confidence too, to be able to stand up like Paul of all, to declare that we.
That we are able to serve him as we are. And he told them that he, God told him. None of them will be lost.
And you know, in this world we mentioned the path of separations.
There are Christians that you know that walk disorderly that we cannot fellowship with. We told that if they are drunkards, if they there's a list that go on there said we can't even eat with them. So does that mean we won't see them in heaven? No, it doesn't does it They happy they too have been redeemed with a separate from them, but here what an assurance to know that we will.
We will spend eternity with them here. Paul, assure them that no soul shall be lost. Verse 26. Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island. But when the 14 night was come, as we were driven up and down, and in Adria about midnight, the shipment deemed that they drew near to some country and sounded and found it. 20 fathoms. When they had gone a little further, they sounded again and found it. 15 found them.
Than fearing they should, lest they should have fallen upon rocks, they cast 4 anchors out of the stern, and wish for the day. Oh, how precious that the Apostle gave them the assurance that no soul shall be lost, and that they will be cast upon certain islands. That blessed hope was restored. Do you have that blessed hope? Are you waiting for that blessed hope, and that glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ?
When that hope is being reminded, things change what we see and lift our eyes. Sometimes we think that em in hope we lift our wishful longing eyes waiting for the morning star arise. So here that hope changed the lives. Let me digress just a little bit. You know I know with this many here often some would come with heavy hearts.
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And often we see smiley faces with the heavy hearts behind it.
And I can assure you that in most cases, the reason we have a heavy heart is that we have lost sight of the coming of our blessed Savior. Young people, remember that when you find yourself in difficulties, when you find find yourself to be in distress.
Look to the Lord, be reminded that the Lord's coming is at hand, and you'll find your life going to change. Here they were reminded that they're going to be saved.
And after they see that blessed hope, now they see signs of being rescued. Instead of being tossed to and fro in the middle of the ocean, there they find it getting closer. There are signs. Do we not have signs to brethren?
I enjoyed a thought another brother put it, he said. It's like watching a play. You see the stage with a curtain closed, but behind the curtain you see movement. You see, you know that the props are set up. You know the actors and actresses are all lining up ready to play. The curtain hasn't opened yet, but you know the play is about to begin.
Brethren, the Lord's coming is at hand. Look.
Look, look up and we will see. So here they see sign as they come closer and closer and then they learn something that is precious to them. They drop 4 anchors. They needed something solid.
Will your anger hold in the storm of life? Oh, does that only apply to the gospel and to the lost souls? No, we have our blessed Savior. Who is that true anchor, isn't it?
So let's go on. We only have a few more minutes left here.
Umm, verse 30 and as the shipment we're about to flee out of the ship when they had let down the boat into the sea under color, as though they would have cast anchors out of the ship now.
Let me stop there.
I can't but help that every conference I've been to, every time I visit different places.
It's always a question about the division of those that have left us. I would say this would shame. It's not something we want to be proud of. It's sad. But here it's interesting to see the word use. And I'll let you meditate more on this. They are letting down the boat, perhaps this little lifeboat.
And what did it say? Here, let's read this again. When they had let down the boat into the sea under color, as though they would have cast anchor out of the four ship. Isn't that interesting? Under color. Oh, what are they doing? Are they trying to save the ship? Are they bailing? Oh, when there are problems, often it's so hard to tell. Some would bail.
Under color. Let's go on verse 31. Paul said to the centurion and the soldier, except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall.
Let's go on to our time is verse 33. And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying this day is the 14th day that you have carried and continue fasting, having taken nothing, whom I pray you to take some meat for this is for your health, for there shall not inherit fall from the head of any of you. And when he had thus spoken, he took bread and gave thanks to God.
In presence of them all. And when he had broken it, he began to eat.
Here these men.
These men have been fasting. There were problems. They didn't feed themselves.
Have you been fasting, deal ones, fasting from the word of God? Is that why we seem to feel weaker and weaker? You know that when we don't eat food, our bodies will become weak and weary. Have you been fed? Have you been fed by the word of God?
Or have you 2 been fasting because of the problems and the cares of this world that you have to face? It's interesting to see here Paul took Brad. If you read it again carefully, you'll notice that he took bread and he gave thanks, but there's no mention that they'd partake of that bread with him right away. And when he had broken it, he began to eat. Oh, how much more so that they themselves need to eat.
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To be fair, by the word of God, then were they awe of good cheer, and they took some meat, and when we were in all the ship, 203 score and 16. And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and passed out the wheat into the sea.
They were fed, by the way. Where did the food come from? They were on this ship.
I believe the food was there all along. It was in the possessions, but they didn't feed on it. Do you have the word of God with your dear ones? Is it in your possessions that you forget to feed yourself?
They were strengthened. They were strengthened after they were fed. Isn't it precious to think that?
Now here's something sad.
Let's read that verse again, verse 38. And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and cast out the wheat into the sea. We find we do that. We said, OK, let's eat, unfold now, let's toss the rest out. We don't need it anymore.
Did we find that the word of God refresh our hearts, it strengthen us, and then as soon as we can stand on our feet, we cast that out. The apostle doctrines mean anything to you, or is it enough to build you up and then toss it out all over again? Verse 39 And when it was day, they do not the land, but they discover a certain Creek with a shore into which they were minded, if it were possible to thrush the ship.
And when they had taken up anchors, they committed themselves into the sea and lose the rudder bands and hoist up the main sail to the wind and made toward shore. Oh, now that they have strength, they thought they can do it all over themselves again. They thought instead of the place that they really want to go here, just another island. This is good enough. Let's get off this ocean and find a safe haven. They didn't care where this place was, as long as they can find land.
So they just hoist up the anchor. They didn't need the Lord anymore, do they? Just like us, at times we say we do, but our actions will tell us, do we trust that the Lord is in the midst and that he will take care of all matters? Oh, not only did they hoist up the anchor, they committed themselves to the sea. They raised the main sail as if let's give it a last hurrah, let's make it look good if we're going to crash into this island.
Let's make a big splash so that the rest if someone were watching, we look grand.
Oh how sad it is. So verse 41 and failing and falling into a place where the two seas meet, they ran the ship aground. The four parts stuck fast and remained unmovable, but behind their part was broken with the violence of the waves.
Oh, that ship is another brother. Brother put it that ship of testimony, if we were to look at it as an application.
What a shambo it became. Not much of A testimony, is it? Let's just go down because our time has passed. Let's go down at verse 44, a latter part of of verse 43. And they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and get to the land, and the rest, some on boards, some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they escaped.
All save to land.
Oh yes, the goodness of God, the graciousness of God knows soul to a loss. Some got there by broken pieces.
Some came, but all become saved. But is it not a blessed thing, brethren, that we become obedient to His will, redeeming the time, knowing that what His time is, what His will, is not yours, not mine?
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It was. It was mentioned before.
The two phrases that are not good, we often use the phrase we agree to disagree. Terrible phrases. Isn't it just as bad as the phrase we agree to agree? Brethren, even if all of us here agree to agree, does that agree with the word of God? That's a word of God. Be true and be a guide to our lives. I'm sorry we have time. Let's commend ourselves here.
Blessed God and our Father, we thank thee again for thy love. We thank Thee for the time we have here with thy words open before us. We thank thee for our Lord Jesus Christ.
We do look to thee, first of all, to acknowledge our nothingness, to acknowledge how weak we are, how easily we stumble, how often we stray.
How often that we let the care of this world dictate our lives.
We do look to the end.
Would you pray that that would help us? We cast our dependence upon Thee.
Give us the strength, Lord, to walk in that way pleasing to Thee. Help us to be a ready, willing vessel, ready for the Masters use. So we pray one another here.
And we pray that with the remainder of the time here that thy name may be glorified. We give thanks and we pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
Aquila and Priscilla
Address—R. Boulard
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.
Just like to open the word of God up to the book of Acts.
Chapter 18.
And just read a few scriptures in connection with Aquila and Priscilla.
We've been speaking a little bit about what takes place in the home and how wonderful it is to have a hymn sing in the home and to have the home devoted to the people of God and to the enjoyment of the things of God in the home. And isn't it wonderful how the word of God points out this couple who use their home for the Lord? And so let's just use just read in Acts chapter 18.
And verse one, After these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth.
And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome, and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought.
For by their occupation they were tent makers. And then just a little bit further on.
We'll read about 5 passages here, verse 18.
Chapter 18 verse 18. And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while.
And then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria and with him.
Priscilla and Aquila having shorn his head in Sanchez, for he had a vow, and he came to Ephesus and left them there. But he himself entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. Then just down to verse 24, and a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spake and taught diligently.
Things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom, when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass into a care, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive Him, who, when he was come, help them much which had believed through grace, for he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly showing by the.
That Jesus was Christ and then Romans chapter 16.
And verse 3.
Romans chapter 16 and verse 3 greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles likewise greet the church that is in their house. And then one last portion in First Corinthians chapter 16.
Verse 19.
1St Corinthians 16 and verse 19 The churches of Asia salute you.
Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord with the church that is in their house. All the brethren greet you, greet you one another with an holy kiss. Well, we just turned back to Acts chapter 18 and and verse two. There it speaks of the introduction. The Spirit of God introduces us to these two dear ones, Aquila and Priscilla. He came with his wife.
And he had been commanded of Claudius, had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome.
And so he came unto them because he was of the same craft he abode with them. So you know, the first thing I want to point out is here that these dear ones, equivalent Priscilla knew what hardship was. We don't know what they left in Rome. We're not told what they had to leave in Italy. But they had to leave everything, perhaps that they held dear and they had to leave and go to a place that they didn't know and they had to live as strangers and pilgrims. And so their household then became.
Characterized as one that was in the wilderness and as strangers and pilgrims in this scene they sought to use their home for the Lord. You know in I'll just tell you a little story and I some of you have heard this story. Brother Ian Hurlbut told me this winter little story. I asked him how his family ever came to be among those that were gathered to the Lord's name and he said this to me. He said he had a great grandfather, Clinton Hurlbut and Clinton.
Was.
Lived in a little town called Myrtle, Ontario, and in the 1880s, and he was a part of the Methodist Church there. It was a, a religious organization, perhaps the most prominent one in that little town of Myrtle, Ontario. And he was a Shoemaker. He repaired shoes and and he was a cobbler and he went.
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To that Methodist Church. And then you know, as time went on, there were those that came into the community that read the word of God and that were gathered to the Lords name. There was a testimony there of those that were gathered to the Lords name on divine ground. And he went to the Bible reading meetings there and started to attend the meetings. And very soon he went to the Methodist minister and said I'm going to have to withdraw my fellowship from this church system.
Because, you know, I found what I believe to be the truth. And so he withdrew from that organization. And he began, he took his place at the Lord's Table. And very shortly thereafter, the minister stood up in his pulpit and he said, you know, I don't want you to go to Clinton Hurlbut.
Little shop, I don't want you to do any business with Clinton because you know, he's not one of us anymore. He's withdrawn from this establishment and they starved him out of Myrtle, Ontario. They starved him out of town. He had to leave that town. And he went to Toronto, ON and he started from fresh, started, had a home, built a home again and started business. And then, you know, his son Percy was.
Began to grow and his son was.
Percy was gathered to the Lord's name and then Clayton was born and he was gathered to the Lord's name and Ian Hurlbut was Clayton son and on it went. You know. But you know I thought of that Clinton hurl, but paid the price to be gathered to the Lords name. And you and I here today perhaps we paid nothing to sit here in our seats and to sit under the sound of the good news of the grace and kindness of God and what it is to be gathered to the very precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'll help you ever thank the Lord for what it is to be gathered to the Lord's name. It's a precious, precious privilege in this scene. What we find here that what's characteristic of equivalent Priscilla is that they knew what hardship was. They knew what it was to identify with the people of God. And then it says that they were tent makers and they had the very precious privilege of opening up their little home to the apostle Paul. And so he was there.
In their home and it says.
I think a little bit further on that he was there perhaps about a year and a half. I can't find it, but it says that he was there, he stayed with them and about a year and a half and he was there. And perhaps in that very place in Corinth, he wrote those two letters, those two epistles, First and 2nd Thessalonians, perhaps one at the beginning of that stay, and then one at the end of his stay there, about a year and a half.
And what a precious privilege it must have been for Aquila and Priscilla to see that apostle writing to the other Saints. And so their home was a simple home, perhaps. And it was characterized, as I say, of being strangers and pilgrims, and they desired to have the people of God in that home. Well, I just want to encourage one another here. Many of us have homes. Let's use them for the Lord. They may be simple homes and we may not have a lot of extravagance, but we surely can have the Lord's people.
Home and invite one another and encourage one another. You know, it says that in Hebrews chapter 10 that we ought to be encouraging one another and so much the more as we see the day approaching one another. And I like that, you know, that statement because it's not a work to stand up perhaps, or to encourage a multitude as it were. But the work of encouragement is a one-on-one work.
Every one of us needs to encourage one another.
And you young person, you can encourage someone else. You know, I was very encouraged as a young man and I saw my twin brother reading the Bible and he, he read some ministry. He was reading the Pentateuch by CHM. And that was an encouragement to me to read some ministry for myself. Every one of us, I say, need to encourage one another in that way. Well, it says in verse 18 that he sailed.
And in verse 19 he came to Ephesus.
And left them there. And then in verse 24 we find that there was a man.
Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man. He was a gifted man. He had a gift from God. He was exercising his gift and he was mighty in the Scriptures. Not nice. You know, every one of us could be mighty in the Scriptures if we would just read the Scriptures. We read the Word of God and have an appetite for the Word of God to read it for ourselves. And he says that he was mighty in the Scriptures. And he came to Ephesus, and this man was instructed in the way of the Lord.
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It's nice to be instructed, you know, we can be instructed if we go attend the reading meetings and.
We take time to read a little bit of ministry for ourselves, read a little booklet, something that speaks of the Word of God and gives us a little better understanding of the things of God. And this man was instructed, but it says here he was instructed in the way of the Lord, being fervent in his spirit. He taught diligently the things of the Lord. I believe, Mr. Darby says of the Lord Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John, and he began to speak.
In a synagogue, whom, when Quill and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. Well, you know, here was a home being used for the Lord, and there was one that really had a gift for God in spiritual things, and perhaps wasn't as acquainted with the truth of God as you ought to have been at that time. But he, he loved the Lord, He desired the things of God, and he desired the people of God to be instructed. And so he.
Into the synagogue and you know there was a very small private work that Aquiline Priscilla did with that man, perhaps that no one else knew, no one ever knew, but the Spirit of God records it here for us in the in the book of Acts, he says, you know equivalent Priscilla love that man. They took them. They took them very quietly into the home, perhaps gave them a meal. They enjoyed something of the Lord together and he became instructed more perfectly in the things of God. And so you know, beloved brethren.
I I take the encouragement as the thought. You know, the Lord Jesus never scolded his brethren, He spoke.
You might say very sternly sometimes, and he spoke faithfully to them, and he quoted the verses of Scripture to them that applied to certain situations, but he never scolded them in that way, you know. And so these dear brethren, they didn't stand up and oppose what he was saying in the synagogue, but they took him home to that lovely home, and they just expounded the way of God more perfectly under them. And then there was a bond of love between them.
And it says then that there was fruit for God in verse 28. He mightily convinced the Jews. And that publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Well, I just like to encourage every one of us here, you know, to have others of the precious faith into the home, whether they're those of us that are gathered to the Lord's name or perhaps those that aren't. You know, we need to have one another in the home and to sometimes just encourage one another.
And correct sometimes those things that are not quite right and to perhaps point out things that might be a little more correct and that would magnify Christ. Well, let's turn to Romans chapter 16 and we'll just read that again, verse 3. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus.
Who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches.
Of the Gentiles likewise greet the church that is in their house, salute my well beloved Epineus, who is the first fruits of a Cha unto Christ. Well, now we find that Aquila and Priscilla, they had a little home. They had been displaced. They knew what it was to suffer the loss of a home and to leave the country that they loved and lived in perhaps, and and to go to another place. And now they find themselves perhaps.
In Ephesus.
And we find that they're helpers. The Lord has here recorded that they were helpers in Christ Jesus. And we don't know, I don't know that it's recorded in the Word of God, but maybe someone could point it out to us later. We don't know when they laid down their necks.
Unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. And so, you know, they identified with a man, the apostle Paul, who spoke the truth of God and who was harassed and haunted by those that despise the truth and wanted Judaism. They wanted the vineyard, but they didn't want Christ himself. And so these dear ones, they identified themselves with the Apostle Paul. Well, you know, it's a wonderful privilege for us to identify ourselves with Christ.
You know, I, I'm ashamed to say it, but.
When I was a boy, the.
Boys on the school ground used to sometimes say, you know, what church do you go to? And I would hang my head. I'm ashamed to say it. I would hang my head and I say, well, my parents go to a place and they're only gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. There's no sign on the building. They're just gathered to the Lord's name. And I was ashamed of that. And I hung my head and I'm ashamed to say that now. But you know, now I thank God that I'm only associated with that blessed name, the name of.
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Lord Jesus, it's a wonderful thing to be gathered to the Lord's name. It's a normal thing in Christianity. God desired all of us to be gathered to the Lords name and it just in very simple way to remember him in the circumstances of his death. He said this do in remembrance of me and he just wanted us to associate with him in his rejection while we wait for his coming. And so these dear ones, they did that and they laid down there who have for my my life laid down their own necks and.
Told when or exactly how, perhaps, but the Spirit of God records it, and God will record everything that's done for himself. And if you and faithfulness identify with the Lord Jesus in rejection, in this scene of his rejection, he's going to take note of it and there's going to be a thankful remembrance in the coming day. He's going to come very soon for his own. We sang that to him as we begun this meeting. He's going to come.
And when you have identified with the Lord Jesus and you've identified with him as a rejected Savior, scorned his own, not a popular Christ, one that was crucified, cast outside the city of Jerusalem, dragged from place to place, place in scorn and disowned and shamefully treated and crucified, you identify yourself with that person, that one who loved you and gave himself for you. Why? In the coming day, he's going to thank you for identifying.
With himself. Well, it says here that they had a little assembly in their home. And what a precious thing it is. I know that there are many here and the home is open and there's a little assembly in the home. A place set aside for the Lord's people, a temporary dwelling place, as it were, in the presence in the wilderness, in the presence of God, just for the people of God to enjoy Christ in the wilderness scene just while we wait for his coming. And so equivalent. And Priscilla.
That record is given that the assembly was in their house and then in First First Corinthians chapter 16.
And verse 19.
The.
It says there the churches of Asia salute you, Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. All the brethren greet you, greet you one another with an holy kiss.
Well, I think of how the people of God were on the hearts of this man, this husband, and this wife, and they love the people of God. They didn't just say that they loved the people of God. There was an act of love and kindness in their home to have the assembly there. They had the apostle Paul there. They would take Apollos in and just minister the things of God to them very quietly, in a very quiet way. And.
None of it was publicized, but God records it in His Word here.
And then it says that Aquilin and Priscilla saluted you much in the Lord. Well, isn't it nice, isn't it encouraging to just salute one another? You know, I want to just say this, that Brother Hammer is at home in Hammer Bay, in the apartment there, 89 years old, and he can't get out much anymore. And he longs for those visits on the phone. He rejoices when he goes to the gets a ride.
Goes to the mailbox and there's a card in the mailbox and one of the brethren is saluting him as it were and encouraging him, giving him strength just for the last little step in this pathway of in this scene of the Lords rejection. He he longs for that.
And we ought to just encourage one another. It's a lonely day. Sometimes there's small assemblies and we need to greet one another fervently and express our love and affection for one another. I'll just give you one last little example of that as an enclosed. You know, in days gone by, there used to be a little assembly in San Antonio, TX, and Eva Chris was there.
And there was one other sister. But often times when I had business in San Antonio, I would go there.
And there just be Eva Chris and myself at the breaking of bread. And, you know, I went there one day. I think it was the first time that I went there. And dear sister Eva Chris, she was in her 90s. And I sat down and we remembered the Lord together. And then at the end of the meeting, you know, she very solemnly went over to the end table at the end of the sofa that I was sitting in. She opened the drawer very, very carefully and she very.
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Took out a big book. It was probably as as large as this podium, maybe half the size. And she opened up the book very carefully and she flipped to the page that was open and I said, what, what book is this? She says. It's my book of remembrance.
And she said, I want you to put your name in my book of remembrance. And I tell you that book, it wasn't all full, but there were so many names in that book. I was I was stunned. And then, you know, I looked, I went to sign my name in that book and the name on the top said Philip St. Vincent and gave the date. And I said, dear Eva, I said I was in Phil Saint Vincent home at that very weekend. He.
Being here at the same time, oh, she says, oh, he wasn't here. But after you left, he phoned me and we had a nice visit on the phone. Oh, I enjoyed that visit so much on the phone. I wrote his name down in my book of remembrance. You know what's going to be like that, brethren, if we just encourage one another, if you know, it says, I'll just read in closing, Malachi Chapter 3.
There it says in verse 16.
They that feared the Lord spake often one to another.
And the Lord hearkened and heard it in a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name. You know, the book was written for them because they were going to forget that they ever spoke one to another. They were going to forget. And in the coming day, the Lord is going to open that book. He's going to show those dear ones that it was such a precious thing in His sight that they spoke one to another and their purpose of their.
Wants to encourage one another and he's going to say I appreciated that and I wrote it down in my book of remembrance. Well, I just trust these words spoken in this example of this household of equivalent. And Priscilla might be an encouragement to us to use our homes for the Lord, for the Lord's people and in these very last days that there might be fruit for himself and the strengthening of the things that remain and that we might just long to just be together and just strengthen one another.
Present Testimony
Address—D. So
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I'd like to turn to the book of Acts chapter 27.
I was thinking of how.
We had a nice meeting in the last reading meeting where we talked about redeeming the time.
And I think comments were made that.
It's nice, too, to see what the Lord's timetable is and you know how we ought to walk.
When we understand what He had before us, we won't have time to go to some other things. I want to talk about. We have only about 20 minutes or so, but I was thinking of how we need to know that God has an overall time frame for this world. We know that He created this world to be inhabited in. We know that Israel was the center of His thoughts.
But then we know, too, that Israel is set aside for a little while.
So we as Gentiles can be brought into blessings. We know that.
The one who has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ will become part of that church. We know that the Lord said he's going to come back and he's going to take us out of this scene, rapture, out of this world. We know that, don't we? And that this world is going to face tribulations.
And then after that, Israel will be brought back into blessings.
We find that throughout his word. He tells us that repeatedly. We look at the seven fees of Jehovah will find some of the events outlined.
We find the seven parabola in the book of Matthew. We find the events outlined in there as well. We find in the seven churches more detail about the church. But I have on my heart this afternoon this passage in the 27th chapter of Acts in regard to Paul's shipwrecked.
I trust that with the Lord's help, perhaps it will give us a little bit of a picture of what we are going through.
What has passed? And perhaps see how the Lord has warned us.
And with the Lord's help that we can use that to encourage to walk faithfully for Him. So let's just begin by a few verses here. We won't be to the chapter through. We'll just read a few verses at a time just to save some time here.
Perhaps we can begin by verse nine. And now. Now, when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous because the fast was now already passed, Paul admonished them and said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading of the ship, but also of our lives.
Nevertheless.
The centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship more than those which were spoken by Paul.
We see here in the beginning of this passage how Paul has warned them of the dangers to come.
We find too that Paul through the Spirit of God has written many things for us. We find in the beginning of Acts, he sets that those early Christians, they continue on. A few things that we value, they continue on. Perhaps let's turn to that Acts chapter 2.
I want to make sure we quote that properly.
Acts chapter 2, verse 42 it says that and they continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship in breaking of bread.
And in prayer and in prayers. So we find that the apostles doctrine and fellowship. Now here is a picture of the apostles doctrine, isn't it? We know too, that throughout the ages the apostles doctrine was forgotten. The church as a whole has given up the apostles doctrine. Yesterday our brother mentioned how this world tried to.
Change what some of the doctrines should be from the Word of God.
For a long time, as they say, call this the dark ages of the churches. We've gone through that the church have fallen asleep and it's so precious to see that the truth.
Was recovered the truth of the apostles doctrine and fellowship in breaking of bread and in prayers and perhaps as we go through this we'll see how this is being given up in this voyage and that it will be recovered again and so let's let's go down a bit here again and we see here in this passage Paul warned them how dangerous it is by not heeding to his his word that the ship is going to be damaged even our.
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Lives, but here we find that man, we as man, we like to use our wisdoms, we like to consult those that are experts. So here it says, nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship. You know, even today we find that they when things happen, people were asked the so-called expert for experience.
Experts for advice and we can even now buy books at times.
That have expert advice. And we find even among Christian books in the back, there are pictures of the expert and the qualifications of the expert at why people think they're experts. And if you look at that in contrast to many of the brethren's writing, you'll find that when the Lord when the Spirit of God directed them to many of his truth, often they do not put themselves as experts.
You'll find many of the Brethren's writing would not even bear the name, perhaps with a little initials at the back.
Because we trust that it is from God, not from man. So here they go. Nevertheless, they look for the they believe the master and the owner of the ship.
Let's go on to verse 12. And because the haven was not commodious to winter in and more part advice to depart, then also, if by any means they might be attained to Phoenix, and there to winter, which is in haven of creed, and lieth toward the southwest and northwest. And when the South wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose.
Losing fans, they sailed close by Creed.
So we see here that there is another reason that we find here. They were in this little place called Fair Haven. What they find this little place of Fair Haven was not commodious to winter in. I'm not too sure exactly what that word means, but I do believe that it means it's not very comfortable here. Just further down here, slither place called Crete that done a Crete. They have a nicer port. Perhaps there are more facilities for them. It's more.
It's more convenient. So they decided to leave before winter sets in. Now notice here they didn't depart very far from where they ought to be. They just want to go a little further and find a place that is convenient. And they left the apostles warning behind them. And you know, sometimes when we ignore the warning from the word of God.
We feel that we were we deeming the time because we feel from our heart.
Perhaps what we think is right, and sometimes the Lord allow for that too, doesn't He? Here we see that even the South wind begins to blow softly for those that have taken a path that is different than what the Lord intended. The initial path does not always mean a dangerous path. The South wind begins to blow. Can you picture these men looking at Paul?
And say I told you so, there's nothing wrong. Look at this, everything seems to work well.
The South wind blows softly, They are sailing smooth sailing as if it were, and it looks good, so good. And that is that they obtain their purpose. There's always a purpose behind what we want to do is a God's purpose.
And then the next two word is interesting too. If you look at it here, it says losing events, losing advance. I let you meditate on that. When you choose to go your own path, are you losing events? So they sail close by Creed verse 14. But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind called Europe, London. And when the ship was caught and could not bear.
Wind they let her drive, and running under a certain island, which is called Clouda, we have much work to come by the boat, which, when they had taken up they use, helped undergirding the ship, and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksand streak sail, and so were driven, and we being exceedingly tossed with a Tempest the next day they lighten the ship.
The South wind blew softly, just for a little while.
And then this storm came along and we find that in our lives at times that when we want to go our own ways, the things looks good. And before we know it, the tempestuous storm of life came along There. They were caught. They thought they can hide behind that island in the sand and that and the other side of where it's not as windy. They try to fix things their own way now.
00:10:19
They're girding up the ship, they're tying cables underneath, hoping to fasten it to the point that it would not crash or break up in the tempestuous water that they were in.
And they find that they no longer are in control. The circumstances before them are greater than they can handle. So what do we do when things get really tough? So here we find they did just that. They let go.
Just let it be. Let the wind take wherever it drives them to be.
So Maine's efforts find out that it's all in vain. Isn't it sad to see that? Have we seen that in our own lives? And we are redeeming the time, aren't we? And when we leave the Lords out in the decision process, when we do not follow what He has for us, When we think using our wisdom and the counselors of our friends.
We too can easily fall into this tempestuous storm, and then we try to fix it ourselves.
And getting to further and further trouble. So what did they do? Let's go further into the chapter as our time is running here, verse 19 and.
And the third day, we cast out our own hands. The tackling.
Of the ship, I'm sorry I missed verse 18 there. And being exceedingly tasked with a Tempest. The next day they lightened the ship. And on the third day they cast out with their own hands the tackling of the ship. Oh, isn't it sad? They had supplies on the ship, now they have to toss them overboard. Things that they needed to lived on, things that they needed to sustain the journey. Now they have to take it and toss that.
Are the things that we do required for our lives, other spiritual needs, other things that we have learned since we were youth, since we were a child? And when storm clouds come, when that tempestuous time come, what do we do? We're told to buy the truth and sell it not.
Have we brought any truth? What are the truths that you have bought?
And now when problems come, do we just take these truths, these truths that we have learned and justice toss it overboard? Not only so is it the third day? On the third day, what else did they do? It says it takes the tackling of the ship. I'm not a sailor, as many of you know, I get motion sickness, so I won't make a good sailor. But I believe a tackling on the ship is something is probably necessary for the NAV.
Of the ship.
Oh, they picked that up and they said with their own hands, they toss that overboard, too. What is the guiding force in your life? Have you given that up to you? Because there are tempestuous storms in your life and it sets here. And the third day, you know, in scriptures, third day is mentioned often.
And as many redeem one here we know the third day is the picture of the resurrection scene. Isn't it the third day? We find in Abraham, on the third day he lifted up his eye. What did he see? He saw the mountain that God told him from afar off. We find a third day. Is that that new life, new resurrection day? But what happened when the Lord is out of our mind? When we cast and not heed the apostles doctrine?
We find here that verse 20. And when neither son nor stars in many days appear, and no small tempers lay on us, all hope that we have should be saved was then taken away.
Isn't it sad instead of looking for that resurrection, looking for the one who conquered death, looking for that one who is now risen, seated on high at the Father's right hand is set here? They gave up all hope. They didn't see the sun. They didn't see the stars.
They have given up hope and we, just like the rest of the people in this world, we had that before us yesterday, without hope, without God in this world.
00:15:04
God didn't leave us to be in our own devices, did he? So here they have to learn. Verse 21. But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have parked in unto me, and not have loose from creed, and to have gained us harm and loss.
Oh, what happened to Paul all this time that they were trying to fix all the problems on their own?
We do not read up any that we know of Paul saying anything throughout this dark terrible time, did we? They have ignore the apostles doctrine. Now it's time for the apostle to speak up. For many years Christians have forgotten the blessed hope of the Lord's soon return.
We have given up. We lived as if this world is ours.
And we still find many today trying to fix the problem in this world, trying to fix this sinking ship.
But the apostles doctrine was revived. Oh, you have before us. He reminded us of the coming of our blessed Savior, that we are not of this world. There are many other doctrines we don't have time to go into. He brought back and reminded us the doctrine of the one body. How precious it is to think of that one body that every believer is part of that one body.
Regardless of who they are, they have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They are we are part of that one body, and that our fellowship should be wide enough to embrace every believer, but from his doctrine it should be narrow enough to exclude the world. Oh, there is that that oneness, but then there is that path of separations to walk in a way pleasing to our blessed Lord.
So let's go on here. What did he say to them? Verse 23 For there stood by me this night, the Angel of God.
Whose I am and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good, be of good cheer, for I believe God that it shall be, even as it was told me. Oh, how precious to see the confident that the Apostle Paul hath here. What?
Money here the apostle was taken as a prisoner on his way to Rome, but yet he was a testimony to all those that were with them. How he can assure them amidst all these confusions, amidst all these dangers and sadness, he can say to them, fear not, fear not. How did he know that? Oh, he believed in God, and he said God told him so. He said for there.
Me this night, the Angel of God, who who told me and whom I serve, how precious to think that he would declare to them the God that he believed in, the God that he served. Oh, we have his doctrine before us. We have the full word of God before us. Brethren, may the Lord give us that confidence too, to be able to stand up like Paul of all to declare.
God we, we are able to serve him as we are. And he told them that. He, God told him. None of them will be lost.
And you know, in this world we mentioned the path of separations.
There are Christians that you know that walk disorderly that we can't have fellowship with.
We're told that if they are drunkards, if they there's a list that go on there said we can't even eat with them. So does that mean we won't see them in heaven? No, it doesn't does it? They happy they too have been redeemed with a separate from them, but here what an assurance to know that we will we will spend eternity with them here, Paul assure them that no soul shall be.
Verse 26 Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island. But when the 14 night was come, as we were driven up and down, and in Adria about midnight, the Shipman deemed that they drew near to some country, and sounded and found it 20 fathoms. When they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it 15 fathom, then fearing they should.
00:20:13
Lest they should have fallen upon rocks, they cast 4 anchors out of the stern.
And wish for the day, oh how precious that the apostle gave them the assurance that no soul shall be lost, and that they will be cast upon certain island. That blessed hope was restored. Do you have that blessed hope? Are you waiting for that blessed home and that glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ? When that hope is being reminded, things change when we see and lift our.
Sometimes we're saying that M in hope we lift our wishful longing eyes, waiting for the morning star arise. So here that hope changed the lives. Let me digress just a little bit. You know, I know with this many here, often some would come with heavy hearts.
And often we see smiley faces with the heavy hearts behind it.
And I can assure you that in most cases, the reason we have a heavy heart.
Is that we have lost sight of the coming of our blessed Savior.
Young people, remember that when you find yourselves in difficulties, when you find yourself to be in distress.
Look to the Lord, be reminded that the Lord's coming is at hand, and you'll find your life going to change. Here they were reminded that they're going to be saved and.
After they see that blessed hope, now they see signs of being rescued. Instead of being tossed to and fro in the middle of the ocean. There they find it getting closer. There are signs. Do we not have signs to brethren?
I enjoyed a thought another brother put it, he said. It's like watching a play. You see the stage with a curtain closed, but behind the curtain you see movement. You see, you know that the props are set up. You know the actors and actresses are all lining up ready to play. The curtain hasn't opened yet, but you know the play is about to begin.
Brethren, the Lord's coming is at hand. Look, look, look up and we will see. So here they see sign as to come closer and closer, and then they learn something that is precious to them. They drop 4 anchors.
They needed something. Solve it. Will your anchor hold in the storm of life? Oh, does that only apply to the gospel and to the lost souls? No, we have our blessed Savior. Who is that true anchor, isn't it?
So let's go on. We only have a few more minutes left here.
Verse 30 and as the shipment, we're about to flee out of the ship when they had let down the boat into the sea under color, as though they would have cast anchors out of the ship now.
Let me stop there.
I can't but help that every conference I've been to, every time I visit different places.
It's always a question about the division of those that have left us. I would say this would shame. It's not something we want to be proud of. It's sad. But here it's interesting to see the word use and I'll let you.
Meditate more on this. They are letting down the boat, perhaps this little lifeboat.
And what did it say here? Let's read this again when they had let down the boat into the sea.
Under color as though they would have cast anchor out of the four ship. Isn't that interesting? Under color. Oh what are they doing? Are they trying to save the ship or they bailing when there are problems? Often it's so hard to tell. Some would bail.
Under color, let's go on verse 31, Paul said to the centurion and the soldier, except these abide in the ship, he cannot be saved.
Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall.
Let's go on to Jaime's verse 33. And while the day was come on coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying this day is the 14th day that you have tarried and continue fasting, having taken nothing, whom I pray you to take some meat for this is for your health, for there shall not inherit fall from the head of any of you.
00:25:18
And when he had thus spoken, he took bread and gave thanks to God in presence of them all.
And when he had broken it, he began to eat.
Here these men.
These men have been fasting. There were problems. They didn't feed themselves.
Have you been fasting, dear ones? Fasting from the word of God?
Is that why we seems to feel weaker and weaker? You know that when we don't eat food, our bodies will become weak and weary. Have you been fed? Have you been fed by the word of God?
Or have you 2 been fasting because of the problems and the cares of this world that you have to face? It's an interesting to see here Paul took Brad.
If you read it again carefully, you'll notice that he took bread and he gave thanks.
But there's no mention that they'd partake of that bread with him right away. And when he had broken it, he began to eat. Oh, how much more so that they themselves need to eat, to be fair, By the word of God, then were they all of good cheer, and they took some meat. And when we were in all the ship, 203 score and 16.
And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and cast out the wheat into the sea.
They were fat, by the way. Where did the food come from? They were on this ship.
I believe the food was there all along. It was in the processions, but they didn't feed on it. Do you have the word of God with your dear ones? Is it in your possessions that you forget to feed yourself?
They were strengthened. They were strengthened after they were fed. Isn't it precious to think that?
Now here's something sad.
Let's read that verse again, verse 38. And when they had eaten enough.
They lighten the ship and cast out the wheat into the sea. We find we do that. We said OK, let's eat. I'm full now. Let's toss the rest out. We don't need it anymore.
Do we find that the word of God refresh our hearts, it strengthen us, and then as soon as we can stand on our feet?
We cast that out. Does the apostle doctrines mean anything to you, or is it enough to build you up and then toss it out all over again? Verse 39. And when it was day, they do not the land, but they discover a certain Creek with a shore, into which they were minded, if it were possible to thrush the ship. And when they had taken up anchors, they committed themselves into the sea.
Lose the rudder bands and hoist up the main sail to the wind and made to word.
Sure. Oh, now that they have strength, they thought they can do it all over themselves again. They thought instead of the place that they really want to go here, just another island. This is good enough. Let's get off this ocean and find a safe haven.
They didn't care where this place was as long as they can find land, so they just hoist up the anchor.
They didn't need the Lord anymore, do they?
Just like us, at times we say we do, but our actions will tell us, do we trust that the Lord is in the midst and that He will take care of all matters? Oh, not only did they hoist up the anchor, they committed themselves to the sea. They raised the main sail as if let's give it a last hurrah, let's make it look good. If we're going to crash into this island, let's make a big splash so that the rest if someone were watching, we look grand.
Oh how sad it is. So verse 41 and failing and falling into a place where the two seas meet, they ran the ship aground. The four parts stuck fast and remained unmovable, but a hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.
00:30:00
Oh, that ship.
There's another brother, brother put it that ship of testimony if we were to look at it as an application.
What a shambo it became. Not much of A testimony, is it? Let's just go down because our time has passed. Let's go down at verse 44, a latter part of of verse 43. And they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and get to the land, and the rest, some on boards, some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they escaped.
All save to land.
Oh yes, the goodness of God, the graciousness of God. No souls were lost. Some got there by broken pieces.
Some came, but all become saved. But is it not a blessed thing, brethren, that we become obedient to His will, redeeming the time, knowing that what His time is, what His will, is not yours, not mine?
It was mentioned before.
The two phrases that are not good, we often use the phrase we agree to disagree.
Terrible phrases in it.
Just as bad as the phrase we agree to agree. Brethren, even if all of us here agree to agree, does that agree with the Word of God? Let the Word of God be true and be a guide to our lives. I'm sorry we're out of time. Let's commend ourselves here.