Chicago Conference: 1967
Table of Contents
Responsibility in God's House
Address—A. Barry
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Are singing hymns 330?
What raised the wondrous thought?
Or who did it suggest that we, the Church, the glory brought his wifes, the Son be blessed? Oh God, the thought was thine, thine only it could be.
Who did their wisdom love Divine security unto thee?
For sure no other minds or thoughts.
So bold, so free, greatness or strength that ever signs thine only it could be.
The motive to Thine owns the plan the council Thine made her eyes from bone of his bones and glory strikes to shine.
Oh God, with great delight, I wonder thought to see.
On his throne and glory bright the bride of Christ. For these the olds of the Holy Ghost, we triumph in that love.
Thy wondrous thought has made our boats glory with Christ above.
Oh.
Let us turn to the third chapter of First Timothy.
The 14th verdict.
First Timothy.
Chapter 3 and verse 14.
These things are right unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly.
But if I carry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave, I felt.
In the House of God.
Which is the Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, and without controversy.
Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit scene of angels. Please Son of the Gentiles believed on in the world.
Received up into glory.
I have before me, beloved Saints.
To first bring a few slots about the church.
And then to speak.
About our behavior in the House of God.
Now Paul was leaving.
Timothy.
Or he had.
Parted from him.
And he is concerned about the way this young man conducted himself during his absence.
Well, whenever was a more devoted.
Young Believers and Timothy.
And yet he had to be exhorted. He needed to be admonished.
Just as we all need to be admonished, young and old.
And he speaks of the church here as the pillar and ground of the truth. It's really the pillar and support of the truth, just like this pillar here. We put some important objects upon it. It would support it.
Now, the church isn't set here in this Dark World to make the world better.
Or to improve society or make this a better place to live.
But the word is set here to support the truth. Truth, beloved.
It says it's the pillar and support of the truth.
And then he tells us what the truth is.
Where he says great is the mystery, and he gives us life of the Lord Jesus and the Manger to the glory into which he has entered. That's the truth. Christ himself is the truth. And so the Church has been set here.
To.
Fight the whole new month to be a testimony turned in those dark.
Recently I've been asked the question by Sexual Elections 1 gathered to the Lord's name, other a dear Christian not gathered to the law. As to why those not perform marriages. You may think I'm getting a little off of my subject.
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But you are replying to the dear ones.
I told him this.
That I'm gathered.
To the Lord's name on the ground of the one body.
And that the only membership I hold in this world.
Is membership in the body of Christ?
Say now if I take the ground some are taking that I could get a license then, but that would be the stand I would be denying.
The most precious.
Church of God has for his people.
And that is that the church one body.
Because I would be saying and taking our name, so we may be called that officially. I'd be taking that name as I vilifying myself. In other words, I I'd be just making a vision in the Church of God, which would be a very serious thing.
All the other things that you and I.
Have that Mystic body called the Church.
Because the Lord went back to heaven, 10 days later he sent the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit suddenly came upon a company of about 120 others.
And that was the birthday of the church. Are all formed into one for the same Spirit and his dwelling place, and each believer was present there.
And that very day to party the sermon so powerful and 3000 and they were all out to that company. And then at the end we read that the Lord added to the church.
The daily such as should be saved.
But how are you and I in this case?
To have a place.
In that body.
If you turn with me to the first chapter of these seasons.
I read in the 13th verse, In whom ye also trusted. After that he heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also after that he believes.
Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchase, possession of the trees of His glory.
What is the Gospel? Well, the apostle tells us the Gospel is how Christ died for our sins, that he was buried and that he rose again the 3rd day, and that he was seen in Venice, the apostles throwing in the glory.
Have you believed the Gospel beloved trends that Christ died for your sins?
Have you ever been in God's presence about?
That thin question that would surely take you to hell if it's not better.
Well, if you have believed that gospel about Christ is death on the cross.
His resurrection, if you have accepted him, that risen man.
Then you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in me.
And if you look now at the.
The 12Th chapter, First Corinthians.
And the 13th verse the apostle says therefore by 1 spirit.
Are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bonds or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit? For the body is not one member, but many.
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We saw that when the Spirit of God came down at Santa's cross, He formed the body.
That was the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
We do get the compliment of that baptism and the House of Cornelius, where a whole company of Gentiles were saved at one time. And it tells us that while Peter speak these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all in the third.
So then the Gentiles were brought into the body.
And there will never be another baptism of the Spirit of God.
When they were in prayer, after they were persecuted for their testimony, it tells us that the house was shaken where they were assembled together.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
Just as all the Spirit of God took that house and shook it, and he says I'm here, I'm with you. He doesn't have to come down again as another baptism, but he reminds them that he is their present with them.
There between you all of course, center accepted the gospel or if you haven't accepted this, if you're accepted this very moment, then the Spirit of God will put you into that one body. You see, he doesn't say by 1 spirit are we being baptized, but by 1 Spirit are we all baptized. That is, you're just brought into by the Spirit that is.
Formed on the day of Pentecost.
I like this illustration I read years ago very much.
Come on illustrates the formation of the church like a pond, and their reeds growing all through this pond. And someone takes the stone and throws it right into the middle.
And it causes a great commotion. The water flies high in the air. And from that commotion there are rings, forms. You've seen that one.
Any of you have thrown a stone at the Waterhouse, a circle of rings is formed and it goes wider and wider and as those rings.
Are going rider, it takes in more and more of the reeds until it has a last ring, covers the whole palm and takes in all the reeds. So when the work of the Spirit of God and gatherings.
To a rejected Christ is complete. Then the bridegroom comes and the church is taken away from the scene. And we might say too, that likes the song that's thrown into the water, it comes with a mighty force. So at the beginning there was a mighty commotion when the Spirit of God.
Have.
Worked in such power there in Jerusalem.
And the last as we realize the the rings as they go slider, they become weaker and weaker.
We don't see Pentecostal power in the way they thought at the beginning, but our service also beloved the fire, will never see Pentecostal power. We can be.
In a Pentecostal position.
That is, we can be just as truly gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, on this day.
As we were gathered in that day.
Very often you have where faced with this.
This question as to why.
We can't there. We should not go to other places among other groups of Christians.
And perhaps someone says to you or me.
I'll go, I'll go with, I'll go to your meeting on this occasion or this night.
And then you go with me.
To my meeting some other night.
I guess this illustration or this explanation from our brother Steve Brown.
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And his reply is this.
For the one who is talking with you, it means little difference where they go.
That has the stands or the position we take, that we are gathered on the ground of the one body.
To go anywhere would be to deny our position and if we're if we're upright, we'll have to say to that one.
I thought you asked me to do is very convenient and nothing that had violates your conscience. But with me I stand for the truth of the one body.
And if you ask me, to go elsewhere would be to deny the truth by whole so dear or so very important.
I think we have an illustration of in connection with whether we should go on with divisions or no. The first time was called attention to what the apostle Paul tells us in the first chapter of First Corinthians.
He says on the 11Th verse.
For it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are the houses, for that there are contentions among you. And if I say that every one of you said I'm a Paul, I'm a Paulus, and I Christ, and I, and I of Apollo, and I of thesis, and I Christ. Now here's apostles answer.
Is Christ divided?
You can no more have a divided church in the mind of God.
Our divided church in the mind of God. Then you can have a divided Christ.
Someone said to our dear brother Potter.
Well, the testimony is all broken up today.
That we can't say anymore. There is just one place where the Spirit of God is gathering souls to the person of Christ.
The old brother replied. It doesn't seem to bother you very much. And that's the word he gave and left to the conscience.
It seems to me it's very much like the case of those two mothers with kings of Thalam.
At the beginning of his reign.
How they each had a child and one mother overlay her child and the child died in the night.
And so she took the living child out of the bosom of the other mother, and put the dead child.
Left with her.
And you know what Solomon said? Because they both claimed the child. So Solomon says, bring me a sword. And he says we'll divide the child and give half of it to one woman and half it to the other.
Well, the one to whom the child belongs.
Bow yearn for her little 10. She says no, let the other woman have it. Don't play the child. The other woman says, oh, divide the child, that's all right. And the sovereign says there is the real mother, the one who loved that child. It was soon stolen.
By her affection that she could not think of such a thing as dividing.
The object of her affections. And beloved, isn't that a word for you and me?
We want to see a divided Christ.
Does it mean nothing to us?
Are we going to be like that callous mother to slay the child to settle this dispute?
Oh no, beloved.
And hand these closing days, God in his wondrous grace has restored.
The precious truth of the Church.
As one body see, at one time they were nothing but organizations of men.
And questions on this so that those organizations that when.
The.
Those who search the word found that the church was not an organization.
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By then they began to break bread just as members of the body of Christ.
And as they remembered the Lord in that simple way, they found that other companies of Christians were gathering in the same way, and they immediately united wherever they found the company gathered in that way.
They live together.
As members of the body of Christ.
And in that 12Th chapter of First Corinthians from which we were quoting, we have a verse in the 18th of that chapter. It says that now have God sets the members.
Every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him.
Now if I go and join some spects of men, what have I done?
I have gone and joined something the Spirit of God has nothing to do with. He doesn't baptize Christians into 1500. Different bodies scattered throughout Christmas.
He baptizes into one.
Or he sets the members in one body.
Marvelous the weather that that in the midst of all the confusion and all the wreck and havoc that the enemy has brought in, that we can still gather on divine ground and have the center.
Tell even Christ in the midst.
Our brother Brown sometimes. Brother Chapter Brown sometimes.
Speaks in this way.
That there's even among so-called brethren who say, well, you know, there's so many divisions among.
Those who have come out from systems.
So now we can't say that one place is any different from another. There isn't anyone place.
For his reply is this. God tells us in his words that there is one body.
And he tells us that there's one gathering Center for his people.
Where two or three are gathered together under my name, there am I in the midst of them.
One body, one spirit, 1 hope of your calling, and we're told to endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit and the uniting bond of peace.
Tells us that there is a place, and for those there, then we look for the place and there isn't such a place. According to the argument of many, they say there wasn't any such place anymore, that you can go maybe to a dozen different places right in the same community, and one's just as much gathered to the Lord's name as the other.
Where is that God's way to tell us there's a place? And then when we look for the place.
We discover there isn't such a place. It would be almost blasphemous to connect God.
With.
Such a treatment of his people as us.
All know, Beloved, is just as true to the day as it was when the apostles penned those words.
There is one box.
And how precious we can meet on the ground of the Church of God, which is the.
Person of Christ himself, gathering his people together.
Knowing that verse where two or three are gathered doesn't say they gather themselves, they're gathered by the Spirit of God.
Into one center that.
God has for his people down here.
And when thus gathered, we hear the Lord saying, There am I in the midst of them?
But beloved, in taking up the verse, I read in First Timothy, the third chapter.
There's a responsibility.
That goes with.
The truth that has been dropped before.
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You know, we might get a line of things that then seeking to prevent that there is definitely a place.
On this earth where the Lord has put His name, we might be perfectly clear.
And there could be those who faithfully can continuously go on that place. We wouldn't think of going anywhere else.
And yet there won't be very sadly inconsistent.
With that place and that position.
And so we need not only the truth of the Church, but we need the Apostles word here, if I carry long, that thou may have know how thou Artest to behave thyself.
In the House of God, which is the Church of the living God.
A church who looked at in two ways has looked at as a body, and it's also looked at as a house.
When we look at the Church of the House.
Everything is perfect.
Because each member is.
Placed in the body of Christ by the wisdom of God.
So that one member cannot say to another member. I have no need of these.
So everything, as God sees it in the body is a perfect body, united by the Spirit to Christ, who is the exerted heaven glory.
But then there is the house view of the church.
And that's where responsibility comes in. So you see, when Timothy is is cautioned how he ought to behave himself, it's in the House of God.
How you doing? You never discipline the members of your body. If your hand makes a slip when you're writing, you don't chastise your hand for that slip.
Hello out of the that wouldn't do.
But you do, if you have a family discipline, then members of your house.
So that has to do with ordering, that has to do with conduct.
So we find that, Timothy.
Is told. How about orders to behave thyself?
In the House of God.
And there are, it doesn't just.
In the morning meeting that our conduct is in question.
We might be going on in a very careless way.
Very wrongly, and yet come encrypted in a very orderly, proper way at the meeting.
And even give out hymns and take part.
You see, when the apostle.
About his behavior in the House of God that takes in not only large days, but it takes him every day of the week.
Are we behaving ourselves because we're in the House of God?
What kind of conduct is our in connections with such a lawless truths as we have in vain before us in connection with that wonderful?
Marvelous church that is being formed by the Spirit of God in this world.
Where do we spend our?
Leisure hours.
You know there is such.
A tendency in this day of prosperity and and the cities that are growing up to have.
A community world.
Everybody joins in together.
Or as a federal danger to go in with the neighborhood in which you live.
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And the farm associations among those who are in the world.
We need to be reminded the lovers of the apostles when they were being persecuted, it says. Being let go, they went to their own company.
You receive every opportunity to be among God's people.
Do you think of the every meeting that is possible to attend? Sometimes we find those that get so engrossed in their occupations that you only see them at the breaking of bread.
For some reason it seems that that's the last meeting to think will ever give up is the breaking of bread or they want to hold, they want to be identified with a company like this.
And it's quite a truth to be the big meeting such as is held here.
So what about the term meeting?
You have a reading meeting too. Are you up to those little meetings?
There may be only a few are present.
How easy it is to to to neglect?
The opportunities that are so valuable and so important.
And what about the office where you work? You go in with the social life of the office.
There's always outside of things of social life coming in.
I never forget their brother I knew in Montreal, Henry Morgan, when he went there, when he got a raise in his in the CPR.
Railroad office, when he went into this new office, among a lot of men, he just held up his Bible like this. He was quite a tall man. He says, man, that's what I stand for. He took his stands right at the start and he was standing firm by the word of God.
Very important dear friends and many young people here.
To take a stand right at the beginning.
Of your business life.
So you see, our behavior has to do whether we're we're going into the world in any phase or form, picking up those worldly companions and going into worldly things.
What we need to remember to be lauded that the world isn't the only enemy the Christian has. We have three enemies.
The world and the place and the devil.
Whatever comes in in his subtle way.
There have been groups of Christians who were meeting.
In in a thoroughly unworldly way.
And they are dressed in their department would mark them out AS2 Christians.
Or that the devil saw his opportunities and he brought in false doctrines from companies that were once with us, were defiled and corrupted.
My doctrine that Christ wasn't the eternal Son.
Brought into the midst of gods of those people in a very clever way, so it was hard to detect.
Just what the?
Bad teaching actually was.
And we see Harrah's by allowing any false doctrine, anything that concerns the glory of the Person of Christ.
To have any influence, we cannot compromise with anything to love us that brings this honor on the glorious, blessed Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
All right, another way. The enemy attacks the Saints and then perhaps.
That enemy called a slave.
Is the is the hardest to detect of all our enemies because the place is that evil thing within it?
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And we can easily deceive ourselves in thinking that we're acting for the Lord, when in reality.
Just the energy of the old nature. Our hearts are so subtle, beloved.
Unless there is that in connection with our walking ways that is in agreement with that, Brother Smith was telling us this afternoon.
Devotedness to Christ.
Christ being everything, the enemy can do nothing when Christ is first in our lives.
When he is the supreme object. When he is All in all. Whenever Satan meets a believer that is full of Christ.
With one full desire to please that blessed One, he has met his deceit.
He can do nothing against when he meets Christ and Christ in the believer.
As a deliverance from every attack of the.
Of the flesh and all the enemies.
I've heard impressed yesterday when Brother Smith was speaking about self will.
That's the place.
We might be going on very properly.
And know a lot of the scriptures and they have to be able to talk fluently on the word that if we allow self will to come in.
Our accuracy to take any advice or expectation perhaps from our brethren.
Especially our older brethren who have been walking in the truth, we're putting ourselves in a very serious and dangerous.
Polarization because.
Because these things grow and fastware becomes of such a subtle nature that it can do more harm than a lot of world. And this might do among God's people. One who is unyielding and just determined to have his own way among God's people can.
Have for the testimony, and bring dishonor on the Lord's name that is of the most common character.
Let's be careful the love about that enemy within.
That which is called the flesh.
That sinful nature with which we were born, which is not subject to the law of God, and as the apostle tells us, neither indeed can be.
We live in an age when small standards are being abandoned.
In my short life.
I have seen the giving up of moral principles that even people of the world once stood for.
Things that are accepted as a part of our 20th century.
Age.
Has has allowed or condemned that would have shocked people 50 or 60 years ago.
It's a certain day in which we're living beloved because we're fast coming on through the time like it was.
And Sovereign.
Or before the Lord comes back, he's going to find this world of great Sodom and demol. And he says, as it was in the days of love, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man.
And we have to be on our guard indeed, that brings in this word, if I carry along, that thou may have know how thou artists to behave thyself in the House of God.
Because we're living down as Morris standards.
Unless we're following the Lord in obedience to his words, if we listen to the advice of our.
Have teachers and professors and the those who are leading the Society of today. We are far right under the terrible corruption of immorality that's increasing on every side.
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Now I can show you a verse in this right in this epistle.
That will preserve our dear young people and the older brethren too, because remember, the flash is just as much.
And on earth, faint as it is in the young Saints turn there. Just looked at the 5th chapter of the same official for a moment.
If there's reviews not an elder, it should read rebuke not an elder sharply.
That's an important word.
I've seen people go astray by not regarding that word. God does have elders, souls who are in the place of responsibility and we need to treat them.
With due respect.
Because of their age and their maturity and their rightness of years.
But an elder can fail, and sometimes an elder has to be taken to pass. But it's Timothy, a young brother was told. You mustn't reduce him sharply, and it's only before two or three witnesses in the last part of the chapter.
But intrigued him as a father. Lovely that is now here. While I was especially wanting to call attention to and the younger men as brethren.
Brothers, I'm so happy to see many of you here going on.
And that brotherly companionship which is so precious to the heart of site to look down and see. So just talking about how I can drive the car, what a wonderful.
Pick up your car has and a lot of other things that could easily just absorb your minds and fill up your time and your interests.
But he says the younger men as well. And remember, we're brothers in Christ.
And then he says the elder women as and the and the elder women as mothers and the younger as sisters.
With all purity.
You know, beloved, if this scripture was.
Was submitted to.
Would never be a case of immorality breaking out among us.
For it says the younger women as sisters.
And their young brothers.
Until you're persuaded in your that some young lady is the one that the Lord would have you.
To take care of your wife.
Treat the young, the young women, as sisters.
Just like you treat your own sisters and your own family and you'll never go wrong if you carry that out and then.
The other women as mothers.
Or, sad to say, and we were better.
Can fail in this respect.
How do we treat our mothers?
Or we look up to them, we respect them, and when that respect is shown to the elders as mothers and to the younger women as sisters.
There is a preserving.
Power here keep us from.
That which will cause such uncertainty.
And shame, dishonor to the Lords blessed name.
And all Solomon allowed one night.
When he allowed the flesh to to overcome him.
To leave behind the animal blemish which is following.
That dear man, even to this day people talk about the sin of David.
He wasn't sure in communion. He was out of communion and the place when one is out of communions.
Cannot be trusted. And he also brought upon himself a government of God. For the prophet told him that the sword shall never depart from my house. He had to bow to it, and by a little unfaithfulness.
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We can bring a blemish into our lives and we cannot.
Be spared from the effects of that blemish we have brought upon ourselves. The name of David carries that blemish to this very moment.
Where may the Lord's preservative stand? In closing, I would like to just speak a few words.
On the 5th chapter of his season.
The 25th verse cousins love your wife Ephesians 5 and 25 husbands love your wives even have Christ also loved the church and gave himself toys that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the words.
That he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spouter wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy without blame.
So that is when we think of hop for weak things, we are in ourselves. We can't keep ourselves.
Left to ourselves.
With all regardless of the how long we have continued in the in the pathway make abysmal failure.
Then how precious to know that there is one who loves the church.
And all beloved, such as his love, that he gave himself for that object.
And since he gave himself, that says that.
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the rushing of water by the Word.
Thank you for all means to separate. We're talking about separation from the world.
But you can't separate yourself from the world in your own strength.
But I of course have his place.
If you're enjoying Christ.
If His word has a place in your home and in your life, the community.
Activities will not get an inroad into your life.
If Christ has his place.
And the leather, even with all the desire we may have.
Before to carry out this instruction as we speak at this moment.
It's only because.
That he that blessed head of the Church.
Is sanctifying and cleansing the church by the rushing of water by the Word?
Or how we owe everything to that blessed one and think that this moment I've just.
His service on your behalf, how He's serving you at this very moment to keep you from the very things that we're so far only warned against. And beloved, when we reach the shores of eternal glory.
We all have nothing to boast of Once there I.
We choose this, and I judge that you'll be like petery, you know, when he sought to walk on the water.
And got his eye off of Christ. The Lord immediately appeared and caught Peter and said there's a little face suffered inside that. And then Peter went hand in hand with the blessed Lord into the boat.
And he couldn't bear to the other disciples how he walked on the water. All he could both serve would be that one that caught him before he spanked under the waves for his heart. All to him, if it hadn't been for his grace.
Howard have Paris, I wouldn't be with you at this moment you'd have to give him all the glow and for my supreme desire for his woman whose whose faces I'm looking is the rather keep Christ before you learn Christ.
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Farah, Christ.
May indeed say in the language of that little hymn, him first, him last, him all day long.
Or how we need to have more and more faith.
Before our schools.
And that's his work. As we're occupied with him, he keeps our feet. As it tells us I will keep the feet of rising.
I will rejoice to think of His grace just keeping grace to us along the way.
And now I know that I'm given an hour and a half to speak, but I don't feel that I could fill in any more time possibly.
And so if the environment is expected to fill in another half hour, you'll have to excuse me.
I feel that the Lord has given me just.
They are, they are, man, that I have brought before you and so.
And so we'll just close with, I think it's the 36th hymn of the appendix.
We go to meet the failure His glorious faith to see what manner of behavior does with this purple green. May God's illumination guide heart and Walker right As for our preparation be pleasing in His vice.
#36 In the back of the book we go to America.
Devotedness to Christ
Address—E. Smith
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#46 in the appendix.
Have I an object nor below, which would divert my divide my heart with thee, which would divert its even flow?
In answer to thy constancy.
All teach me quickly to return.
And 'cause my heart afresh the burn #46 in the back of the book.
Have I an old?
1.
I think we shall sing that last stands again at the higher pitch.
Be the.
Day of.
00:05:04
The.
I would desire to speak to you, dear young people.
This afternoon.
On devotedness to Christ.
This has been before my soul.
Many years in my.
Simple ministry to souls.
Devotedness to Christ.
And we shall use one or two.
Different characters of the New Testament.
That we might see.
The failure.
In certain cases.
And the triumph in others.
This devotedness to Christ.
May we read first of all.
From the Gospel according to Mark.
Chapter 10.
Mark 10.
And verse 17.
And when he was gone, when Jesus was gone, forth in the way.
There came one running and kneeled to him.
And asked him good master.
What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said unto him.
Why callest thou me good?
There is none good but one.
God.
Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not kill, do not steal. Do not bear false witness, defraud not.
Honor thy father and mother.
And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.
And Jesus, behold him, loved him.
And said unto him.
One thing thou lackest.
Go thy way.
Sell whatsoever thou hast.
And give to the poor.
And thou shalt have treasure in heaven.
And come.
Take up thy cross.
And follow me.
And he was sad at that saying and went away grieved.
For he had great possessions.
And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches?
Enter into the Kingdom of God.
And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answered again, and saith unto them, Children.
How hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of God.
It is easy for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.
00:10:04
And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, who then can be saved?
And Jesus, looking upon them, said.
With men it is impossible.
But not with God.
With God all things are possible. Then Peter began to say something. Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you.
There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children.
Or lands for my sake and the Gospel. But he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time.
Houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands with persecution.
And in the world to come, eternal life, but many that are first.
Shall be lost, and the last first.
I suppose, dear young people, that.
There is not another character that calls it in the New Testament that causes so much sorrow to my heart as the reading of the story of this young man, this rich young ruler.
So bright, so promising.
But lacking true devotedness to Christ.
Here was a young man.
I presume had everything.
That this world could give him.
And not only so was he a rich man.
But we notice that.
In verse 17.
He came running.
To Christ.
That showed that he was zealous. He was a zealous.
He was, he was desirous. He was, he had a great desire in his soul.
He ran to the Lord Jesus. He ran. And notice in that verse he kneeled before the Savior.
He was pious.
He was pious.
Devoted in that sense.
And not only so.
He was desirous of knowing something concerning that supreme issue of life, eternal life.
So here we have a case.
That is extremely interesting for you, dear young people.
Is it a replica? A replica this afternoon of some here in this building?
A conception of things because during the years having been brought up in the assembly.
Piety perhaps?
Many virtues too.
Which are quite.
Nice and in themselves remarkable.
But can it be said of us this afternoon that there is true devotion here, because we read that this young man, when the Lord Jesus said to him, go and sell of you and everything you thought.
Sell it.
Give it to the poor.
And thou shalt have treasure in heaven.
He said come.
Where after that precious savior come?
Take up thy colony.
Oh, what a challenge.
This came to my own soul, beloved.
Many years ago.
Before I entered the service of Christ over 52 years ago, this challenge came to my soul from the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you will pardon this afternoon the reference to my own exercise.
As I've mentioned before, I was brought up in.
00:15:01
None of Father's children ever needed to work.
Which was was was very bad the family we were to study.
We all had to take music, we had to go through the liberal arts and so he was adamant in it. We had to do it.
And when I was at the age of 18, just getting along very nicely.
Fathi was in the city and he I was there too.
He was a shareholder in one of those big.
Between Australia, New Zealand and Liverpool and he said everything. I've had a call from Victor.
Of the company.
And he's asked that you go immediately help me as a cadet to blow to me. Father was unsaved.
Frank has said for you to go and be a cadet.
With the object of climbing in the ship.
And I looked at their father in trembling, and I said, Father.
I have decided to follow Jesus.
In service for him.
In the far earth lands of this earth.
The space look came over Father's page, closed his pushed his seat back, closed his office, walked up.
That was that. That was a test. A test at the very beginning.
For some time, Father didn't speak to me at all.
For I refused him, I said.
Oh, I knew there was some storm coming up.
Now it blew over for a while, dear young people, and then one day he summoned me again into his offer.
He said Eric, you don't want to be a captain at Lion and it's a wonderful opportunity. You'll go on with the study of law and you'll be take charge of the business.
Oh, that was another test.
I said father.
I can't do it. I can't do it.
I want to serve the Lord Jesus.
I want to be a missionary.
Well, it's a long story. I was ordered out of the house.
From 18 years, between 25 and 26 years, I came back home from college.
And Father embraced me. He was then saved. He forgot all about these things.
But by the grace of God.
I went on in the service of the Lord Jesus.
Now, you dear young people.
The Lord Jesus will test you this afternoon as He tests this young man.
As I look upon your dear faces.
I see some who are intensely listening.
Thoughtfully listening.
And I wonder sometimes if as a result of this meeting.
Some dear soul may lay his or her all on the altar for service for Christ.
Now don't misunderstand me, you dear brethren. I am not a recruiting Sergeant.
For missionaries for it takes more than crossing over the ocean to be a missionary.
But the thought is that with the truth that we possess, beloved.
The special truth.
Given to God's dear people, gathered to his the name of Christ.
I marvel sometimes.
That there are not more young men and women who are willing to stand in the gap before the land.
Some of these lands where the need is so great.
Gay to stand even as the ox between the plough and the altar, ready for labor or sacrifice. I marvel that so many dear young people go away from these meetings, apparently unmoved in their souls.
00:20:06
Unmoved. Concerning.
Service for Christ.
I hope you don't misunderstand me.
When I speak that way. But I'm only unburdening my heart, beloved.
For I do know.
There are perhaps a few in this building this afternoon who are touched in their souls concerning this matter.
And I know you personally, beloved, and I see you where you're sitting.
The Lord Jesus will test you.
As he tests this young man.
This man was rich, he said. Sell it all.
Get rid of it.
That seems a radical thing to do, doesn't it?
Give it to the poor.
And thou shalt have treasure in heaven.
Come, take up thy Crouch.
And follow me.
Take it up.
There's something here that perhaps the Lord Jesus may have for someone in this building this afternoon.
There is something to give up if you would serve Christ.
I remember.
A very beautiful young sister coming to me after one of these meetings of a similar kind.
And she said Mr. Smith.
Have I to give up this?
And give up the other thing.
And I said, Dear sister, why don't you say, what can I give up that Christ be magnified in my life?
What can I give up?
That he might be glorified in my life.
Do you know where that young woman is? Well, she's old now. Old now. Very much older. She's an Indian.
As a missionary.
There was something to give up.
I knew the family well.
A very splendid family.
Had the joy of leaving them.
Not only to the saga.
But teaching them the truth of the one body, and they were happily gathered to the precious name of Christ.
I don't know whether Vera has gone to be with the Lord.
My mother has gone home and she used to write me concerning Vera.
Possibly she's with the Lord. I've lost contact but there was one case it went home. What can I give up?
Oh, you dear young people, what can we give up this afternoon? That Christ might be all.
In our lives.
Pardon another illustration.
My dear brother Hugh I mentioned about Hugh. I've often thought of dear Hugh. It was through him I learned the truth.
Of the one body.
My dear brother Hugh, serve the Lord in Australasia.
For years worked six months of the year at his profession and made sufficient for all his needs, and served the Lord freely for the other six months. It was he who sent me when I was a young clergyman. He sent me Darby and Kelly and Wigram and CHM, and those beautiful books which I still have and enjoy, and I hope you, dear young people read them.
You was called to go to the service of the Lord in India.
Everybody was thrilled at the thought of this man of God going forth with the gospel.
To that power of land.
00:25:01
He restrained from marriage until the age of 34 because of that desire that was deeply implanted in his heart.
And then he married a beautiful woman, but she was a clinging vine and she had no desire to go anywhere but to stay home.
And care for the whole Hugh lost his vision.
Lost his vision.
They had one little son and when I went back to New Zealand I went to see huge little Sun and his wife, just one year old. That's years ago.
And I said, Hugh, are you going to serve the Lord in India?
And he hung his head.
I got back to Bolivia, got an urgent letter from.
Mother saying, you with the Lord?
He was a construction engineer.
And from the third or fourth story.
Big heavy man. I'm the weed of the family, you know. Well, my brother's a big fellow well.
His men, said Mr. Smith, don't cross that narrow plank.
Because the wind is blowing heavily.
He said I'll be all right. And in the center of that plank, 3 or 4 stories up, a gust of wind took him into the street and he was smashed a *****.
Father went to recognize his son.
And it was his son, all right.
And the news was broken to Dear Mother, and she didn't shed a tear.
And Father was surprised.
And asked her why she said disobedient lack of devotion to Christ.
Lack of devotion to Christ. The Lord took him home.
Yesterday I mentioned the dear brother in Bolivia.
Who has been happily restored after nine years?
Just because he was exalted not to link up with some unequal youth, business youth, and he took offense at his spiritual father. And for years he ceased to write me, and he spoke against me as one who had intervened in his business and ruined his business.
Which was not so.
I got a letter, I told you the other day, yesterday, a letter from that dear man, he said, brother.
You are my spiritual father.
God has put me three years on my put me three years on my back.
Because of the lack of devotion to Christ.
But he said I am repentant. Oh, it was such a lovely letter. I sat and wept over it.
Nine years.
Nine years of silence. Three years on his back.
When he decided to follow as he said in his.
Little letter, I decided to follow Jesus and take rejection with him. Pardon me, dear brother, for all my ridiculous nonsense that I've committed and my sin, which of course I have pardoned him over and over again.
What was wrong with him?
He lacked devotion to Christ.
And so when we come back to this case here.
There are three tests that the Lord Jesus gives this man.
And it touches his possessions, one notice, and the other is as it touches the cross.
Of Christ.
And the others as regards the Savior.
Dear young Christian.
You dear young people this afternoon, let me tell you from the depths of my heart.
That the cross of Christ.
Through faith in the precious blood of Christ will forever separate you from your sins.
00:30:04
But the cross of Christ will forever separate you from this hell going world.
It sins and its systems too, the cross of Christ. And so the Lord puts the test to this young man.
Concerning his possession.
Concerning the cross.
And concerning the Savior.
Come.
Tell all you've got, take up the cross and follow me.
Follow me.
The Apostle Paul could say, God forbid that I should glory.
Save in the cross.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom the world is.
Crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
There was a very dear sister, a friend of my late wife Trudy.
She was music, she was musical and she had a great desire to go to India.
And before she went, she said, Trudy, would you come to a little gathering of sisters?
Just to have some prayer together and have a little sing together the hymns before I go.
And Trudy went, and she wrote us a little hymn that they sang together.
Keep me in the shadow of thy cross, dear Lord, keep me in the shadow of my cross.
Mindful of the sin that nailed thee to the tree.
Grateful for the pardon that thy shed blood wrought for me.
Living in the fullness of thy blood bought liberty. Keep me in the shadow of thy cross.
He went to India in six weeks. She was home with the Lord. Was it worth it?
Was it worth it? Of course it was.
Of course it was.
Keep me in the shadow of thy cross.
Now we may look at another case.
In the Gospel of Luke.
I don't think I'll take very much time on this.
But to mention that our dear brother who edits Christian Truth is running a little series on Martha and Mary.
I hope, dear brother.
If you are here this afternoon that that there will be quite a few articles on it. It's written by Mr. Chapter Brown, our love brother.
And I hope you young people will read those articles.
In the Christian truth, Martha and Mary.
I don't want to dwell on that because you'll find in that article things that are very interesting.
Concerning.
This theme that I'm on this afternoon.
I'll just mention a few thoughts, make mention of a few things.
Notice here in.
Verse 38.
Now it came to pass that Luke 1038.
Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha.
Received him into her house. I presume she was the owner of the house. I think so.
She was the owner of that house, and she had a sister called Mary.
Which also sat at Jesus feet, and heard his word. And Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she helped me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha.
Thou art careful and troubled about many things.
But one thing is needful.
00:35:02
And Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her.
You will notice here in Mark 10 there was the one thing lacking.
Here is the one thing needful.
And it has to do with Martha and Mary.
One thing is needful.
She chose that good part. Mary did.
At Jesus feet.
And this good part, dear young Christian, must always precede.
Any good work?
I know some Christian Christians who engage with enthusiasm.
Activities.
And as I look around me and see the activities in the different denominations, it's marvelous, the activity of such.
They're active.
I don't know whether there is any true spiritual understanding of their activities, but the Lord alone knows. We shall not judge that.
But here is Martha concerned about.
Many things. Oh you dear young people. Many things that come into your lives.
And the Lord says she's, she's cumbered. That means that she's, she's tied down with so many things, but Mary was sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
And I've often said to young people who have had a great desire to serve the Lord in foreign fields.
This good part must precede the good work.
At the Jesus faith. At Jesus faith.
You get that? It's not what we do, beloved young people. It's what we are in the presence of God.
That counts. I remember years ago in Bolivia.
The 1St 13 years that I spent there without a holiday, without coming out.
I I became so absorbed in the work.
And it seemed to be eating into my life and my health.
Until the Lord one day put his hand on me and said, Is this? Whose work is this?
I said, Lord Jesus, it's thine.
And loses the power. I said, Lord Jesus, it's lying. And who's the glory?
I said, Lord Jesus, forgive me, it's thy.
Thine is the power, the glory, and thine is the work.
And the Lord straightened me up.
To spend more time on my knees. And he gave me the grace to choose the good part.
At Jesus feet what happened? There was no blessing.
I was hundreds of miles on foot, beloved.
Zealous.
But I spent more time by his grace on my knees and Jesus faith and what happened.
Scores of souls began to be brought to the Saviour's feet.
Oh, it was such a lesson for me. Well, I'm not going to dwell on that because I want to Passover, especially this afternoon.
To Philippians 3.
But notice that Mary had chosen that good part and it's even recorded today after so many years. Will you kindly turn for a while? Now the time is going by.
To Philippians 3.
This came to me as we were reading yesterday.
Let us read a few verses.
From this.
The testimony of Paul.
Verse 7 But what things?
Were gained to me.
Those I counted lost for Christ.
Doubtless, and I count all things but lost, for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dross or dung, that I may win Christ.
00:40:09
He had not gotten a real hold of the saviors he desired, but Christ had a hold on him. And that's the difference, beloved.
And be found in him not having my own righteousness, which is of the law.
But that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God, by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained.
Either we're already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend for that which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. And now verse 13, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do.
Forgetting those things which are behind.
The shame of watching the death of Steven would still be upon his soul. He would gladly forget that.
And reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God.
In Christ Jesus.
Oh, this is a wonderful case. Here's the apostle.
With the young man, it's the one thing that was lacking.
In the case of Martha, it was the one thing needful. And here's this wonderful apostle, this one thing I do.
You know, after the death of my first wife, I was in deep sorrow.
And I went down.
That was, of course, after 13 years and Bolivia went down to the coast and it's remarkable. I'll tell you this little story.
The enemy said you better give it up. You have served long enough, you might as well give up and go into some other work.
And I was standing there by the seacoast up in the coast of Chile, and I noticed those sea birds. There are supposed to be 5 million of them on the coast of Chile.
And every morning I took out my watch at the same time.
They would go by flocks of them.
In search of fish, every morning and every afternoon at the same time, they would come back again.
And you know, God used that thing for me, that illustration, this one thing I do, one thing I do, I packed up and went back to the field by his grapes, went back to it.
This one thing I do.
Here is the Apostle Paul. Read his conversion.
On the way to Damascus, Tooth cast into prison. Those poor dear believers.
Suddenly there was a a light above the brightness of the sun.
And God and the Lord Jesus spoke to him for out of heaven, saying, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
And the reply was, I am Jesus, whom thou persecuted.
From the tremendous persecuting Saul he was turned into the great apostle Paul.
That great missionary.
To the Gentiles. And here he's closing his service for Christ in the dungeon, in a wreaking dungeon. And if those dungeons are something like those dungeons in which I have been in, in Bolivia, not as a prisoner of the state of Bolivia, but as a prisoner of Christ.
I can truly sympathize with anybody who would ever get into such rotten, reeking, stinking places as those dungeons of Bolivia.
Here he's in the dungeon.
16 times over, he speaks of the joy that fills his heart.
I must confess, when I heard the clang of those doors behind me, those big steel doors that were made by the Spaniards in the year 15106, double steel doors, when they clanged behind me, I said, Lord Jesus, who will ever Take Me Out of such a wreaking place as this?
00:45:01
Who will ever come and Take Me Out of this? The Lord did. The Lord took me out. He did praise his name. But here is this great apostle ending his career.
And he still says now this one thing I do, this one thing I do.
What are you going to do about it, you dear young people?
Are you going to say that to the Lord Jesus this afternoon? This one thing I do?
But.
You know very well the answer.
Take up the cross of Christ.
Follow me.
And thou shalt have treasure in heaven.
Take it up.
Let the world go with all its pleasures and its iniquities. This world is already sentenced with the judgment of God.
I have no regrets concerning that decision I made years ago to follow my precious Savior.
No regrets. There is only one regret. I might say that I have not served him as faithful as I should have.
That is a regret.
Take up the cross, that's the one thing. Take it up. Follow him.
And here is this wonderful apostle saying.
The things that are behind.
I'm looking toward the goal before.
I've got my eye on the goal before I push towards the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. All these other things are dropped. They're not worth mentioning. All the fame and everything else that accompanied this man before he was saved, he just calls and dross and dung that he might win Christ and be found in him.
All the wonderful testament receives.
The time is going, I just want to use an illustration here to close this afternoon, and it's from Spanish history, which of course it has been my joy to enjoy to read years during years in the Spanish town.
There was a war between 2 Spanish kings years ago.
One was vanquished and slain.
But this king who was slain, he had one son. And the victorious Spanish king remembered that this young Prince had been cast into the dungeon in chains, and he had been in there for some long time. And the King's memory was refreshed by the fact that this King's son was in that dungeon.
Rotting away.
So he gave an order in this sense.
He ordered his executors to take him out.
And the king ordered that if he would carry a glass of milk full of milk.
On a black tray through the streets of the city and come with it right to the throne of the victorious king. He would be pardoned.
The executors came out after him, right behind him.
And he started off this long journey with the tray and the and the and the glass of milk, and he walked through the streets of that city until he got to the throne of the king.
Without spilling a drop.
And the king said, how is it possible?
That you could have come through that street, the streets, with all the noise and the confusion.
So far from the dungeon to my throne without spilling a drop. And what did he say to the king? He said, Your Majesty.
Death was behind me.
The goal was before me, life was before me and he said all the other confusion around me had no effect on me.
Death was behind me. Life was before me.
Is that it? Here is the apostle.
00:50:01
Everything is behind this. Not worth a snuff.
The Lord Jesus is before him, the goal is before him. The crown is before him.
And he presses on, and he says, here I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The Prince was pardoned and reinstated in the throne.
Oh, May God bless these stumbling remark to us this afternoon, beloved.
The one thing that was lacking in the rich young ruler. The one thing needful.
In Martha and the one thing I do in the great apostle Paul, now may we.
Plane number.
What is the number please when I survey the wondrous cross?
Thank you, brother, when we survey the wondrous cross.
On which the Lord of glory died.
Our richest gain we count, but loss and poor contempt.
On all our pride #283.
When we.
Survey.
The.
That last stands aware. The whole realm of nature is that for an offering far too small.
Love that transcends our highest power demands our soul.
00:55:00
Our life are all I wonder if there's a young person here unsaved.
I wonder if there is just one who is out of Christ.
And I wonder how many dear young people.
Are in that valley of decision this afternoon to follow that blessed woman more fully.
I'm reminded you know of Bunyan.
Bunyan's pilgrims progress.
He was attracted to a person there, he could say, thus far did I come laden with all my guilt.
Nor could not ease the grief that I was in till I came hit her.
What a place is this? Must hear the burden fall from off my back. Must hear the cords that bind it to me crack?
Blessed Cross.
Blessed rather be the man who there was put to shame for me.
It was the attraction of the old tinker's heart to Christ.
Blessed rather be the man who there was put to shame for me.
And the current, the current, that ungodly current in England, was changed.
With the faith of the old tinker.
Yes, it's true. Let's sing The Last stand.
Where the?
God so Loved
Gospel—P. Glading
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Shall we open our M sheets to #18?
God loved the world of.
Beg your pardon? That's number seven.
#7 please.
God loved the world of sinners lost and ruined by the fall.
Salvation full at highest cost. He offers free to all.
Love brings the glorious fullness in unto the lost, makes known salvation from the power of sin through faith in Christ alone.
We're seeing only two standards and the chorus.
God loves the world of sin.
Shall we sing another #25?
Only two stanzas and the choruses.
Life at best is very great.
00:05:44
3 verses are before me tonight.
Let's turn first of all.
To your first verse in the Bible, John 316.
Of course, Genesis 11 appears much earlier.
But likely this is the first verse in the Bible to you.
John, 316.
For God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have everlasting life.
Now also.
Another 316 First Timothy.
We shall read.
One Timothy, 316.
And without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh.
Justified in the Spirit.
Scene of angels.
Preached unto the Gentiles.
Believed on in the world.
Received up into glory.
And still another 316 in First John.
John's first epistle, chapter 3.
And verse 16.
Hereby perceive we the love of God.
Because he laid down his life for us.
And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Now turning back to our first verse.
John, 316.
A young brother remarked this morning.
If you had to choose among the gospels.
This would be his preference.
The Gospel of John.
And likely if we should choose a chapter.
The other chapters not being possible to obtain.
We might select this one.
John S Gospel, Chapter 3.
It brings to us that message of God's love to this world.
For God.
So loved.
You know the gospel originated in heaven.
It's the gospel of God.
It comes from above.
It comes down to you here tonight.
The Lord Jesus brought the message when he was here.
And he has left others to deliver the message in his absence.
And this is the word of God.
That is being sounded in your ears here tonight.
God just think who he is.
And where he is.
Above this world, beyond the sky, beyond the stars, there in heaven itself.
God that no man has ever seen.
But he has a message for you and me.
He has spoken, you know, in various ways in other times.
But he's spoken unto us by his son.
00:10:02
The Lord Jesus has been here in this world of ours.
He has been right here.
In this scene, this very world of ours that we are acquainted with.
He walked on the face of this globe.
He was here, God manifest in the flesh.
God is the one to whom you are responsible as a Sinner.
We are responsible to God because we are his creatures. He made us.
He gave us being.
And we are responsible to Him because we have our sins to account for.
God.
Cannot countenance sin, he must deal with it.
And we know the history of man, how the sin has come into this world and brought havoc and ruin upon us.
For we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
But we read here for God.
So loved.
Now we will make it very simple, if we may, for the children. Sometimes you're right, you know, and you use very small letters.
But you can never write this word large enough for God so long.
You could print it. You could make boxcar letters.
You could make tall letters.
The height of this building.
Or you could get the man to rights in the sky to go up in his plane and write this verse up there, and he could never make this word large enough.
Oh, we're not able to tell the greatness and the fullness of God's love.
If the ocean were ink.
And we could write.
On the sky, we'd never be able to write out the fullness of the story of God's love to man.
For God so loved.
The world.
Don't think of what a world this is.
A sinful world. A rebellious world.
A God hating world.
A man that has.
Despised his maker.
This is the kind of men we are.
This is the kind of world that we're in.
A world that rejected Christ. Nevertheless, God loved this world.
For God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son.
Attention has been called to the fact that the middle word in this verse is.
SON.
There are 12 words before.
And 12 words after.
The central word, the center of this verse, is God's Son, by whom he has spoken unto this world and speaks to you tonight.
Foregone, so loved the world.
An old brother.
On the city Square in Cleveland, remarked one day that God loved us when there was nothing in us to love.
He loved us just the same.
We love others when they are agreeable to us.
That's the natural order of things.
But God loved us when there was nothing in us to love.
And he sent his son.
Into this world to reveal himself to us for.
God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son.
That's the first part of the verse.
God loving and giving.
And then we come.
To the other part of the verse.
And here we have man receiving.
Everlasting life by simple faith in Christ.
Man believing and receiving.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have everlasting life.
00:15:00
Someone has brought to our attention on another occasion.
That perhaps we can see in this verse something of the height of God's love, the source of it coming from above, where there's nothing like it in this world.
Oh, there is nothing that equals the story of God's grace to man.
And we see in what the Lord Jesus did in going to that cross something of the depth of God's love.
Told out at Calvary's cross.
Where he tasted death for everything.
Where he suffered the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
Where he poured out his soul.
And was brought into the dust of death.
Or we read something of his sufferings.
In that wonderful Psalm.
The 22nd.
Many bulls have compassed me.
Strong bulls of Bishop and have beset me round.
Those were Jewish leaders.
Religious men. Men have weight in this world.
They gave up on me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion.
I'm poured out like water.
And all my bones are out of joint. My heart is melted in the midst of my bowels.
Like wax, my strength is dried up like a pusher and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws.
And thou has brought me into the dust of death.
For dogs have compass to me.
The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, the Gentile leaders, men of power.
They pierced my hands and my feet.
I may tell all my bones. They look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them. They cast lots upon my vesture.
Or such was the feelings, the sufferings of that blessed man of God lifted up on Calvary's cross. He was given to go there.
And be lifted up as the Son of Man, as we had in the verse before.
Verse 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
Even so, must the Son of Man be lifted up?
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
And then our key verse.
Thy wonderful little verse. Not Jim, a Bible in itself.
Telling us of God's love and his provision for us, what he's done.
And how, in simple faith, the Sinner can believe and receive everlasting life.
All that we see something of the breadth of that love in that wonderful word, whosoever.
This applies to all this world. This applies to the whole human race.
God's love has been manifested to everyone.
The grace of God that carries along salvation with it hath appeared unto all men.
Or that carries salvation for all men hath appeared.
And then we see something of the length of God's love too, indicated in this verse, that it's everlasting. It reaches on and on into the eternal future.
Why not accept this verse tonight? Why not stand on John 316?
God has provided A Savior for you.
He's given his Son. Could he give more? He's given his only begotten Son. There's not another to give. You need no other.
He's the only savior and He'll save you tonight.
Just as you are.
And right where you are.
Respond to his word.
And own yourself the Sinner that Jesus died for.
That he came to say.
Oh, there's salvation for every individual present here tonight, and his salvation for everyone.
Wherever they are found, if they will only believe when the Lord Jesus Christ.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
Should not perish.
Sometimes, you know, we simplify and look at that word perish, or think of it as you hear it.
00:20:01
And what does it mean? We can make a sentence even out of that?
To perish is to pass eternally ruined into Satan's hell.
That's an awful destiny.
It doesn't belong to you.
God doesn't want you to go into Satan's hell.
Hell was prepared for the Devil and his angels.
God wants you to be saved.
For a companion of Christ.
He wants many sons brought unto glory.
He wants you to be brought into blessing, eternal blessing through faith in Christ.
Who made it possible for you through his sacrifice at Calvary's cross?
Now we will turn.
To First Timothy 316.
And without controversy, rate is the mystery of godliness.
The Lord Jesus was down here in this world.
There was never one like him.
They marveled at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth.
He spake as one that had authority, and not as the scribes and the Pharisees.
At the age of 12, he was sitting among the doctors asking them questions.
And they wondered at his learning at that time.
And those that came to take him one day had to say, never man spake like this man.
And Pilate was made to confess three times. I find no fault in him.
Oh, there is not one like the Lord Jesus.
And it must be so.
Because he.
Was the Lord from heaven?
The Redeemer.
The Savior that God sent into this world.
And it must be that Lamb of God, without blemish and without spot.
In order that his sacrifice.
Mighty avail for sinful men.
Oh, there was never one like him.
He was down here and men marveled at that.
They were astounded and didn't understand he was different and he must be so.
And this was necessary in order for you to have a savior tonight.
And he is being offered here tonight without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifested in flesh.
God has been down here in this world, in the person of His Son.
We can read this, you know, from John's Gospel.
Chapter One.
As we look back to it.
Manifested in the flesh.
And this verse comes to mind.
If you will.
Consider it.
And the Word was made flesh, verse 14.
And dwelt among us.
And we beheld His glory.
The glories of the only Begotten of the Father.
Full of grace and truth.
Verse 16 Of His fullness have all we received, and grace upon grace.
For the law was given by Moses.
But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
God was manifested in the flesh, and we see the same truth presented in John's epistle first chapter, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life.
For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life.
Which was with the father.
And was manifested onto us.
God was manifested in the flesh.
He was here in the person of the son.
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Revealing the Father that we might know God.
Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifested in flesh.
Justified in the Spirit.
We read one day we read in Luke, that he was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
And after those temptations that were so subtle.
We find that blessed One.
Returning in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.
Oh, there was nothing diminished.
He was justified in the spirit.
And so we have in Romans a verse.
That tales of that blessed one.
And this was mentioned in the prayers tonight.
Declared to be the Son of God with power.
According to the spirit of holiness.
By the resurrection from the dead.
There was never one word, one thought.
Or one deed.
In the life of that Blessed One that needed correction.
The Spirit of God sanctioned.
That life of Christ, it was perfect.
And therefore he could be.
A sacrifice that was suitable and acceptable to God at Calvary's cross.
Oh, He is the savior that you need tonight.
He is the savior that we have needed ourselves, we who believe.
And he is the only Savior of sinners.
And he has been here in this world for that purpose.
That He might save us and deliver us from the power of sins. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, and seen of angels.
He was seen of angels at his birth.
He was seen of angels at his resurrection.
God's Son become man down here in this world.
The object of the gaze.
Of that heavenly host who were so delighted that they went into ecstasy at the time of his entrance into this world.
Manifested in the flesh.
Justified in the Spirit.
Scene of angels.
Preached unto the Gentiles.
Darn we glad.
Preached not only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
But preached unto the Gentiles, not to the Jews, verily.
Not to thy favored people of God, not to thy people or that nation by whom he came, as concerning the flesh of the seed of David.
But he was preached under the Gentiles.
We have it in Acts 10.
It is on record that Peter went to the House of Cornelius.
And he opened his mouth.
Preaching that God was number respecter persons.
He brought before them the facts of the life and death and resurrection of Christ.
And summed it up to him. Give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
That was the blessing that was realized there that night.
He'd come to tell Cornelius words whereby he would be saved.
We have those same words tonight.
Recorded here in this book for you.
That their salvation.
Faith in Christ.
And there's remission of sins for you. Your sins can be forgiven, washed away.
Completely removed.
And never to be recalled against you anymore.
Preached unto the Gentiles, and we see it in Acts 16. Two.
All we find there Paul had gotten into jail and Phillip High.
And he and Silas were singing praises in the prison.
Midnight, a mighty earthquake shook that prison.
And the inmates were freed of their chains. And better than that.
00:30:04
Souls were freed from their sins. The worst chains of all are our sins.
Our sins, you know, were strong. They bind us, they hold us, and they will increase.
But all there's one that can break the power of sin. And why not let him break the power of sin in your life tonight?
And this jailer came trembling. Oh, he felt guilty of the way he had mistreated these men of God.
He called for a light, he came trembling, and he came saying, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
The answer was very simple.
The answer came in these simple words.
The answer came in this wonderful verse. Acts 1631.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house.
How was he saved?
He simply believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the way Paul was saved. That's the way Peter was saved. That's the way the Samaritans got saved. That's the way the Gentiles were received too. That's the way every Sinner has been saved that has ever been saved at all. We've never saved ourselves. We can't.
It's true faith in Christ.
And to this jailer believed, and we see him responding to that message that he received.
And his conduct proved that he believed.
And what?
Your conduct to prove Where do you stand before God? Do you know that your sins are forgiven? That they're all washed away in the precious blood of Christ?
Have you responded to that Blessed One who came into this world to go to that cross for you?
It was necessary.
For there is no other way.
You know, it's not possible that the blood of bulls and the goats should take away sins, those offerings of all that were made on those altars.
Long ago.
But oh, when it came to the Lord Jesus Christ.
But this man, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God.
There's never another Calvary to be enacted. It will never be repeated.
It's all sufficient, that sacrifice of Christ, but you need to make use of it. You need to avail yourself of the blessing that comes through simple faith in Christ.
And we hear the apostle saying, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
Oh, he knew what the gospel had done for him.
And he had seen what the gospel had done for others.
And he was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
For it was the power of God unto salvation.
To everyone, the believer.
And to neither should we be ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
If the record is correct, my ancestors worship the God of Thor.
Don't you know that there's Thanksgiving in my heart to God for the gospel of His grace?
That have saved a Sinner like me.
Or he came to save sinners.
And he saved me.
Not by anything that I have done, but by God's grace.
He's provided A savior and sent the message.
And through simple belief in Christ.
There is eternal life and rest for the soul.
And then we see here.
That he was received up into glory.
Believed on in the world, This is where you must believe on him.
If you believe after you leave here, you will believe too late.
Oh, it's time now.
You must hear the gospel and believe it now. You must respond to it now. Today is the day of salvation.
It's never said tomorrow. Today is the day.
Believe on in the world.
Received up into glory, and that's where he is tonight, and he's the Savior of sinners. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and he was buried.
00:35:01
And he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures, and he was seen.
Of different individuals and of above 500 brethren at one time.
And he was seen of the Apostle Paul also.
Christ died. He was buried. He went into the lower part of the earth, into the dust of death.
But he arose.
He's alive forevermore, the risen Son of God.
Or you can safely trust in him. He is worthy of your trust.
You can depend upon him, and if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll never be confounded. Oftentimes we're disappointed by men in this world, but never so with this one. Because He's worthy.
And he's certain to bless you if you'll respond.
And you know, the fact that we're here tonight is a proof of the resurrection of Christ.
God has his people in this world.
He has his people here who know Christ.
But you know, Christendom, the Christian profession is coming such a mixed up thing. It's becoming so corrupt.
That this world is turning against it.
And they are saying away with it. We detest it, we don't want it.
Oh, there are many imitations.
There is much that goes under the name of Christ that is not Christian at all.
But my friend.
The fact that you find the $20 bills in counterfeit numbers.
Is a proof that there are real $20 bills.
And the fact that there are those that are hypocritical or that there are those that are not really Christians.
Doesn't set aside the fact that there are those that are truly the Lord's and you find them here and there. This word is true. God has His people here and you ought to be convinced. Yes, the fact that the gospel is being preached and the fact that God's people are together here tonight is an indication of the resurrection of Christ because without this resurrection we would have no message.
Mohammed is dead and the other prophets are dead. They're dead men.
But Christ has risen.
The risen Son of God.
Alive forevermore.
And then we had another verse in one John chapter 3.
3/16.
Hereby perceive we the love of God. By this we know the love of God.
Do you wonder if God loves you?
Do you question God's love to you? There are those that question you know.
These awful things are taking place in this world.
But here is proof of God's love.
Hereby.
No, we the love of God.
How can we tell that God loves us? How do you know that God loves you? A Sinner?
It is because he laid down his life for us.
He laid down his life for us and this brings to mind.
In John's Gospel chapter 10, where the Lord Jesus is speaking as the Good Shepherd and Speaking of his life, he said I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it up again.
No man, take it from me.
Oh, he had power to lay it down.
He's the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd gave his life for the sheep. He was different to all the others.
None could come along with him. None with him could compare.
Evidently, David was somewhat of a Good Shepherd in his day.
And Moses too.
And they likely defended the sheep.
And looked after God's people in a certain way.
And they may have encountered dangers, No doubt they did, in seeking to take care of God's people.
But you know, they couldn't lay down their lives for them in the sense that the Lord Jesus laid down his life for us.
Because they might be injured, they might even be killed.
00:40:00
In what they were doing for the sake of the sheep.
Of the flock of God's people.
But they could not take their lives up again.
The Lord Jesus could He laid it down.
And Ohio, that was a special delight to God's heart. It delighted the Father.
Because he was going to lay his life down.
But all that's linked with the truth that he would take it up again.
Oh, he is the risen Son of God, the one that has conquered death, who has laid down his life for you.
And we know.
Hereby perceive we the love of God.
Because he laid down his life for us.
Now what more could anyone do than that?
Or some might dare, you know.
To experience danger or give their lives for others. But here's the Lord Jesus and there's nothing like this. And he laid down his life for you.
He wants you to have eternal life. He wants you to be exempt from that coming judgment.
He wants you to have the knowledge of your sins forgiven. He wants you to know that your sins are gone.
He wants you to know that you are a child of God. He wants you to know that you are saved from hell.
Your save for glory and that there's a bright and blessed future that before you. Oh, that's, that's the message. That's the word that he has for you.
He laid down his life for us. Perhaps if John 316 is for the Sinner, and the First Timothy 316 is associated with the truth of the church in some manner.
Here we have a John 316 for the believer.
And we will have to say that we are not as familiar with this John 316 as we are with the Gospel John 316.
Because it goes on to say here, we ought to lay down our lives for the brother.
All we need to drink of that spirit of Christ, but first we must know Him and then we can follow Him. Well, why not tonight? Come to that blessed One?
Who died on that cross?
Lifted up the Son of man, that you might have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have everlasting life.
And the great is the mystery of godliness.
That God was manifest in the flesh.
And to justify in the spirit.
And scene of angels.
Preached under the Gentiles, believed on in the world and received up into glory, and hereby perceive we the love of God.
Because that He laid down his life for us. Oh, what a savior.
And how can you leave this company tonight?
Without trusting in him.
Without believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died, who was buried, who rose the third day, and who was seen and who is living, glorifying a man up there interested in you here tonight, wanting you to be saved, to have everlasting life through simple faith in him. It's free. It was expensive. It it was costly.
But he paid the price.
And He wants you to accept His Son. God offers you salvation. And why not claim it tonight?
As we sing the last verse of #7.
We know by faith. I.
All.
Really confined.
That way.
Trees
Children—R. Reeves
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.
Thing a little bit, and if we're going to be able to sing the entire Backpage, we're going to have to get started right away.
It's my fault today to listen to you sing the entire Backpage. So let's begin with #40.
Jason loves me this I know Lord of now Rainbow.
Glamour.
Hey, well, far away, I said.
My father.
My father can't hurt my face.
Because I change my last name.
Yeah, I'll ring my brother. I don't help me.
Yeah.
He will Take Me Home on my.
Heavens.
Yeah, we are not being.
A round up round. I've got it and well then it'll and Frank.
My mother and Star all work everywhere.
One great man don't have.
00:05:03
So I can find.
My God with me and God.
I'm a girlfriend forever, thank you for me, for me. Boring.
One more and only one and.
I am afraid I am you.
One more and only one car inside the Crown.
I am feeling, I am ready. I are you.
Into the tent where I just see.
Out and thyroid.
Nurse my thumb break on. We carry their feet.
Nobody else will get.
I'll make my friends.
I'll make friends discovering all the time.
That I am sure that inside you for me.
I'll be as long as I am.
Sorry you made me fall asleep.
And stay on my children, on men.
Nobody.
Ever can't locate me for?
Till it falls.
Heart.
You're the best of me to love this way.
00:10:03
Somewhere, somewhere far in all right.
One leg of power is made in this world.
When he comes.
Back.
Hey, welcome.
To.
All of your.
Why ain't surprised? Come on for me.
Would you please open your Bibles to John's Gospel Chapter 3?
Just put your Bible on your lap.
Having it open to this wonderful chapter that we enjoyed so much last night.
How good it is to let the light from heaven.
Shine down and reflect.
Upon the pages of this wonderful chapter, into our hearts.
If I have something I want to show you.
Something here in my pocket.
I want to tell you a bit about this thing.
This is a red tag.
Which is to be found on many of the trees.
And waiting.
In fact, something new.
Has occurred here at Wheaton, something that has not been noticed before.
In the years that we have come.
But it's to be noticed that some of these fine Elm trees which.
Lie in the streets.
Some of those trees are.
Now carrying a red tag such as I hold in my hand.
Those trees also are stained with red.
00:15:01
They have a large red circle spray painted upon them.
And in the center of that large red circle is to be found this tag.
Well, I bought yesterday. That's very interesting.
This is not a new thing to me. I've seen this in my own town. Perhaps all of you boys and girls have seen similar things in your towns.
Where the trees have been painted with red marks.
Sometimes they put a number on those trees.
Do you know what that means?
Boys and girls, I'll tell you what that means.
It means that that tree must be cut down.
When I saw that yesterday afternoon.
I know that it would be my privilege to speak to you boys and girls this morning. I knew it at that time.
And so I thought, well now I surely would like to have one of those red tags from one of those trees.
So I approached one of the closest trees to our room where we were staying.
Close enough that I could read what was written on that tag and I'll read it to you.
It says removal of this tag prohibited city of Wheaton.
Well, that shook me up a little bit.
Because I had already heard yesterday.
By our dear brother Erisman, that we should obey the rules that had been established.
And so I began to think about that, well, how am I going to get the red tag to show you?
Well, I noticed it on the ground not too far from where I was standing.
Somehow one of these red tags had been removed.
And I do not know how.
But I felt it would not be amiss if I would just pick up that red tag and put it in my pocket. You'll notice that it is quite crumpled. It has been run over many times by perhaps cars, perhaps bicycles, perhaps has been stepped on too, and it shows it well. I felt at liberty then to bring the tag, since I had not removed it.
But now I want to read on in this tag.
It says test number and there's a blank. It says date and there's a blank. It says location and there's a blank.
Perhaps things had been written on there, but by one reason or another they are now gone.
The last thing which this tag says is this.
Diseased tree condemned.
Let me read those last three words again.
Diseased tree.
Condemned.
And so this little red tag finishes with that solemn word, that awful word.
Condemned. Condemned.
That tree which bore that tag must be cut down.
Those in this room who know more about diseases than I could tell you that these Elm trees have been infected by an incurable disease, at least incurable for practical purposes.
That disease?
Causes the tree eventually to die.
It also makes that tree a menace to the other trees around it, and so those trees are condemned to be cut down.
Hauled away and burned up.
Diseased tree condemned.
I would like to tell you, boys and girls today about that word condemned.
That is not a very nice word.
That is a very serious and solemn word.
If those trees could speak.
They would tell you that they are not happy to have that word.
Attached to them. Condemned.
Boys and girls, listen.
There's a girl in this room today.
Who has that word stamped upon her heart?
I wonder if you know what her name is?
And there's a boy in this room today who has that word stamped upon his heart, condemned.
Condemned.
You see that boy and that girl that I'm talking about?
00:20:00
Have never.
Put their trust in the Lord Jesus as their Savior.
Now you have your Bible open to John three. Please read with me verse 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already.
Condemned already.
Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Boys, listen.
You are condemned.
If you have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and there's nothing more that you have to do to be condemned, you've done enough already. It says you're condemned already. And girls, let me tell you this, that if you not believed on the Lord Jesus as your own personal Savior.
Written on your heart are those solemn words.
Condemned already? There's nothing more that you have to do.
You don't have to tell one more lie.
You don't have to say one more unkind word. You don't have to take something that doesn't belong to you just once more.
No, you're condemned already. You've already done enough.
You're already condemned.
And you're on your way to hell. You're on your way to a lost eternity.
Why? Because you have not believed on the name of the Son of God, and that's what the Lord Jesus said is condemned already.
All I want you to realize that that's an awful word.
To describe you.
Condemn and there's nothing waiting for you but the judgment of God because of your sins. Condemned.
Already.
It's my desire today.
That every boy and girl in this room.
Who has not yet put their trust in the Lord Jesus might be made to feel by the Spirit of God.
Their lost condition.
You know, my father and my mother were Christians. My father and my mother brought me to the meetings.
My father and my mother prayed for me. My father and my mother put a Bible, a nice new Bible, in my hands.
But you know, it was a long time.
Before that word condemned was taken off my heart.
Yes, I came to meetings like this and I was condemned because I was a Sinner in my sins.
And I was on my way to hell, even if my dad and mom were really Christians. All boys listen, girls, listen.
If you're here today without Christ, you're without hope, and you're condemned.
And your need to be saved. You need to have those sins forgiven. You need to be washed in the blood of Jesus, condemned all. May the Spirit of God burn these words into every heart in this room.
Who is not saved, condemned, already condemned because?
You have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Now I would like to speak about something else.
And I have something else in my pocket to show you after a while.
I would like to speak about another tree.
We've been speaking a little bit about these trees which have been infected by the awful disease of the Dutch Elm disease.
And I told you that that disease is like sin. It's incurable in the hearts of man.
But I would like to tell you about another tree, a wonderful tree, and we're going to call that tree the yielding tree. Some of us had the pleasure yesterday of being in the Bible reading where we heard about yielding. This it says in the word of God, let your yielding nest be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand yieldingness.
Giving up yieldiness.
Let's talk about the tree which yields. Please turn Windy to Genesis chapter one.
In this first chapter of Genesis, we're going to notice that God mentions four times.
The word tree.
We're going to notice that this is a yielding tree.
00:25:04
We're going to notice that there's blessing that comes from a tree that yields a tree that yields fruit. Genesis chapter one verse.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth forth grass, the earth healing seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit.
After his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so, And the earth brought forth grass and herb, yielding seed. After his kind and the tree, What kind of a tree? The yielding tree.
The tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind, and God saw that it was good.
Now notice near the end of that same chapter.
Verse 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed.
To you it shall be for me.
Four times in that chapter, God tells us about a tree which yields fruit.
It's as though God.
Just is in a hurry to tell us about a tree. He wants us to hear about a tree which yields fruit. And so four times in the first chapter of the Bible, God tells us about a tree.
All I believe, dear young people, dear children, dear older ones, I believe that God had an intense desire to tell us about Calvary even in the first chapter of the Bible. Now turn to the last chapter of the Bible.
Revelation chapter 22.
First one.
And He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, and in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river was there the.
Tree of Life.
Which bore which bear 12 manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Twice in the last chapter of the Bible we find a tree. It's a yielding tree.
It's as though God would say to us, let's never forget about the tree, the tree which yields fruit.
I would like to say something today about a tree.
A tree which was planted on Calvary's Hill.
A tree which bore fruit.
That tree was the cross upon which the Lord Jesus died.
Please turn to Matthew's Gospel chapter 27.
Where we find the Lord Jesus Christ on the tree.
It was a tree that spoke of yielding us, a tree that spoke of giving up.
It's a tree that speaks of life to me. It's a tree that speaks of life to you.
Matthew 27.
Found the man of Cyrene, Simon by name him they compelled to bear his cross.
Across a tree.
Oh friends, here's a tree.
Here's a tree which is the center of all God's thoughts.
From eternity past, here's a tree that marks the center of all the redeemed thoughts.
For all time to come, here's a wonderful tree. This is the cross. This is a tree which yields wonderful fruit.
Verse 34. They gave him vinegar to drink, fingled with gall, and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Prophet. They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.
And sitting down, they watched him there.
You and I can watch him there this morning by faith. Let's allow our minds to go back to that moment when the Lord Jesus was hanging on that cross, his arms outstretched in love.
To you and me sitting down, they watched him there. Ah, let's take a look this morning at the Lord Jesus on that tree hanging there for you and me. Verse 37 they set up over his head this accusation written.
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This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
Now, verse 42.
He saved others himself. He cannot save if he be the King of Israel. Let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted in God, Let him deliver him now if he will have him. For he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Now from the 6th hour there was darkness over all the land until the 9th hour.
Now notice.
Notice what happened on that tree.
That tree that speaks of yielding us. That tree of blessing.
In these dark hours, the Lord Jesus was bearing the sins of every believer during the course of all time.
About the 9th hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli Eli Lamas of Acton I. That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
What's the answer to that question?
The answer is sins.
Yes, the answer to that question is sins.
Why hast thou forsaken me?
Because of sin, my sin, and if you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you two can say because of my sins. During those dark hours Jesus suffered the penalty that our sins deserve in the Word of God. We find these words written in first Peter chapter 2, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree.
Yes, at Calvary there was a tree, a tree of healingness when the Lord Jesus suffered that you and I might be saved.
Some of them that stood there, verse 47 when they heard that, said This man calleth Relias, straightway one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a Reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let me let us see whether Elias will come to save him.
Now notice.
What happens?
Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. Ah, here's a tree.
A wonderful tree. A tree that means blessing and salvation to me.
A tree that means blessing and salvation to every boy and girl in this room. But let me tell you this.
Though that tree yields such wonderful fruit for us, yet it was a tree of judgment. It was a tree of condemnation for the Lord Jesus.
Our blessed substitute. Things were dark at that time.
The judgment came down in strong blows. When Jesus suffered that you and I might be saved, He yielded up the ghost. Behold, the veil of the temple was read and plain from the top to the bottom of the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. The graves were opened in many bodies of the Saints which slept, arose and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many now, when the century and they which were with Him watching Jesus.
Watching Jesus saw the earthquake and those things which were done, they feared greatly saying truly this.
Was the Son of God.
Truly, this was the Son of God. Jesus died for you.
Jesus died for you, Jesus died for me. Oh how we praise His blessed name.
For what he has done for us.
Now I would like to read in the 20th chapter John's Gospel.
And I would like to show you what I have in my pocket.
We're going to read now about believing Thomas.
Yes, we're going to read about believing Thomas.
And I look forward to that day when I shall meet him in heaven.
Will be a wonderful day.
When we can talk things over together.
Believing Thomas here was a man that was not there when Jesus first appeared to his disciples.
But he came later.
Notice in verse 24. But Thomas, one of the 12 called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. He was not with them. Now boys and girls, you weren't there at Calvary.
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I was not there at Calvary.
But all I believe that something happened that day.
That has changed the whole course of my life.
Yes, something happened at Calvary.
That has brought joy and blessing to me and can bring joy and blessing to everyone in this room.
Thomas wasn't there at first. Verse 25 it says. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord.
But he said, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails.
And put my finger into the print of the nails.
Thrust my hand into his side. I will not believe.
Doesn't sound like believing Thomas, does it, he says. I won't believe.
I will not believe.
Is there any boy in this room today that would make a statement like that and say I will not believe?
Is there any girl in this morning, this room, this morning that would say to me I will not believe?
Oh, I trust there is no one in this room today that will say words like that.
Well, Thomas says. If I could just see his hands, if I could just see those holes there, those print marks, then I'll believe.
Well, today I would like to show you something.
That I obtained.
A few months ago.
I saw it advertised.
And I've sent away for it and I thought it would be interesting just to have.
Here is a nail.
This is a nail.
It's a large nail.
Those that sent me this nail sent a little piece of paper with it, and this is what the paper said.
It said in 1939 they were doing some digging in the land of Palestine.
And they found some nails there.
That dated back.
To the time of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.
And so somebody made a mold of one of those nails.
So that he might make copies of it, so that others might see those nails. And I have in my hand a copy.
Of a nail, just like they used when they crucified the Lord Jesus.
Oh, that's a big nail. It's as big a round as my finger. It looks to me like it's almost a foot long.
Boys and girls, would you want a nail like that driven in your hands? Would you want a nail like that driven in your feet?
The Lord Jesus allowed them to nail his hands.
And his feet to that cross to that tree so that he might yield fruit for you and me. You know, there's one thing that impressed me when I received this nail in the mail.
It's this.
I didn't think it was so big.
Did you think that too? That's the one thing that impressed me when I opened the little box that carried his nail.
I said I never realized it was that big.
And I tell you, dear friends, today, that the sufferings of Christ were so large, so intense, so great.
That we never have realized a small fraction of it, the sufferings during those hours of darkness when that blessed Savior hung on the cross, that He might save your soul and mine. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried and He rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures.
All think today about the sufferings of Jesus, the Lord Jesus hanging on that cross, nailed there because of his love to you and his love to me. Now notice what it says about believing Thomas. And after eight days, verse 26 again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, peace be unto you. Then said he to Thomas, reach hit her thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach, hit her thy hand, and thrust it into my side.
And be not faithless, but believing.
Then Thomas answered, and said unto him.
My Lord.
My God.
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Oh, it's my desire today that from the hearts of each boy in this room. From the heart of each girl in this room.
It's the longing of my soul that by faith your heart might go up to the Lord Jesus, and in those words of believing Thomas, you might say, My Lord my God, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.
And shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. I want to say just one more thing about the blessed hands of the Lord Jesus.
Those hands still bear the marks of those nails.
Sometimes you boys and girls get scratches and cuts and they heal up, don't they? They heal up and in a few days you can no longer see them.
Oh, it's a great, great.
And wondrous mystery to my soul, to think that those marks.
Those marks of the nails.
Are still to be found in the blessed hands of the Lord Jesus, and that's the hand that's reaching out to you today and saying, saying, follow me. Oh, won't you be mine.
Would you permit me to say this?
That the nail marks in the hands of the Lord Jesus.
Are heavens.
Eternal object Lesson Heaven's eternal object Lesson. And while those eternal ages roll, and all the redeemed of God are gathered around the Lord Jesus.
One look at the hands of the Lord Jesus, one view of those nail marks will be enough to set us to singing and praising His blessed name for an eternity yet to come.
Before we pray, I would like to say that.
The Sunday school papers will be passed out at the door.
But.
Perhaps there are boys and girls in this room that.
Would like to have this nail in their hand just to feel it, just to see how big it is, just to get a hold of it.
And so after we pray.
I'm going to ask the boys and girls who would like to feel this nail.
To line up right here by this microphone, line up behind me and we're going to pass this nail right down the line. You'll pass it from one to the other and you can hold it in your hand. You can feel it, you can see it, and may you always remember.
That the Lord Jesus loves you very much, and that he died for you, and that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all.
My Father's Business
Philippians 2:1-11
Philippians 3:1-3
Philippians 3:15