Chicago Conference: 1998
Table of Contents
He Knoweth not How
Address—D.B. Imbeau
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.
Turn with me, please, to the book of Mark.
Mark chapter 4 verse 26 and he said so is the Kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up. He knoweth not how. He knoweth not how.
For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself.
First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. Progress in the soul, progress in our Christian life.
It's a seed, it starts and it's small.
But it grows.
And yet it says know not how phrase back in the book of Genesis that caught our attention in a family Bible reading back in Genesis chapter 25 and the very last phrase of the chapter.
Like to spend just a couple minutes talking about them? Genesis 25 and verse 34.
Thus.
Esau despised.
His birthright? Naughty, naughty Esau.
And yet I want to ask, what really did Esau Miss say? Well, that's a silly question.
Yeah, but think about it again. What did Esau really miss?
You know, the birthright that was handed down in those first years from Abraham to Isaac. Isaac then went to Jacob, Jacob to his children especially. Joseph was the beneficiary.
You know.
Commonly the thought of the birthright was that when dad passes away or when he gives up his inheritance to his children, the oldest one would get twice as much as like anyone else did. So if there's were the two sons, Jake, Benissa, the one who got the birthright would get two parts and the one who was the next born, and in this case it was Jacob, probably by about 20 minutes because they were twins.
He would have gotten one part, so Isaac would have divided his property up in three parts. Two would have gone to the eldest, which was Esau 1 to Jacob. A slight hitch. Isaac had a birthright to pass on.
Right. Esau, despite there was something that he despised. He despised the birthright, but Isaac didn't have the land to give him. And so you take 0 / 3 and then take two parts of that and give it to Esau and one part to Jacob. So what did Esau miss?
In his eyes, he missed nothing. And yet there was this birthright that got handed down to the next child. In this case, Jacob ended up with it.
Isaac had received it from his father, and yet there was nothing tangible. There was nothing of substance that you could go out and farm and get a crop from, or build a house on. There was nothing there now he saw as an interesting man. We, we.
His family, as we know, are the enemies of the people of God.
And we can kind of see the long term results, but in the short run what Esau saw.
It didn't make a such a difference. He really ended up with as much as Jacob did and really in their lifetime, he might have ended up with more than Jacob did. Jacob didn't end up with much and he ended up going into Egypt and and he had a rough life. Yes, God talked with him. That was a blessing. And yet there was another time that God.
Came to him in the form of the Angel that wrestled with him, and Jacob came out of that with.
Messed up hip so Jacob almost ended up behind.
He saw at least he had Mount Seir and he was wealthy. We find that out later on. He had a fairly good size following of people and he kind of came out okay. So who would you rather be?
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Jacob or Esau?
Or, more interestingly, which one are we?
We come into Christianity and the blessings of Christianity.
Through salvation and that verse that was read there in Peter.
Referred to it's there in first Peter the 1St chapter whom having not seen ye love verse Adam first Peter one in whom though now ye see him not.
Yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable.
And full of glory.
What do you have to show for your Christianity?
Interesting question.
Are you better off?
What? What do you have to show? Is it worth having a birthright?
And is it worth handing that birthright onto your children?
Because that's all that Isaac could do. He just had it. He had no land to go with it. He just gave it on to the next. And Jacob was anxious, anxious to get hold of that. So he could be a rich, wealthy man with huge fields out there. No, so he could pass it on to his children. That was his intent, was to pass it on, not to get something himself.
But to pass it on, you know, we've been talking a bit about turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
And what a question, What questions arise from that?
You know I'm saved and I have a home in heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ has given me new life. God is my Father.
And so how I live in this world, What difference does it make?
You know, a lot of people are asking that question.
And the answer they're coming up with is it doesn't make any difference.
And so instead of the will of God in our lives, it's our own will. Doesn't mean that those people's lives are a disaster.
Does it mean that God strikes them with some sort of lightning? You know, No.
They learn quickly.
That life seems to go on just the same.
That whether they really set out to please God or not really doesn't seem to make a difference. Monday morning comes, you go to work. Sunday morning comes, you go to church.
You know, life goes on happy.
Contempted basically going to old age retire.
It seems to work.
It seems to be an OK formula. Why don't I do that? Why don't you do that? We're glad to be Christians.
But as soon as we're Christians, we don't want to be Christians. We can't always put our finger on how things are going to grow, to go from the seed to the little sprout, to the ear, and to the full and mature ear. It's not always dynamic. It's not always something that is so startlingly obvious to us.
Because we have a birthright that is intangible. What are you going to put your finger on? How are you going to measure the results?
How are you going to grade it? Some questions from these meetings brother, and I'm sure that the brother who gave this will agree with me.
And we had a very nice meeting about hiding the child. And, you know, I'm sure a lot of parents, myself included, have a little notebook and a pen and we're jotting down some of those verses and some of the some of the taking little notes from the meeting.
And I hope you did.
But you know.
If you do those things.
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So that your children do turn out. It won't work if you do those things.
In obedience.
And in honor to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It will work.
And there is a mighty difference.
A mighty difference. I was talking to someone.
And she said this.
Happens to be a person I work with.
You know, I gave my life to the Lord Jesus and so did my daughter, and you know it didn't work.
Yeah, it didn't work. What do you mean? Well, I knew what she meant.
What she meant was she hoped that when that happened, that.
Things would go right in the home and her husband would love her.
Things like this and then she says it didn't work.
I don't know if she's truly saved or not I.
Have my doubts but.
What does it mean for it to work?
How are you going to grade it if you have a birthright that has nothing tangible with it?
Let's turn to Luke Chapter 7. And this was a little thought that was given by a brother to me yesterday, and I've enjoyed it a lot. And I trust he would not.
I really trust that he would feel it was OK that I passed it on.
In Luke Chapter 7, the Lord came to a man's house.
And at the end of the chapter, the man's name was Simon. You see, we know that. We know these stories. Let's go to the verse that is of interest here, verse 44.
And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon.
Seest thou this woman?
I entered into thine house. Thou gavest me no water for my feet, for she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gave us me no kiss. I came.
But this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet, my head with oil Thou didst not anoint. But this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
The Lord says here in verse 44, right in the middle there I entered into thine house.
And then what were the things that were commented on? Was it the behavior of the children?
Was it the hospitality? Well, you say some of these things have to do with the hospitality. Well, let's apply these things.
No water.
Where was the opening of the word of God?
No kiss.
Where was the affection and no.
Oil.
Where was that sense of the liberty of the Spirit of God to kind of direct in the circumstances there? But what does that accomplish? What does it give me of something tangible? You know, you plant the seed and really.
Can we now legitimately say we know not how it grows?
There are things in relationship to the birthright that is ours.
That are very physical and tangible.
There has to be an actual submission in obedience.
Obedience.
To the direction of the Spirit of God and to the Word of God.
Obedience isn't a.
Popular word perhaps?
There has to be the simple opening of the Word of God and you know these things were to be directed to the person of Christ himself.
It wasn't you didn't wash your children's feet. It's that you had no water to wash my feet. And it's not, oh, you're not showing affection to your children. It's you had no kiss for me. Simple. Yeah.
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And it would go along with a birthright that doesn't really have a whole lot of tangible things to it.
It's not really a formula.
For success in the family.
And yet, on the other hand.
It is.
If we have that new life.
Which is from Christ. We're partakers of that divine nature. Then Christ would be for us.
Just.
Because.
He's our savior.
How our hearts.
Are moved, but that solemn cry.
We sang this morning.
Is there something in your heart, just your heart, not to make a splash, not necessarily to make a difference, but just because Christ is your Savior?
And he's given us something that.
Doesn't show a lot now.
And it's in those circumstances that that seed will grow.
And it will develop and it will come to the mature.
I am the Way
Address—R. Thonney
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Return this evening to John's Gospel Chapter 14.
I am the way, the truth.
And the life no man come up unto the Father.
But by me?
John's Gospel is a wonderful gospel, one of the most simple to understand.
Yet one of the most profound in its meaning here is a verse that stands out, especially in this gospel, the Lord Jesus.
Responding to a question from Thomas, one of his disciples. Because he said I'm going away.
And if I go, I'll come again to take you to myself, Thomas.
Asked Lord, how can we know the way we know not within our gods? And how can we know the way and the Lord Jesus says.
In those words of such simple truth.
I am the Way, the Truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but.
By me. Oh, tremendous words of truth. I hope you're listening tonight. I know that all times there's people who sit.
In meetings like this.
Yeah, they're listening. They hear something with their ears, but they're really not carrying it in their heart. And I want to ask you tonight, please, whoever you are, wherever you're sitting in this room.
To please open your ears to the words of the Lord Jesus.
What I may say may be helpful.
Or maybe it's not helpful.
But listen to what he says, because he's speaking, and he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. I want to speak tonight about that word, the truth.
It's a statement.
Of what is. But it's more than that. Sometimes people, when you get involved with a discussion about truth, think you're talking about a doctrine or a philosophy or a religion. I want to say tonight that we're not here to talk about any such thing.
We're going to talk with the Lord's help about a person.
It's right down to where you are sitting.
The God of the universe became a man in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the truth. You can know the truth tonight in the person, the Lord Jesus Christ. No other religion in this world deals that frankly with the matter of truth.
Mohammed never made such a statement. I am the truth. Buddha never made such a statement. No, only the Lord Jesus Christ made that statement. Let me tell it to you again. It's so vital.
All right, he said. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
We live in a day of almighty humanistic relativism. In other words, people instead of.
Basing their thinking on God and on his word. Because in John 17 the Lord Jesus Christ said Sanctify them through thy truth by word is truth.
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So we can say in an absolute way the word of God is true.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, in the most absolute way, is the truth. You can know the truth.
When we use that word absolute, we are talking about something that is beyond all appeal. It is the final word there should be. If you really understand what the truth is. There should be no reasoning beyond that.
That is the final word, and you know what's good for you. You will simply unreservedly accept it. Again, I want to make clear a statement here that what I say may be helpful or may not.
I've made mistakes before and I can still make mistakes, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the truth, what He says. Listen to it. That's why we have our Bibles open in your laps.
Making sure that whoever is talking is talking according to what that book says, because that book is true.
I think it's so important for us to get that settled in our souls because in our schools of this country, it is sad to see that people think that truth is just a matter of the way you think about it, the way it impresses you. That has nothing to do.
Or as much as I may ignore the truth, or as much as I may despise the truth, for as much as I may totally reject the truth, it changes the truth.
In nothing, the truth remains the truth. It's not a competition.
And sometimes I said it this way, the truth is the most exclusive thing in the whole universe.
It excludes every other option.
And that's why it's so important to know the truth. Again, I say the truth is not a mere philosophy that it takes some intelligent person to comprehend. Know the truth is a person.
That came into this world through the same channel that we came into this world and you can know the truth in the person of the Lord Jesus how through what he has written in his old precious word. We have 4 gospels that tell the story of the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. How he came into this world.
How he was born of the Virgin Mary.
He had no human father, for his God is his father. He was born miraculously of a virgin.
And he came into this world God manifest in flesh. Tremendous to think about it.
I'd like to go back to the first chapter of John's Gospel now to look at a few verses that deal with this matter of truth.
John, Chapter one.
In the beginning.
Was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
Verse 14.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
Full of grace and truth.
Oh, this is beautiful, John. Better witness. This is John the Baptist.
John better witness of him and Christ, saying, this was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me, or He was before me. The Lord Jesus and the flesh was born after John the Baptist, But John the Baptist recognizes that even though he came in the flesh after him, he was before him. Who could that be?
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Except one who had his existence from all eternity.
The Lord Jesus is the eternal Son of God.
And of his fullness have all we received, and grace, for grace for the law was given by Moses.
But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Oh yes, the law. Law was a perfect moral standard that God gave in the Old Testament.
But sorry to say it, no one ever measured up to that standard. But when the Lord Jesus came, it says here grace and truth.
By Jesus Christ, you're not going to get the full picture by looking at the law. The law is a perfect moral standard. I didn't say, but you're going to get the full picture by looking at the Lord Jesus. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, though I love to think about it as the Lord Jesus passed through this world.
In this pathway down here.
You know, we tend to be given to extremes. Either we go to one side or to the other. Sometimes we're real gracious and we're so gracious that we forget about the truth.
And sometimes we are so right and truthful that we forget about grace.
But in the Lord Jesus there was the perfect balance.
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Oh, how wonderful it is to know the Lord Jesus and you know.
We have a God who is gracious, but like we've been talking about today, there is a lot of preaching that goes on that says that God will allow you to live your sinful life and be saved after all.
I want to say that that is not so.
No, you want to know God. God is a God of grace. We read about it this morning. God is a God of all grace.
And he's fully able to meet you in your knee. But when you meet him, you must deal with the matter of truth you cannot ignore.
What has taken place in your life, you can try to cover it up, but it will come out in the end. A verse that came to mind today in our meetings.
It's found back in the book of Numbers. It says be sure.
Your sin will find you out. You may have sins that you've never told anybody else about.
You kind of put them on the back burner in your conscience.
You have a nurse your conscience not to face them. You know there's things that are not right in your life, but instead of getting them out into the light of God's presence, you are hiding that.
Verses mentioned today. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesses and forsake of them shall have mercy.
And I want to encourage you, if you are here tonight and are still hiding things in your life, I don't know your life sufficiently to be able to tell you you're writing things. But you know, maybe there's things you put into the back and you don't want to face the truth of the matter. There was such a woman.
In the time that the Lord Jesus was here.
In John's Gospel chapter 4.
The Lord Jesus.
Sat on the side of a well outside of a city.
And as he sat there, here comes a poor woman of scenario.
She had come because she was thirsty. It's been suggested she came at a time when there was not a lot of other people around.
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Because she had something that she wasn't very.
Thankful for it was a sad, sad story she had to tell, but she thought that she could keep it.
Getting a little bit she doesn't realize who that person was sitting on the edge of the well.
And so as she's about to draw water, Jesus says to her, give me to drink. And she starts a religious type of conversation. How is it that you are asking the Jews and the Samaritans, they don't have any dealings with each other.
And the Lord Jesus doesn't really answer her question. You know, you may have lots of questions.
I want to tell you something.
That if you just simply come to Jesus.
Your questions are going to be cleared up because he is the truth. And when you see things in your life in the light of Dietrich, it's going to be all clear. Remember the story of a young man.
Who came to a gospel meeting?
Was not safe.
He said to a brother as he came into the Gospel hall. Got lots of questions, like somebody to answer for me. And the brother said that's fine, young man, have a seat. We're going to listen to the gospel message first of all, and then afterwards we'll take up the matter of your questions.
And he heard the gospel, and during the course of the meeting, he opened his heart to receive the Lord Jesus as his Savior.
And the end of the meeting, the brother came up to him. Young man, you said. You asked some questions.
Oh, you know what?
I've let the Lord Jesus come in.
And I really don't have any more questions now. They're all answered. That's the way it is when you really let the Lord Jesus into your eye. The truth.
And so that poor woman, she sat there.
She stood there looking at the Lord Jesus and speaking with Him. He talked to her about living water that could satisfy her forever.
She's interested.
You have a heart that is longing for something.
A heart that is not satisfied. The Lord Jesus wants to satisfy your heart. But then as.
She sat there where he sat there and talked with her. She says give me this wife. And he says.
Go call your husband.
If you're going to deal with God, you cannot have secret.
Reserve pockets.
That are dark in the recesses of your heart. So you can't do it. It doesn't work. It does work. God is light and then the light that you try to hide things, you only make yourself that much more conspicuous. If I stood up here tonight.
And I now behind my back, underneath my sweater, some kind of a package that I didn't want anybody to know about, and I start seeing you. Look at me. Can I suspiciously, I only make myself that much more conspicuous trying to hide things like don't try, it won't work.
And so that poor woman, she said. 1/2 tree says I don't have any.
And so the Lord Jesus.
There is no contest in the truth is the truth. It's not a matter the contest young people between one religion and another, between one denomination and another.
No context at all. The truth is the truth.
And so the Lord Jesus simply made a statement. I think it's so wonderful how he did it in a way that didn't condemn her.
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But that let her know.
That she knew that He knew every detail of her life. Absolutely nothing. Can you hide from our God? I don't know the story of your life. There's a God that's looking right down at you tonight, and he knows everything he did of your life.
Lord Jesus said to her, thou hast have my husbands, and the one you have right now is your husband that you said true, that was the truth.
Pretty shameful history to have to admit to, but that was the truth, that she really didn't want out of the open. What is it in your life that you don't want out of the open?
To bring it out into the light.
That heightening is only interfering your blessings. I want to tell you to come to Jesus.
He is a merciful God, but if you're going to deal with him, you're going to have to deal with him in truth as well as a mercy. God will have loose young, but it has to be on the ground workout.
And God sets the standards. People think today that they can set the standards.
Heard that statement, blasphemous statement of a man the other day, he said. When I get before God, I'm going to tell God to hear you.
That's the moral humanistic relativism of the day we live in, and it's affecting us. It's affecting young people. They think they have our rights. I tell you what right I have. I tell you what right you have. Since we're all sinners before a holy God, we have a right to go to the lake of fire.
That's the right you and I have.
Beyond that, we really don't have any right. We forfeit it every right.
We forfeited the right to life because the wages of sin is that you can't avoid that you cannot avoid.
That's the truth of the matter.
That poor woman was so impressed when she met the Lord Jesus there that day she left her water pot. She went into the city. She said to those men in the city, I suppose some of them she said with. She said, come see a man, and told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?
The light has shined into her soul and oh, it's wonderful and you don't have to hide anything anymore. What liberty is gifts.
It says in the 8th chapter of this book, ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. It's wonderful to see a person that doesn't try to have to hide things in their life any longer. They've gotten it out into the open. There's liberty in their conscience now because they dealt with the matter squarely.
In the presence of a God who knows every single.
Detail their lives.
Time is going fast. I want to go on to chapter 8. We have another woman that is brought before the Lord Jesus by the Pharisees. She also was a woman taken in a very serious immoral immorality in the sin of adultery.
Sexual sin is very common in the day we live in people.
Justify it today because of their humanistic orientation. But I say adultery is sin that God condemns because it destroys.
Sin destroys. Don't try to think that sin is fun. There is.
Those two brothers concerning the word of God, I think you would get the same answer.
She said yes, you would, but then she referred to one of them, she said.
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He doesn't look down on anyone and his life shows the pleasure and sin, but it brings destruction and serious destruction.
And so here this woman is taken and brought into the presence of the Lord Jesus. There they are in the temple, and Jesus is there, and the Pharisees come and scribes, and they bring this woman taking in adultery.
Verse four They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what saith thou?
This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him, that Jesus stooped down with his finger rolled on the ground as though he heard the knot. Isn't this wonderful?
They wanted to accuse him, but you can't accuse the truth. If you accuse the truth, you only condemn yourself.
And so here they are. They are demoted.
We're not right. They wanted, they brought her only to be able to accuse Jesus.
And I don't know what kind of motives you're at play in your heart for being here at this conference. Maybe some special person that you wanted to see, that's why you're here.
Maybe some other reason is the reason you're here, but I want to say that the Lord Jesus knows those things that are at play in your soul, and you need to get into His presence.
He knows it all.
And she was guilty. Buried.
But if he was going to condemn her as they suggested, he would have to condemn a whole lot of them.
And so he just scoops down and writes on the ground and they continued asking and he says at the end of verse seven, he that is without sin among you, let him verse cast a stone at her.
Then he Stoops down the rights again on the ground.
And they all verse nine, they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience without 1 by 1 beginning at the eldest, even into the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the mess, when Jesus had lifted up himself and signed him, but the woman he said unto her woman.
Where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemning?
All those that wanted to condemn her were God. There was one left there. It was the blessed Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He was without sin. He, yes, had a right to condemn her, but He did not come to condemn.
We came to forget it and declined. And so he says, my love is.
She said No man, Lord, and Jesus said unto her and herself, Neither do I condemn me. Go.
Single, I didn't make light of her sin and dear young people sin, the sin of adultery, sexual sin is not a light thing. We cannot make life and the Lord Jesus didn't make life for this woman sin. He was going to have to pay with his own life. You think he may light it? No.
Just and sin no more. Oh the preciousness of how the Lord Jesus may in every situation. We could go case after case through the life of the Lord Jesus here in John's Gospel to see how he met it perfectly in grace.
And truth. But again, I want to say, I really believe that many times what is hindering blessing in the lives of those who are sitting here is that they don't want to be completely outright and truthful in the presence of a God who knows every detail of their lives. They're still covering up stuff. And it's Henry, I want to say to you, if you're here doing that tonight.
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Don't do it any longer, you're only hindering yourself.
God wants to fill your heart with.
You'll be so happy, so supremely happy. You won't be able to contain it, I guarantee you. I've experienced it in my own little nature.
But I know what it means when I hold things back and I don't want to get them out into the light. How it hinders It hinders.
Let's go on. In John's Gospel, chapter 18, the Lord Jesus and his pathway down here shows the truth.
To all and he wasn't appreciated for it.
And now he stands that he condemned.
First of all before the hybrids and then.
Pilots their own governor.
Let's read verse 33 of chapter 18. I'm sorry, John chapter 18 and verse 33. Then why? Whatever it is to the judgment Hall again and called Jesus and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell you nothing? I would answer.
Am IA Jew, thy no engaged from the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done?
Jesus answered, My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews? But now is my Kingdom not from his pilot? Therefore said unto him, Art thou a Kingdom? Jesus answered, Thou says that I am a king.
To this end was I born for this God should came I into the world.
Then I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth, Hearth My voice Are you hearing everyone that is of the truth, Hearth my voice? Wasn't Pilot hearing his voice?
What happened?
Verse 38 Pilot says unto him, What?
Is truth. And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and said unto them, I find in him no fault at all.
Did he hear what Jesus said? He heard with his ears, but he really didn't hear. He didn't know what the truth was. There was the truth standing right before him.
But in the political system of that day, he was giving him a trial, and the voice of the people prevailed. People praised democracy.
Sometimes the statement is made the voice of the people, the voice of God. What a serious thing to say.
Hear the voice of the people prevailed. And what did Pilate do?
Verse one of chapter 19. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus.
Back.
And the soldiers flooded the crown of thorns and put it on his head, And they put it on purple roll, and said, Hey, old king of the Jews. And they smiling with their hands, Biden therefore went forth again and said unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that he may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns in the purple robe.
Fire said unto them.
Behold the man. When the chief priests therefore an officer, saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, Crucify him. Why not said unto them, Take him, and crucify him before I find no father.
Jesus answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
He's kind of therefore heard that saying. He was the more afraid, and when I get into the judgment, Hall said unto Jesus.
Whence are?
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Verse 16 then delivered, gave him therefore unto them to be crucified, and they took Jesus and LED away.
He comes down.
The truth. And in condemning the truth he condemned not only himself, but the whole system. The whole world system is under condemnation now, because the truth of God came into this world in the person of the Lord Jesus, and it was from death, not only condemned, but given the most horrible death.
Think of crucifixion.
Verse 17 And he buried his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is in the Hebrew God Gaza, where they crucified him and to other with him on either side one and Jesus in the next.
Oh, how terrible history of this happened. You know, when man first placed his foot on the moon, President of the United States said this is the greatest happening in the history of the world since the creation.
He missed something. The greatest happening in the world since the creation is the cross where truth was rejected, where truth was let out of the city of Jerusalem, that religious city, and now to a cross.
And left to hang, to die. Ah.
Oh yeah, the way a man treated.
Their God and the person of the Lord Jesus.
Is the Lord Jesus?
Going to vary from the tree.
Straight on to me the whole question of sin and the presence of God. When the Lord Jesus was hanging there on that cross, man was shown to be all that he is in his own being. The religious people were the first ones to pass before the Lord Jesus.
The hurdle episode into the face of their savior God.
After three hours of that treatment.
The sun was darkened and for three hours there was darkness on that hill outside of Jerusalem.
At Calvary. At Golden.
And nobody could see what was happening, but it was then that Jesus was dealing in all truth with the matter of my sins, the matter of your sins, it says in Isaiah chapter 53.
He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with His stripes we are healed as He hung there on that cross, those things that I would be ashamed if anybody here knew that I had done.
Those things were laid on the spotless, sinless.
Of my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he met those things in truth. He didn't hide them. They were laid on him and God poured out.
All his righteous judgment that would have crushed.
A world of hell. It fell on Jesus, that judgment for my sins.
He bore it all. He paid the price in full before he died, he said It is finished all the judgment that was rightly against me. He dealt with it in the truth of the matter.
Nothing was hidden there. He saved his rights and both Jesus died off of the thing that our creator God hung on that cross and as a man gave up his life.
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In price of our redemption the soldier came up that hill and pierced his side, and out came blood and watered. The only thing that will cover sin from the eye of an all see God is the blood.
Of Jesus Christ.
Says in First John 1/7.
The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Friend, it is so important that you get the truth of the matter of your sins out in the presence of God. Don't put it off, please. I plead with you to deal straight on with the matter of your sins. God dealt with the matter in the person of the Lord Jesus of sins at the cross of Calvary the Lord.
Done.
If God had not been satisfied with what Jesus did on that cross, he would have never raised him from the dead. But Jesus rose again from the dead the third day, and he sits there in the glory of God at God's right hand. Now the testimony to the fact that the work is done forever to be done.
Praise God.
I'm saying because Jesus died and rose again, and he lives at God's right hand.
I want to go before we close to a very serious matter. Don't want to touch briefly on before we close Second Thessalonians Chapter 2. It's a matter of truth as well.
Talking about another person here.
This person is called in verse 3.
The man of sin, the son of Perdition and other scriptures. He's called what we believe to be the Antichrist.
And the apostle Paul is writing here to these believers, telling them about this person who is coming.
And he says there's something that's hindering steps verse six. And now you know what withhold us that he might be revealed in his time for the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now let us will let until he be taken out of the way. That word lettuce is really hindrance. He that now hindrance will hinder until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that wicked the Antichrist be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that varies.
Because they received, not.
The love of the truth that they might be saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. They all might be damned who believe not the truth.
That have pleasure in unrighteousness. Just want to set this warning before you before we finish this evening.
You've heard about the truth. I'm not the truth, the Lord Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life. Perhaps you're here and you still have a reserve. You still have an unreservedly come to the Lord Jesus to accept them as your Savior. I want to warn you.
That you are in line to be DC.
I was amazed the other day my wife was reading the book about the Second World War.
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And what happened over in Germany in the Holocaust, what we know to be the Holocaust?
And in the book it said that 20% of Americans no longer believe that there was any such thing as a Holocaust in Europe.
What has happened to our country? You know what's happened? The truth and lies are representing in the media in such a way that people don't discern between what's true, what's false anymore. They don't know. They see the news.
And then they see a program that has nothing to do with truth and they don't distinguish any longer.
I mean, it is extremely serious. We're living in the days when the mystery of iniquity already works, and it's going towards an end one of these days.
That which hinders is going to be taken out of the way, and then shall that wicked one be revealed, who the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth.
And he's the one who it says, verse 9, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders with all these feebleness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth.
You know what the truth is, The Lord Jesus has been presented not only tonight, but in many other times that you've heard the message of the gospel and you do not accept it.
You still have that reserve.
How serious are you going to tell you?
You will feel you a lie if you do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is here tonight and he's saying those simple words that are so easy to understand.
I am the Way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father.
But by me?
It is amazing to me how people are so easily led to believe a lie down in Bolivia.
To tell the story before we close, there was a man that appeared in the city of Santa Cruz while we lived there.
He came under an evangelical banner that is called in the Spanish Christ. Is the answer pretty good?
Saying I would say. And they told me that when he first came, he preached.
Something of the gospel as we have it in the Word of God. But it wasn't long before there was a change in his message.
And he changed his message to say I am Christ.
His name is Julio Alvarado.
And since his name begins with the J like Jesus name, you will see signs around Bolivia with a big circle with a big jail in the middle of it and around the side it says Christ is the answer but that Jay does not stand for Jesus.
That space, that J stands for Julio.
And he actually stands up in front of his congregation and they changed the hymns of worship that are directed to the Lord Jesus and puts his own name in there. And he receives worship from his people that followed. I can't believe when I heard of the terrible things he has done in the city of Santa Cruz.
The immoral lifestyle he lives.
The swindling of poor innocent people takes place. That he does. He can't believe that people follow him. One day a young man came into our bookstore in Montero. I happen to be there at the time, and he told us that he was a follower of this man.
And I tried to warn him. I said the.
Careful, the scripture says that when the true Christ comes from heaven, every eye shall see him. And I haven't played hives on this man you docked on me about. Scripture says that there's going to be false Christ.
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You listened to me for a while and then he shook his head and he said, just like it was the first time Jesus came.
And you won't accept it. The more you talk against him, the more I adore him.
He turned around and walked out of the store.
Spirit of iniquity already works a young man, intelligent graduate of university that city.
I warn you again, if you don't simply accept the truth as it is in Jesus, you will be deceived. Please tonight, before we close, open your ears. Let this word penetrate right down into your hearts. It comes from the living God.
I am the way.
The truth and the light. No man comes under the fire, but I need.
That's great. Blessed God our Father, we thank you.
Or thy gracious.
Blessed, we pray in the hearts of those that have listed.
Bother with your concern about someone here who still isn't right, and we ask the Father to make thy word penetrate. Strive by thy Spirit until that person becomes it's simple thing to the Lord Jesus. We ask Thy blessings and that most worthy of our Lord Jesus.
Titus 2
Reading
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I would like to suggest a chapter that I think is very needed as Titus chapter 2. I was thinking especially of the latter verses which says the grace of God which bring us salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously, and so on.
I meant I mean the whole chapter, but.
Keeping in mind, I think one of the greatest evils that beset us in these last days is what Jude speaks of, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness or dissoluteness, or to give the flesh free reign. And this has to be met, and the Word of God meets it very.
Strongly.
It's one thing to be in ******* to the law.
It's worse to use grace as an excuse for sin. That's far worse. Could we read Titus two, Titus chapter 2? But speak now the things which become sound doctrine, that the age of men be sober, brave, temperate, sound in faith and charity and patience.
The Asian women likewise that they be in behavior has become a holiness, not false accusers, not given too much wine, teachers of good things.
That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chase keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands. That the word of God be not blasphemy.
Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded in all things, showing myself a pattern of good works.
The doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, it cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary partner be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
In all things, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity.
And purify unto himself the peculiar people.
Zealous of good works, these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority.
Let no man despise thee. Doctrine means teaching.
So whenever you read teaching or doctrine it's referring to the same thing. Notice in verse one speak the things which become sound doctrine, sound teaching.
In the second verse, sound in faith in the fourth verse that they may teach young women.
Seventh verse in doctrine showing uncorruptedness, gravity, sincerity. Verse 8, sound speech cannot be condemned. Verse 10. That they may adorn the doctrine of God.
Our Savior in all things.
Paul says to Timothy, Thou has known my doctrine, manner of life, and so on.
His teaching.
Our Christianity must be based upon sound teaching, otherwise it is not a true expression of Himself who is the truth.
In the 13th verse of the first chapter.
He says this witness is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith on on brother trade, that we might need to be rebuked and corrected and exhorted to go on and pack. I can't think of a of a worse evil.
At the end of these 2000 years of the Day of Grace.
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Than the evil that Jude talks about turning the grace of God into lasciviousness or dissoluteness or a free reign for the flesh. This is everywhere in Christendom today. Music and.
Habits that are going on in Christian circles that are nothing but the flesh indulging itself, as though the liberty that grace has brought us into gives us liberty, for the flesh gives no liberty.
For the flesh at all. And this has affected young people, young Christians carrying out things under the banner of Christianity which the world goes on with, with no thought of it actually for Christians to go on with it. The kind of music that they prayed nowadays, which is.
Really an abomination. It's not really music, it's it's from.
Deeper baser things of man. This has been Christianized and taken over by a Christian circles. After all, you've got to do it in order to gain the young to keep them. You've got to appeal to their inner senses, their inner feelings, their inner nature. Well, that's the flesh and.
To degrade the Christian message to such a thing is a terrible abomination before God.
And we're living in days when this is done everywhere and.
And a loud voice of protest and warning against such things as needed. Grace does not give any liberty to the flesh at all. In fact, it suppresses it and gives liberty to the Spirit of God to walk as Christ walk. We are sanctified by the Spirit to the obedience of Christ. The obedience of Christ was the delight that he had in doing his Father's will.
The Holy Spirit, his whole path down here, and that's the liberty that we've been brought into.
We were bond slaves to sin, now we have been delivered from that through the death of Christ to be set free now to do the will of God.
To please him and not to indulge the flesh. No liberty for the flesh whatsoever. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, Paul says to the Romans.
Doctrine is so important in our day and I.
Just like to encourage, especially those that are younger. But we need to all be encouraged to be occupied with sound doctrine. It's so important. It's being downplayed in Christian circles today. I've heard the statement doctrine divides.
It's not true doctrine that divides.
True doctrine is the basis of true fellowship. You turn back to Acts Chapter 2. You see the two things put together, and I think it is good to see those things put together.
In the.
1St or the 2nd chapter of Acts and the 42nd verse.
Talking about the believers in the church in the beginning of the Christian era and it says they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine. Apostles teaching and fellowship. It's been explained that apostles is an adjective that modifies both doctrine and fellowship, so you can read it the apostles doctrine.
Apostles fellowship. So the doctrine is the basis of the fellowship. If we downplay doctrine, we're getting away from the true ground of fellowship. And I think it's so important to get into the truth of Scripture to ground our souls in it.
And I must say, as a young person brought up in meetings like we are at this morning, I heard the truth of God. But I remember the time when the test really came to me myself.
Knew it in a mental way, but I had not really been put to the test on it. But when I came to put the test on it for myself, I found, dear young people, that it holds. It is true. It is rock solid. Not my comprehension of it, but the truth of God itself. It is solid.
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The Lord Jesus said heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.
You base your ideas, your actions on man's ideas. You're going to find yourself in sinking sand that you base yourself on what God says in his word. You are basing something if yourself on something that is rock solid and will never change how important it is the apostles doctrine.
What we have in the New Testament, epistles, the Gospels too, and epistles.
It is the fossils doctrine and upon that is face the fellowship one other verse to.
Confirm that is first John chapter one.
We also have the question of fellowship, taking address by the Apostle John.
And he says in verse three of first John chapter one, that which we says he speaks in the plural. Not only was he a witness, but there were other apostles that gave their testimony as well. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. What's that? That is the apostles doctrine.
That ye also may have fellowship with us. What is the purpose?
Of the apostles doctrine is that we might be also in that same fellowship, the apostles fellowship. And then he goes on to say, truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. So it's not merely the doctrine of the apostles, the fellowship of the apostles, but it is also the fellowship of the Father and his Son.
To get away from true doctrine, sound doctrine, is to get away from the true fellowship as well. Never think that giving up or leaving doctrine go divides.
If it's truly held in a proper way, it brings us into the true fellowship that the Apostle speaks about here.
You were mentioning hell that will hold us. A few days ago we were looking at this verse and Acts 242.
As before, anchors that were put out of the ship and falls shipwrecked and we have that to hold, hold on to. Those are solid things.
And this is at the beginning of the Christian era of the church period, the apostles doctrine and fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers. And in Jude we have it at the end of the of this period. 24 anchors.
Look at it.
Jude chapter 20, chapter one, verse 20 and 21.
But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, I believe that would touch on the doctrine. How do we build ourselves up? It's in the Word of God, the reading, meeting, so on praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
So at the end, we have those four anchors still there. In the case of the 27th Atlanta, you look at in the Darby translation, they didn't lift the anchors, they cut them off and they went adrift. So that's just what we're saying. We need to hold on to those anchors and the doctrine is the important part of it. The doctrine gives us the basis of the fellowship.
The breaking of bread expresses the fellowship, and the prayer maintains the fellowship.
If it's not sound doctrine, it's not fellowship of the apostles and it's not the fellowship with the Father and the Son. They all go together. So what is called fellowship oftentimes among Christians is something like a a social group.
That enjoy one another's company, but it's not founded upon sound doctrine.
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And that is not Christian fellowship. Seems to me that we have often in the word of God that that thought that's being expressed. And it's good to see it from various angles because this has been expressed in this day that we live. It's being given up. But what I mean is that doctrine is the basis for a believer. Doctrine is the basis of everything. And it's not just knowing doctrine that it's that is important.
Doctrine ought to have an effect in our lives. We can know a whole lot of things in our mind in these days and perhaps allow ourselves some self complacency thinking because we know them. Then that's all there is to it. But we need to walk in them. We might turn to second Timothy because.
Have that character of things. Everything has fallen apart. The outward testimony, the testimony is in ruins. But we do have this verse in Second Timothy. Excellent instruction and a comfort for us. Chapter 3. It's a well known verse, one of the three sixteens in Scripture, Second Timothy 316. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. So that comes first.
And then we find the moral results of it for reproof.
Correction, instruction, and righteousness. So you have there the doctrine, we need to be grounded in it and then the Scriptures have their proper effect. And I might add just this one other word also in Second Timothy as to fellowship. Just a little application in Second Timothy chapter 2 and verse 22. And it would seem to me that this would be the result of allowing.
Sound doctrine in all of the scripture.
To have its moral effect in my life. Then it says flee youthful lust, but follow righteousness, faith, love, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. It doesn't say with them to call out of the Lord out of an intelligent mind.
It says with them that call him the Lord out of a pure heart. It's seeking to walk according to the light that God has given to me and to you as to the doctrine and seeing that that light applies to our steps practically. And that's a wonderful guiding principle, beloved young people for those with whom, because it's a question that's often asked, well, who can I have fellowship with? Well, here's a wonderful principle with them.
That call in the Lord out of a pure heart.
And that's based on applying the doctrine of the Scriptures, the apostles doctrine, to our ways.
I'd like to add to that some verses in Ephesians 5. So needed.
Verse 8 Paul said he were sometimes he were once darkness.
But now are ye light in the Lord?
That's the truth. We were once darkness, now we're lighting the Lord. Now comes the exhortation to walk accordingly, walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit and other translation reads, The fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
Are we participating in our fellowship with other Christians?
In things which savor of the darkness.
Or are they things which savor of the light, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, when young people get together?
For a time of.
Fellowship. Is it acceptable to the Lord? Are things being done there which savor of the darkness and of this world? And I happen to know the answer to that is yes.
There are occasions when the music is loud that it it has to be loud enough not just to break your eardrums, but to cause your body to respond to it. When the smoke is so thick that you can't see the other side of the room and wear liquor flows freely, you see. Oh, that can't be. Yes, it can. Let's read on.
Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Young person, if you're invited to a get together and you find when you enter the place those kinds of things are happening, what should you do?
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Stay with it or reprove it. Rebuke it.
Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. Now he's talking about the things in the world. But we're at the end. We make complete circle. We're at the end of the day of grace, and the use of grace has been so perverted.
As to give license for these things which are nothing but the flesh condemned by the Word of God, we have scripture after scripture to say that is a wrong interpretation of the Word of God of grace. Grace is not freedom for sin. It gives strength to rebuke sin and to live above it. This doesn't just apply to the young people.
Applies to all of us. There are things that we can get into.
And become a part of might be a businessman and you're called to take some clients out and you get to drinking and smoking and all the evils that go with it. Are we going to go along with that kind of thing or rebuke it and have no fellowship with it? These are solemn things and I think we need to talk about them.
And bring them up to the front, because we have to take a stand. If the salt is saltless, it's good for nothing. But to be trodden under foot of men. Cast out candle is not to be hid under a bed, but it's to be set on a stands so all can see. It is our testimony. Do they know at work that you're a Christian?
That you don't do those kinds of things.
Is that our testimony or do we just go along with it? Because after all, the others are Christians too, and we go along with that which is the what the crowd goes with. We have to learn to take a stand for truth and to rebuke these hidden things of darkness.
And some of them are not too hidden anymore.
Some of the things one hears.
He travels around.
Are sad indeed and they need to speak plainly of these things. May God give us grace to be to be real soldiers of the cross and stand for truth. I feel very strongly that those warnings are very needed for each one of us. Our brother Chuck has been addressing the young people, but I know he means it for all of us.
But I have enjoyed in the epistles of both Timothy and Titus how beautifully balanced the word of God is in bringing together, as our brother Doug has been mentioning, the doctrine or the truth and the truth and the walk in connection with it. In First Timothy we get the expression, the doctrine, which is according to godliness.
In the first chapter of the Epistle of Titus. In the first verse.
It talks about the truth which is after or according to godliness. I think if I had been writing it I might have put it the other way around, the godliness which is according to the truth but the word of God.
Penned by the inspiration of the Spirit of God and the wisdom of God flips the other way around. Why is that? Oh, I just suggest the thought that while the Doctor is so important and I wouldn't in any way take away from what we have had before us.
The doctrine is extremely important, but what does the world see when it looks at you and me? What does it see first? It sees the godliness, doesn't it? They hear the doctrine from your lips and mind, but what it sees first is the result of that doctrine. What does it do in my life? And sad to say, the world and other believers.
Judge the doctrine by what they see in you and me, don't they?
We know that we have experienced it where people have judged the truth of God by your walk and mine. And that's why I believe it's put this way. That's why the apostle here in writing to Titus spent so much emphasis in this very chapter on the practical side of things, taking up every group age by age, older men, older women, younger men, younger women. Why? Because.
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What is seen first of all is the effect of all of that. I can well remember quite a few years ago now when I was still in university, having a conversation with a sister in Christ who was gathered to the Lord's name. And she was quite a bit older than I, probably old enough to have been my mother, but I knew her quite well. And we were talking about two brothers who were well known to both of us.
And she had a great deal of difficulty with one of those brothers.
And thought very highly of the other one. Well, as it happened, I thought very highly of both of them. And I made the remark to her in the course of our conversation. I said, I don't think what it doesn't matter what question you would ask those two brothers concerning the word of God, I think you would get the same answer.
She said yes, you would, but then she referred to one of them. She said he doesn't look down on anyone and his life shows the results of what he holds. I never forgot that. I thought that that spoke to my own soul at the time and I have never forgotten. As I say, I knew those brothers very, very well, even as a young man. And I can attest to the truth of what she said, and I don't mean to.
Point the finger at the other one who was a most faithful man. But there was something about the other that lent itself to a listening ear. It gave that which I believe commended, adorned the doctrine that he held in time. Am I right in saying that that is the emphasis in this epistle? Is that right there, Chuck? Yes, yes, I think if we.
Could turn to a very well known.
Portion in the Old Testament, we find what our brother has been bringing out and what others have been saying beautifully illustrated. And let's turn back, though it's in more than one location. But let's turn to the passage in First Kings chapter 10. We read these verses often, but I feel they're particularly appropriate for this thought of our ways.
Adorning the doctrine and we all know the story of the Queen of Sheba who came to visit Solomon.
But we'll start with verse four of First Kings chapter 10, when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomons wisdom in the house that he had built. Now this verse, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his minister ministers and their apparel, and his cup bearers, and his assent by which he went up to the House of the Lord.
There was no more spirit in her.
She heard Solomons words. They were confirmed by the action of Solomon's servants. The way those servants acted. And our brother Bill has brought out, I think, something very important that in Titus, this grace of God that we're talking about is going to affect every person sitting in this room.
There isn't one who can say, well, I'm not included. It isn't contemplating my life, no, the lives of every single one of us, from the youngest to the oldest, working at home, retired, whatever it is, we need to walk in that doctrine and that grace, and we need to serve our Solomon.
And so here were the servants of Solomon, and the Queen of Sheba looked.
She had heard Solomon's words. I say now she looks at how Solomon's servants are acting and how they are dressed and how they serve him, and there's no more spirit in her. Oh beloved brother, may it be from the youngest to the oldest here today that the world might just look at us and see something that speaks well as those that serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think what we've been speaking about too is shown in our chapter.
When it says in verse 2 The agent or the elder men.
Be sober, grave, temperate, sound in the faith and charity and patience, certainly addressing the practical affairs of life.
And as Chet mentioned, you mentioned to Bill.
Brethren, if these things aren't in those of us who are older, and what can we say to the younger?
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And I really think it's something that should searches every one of us, not just the younger. Sometimes it's easier to dress the younger. But the lack of power to address these issues with the younger is because perhaps those of us who are older are not really living in the way that we have in scripture ourselves.
Maybe the less of the flesh?
In the younger people are evident in one way and another way and those of us who are older and it takes a sharp knife on ourselves if there's going to be power to address the matter with younger ones, right. I think of that Father that brought the his boy to the disciples of the Lord Jesus.
And the disciples seem to be powerless.
To deal with that spirit and that young boy, they didn't know what to do. They were.
At the end of their own recourses and the Lord Jesus comes and he deals with the situation and then they ask Lord, why weren't we able to cast out that demon? And he said this kind goes out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. Fasting rather than is something that goes along with prayer. It's not merely.
From food, but it is that natural.
Way of life of denying ourselves what is the character of our I must say rather than in the United States of America, there's not much need to deny ourselves and we don't do a whole lot and it results in lack of power in addressing situations with our young. There seems to be a barrier to do it.
And we need what Chuck says faithful ministry has to these things. But how are we going to do it if it's not first of all in US? I believe that's why Titus addresses the older women first of all. The younger men come down towards the end of the less. But it's something that should exercise. The sharp knife has to start right here.
With myself, if not, there's no power further on. My sister told me she had heard this from another sister who was at a Bible study and it wasn't amongst us. But that doesn't make any difference as far as what I'm going to say. And this sister was just So she left the study, she drove her car out of the parking lot and there was another sister ahead of her that was in the study. And.
And.
Just really enjoying what before them and she saw something that was very disappointing to her. The sister ahead of her came to the stop sign and stopped the car for a moment, took out a cigarette, lit it up and drove on. And that caused the one that noticed this.
Grid.
Now.
Whether you smoke or whether you don't smoke doesn't change your Christianity. If you're saved, you're saved and you can never be lost again. I never smoked and so I never had to give it up. I understand it's a very difficult thing to do, Harder for some, easier for others, but it's a very difficult thing to do. But the grace of God is able.
To give us power to overcome these things.
Which?
Paul says all things are lawful. We're not under the law. We're not under. Thou shalt not touch, not taste, not handle not. You can't do this, can't do that. We're not under the law. All things are lawful, but all things are not profitable.
And he also says I will not be brought under the power of any.
If you are a slave to a habit, if I'm a slave to a habit, we come very strongly down upon smoking and drinking, and rightly so I think, but not so much over eating.
Kind of let that one go, but I will not be brought under the power of any now. I'm speaking to myself here and to all others that have a problem that way.
00:35:08
I.
The grace of God is able to give us power. The Spirit of God is given to us to enable us to overcome all of these things. Do all things in moderation.
And if we would follow those guidelines in scripture, the scriptures gives us all we need.
Sometimes we hesitate to even speak on it because we condemn ourselves and what we're saying. That's all right. If what I'm saying condemns me, so be it. It needs to be said, and we have to become exercised about all of these things.
So we don't want to put anyone under law but liberty.
Does not mean license for the flesh those we have to keep these things in proper balance. You know what you hear when you talk to someone and say I'm saved by grace not works well then you can do whatever you please. That's the attitude that the world has towards grace. You're saved by grace and do whatever you want.
Let us do evil that good may come. See obviously the idea. And if you read your New Testament and are established in sound, doctor, you see that can't stand that argument, can't stand the word of God condemns that which is contrary to sound doctrine. And certainly anything that gives license for the flesh is country. There's something else here.
That we turn back to 2nd Corinthians 5 and verse.
10.
That we should bring out this morning, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in the His body according to that He had done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade man.
How how important that is for it as we're going through like the devil wants to say, do whatever you want, but you don't have to pay for it. But we will remember that everything that we do, we're going to have to give an account of it at the judgment seat of Christ. And everything that's not done for the Lord is our works are going to be burnt. And so, as I say, we should have to bear this in mind from the youngest to the oldest.
Is it for the Lord or is it for self? I would like to ask a question.
You're mentioning brother, check that. It's not the answer to put people under law.
The law is not the standard. What is the standard then, that we're to go by Christ? Very good. You have a verse, ye that saith, He abideth in Him, ought Himself also so to walk. Even as He walked He's the same. And we're sanctified to the obedience of Christ. That's a much higher standard than the law. If we walk according to Christ, we'll keep the law. We'll fulfill the law. He did.
And we'll do more than that.
He that stole steal no more let him labor working with his hands. Let me he may have to give to him let it as he that goes but beyond the law. The law said thou shall not steal. Grace says you work and then you'll have to give to someone that's you. That's great. I'd like to give two other verses that to me show that same standard in Colossians chapter 3 that apply really to everything in our lives. Colossians chapter 3 and verse.
17.
Whatsoever you do now, that takes in pretty well pretty much everything in our lives.
In Word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. That's center and verse 23. Whatsoever he do, do it heartily as to the Lord.
And not unto me. So it's Christ before the soul. He's the stint. I think it's so important get his person before us and dear young people too, that we.
To get a right evaluation of what grace is, it's important that we understand how serious sin is before God. And you don't get the right picture of either of those until you come to the cross of Christ, when you see the Lord Jesus hanging on that cross.
00:40:07
The eternal Son of God, man.
In the flesh. And there He is hanging on that cross. Why is he hanging there? To deal with the question of sin before a holy God and those things that I may have so lately done in my unsaved life.
Those were laid on him, and God's judgment fell on him and all its fury.
And he took it all. He paid the price in full on the cross.
And we hear his cry. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken? We see him give up his life. We see him shed his blood.
As the basis of our forgiveness and then to go out and say I have liberty to do my own thing. It doesn't fit into the picture, young people, it doesn't fit in the picture. Those of us are older. It doesn't fit into the picture. That's the way you get the true measure of what grace is, the true measure of what sin is.
Like to make a comment that were made this morning in prayer meeting that was mentioned about our sister in Cedar Rapids.
The verse Come to me and James, the last verse of the first chapter, pure religion undefiled before God and the Father is this.
We visit the fatherless and widows, they're affected. There is a case there and I'm sure there are many amongst the gathered states in light condition. The brother brother before in the second verse Asian men.
And you mentioned about fathers and beloved brother and I, I feel that we might apply that verse in James in this sense a little bit.
There are assemblies perhaps that are as fatherless or widows. There are assemblies where perhaps there are sisters and no bread in there to carry on the remembrance of the Lord. There may be assemblies where there is not the fatherly guidance, and so some doctrine.
I think is an excellent exercise for the brethren, and not the laborers only, but for each one.
To be mindful of the assemblies, particularly that do not have a father or do not have a husband as one to be there.
In the open, caring for the remembrance of the Lord, and then in the same sense as they are there, that they present sound doctrine. And beloved brethren, I believe that the sound doctrine that has been before us is a positive thing, is what we need. We need something positive.
And that is Paul's doctrine, isn't it? And that is what's going to emerge, the assemblies, and that is what's going to carry the spirit of those of us who are weak and feeble in these days. We need those who would furnish us the false doctrine amongst the fatherless and widows as that characterizes the assemblies amongst.
Titus 2
Reading
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Titus chapter 2, the beginning of verse one, but speak the things that become sound doctrine that the age of men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith and charity and patience. The Asian women, likewise that they be in behavior has become a holiness, not false accusers, not given too much wine, teachers of good things that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet.
Keepers at home good obedient to their own husbands. That the word of God be not blasphemy. Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded and all things showing thyself a pattern of good words in doctrine, showing on corruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech.
Cannot be condemned. He that is of a contrary, that he that is of a contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things, Not answering again, not prevoining, but showing all good fatality. But they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men.
Teaching us that relying on godliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak.
And absorb.
And reviews of all authorities let no man despise.
The world sometimes has a concept that.
As.
People grow older, they become less and less important and less valuable.
Less able to contribute in whatever particular environment they've been moving it, whether it's in the business world or whatever world it is. There is that thought that has people become older?
And I think it's especially marked in our Western society that there becomes less and less value and importance to an individual. That's certainly not what the word of God here presents to us. Is it the very first group that are addressed as to.
The effects of sound doctrine are the older, the Asian brothers, the Asian sisters, and probably there is nothing more I want to say. I say this carefully, but I suppose there is very little that has more impact or more value than our beloved older brethren who have gone on for years faithfully walking with the Lord.
And see from those years of experience.
To encourage and support and the health of their brethren. And so it's just the opposite and the things of God that with those who go on in in age and go on that way, they're very, very important. And I think too, perhaps we might say from this.
Quite responsible.
They're mentioned 1St and brethren, just as a little practical thing for those of us who are younger and others sitting in this room or even much younger. Yet the older brother represent a priceless heritage and we do well to seek before God to get the value of that heritage, the value of what God has given to our older brethren, not always through the spoken ministry and certainly not with sisters.
Quickly, but the value of lives lived for the Lord over many, many years. It's a priceless treasure that nothing else, wisdom, or anything else can give. We do well, beloved brethren, the two value that very, very much and seek to get the good out of it and to thank God for it.
What you were saying, Brother Doug reminded me it was a a brother exercised about the assembly and Brother Lawson Richards living at that time, he was in his 90s, went to visit this brother and later the brother said the things he said to me really showed me that this is the fastest walking. And I said, well, what did he say?
00:05:00
Well, he said mainly that the longer I go on, the better it gets.
Ohh.
What you say too is certainly shown out in the Apostle Paul at what you read this morning, Second Timothy 3, to go back a few verses, and I think this verse is referred to, but I like to point it out again. Paul is speaking about the apostasy that is so evident in our world today. And then he says to Timothy.
Second Timothy 3 and verse 10.
Has fully known my doctrine. What comes immediately after manner of life purpose.
Faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, but it certainly shown out of that Paul lived what he taught, and that's where they stopped.
We no doubt whether Bob could all of us here give example after example and there are examples sitting here with us today of these older ones who have gone on. But the point is brethren, that all of us, you might say by the grace of God.
Probably none of us, I should say it this way. By the grace of God, none of us probably can realize.
The impact?
That these brethren and these brothers and sisters have had on us. And I was thinking our very sitting here this afternoon, God alone in the coming day will show us the effect of faithful older brethren. We all know of brethren who have been in in assemblies we've been in and perhaps said very little.
But never, ever, hardly missed the meeting. That says something, and we're recipients of it this afternoon.
And I just want to plead with the beloved young people here. You live in a world that has little room or time or interest in elderly.
They are mightily used in Scripture if they're walking in that path that you talked about, and we need to treasure them and be thankful for them and learn them.
The Word of God is beautiful and it's moral bearing and it comes out over and over, you find.
That it's the Asian women who seem to be specifically pointed out as teaching the young women. That's a beautiful thing.
Timothy was told when he would be.
Teaching that he would teach the younger sisters in all purity and so it's not that brothers would never talk with or seek to encourage and help sisters, but the.
The and especially in the day that we live, this is beautiful to see those ancient sisters who have that godly life and walk have an absolutely vital service to perform. And that's verse four that they may teach the younger women what a vital, vital thing. Not again I say that there isn't teaching from other sources, but let it never be thought that.
Our beloved older brothers in here. Our beloved older sisters.
Don't have a vital service and ministry to perform and I want to say again, I want to say this carefully.
Brothers cannot, I believe, perform that service as a godly elder sister can to the younger sisters. And we're not, we're not able to do that. It's not that we can in some measures, I said Timothy was told to teach with all purity.
But.
If you remove godly older sisters and remove them from the scene, what a hole is left that cannot be really filled up properly any other way?
Is there anything that said to the other great deal to his grandmother and his?
Mother. Grandmother.
From a young man and he knew them and that's their role so that he would be educated.
Seems to me we need to encourage our older sisters to do this work as well.
We live in a society that tries to be self-sufficient without God and wisdom of his word.
00:10:03
And yet we can't get away from the value of the principles of God's Word. This is what God has said about who is to do the educating of the younger women and Christian principles of the older women. Sister, you've gone on the Lord. You have a responsibility to pass on those things that you have learned.
You see, it's interesting to see what it says is that they may teach the younger, young women.
To be sober, to love their husbands. I think this is the only place in scripture where a wife is.
Be taught to love their husbands. Actually, husbands are exhorted very strongly to love their wives. But if I'm not mistaken, this word for love here is the delay of love. It's the love of appreciation. And there's a way that that's to be done. And if this is done in the proper way, it strengthens home life.
I think it's so important in our day when homes are being destroyed through lack of scriptural principles. But here is an older woman that teaches a younger woman how to love her husband. Interesting, isn't it? To love their children? How do you do it? To love their children is not to give them everything they want.
But according to the psychology of our day, you're not supposed to correct the child. You're supposed to let them have everything they want. That's not loving them.
They need to be taught sometimes younger sisters, how to love their children, to be discreet, chaste keepers at home. There's lots of things in today's world where the woman is encouraged to go to work. There's a lot of things that she can do at home to supplement.
The family budget If it's necessary to work, you look at the virtuous woman in.
Proverbs 31, she is one that did some business at home. She knew what to do. She could do in that home circle without abandoning her home. So there's a lot that can be taught and her older sisters need to realize that in a day when every Christian principle is under attack that they are ones that can go in and be a help and strengthening the home.
I think some of the basics we got in the descriptions, we could go back to the very beginning where it said the Lord God created the male and female, and we live in a day when that principle is trying to be set aside by Satan's world. But there's a verse in Deuteronomy 22 That I'd like to. It gives a little picture, I think of perhaps a principle that we get in a picture form here that might be an encouragement to some of.
All of us concerned with this, what we're talking about.
It says in Deuteronomy 22. It says in verse #5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man.
Neither shall a man put on a woman's garment. The character of a woman is distinctive to the home, and that's what we're talking about. The young, the older women would instruct the younger. So the character of the woman's garment would bring that character of the female in the household directing the household. But let's read the next verse.
Verse six. If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree or on the ground.
Oh, now we got a picture of the birds nest. You know, that's like the home. We can also apply it to the assembly, whether it's the assembly of the people of God, where is like a nest where the young are nurtured with the word of God. We can apply it that way. But let's bring it back to #1 The family. And here's a little picture of the bird's nest and the mother bird. What's she doing? It says whether they the young ones or eggs.
And the damn sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the damn with the young.
But verse 7 But thou shalt, and any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee, that it may be well with thee that thou mayest belong thy days. And there's another place where it speaks about the nest, that they weren't to rob the nest always to leave a young bird or the egg in the nest. I think that's the principle it's seen here. But the wonderful thing, beloved, is that the the apostle Paul could say first that which is natural, afterwards that which.
He said what things were written a part-time or written for what? Our instruction and learning in picture form in the Old Testament, that doctrine as our brother was bringing before us the teaching of the New Testament and the two combined to give you and me a foundation. That is, is, is. I want to use the word viable, but I want a simpler word, practical, a practical picture. How can I apply it well when in the assembly?
00:15:26
I need to be very careful not to upset the Mother's spirit. What's the mother's spirit? The nurture of the young. If we could almost make a horse of it. The nurture of the young. The nurture of the young.
And so the apostles giving us something that goes way back to the very beginning, and the Lord Moses that gives us a picture perhaps for our instruction or encourage. It seems to me that the subject here answers that. I think that's certainly a valid question, but it seems the subject here answers that. It says that they teach young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children.
It talks about to be discreet chaste keepers at home.
Obedient to their own husbands. Those are specific moral subjects that I believe are much more fittingly taught by sisters. It doesn't mean because we still have a diverse where Timothy is going to be teaching and he's teaching younger sisters, but he does it with all purity. So there's there's a certainly an ability and an openness for a brother, as you point out, perhaps a Sunday school.
Or young people that certainly is acceptable, but there are particular realms of things that would get into details that would get into kinds of teaching that really of godly elderly sister is is wonderfully fit to teach that may be very difficult and in fact in some cases would be unseemly for a brother to teach brother and I noticed that.
Almost each of these categories the characteristic.
That is urged upon us is to be sober. You look, it's in verse 2 for the Asian men, the first thing that they be sober.
That the young women first floor teach them to be sober.
Very good young men likewise exhort to be sober and in the summary in verse 12, teaching us that denying ungodliness worldly lest we should live overly.
What does that tell us? Accomplice that, That with which we are concerned is a serious matter. We belong to the Lord, have a responsibility of war in this life. It's not frivolous. It's not superficial. I take it that sober doesn't mean necessarily that you go around with a long face, but it means that you're serious about your loss. So each one of us has that responsibility if we're observed by others.
We don't come across those who are privileged.
Treating things as if there are no consequences, particularly when we consider the eternal consequences of being with or without Christ. So it strikes me that that's a common theme. And I'd like to point out that one of my favorite thoughts in Scripture is that we should be joyful. We know that it's repeated before or repeated to us in many ways.
Desire that we should be full of joy, and what makes us full of joy is to know one is a true God, to know that we have been made fit for His presence for all eternity. To know of His constant love, not only in forgiving of His Son to die in Calvary sports and his care every day in the way. So that's a joyful thing.
But to be sober I think is most important in a day for men. Look for frivolous, light hearted things that distract the mind.
Turn their minds away from serious matters. And so I think it's important that we each recognize, no matter what category we're in, male or female, young or old, that we are to be sober. Life is a serious matter. We have the most wonderful resources and your children of God, but we should reflect it in our lives and never give anyone the thought.
Other than the fact that life on this earth is a sober matter.
Umm, **** if we could turn to 2nd Kings, I think there's a little picture there that points out very practically what you've been bringing before us. And I think it's very vital for us to to under score that, that you've been sharing in Second Kings Chapter 6. We know the story well.
00:20:12
There was this horrible famine in Samaria and it brought them to this Strait. In verse 25, verse 24, the enemy comes up in the seizure scenario, verse 25, and there was a great famine in Samaria. And behold, they besieged it until an ass's head was sold through force, four pieces of silver, and the 4th part of a cab of doves dumped for five pieces of silver.
We live in an incredible moral famine today in this world that we live in and the thing that marks it is there's a there's a tremendous price put on foolishness and fill and people will pay huge amounts fortune to in this moral famine in which we live to indulge themselves with what answers to the ***** head and it behooves us brethren, as those who belong to Christ to be ever so.
As our brother Nick is brought out that we do not by our ways act as though we too are putting a great price on food and filth, we must walk separate from that. Rejoice always, rejoice evermore is the verse. We have every right to be rejoiced.
But what the world values brethren, May God preserve us over here to not put stock and not put emphasis and interest in the foolishness in the field of this famine start world make a point that.
You see how it affected the children?
They consumed the children make your point We're speaking about being sober. What's the opposite of sober being intoxicated. What's your brain before us about the these terrible the greatest things what the world is feeding on southern and if I get cite a simple story of a man that years ago there was a brother in California that had had a property out in the desert.
And he took a brother from the meeting. They were both at the Lord's table. This man was a multimillionaire.
And he came to the brother. He said, brother, I want to show you something that I have out in the desert.
And he took him, drove him out to this place near Boron, California, and he stood there on this little spot and he pointed to him, to this vast land in column 1700 acres that he had the title to it. He said underneath that 1700 acres is the world's second largest Borax deposit.
You think of that?
And the brother stood there with an arms folded, and he said nothing for a while, and finally he said one word. Intoxicating.
We talk about being sober, but there's things of this world, brother, that can we can become intoxicated with. I'm not saying that God may not prosper some people in their work and their business and so forth, but to have that to be intoxicated with. And then he wanted a couple of younger brothers that were in the meeting to go out of the velvet form. And one of them said to him, he said you could draw $7500 a day by hauling that Borax out from underneath his sand.
And the brother said to him, what about being close to the meeting?
Oh, he said you could start a meeting out there. Well, I just mentioned this. The brother told him. He said, no brother, I would rather be dependent on the Lord and live or where the meeting was and be with the Lords people. I just mentioned that because sometimes the temperature comes in different ways, even from among our brethren where we might be tempted or I could have a lot of money in the bank.
And this is the same man said to the brothers, you could have $100,000 in the bank. And the brother said to him, I'd like to ask you one question.
Could I learn dependence and obedience on the Lord if I had $100 on $1000 in the bank? And the man thought for several minutes and finally he said no. And the brother said, that's your answer. I just mentioned that because we've been speaking about sobriety, but sobriety includes a lot of things of this world. And our brother mentioned a cab of dogs. Don't. That's what this world is feeding on. And what have they got? Satan's got this great arena.
Of activity that you see with your eyes and you hear with your ears and they type it right into the living room of homes and people expect the children to resist the satans intoxication system. That's what it's about. I'd like to read 2 scriptures 1.
00:25:02
Connection with what Doug said and one connection with what Bob just said in Ephesians 5 verse one. He therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, that given himself for us, and offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour but fornication.
And all uncleanness or covetousness.
But it not be once named among you as become a St. I hear is the verse. I was thinking of her in connection with Doug's comments. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. And I want to read that fifth verse, and I hope it comes home in real power to us.
For this she know that no ***** ****** nor unclean person.
Nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. So as we were saying this morning in the reading, Those that would turn the grace of God into.
Dissoluteness.
And evil living, they will never see the Kingdom of God.
He had no inheritance and the comment the verse that I want to read in connection with what you said Bob is First Timothy six First Timothy 6 and verse 9. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts.
Which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil.
Which while some coveted after they have heard from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Now a word to the man of God. But thou, O man of God, are you a man of God? But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life.
Where unto thou art also called, and has professed a good profession before many witnesses.
Does grace give freedom to do as we wish, to do as the flesh desires? No, not a word of it, not a bit of it. We have all of these scriptures to support godly holy living and condemn anything that's contrary to that. They that will be rich, isn't it? It's not they that are rich, they that will be rich. And I like in South America sometimes going over these scriptures.
Alas, the brother. And who is it that?
Has the love of money a rich man or a poor man? First answer I get inevitably as a rich man, say the poor doesn't have a love of money. Well, after thinking a bit, they admit that that's the truth too. But I think it's the will that's the intoxicating thing. It's the will, the direction. This is even Todd in Christian circles to be godliness. Gain is godliness. You show that God has blessed you if you have lots of things.
That is Judaism, that is not Christianity, and I think it is important that we distinguish that it is the will to be rich. That can be intoxicated and it can affect us as believers and the Lord Jesus if we're not being careful.
You know, you mentioned about joy, brother, I love to think of that first part of the first epistle of John. If I could just read a few verses, brother Hey ho used to test this with this verse. Let me read it the way he would read it in first John one it says that which was from the beginning.
Which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon on our hands and handled at the word of life. But the life was manifested, and we have seen it and bear witness. And Sean, to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us, that's which we have seen and heard, declaring unto you that He also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, and these things.
00:30:01
To you that your joy may be full.
Used to read it that your joy may be half full. Many would stop and everyone in the conferences was at a conference meeting. Everyone would be shaking their head. You know, he said that I say that, right, brother? But first it would shake their heads no, but he would emphasize the point that your joy may be full. And what was it that the psalmist says in the 23rd Psalm? He says my cuff runs over. That's the full joy.
Is that right?
In thy presence is full of security and at my right hand their pleasure is getting back to our chapter verse five, the teaching of the older sisters of the younger sisters. Isn't that wonderful brethren? I mean sisters, now I'm talking to you more is the result of order in the home.
Is that the word of God is not last thing? Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful?
To think that through that teaching and through proper help in the home of the older to the younger, the word of God is not gladly. I mean, that is so wonderful. It's in the practical down to earth, where sometimes we say the rubber meets the road.
Christianity, it's right there that you bear a testimony in a way so that the word of God is not blessing. But isn't it precious, brethren, that if there are young sisters who have not grown up in Christian homes, here's the remedy. Older godly sisters that can teach them. And that precious that every circumstance of our life, God knows it and he makes provision for it and he.
Do it and would do it using brothers and sisters. So whether having the joy as I did and many of us here have of growing up in Christian homes or not growing up in Christian homes and being and now being saved and wanting to go on for the Lord, Here's a here's a wonderful service, dear sisters.
To teach those that haven't had that wonderful privilege. And what she teaches them is not a study in Daniel and Revelation, but she teaches them home things, how to be a good mother and a Good Wife. How important that is. Sometimes a girl gets married and she doesn't know how to cook.
She doesn't know how to make a bed, she really doesn't. And she has to be taught now for.
Maybe her mother was a drunkard, maybe she was ungodly unsaved, so she saved right out of the world. She needs help in these things, and an older sister can do that. And when it says that the word of God be not blasphemy, does that give us the sense that although the world departs from godly order very often, they know full well?
What godly order is not perhaps in the way that they should, but man has a conscience. Man knows that many of these things are wrong.
Some of us were just talking the other day, and I suppose it doesn't hurt to mention it publicly, how people are so ready to criticize the president of this country while in fact their own lives in many cases are not much better. But they expect better things of a man who takes a public position and the position of leadership. And the world expects better things of you and of me as Christians, doesn't it? And I think it's.
Significant that the reference to the Word of God not being blasphemy is in connection with young sisters in the home. Today we see those who would advocate women getting out into the workplace and doing all kinds of things, and if you were to ask them, is this right, is this proper, is this the way it should be, they would answer yes. But I have spoken to some of them in private conversation.
And when it really gets down, as Brother Bob said, to where the rubber meets the road.
They will tell you the incredible struggles, the incredible difficulties, the incredible guilty feelings and so on that they go through and trying to bring together home responsibilities and the responsibilities of work. And if you read the not that I'm advocating it, but if you read some of the magazines of today, many of the articles are man's attempt to overcome the difficulties that result when God's orders departed from.
Well, the world is looking at you and at me and saying, well, if they really are believers, if they really do hold the word of God to be their guide, then let's see if it works. Is it working in practice? What kind of a family does that believer have? What kind of a home life does he have? How do his children behave? How do that husband and wife get along with one another? Is there real love and joy and happiness in their relationship?
00:35:27
Well, these are very searching things for us, aren't they? We've been speaking much about the sisters. The brothers have their part here too now. And it's every bit as public and every bit as evident. It says the young men likewise exhort to be sober minded and it goes on in these various things. Why verse 8? Sound speech that cannot be condemned. And I'm going to read this out of New Translation. It's really quite striking in verse 8.
Sound word not to be condemned that he who has opposed may be ashamed having no evil thing to say about us when we read it in the King James and that's the way it's translated in the text is receptors. It's you but beloved young brothers your actions, your grabbing your soberness, your sound speech is going to cause that those in the world who seek to find fault and criticize and make life of Christianity of believers that they'll have.
No evil thing to say about us, corporate. Us as a group, us as those called Christians. It's more than just you. It's more than just your life that's affected. But beloved young brothers, we've been talking here much about our beloved sisters and how important it is.
Your role is equally important in terms of the testimony that is given to the name of Christ. They were first called Christians. At Antioch, we carry the name of Christ. The world doesn't think much that now. It's kind of almost like a social thing, but it isn't to God.
And those who bear that name ought to bear it, men and women, in a way that brings honor to that precious name, Amen. That name that was given to the early Christians was the name of contempt. It was not approvation. We've been living in a society where to be a Christian is to be approved, but the society back then when they were first called Christians.
Their followers of that despised Jesus of Nazareth. It's interesting here in verse six is specifically the charge he's to give to the young men.
Young men likewise exhort to these silver minded. And then in verse seven he reflects on Titus in all things showing thyself a pattern. And then he goes through those different things of good works and doctrine, showing uncorruptness, gravities and serious sound speech that cannot be condemned. It's interesting.
The the teaching of a good example.
Has real real weight. May not say a lot in words.
But the example says a lot.
Somebody.
Made the comment some time ago that I really liked.
Was a comment from somebody else, I forget where he got it, that at all times preach Christ. If necessary, use words you know. I was rather impressed on my visits to Romania to hear many of the dear believers there, not only those who are now happily gathered to the Lord's name, but many of them.
In the course of meeting various ones and traveling around the country.
They and their motives, their ambitions.
That nothing has changed. Technology may have changed in our modern life, but human nature hasn't changed.
It's not enemies of Christ, but enemies of the cross. That is, if I don't pick up, if I'm not willing to walk in separation, and the cross is that which separates me from the world. Well, an individual. And perhaps if they didn't know him or her very well, they would ask someone who didn't know them and use words, of course, in the Romanian language like this.
Is he serious? Is she serious? And when this was translated for me, I understood immediately what they were saying.
It was just what we get here in the sixth verse, sober minded as we, we don't need to dwell on it. We've already had the truth brought out that it doesn't mean walking around with a long face. That means being alive to the soberness and seriousness of following a rejected Christ. And those dear believers knew what it meant because throughout those communist years, if one were going to bear a testimony for Christ.
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You had to be, to use their word, serious.
It was number like thing to bear the name of Christ during those years. It might cost you imprisonment, it might cost you bodily harm, it might cost you the loss of whatever little you had. It might even cost you your life. And so they would ask that question and they still do, even though the threat of that persecution is no longer there in the same way. Is he serious? Is she serious? And I listened for the answers because.
Sometimes the answer was a very positive yes, sometimes it was a somewhat qualified yes, and sometimes it was a very
Clear and definite, no. But they categorize people in that way. And I believe that the world is looking on, and perhaps other believers too, on you and me to see whether in fact we're serious. We say again, it does not mean for young people to behold beyond your years. It does not mean to live and talk like someone who's 10:15, 20-30 years older than you are. But it does mean.
The seriousness, the solemnity of following a rejected Christ, whether we live in North America or whether we live in a land where it's much more difficult. I noticed the word in the new translation in verse six is young men likewise exhort to be discreet. Discreet says sober minded.
Discreet explain about it, not overly forward.
Showing respect to the elders.
Keeping one's place.
As a young man getting honored to whom honors do so, eyes are all parts of description. I've been impressed with how much good works is spoken of in the New Testament. Brother mentioned here in verse 7.
Showing myself as a pattern of good works.
In this epistle, I think it's mentioned six times for once in chapter one, twice in chapter 2, three times in chapter 3.
But good works has a tremendous part in Christianity, and sometimes we emphasize the matter, and it needs to be emphasized that salvation is a matter of faith without works for God. But.
As before, men, brethren, it has There is a there's a necessity of good works. It's exhorted again and again and again. We're not saved by good works, but we are saved to work good works. And it's to be on the alert all times conscious. What can I do to show?
Through my activity.
Some kindness to others. In Hebrews chapter 10 it says, Let us provoke one another unto love and to good works.
Consider one another to provoke. So I consider my brother. I know there's certain things that he likes, so I do something that would provoke in the right direction rather than the Lord help us. That's what's characteristic of Christians, that they're occupied in good works and it should be a vital part of our activity. What are you doing today?
That would be a help to somebody else. We live in such a self-centered society. All we think of it is what I would like to do, what would be neat for me and interesting for me.
Get beyond yourself, dear young people.
And that goes for us all. Let's get beyond ourselves. Let's think of somebody else, think of the Lord. Let's think of the need of someone else. And in thinking of someone else, you're going to find your own self ministry too, without even wanting to minister to yourself. That will be the case.
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He's at water that shall be watered himself. That paraphrase something that you just said. The next three verses I like to read the verse #11.
I'm going to paraphrase a little to make it personal like our brother Bob just did. But the grace of God that that brings salvation hath appeared to me, teaching me denying on godliness and worldly lust that I should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. What's the object in view? Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and my Savior Jesus Christ who gave.
For me, that He might redeem me from all iniquity, and purify unto himself of his Julia 1St, and zealous of good work. Let me just to bring it right down to where we're sitting, some good works.
I'm dressing young people now. Before you leave your room in the morning, is your bed made? Have you picked up your clothes? Put them in the hamper if they have to be washed as you walk through the house.
Do you pick up things that maybe are in the way that someone could stumble over or he just passed them by as though they weren't there? Do you help with the dishes at night?
Do you go out to the barn and bring in the eggs or whatever? Each one has their own assignments, you know, And I've been in homes where each one after the meal, they go to their assignment. One does the dishes, one clears the table and one washes, 1 dries and on and on and on. Everyone has something to do. Are those good works? Absolutely. Absolutely. When you're sitting in, sitting in a room, young person.
And an older person walks in.
You totally ignore them or do you greet them and do you stand up and offer them your chair or do you act as though they hadn't come in? Every one of those little things are good works and so missing sometimes you're you're in a purely world with family and the children show more respect and good manners than the children.
Sometimes.
I think in practical ways, sometimes you can walk into a meeting and you know, personal passions should buy and this is so you weren't there. Don't they don't say hello or anything like that. And let me give you the positive side of one meeting. I come in, as soon as I come in, the children line up in front of me. Go to Stratford, how are you? The next one comes in, how are you?
That just is such a joy and unfortunately.
Far too uncommon. So good works. There's so many ways. Visiting a nursing home, passing out tracks, visiting a sick neighbor, using your time when maybe the others are out, doing some fun things to pass out some tracks in in the in the neighborhood. There's all kinds of good works that we can do.
That we don't do because we please ourselves.
But we say, because I think you landed on this, Good works are not necessarily large organized efforts. Good works as appreciated by our Lord, as we know from reading the work of those things that are not necessarily seen of others.
Things that we do that his honor and glory, not looking for the approval of others. So good work is almost our state of mind, aren't they?
Good works or thoughtfulness. For those about us, good works are consideration.
They aren't necessarily giving large amounts of money or things of that nature. So it's almost a state of mind, isn't it? And this relates to the thing that all things you do, you should do for the glory of God, because God is truly a loving God. He cares for us. He provides for us, He delights to bless.
And if we are to walk in the steps of our Savior, who could weep over Jerusalem? Who could manifest the love of God to those of lowly estate?
If we're to walk in those steps, we don't have to do grand things, do we? It's really an attitude, the state of art.
There are greater things to be done, but where it starts is in the little things, isn't it? And I think that's something to be encouraged. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. So start with the little things. For as much as somebody doesn't notice you or nobody notices you, keep on. The Lord is watching. And if you're faithful.
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And those little things that the Lord gives you to do.
The Lord is going to give you more to do. He will. That's the principle of God's Word. And so if you're faithful in that, the Lord is going to use you in larger things as well.
The world puts a great stock in what it calls calls common courtesy. There's nothing wrong with common courtesy, but we have a far higher motive for displaying what's called common courtesy. Being kind, tender hearted, forgiving one another even as God, for Christ's sake, forgiving you so that.
Kind and tender hearted cover the whole umbrella of whatever.
The Lord might lay on your heart as things to do. They ought to be based on kindness, tender heartedness. Have we been treated kindly in a tender hearted way by our Lord Jesus? Every one of us know the answer to that. That's the that's the standard, the measure which ought to measure whatever we do in our world. And I say again, we don't do it as the world teaches.
Because that makes you well thought of and you can get ahead in the world. We do it because it's what's pleasing to the Lord. We have a much higher standard because of the way we've been treated by our Lord Jesus, and it ought to be the natural outflow of our heart to seek ways to show kindness to others.
The next verse of Ephesians 432 That you quoted it says even as God, who for Christ sake hath forgive you.
Suspended, Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify you. Glorify your Father, which is inevitable, Beloved.
You know, we are so occupied with selfish horse and and we'd like to do something and someone will say among the same, but who did that? Oh, brother so and so or sister so and so they they helped, they did this or that, but how much nicer it is if something has happened.
And they don't know who they'll they and the man of the brother to pass on a nose.
We so likely knows and glorify your Father.
And noticed by all but one. He noticed.
I going to got to read a verse in Luke 17 and verse 7.
But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he has come from the field?
Go and sit down to meet, and will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may Sup and gird thyself, and serve me till I have eaten and drunken Afterward thou shalt eat and drink.
He thanked that servant because he did the things that were commanded him. I try not so likewise ye when he shall have done all those things which are commanded. You say we are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do. That's the other side, isn't it? He rewards us for everything that we do for him.
That's Grace.
Because why should he reward us? The servant's duty is to serve his master. And when we serve our master as we should, why shouldn't he reward us for that? But he does. He does the next thing in this verse seven, I think is so important too.
In doctrine showing.
Uncorruptness.
It's the natural human tendency. Perhaps we can say that when our lives don't measure up to the standard of the Word of God is to try to change those standards.
Better, brethren, if we don't measure up to the standards of the Word of God.
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To confess it, to admit it, and to seek to go on.
Better confessing it to the Lord, but not to change those standards. I think it's so important in doctrine showing uncorrect. We've mentioned President Clinton, someone mentioned him.
We can learn a lot from him. Proverbs says He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsake of them shall find mercy. We can learn that.
If we lie, we will be found out. I don't have the scripture right at my tongue for that, but one brother said this and I really appreciate it. Appreciate it reading it.
He said we made punishment for lying in our family when we raised our children, much more severe than other failures, other sins, because that's not really a failure. It's a sin of lying. It's a sin. Satan is a liar from the beginning. He's the father of lies. And we made punishment for lying so serious.
So severe.
That our children were afraid of the consequences of being caught by it. And when we do lie, we will be caught. We will find that we have to lie to cover up that lie, and lie to cover up that one, and so on. And finally we will be caught. Well, that has happened.
That has happened.
He's no worse than any of us by nature.
We all have that sinful heart, but we can learn a lot from what's happened.
To this man who is our president, whom we are to respect for his office, not for what he's done, but.
Like if if your child gets away with lying, then he won't tell you the truth. You never know when you can believe them.
But if you're they're taught not to lie, then they're they're taught that when they do sin, they'll tell you the truth of what they've done and they won't try to cover it up with a lie. Well, I thought that observation as I read it was very excellent. All liars last book in the Bible shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and Grinstone, which is the second death. I used to wonder why.
Put there. Why is that so important? Satan committed the first lie. You shall not sure, God said In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die. And he completely contradicted that and he lied. Isn't it nice?
I I I've often made this comment when I worked that the most common sin I came across is every day, repeatedly was people lying? If you're right in the eyes lie.
Why? Who can you trust?
Isn't it a faithful man who can find?
Required in Stuart's that a man be found faithful. He says what he means and he means what he says, and he won't go back on it.
And it's refreshing to find such a person.
One who is true, they ask the Lord Jesus, Who art thou? He said altogether and absolutely what I say to him. There was the truth number #23.
God is not a man that is not a man that he should lie. That's the verse. He was clean.
Telling 1/2 truth.
Abraham did that. He kind of justified himself, He said, Well, she is half my.
She's my half sister. When he said that Sarah was his queen.
Ananias did that too. He gave a portion of money as if it were the wholesale of the price of the property.
She told the lie, he acted a lie, and we're all guilty. Comes back to Jeremiah 17. Nine of them.
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Quote it, the heart is deceitful and desperate and wicked, and who can know? And then the Lord says, I the Lord search the heart. It says, He that covered the sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth them, and forsaken them shall find mercy.
So that's what the grace comes in and makes a provision with his repentance. Now grace. Genesis 6 God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil. God repented that he'd made man on the earth.
Noah found grace in his sake.
Two Examples of Sobriety and Good Works
Address—J.A. Kaiser
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.
We've been very thankful.
If I can speak on behalf of the local brethren for.
The ministry we've enjoyed here this past weekend and.
As I was listening to the reading meeting, I just made the second one yesterday.
2 Words seem to be preeminent in the Titus chapter 2.
They were both referred to quite a bit. Those two words were sobriety and good works.
And.
Thinking about that since that time.
Two Bible characters have come to mind which kind of exemplify that, and with the Lord's help, I'd like to direct our attention to.
These two and we perhaps we can glean a little something for our souls. Genesis.
Chapter.
5.
The first one.
Genesis chapter 5 and verse 21.
And Enoch lived 60 and five years and begat Methuselah.
And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters.
And all the days of Enoch were 365 years, and Enoch walked with God.
And he was not, for God took him.
Twice in this little passage it says of Enoch.
He walked with God.
I can't imagine a more sobering experience.
And yet.
A more joyful experience.
The word sobriety is not found in.
Titus chapter 2 or in the book of Titus, but there are numerous references to gravity.
To being sober, to sober speech and sober behavior and that sort of thing.
And.
I think of Enoch.
Now Enoch was a family man. He had a son named Methuselah.
We're not talking much about Methuselah's spirituality.
We don't read much about any of Enoch's friends. Doesn't even mention his wife. Does Enoch walked with God?
Could any of us ever ask?
For a better epitaph than that.
Is there anything greater that could be said about any of us than?
He or she walked with God.
We know the history of this world.
It began very good.
In the following chapter we find that God declared that it was very corrupt.
Enoch was in that transition phase.
You and I are living in transition phases too. Time when this earth is daily growing more corrupt.
It's a day that calls for individual faithfulness, and that's what Enoch is, a picture of, a person who individually walked with God.
Now it's a privilege to walk with God together, and 1St Corinthians we find the expression that we are laborers together with God and there's such a thing as collective fellowship with God. That's a wonderful thing. But then later in First Corinthians, it says in First Corinthians 7 referring to a person who's in difficult circumstances.
Maybe you should look at it for a moment.
One Corinthians 7.
1St Corinthians 7 verse 21 Art thou called being a servant?
Perhaps a slave. Care not for it, but if thou mayest be free, use it rather.
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For he that is called in the Lord being a servant, is the Lord's freeman likewise also.
He that is called being free is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price. Be not the servants of men. Now look at first Corinthians 724. Brethren, let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God. That's the best of companionship.
That's the best of fellowship. It's the place of power.
Three times in the Gospels we read.
From the lips of the Lord Jesus. With God, all things are possible. And so I'd like for us each to remember. Take this simple thought away.
We don't read of anything great or dramatic that Enoch did, except that it does mention in Jude that he prophesied.
We don't get detail of his life life like we do of Abraham or some of the other patriarchs.
It's all summed up.
In this little phrase.
He walked with God.
And would to God.
That would sum up our lives.
And so Enoch perhaps brings a force, the character of soberness or sobriety that was brought before us in Titus. Now there was also another aspect in Titus brought before us another thing which was highly commanded. It's mentioned seven times in the book of Titus. In one way or another it's referred to, and that is good works.
Good works.
This world has come to a place where it despises.
Mere good works. The world wants something flashing, something fancy, something dramatic.
Something impressive.
And we see gods the evaluation of our Lord in Mark chapter 14.
We find another example of a nameless person who did a good work, Mark 14 verse three, and being in Bethany in the House of Simon the leper as he sat at me, that's the Lord Jesus.
There came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard.
Very precious.
And she broke the box and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste of the ointment made, for it might have been sold for more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor.
And they murmured against her, And Jesus said, Let her alone, Why trouble ye her she hath wrought.
A good work on me, for ye have the poor with you always, and whenever ye will, ye may do them good.
But me ye have not always. She hath done what she could.
She has come beforehand to anoint my body for the bearing.
Now there's another wonderful epitaph. She hath done what she could.
Could anyone ever say more of you or me than that?
She hath done what she could.
This was not the Queen of Sheba.
It was this was an unnamed woman she came in and I believe by the leading of the Spirit of God, certainly with an appropriately.
A tuned heart. She came in, She took what she had, A box of ointment.
And she anointed the Lord's head with it.
And she was misunderstood.
She was criticized.
She was despised.
But she had the God's mind about it.
And the Lord said of her, She hath done a good work on me.
Now that's what we had in in Titus chapter 2. Good works.
Not necessarily something greatly appreciated. Not necessarily something great in the eyes of the world.
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But the Lord said of this, And when she hath done what she could, you know that reminds me of the story of the widow and 2nd Kings 4.
The prophet came to her and said, what do you have in your house?
What do you have handy?
And that's what God used.
The Lord puts us each in different circumstances.
The world may despise us, we may not have anything great in the eyes of the world.
What we can each do?
What we can.
We can each take the little things the Lord has given us and used them for Him.
The little opportunities because you know, this thing this woman did was fairly private.
It was strange, but she had the right motive.
And the Lord said that she hath done a good work on me.
Do you and I have that same condemnation, that same commendation?
About what we do every day, that we have done a good work on or for the Lord.
Now the world looks for us to do great works.
A work that has the Lords Commendation is a great work.
Any work done with his approval is a great work.
Hath wrought a good work on me.
She hath done.
What she could.
So let's think about Enoch in this unnamed woman and these two simple statements. Enoch walked with God.
She hath done.
What she could.
Two statements that cannot.
Be excelled.
2 and 3 John
Address—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Last night we in the gospel we heard.
Of the one who speaks of himself as the truth.
I want to read these two short epistles.
Where we find this word repeatedly.
Second, John the Elder unto the elect Lady and her children, whom I love in the truth.
And not I only, but also all they that have known the truth.
For the truth's sake, which dwelleth in US and shall be with us forever.
Grace be with you, mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.
And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another, and this is love, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment that, as you have heard from the beginning, he should walk in it.
For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an Antichrist. Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.
He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house.
Neither bid him godspeed.
For he that biddeth him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds.
Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink, but I trust to come unto you and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.
The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen.
3rd John.
The elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prosper.
For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest, to the brethren and to strangers which have borne witness of thy charity before the Church.
Whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well.
Because that for his name's sake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles.
We therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers.
To the truth.
I wrote unto the Church, But diatrophies, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, praying against us with malicious words, and not content therewith. Neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would and casteth them out of the Church.
Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. Either doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
Demetrius hath good report of all men and of the truth itself. Yeah, and we also bear record, and you know that our record is true.
I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee. But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face.
Peace be to thee, our friends. Salute thee. Greet the friends by name.
These two epistles very short.
Supplement each other.
You've noticed in the reading of them the word truth occurs over and over again. You might say that second John is negative.
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And third, John is positive.
The key verse in.
The second epistle.
Is verse 10 if there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine.
Receive him not.
Into your house. Neither Bid him godspeed.
Second, John is a warning.
To this elect lady and her children and instruction as to how she should deal with those that come to her as as Christian teachers, but don't bring the doctrine of Christ. She's not to receive them.
It's a warning against enemies. Verse seven. Many deceivers are entered into the world. Deceivers and enemies, antichrists.
3rd John. The key verse is verse 8.
We ought therefore to receive such that we might be fellow helpers.
To the truth.
I'm pointing this out because if we are going to walk in the truth, we have to know who the enemies are and who the friends are. Notice how Third John ends Greet the friends by name. The friends are those whom we are to receive.
To welcome, to have fellowship with those that are deceivers and antichrists are those who are we. We are to refuse and to reject and not to receive.
Both of these epistles are written to individuals, the 1St to the elect Lady and her children.
In the line of responsibility in the family, the the husband is the most responsible and then the wife and then the children last.
So second John is written to a woman and her children.
If these epistles were written according to nature, 2 John would be addressed to the man.
And third, John would be addressed to the woman, but that's not the way it is.
Second, John is addressed to the woman, the one who has the least responsibility in the family.
No, the the children have the least.
I remember one time when I was working out in the garage and doorbell knock was on the front door and the two men engaged my young son in a conversation. I knew nothing about it and I came in. He said I had a nice talk with two Christians and I said let me see their literature.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
And I smiled and I said, no, these were not friends, these were antichrists. And he was completely fooled because of the way they came across. He did not discern, he did not know. Well, second, John is written to the elect lady and her children, and each one of us should know enough truth so that we know who the enemy is when he appears.
Even the children.
In fact, if you turn back for a moment to the second chapter of First John, it's to the children.
Verse 18 through the family is broken up into fathers, young men and children, little children. And verse 18 he takes up the the little children in the family, and he says it is the last time, as you have heard, that Antichrist shall come. Even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time they went out from us. These antichrists, they were not of us.
For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out.
That they might be made manifest. That they were not all of us, or more correctly, that all were not of us.
But ye now he's writing to the children, the those in the family that are the most immature, he says. But ye have an unction.
From the Holy One.
And you know all things.
And that doesn't mean that the young ones in the family of God have an understanding of all the truth in the Bible, but they have the one who is the truth. Spirit of God is called the truth as well as the Lord Jesus is called the truth, and the Word is called the truth.
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They have the Spirit of God dwelling in them, and they have the word of truth to guide them.
So he says, I've not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it.
And that no lies of the truth. You can't be in the family of God if you don't know the truth to some extent. And we have the one within us that is the truth. And it's about the one outside of us, the Lord Jesus, who is also the truth. And then he says, who's the liar? But he that denies Jesus is the Christ. He's Antichrist that denies the Father and the son. Well, let's go back to second John. I point that out to show that this instruction as.
Responsibility to know the true from the false is that of every.
Age group Everyone who is part of the family of God, whether you're young or not.
You need to know who Jesus is, and you need to know if someone comes and does not present a true Christ to you, that you don't open the door to such. You don't greet them, you don't fellowship with them, You recognize them for being.
Deceivers.
He rejoiced, John did second John No greatly, he says, when he found of thy children, he doesn't say they were all walking in the truth, but of thy children walking in truth.
As we have received a commandment from the Father.
Now I beseech you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
And then he defines what he's saying. This is love. You see, there's a pseudo love which is extant out there and Christendom where we're just to throw our arms around everyone and ignore what they're teaching and what their doctrine is and whether they're bringing the truth or not. And we're to receive them under the banner of Christian love. That's not what the Bible teaches. That's not what this epistle teaches.
It says we are to discern whether they're bringing the truth as to who the Lord Jesus is.
And if they're not, they're to be refused. This is love. He defines it, verse six, that we walk after his commandments. We walk in obedience.
This is the commandment that, as you have heard from the beginning, He should walk in it. For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess, not take the word that out. It's not the confession of a fact that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, but it's the confession of a person who came in the flesh.
You couldn't say then it would make no sense to speak of you and me coming in the flesh. That's the only way we could come. But here was one that existed before He came in flesh. John 114 says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. In the beginning was the Word. There He was in the eternity past, and He created all things, brought all things into existence.
The the expression of the very mind of God, the Word. But then He became something that he was not before He became flesh. He became a man.
The Word became flesh. That's what this is saying. Jesus Christ come in flesh. This person that preexisted his coming in flesh as God the Son, He's come in flesh. He's no man. So this truth that we're responsible to hold, and whether you're a young one in the family or a young man or a child or a young man or a father, you're responsible to know who the Lord Jesus He is, God and man and one person.
That's the very rock foundation upon which the church is built.
Who say ye that I, the Son of Man, AM. And they said, well, there's some say that.
John the Baptist, or Elias, or Jeremiah, Sir, one of the prophets. And then the Lord said, Whom say ye that I have?
And Peter answered, Thou art the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh, flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. I'm quoting from Matthew 16.
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And then he tells Peter that he had received this as a revelation from the Father.
You know who Jesus is because God has made it known to your soul that He is very God and very man. Truly God and truly man come in flesh. He came to where we were.
So that we might know God.
We could never know him. Had he remained in inscrutable deity, we could not have known him.
He had to come to where we were. He had to become one of us, a man flesh, the man Christ Jesus. There's one mediator between God and men. This go between this mediator has to be God so he could lay his hand on God, and he has to be a man so he could lay his hand on you and me.
One mediator, one connecting link between God and man. He came in the flesh.
The Word became flesh. That's what he's talking about.
And anyone that brings a doctrine that sullies either side of that truth, his deity or his humanity.
Is not bringing the doctrine of Christ the teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ?
So he says to this woman in verse eight, look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. She was, they were.
His children in the faith and if they didn't go on well then he would lose reward, he says.
Verse nine. Now whosoever transgresseth, the other translation that we use, reads whosoever goes forward. I remember talking to a theology professor. I was passing out tracks at the Howard Station in Chicago where you you change from the elevated to the subway.
And I was passing out tracks and I went in and sat down next to this teacher and.
He asked me what I believed, passed him a gospel tract, and he asked me what I believed, and I told him the fundamentals of the faith. I believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible. I believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, who's God and man in one person. I believe in His death and resurrection. I believe in His coming again. I believe in the infallible inerrancy of the Scriptures. And I may have said some other things.
His sinless humanity.
And he smiled at me and he said that's nice, but now you have to go on to the deeper things.
That's what John is talking about here. Whosoever goes forward goes on to the deeper things. There is nothing deeper than the person and work of Christ. It's the foundation of our faith. Someone tries to lead you into deeper truth than what we have revealed to us here.
Be very wary and cautious because they're going to lead you into error. This man did not know the Lord.
He was occupied with his deeper truth, and that's what John is warning against. Whosoever transgresseth or goes forward and abides not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. This man did not know God.
He was a religious man. He was a religious instructor at that theological seminary, but he did not know God didn't have him.
He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. So we're to know who's real. How can you close the door on someone if you don't know that they are an Antichrist, a deceiver, a false prophet? They don't bring the doctrine of Christ, and you can tell by asking them a few basic questions.
Like the Lord asked the Pharisees, what thinking of Christ? Whose son is he?
They said the son of David. They were right, you know.
He was and is the son of David.
How then does David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my right hand, sit thou at my footstool to make until I at my footstool to make the them enemies footstool of my feet?
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David call him Lord. How is he his son?
They couldn't answer him.
They did not understand the divine side of this person. They understood his human side. They understood he was the son of David, but that he was the Son of God.
They did not understand. This man did not understand that.
So we are to know who He is. He quoted from the 110th Psalm, which the Pharisees knew. They knew a lot of scripture and these men that come to your door peddling their false religion, they know a lot of scripture, but they don't know Him who is the truth.
They don't have it.
So he says, verse 10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine.
The truth as to who he is.
God and man in one person receive him not.
So here's instruction on whom they are. This woman is not to receive. Receive them. Not into your house. Neither did him. Godspeed. The reason I said earlier that you'd think this would be written to a man, because the man is the one that would.
By nature he would find it easier to close the door on someone like this, but it's written to the woman and the children.
They are too responsible to keep out error.
To keep out error.
He that biddeth him godspeed, he that greets him is a partaker of his evil deeds.
So we have instruction in this epistle whom we're not to receive. In order to know, we have to know who Jesus is, and we have to be able to discern and recognize error. We need to know the truth.
In order to reject error now in the next epistle, the third epistle, now over that second epistle, we should write God's light. God is holy.
His Holiness must be maintained over the third epistle. We should write God is love.
God is love, we have the affections of.
The Saints going out notice.
Verse one is beloved Gaius. Well, beloved Gaius.
Verse 5, beloved.
Thou doest faithfully.
The verse 11, beloved.
Follow not that which you see, but you don't get that word, beloved, in Second John. Second John has a much sterner tone to it. The enemy was being dealt with. Sometimes we hear it said, you know, we should just preach positive truth. I don't like that.
There's a lot of negative truth in Scripture. We need to know who we are to refuse and reject and not to receive, as well as whom we are to receive and commend. And in order to really be in the truth, we have to have both.
We have to have the negative side of rejecting the evil and the positive side of receiving.
And commending the good if we treat the good as though they were evil.
We make a serious mistake if we treat the evil as though they were good.
We make a serious mistake.
The elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Now you'd think that the woman would be addressed here because she's the one that has no difficulty exercising hospitality. She chose her home, old one to visit her. She prepares for them, she sits them down, makes them feel comfortable, serves them some coffee or tea and and some cookies or whatever. But this is addressed to the man.
The man is not the one that is affectionate like the woman.
But hear it. So he's addressing Gaius, his well beloved, whom I love in the truth.
Yeah, beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee even as thou walkest in the truth. To walk in the truth is to reject evil and to commend good.
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Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but reprove them. That's negative. Absolutely essential truth, just as essential as the positive.
We need both.
To be in the truth.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk. In truth, every parent who has children knows what that is.
Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers. I remember when I first went out in the work, I came to a lot of places where I'd never been before, and they were strangers to me, and I was pretty much a stranger to them. Maybe we'd see each other at a conference or so. Not always, but they received me as a friend.
There's not a word about friends in Second John.
Just a cautionary word against those who were enemies.
We have to know who's who our enemies are. We have to know who our friends are.
One of the greatest tricks in the military was that an enemy would kill a soldier and then change clothes with him and he would put that enemy soldiers on and he would infiltrate. He looked just like this army over here, but he was really from over here. He was an enemy.
And he did his work within and there's they're the ones that do the most damage to the cause of Christianity, those that pose as Christians, but they're not real. And so John tells us how we are to discern the difference between the enemy and the friends in the in the profession of Christianity.
So Gaius was hospitable.
He was one that opened his door and said come in, you're welcome, you're a friend. You bring the doctrine of Christ.
Verse six As which have borne witness of thy charity, thy love before the church, whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well. Gaius. He extended hospitality to these that came bringing the, the, the truth of God, and he welcomed them in and he took care of them, maybe gave them a bed for the night, and then sent them on their way.
And that's commended here because that for his namesake, they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. They weren't living off of the world. They weren't living off of those that didn't know the Lord. They were taking nothing of the Gentiles. They were being supported by the family of God. And that's the way it is, and that's the way it should be.
Not to be supported by the world, but by those who are friends.
Friends.
We therefore ought to receive such.
That we might be fellow helpers to the truth. So third John is dealing with friends and hospitality is in order, receiving is in order and.
Gaius recognized friends and he dealt with them as such, and this elect lady and her children had to recognize enemies and refuse fellowship with them.
So important.
I remember the Jehovah's Witnesses once came to Milwaukee.
And they went around the neighborhoods asking if people would take them in and house them while they had their campaign, their meetings. And there was a brother, sad to say a brother in the Lord, that took them in and housed them.
In direct violation of Second John, he treated them as though they were friends and they were not friends. They did not bring the doctrine of Christ. Very serious error.
Let's not make that mistake. We therefore, at verse eight in 3rd John, ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth.
I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes now here is here's a jarring note in this epistle, which is also sweet and beloved is mentioned over and over again. You don't get that word mentioned once in second John, but in 3rd John, it's it's the beloved that he's dealing with. But here is a here's a a note that's out of tune with the rest.
I wrote into the church, he says. But Diotrephes who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Now what is commended in 3rd John is to receive them. But here's one that wouldn't receive John. He wouldn't receive the even an apostle receiveth as not.
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He loves to have the preeminence, wherefore he says, if I come, I think the force there is when I come.
I will remember his deeds which he doeth, praying against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither does he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would and casteth them out of the Church. This man had such power in that assembly that he would he had the power to cast some out of the church.
And again he talks to Gaius, he says, beloved follow not that which is evil. That's what Diatrophies was doing. He was following that which was evil he was treating.
Friends as enemies and casting them out.
Following that that which is evil, but that which is good, he that doeth good is of God. That he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
Now this is really a letter of commendation for Demetrius. Notice Demetrius have good report of all men and of the truth itself.
Yeah. And we also bear record that you know that our record and you know that our record is true.
I had many things to write. I will not with ink and pen. Write unto thee. Notice both of these epistles talk about not riding with the Lincoln pen, but face to face. That's one of the beauties of a conference weekend. Talk with one another face to face.
So these two epistles, you really don't you really don't have a full picture of what the truth is if you don't know our responsibility in in walking in the truth is to discern those who are not in the truth and reject them, don't receive them. Don't open your door to them. close your door upon them. They're Antichrist. They're enemies and those who are friends who bring the doctrine of Christ, who love the Lord and are going on.
In the truth.
Buried to receive them.
So it's important, isn't it?
I don't think you can take either one of these epistles by itself. They supplement each other.
You need both to get the full picture. Negative in second John, positive and 3rd John.
You see him not in second John, you see him.
In 3rd John, Enemies in second John, friends in 3rd John. While it's a beautiful picture and it came to me after Bob spoke of the truth last night to bring these scriptures before us that we might.
Even the youngest in the family might have the discernment. You know who's real?
Who know who brings the truth and who does not, and that conduct ourselves towards them accordingly.
Gospel
Gospel—B. Brimlow
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What a wonderful hymn that we just sang. Lord Jesus, to tell of Thy love. That's what's in my heart. I trust I have something from the Lord that I can share with my brethren. The 139th Psalm. Let's turn to it for a little bit, that first verse.
Very significant.
Oh Lord, thou hast searched me. I've been searched in these meetings, I'm sure.
Most of us have been searched.
The question is, how do I fit into all of this ministry that we've heard? How do I fit in? Well, you know, the Lord wants you and me to fit ourselves in to the circumstances of each day. There's a little hymn that says through every day He watches over me. Through every day he cares, through every day He leads and guides me, Burdens and grieves He shares through every day I love to serve Him. Pleasures of earth grow dim.
Through every day, each glorious day with Him, that's it. You know the Lord says, take my yoke.
He wants you and me, beloved, to walk with Him through this world.
And so the psalmist here is reflecting on some of these things. So he says, Oh Lord, thou hast searched me and known me, and knowest my down sitting in mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compass sister, my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
This is the very omniscience, the omnipresence of God. Let's go on. Load is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
Oh, who was it that gave you that first thought about your sins and your guilt?
Spirit of God, who was it that first brought before your soul the thought that was a God in heaven that knew all about you and that you were responsible? Here we get a little bit of that picture, you know, So the psalmist is reflecting on some of the things that you and I would learn in our life here in this world.
Whether he says then verse number number six, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it.
The fact that God is sovereign is over everything. He is omnipresent.
Is omissioned.
And omniscient, all of these words that would describe His very presence everywhere. In that first chapter of Colossians we read that he holds all things together by the word of his power. By him all things subsist.
Held together, the universe, the one that holds the stars in their places in the heavens, the one that makes the sun and the moon in their seasons. For what the benefit of man in this world at the beginning. God, that's where we start. You know, it's wonderful. My burden this afternoon is start with a Christian.
Where did you get started? Where did I get started in this heavenly road and where does it lead? It gets into the old question, where did I come from? What am I here for? But where am I going? And these are the three questions that young people, and I hope that I can tend to my my thoughts to the young that they would be able to get a hold of something.
What am I? What am I here for, you know? Well, let's find out a little bit about how it works behind the scenes. Look what he says, the psalmist here, he says, where shall I go from thy spirit? Or where shall I flee from thy presence? Or you know, some people think they're going to get away from God.
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So the man in England, years ago, we read the stories, one of those tracks that tells about the man that they told him about the gospel. He said, I don't want that, I want to get away from that influence. So he got on the ship and he came to America.
And he gets into the carriage with Amanda, riding the running the carriage with the horses. He thinks, well, now I've arrived, I'm as far away from God as I can get and all back there in England where they were bothering me, bothering maybe all the time about the gospel. And so the man turns to me, says, my dear young man, Are you ready to meet God? How is it with your soul?
Whither shall I go if I take the wings of the morning?
And well, where the uttermost parts of the sea.
Yeah, he thought he could get away from God. He took the wings in the morning. That's still selling **** you know. But let's go on and see what happened. If I ascend up to heaven, thou are there.
I make my bed in hell. Behold, are there two men come to mind. One made us.
Bed up there. The other made us better in hell. The 16th chapter of Luke, the rich man, he fared sumptuously every day. Is that what you're here for? This sumptuous day every day? You know what the Lord Jesus could say there? I think it's in the it's over in Luke. Let me read it. Luke Chapter 9.
Whosoever will save his life.
She'll lose it.
But whosoever lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what does a man advantage? To begin the whole world in himself. Be cast away. Lose himself or be cast away. Oh, yeah. Lazarus was a beggar in time, but not an eternity. The rich man was no beggar in time. I hope that everyone in this room is a beggar in time.
Lord Jesus save me, I'm a Sinner.
And you died on the cross for sinners. You know that's how you qualify. You don't qualify by being in the Christian family that you're going to heaven. No, you have to come to this trade gate and the Lord Jesus could say brought us the way that leads to destruction. Many there be that go there on, but the narrow is the way that leads leads up up where up to heaven. If I make my bed, if I ascend up to heaven. That's how you do it.
The straight, narrow, great, and Christ is the gate. He slammed the door.
By me, if any man and attorney shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. Wonderful grace of God that it would be so. Well, let's read on here. They should get a few thoughts by dwell on the uttermost parts of the sea. Verse 10. Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, Even the night shall be light about me. Yeah, the darkness hide is not from thee, but the night.
Shineth as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to the Our brother was speaking about what the Lord Jesus said I am the way.
I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes under the Father but by me, you know. And then it says he came into the world. He was the light of the world. God is light. That's one of the early things we learn about the Lord Jesus. I am the way. But then he says back there in Matthew 11, he says those lovely words of invitation, come, come unto me. Only that labor and a heavy laden. I'll give you something.
Rest. Rest for what you mean? You mean on this, On a nice soft bed? No. Rest of conscience, rest of hearts.
Of soul finding my rest in Jesus.
You know, the 7th Day Adventist was taunting our brother Peripati years ago back in New York. He says he was a tugboat captain and Pierre Potter used to tell him about the grace of God. And this man says, yeah, but you got to keep the Sabbath. So one day Peripatos climbing up onto this ship and the tugboat captain see him climbing up the gangway or whatever it was, the latter. And he yelled, a pair of powder, are you keeping the Sabbath? And pear powder says, yes, I'm resting in Jesus seven days a week.
That's the rest that the Christian has, beloved. Christ is our Sabbath. Christ is our rest. And so the Lord shall give you rest.
That's the rest of God that we have. But let's go on. In this Psalm, there's something I wanted to bring out.
Thou hast possessed my reins, you know. The reins is the inner parts, the inner feelings, the inner motives.
Then what else? Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. Oh, now we're getting into something that's out of sight. What did you have to do with being born in this world in the 1St place? Nothing.
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Nothing. It says in that first chapter of John By the will of the flesh, no.
The only way that you and I are brought in the family of God is by birth. We had nothing to do with it. It was God's sovereignty, God's grace, that reached down to you and me when we read in another place chosen unto Him before the foundations of the world.
Did you ever stop to think why? Why me? You know, that's the big question. Kids at school, how come I get picked and I have to do it? You know, the teacher says, all right, you come up and you do it. And the old laments, you know, with a lot of you school people, young people, why me? Why did she have to pick on me of all the days when I wasn't ready, you know?
Well, the Lord picked on you and me, but he had a different motive. Let's go. Skip down. I can't wait to get down.
Verse #16 Dionys did see my substance yet being unperfect. And in thy book all my members were written one in continuous, which in continuous were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
God, in his infinite wisdom before the foundations of this world, shows you and me in Christ.
Hmm. Joseph and him before the foundations of the world. I'm speaking to Christians. This happened. Where did you come from? Let's go back and look at the wonder of his grace, His love. We were singing about it, you know, Lord Jesus, to tell of what thy love. How far back does it go? It goes back into a past, eternally beloved, chosen in him before the foundations of the world.
And what are you going to do about it?
Yeah. What am I going to do about it? What is my response? To think of love like that, that God would choose me in Christ before the foundations of the world, you know, to use our common expression, that blows my mind. It's beyond the creature understanding.
And that's why we get over to that admonition to the second Corinthians chapter 10, casting down imaginations or reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against what the knowledge of God and bringing to captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ is that my desires that go through this world, That's what God would lead me into in the apostle Paul was that minister of the Spirit of God, the word of God.
He gave it in the 20th chapter of Acts you can say to the Ephesian elders.
Those that had the highest truth, that's like you and me. We have the highest truth. We have the book of a patience. They didn't even have it written yet, but they had the they had the spoken word, but the apostle.
He says.
I've not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God.
The whole counsel of God. You mean where I came from, what I'm here for, and where I'm going? That's what it's about.
The whole council of God.
He says, I know after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in not spraying the sheep. Our brother was giving us warning this afternoon. A second epistle of John.
What not to do? The third epistle, What to do? I'm delighted to hear it, beloved. You and I are not left in the dark to know what we're to do, what we're not to do. We have the word of God for every step of the way. What a wonderful thing the little song says. Where he leads me, I will follow.
Where he leads me, I will follow. I'll go with him, with him all the way.
What do you mean? All the way. All the way to the glory. That's where we're going, beloved. I meet people and I say if the lovers have come today, would you go up? It'd be surprised, the multitude of answers that I get. And oh, boy, some of them. Oh, yeah, sure. I'd go up. Go up where? Yeah. That's what one man said to me the other day. I said all the way to heaven. He says, oh, yeah, I'm going to heaven. I said, how do you know? I just know.
I said no, you just don't know because you and I were not made to go to heaven.
Something along that line. As you know, the only way that we go to heaven is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who did this for you and me in the cross when He gave himself because he loved us. But let's go on.
Here it is verse #17.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God.
Lord Jesus, to tell of thy love.
His thoughts towards me are what love.
And word did he display it. It's like the brother said, he set his face to go to Jerusalem, knowing all things that would be accomplished there.
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That he would be crucified.
That he would be buried in the third day, He would rise again. And after 40 days he went back to the glory with the Marks and his hands and his feet and her side of this world's hatred and God's dealing with him. After God's dealing with him in those dark hours in the cross, he could say it is finished.
Oh, what consolation that gives to my heart. But let's read just this verse. How precious are thy thoughts unto me. Oh God, how great is the sum of them.
I love it. You know, I was down by the beach. I used to take my little children to the beach and one day I think my little girl, she went down to the ocean. She took a little bucket and she dipped it in the ocean. She come running back. Daddy, look what I got. I got the ocean in my bucket.
Her A cup was full, as it were, of the joy of a child playing in the ocean.
That's like the love of God, the height.
The depths, the length, the breadth, and to know the love of Christ. Paul speaks about it. How do you measure it? You know you and I, it's like this. And look at the next verse, if I should count them.
Count them, you know, David spoke about getting in the in the counting house, in the sanctuaries. Then I understood you and I get in God's county house, brethren, and it overwhelms us the sense of that love that was so great, so full, so free. Why, why does the ocean deep, deep as the sea, high, high as the heavens above His love to me you apply it. Are you in the warmth and the joy and the sunshine of that love each?
We should be, you know, it says rejoice evermore. I love those words. That's the next shortest verse in the Bible. What's the other one? Jesus wept.
You know you and I can weep.
Yes, we've got a lot to weep about of this world. When we can pray, then it says pray without ceasing. But all says rejoice evermore. How can I go and rejoice evermore? Oh, it's in the sense that any moment I'm going to see the man of Calvary, the man in the glory, the man that has the marks of the world's hatred. But you know of his love for me, Why me? You know, that's what we're going to develop a few more thoughts. So let's see what else happens here.
If I should count them, they're more than the sand.
More than the sand. You give me a handful of sand and I'll give you a handful of sand.
And I'll say, count it for me. You say, what's the matter? You're crazy. You know, it wouldn't work. But you know, God uses adjectives sometimes that he wants to hammer something home to your heart and mind that are so great. I can't comprehend it. I can only apprehend it. I mean, I can only comprehend and measure. I can't apprehend it. Let's go down a little further in this and then we skip over to the New Testament.
We get down to verse.
#23.
You see the psalmist who's reviewing a lot of things.
That man that we could apply from that verse, Whither shall I go from thy spirit? If I ascend up to heaven, Thou art there. If I make my bed and hell out there.
How many young people have made the wrong turn in the fork of the road?
One man said to me, Bob, I've been in hell for 16 years.
Man, they used to be at the Lord's Table, You know Why get angry at his brother?
You know what it says in the proverb? That the anger. Anger rests in the bosom of fools.
In that 11Th chapter, I think it's 11 Chapter of Ecclesiastes, it says put away vanity. You read in the margin, this is put away anger. You know, young people, you can get angry about just about anything.
They didn't do it right, did they? You know I was there. I know how it feels, the frustration where you stamp your foot and you say it's not fair and you get angry. You know God's looking down.
What about God being angry? You know, it says that he's angry every day with the wicked. Are you going to be on that side of the coin of his anger that he's angry with you every day too because you're wicked? Wake up.
You know, it says it's time that we woke up there, I think in the 5th chapter of First Thessalonians. Well, let's get on. Let's see what he says here. Search me, O God, know my heart.
Know my heart. The Lord knows all about my heart. He wants you to learn a little bit about how bad it really is.
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The prophet says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately awakened. And who can know it?
Let's eye search the heart and try the reins. He knows every thought of your heart, just like the psalmist is reflecting in this lovely Psalm. This Psalm is written, you know, with something that has a far greater view of the future. It's the 10 tribes coming back. They've been searched. Where did they go? We don't know where they went, but they took the wings of the morning and they dwelt in the uttermost parts of the sea. And, you know, his eye is still on him. He's going to bring them all back.
He wants to bring you back to if you've turned the wrong way. Maybe in your spirit you've taken the wings of the morning and you're trying to get away from God.
You know what marked out the Lord Jesus was two things, dependence and obedience. All how apparent like our beloved John could say, had no greater joy than my children walk in the truth. We had that lovely expression these in these meetings last night and this afternoon about the truth.
And our brother was bring it home to our hearts. I've been searched. I hope you got searched too. The psalmist says search me Oh God. Then what does he say? How does he sum this chapter up? Search me, oh God, and try and know my heart and try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me.
And then what does he say? Lead me in the way where for next week, for next month, for the rest of my life? Noises in the way everlasting. Let's go over now to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter #3.
The apostle Paul there. Now let's go to chapter one, Ephesians. We go to verse #2.
Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace, what's that?
You know that's getting something you didn't deserve all the fullness and the riches of Christ. He wants to bestow on you and me. He wants to be as he's going to be a star in the glory sharply, but he wants me to be the enjoyment of it now in my soul. He says that dear faith, virtue and so forth and Peter. But what does he want me to learn about Let's see blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in.
Places in Christ, according as yet chosen us in Him before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, when He hath made us accepted. In the Beloved in whom we have redemption. Oh, isn't it wonderful to be redeemed?
Redeemed how? I love to proclaim it. Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. That's the song we sang, beloved.
Oh, I love that song. I hope you love it too. I hope that you can rejoice every day as you walk through this world with the Lord Jesus, rejoicing in the redemption that He's accomplished for you on the cross.
And what did you have to do with it? Not one thing, the little song says. Jesus paid it all.
All to him I owe sin. It made a Crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. And where do I come along? I just come into the benefit and bless of it by acknowledging that I'm a poor Sinner, unworthy like that man says God be merciful to me, a Sinner. And the Lord set men went out down to his house, justified being justified freely by his grace. And So what does it say here?
In whom we have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of what? His grace. I love it. Oh boy, when I hear about people talking about the grace of God, I rejoice. There's another side of the coin though. The Lord Jesus was faithful in the third chapter of Johnny said these words. He that believeth on the Son has life.
He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. My grandfather had been raised by a Methodist mother in the earth years ago, many years ago.
One day he's looking for a job. He wasn't saved yet. Oh, he'd gone to church and he'd heard the ritual and all that sort of thing.
And so he comes into printing establishment down in the Union Square, I think it was. And he goes and he's, so I'm looking for a job. I just, he had just finished his apprenticeship. He was about 17 years old. Some of you here are 17 years old. You're looking for a job. Well, you might get tested a little bit. You know, my grandfather got that. He got tested.
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The man says, well, you know, I don't have any jobs in my printing shop at that big building that had a bunch of printing establishments and that big building, he said, upstairs is a Roman Catholic newspaper. They're looking for a pressman. My grandfather became very indignant. He said, I'll have you to know that I'm a Protestant. I wouldn't work for a Catholic newspaper. The men very quietly pulled out by a lot of the desk with the roar. And he turned to John. Chapter 3. And he said, you know, my friend, there's only two classes of people in the world.
And I don't see Protestant or Catholic.
It says He that believeth on the Son has life. He that believes not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Now he said, which class are you in?
And my grandfather, 17 years old, he was taken aback by this man quoting the reading him right out of the Bible. I guess where he came from, that didn't mean much. Out of the Bible. They would do a lot of preaching. But, you know, the Bible was something that, oh, that's all right. But we're smart, you know, we're educated, we're ordained. You know, there was ordination with some of those people anyway.
My grandfather looked at the man, he says, you know.
I I believe.
The man says. What do you believe?
So the Mens will all help you. So he read the 16th verse. For God so loved the world that he gave us only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And my grandfather says yes, I believe that. So I don't know about the job that he went back to his room and he got it. He got his Bible out and he read that verse. Just think I have everlasting life by believing it was something that he never heard before.
That he could have it by just believing.
He said Lord, I believe it then I have everlasting life and the pretty soon he felt like he was in the clouds.
So he goes back to the man the next day. So I don't know what happened to me yesterday, but I went home and after reading my Bible, those verses you told me, I feel like I'm in the clouds. The brother says we've got a verse for that. This brother was not in a very good state of soul. My father, as he related the story to me, he said he'd been kind of backsliding a little bit.
But he sent this man, this young boy, 17 year old boy, to his shop there to give him the gospel. So here he gets saved, and he comes back the next day. And he says, we get a verse over in first Peter, whom not having seen he loved, whom not having seen you love, but believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Oh, he says. That's wonderful. That's the way I feel. Yeah. Full of glory. Where is that? Where do you go to church? Yeah. The next question. No.
And the man says, well, we don't have what you call a church. We are part of the church.
The grandfather says, I don't understand. Where do you have meetings at? That's what I'd like to know. Well, the man says you wouldn't like it. We don't have the organ music, we don't have this, we don't have the choir, we don't have an ordained minister. We just have the Lord in the midst.
And my, this man, my grandfather says, what's the address? And one is the meeting. So Sunday morning he finds himself coming in this room, a couple of 100 people in a big room and somebody says, are you in fellowship? What's that sit over here?
He sits over in a corner with some other seats in the corner of the room. He said you'll be an observer. Our words of that effect he gives somebody gives him a hymn book and he hears those lovely words. Oh Christ, what burden is bowed thy head our Lord was laid on thee. Thou studest in the sinners stand to bear all I'll for me a victim LED. Thy blood was shed. No, there's no load for me.
He said the Lord is here, you know, that's why he was gathered. That's where he met my grandmother. I just mentioned this. You know, you say it's a simple story, but what does it say? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavens, according as He hath chosen us in Him.
God works like their brother was quoting with me today in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.
The wonder of His love. That's it. The wonder of His grace. Look what he says. In whom we have redemption. Verse #7 Ephesians 1.
Then go to verse said, Where? Until He hath abounded us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known under us the mystery of His will, The mystery of His will. The Ephesian elders knew the counsel of God, the mystery of God's will. Let's read on a little bit more. According to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, which are on earth, even in Him, and whom also we have obtained an inheritance.
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Being what? Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the council of my will. No, his own will. What is his own will for you, dear friend, dear young person, this afternoon? Oh, it's glory, you know, no matter what happens to the Christian, it ends in glory. We sing that lovely song. Glory. Glory everlasting be to him to whom the bar, the cross. He's going to share that glory with his Church, with his bride.
And he wants you and me to be there. Let's go on.
That we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted or pre trusted in Christ, and who gave us the impetus, who gave us the life to believe it. Let's go to the next chapter. We read about where we came from. And you hath he quickened. Who were what dead in trespassing and sins. When in time passed, you walked according to the course.
Of this world.
According to the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom we all had our conversation or manner of Life and Times past in the lust of our flesh for pulling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. And then we get one of the greatest butts in the book. But God, oh, I love it. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love. You know, we're just singing about it, His great love.
How great was the love? Well, the next chapter tells us about how great it was, and I'm saving that for the last. Save the best for the last Lord Jesus to tell of thy love.
Or how that stirs my heart. Does it stir your heart as you go out of this conference to other places to tell people of the love of God and to warn them of the wrath of God that's coming on this world? Let me just read on a little bit.
But God who is rich and mercy for his great love where with he loved the sea and when were dead and sins as quicken us together with Christ. By grace are you saved and has raised us up together and made us sit together in the how many places in Christ Jesus and here it is the destiny of the believer.
And how do I come into it? By faith, Just believing it. That's it.
Jesus in the 6th chapter of John, I think it's verse 47, he says, verily, verily I say unto you, he that believes on me has everlasting life.
Do you have it? I hope you have it. You know, if you got it, use it. It's wonderful. Thrive. Swim in it. It's something like that ocean of the love that we swim in. It is too big to try to dip something out of it. We swim in it. Could you ever exhaust the ocean? No. So that's what's leading it up to that. In the ages to come, he might show something. The exceeding wrenches of His grace.
And his kindness to us through Christ Jesus. Let's skip down the chapter 3.
And so we find the Apostle Paulie, he has a desire. You and I shall have the same desire as the apostle Paul is trying to transplant it with some of us. Look what he says.
But this caused verse 14, chapter 3. I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you something.
Grant you what? According to the richest.
Of his glory, riches of his glory. What do you and I know about the riches of his glory? Let's read about it.
To be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. That's the new life. The apostle says in another place, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things have passed away, all things become new. Is this true for you? How does it wear when you go to school? How does it work when you go on the job?
How has it worked before my neighbors? You know it should function. What? Strengthened with mind by a spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
That ye being rooted and grounded in something. What what's the something? Look what it says. Love may be able to I think the word should be apprehended or comprehend. You know, we could never comprehend that, but we might have come to the mountains how big it is, if I could make a little analogy. But look what it says, that you may be able to be able to apprehend with All Saints what is the breadth and length and the Afton height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you might be.
The fullness of God.
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The psalmist says my cup runs over.
Does your cup run over? The Lord wants your cup to be filled anyway. You know Beverly Shea sings that lovely song. Fill my cup, Lord. Fill it up. Lord and I, I love to think, you know, the Lord has given you and me a cup. It's a cup of his love that he wants us to be filled with a sense of His love every day of our life. And when trouble comes, we have the resource.
His presence, he says I'll never leave the NOR for safety. And then we come. Let's just read the rest of it what it says.
May be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that he might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. But Lord, I got some problems.
The Lord looks at you and he says, What's that? What's that above all that you ask or think? But Lord, I got some problem. Never mind the bus.
I remember her sister. She was always telling me, yeah, but I said no, yeah. But you know, we, you and I, we have a tendency to falter.
But you know, the Lord wants our cup to run over. It's like in that first chapter where John speaks to the family. You know you and I are in the family that's I love about John's epistle. He speaks to the family of God. He says these things have written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God that your joy may be full. How full running over.
The little song we used to sing Running over, running over, my cups full and running over. Since the Lord saved me, I'm as happy as can be. My cups full and running. I hope you can say over to let's go out and see what it says.
Exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think, according to the power that.
That worketh in us is the power working in you and me, Beloved, you know, we have all of that virtues of Christ, all of that new nature, the new man to walk in the power of it, in the light of it. If we walk in the flesh, what's going to happen? Don't expect blessing If I ascend up to heaven. That's walking in the Spirit, beloved. You know, it's like the eagle. I think it's in the 14th of Isaiah, it says.
They shall mount upon wings. Like what?
Eagles.
How does an eagle fly so high? A friend of mine was up at 24,000 feet in a glider. He was so soaring glider years ago out West. And here comes a big eagle flying right next to the glider and the eagle kind of looks over as much as to say who are you? What kind of a bird are you there? There were soaring way, way up, he said. I couldn't believe it. This bird just come right in on the wingtip and looks right in the cockpit where I'm right over the front of the glider where I'm sitting.
He said I did a little bit of a turn. The eagle did a turn. He saw one, this one, the eagle one, this one he's we're flying together like eagles.
Mounds up on wings as eagles, you couldn't see what was holding either them up, could you? You know that's faith. The world doesn't understand what holds you and me up. It's faith in Christ. It's the power of God that gives you and me to mount up right into the into the heavenly things of the Lord. What's the other side of it? If I make my bed in hell, That rich man, he made his bed in hell. And when he got there, what did he do? He said.
Father Abraham's son Lazarus to dip his finger.
In the water and touch my tongue, I'm tormented in the flame.
You know, we could have a flame life, we could have that kind of a life and we might even be saved. Yes, and the Lord might put you and me down in that dark places of despair when we get our eye away from the Lord. And so what's the the other thing that I wanted to read? Well, I want to read the last verse of Ephesians 3 unto him, the glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages.
World without end, Where does it end? Well, that's the other thing. I wanted to take another minute and we'll look at where it ends.
Philippians chapter 3 verse #20 are I'm going to paraphrase this word conversation our citizenship.
Our manner of life is in heaven.
Are you, is that where your manner of life is, beloved? Is that where my manner of life is? My conversation, is it in heaven? From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body or our bodies of humiliation, that it may be fashion like unto his glorious body? Oh, you mean I'm going to have a new body one of these days? Yeah.
15th chapter First Corinthians we in a moment.
He saw show you a mystery. We shall all be changed in a moment. The twinkling of an eye this corruptible should put on incorruption.
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And then shall be found at the word, the death is swallowed up in victory. And he says thanks be to God, which gives you me the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. You know what this implies to me. It gets back to that that 8th chapter of Romans. This is all things work together for good. What's the good all of the difficulty of this way of this world of this life, beloved is going to end in glory. And so it says.
Their fashion like unto his glorious body, according to the working where he is able to.
Even to subdue all things unto himself.
And where does it end?
Lorenz in the father's house and then I'll close with that 14th chapter of John a brother reads the lovely verses that just a few thoughts. Luke John 14.
The early part of the chapter and this poses the question, beloved, for your heart and mind and our very soul. The Lord says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe all sooner me and my Father's house.
In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. And then he says these lovely words, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, LL come again and receive you unto myself that where I am.
There ye may be also only one question. Why would he want the likes of you and me there?
One answer, beloved.
How precious have thy thoughts unto me, O God.
If I should count them?
They're more than numbered than the sand God commands. His love taught us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
While these are precious things, some of these thoughts is a little reflection of the hymn that we sang. Lord Jesus to Taliban, of thy love. And what are we going to be doing in the glory? Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and the wisdom and honor and glory and so forth. Well, may that song ring in our souls of praise and honor to Him as we go through this world.
Titus 2:1-1
Titus 2:1-
This is my Beloved Son
Moses' Parents
Shebna Eliakim
Y.P. Sing