YP Address—L. Klassen
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Like we opened our meeting this afternoon by singing hymn #172.
Or teach us more.
Of thy blessed ways, thou holy Lamb of God, and fix and root us in Thy grace as those redeemed by blood.
Engrave this deeply in our hearts with an eternal pen, that we may in some small degree return thy love again #172.
Let's pray.
We thank the our loving God and our Father.
Last night in one of the prayers, a brother spoke of the fact that the young people are at a crossroads. It is true that this is a well worn, well recognized expression. Perhaps young people are a little tired of hearing it, being reminded of it, and yet it is true. You will never cease to be true.
There is, for many of you, an important decision to be made.
Perhaps quite soon. The choice of further education, perhaps.
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The choice of a vocation, the choice of a life partner if the Lord tarries, and perhaps for a few, the all important and most important choice of where one will spend eternity. This meeting this afternoon is announced as a meeting for young people, presumably most of them Christians. But one cannot address such an audience without feeling that perhaps there are some.
Who have yet to make this all important choice of where to spend eternity and more of this later on.
Now the agnostic says.
If God is a loving, righteous, holy God, why did he create men with the ability to make a wrong choice? Why didn't he create man in such a way that he would always do that which was right?
And never need to make such a choice between good and evil.
Apart from the fact that God is sovereign and not accountable to us for anything, I believe that there is an answer to this question.
Perhaps we can illustrate it in this way. If you or I had the ability to hypnotize our children or to condition them in some certain way, we might be able to create a condition in them at so that at a command or at a signal they might, for example.
Show us affection. They might put their arms about us, they might kiss us, they might even say that they love us. But if this were nothing more than an automatic response with no feeling behind it, would we appreciate it? Would we enjoy it? I don't believe so, no. What we look for in our children is that particular feeling which responds to the love which we show for them.
I believe this is what God would see in US, not an automatic conditioned response of some sort with nothing behind it. Surely if the One who created this universe and upholds it with the power of His Word had so desired, He could have created an entire race of robots which would do His will unquestioningly, without ever disobeying, without ever asking why He could have created such a race.
Indeed, God in His Holy Word gives us examples of where He used the animal Kingdom in just this way.
Unintelligent service executed for or at the command of God.
Oh, we have a far higher type of service than this to render, do we not?
In Romans 12 Chapter in the first verse we read of this, the prophet, the apostle, asking or beseeching that we might present our bodies a living sacrifice acceptable wholly unto God, which is your reasonable or intelligent service. And I believe that the sense of the word intelligent there is just this. It is that service which is in response to what the Lord has shown to us and revealed to us. And so this is the reason that God has.
Created in US.
It will either to do his will, or sad to say, a will which can be used to refuse to do God's will. Remember the Lord Jesus speaking to the Pharisees, saying to them, You will not come unto me that you might have life, you will not.
Oh, but also we read in Revelation, whosoever will let him come and take of the water of life freely. Well, so much for this matter of a choice.
We see that we have this choice, and with this ability to respond comes also responsibility, and I think it is significant that the two words response and responsibility come from the same root. There is a definite connection between the two. I'd like to read this afternoon about one man whose life illustrates very clearly a number of rather important choices. And this will be Moses and the story as it is recorded in Hebrews 11Th chapter.
Hebrews 11.
Verse 23. Hebrews 11/23.
By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the King's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
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Esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches, and the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith He kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he to destroy the first born should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land.
Which the Egyptians are saying to do. Were drowned.
Now we will see in this little brief account of about Moses that there were three different separate agencies or persons who did the choosing. First of all we find Moses parents and the choice they made.
This is recorded in the 23rd verse. This was not Moses faith, but his parents faith that led him to be hidden for three months in the little ark made of bulrushes and pitched within and without with pitch. As we read in Exodus the 2nd chapter. We don't have time to refer to it today. I think we all know the story very well and I think that we can see in this the hopes and aspirations of every parent, every Christian parent. We read in Acts the 7th chapter where Peter was recounting this same story.
How that they saw that he was a Fairchild and we read there in one translation that he was fair unto God. And I think that this is the crucial point about the parents decision about their son. They recognized in that little child, that little baby, one who was precious to God. And I believe that all of us who have raised children know a little bit of what about what this means.
We recognize in those children.
Something really belongs to God and is valued by Him.
We feel in a sense that this is not someone who belongs completely to us, but rather to the Lord. And so there is, or at least should be within us a desire to keep that little one for the Lord. And so this decision was made to hide the child in this ark for three months. Now we know that this was specifically so that the child would not be found, in answer to the Pharaoh's decree that all these children, these boy children, should be killed.
But in a larger sense, I believe that as we contemplate the future of our children, we sense that the world is out to get our children.
That Satan makes every attempt he can, from the very first moment that child is born, to take that child for his own. And I believe that in the same sense, there is this feeling in our hearts that we would like to hide our child or protect him.
And what better place is there is there than in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Because we know that little arc pitched within and without, with pitch. It's a type of the Lord Jesus, just like the ark that carried Noah in safety was also a type of Christ himself. And so when our children are born, we make this choice. We make this decision to keep these little ones for the Lord, to protect them by whatever means we can from the world, and we commit them to the Lord Jesus. And there is to a sense in which these little ones, before they reach the age of responsibility, are safe.
We know from many scriptures and many principles outlined in Scripture that the little ones who have not reached the age of responsibility are not lost. They do not reach the point if they die before they become older. They do not reach the point at which they can either refuse or choose. So they are somewhat like this baby Moses in the ark, in a place of safety. But then there comes a time when this place of safety is no longer sufficient.
And this may come at different ages for different people, and I'm glad there are some of the younger ones here tonight, this afternoon, who are perhaps at that particular age when they are just becoming old enough to decide for themselves what place they want to have for safety.
And so we read in the 24th verse that there came a time when Moses himself had to make a choice. First, his parents had made the choice.
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And now he had to make his own choice by faith. Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter. Well now let's look at look at Moses a little bit in the light of what we know from other scriptures. Again we might refer to Peters description and how nice it is that we have the New Testament to fill in some of the details which we do not have in the old. Peter tells us there that he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. I dare say that the Pharaoh's daughter sent him to the very best schools that Egypt could have.
Provide he was intelligent, he was learned in all these things. Before him there lay a path of unlimited power. I believe we're right in assuming that he could well have become the next pharaoh of Egypt and he might have thought within himself, what a wonderful opportunity for me now to serve the Lord in this place. He has put me here and now I can use my good godly upbringing which I have received from my parents, and I can use this for the blessings of this land, Egypt.
All, Moses had learned more than that on his mother's knee, we can be sure. No, he recognized the fact that he was not among his own people. And we read also in Acts of 7th chapter how he decided to visit his own people, to become associated with his own people. Why? All because they were the Lord's people.
Has he contemplated this choice? I'm sure he must have had some exercise about it. He could well have said no.
Here I am living in the palace with all these advantages, and here are.
The other people, God's people, working hard as slaves from morning to night, every day of their lives, with not enough to eat.
And in tremendous poverty, this is a very difficult decision to make.
Oh, but there was one thing that characterized those poor, downtrodden slaves, and that was that God had set his love upon them. God had not forgotten them. And Moses by faith, makes this very important decision in his life. It says here that he refused to be called a son of Pharaoh's daughter. This meant turning his back on a great deal. It meant that he had to perhaps unlearn many of the.
Elegant ways that he had learned in the court.
Of the Pharaoh, it meant turning his back on a life of ease.
But as we'll see later, he has something better.
To take the place of that which he turned aside. Oh, I think that perhaps many are in this room are at this point now.
Perhaps they have had a good education and they think, now what can I do? What should be my life's work? Well, the word of God does not tell us who should be a physician, who should be a teacher, who should be a farmer or a storekeeper.
But we will see as we go on that there are certain guidelines, there are certain.
Signposts that would point us along the way. All we think about, many of whom we read in Scripture. The one characteristic of their lives, what that was, that was purpose of heart, they cleave to the Lord. We think of Daniel in the court of the king in Babylon. He purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a King's meat.
Well, how was it he could have this purpose? Or do we not find it? When the time came, the time of testing, the decree went out that anyone who bowed the knee to anyone except Nebuchadnezzar would have to be slain.
And there came the time when Daniel heard about this, and we read something very interesting about him. We read that as his custom was he knelt down toward Jerusalem to pray. Oh, there's so many who will pray in times of stress, perhaps haven't prayed for a long time. But there was nothing different about Daniel. He was used to doing it. And I believe we could find there the secret of his success, the secret behind his purpose of heart. I believe that we can safely say the same thing about Moses.
That the lessons he had learned and who have been committed to his memory by his mother and the faith that he himself possessed, enabled him to take this very definite stand, so that he first of all refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. All he could have reasoned and said, well, surely I must be here for some purpose. The Lord must want me here because He put me here. Perhaps I can compromise. Perhaps I can still be the son of Pharaoh's daughter and at the same time help my people.
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All the word of God marks a clear path, not a muddy one, not a wavering path, but a straight one, and a narrow 11 which does not allow for any mixture of the world with that which is according to God's will. So here we see a first refused, and then he made his choice, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God and to enjoy the pleasures of sin.
For a season.
All we've often heard.
An explanation. And we've often been reminded of the solemnity of these words, the pleasures of sin for a season. Oh, how temporary these things are. And yet it is important that there are pleasures connected with sin, and these pleasures are not always solely connected with those things which are immoral or illegal.
But rather, they are connected with those things which gratify man's own desires and make him proud to be himself, all those things which feed the flesh, those things in which man might boast and take pleasure apart from the mind of the Lord. Those are all things that we might clasp under the pleasures of sin. But let us remember, they are only for a season. And I dare say that as Moses contemplated the future.
He totaled up all the benefits he might receive.
He could see that at the end of that path there was nothing. There would be nothing left to enjoy after death. And so it was that he could pass that judgment and count those things worthless, just like Paul did the third chapter of Philippians. Those things that were gained to him, he counted but lost that he might gain Christ. They might win Christ. Oh, Moses in the in a sense, in adding up all those blessings and benefits he could hopefully derive from being the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Was willing to count them nothing.
And so he chose to suffer affliction.
With the people of God.
Esteeming the reproach of Christ.
Greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. How many people say, how could he have any appreciation of the reproach of Christ? Here he lived a long time before Christ. He had no direct knowledge of anyone named Christ, although he did prophecy of him in Deuteronomy. We read there how he told a prophet who would come like unto himself, and the people would hear.
So he had this prophetic view. We might say, well, it is not for us to say.
Because we have in God's Word God's view of things not ours, we have here God's own estimate of this very important decision that Moses made, and in God's sight it was imputed to him that that faith.
Was insight of suffering reproach of Christ? And in the New Testament we read of those who suffered reproach because of Christ. And it was as the Lord, as the Lord came through this world. Here it was as Christ, as the Christ, the Messiah, that He suffered reproach. Why? Because it was as Christ that he was sent, as the anointed One, the sent one from God.
Known also as the Messiah, the one who had a rightful claim to all the.
Glory and all the honor that man could heap upon him, the one who, when he came to his own, his own received him not. It was as the Messiah that they would not receive him, or they would receive him as a prophet, as a good man, as a teacher. They called him all these things, and would have accepted him that way, but they did not want him as the sent one from God. And so it was that we read of reproach in the New Testament. It is almost always with respect to the association of the believer with Christ.
We're reading acts about those first believers of Antioch. How?
The Apostles, the.
Servant of God, Barnabas went there, and he labored among these young believers, and he gave them this one admonition that was purpose of heart they should cleave to the Lord. And we read there that these humble believers were the first ones who are called Christians. And I believe that the sense of the reference to the term Christian there is one of reproach. I believe most consider that the term as it first was used.
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Was not a very complimentary one. And later on we have King Agrippa saying to Paul.
Almost all persuaders me to be a Christian. Again using the term in sarcasm. And then we have only one more reference to the term Christian in the entire Bible in first Peter 4 verse 16. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. So there we have it, three times the word Christian is used in the entire word of God.
And every time it is used in connection with reproach.
Oh, how different this is from the way the term Christian is used today. I'm sure it's the same in Canada as it is in the United States. Almost anyone can call himself a Christian. People use the term very carelessly without any thought to what it really means.
What did it take in those early believers at Antioch to qualify them as Christians? Did Barnabas tell them? Well, you must. I'm glad you folks of all believed. Now, you must all sign on this list here so you can become members of our church, and we have in Jerusalem so we can recognize you. You must all sign this declaration that you will follow such prescribed rules and regulations as may be laid down for you. You must choose some delegates. You must choose various officials now so you can make a proper church here, No.
Oh, just that one blessed admonition, that with purpose of heart they should cleave to the Lord.
And should not this be that which characterizes the believer today, the one who would really call himself a Christian? Oh, we almost hesitate to use the term Christian now and applying it to ourselves, because in the eyes of the world it can mean almost anything or anyone. But if we take the term in the sense that is used in the Scripture as marking out those who walk a separated path from the world about them and who are bearing reproach because of it, oh, then we have a real clear idea of what a Christian is and should be.
So it was that in this particular sense, he suffered the approach of Christ without really knowing clearly who Christ was. He was taking the place of one who was willing to walk a path of rejection by the world and walk according to the Lord's will. And so this set him apart from the world. And isn't it wonderful too that he considered this?
Riches. Greater riches, then.
The treasures in Egypt, oh, I'm sure that his friends and the schools that he attended must have looked on with amazement as they considered what this man, this friend of theirs, was doing, and he was turning his back on all these wonderful privileges and opportunities. They must have thought I'm a fool. But he took this step, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. And here again what faith he had. He didn't have the New Testament telling us of all the exceeding great promises and precious promises that we have in the New Testament.
He didn't know anything of all these things all but he had faith. He trusted that the God whom he was setting out to follow would do that what was right in the end. And so he had respect unto the recombence of the reward.
So now he took one more step by faith. He first took Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him.
Who is invisible?
Oh, we marvel at the face of this man, Moses.
Just think what it meant for him to forsake Egypt. It was one thing to make this declaration. He could still have backed out. But I think we can see in this that he turned his back on it. He forsook it. Oh, we look back at the experience of Lot's wife. You know, she left Sodom, but she never forsook it.
Because her heart was still there. And even though she physically walked out of that city, yet she showed the fact that her heart was still there by the fact that she turned around and looked back. And in so doing she suffered the same fate as that city. But how much more faith Moses had? He not only refused, but he forsook, he forsook Egypt.
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And he did so in the face of the wrath of the king. And I think that there is a definite sense in which we sometimes have to face the.
Enmity of the world just because we do not go along with those things that they would have us join with them.
And it says that he endured as seeing him who is invisible, all what keeping power there was to encourage him and sustain him in this tremendous step, this tremendous decision that he had to make.
Well, so far now we've had two agencies, we might say making a choice, Moses parents, then Moses, and now I believe we have a third choice made here.
Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them. Now there was no particular choice involved in the keeping of the Passover, as far as Moses was concerned.
And this is important. Rather, this was something that God himself chose for him. And this is important because we are living in a day now in which men say that it doesn't matter so much how you worship or how what method of religion you follow, as long as you are sincere, you just worship God as you please and everything will be just fine. This is indeed the spirit of the ecumenical movement which is engulfing the entire world today. Freedom of choice to to worship God as we will, as we please.
But this is one choice that God has not left to us, but rather one that He has decided. And we had this brought before us so very vividly this morning in the reading meeting, how God has chosen the foolish things of this world. God chose them. Not Moses, not the most godly man, whoever walked this earth, but God himself chose those foolish things. And certainly to the Egyptians, how foolish it must have been to see these children of Israel killing the lamb on the 14th day of the month.
And sprinkling the blood on the doorpost and the lentil of their houses in which they dwelt. How ridiculous.
It seemed to them how foolish, and yet this was what God told them, and there was not one safe house in all of Egypt where this had not been performed. Why? Because God said so. Not because He had to explain it in any way that would be logical to you, or to me, or to the Egyptians, or to the Israelites. But we do know from elsewhere. In the Word of God, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.
All that principle was laid down firmly and irrevocably in the very beginning of God's Word, when Adam and Eve sinned and the coats of skins were made to cover their nakedness. And we would dwell on this just long enough to urge any who are in this room today, who are not under the shelter of that blood, to make this decision to enter into this place of safety. It is not yours to choose the method of your salvation.
But you do have this awesome choice of deciding whether you will accept it or not. This is where your will comes in, in choosing or rejecting God's way of salvation. And remember, there is no other place of safety for your never dying soul. Oh, we read the terrible story of that judgment that came upon Egypt that night. How that in every house where there was not the blood on the door, the first born died, and there was weeping throughout all the land of Egypt that night, but everywhere.
Where the blood was on the door, there was joy and confidence within safety. All. We would urge you today, if you have not yet availed yourself of that blood of Jesus Christ which cleanseth us from all sin, that you do so today. In connection with this exercise of the will, our brother AC Brown is sometimes quoted another brother in referring to the invitation of the Gospel. He has said all may come.
None will come, some shall come. We have here in a very few words, the exercise of man's will.
None will come. That means none in his own natural state has the will to come. Oh, as God breaks down that stubborn will of ours, then by that faith which He gives to us, we can't accept this gracious invitation.
So it was that Moses himself had to keep the Passover. He wasn't so good. He couldn't say. Well, after all, with all my education, I'm not like these poor helpless slaves here. Perhaps there's some other way of safety for me. Even though he might be the second most powerful man in all Egypt, he himself had to keep the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land.
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Which the Egyptians are saying to do, were drowned. Now this is very important.
If the children of Israel had merely kept the Passover, had sprinkled blood on their doors and eaten the Passover lamb as they were instructed to do so, and they had done nothing more, what would they have done the next morning? They would have gone back to the pyramids and building these temples for Pharaoh, working as slaves. Oh, there were there were two parts to the redemption of the children of Israel.
One was accomplished by the blood, and then there was another part which had to be accomplished too, and that was their deliverance from Egypt, or the world, as Egypt represents the world to us.
So it was that they went through the Red Sea and in going through the Red Sea we have the same thing I believe that we have in.
In Romans, the 6th chapter where we read as follows.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? This will be perhaps the children of Israel staying in Egypt, just as they had done before. God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Nor ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father.
Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Oh, I believe this takes us to the place in which the children of Israel found themselves after they've gone through the Red Sea. What had gone between them and Egypt? The Red Sea, which is a type of death. They were now, as far as Egypt was concerned, they were dead.
Oh, it is, We have heard many times. It's the cross of Christ. By the cross of Christ we are crucified unto the world.
And the world, the world is crucified unto us, and we unto the world. So it is that the cross of Christ comes between us and the world, so that we no longer are slaves to the world, to to Satan, to sin. All how important it was that God should provide these definite agencies for the redemption of His people, and how important it was to that He himself made this choice. He did not leave this to Moses, even though he might have been a great leader.
Of His people rather the choice was God's. So in summary then we have these three very important times of decision. We have the decision that the parents make where the little child is born into this world.
The decision to bring up that little child in the nurture and admonition of the Word of God.
But then there comes a time when this responsibility that parents take for their children is no longer sufficient. And this is especially solemn for young people, many of whom perhaps feel that as long as the parents are saved, everything will be well within. But just remember that there came a time in Moses life when he came of age, and how good it is that there is no specific age given here. Otherwise children might say, well, I can safely wait until that time comes.
Because I will not be held accountable until then.
All for your younger children here this afternoon.
If you can in any measure understand the love of God in sending His Son to die on Calvary's cross for you to save you from your sins, then you are right now responsible for that which you know and understand, and it becomes necessary for you to refuse and to choose. And so it was that when Moses came to that age of responsibility, whenever that might have been.
Then He made this extremely important decision, and then when we have made that decision to follow the Lord, whatever the cost may be, then we need to look for that choice that God would make for us all. We read about the good works in Ephesians, the 2nd chapter, which were prepared for us, those good work which God has in His sovereign will.
Prepared for us to do, He has laid out the path for us. It is not for us to choose. And that particular sphere of our relationship with Him which involves worship is also separated out and delineated by God Himself. All the disciples, when they would observe the last Passover, they asked the Lord where He would that they would prepare the Passover, and He directed them.
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And the Lord has directed a path for you and for me too.
Where we can worship him in spirit and in truth as the Lord Jesus spoke of.
To the woman at the well in Samaria, all these things are all spelled out for us. All we have to do is to look in God's holy Word and be subject to it.
And again, in closing, we might just say and emphasize because we feel it's necessary, that that all important decision might still be necessary for some here this afternoon. What will you do with Christ? All the Lord Jesus asked that question.
And we asked it again this afternoon rather than it is the Holy Spirit of God to ask this question perhaps directs it to one who is unsaved here this afternoon. All come under the shelter that blood, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, shed on Calvary's cross.
Lay aside the stubborn will which would keep you from making this decision. Come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior while there's still a chance. And then perhaps we can all say with Joshua at the close, because he said at the close of his life, choose you this day whom he will serve. But As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
We thank you know our God and our Father does not left us at our own devices.
We thank you for that love which has been shed abroad in our hearts so that we can respond to Thy love.
We are told we love because He first loved us, and so we thank Thee for this love which has been shed abroad in our hearts and.