Address—Robert Boulard
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We sing to him in Luke's Gospel, chapter 8, verse 14. We'll read verse 14 and 15.
Luke chapter 8, verse 14. And that which fell among thorns, are they?
Which, when they have heard, go forth, and are troped with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection, but that on the good ground are they. Which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit.
With patience.
Well, what we've had before us in the reading meeting this morning, in the prayer meetings, even the hymns that we've had before us.
Require not only to have heard the Word, but to have an honest heart, and a good heart to hear it, and to obey, and to with a heart's affection filled with affection for Christ, to go on in devotion to Him in the day that we live in. Let's sing #246.
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Lord S blessing in our meeting.
Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee that there is a mercy seat. We thank Thee for the love of the one who sent of the Father to come into this scene. We think of how thou has told us in my word, our God, He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? Always thank Thee for Thy love. We thank Thee for Thy faithfulness.
We thank Thee that thou art devoted to thy Church, Lord Jesus.
We think of how Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it. Oh, we thank thee for such love. And now as we open up thy precious word, we ask thee for clear thoughts. Leading of thy Spirit is to the passages of Scripture that we might turn to and any comments that would be made. We pray that there might be some fruit for the as a result of our occasion here in this meeting in this conference.
That there might not only be decisions for Christ in connection with salvation, the salvation of the soul.
Vation of lives, lives live for Christ.
Rather than wasted in this scene, so we ask you for thy rich blessing, our God and our Father. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
Let's turn to Philippians chapter 3 and verse 14. Just open up with one little passage of Scripture. I'd like to speak this afternoon, perhaps that we might say 9 little mini, uh, subjects. Maybe we could break it down into three things, uh, three things that, umm, really the church prospered under in church history. We have, we have it given to us.
And, umm, we have, uh, two the three things that, uh, the church suffers under currently.
In connection with a weak state of things. And then we have three things that hinder us individually and hinder the church. And I read these things, we're going to comment on them a little bit because, you know, we need to have an honest and a good heart in connection with the very day that we live in. We're just about to be called to be with the Lord. Do you believe it?
Well, if we believe that as we've been reading this morning in Ephesians chapter 5, why there should be some evidence of it. And our heart's affection should be taken up with that blessed man in the glory who's interceding for us in our weakness. And if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. If we sin, if we step out of character of a child of God and sin, why we have a gracious Savior. And so there may be one here this afternoon.
Who hasn't been living for the Lord? And as we read these little passages of Scripture, I'm going to ask you to turn to just various little passages. We'll comment a little bit here and there.
Let the Spirit of God have his way with you and turn to him. Our great high priest on high is sitting there, his hands uplifted in sympathy and love. He desires to restore, he desires to bless. Well I read I wanted to read in Philippians chapter 3 here verse 14. It gives us the.
You might say the mission statement of the apostle Paul. You know, you go into a place of business and you often times see a mission statement. It's a little sentence, maybe a very small paragraph. And in a very brief nutshell, it tells you what this business is about, what they want to do, what they want to accomplish. And Paul says in verse 14, maybe we should read verse 13.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do.
Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of a high calling or the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. Well, you know the Apostle Paul, he had one objective in life and that was he had a view of Christ in the glory. He had seen the Lord Jesus.
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The glorified man. The risen glorified man. He'd seen him and he wanted.
Nothing more but to be with that man and to be just like him. And I trust that you as you sit in your seat and myself, you know, I'm not any different. We all need to re examine ourselves from time to time and examine as to whether or not we're living up to the mission statement that we have set for our own lives. And I trust that Christ is the one that has won your heart. What more could He have done to win your heart or mind?
But to go to the cross and to redeem your your soul to bear the judgment for your own sins individually. If you were the only Sinner that ever lived, he would have died for you. The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Well, let's look at one of these things that in connection with the apostle Paul and.
Chapter Acts Chapter 16 I'd like to look at one of the things that the church prospered under.
At the beginning of the Church period and even today, is persecution.
We have pain and persecution and poverty. I want to look at all three of those and perhaps they'll be interspersed a little bit.
But in Acts chapter 16, we have really the pain and the persecution perhaps connected here, verse 19.
Winter masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone. They caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace under the rulers, and brought them under the magistrate, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.
And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates ran off their clothes and commanded them to beat them or to scourge them.
And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely, who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stalks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. And the prisoners heard them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake. And so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Immediately all the doors were open.
Everyone's bands were loosed, and the keeper of the prisoner waking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword.
And would have killed himself, supposing the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, saying, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in my house. And then just hold our place there, and turn to Philippians again.
Philippians.
Chapter 4.
Verse 15.
Maybe we can read verse 14 chapter 4 of Philippians verse.
14 Notwithstanding you did well, you have well done that. You did communicate with my affliction.
Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me.
That's concerning giving and receiving, but ye only, for even in Thessalonica you sent once and again unto my necessity, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. Well, I read this little account in Acts chapter 16 in connection with the the Philippine jailer. He no doubt was saved that night, and that we could read a little bit further on. He was baptized and all those in his house.
And but have you ever thought of the birth of that little assembly?
You can fill a pie. There were two men that were taken before the Roman judges of that day really was Philippi was a Roman protectorate, a colony. But they were taken before the magistrates and they were scourged. The blood flowed, They were persecuted, they were afflicted, they were publicly re rebuked.
They're publicly shamed and dishonored.
And they suffered the blood flow, but there was a little assembly that was formed. And you know, Paul writes a lot of epistles. He wrote 14 epistles, if you count the epistles of the Hebrews as being one of those epistles, not told specifically. But he has little hints in that epistle that tells us that he wrote it.
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But you know, he wrote the sweetest letter to the Philippians, that little assembly. We're not told how many there were there. We know that Lydia was there. We know the Philippian jailer, his household, perhaps household servants later that were saved. We're not told any details. But that little assembly was formed in the day that there was persecution. And we know that the apostle labored among the Saints. He was a tent maker. And it says that.
In Acts chapter 818 that he labored with equivalent Priscilla.
Because they were of the same craft, but there were times that he was in need. I want to just point out that this little assembly in Philippi was filled with poor Saints, those that didn't have a lot of money. They weren't like the ones in Corinth. They didn't have it made in the shade. They had very little. And they used the resources that they had in the day that they lived in to support Paul's doctrine. And Paul never forgot.
And you know the Spirit of God records in His Word.
In detail, that they thought about him once, twice when he was in Thessalonica and they ministered unto his knees practically. And in their poverty they sacrificed. That the Paul doctrine might go forth, that the gospel might be enriched in the day that they lived in. Oh, I would just ask you this afternoon. The church, you know, is flagging a little. We know we're going to talk.
Little bit about that, but there was persecution, and there are places in this world where the Church is being persecuted. We might consider India and perhaps other places where the Saints are saved by the grace of God, and then even to get baptized is a serious thing for them. They don't likely do it. They're persecuted.
I've noticed we don't suffer a lot of persecution. Paul says it all day that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution and to live in a pious way and a desire to live for the Lord often times will bring some persecution from this world. While we point out that there was an assembly form because there was person persecution, you know in Acts chapter 8. I'm just going to point this out and then move on to another.
Subject Chapter 8 of Acts, it says.
In verse one, Saul was consenting unto his death, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem.
And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
You know when the Lord allows persecution.
When he allows pain and suffering, there's a limit.
Accept the apostles. Have you ever noticed that all the Spirit of God there was a desire of the Lord that the gospel might spread beyond the realm of justice, Jerusalem and Judea, but go on beyond, into Samaria and onto the uttermost parts of the ends of the earth.
But there was a limit to the persecution and we were thinking this afternoon or this morning in connection with the reading meeting. Brother brought it out so nicely in connection with Thanksgiving. You know it says, and we're going to read it a little later on in chapter 5. Ephesians, if the Lord tarries, we get to it, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, when we were young people of Brother Gordon Hail used to minister to us and invite us to his cottage and hammer.
Or in Umm Otter Lake, who would invite us and there'd be 30, maybe 35 of us young people sitting around in his living room by his fireplace there. And we'd have our Bibles open and he'd be ministering something of the truth of God to us, reading these passages of Scripture and seeking to encourage us to go forth in the path of faith.
And, umm, oftentimes he would try to encourage us.
To speak to others and uh, in spite of what there might be persecution, there might be, uh, just a little bit of reproach for the name of Christ. You know what reproach is. Reproach is shame.
None of none of us likes to be ashamed, do we?
The Lord Jesus knew what it was to be reproached. He knew what shame was, but our dear brother would exhort us and encourage us to endure some little bit of shame and suffering for the Lord's sake. Well, there was these, there were these that were persecuted and then they left Jerusalem and they probably left Jerusalem in quite a hurry. So they didn't take a lot of stuff with them. But we know in the earlier part.
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Of the Book of the Acts.
I'm going to read chapter 4 and verse 34.
Let's speak about poverty. We've spoken a little bit about the pain and suffering.
Connection with Paul and Silas we could read other passages. We don't have time. We've read about persecution. The world persecutes, but now with poverty. We find that in verse 34, Acts 4, verse 34. Neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought bought the prices, brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down.
Apostles speak, and distribution was made unto every man, according as he had need.
And then if we.
Look a little further on in UMM, I think it's First Corinthians chapter 15.
Might be 16.
Yes, chapter 16, verse 2.
Upon the first day of the week, let everyone of you lay by him in store, as God has prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come, and when I come, whosoever I will, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, then will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem. You know the Saints in Jerusalem were poor.
My brother chapter Brown used to say, uh, you know, there's uh, nothing. It's not an oxymoron to say that there's a poor St.
It really should be a little more common that there's a poor St.
No, we live in a day of prosperity. But you know, the Saints in Jerusalem, they've been persecuted.
And they had to leave their homes. They'd have to leave everything. We know that equilibrium. And Priscilla, they were Jews when they were perhaps cast out of Rome because Claudius Caesar had demanded that all the Jews must depart Rome. And Sacks chapter 18 ver the 1St 2 verses. But then you find in Romans chapter 16 that equivalent Priscilla are back in Rome. Well, why is that? Well, now they were there as Christians. They were believers now and they were there.
In Rome and they have suffered for the sake of the Lord and let's just read that. I'm not going to quote it right. Romans chapter 16 and it says in verse 5. Now let's read verse 3.
Romans 16, verse three, Greek Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches. The Gentiles likewise greet the church that is in their house. Well, you know this dear couple, we don't know any of their children, if they had any children, but they devoted their lives as a couple to the things of God, and the little assembly was in their home.
I have thought this, and maybe you heard me. Some of you heard me say it. The church.
Testimony began in the homes. There were little homes.
The home of Philemon, the home of Gaius, the home of the Quill and Priscilla. We could name a few more. And here is a little gathering, a little home. The Lord's.
Desire to gather as people together by his spirit, and there was a little assembly gathered in that little city.
Classy.
And here in Philemon's house, there's a little assembly.
And in connection with Aquila and Priscilla in Rome, here's a little assembly and there's a Quillin, Priscilla. They have the assembly in their home. But you know, there's persecution. There was persecution and there was poverty and there was pain at the beginning of the church period. And the church prospered under that, those three things. And I believe perhaps the Lord is allowing a little more persecution in different places. Perhaps it's going to occur in.
If you could use that terminology, we may suffer a little more persecution, a little more pain.
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And, uh, there may be a little more poverty associated with it if we show our colors. In some parts of the world, there is poverty and the church is flourishing and there is persecution, pain.
And the church is flourishing. Oh, may we not look down upon our poor brethren that have very little and they're suffering. May we thank God for their suffering and thank God that He provides for them and look for grace to be able to take of what we have as Paul desired for the Corinthians, that they would lay something aside the first day of the week, and that they would provide for their poor brethren.
Well, let's look at another.
Three little subjects. One is umm, one of the things that has umm, really?
'Cause the suffering in connection with the Church of God we already referred to this morning in our reading meeting. Let's look at Revelation chapter 3.
Since we didn't specifically read.
This passage but.
Brother read to us in connection with.
Revelation chapter 2.
And he read a little bit of the 2nd Epistle to the Ephesians.
That second epistle was written by the Lord himself. The first epistle was written by Paul. The 2nd epistle to the Ephesians was written by the Lord Jesus in Revelation chapter 2, and he felt their heartlessness. But in Revelation chapter 3, it says they're in connection with lazy. I'm going to read it from verse 14 and under the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans, right? These things say at the Amen, the faithful and true witness.
The beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works.
That thou art neither cold nor hot high wood, nor cold or hot. So then, because our lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew the out of my mouth, because thou sayest I am rich an increase with goods, and have need of nothing, and knoweth not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked. I counsel of thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayst be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed. And.
Thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye cells, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him, and will Sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame.
And I'm sat down with my father in his throne.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Then just one little passage in Luke's Gospel chapter 16 and verse 15. Let's read verse 14.
Luke 16, verse 14 The Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things, and they derided him, And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in his sight.
Well, you know the Pharisees, they had a lot of light, they had the Old Testament Scriptures, and they knew something of the mind of God in connection with the morality and with one in respect with to sin.
And they had, as we quoted earlier, the oracles of God. They had something of the knowledge of the living God, that there was one God, and they were at the divine center in Jerusalem at the time that the Lord Jesus came. But you know, they highly esteemed their riches, their property, their wealth. And what we find in Revelation chapter 3 is that one of the things that the church suffers under currently.
And leads to a pitiful state is indifference.
Just who cares? Who cares?
Paul had a mission statement.
I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling, or the calling a high of God, of I'm not quoting it right. Forgiven.
I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
That was his mission statement. There was nothing more important to him than to live for Christ one day at a time.
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Is there something more important for you or I than to live for Christ?
You know, it's interesting in the book of the Acts, we get the seed plot of Christianity there in Acts chapter 2.
I often times think of this in connection with Revelation chapter 3.
It says in verse 42.
Acts 242 They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers. Now what does that say to you? Was there anything more important than to be at the prayer meeting?
Was there anything more important than to be under the sound of the Apostles doctrine?
We're talking about a church that was persecuted.
An assembly where if they confess Christ, they said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he is the Messiah.
That has been rejected by Israel. They could well be taken out.
And lose their lives. There was a great persecution, but there was nothing more important to those early Saints than to be together at the prayer meeting, together under the sound of the word of God at the reading meeting, and to be found that the remembrance of the Lord remembering Him in His death, nothing more important.
Oh, I say this, the Church is suffering today.
Suffering because of indifference to the claims of Christ over us. Oh how He, His heart, desires a year and is to have you and I in His presence at all of the assembly meetings, and that He might be the focus of your life and mine.
That He might have our full attention, not just the leftovers. Oh, I speak to myself as much as to anyone of you. How often I've gone days, often at a time, looking after my own interests, but not seeking to look after the interests of the One who loved me and gave himself for me. You just think of it. The highest priority that God had.
Was to send his son into this world.
This filthy world.
Her brother out West used to say it's the most wicked place in all of God's creation.
The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, the one who never knew sin in Him is no sin, came into the most sinful, wicked place in all of God's creation, that He might accomplish the will of His Father, that He might answer the question of sin, and that might be banished from the sight of a holy God for eternity. And that your sins, the fruit of that wickedness and rebellion of man, might be dealt with. That was His priority.
It was inconvenient.
You can read about it in the gospels, how inconvenient it was.
To send the Son, the Father sent the son. Oh, may we just judge ourselves in connection with what we consider to be convenient and instead of lukewarmness, to have our affections stirred for the one who loved us and gave himself for us. Let's turn to Acts chapter 17 and look at another one of the things that the church suffers under currently.
Acts chapter 17 and uh, we'll read from verse 10.
The brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble, were more honorable than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed also of the honorable women which were Greeks, and of men not a few. But when the Jews of Tusselaik.
Acknowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul, of Berea. They came there also and stirred up the people.
Then we could just hold our place there and turn to a passage in Second Corinthians chapter 2.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 2.
And.
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Let's just read verse 11.
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices, or really say should say that we're not ignorant of his stratagems. I think that maybe Mr. Kelly's translation or in his notes, maybe Mr. Kelly's trans Mr. Kelly's translation, we're not ignorant of his devices, of his stratagems. Well, you know what happened in.
The early church.
We find here in Berea that these dear Saints, we're not told that there was a little assembly in Berea, but I think there was. We're not giving all of the details, but you know, they never heard the gospel before.
Then Paul went and preached to them the grace of God, the forgiveness of sins. You know what? You could be forgiven for one sin at a time. He went to the synagogue and you heard about a sin offering, and you heard about a little lamb and a little lamb, if there was a man that sinned in, that little lamb had to die for that sin.
The man put his hand upon the goat with a little lamb, and he identified himself with the sin, and that lamb was taken out, and it was killed.
Dying for one sin.
Well, 5 minutes later, a man sinned again. Always looking for another another lamb. He's looking for another goat.
Never had a purged conscience.
What if he forgot a sin?
Paul comes and he says.
He was preaching Christ and the forgiveness of sins. Let's read it in. Since we're reading in Ephesians, let's look at Ephesians chapter one.
Ephesians chapter one, verse seven, in whom we have redemption through his blood.
The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. They never heard such things. They said we could have our sins forgiven, all of them, past, present and future.
We gotta find out about this. And they searched the Old Testament scriptures. They searched them up and down to verify that this was possible.
I sometimes wondered what they searched. Then they didn't give up. Every day they were looking to see that he was telling them the truth. Oh, how they rejoiced.
Then he has to say to the Corinthians, Know ye not?
That you shall judge angels.
He has to say to the Thessalonians, and mind you they hadn't been saved that long, but he says I would not have you to be ignorant.
Ignorance is one of the things that the church is grappling with today and that is hindering fruitfulness for God. I want to ask you this afternoon, perhaps you've heard me ask it before, but have you read the word of God right from the front to the back?
You know how long it takes to read the Bible, don't you? From the front to the back.
It takes approximately 47 hours to read from Genesis 11 to Malachi, the last verse.
And then it takes approximately another 15 hours to read the New Testament if you took a week off young person.
If you took a week off, you could read the whole Bible.
And you could never claim ignorance. If a prophet like Hosea, you see Hosea in the glory, you'll know his name.
And umm, you'll talk to Hosea, you'll talk about to Obadiah. You say Obadiah, what was it like to prophesied against Eden?
Oh, he'll tell you what it was like.
You talked to Haggy I and he said, what was it like to go see those dear Saints of God in the day after they had just begun? They laid the foundation for the temple and then they gone to work on their own houses and everything. What was it like?
Well, you'd be able to talk with them about those things, but oh, how much more important it is to talk with the Lord about those things that you read in the Scriptures today. Not to be ignorant of what it is to live for Christ and that which He would have us to live. Umm, inconsistency with his character in a character of holiness, a character of righteousness in the wicked world that we live in.
Oh, I felt embarrassed this morning, if I could put it that way.
To have to speak so plainly about what we're Speaking of in first in the in the first few verses of Ephesians chapter 5.
To speak of fornication so clearly, to speak of all filthiness, and to speak of all these terms that the Spirit of God uses so freely, the church is suffering under because of indifference to the glory of Christ and ignorance as to His Word. And then let's look at one more here in connection with in subjection. Let's read.
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Just read maybe one passage in Ezekiel chapter 33.
And umm, first 30.
Also thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses. They speak to one another, everyone to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee is my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them.
For with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness.
And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument. For they hear thy words, but they do them not. And when this cometh to pass low, it will come. Then shall they know that a prophet has been among them. Well, I read this little passage of Scripture because you know, we're responsible. We have the sovereignty of God. Two lines of things that go through the Scriptures, you know.
Sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. And you and I are responsible as we hear the word of God, Minister.
God doesn't tell us what we want to hear. He doesn't tell us what those soft words speak unto us. Soft words, it says in Isaiah, that's what the people wanted and they wanted to have a nice time, a fellowship perhaps, and a nice soft words. But you know, the Spirit of God tells us the truth.
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Oh, what do we need to be set free from? We need to be set free from the flesh, from the world, from Satan, from the influence and the pull and the draw of those three enemies are the children of God. We need to be set free and set into the liberty of the sons of God. You know God sent His Son into this scene to set you at liberty.
To live for his glory, that there might be fruit in this world, Mr. Kelly said. Apart from the intervention, apart from the intervention of God himself in this world, the whole of this scene would be a total loss.
But he has intervened and he's intervened in your life and perhaps allowing a little bit of suffering, a little bit of pain.
Are you growing by it? Are you exercised there by and growing thereby? You know, there's a brother out West, Midwest. We were just there. We visited. I'm not going to tell you his name.
But he's just had neck surgery.
Very painful.
I read his emails that I couldn't help but have tears in my eyes as I read the pain. As he told me of the pain that he was having. He said just to roll out of bed.
And a couple of days ago, he was able to roll out of bed and not cry out in pain because he just rolled out of bed to go use the restroom at night. And so he's coming to a little bit of relief. But he says, you know what I'm spending my days doing? He said I've never had the time. He's been doing drywall and plaster work all of his life is approximately my age. And he's looking up at the ceilings and, and all that kind of thing.
And it hurt his neck, so he had to have neck surgery.
He says. I haven't had the time, but I'm listening to Recorded Ministry.
I'm listening to Recorded Ministry and I'm profiting in my soul like I've never profited before.
Oh, isn't that wonderful, to have written ministry? Good, sound written ministry. I want to just say, young people, I wish somebody had said this to me when I was a young person, and I'll say it to you this afternoon.
You'll go to a hotel room, you'll spend $100, a $125.00. Think nothing of it, Just drop it. Walk away and you have nothing to show for it. Isn't that the truth?
But you come to a conference and you look at these books and you kind of look in one and maybe you don't even buy anything but make it a pro a priority to learn the truth of God, to search the scriptures daily and to search these different lines of truth that are given to us in the Word of God. Take $100 and buy $100 worth of books, $100 worth of ministry. Do something and then.
Favor it like a good steak. Read it and enjoy it.
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You know, brethren, we have ministry that's rich. Ministry is not filled with air that we have in the camp.
And so we should be very thankful for.
Well, I just read this in connection with Ezekiel because of this tendency, the desire to hear the word, but not to do it really in subjection to the authority of the word of God in our lives. May it have that authority that we should have. Let's look at three things that.
UMM really hinder the church in the day that we live in. Let's look at UMM.
Galatians.
Chapter 5, verse seven. One is the hindrances having bad doctrine. Bad doctrine is a hindrance to us.
So it says here in verse seven, you did run well.
Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not from him that calleth you, not from the Lord.
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
You know, the apostle had to speak very pointedly to those that were his converts and, umm, those that were a part of the Christian testimony in the day that he lived in. And he said there was a hindrance and it was bad doctrine. And he said, I don't know who it is. Maybe he didn't know, but he wasn't saying, and the Lord knows what you're reading, what you're listening to.
I'm distressed.
Brethren, I'm distressed when I go into a home and I hear the Christian radio on, Oh, you say, well, maybe I like to listen to the hymns and so on, and I need to get the news too, and so on. But you know, we've been reading of the filth and the corruption of the flesh. That's what's in the news. I do check the news once or twice a day, once in the morning maybe sometimes, and then maybe once in the evening, just to see a little bit of the high spots of what took place during the day on the Internet.
But to be continually taken up with it is.
Is corrupting, It's a hindrance and oh how much better it would be to have to be playing some Christian CDs. If you want to listen to some music and then do what the brother out Midwest is doing, listen to some recorded ministry, you'll get the commentary that is a little more accurate and inconsistency with the truth of God.
As it's ministered. Oh, I just don't want to speak against our brethren in the camp in one way or another.
But I just say that it's a hindrance to us drug Trinity. If we listen to that kind of ministry, we're not going to get the straight goods even in connection with the coming of the Lord. Well, we have another hindrance in Genesis chapter 24. Let's read verse 55.
Her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide with us a few days at the least 10 after that she shall go. And he said under them hinder me, not seeing the Lord hath prospered my way, send me a way that I may go to my master. And they said, We will call the damsel, and inquired her mouth. And they called Rebecca, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man?
And she said I will go.
And they sent away Rebecca their sister and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men. Then they blessed Rebecca, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, and be thou, the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them. Well, isn't it nice that umm, even though there was a little bit of a hindrance from family and friends? And that's one of the other hindrances we want to speak of. And the day that we live in, we have.
In society at large, in the Western economy, this, uh, little expression, family first in the business environment, am I right? You go to work and uh, people jump all over up, up and down and say, you know, family 1St and you got to treat your family well and something comes up in the family. Take time off, all this sort of thing. But in the things of God, beloved brethren, family relationships can hinder us. And we have it in connection. I think it's in Chapter 11 of Genesis with Abraham the Lord.
Call them to go out of ur the calories. And as long as he had his father Tara with them, he just couldn't get to Canaan, couldn't get there. But then as soon as his father died, then he left where he was and Heran I think it was, and he came into the land of Canaan. He got a blessing, but his father was a hindrance in the things of God.
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Perhaps he was an idolatrous man and never left idolatry. We don't know. We're not told.
But I just say this, beloved brethren, there are those family relationships that we are responsible to maintain and that we need to reverence. We're going to go over some of those in Ephesians chapter 5. But let's not have those relationships take precedence over our relationship with the Lord. You know, one of the qualifications of a disciple, a true disciple.
Is that he has one relationship that he values above all other relationships, and that is the relationship with the Lord Jesus.
And He delights to please Him above all others, in obedience to His word. Well, I would like to look at one more, and that is Weights and sins in Hebrews chapter 12.
Hebrews chapter 12. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a witness, a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which are so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and completer finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross.
The shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest we be wearied and faint in your minds. While these weights and sins a weight isn't particularly a sin. We might say you have in Nehemiah. We don't have time to go into it, but you know there are weights and sins.
God's word is very specific. A weight is like a rock.
Maybe a boat anchor. Sometimes, you know, we say this, maybe you'll pardon the expression, but sometimes we look at a young brother who married, and sometimes we wonder if he married a boat anchor.
Someone that isn't consistent walking is a consistent help meet. And maybe sometimes there's a sister, a godly sister that has a desire to please the Lord, and she marries and we sometimes wonder whether she married a boat anchor.
Young sister, are you reading some ministry? Are you reading a little bit of Christian ministry? Reading something of the truth of God, searching daily the Scriptures to learn for yourself Paul's doctrine?
Young man.
Are you looking to learn the truth of God? If somebody asks you, give me a little snapshot of Paul's doctrine, what's he talking about? Paul's doctrine? When he says my gospel, what's he talking about? What would you say?
I used to think that Paul's darkroom was as big as the Titanic. You could hardly walk from one end to the other. You couldn't possibly know every square into this. But no, it's given to us in the word of God. He gives us Paul's doctrine because we're heavenly citizens, and one of the things that characterizes a Christian is intelligence in the things of God.
Not like the Jews who didn't know, but weights and sins, you know, I was reading recently a little book on the umm, escape of General Douglas MacArthur from Corrugator, the island's corrugator. And he left the island, I think it was March the 11Th, 1942, and he was umm, ordered by FDR to leave.
That he might go to Australia and he had a three leg trip and the first leg of the trip he decided that he would take the PT boats there were.
Four PT boats, plywood with Packard engines in them and.
Umm, they'd been beat up the Japanese, uh, they were decently fast boats for the time and, uh, plywood with a little bit of canvas on the outside and, and he was going to escape cricket or, and he'd arrange that at night. They were going to meet and he said they're going to put something like 20 or 30 barrels, 50 gallon drums of oil of, uh, high.
Highly explosive umm fuel on the decks of these uh PT crew. Uh, PT.
Boats and he was to take the president of the Philippines off of that island and they were to escape through the.
Water is infested by the Japanese and try to escape detection and to get the leader of those free forces of the Western world safely to Austria to lead the battle from Australia, any Senate to the president of the Philippines and to his whole entourage, he says minimal. I don't want you to take anything. Absolutely nothing except maybe a change of clothes. That's it.
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Well.
Don or The dust came and the sun was setting, and servants came down trunks, all kinds. They made a huge pile of luggage at the Wharf and General MacArthur there started to be a fight about who had.
Seniority and who had priority to get their luggage on board.
General Douglas MacArthur said. Men, we're leaving in 2 minutes, everyone aboard.
General MacArthur had his toothbrush in his shirt pocket, maybe a couple of little other items. His wife had a little overnight case. They walked onto that boat. They left everything behind. They left it all behind, every weight.
And they speed out of that corrugator that left that island in the darkness. Man, Mr. Bulkley LED them through and I understand, didn't sleep for 24 hours as he navigated through those infested waters with the Japanese and escaped. Well, I just say this.
The call, the midnight cry has gone out.
Arising depart, For this is not your rest, For this polluted. Should the story destroy you With a sore destruction arising into part, we're soon to hear the call. We're going to have to leave all the weight.
Not all the sin of unbelief, disbelief in the goodness of God. I'm going to have to leave it all behind. And it's going to be an expression. I wonder sometimes what the people in the neighborhood are going to see when they enter our houses and see what we really valued, all the weights that we left. And it might be different for you.
A weight. A weight eventually becomes a sin. So I just say this.
If there's a weight that is weighing you down, slowing you down, not allowing you to live for Christ, get rid of it. It's not worth having. Lay it aside. Leave it on the Wharf.
And live for Christ today is almost up. I know our time is up. Could we sing just nothing but Christ as long as we go #24 in the appendix?
Nothing but Christ at all.
I can't find it right so when I get my own time in the world.
The heartbreak is running around the heart of the heart of the world.
And ourselves, our loving God, our Father, we thank thee for such a Savior. We thank Thee that the Father sent the Son. We thank Thee for thy love. Lord Jesus, never dying love. Oh, we thank Thee that Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself. A glorious church.
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Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, always thank Thee, blessed Savior, for grace that those things could be written of us. We long to have our hearts taken up with Thyself, blessed Savior, and to lay aside the weights and the sins that those so easily beset us, and with patience to run the race set before us. Give us grace, we pray. Bless thy word, bless Thy people, we ask, and we give thanks.
Precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.