Conference: 1971
Table of Contents
The Great Redeemer
Restoration of Joseph's Brethren
Enjoyment of the Love of Christ
Quests of Young Men
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Well, I'd like to look at 5 different passages in the scriptures where we have young men brought before us in connection with various things of life. So the first one is in Ecclesiastes chapter 2, Ecclesiastes chapter 2, and verse one.
I said in mine heart, go to now, I will prove thee with mirth. Therefore enjoy pleasure.
And behold, this also is vanity. I said of laughter, It is mad, and of mirth. What doeth it? I saw it in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom, and to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men, that they might do under the heaven all the days of their life.
The ninth verse. So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me, and whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my portion of all my labor.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do, and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no prophet under the sun.
Well, here is the 1St, and evidently we would say that Solomon was a young man when he came to the throne.
We know that in Psalm that David, his father, reigned for 40 years, and Solomon was not born till some time after his father was reigning. So I would say that he was probably in his late 20s or early 30s at the very best. And here he has come to the throne in Jerusalem. He has the opportunity of discovering for himself everything that will bring happiness to a man.
Efforts to be found under the sun. Some of us might say, well, I'd like to try this or try that, but I don't have the possession to try it, nor do I have the money. I don't have the influence, so I'm restricted. But here was a man who was not restricted. Here was a man who had power because he was king in Jerusalem. Here was a man who had wisdom.
Because it says that he was wise above all that were before him.
Here was a man that had money, for he made silver and gold as the sands of the street, so he had everything that was necessary if it were possible for a man to find happiness under the sun.
And he didn't intend to go to the extreme in anything. He just intended to see what could be found out, to bring happiness without, as he thought, going to the extreme and making himself foolish. And dear young people, perhaps this is the quest that's in your mind, too. You feel? Well, I just like to try things out. This is a wonderful world, and we're living in a wonderful age. There's more within the.
Young people than ever were before. More things, more places to go and much more learning. Oh so much that you could reach out for. And this age in which you live is a very particularly tempting age. You can sit in your own home and see what's going on all over the world. Now, this isn't this is something that couldn't be done in times past. And so you say, why not?
Enjoy all these things and enjoy them to the full. Well, now, why did God allow Solomon to be in this position? Well, for the very reason for which I am speaking this afternoon.
And that is, he allowed this man to try everything so that he might, as it were, give us the results of his research, of his findings. This is a day when we hear a lot about research. People say, well, I did research on this.
I did research on that. Well, here was my new God raised up to do an extensive research to find out, and he tried what could be found under the sun and after he had tried everything to the fall and as he said.
His wisdom retained with him, that is, he sought to confine himself in the limits of wisdom, in what he did, and yet.
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Man, when he had tried it all, what was his observation? What was his finding? Well, his finding was as we were told in the 11TH verse. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on all the labor that I had labored to do, and behold, I was satisfied not at all. It didn't bring him what he expected.
And now, dear young people, as I look into your faces, I know.
And that you are seeking after something that will satisfy youth is always after something worthwhile in life. Always seeking. And this is only normal too, because when you're young, while you look out on life and you think there must be something worthwhile, and you feel that you must try each thing in order to find out whether it's worthwhile.
But this is the wonder of God's Word.
We have one who knows infinitely more than we do. We have one who is perfect in wisdom. His name is called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And there is one who looks down in this room this afternoon and is interested in you, and who knows all about what is in your mind and knows that you're really seeking for something that satisfies.
And he hasn't left you without.
Very finest and best of advice. He hasn't left you to the wisdom of man, because the wisdom of man is very varied. Some people command one thing, some another. Some people appalled one thing, another condemn that same thing. And So what are you going to do? You say even when I ask Christians, some people say this is all right and some Christians say it's not.
Well, dear young people.
I turn you to the word of God, and God has written a book for us. It's His Word, it's His wisdom, it's His light for our pathway. The entrance of thy word giveth light. It giveth understanding to the simple. And to you, dear young people, I would say that to be brought up under the sound of God's word is the greatest privilege that you can have.
If you were brave, your teacher in school was the vast.
In the whole school, you would say, Well, I must say I have a great favor. I have the best teacher in the school. If you were going to college and you were studying a subject under the very, very Bash professor in the land, you would say I'm really favored. I'm studying under such and such a professor, and he's the high man in his field. Well, dear friend, you're studying under the one who is not just the high man, but he's God himself.
That blessed One who came down into this world and walked through this world was God manifest in the flesh, and you and I have the light and wisdom of His Word. I cannot command too highly to you the importance of reading God's Word until you become well acquainted with it. And as I have sometimes said to young people, read the stories of the Bible carefully. Read them so that they sink right.
You know what God has given, because God has written a story in His Word to suit every situation that you can ever meet in life. He has talked about men. He's not merely given you instruction, but He has put man in the history of this world in every position in which a person could be found. And in that position He has shown how they acted. He has shown us their mistakes. He has shown us what.
Had to reap for their mistakes. And he has also showed us how they were blessed when they vowed to the Word of God and to his wisdom and walked in obedience to Him. Oh, you say my situation is different from others. No, I say there's a story in the Bible that's suited for you. There is a story in the Bible that's suited for your office, for your home, for the assembly where you live. Every situation you could think of is portrayed in the Scriptures.
And in the Old Testament we have the picture, and in the New Testament we have the instruction. Did you ever buy a part for your car? And then you found that there was a little diagram how to put it on. And then there was some printed instruction too. And you looked at the diagram and you looked at the printed instruction, and you worked together with those two and you put the thing on properly.
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Well, your friend God's given you a picture, and he's given you the instruction. He's.
Written it all down. How thankful we should be. And so if there's someone here who is in exactly the same quest as Solomon, who is almost saying the very words, listen to what he said. He said to his own heart, I will prove thee with mirth. Therefore enjoy pleasure. Oh, you say that's just what I wanted. I didn't know the Bible told me to do that.
I'm here with the young man and he talked to himself and he said no, I'm just going to have a good time.
And I'm going to try everything that I can and I'm not going to go Polish in it, but I'm just going to try it. This is the one whom God gave this place and he tried. Of course, we have to remember it was under the sun. Don't forget those words. You'll never understand the book of Ecclesiastes unless you always bear in mind those 3 words under the sun. Under the sun.
He, he didn't.
He didn't bring in the the glorious knowledge that you and I have in Christianity, but he looked at things under the sun and just acted as a man might try things under the sun. And so these things under the sun did not bring satisfaction to his heart when he had tried them all, he said all his vanity.
Honest doesn't mean that God isn't interested in your happiness, nor does it mean that he's not interested in your material happiness.
I was very much struck in reading in the 12TH chapter of Luke, where it says that God clothed the Louis far better than he clothed Solomon, than Solomon was clothed in all his glory.
And that if God was so interested in the flower of the field, he's interested in us, and then he goes on. The Lord Jesus speaking in the 12TH of Luke said, But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. That is, don't seek pleasure and self satisfaction.
Seek the Lord, seek him.
And then he'll undertake with what you need in a natural way. He has interested in the places you go. He's interested in the clothes that you wear. He's interested in the house you live in and the car that you drive. He's interested in everything. But he doesn't want you to make this the object of your life. He doesn't want you to make that the thing that you seek after.
I've sometimes illustrated like this as supposing United States were going to.
Send an ambassador up to Canada. And when he was going to be sent, he said, well, I'm most interested in what kind of a car I'm going to have up there and what kind of a house I'm going to have and whether I'm going to have a good time in Canada. They'd probably say, well, you're, you're not a suited representative for us. But when he comes there, he's provided with a nice house he's provided with.
A nice car, but that's not his purpose. That's not what he's.
Therefore, that is merely provided in connection with the carrying out of his privilege of representing the United States and Canada. Well, dear friends, you and I are heavenly men. Every saved young person in this room this afternoon belongs to heaven and is a representative of heaven upon earth. You think God cares whether you're provided for? I'm quite sure United States cares very much whether they're ambassadors provided.
For in fact, it's their interest to see that he's properly provided for. But that isn't why he's in Canada. And you're not in this world, and I'm not in this world to seek pleasure. We're here to represent Christ. And so if this is what you're seeking after, dear young person, it's going to lead to disappointment if you have made the quest of your search pleasure and fun and mirth and laughter as he speaks of.
And perhaps great works and all these things, you are bound for disappointment. But if you make Christ the object of your search, by then he cares about the rest.
He cares about everything in your life. I love that verse, casting all your care upon him. And it doesn't end by saying because he's so mighty it could end that way. But why does it say casting all your care upon him? For he cares for you because he's interested in you. You can safely leave it to him. The protection of his child and treasure is a charge that on himself he laid. He made that his own.
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Charge, it's his interest. Well, here was one who sought the wrong thing and when he had it all he had to say it was vanity and vexation of spirit and saw before I pass on to the next, may I say if there's any young person, perhaps you're not saved and you have nothing else to live for. You don't know the Lord Jesus. And so you say you're going to make the best of this life.
Well, I'm sorry for you because even if you did find.
Something that gave you a measure of pleasure in this life at the end. His judgment at the end is eternal banishment from God's presence. But I speak primarily to those who know the Lord Jesus. Oh, I beseech you, dear young people, don't seek after the things here. Not because God is not interested in your happiness, but because.
They seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. So here we find one.
In quest of pleasure and only to be disappointed.
Now I'd like you to turn to Mark.
And chapter 14 mark in chapter 14.
In verse 15. And they all forsook him and fled, and there followed him a certain young man having a lemon cloth cast about his naked body. And the young man laid hold on him, and he left a linen cloth, and fled from them naked.
Well, here's another young man. He certainly wasn't seeking after pleasure. He certainly wasn't in the same quest as the man that we read of in the book of Ecclesiastes. Here was a young man and you would say, well, this was a young man of character. Well, I have brought this young man before you for a particular purpose. Here we find in the 50th verse that all the disciples had forsaken Jesus and fled.
That is, the ones who had companyed with the Lord Jesus and who ought to have been very devoted to Him. Why are they turned out to be a disappointment? They didn't follow the Lord like they should, because at this point, at this very serious point in the test, have they all forsook him and fled. And soon this young man, with a natural zeal of youth, he decides that he is going.
According to shall I say?
Be a hero. He is going to stand out above all the rest. Now, dear young people, there can be a danger of this too. Sometimes when we're young, we look around and we see perhaps others, and they haven't gone on with the Lord the way they should, and we tend perhaps to set up ourselves and think we're not going to make the same mistakes.
They made we're going to go on, we're going to be this and we shall something of the Spirit that Peter said, though all should forsake thee, yet will not I and sometimes we see young people like this. It's lovely to see a desire for the Lord, But sometimes when we display this without realizing what we are ourselves without ever having got into the presence of God.
In a sense of our own nothingness, and we have to find out that we do not have the strength for the Christian life in ourselves. Or how many a young person I have seen who has started out well, has started out and you thought well, what a promising young person, and today they have turned out to be a disappointment.
And have heard older ones say well I don't understand.
And that young person seemed so promising, all dear young people, just as in the first case, the man, the man's heart was wrong. He was looking after the world for pleasure, and his heart was wrong instead of sending the Lord before him. And here is a young man who stands out, as it were. And I might say that linen in the Scripture is a figure of practical righteousness.
This one was going.
To be a little better than the rest. He was going to be one who, even if others all didn't do the right thing, He was going to be the hero. He was going to be the faithful one.
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All, we don't know our own hearts. How many, many times my dear father quoted to me that verse. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. We don't know what we would do. We're capable of doing anything. Oh, dear young people, don't trust your own heart. You may think I wouldn't do this. Some other person might be turned aside, but not me. I'm going to be faithful.
All we don't know our own hearts. This young man had the linen cloth cast about his naked body. I think of it sometimes. He had this outwardly, but what did he have underneath it? Nothing. Nothing. There was nothing underneath. And we can have something that's outward, but God's going to put us to the test about what we've got underneath.
Underneath that display, underneath that nice talk.
Underneath that.
Pretend the desire to follow the Lord is their reality. The priest was to have linen breeches about his lines. He was to have something underneath the robes and dear young people, it isn't enough now just to put on the outward. There needs to be something underneath that is there needs to be now that.
Self judgment in the presence of the Lord, that consciousness that we have no strength of our own, and that getting into His presence in quietness and acknowledging that we do not have the strength to meet the difficulties of life. And I would encourage you, dear young people, to get before the Lord. Don't try to be outwardly what you are not inwardly.
God wants reality. Man looketh on the outward.
Appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
If the Nazarite broke his inward devotedness to God, he wasn't even allowed to retain his long hair. Why? Because God didn't want him to maintain the outward when he didn't possess the inward, If he was touching what was unclean, if he was taking of the fruit of the vine, that is enjoying the pleasures of the world.
And that he wasn't to bear the outward sign of being something that he wasn't.
Inwardly and God said he was to cut off his hair and not make a display before others of something that was not real in his life. And I say to your young people, be real. Walk before God, walk in self judgment. The 2 great lessons of the wilderness are this and that. There is nothing good in us but that there is everything we need in Christ.
Yes, it is. We're slow to learn both. We're so slow to learn that there's nothing good enough.
Think of Moses, one whom God afterwards used so mightily, but when we find him going in an energy, he was going to set things right.
And when his brethren had a quarrel, he said, he our brethren, why are you strife one with another? Yes, he was going to set them right. He was going to kill the Egyptian. He he meant well, but he hadn't learned himself. And how long did it take him before God could use him? 40 years, 40 years in the backside of the desert. And when he came back, he wasn't a self confident man then.
No.
When he came out of Pharaoh's court, he was mighty in words and deeds.
But when he came back from the school of God, he said, I can't talk, I can't talk. And the Lord had to say, who made man's mouth? I'll teach you what to say, Moses. Yes. And dear young people, this is another experience that we sometimes have to go through. And what I am trying to say, if I can make it very simple, God doesn't want you to pretend to be something. He wants reality.
He wants not only that you put something on in front of your brethren.
To impress them. But what would give a joy to the heart of your blessed Savior is that He sees you when no one else sees you. In your bedroom, on your knees, reading His Word as it were, preparing the inward so that when you go and meet others, that the outward would be the expression of what was inward.
So when the young man made hold on this this boy.
Who had this and this linen garment? It says it was cast about his naked body. And when someone went to grab him, he lost the linen cloth and he fled. He had nothing underneath. And there's a test going to come in your life. There's a test going to come in mine. And what is the task going to be? Whether what we pretend to be outwardly is real with us. Inwardly. Somebody is going to lay hold on us. Some unexpected attack is going to come.
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Someone is going to rise.
And say or do something and it's going to catch us off guard. And if we have nothing inward, when the outward's gone, we'll flee. We'll run. Because it hasn't been the habit of our lives to be constantly in the Lord's presence. Well, this young man that we read of here was sort of different from the first one. The first one was openly seeking Martha and pleasure.
The second one was one who was displayed.
The outward linen garment, but he wasn't carrying it out practically in his own personal life before the Lord. So I believe there's a lesson for us in this. I say again, God wants reality. Now let us turn to another in Exodus chapter 33, Exodus chapter 33, and verse 7. And Moses took the Tabernacle and pitched it without the camp.
Afar off from the camp.
And called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the Tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. And the 11TH, 10th verse. And all the people saw the cloudy pillars stand at the Tabernacle door. And all the people rose on, worshiped every man at his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face is a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp.
But his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed, not out of the Tabernacle.
Now here we haven't time to read all the connection of this, but we have another young man named Joshua. And this young man had, along with many others, left Egypt.
God had redeemed them and brought them out of that land of ******* and here they were now in the wilderness. But a law. They had left Egypt. The world was, alas, in their hearts. And we find just in the chapter before how that they had made a golden calf. And those in the camp were worshipping the golden calf. They were worshiping the works of their own hands.
And alas, can we say that that which professes the name of Christ?
Today has departed from loyalty to Him. Other things have come in and just as he or they worshiped the golden calf, so there can be other things that are idols and christened them. While it professes to be apart from the world that's under judgment. Nevertheless, here we find that they were worshiping this golden calf and when Moses came down from the mount and found the people.
Worshiping the golden calf, and then it says he took the Tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. That is, God provided a meeting place outside of all His confusion. I believe it's still the same today. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.
There was a place, and isn't this a marvelous name, the Tabernacle of the congregation, or were there a great crowd of people there that says, everyone that sought the Lord went out unto the Tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp? Now you would say, well, now you'd expect to find a large crowd there than if everyone that sought the Lord went out there. But now it appears that it was not solved. It appears that there were very few.
The greater part of them, Charles, a more popular position, how they didn't want to turn their back upon the Lord. And so it says that everyone rose up in his 10th door and worshiped the Lord in his tent door. He worshipped, but he didn't go to this meeting place. And now we know that there are many who we could say are true children of God.
Yet they have not seen their place outside the camp. They have not seen what it is to be gathered to have rejected Christ.
Many of you, dear young people, have been brought up to know these things and to hear them. It's not a new thing for you to be told what it is to be gathered to a rejected Christ, and we're not expecting to find a popular position. But I trust that.
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Those who have gone through any exercise can say, well, the reason I have identified myself with those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus is because I believe the Lord is there. And that's why I want to be there, because that's the only thing that will ever keep us there. It's certainly not because of the crowd, because here we find.
That the names of those that went out are not mentioned, but certainly.
If there were very many there, there were exceedingly There were exceedingly few in comparison to the number that were in the camp. The greater majority stood in their tent door and worshiped the Lord.
But here there was a place, there was a place where the Tabernacle was set, there was a place where those that sought the Lord could go and commune with him. Can I just make this little remark because someone might say, well then why did Moses go into the camp? Well, I just make this little remark. God is sovereign, and the fact that God is working in the camp and saving souls is not a reason for us to forsake.
The Path of Obedience 1 rejoices to see God working in grace and we, just like Israel, have failed exceedingly. We cannot lift up our heads and say, well, we're the faithful people in all the gospel testimony has been committed to us. Oh indeed not brethren, let's hang our heads and acknowledge how that we're just poor, failing things and a failing testimony.
To the truth of the church is the body of Christ, and God is faithful.
And I give thanks for those who have been brought to the Lord, even though they may not have given up the confusion of Christendom. And we leave that with the Lord. And it's not our responsibility to interfere or to question the sovereignty of God.
Right. And so Moses, who in this case represents Christ, he went into the camp and thank God that he's still meeting people in grace, meeting them perhaps in a position that his word cannot approve of because he is sovereign. But as far as Joshua was concerned, his place was one of obedience. His place was one of following those who sought the Lord, being in the Lord's presence.
Later on, Eldad and Medad prophesied in the camp, and Joshua said, My Lord, Moses forbid them. Did Moses forbid them? He said Envious Thou for my sake.
Dear young people, never get envious because there's blessing outside of us. Never get envious because there's blessing in the camp. Give thanks if there's blessing in the camp, but your path and mind is to be obedient to the Word of God. And So what I wanted to bring before you about this young man named Joshua was that to him the Tabernacle of the congregation was precious.
The place where the Lord met with his people. Now that was precious.
To him, and he didn't interfere with what God was doing in grace, but he just walked in the path of obedience himself. And this is the happy path for you, dear young people. I know that in these days it's often hard to continue in the path, but notice that. And it came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the Tabernacle of the congregation. Well then, when you find out there's not many there.
Are you going to give up?
Are you going to give up or because you see God working in the camp or you're going to give up the path because of this? Joshua didn't. Joshua stayed the place where the Tabernacle was because that was the place for those who sought the Lord. And so he says he departed not out of the Tabernacle. Well, may the Lord give us to value the privilege of walking in obedience to His Word, even though God.
Sovereign in his acts in grace.
And now shall we turn to Zechariah?
Zechariah The.
Second last book in the Old Testament.
The first verse I lifted up mine eyes again and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand then said, I whither goest thou? And he said, I'm sorry.
Zechariah 2 verse one. Thank you.
Then said I, Whither ghost thou? And he said unto me, to measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof. And behold, the Angel had talked with me, went forth, and another Angel went out to meet him, and said unto him, Run speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, for the multitude of men and cattle are in. For I saith, the Lord will be unto her a wall of fire round about.
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And will be the glory.
In the midst of her.
Oh, in Zechariah we have the little remnant that had come back from the Babylonian captivity, and here they were back in the center where God had put His name. And yet there was much that would discourage them. There was very little activity in connection with the rebuilding of the temple, and they were so much discouraged that some of them were at the point of almost giving up. And they were building their own houses, but the House of the Lord was being neglected.
And God raised up two prophets, Zechariah and Haggai, to stir up the people and to encourage them to go on.
But now this brings us to this young man where the measuring line in his hand. I'm sure that as he looked around and he saw some building their houses, he saw some who ought to have been faithful man, and they were getting into mix ups with the enemies that were round about them and all. There were so many things to discourage that here was a young man.
And what does he do? Well, he said.
I'm just going to take a line and see how large this work really is. And so here he is walking along with a measuring line. Have you ever done that, dear young person? Have you ever taken a measuring line? And you measured the little assembly where you were, and then you compared it with others and you said, oh, it's nothing. There's nothing being done here. It's so small and there's so much weakness. And you were just about at the same point.
This young man, I am sure that if he had measured Jerusalem at this point, he would have gone away with a discouraged heart and said, well, it's so small, does the Lord really have delight in such a thing as this?
And so here we find that an Angel is sent to run and speak to this young man. And what was the word that was given to him? All he is told to look on.
As though the message was like this all young man, don't measure things down here as they are, but just think of the glorious time that's ahead. Jerusalem is going to be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cavalry. And always said there's a glorious day ahead for Jerusalem. And if I could apply it to our own day when you return to the little assembly that you came from.
And you take the measuring line in your hand and you say, oh, it was nice to be with a few 100 when we were at those meetings up in Glendale. But oh, there's so few here and there are no young people. And with a measuring line in your hand, you're pretty discouraged. Well, here's somebody running to speak to you. And what is he telling you? Always says, look on, there's a glorious day ahead.
And you say, Oh yes, but down here, well.
Had your young people to be gathered on the ground of the one body, as we have had in this meeting.
To be gathered as members of the body of Christ is indeed a wonderful privilege. I believe the dearest thing to the heart of Christ in this present dispensation is that he is gathering a bride, a bride for glory. And as he looks down and sees so many calling themselves by various names, forming groups with various measures of activity and measuring while we're doing a big work here.
We're doing something here, and we perhaps think, well, it's all small, but the Lord looks down and he finds delight in a few that recognize that there is one body and that in all weakness we can seek to give expression to that truth. If I can speak for myself, it's the knowledge of this that has kept me in some measure through the years.
Because.
I'm just the same as you are. I've looked around and I've often been discouraged as I've gone to places and seen the weakness. Why, I had to be careful not to pull up the measuring line. I had to put it aside, as it were. And I had to look on and say, well, the church is someday going to be presented without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, and to be gathered just to give expression to the truth that there is one body just to.
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That were gathered as members of his body, waiting for that glorious time. Then that gives courage to go on.
And so it says, I saith, the Lord will be under her, A wall of fire roundabout that is all evil will be kept out and a glory in the midst of her. Isn't that a wonderful future that's ahead? Well, if there's a young person here and you have just come to the point where you've been so discouraged because you've been using that measuring line, may I point you on like this young man?
May I tell you that?
Someday in the glory, I believe you'll be thankful that you kept in the past. Someday you'll praise the Lord that He gave you the privilege of being gathered to His precious name according to His Word. Oh, don't, don't, I beseech you, and make comparisons, except you want to measure things by the Word of God.
May the Lord grant them that if there's anyone here who is discouraged.
That the Angel may run and speak to you and point you on to a time of glory that is ahead. And it might be today the Lord Jesus might come and all. What a grand meeting that will be. All those young people that perhaps you know at school who are not so gathered. That nice young person that works in the office that really loves the Lord and yet doesn't see the path. We're going to all be together around the Lord someday. We're going to praise.
Him, there's a glorious time, but what a privilege of seeking to go on.
Instead of instead of getting discouraged to look on to the time when the Lord will bless that very place in Jerusalem, you'll bless them on the earth, and we're going to be in the heavenly Jerusalem where every several gate was 1 Pearl. I like that expression because it just seems to me it gives this thought that wherever you enter.
What do you say a perfect display of what the church is to Christ, A perfect display. Whatever gate you entered, the whole 12 gates, What would you see? Just a perfect display of what the church is to Christ, because it was the Pearl for whom he gave himself. And I'll just one more.
In.
First Timothy, chapter 4.
Verse 12. Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in Word in conversation, and charity, and spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given me by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appeal.
You all take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.
Here is Paul writing to a young man, a young man named Timothy, and he said, let no man despise thy youth. I was very much struck in reading in the 27th chapter of Leviticus that God gives us the value of man at different ages. And from the ages of 5 to 20 he valued them at 20 shekels. From the ages of 20 to 16 he valued a man at 50 shekels, and from 60 and not evaluated.
15 shackles.
So, you know, as we get older, we're not worth quite as much. You young people are the ones, if the Lord leaves you here, who are going to be the ones who go on in the truth of God. It's true that when the priests retired from service at 50, they were to keep the charge of the Lord and they were just like the ones that held the reins. But the rains don't do the running. It's the young people that do the running. And dear young people, I want to encourage you. I want.
Encourage you, just like Paul did to Timothy. He wrote to Timothy and he said, let no man despise thy youth. Don't say well, because I'm a young person, there's nothing for me in the valuation of the 27th of Exodus, if you're past 20, you're worth over three times as much as the one that's the one that's over 60. What a valuable place is yours. What a responsibility, what a privilege is yours.
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And So what a wonderful thing, and I've noticed it as I've traveled about from assembly to assembly that the greatest blessing that I've seen in assemblies is young people that want to go on for the Lord Jesus. The old people are blessed by them in every meeting where the young people are going on for the Lord, the old people are rejoicing because we want to see you blessed and happy. And here Timothy has written to Timothy is encouraged and.
Said, don't let anyone tell you it's no use because you're young. There is something for you to do. There's a place for you to fulfill. And all I want to encourage you, I want to see dear young people who have a heart for Christ, who seek to go on for him. Because we've observed in the other cases, there may be times when we get discouraged. There may be times when we seem to feel that we're pretty much alone.
But the Lord values that devotedness.
Timothy was living at a time when he saw all Asia turn away from Paul. Paul said all in Asia be turned away from me. But Paul writes and said, Timothy, don't you give up. Don't you give up just because there's a breakdown. But you go on and you'll be an example in Word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit.
In faith, in purity. And if the enemy can't lead you out of the meeting, he can perhaps lead you to a careless walk inside. And in that way too, instead of being an example, you can be a hindrance. And saw here we find that Timothy is exhorted to go on and to be an example. And so he encourages him too, about the gift that is in him. There's many a young person who has a gift.
Often as I look at young people and I see that they really are young people of ability, I know the devil makes a special target of those who have that kind of ability. Didn't the king of Syria ask for all the goodliest in the court of Ahab? Didn't King Nebuchadnezzar ask for the choicest in Babylon for to bring up in the wisdom of the Chaldees?
And isn't the world the same today? It's looking for the.
Of our young people, it's looking for you to join the ranks of making this world a place of greater progression and more advancement only for judgment. But O dear young people, O Lord wants you. The Lord wants you. And so I just close with those words. Continue thou. Continue thou.
Continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. For may the Lord help you through the snares and pitfalls of youth, may help you and encourage you to live for Him. At the end of your journey, you'll look back and you will thank Him for His preserving grace. No credit to ourselves, but all. You'll thank Him and when you see in that day of manifestation how He valued.
Any little bit of devotedness to him, you and I will wonder, why didn't we live more for Him? He did everything for us. Continue now.
The Blood the Cross and the Death of Christ
The Person of Christ
Gospel
Wise Men Ignorant of God
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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I'd like to read verses in a few different places and the Word of God first of all in Acts chapter 17 verse 16.
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say?
Other some he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods.
Because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection, and they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is? But thou bring a certain strange things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what these things mean, for all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship him, declare I unto you God that made the world.
And all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made.
Made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life and breath, and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations of men. For to dwell in all the face of the earth, and have determined the times before and appointed, and the bounds of their habitations, that they might seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us. For in Him.
Live and move, and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring. For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the God has likened to gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. In the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
Because he hath pointed today in the which he was.
The world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereby hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
We turn also to Jeremiah Chapter 9.
Jeremiah, Chapter 9.
Verse 23.
Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him with glory, glorious glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord.
And John chapter 3.
John, Chapter 3.
And verse 13.
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. For as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him.
Should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Well, dear friends, it seems rather strange that in a Christian land we should have to speak about the unknown God, and yet we are living in days of such remarkable change, and that there are people growing up in this very age to whom God is an absolute stranger. They have no thought or conception of what it is to have to do with God, and they are turning back to the heathen ideas and Eastern religions instead of accepting.
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Truth of God's precious word. And to you boys and girls who have been brought up in Christian homes, I say you have a wonderful privilege. You have been brought up with a book that reveals God to us. You have been brought up as the Jews of old with a wonderful privilege of having in your hands God's revelation of himself in all men today.
Are spending millions of dollars spending so much time?
Trying to find out more and more of the wonders of this universe in which we live. And God has allowed men to make advances that some of us never expected to see. In fact, the printing press cannot keep up with the advance of knowledge. And wise men are glorying in their wisdom. Wise men are glorying in all that they are discovering and in their ability, their strength. Think of being able to take off and go all the way to the moon and land on it and.
Got it, dear friends, we're living in very serious days. But I say that alone. Men are finding out all these things about the vast creation in which we live. There is an increasing and appalling ignorance of the God who made it all, the one who made everything and in whom we live and move and have our being. No wonder there is so much frustration everywhere.
No wonder there is so much of a problem in the minds of men and women.
And young people today, because they are discovering the universe, they are glorying in their wisdom, but they do not know the one who alone can fill and satisfy the human heart.
Him and the purpose of the gospel is not to deal with the question of man's knowledge in connection with scientific subjects, but to bring before you the God with whom you have to do. God has made himself known. And we're told in Romans chapter one that the gospel is concerning God's beloved Son. Now it's true it concerns your blessing, but I say it's concerning God's Son.
God, the one who made it all, wants you to know Him. I'm sure that if someone gave you a beautiful gift, the best gift that you would ever receive in your whole life, you would never be so hard hearted and careless as to say, I'm not interested in getting to know the giver. I'm not interested in getting to know the person who gave me this wonderful gift.
And this universe in which we live.
Can it be that you are saying I'm not interested in getting to know the one who made it all? Well, dear friend, it's your loss. But I have good news for you. God wants you to know Him. God loves you. John 316 says God so loved the world. When did God begin to love the world?
Well, when sin came into the world.
As it's often been remarked, the first words that God spoke after sin came in were these. Adam, where art thou? God became a seeking God. He had made this world His own hands, had planted the garden for Eve, Adam, and Eve to enjoy. And because Adam was lonesome, God had given him a companion, one who he could enjoy.
Whose companionship he could have and share.
All the good things of that garden that God himself had planted for him. But sad to say, he chose to listen to the voice of the enemy instead of listening to the voice of the God who had prepared everything for him.
And so he listened to the tempter. It seemed like a very small sin.
That wasn't very much that he did. Why couldn't he try the tree? The only way you can find out is by trying things. Haven't you said that yourself? Well, you can't know unless you try. Well, that's what Adam thought. That's what Eve thought. They said we'll never know unless we try. And so let's just try it. Perhaps we'll only try it once. If it doesn't bring us the pleasure we expected, we don't need to.
Continue eating of it. But, dear friends, that one act of disobedience was the solemn and awful act that brought sin, that brought misery, that brought death, that brought ruin upon the human race. Because I tell you, my friend, that sin in God's sight is more terrible than you have ever thought.
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Because one sin was enough to shut Adam and Eve.
Out of that garden, never to re enter it. Sin is an awful thing in God's sight. And I say again, you may have said, well, I don't see why I shouldn't be able to at least try it, to try it once. I ask. Perhaps you've tried something once and perhaps you've ruined your life. Perhaps you've tried something and you've ruined your health.
You only have to take poison once to bring.
On yourself, the awful results of the poison that you have taken. And dear friend, I warn you solemnly that just as sin has come into this world and sin is still here, sin has ruined this world. But God is still a God of love. And when Adam sinned, God sought after Adam and the same hands that had planted the garden and provided it for his happiness.
Turned after Adam had sinned and himself made coats of skins that they might be clothed in his presence, The same one that they had sinned against made provision for them in spite of their sin. And this is the good news of the gospel. And that sin has come into this world. And this precious book that we have is not one of the philosophies of man. It isn't one of the ideas.
Of man, but it is God's book.
It's been written by many different authors inspired by the Spirit of God over a period, I suppose we could say of about 1500 years. And all these different writers have written and God has preserved the book to us and one doesn't contradict the other.
I studied books in school, and the books that are being published today contradict the books that I studied when I went to school. Man's wisdom changes so quickly, but not God's. And God could write this book over this period of 1500 years and use different writers of all kinds of different measures of education and temperament, and He could give it to you and to me as a revelation.
Himself a revelation that he's going to stand forever, because Jesus said heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.
Now it may be that you say, well, I'm not interested. I'm not interested in religion. I'm interested in fun. I'm interested in having a good time. But dear friend, you have to do with God. You must answer to God. When your tax papers come, you don't say I'm not interested. You can throw them in the waste paper basket if you like, but that doesn't mean that you have no responsibility just because you're through them in the waste paper.
Basket the day of reckoning will come, and you will have to find that the law has caught up with you. And dear friend, you may go on in good health. You may say I am having more fun than the people who have accepted Christ because they are persecuted. You may say that. But I warn you, my friend, that you have to do with the living God, and that the day of reckoning is going to come.
Of course I do not allow this.
And that although you may have more fun, I say you haven't the real peace and joy that the Christian has. I would say that when she drank Meshach and Abednego, the three men that were thrown into the fiery furnace for their faith, when they were in that fiery furnace, I would say that they were happier man than the ones who stood and looked in the window and saw them there, because they were walking in that fiery.
Furnace in the company of the Son of God. And dear friend, it may be true that if you accept Christ as your Savior, you will be persecuted. Many of the early Saints were persecuted in this very day in which we live. I am persuaded that there are many who have laid down their lives for Christ. We're living here in a privileged land. You're not very likely to be put to death. But while we're standing, while we're sitting here in this room.
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Other countries.
Are persecuting people who acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. But I say in spite of all that, that they have a peace and they have a joy and a satisfaction in their hearts, knowing Christ that their persecutors do not have. And then when this world is over, for man is not born for time, He's born for eternity when this life is over.
Then what all the day of reckoning comes, and it says, as I live, saith the Lord, every tongue shall, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
And so tonight I want to bring before you the one who may be to you, as he was to the people that lived in Athens long ago, the unknown God, the unknown God. Now, it doesn't say that these people didn't have good minds. They, I would say, had excellent minds. I would suppose that some of the most brilliant minds lived at this time in Greece, and that these Greek philosophers.
Were exceptionally intelligent man, but these Greek philosophers with all their knowledge did not know the true God. They had all different conceptions of God and so they they're known today the God of love and the God of hate and the God of War and the God of peace, the God of commerce, all is different these different conceptions that they had.
And lest they should have missed one, they put up an altar to the unknown.
God in their city, and as Paul walked through their city, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry and friends. I confess as I walk up and down the streets of the world, as I go about the streets of great cities, I must say I feel something like Paul. My spirit is stirred in me and I often feel sad as I watch young people locking up and down the.
I'm not there to censure them. I'm there to feel sorry for them that they don't know the true God. They don't know the Christ of God. They don't know the one that can fill and satisfy their hearts. And they're trying something. They say our society hasn't done it. Let's try something different. But I don't care what you try or I don't care what they try. The solution is not from man. Man has been given.
Almost 6000 years to find the solution to the problems and he can't find it because he brought in the ruin himself and he is powerless to find the remedy. The remedy comes from the heart of God. The remedy is Christ and His finished work. And friends, it may be tonight I say, that you have reared up an altar to the unknown.
God, you may have a philosophy of life, but that doesn't answer your problems, that doesn't settle. You say it gives me a certain Peace of Mind. Certainly you can have a Peace of Mind through a lie.
Has somebody ever told you a lie and you rested on what they said? A couple of days later you found out it was a falsehood and you said what a fool I was. I was so happy and I thought this was so. And it's not so at all. Sure, you can have Peace of Mind through a lie, but you can't have the peace that God gives because the peace that He gives is a person.
He is our peace. Christ comes to live in your heart.
Heart. It's not a philosophy. It's not just accepting a certain set of ideas. It's not accepting Christianity as a religion. It's knowing a God revealed in Christ. It's receiving Christ as your own precious and personal savior and all your friends. I speak to you with this in mind. I speak to you boys and girls.
I say you have a tremendous privilege.
You have God's book in your hand. Your parents probably have brought you a Bible. They have given it to you. They have taught you verses out of it. They want you to know this Blessed 1 as your own personal Savior. They want you to have new life. They know that the world can't satisfy and they long that you should know Christ. They're not trying to make religious people out of you. They want you to be saved.
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They want you to have him as your own.
Well.
These people on Mars Hill, they were curious people. They said, thou bring us certain strange things to our ears. We would know about these things. And it says those people spent their time and nothing else but to tell or to hear some new thing. And perhaps you would like to hear something new tonight. You'd like to hear something curiously different.
There are all kinds of new ideas coming out constantly.
All kinds of new discoveries, new fashions, all kinds of changes in modern society, but we still have in our hands God's unchanging word. The Lord Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever. He said, I am the Lord. I change not therefore ye sons.
Of Jacob are not consumed.
Well, Paul opened his mouth and told them about this altar and he said, now I'm going to tell you about the God that you don't know. You have built an altar to the unknown God. I want to tell you about him. He's the one in him whom we live and move and have our being.
We are also his offspring.
The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Perhaps you say, well, I have seen the emptiness of religion. There's so many people who go to church and they're no better than anyone else, and they don't seem to have anything. It's just to them sort of a ritual that they go through. The most high dwelleth not in temples made with hands.
As saith the Prophet, heaven is my throne and earth is my.
Footstool. This place where we're meeting is not a church. It's just a convenient place to gather. We don't speak about a holy building. We speak about the necessity of having Christ in your heart. And you could enter the finest and most religious building in the whole of United States. It wouldn't change your heart. My friend. The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands.
But he said heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool.
But He has given to you a life that is going to live on and on forever. And this solemn fact I want to press upon you, You are not created like an animal. You are not created with a life that is going to end when death takes place.
For for the for man, when he dies, it is just a change of residence. He just goes from this.
World to another place, they take his lifeless body and they put it under 6 feet of ground. But that's not the end. And the Lord Jesus brushed aside the curtain in the 16th chapter of Luke. And he told us there about two people who died. One man died and he was very rich. And it says he was buried.
Perhaps as they had a large funeral procession.
Perhaps they had the best casket that money could buy to bury this rich man. Many nice things were said over his casket and they took and lowered his body into the ground. And I don't know what they might have said over it, but I do know that the Lord Jesus tells us where that man's soul was and it says in hell.
He lift up his eyes, being in torment.
In hell, he lifts up his eyes, being in torment. If your dog dies and you put it under a couple of feet of ground, that's the end of the dock. His life as well as his body came out of the ground according to Genesis 1, but not so with man. His body came out of the ground, but not his life. God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
And you?
Are not like the man, like the beast.
It says Who knoweth the spirit of a man that goeth upward, and the spirit of a beast that goeth downward to the earth? All, my friend, death is not the end for you. The other man, he died, but he died in faith. It wasn't torment for him. He was comforted. He was with the Lord. There wasn't any sorrow for him. No, his sorrows ended when he left this world. He had a difficult life here.
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He was poor, he had hardships, but at the end he left this world. He changed his residence, but he went to a place of blessing. And I speak to you solemnly, my friend, don't let anyone deceive you that death is the end. God has told us the curtain has been brushed aside. And the God who made this world and who made everything in it, and you were his offspring.
And I am his offspring. Death is not the end, and we must answer to him.
Well, Paul went on spoke here and tells us in the.
31St verse Because He hath appointed today in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
I should have read the 30th verse and the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
That is in the past.
People didn't have the knowledge of God as they do now. They were not as responsible as we are who live in a land where there are many open Bibles and it says God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. He calls upon you to turn to Him. He calls upon you to acknowledge the wrong of your ways and of your thoughts.
Why does he do it?
Is this something that's just optional? Is it something that you can do if you like or say I won't do it? Well, in one sense. You can say no if you wish to in one sense. But remember, God commands you and it's a solemn thing to disobey God.
You will have to answer for your disobedience to God. God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. You can decide when a job is offered to you, whether you'll take it or not. You can decide whether you'll go back to school or college at the end of this summer. But, dear friends, you can't decide this solemn issue about.
Where you're going to spend eternity.
If you reject Christ, you will spend eternity in that awful place of judgment. But if you receive Christ as your Savior, you will have an eternal blessing with Christ in glory. It is not for you to decide where you will spend eternity. You can receive Christ, you can say no to his offers of mercy, but God it says to God the Lord belong the issues from death.
Yes, he is the wife.
Who will dispose of things after you have left this world?
When He calls upon you to repent and before the day of judgment comes, why does he call upon you? Because He doesn't want you to have to do with him as a judge. He wants you to have to do with Him as a Savior. He wants you to have to do with God as a Savior God. A God who loves you, One who sent His Son to die for you, One who is willing to pardon you, One who desires to have you in that glory above.
Spend eternity there with Him and to have the joy of that happy home that He has prepared for you.
And he says, He hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. God is going to judge this world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. We often say there's not much righteousness. Now perhaps you say, well, people seem to get away with everything. I don't see why it shouldn't be like the rest.
All my friends get away with things. Why shouldn't I get away with things? Friend, You only think that you.
Away with something you only think you do You don't. There's a righteous judge, and it says he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, nor reprove after the hearing of his ears, but in righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the make of the earth. When there's a case in court, the judge has to listen to the evidence. The judge has to make a decision based on what he sees and hears.
God doesn't have to make thee.
A judgment upon what He sees and hears. Because He knows He looks into your heart right now. He sets your secret sins in the light of His countenance. You hide nothing from Him. The darkness and the light are both alight to Him. You may have hidden things from your parents. You may have hidden things from your best friends, but you cannot hide anything from God. He knows the thoughts of your hearts. He knows all about you, my friend.
00:30:30
Of knowing it all. He loves you, He loves you. And so before he takes the place of a judge, he sends a message to you and says, I don't want to be your judge. I want to be your savior. But I warn you, my friends, the day has been set. The judge has been chosen. God has.
Set the time when that day of judgment will come. I don't know when it will.
We who are Christians are looking for the Lord Jesus to come. We're looking for him as deliverer from the wrath that's coming on this world. God is not going to allow evil to go on unpunished. But it's like it says in in the book of Ecclesiastes, because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. Therefore the heart of the sons of man.
Is fully set in them to do evil because.
Because you told a lie and God didn't smite you dead like he did Ananias and Sapphira, and because you did some sin and God allowed you to have good health the next day and to have a good day at business. You thought that he didn't see it and you thought that the day of reckoning wasn't coming. Because you cheated in that exam and you passed and you got good marks. You say I got away with it. No, you didn't.
No, you didn't. God has a record. You can't deceive God. He's going to judge the world in righteousness, and unless you have Christ as your Savior, every one of those sins is going to be brought up against you. In the 20th chapter of Revelation, we read about the great white throne and the small and great stand before God, and the books were open and God has the record.
In the 3rd chapter of John, we read the fourth chapter of John, we read about the Lord talking to a woman beside the well of Sychar. And this woman tried to put on an innocent front. She tried to pretend that she was a religious woman and was really concerned about the right place to worship. She tried to pretend that she was all right.
And then, to her utter surprise, the Lord opened the page of her life and started to read it.
She found out that he knew all about her.
She said, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Yes, she found he knew all about her, but all before the conversation was done. She found that he was the Christ who had come to save her. And dear friend, that's what we want you to find out tonight.
That God who knows all about you, the only person who knows all about you, say people don't know all about me. I say the person who knows everything I've ever done, the person who knows everything I've ever thought, is the person that loves me the most, and that by his grace I love him because he first loved me. And he went to Calvary's cross. And there on that cross of Calvary, he bowed his head.
But in those hours of darkness, and that awful judgment that ought to have fallen upon me, fell upon His blessed and holy Head in those hours of darkness, He cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why was Jesus forsaken? Was it because God was not pleased with the work that He was doing? There never was the heart of God.
More pleased than that his Son should be willing to glory.
By Him about the question of sin.
Why did God turn his face away? Because God is of two pure eyes to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity. Because if God was going to receive me into His presence in favor, my sins must be punished, and thank God they were punished upon my substitute.
All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isn't that good news, my friend? I remark again. God may be opening up your life page tonight. He knows all about you. I hope that you realize that He does.
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But I want you to know that that God, who up till tonight may be an unknown God to you, is the God who sent his Son to die for you. The God who loved you enough to deal with his Son about the question of sin, so that you might be blessed, so that you might have peace, so that you might have pardon, that you might water this room and say, I know God is my father.
I know Christ is my Savior. He is not an unknown God to me anymore. He's the one who sent His Son to die for me. Oh, what a wonderful thing to know. What a wonderful thing. And He's given assurance unto all men in that He raised Christ from the dead. We're not just talking about a person who died. And that was the end.
As our brother mentioned before, the world will accept Christ as a great teacher.
A great leader. When he was here, they would come by force and make him a king. The world will recognize him as the greatest person that ever lived. Today they call him a great reformer. My dear friends, he was God's eternal son. He was God come down. A heavenly stranger, loved to sinners to proclaim.
Some years ago in the city of Philadelphia, they had some paintings on display.
One of these paintings portrayed the Lord Jesus Christ standing before Pontius Pilate.
And a Christian man was in the city at the time and some friends said, wouldn't you like to go down and see that picture of Christ standing before Pilate? It's a wonderful masterpiece.
The brothers reply was I'm waiting for the time when Pilate stands before Christ.
When Pilate stands before Christ, yes, my friend, you're going to look into the face of that Savior who walked this earth. You are going to see those lovely eyes. You're going to see those nail prints in his hand. You're going to see the spear mark in his side. And as you stand, if you die in your sins before that great white throne to be judged.
Just to think that you will see the one there who could have been your savior, and you'll meet Him there as your judge. Because you said you didn't care. Because you said you were going to go your own way. You were going to have your own thrills. You were going to try everything there was to try, and you went your own way. And where will that way lead you? There is a way that seemeth right unto a man.
But the end thereof.
Are the ways of death what God loves you, my friend?
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son and all I want to tell you with all my heart tonight that He wants to bless you. If He made this universe so beautiful, if He made this world in which we live so lovely and gave us all things richly to enjoy, how marvelous that when we spoil.
That as we have through sin, that he opened the door of heaven and said, it costs me more to invite you into my home up there than it cost me to create this world.
When it was a question of creating this world, it says in the 33rd Psalm he's fake. And it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. It was a small matter for God to make this universe. It was a small matter for God to make all those vast orbs in the sky and all the creatures that roam this earth and to make man in his own image. God could do that by just speaking.
He just spoke and it was done.
But when your soul was to be saved, the Maker of this universe bowed in the Garden of Gethsemane and sweat as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground, when He knew that the only way that you and I could be saved was for Him to pay the price of sin.
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He said to his father, O my father, if it be possible, let this come.
From me, nevertheless, not my will that thine be done. You think you can escape the judgment of God apart from Christ? The Lord Jesus himself could not escape the judgment that was our due if He was going to glorify God about the question of sin. And so He went to that cross, He bowed his head, He bore the judgment.
And those blessed words run out from the cross.
It is finished, it is finished. Friends, we proclaim a finished work. We proclaim the precious blood of Jesus that cleanses from all sin and all those lovely words in one. John 17 there for you, my friend. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
I'd just like to tell two or three little instances about the that lovely verse.
Many years ago there was a man preaching over in Ireland and he chose that lovely verse. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin through a large number of people in the audience. And when he read the verse, he announced the wonderful news that if there was a Sinner in that room, no matter.
While he was he might be the worst Sinner in the whole city, he went on to say he could possibly even have committed murder. But still the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. He said to that precious flood can put away every sin.
A man was sitting at the back of the hall. He had been convicted of almost every crime, even murder, and he had managed to get free. And he was sitting at the back of the hall. He got up in his seat and he said, is that verse really in the Bible? Yes, said the preacher. It's really here. He said, I am coming up to see. He walked right up to the front of the room and he said, I want you to show it to me in the Bible.
The preacher gladly and happily opened his Bible at first, John one and seven. It says in the whole verse, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanse of us from all sin. Friends can get into the brightest light of God's holy presence, and it will never discover one sin on you if you are cleansed in the blood.
He read the verse.
He accepted it. He believed it.
He received pardon for his sins, he walked back to his seat believing that his sins were gone, and he lived the rest of his life to proclaim the good and glad news that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.
Another dear old lady, a titled lady in England, a very wealthy woman who lived in a castle, who had studied the Bible all her life. When she came to the end of her life, this was her comment. She said it takes the whole Bible to live with, but it only takes one verse to die with, and she said the verse that speaks.
Peace to my soul is the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son.
Cleanseth us from all sin. Another dear old man who had served the Lord all his life, when he came to the end, one of his sons said to him, Do you have any doubts about your salvation Now His answer was, I have no doubts about the value of the blood of Christ.
And if there's a doubting boy or girl here tonight, if there's someone here and the devil is attacking you with doubts and said he assure you feel saved and you're sure you've had the right experience, friends, it's not what you and I think of the blood. It's what God says about it that counts. And what does God say about it? He says the blood.
Of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Will you rest on it tonight and be saved? If so, you'll know the true God. You'll know his Son. This is the true God and eternal life. You'll know salvation. You won't be glorying in all man's great advancement in science and all these done, but you'll be glorying in this, that you know the God who exercises loving kindness.
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And judgment.
And righteousness in the earth. The God whose heart is filled with loving kindness. The God who executed judgment upon his Son because he didn't want to execute it on you. And the God who proclaims that you are righteous in his holy presence because he sees you when you're saved.
In Christ do you know him? May God grant shall come to know him.
Tonight acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace, thereby good shall come.
Dwell Together in Unity
A Blessed Walk