Address—A.C. Hayhoe
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I'd like you to turn with me, first of all, please, to the official to the Romans, the 10th chapter of the official to the Romans and the ninth verse.
Romans 10, verse 9.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord visa, and shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
There's nothing new about this verse, but I wonder, has it perhaps been to someone here? Simply a birth committed to memory?
Simply a text perhaps, and hangs on the wall of your home.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the bed, thou shalt be saved.
Saved. I have been so impressed recently with the number of prayers that have gone up.
On behalf of the unsaved children of Christian parents, those who are brought up in Christian homes, and perhaps there are those here present this afternoon, and your moth, you've never yet accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. You'll never yet receive Him into your heart, nor confess with your lips.
That He who died upon the cross of Calvary is your Lord and your Savior.
And all the burden and prayer so many hearts this afternoon. I know is this that the deer boys and girls, the dear young people who have so awesome heard the gospel may receive a blessing to your soul that these meetings.
I say it with this conviction before God that there are many boys and girls and many dear young people who know this person can repeat it from memory.
Who at the very moment know in the depth of your heart that you have never yet accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. You'll never yet opened your lips to confess Him as your Lord. Is that not true?
Asked this one and that one, how long have you known the Lord Jesus as your Savior? And sometimes there's a puzzled expression for a few moments and they say, well, I think I was saved maybe three or four years ago. They used that expression. I was saved. And that's a fine expression. My delight to use it too. But all I am so thankful when someone says I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ.
As my savior, it may be that you can't fix a very definite time. Let not that disturb you.
But be very sure of this, my dear young friend, no matter what Father may think or what Mother may think, no matter what anyone else may say.
Be very, very sure, my dear young friend this afternoon. But before we go on to look at other scriptures.
The Lord Jesus Christ is your own personal failure. At this very moment, I tell you solemnly, the eye of God is looking down upon you, that your heart is stained with sin and you are lost and you are on the road to hell.
Unless you personally have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
And at this very moment, the eye of God looks down upon that heart of yours and sees every stain of sin forever gone by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. It is either one or the other. That Christian upbringing will stand you in no good state in that day when you meet God. The fact that you knew this verse by heart will stand you no good in that day when you meet God.
And so, my beloved friends, conscious of the authority of him before whom the beloved Apostle Paul once fell and accepted him as Lord and Savior, conscious, I say, of that authority, will you too not accept him as your Savior?
As your Lord, I believe we have an example of this in the thief who died beside the Lord Jesus Christ. What kind of life he had lived, the scripture doesn't fully disclose, but we know that he was being put to death as a malefactor. We know that his conduct was such that his fellow man condemned him to die, though he was hanging, hanging on that cross beside the Lord Beaver.
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And both hands of his, while he had the use of them, had been stretched forth in all kinds of violence and wickedness.
The low speed of his while he had the use of them had problem the hard path of the transgressor, and now both hands and feet were fastened to that cross and he could do nothing.
But his heart was free, his lips were free, and with a heart open, by the grace of God, he received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior.
And with lifts also opened by the grace of God, he confessed him as Lord. And turning to him, he said in the hearing of the others, Lord, Remember Me when alchemist into thy Kingdom, as such a cry ever come from your heart, my dear friend.
With all the glitter and glamour and attractions all around us, perhaps?
Perhaps there is someone here who knows that I am speaking the truth, and you know that this matter must someday be settled. But you feel that you'd like to try a little of this world empty pleasure first. You know where that suggestion comes from.
Which comes from the same one who whispered in the ears of Eve and of Adam in the Garden of Eden. The same one who would seek to rob you of this glorious knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, of the glorious inheritance of a home up there with Christ forever.
And to give you instead that which can never satisfy your heart. So can we not begin then this afternoon with this verse, with the prayer in our hearts that there may not be numbered among the young people so much as one who cannot stay in truth? Thank God the Lord Jesus Christ is.
My own personal savior? Is there any harm in confessing that more than once?
Our dear brother Willie Martin, who is now at home with the Lord, used to confess the Lord quite often at the close of a gospel meeting. Quite a good many times. He's shaken my hand at the back of the meeting room. And with a happy smile he'd say, I just want you to know that the Lord Jesus is my own precious failure. And I think those of you who knew him could see the smile on his face when he said.
My dear young friend, is it a joy to you?
As it ought to be to confess that precious name, You tell us you belong to the Lord Jesus. When did you left last? Confess that name with joy and with love. What about today? Could you truthfully turn to that young friend sitting beside you when this meeting is over and say to them, Thank God, the Lord Jesus Christ is my own Savior?
Will you not do it, beloved friends? Will you not do it except the Lord Jesus Christ?
As your Savior and go on your way rejoicing, let's turn over to the Epistle to the Colossians, Colossians one and verse 9 for this 'cause we also, since the day we've heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
That he might walk worthy of the Lord, worthy of the Lord unto all, pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Here, dear young believer, we have something else in connection with that worthy title, the Lord. Here we have the fervent prayer of the heart of the beloved Apostle Paul.
That he might walk worthy of.
The Lord thank God for everyone in this company who can say with joy and with confidence that the Lord Jesus is your own personal Savior. Now here's a prayer that goes up on your behalf, my dear young brother and sister in Christ.
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This was the burden of the apostle heart for these here Colossians believers, and it was a fervent and a ceaseless prayer that he might walk worthy of the Lord. He loved you, He died to redeem you. He shed his precious blood that he might have the joy of looking down at you and me this day and.
Claim us as his own, I say. I believe it brings infinite joy to His heart.
Look down upon this company and acclaim you individually as his own. It's the delight of his heart to have those who are his own redeemed people. And what about the response of our heart?
Ought there not to be in our lives, dear young people, that which would be the language of it, verse are walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, conscious of the glory of Him who has laid down His life to redeem us, conscious of His right over us as those who are His redeemed? Should there not be a response?
A loving, affectionate response from our redeem heart to walk worthy of Him who is now our Lord.
How can we do this? Where shall we find that which will enable us to walk worthy of the Lord? Well, I believe the prayer of the previous verse would give us some light on that.
'Cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. If I might put this in, in order that he might walk worthy of the Lord, how are we going to walk worthy of the Lord?
I met a lady not too long ago while I was on this trip.
He was at a gospel meeting when the meeting was over, she said repeatedly and with tears in her eyes. All There's nothing I want more than the will of my Lord in my life.
Well, there were some very obvious things about her appearance that didn't strike me as being evidence of the will of the Lord. Nevertheless, she kept saying repeatedly and with real tears, there is nothing I want more in my life than the world of my Lord, and I fervently pray that the will of my Lord may be made known to me.
And we asked her if she spent time reading this precious book. No, she said, I live a very busy life and I don't have time to read the Bible the way I opt to, but all I do want the will of my Lord for my life. We warned her that that was a very dangerous thing to do. We warned her that if she was going to wait to be led by some inner compulsion or some thought suggested to her mind.
But she might well be LED seriously astray. My dear young believer, do you really want to walk worthy of the Lord?
Are you willing even to answer that question? Am I, my beloved friend I hold in my hand are two edged swords.
And I don't want you to think for one moment that I'm addressing these words as though you needed them.
Any more than I do. I need these very words so deeply myself, and I confess it before you. But that's a solemn question. Do I want to walk through this world worthy of the Lord? That's a question. My dear young brother, my dear young sister, I believe you and I can answer on our needs in the presence of the Lord.
Has he not a claim over our lives?
The one who laid down his life to redeem us and now desires that we might walk worthy of him through this world. What claim does he have over us? Do you? Do I find it somewhat restricting to read this precious book?
And find in God's Word that which perhaps might change our conduct here.
And all to our plans there do we find that earth summoned, restricting that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I have a nature, and you have a nature that would not be in accord with the will of God. No, What oneness, grace, that you and I, dear children of God, have been born.
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Anew you and I have a life and nature which delights to please the Lord.
And if that is not so, you are not one of God's children. Well then it says that he might walk worthy of the Lord.
Unto all bleeding Suppose I approach the young married couple here in this company.
I won't single any else that will say they've been married six months and I come to the young bride of six months and I begin to ask a few questions about their happiness together.
And I say now, is it true that you have done so far as to accept even the name of this young man to whom you're married? Oh, I guess I'm now known as Missus so and so. And she gives her husbands name. And is it true that from this day onward, respect even to wear a ring which will identify you as someone who has taken these bombs? Do you not find it rather restricting after those?
Months or years of liberty and so on.
I believe he'd interrupt me right there and say restricting. These have been the happiest months of my life. Why? It's a joy to me to realize that I now have one close to my heart who loves me so, Dear young believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. But a door it ought to be to your heart and mind to look up and realize that there is One who wants me to feel His.
Upon my heart so wants me to have the joy walking worthy of him in a world that is so marked by disobedience and self will. I plead with you, dear young brother. I plead with you, dear young sisters, as one who is not too far removed from the years of youth. If you want a happy past, if you want joy in your Christian.
Take heed to this verse. I don't want to speak to you as an old man, but I have visited in and out among the Lord's people for just a little while, and I find some of them so happy, and I find some of them.
For whom that word can scarcely be used.
They are not happy. They are not happy. And I wonder, why is God not able to bring happiness into your life? He is. He's able to give you the happiest pathway known upon His world of sorrow, and I believe it's to be found here, walking worthy of the Lord. Could I quote what I so often heard my father say?
No one ever lived.
To please the Lord and was sorry for it.
I have seen males who have grown old in the pathway marked out here.
They wouldn't dare to claim it for themselves, but they have stopped to walk worthy of the Lord from the days of their youth, and all the see the joy of their pathway as they get farther and farther along. My dear young brother, my dear young sisters, I know you want a happy pathway, and it is to be found walking worthy of the Lord. His claims upon you are for.
Good and for your blessings. I have found verses in scripture that disturbs me. Even dear old brother Dunlop, whom we knew and loved back, whom he lived right near where I live now.
He told us of coming across more than one passage in Scripture, that at the instant he read it, he almost wished that birth were not there during his early Christian experience. He realized the moment he read it that it was going to mean a very decisive change in certain things in his life.
And at first glance those things seemed to him to be so pleasant that he wanted to go on with them. But when he saw the will of the Lord in this precious book, when he saw that which would be worthy of the Lord whose he was and whom he served, he turned from those things and went on to please the Lord.
To serve the Lord, and now he's with Christ, which is far better.
And there's a day coming, my dear young believer, when you and I are going to be there soon. And as we were reminded in the meeting this morning.
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Our lives are going to be brought into review. What has been done in the body is going to be brought into resume. I'm going to stand back, if I may picture it rather realistically, stand back and see the beloved apostles Paul have his life reviewed in that day.
I am going to see the lives of some of those dear old brethren, such as Brother Dunlop reviewed in that day, and then my turn is going to come. And so is your so, your all, your child of God. You're going to look into the face of Him who loved you and died to redeem you.
You're going to look upon the male piercing hands and feet, and then you're going to watch your light brought into review.
What will it reveal dear young brother? What will it reveal, dear young sister?
Will there be found that this had a claim upon your heart and mine in that day?
You won't be able to add 1 day to your earthly pathway up there.
Sometimes when I write a letter and I read it over, I find that true forgetfulness or carelessness. I have omitted something that I intended to make much more. I don't suppose it would correspondence, but I've had to do it. They're right, the little letters. PS At the end of the letter and add what I omitted, and I don't think I ever do that.
Without thinking of the judgment, see of Christ, I put those letters. PS And I add what I had omitted through carelessness.
But dear child of God, when we get home to the glory, there will be no opportunity to add a PS to our pathway. There will be no opportunity to go over those last few weeks and make the changes that perhaps we would have made had we known that His coming was so near. With all my heart, dear believers, I am assured that the coming of the Lord Jesus.
Is very near at hand, and my prayer for you, when I trust your prayer for me, is this, that we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleading.
Let's turn back to the seasons Chapter 6.
The Seasons chapter 6 and verse 10.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that he may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil.
First of all, we have that most vital step, confessing Jesus as Lord to the saving of your soul. Then we have walking worthy of the Lord through this pathway of darkness and sorrow. And here we have finally, my brethren, be.
In the Lord, would this not present to us our own weakness and His almighty strength and power? You and I can pass through this world, with all its difficulties, with all its distractions, in a strength and in a power quite outside of ourselves. Indeed, we know that we lean on any strength or might that we might think we have.
We soon find how quickly and how easily we are tripped up, how sadly we fall by. Dear young believer, there is a strength available for you, and there is a power available for me. If we will but lean hard upon it, be strong.
When the Lord and in the power of his might.
Your dear young believers, is this strength yours? And indeed it is that you've got to veil yourself of it. Do you want to go through this world with the glory of God? Every resource that you need is available in Him with only we realize our needs and desire to walk through this world for His glory.
There's all the strength.
You and I need to be found in Him who now live forth in the glory.
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As our great High Priest and as our advocates.
I enjoyed those truths that were brought out this morning. Those resources are good. Live for us in the glory. I greatly fear that there are so many of us. We thank God for the fact that the Lord Jesus bore our judgment on the cross of Calvary. We thank God that the stain and burden of our sins is gone.
And we thank God that our destiny is the glory.
Instead of eternal hell. But perhaps we fail to walk in the joy of the fact that the one who loved us and laid down his life to redeem us now lives forth in the glory as our great High Priest and as our Advocate. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole honor of God.
That he may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil.
I know you heard it often, but bear with me if I mention it again.
That our hearts go out to you, beloved young people. As a father of young people myself, perhaps we know just a little of what you go through.
I believe your difficulties are greater than we confronted when we went to school, when we started out to work. They were serious enough and difficult enough and numerous enough in that day. But all dearly beloved young people, the resources that are yours, the strength and power and might of him who loved you and died to redeem you.
Are still yours to lean upon, and I beg of you with all my heart, my dear young brother and sister in Christ.
Will lean upon Him to avail yourself of the strength of Him who loves to stand by Him. Will be with you, to encourage you and to fill you with joy.
I know the days are difficult. I know you often wish that things were not quite so difficult, but I believe that they're more difficult today, the more your strength will be made perfect in weakness.
The more the opportunity for you to bring honor and glory to him who loved you and died to redeem you by going your way through this difficult age for the honor and for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. We look back to the days of the martyrs and we consider them heroes, do we not? We read of their faithfulness of death and we thrilled to read this. But dear young friend, you go away to school and.
There so many little points of compromise, invitations here and persuasions there, and then you go out to work and there's this, that and the other that often comes into your pathway and you wonder what to do.
Be strong in the Lord. In the Lord. I sat by the meeting room in Ottawa one time a good many years ago, and I saw two teenagers. There was a group of them there making plans for certain activity for the next evening. It was not a regular meeting night, and they were making plans, which I'm sure nearly all the young people felt quite content about.
But I heard one young man come up to a dear sister and say to her, How about coming along with the rest of us this morning, tomorrow evening, I'd be glad to call for you. And I saw her stand there and look puzzled for a moment. She said I'd like to go home and pray about it.
And you can phone me tomorrow.
And I heard his answers, he said don't do that. If you pray about it, you won't come.
I felt sad to hear him say that. I love that dear brother.
But he is far from the Lord now in his soul. He is no longer gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. My dear teenager is now very, very happy sister and the Lord. There is a circumstance that he felt it would not be wise to pray about because he felt the decision as a result of prayer would not be that which would please him.
All, dear young believer, there is strength, there is every resort that you and I need.
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To be found in Him so long that we should have a happy path. As I look at those two dear folks now, neither one of whom are young people any longer, I see the one will pathway filled with joy, a whole of her own and a family walking in ways that please the Lord.
And I see this dear man also with a wife and family, and much sorrow, much sorrow. I suppose he thought he was having the happier evening to spend that evening where he had planned, rather than submit to that which was felt to be the will of the Lord. And I plead with you once more, and I feel the need of a fresh in my own heart.
Be strong in the Lord.
There is strength, therefore the difficulties of the pathway, their strength, therefore you.
To meet with those peculiar difficulties that are yours in your neighborhood, your, that school, yours where you work. I don't know your individual circumstances, but the Lord does. Have you ever wished that He would change them a little bit this way or that? I think we all have. I think we've all felt that the Lord would only just change my circumstances a little bit.
It would be so very much easier, but my circumstances are unusually difficult. My dear young believer, the Lord has allowed those circumstances.
In order that you may find his strength more than equal for them. So let us go over it again. First of all, if the house out, confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and then that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. And here.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Let's turn to just one more Philippians.
Philippians, Chapter 4.
And verse 4.
Redo it in the Lord. Isn't that what we would like to do? Rejoice in the Lord.
Always and again I say, rejoice.
These words were penned from the darkness of a Roman prison by the beloved Apostle Paul.
Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice.
Word was the discourage and disappointed all the apostles trying to encourage other folks.
Not a bit of it. He was walking in the reality of it himself. His own soul, even in prison, was filled with the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is that your experience, dear believers, is there in your life.
Is there a little perhaps in mind something which corresponds to this Rejoice?
In the Lord, if there is, let me tell you something. You can be happy when you're all alone. Are you only happy when you're in the company of other young believers? There's something very nice, very pleasant, and I rejoiced in it too. The privilege of Christian fellowship. We love it, we enjoy it. We go a long way to experience it.
But rejoice in the Lord.
If I were able to sit down beside my dear wife right now, it wouldn't take much Christian fellowship to make me enjoy her company. The two of us could just sit there alone and silently and feel delightfully happy in one another company. I'm sure many another would agree with that statement. Now, dear young believer, what about you and the Lord alone?
You and the Lord.
Alone are you happy in the presence of the Lord? Alone when you get in your room at night with this precious book and on your knees in the presence of the Lord, is there something of this first true in your soul? Rejoice in the Lord. All dear young believers, thank God for Christian fellowship. But if your heart doesn't respond to that suggestion.
If your heart doesn't know something about the joy of being alone with the Lord.
You are missing something very real and very sweet and precious that the Lord longs to have you know and share with Him. For I believe that isolation does not need to mean loneliness. I've visited many an isolated child of God and found them filled with joy. And so we have here rejoice.
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In the Lord always and again I say, rejoice.
The hand that penned these words is gone now. I wonder what he would say if he were able to speak to us from the glory the same words. They were true in the life of the beloved Apostle Paul. We've seen them to be true in the lives of God. Dear servants, some of whom are still here with us, we know that their pathway has been wrong and has been characterized by that which would perhaps naturally describe many a heart.
But we know that there is joy.
As they walk with the Lord and my dear young believer, I prayerfully covet this for you when I trust you'll do the same for me. I remember dear brother Jackson telling an illustration in our home one day. He found it difficult to tell the illustration. It was such an.
Two dear old Believers, sisters they were, who were arrested during the days of.
Religious persecution in Europe and they were both imprisoned together and finally they were both sentenced to be burned at the stake. The bake was set in the evening before they spent on their knees together, feeling their utter weakness and leaning upon the Lord and crying to Him for strength for that which they were to face on the Mall, and they made a pact with one another.
But they were told that the one was going to be burned while the other was made to stand by. And what?
They made a pact with one another that whichever one was burned first would please give some signal if for any reason she considered it was not worthwhile to go through with it. Dear brother Jackson told us that that one dear believer was held there while her beloved sister in Christ was tied to the state, and the ******* were lighted, and she walks and saw no signs.
And she listened and heard not a word. The flame goes higher and higher. And finally she heard a loud cry. Come on, it's true. Dear old brother Jackson broke down and he said that Come on, it's true. All your child of God, it is true. Dear young people, come on, it's true. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice, that's not my language.
That's the language of a man who suffered must for Christ. It's a man who walks according to the truth that I've tried to bring before your soul. This afternoon. It begins, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Peter, then if you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleases.
That you might be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, and if you might rejoice in the Lord always.
And again I say, rejoice.