Address—Bill Prost
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Could we sing together the 1St 6 verses of #2 in the appendix?
#2 in the appendix, the first university.
Lord, thy loved unbounded, so sweet, so full, so free.
You'll notice that the language of this hymn written by JN Garvey is more personal, written in the first person. I suppose the lyrics could have been changed a little to reflect the more collective response, but.
He chose to leave it in the singular and that does bring it home, doesn't it? Individually More to our souls #2 in the appendix, the 1St 6 verses.
Oh Lord, thy love thyroid.
My soul is all friend of all the earth and glamour. I think I'm feeling good.
For all of us.
In my laundry.
Mind and yeah, I thought one generation.
Of all my quarters.
You know, Joy and all his crying.
And brighter Lord in the end.
And I did turn to the island.
Crying.
My glory.
Forever and merit thy name.
When I determined.
Towards me.
As ever, was bright.
Let's look at the Lord, our loving God and our Father. We have custody now this afternoon.
We give thanks for that love and love that was so four weeks explained to Calvary classes that love which existed towards, you know, past experience.
As long as our God, this goes on with us all the way to the end.
At love which we showed the joy for all eternity.
You know, we went to heat for the time over Thy word this afternoon, and we prayed that it's open together, that Thou guide You direct. Why rest?
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During examples for you twice the forest and all the flowing must be the devil will need to lead to our God for their enemy. You know here this afternoon.
We commend our time together for the event and your name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Christmas.
I can well remember, and I think it was the Lawrenceville conference here quite a few years ago now.
And.
It was long enough to go that the meetings, I think were in Bridgeport, not here.
And I will remember that I had been asked to have the responsibility of a meeting, and as I was walking up the aisle, a brother who's now with the Lord, not from this area, kind of waylaid me. And with somewhat of a plaintive note to his voice, he said.
Have you got something for the heart?
Have you got something for the heart?
I must confess, I don't even remember what we had before us at that meeting.
But what I have before me this afternoon, I trust, will be primarily for the heart.
As I travel around and get to know some of the Lord's people, I find that.
Among most of them, there are real hurts.
And when there is the opportunity to probe a little beneath the surface, and sometimes when people feel relaxed enough to, as it were, let their hair down and talk a little, you find that in the hearts of almost all of the Saints of God today, whether here in North America or whether in foreign lands.
There are hurts, there are problems, there are serious difficulties.
There are things that perhaps in some cases are not suitable to be talked about publicly and perhaps not revealed to everyone.
And in saying that, I freely confess that sometimes there is an attitude in my own soul that doesn't, shall we say, encourage people to open up the way that they should. But nevertheless, there are many things out there.
Which caused the people of God to be hurting.
And I'd like to speak a little this afternoon about the love of God.
Turn with me first then please, to a verse in Romans 5A, well known verse, Romans chapter 5.
And verse 8.
We're going to start here right at the beginning of our Christian pathway, although this is an address primarily to believers, but here we find in Romans five and eight that well known verse that probably most of the children here have committed to memory.
But God commandeth his love toward us.
In that while we were yet sinners, Christ.
Guide for us.
Oh what a beautiful verse that is. As an old brother long since with the Lord used to remind us, if God has not won your heart and mind, what more could he do to win it?
I well remember when I was going to College in the city of Toronto quite a few years ago now. We lived in an apartment in a high rise building.
And there was a young man, not a believer, but who occupied the apartment next to us.
He was single and he got lonely, so that it was not unusual for him to knock on our door and come into our apartment at times in the evening just to sit and talk. He characteristically, characteristically would knock on the door and then open it. We knew him well without even waiting for someone to answer it, and his characteristic greeting was break, break.
Meaning stop studying for a while, we're going to sit and chat.
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He had a good job.
He was doing well for himself, but he didn't know the Savior. And I remember there was the opportunity to speak to him about Christ, and at first he seemed indifferent.
But then the Lord allowed an event in his life that really sobered him up because he held, I'm sorry, he had an aunt who was not that old, perhaps in her 50s, who suddenly had a serious heart attack and within a few hours was taken away.
And he suddenly realized how vulnerable he could be, whether from something like that or some other cause, and he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior.
I appreciated that I can remember him to this day, although I haven't seen him for many years.
But you know what I remember about him? His name was Howie Howard, or Howie as he was affectionately known.
Was that there failed to be what I would like to have seen as a real growth in his soul as a Christian. He came to the meetings in Toronto for a while. He even came to the conference which was held in Detroit, MI at that time and.
In a measure, he enjoyed the things of the Lord, but there was a problem there because he had come to Christ, if I could say it.
For the most part as a fire escape from hell. He had come to Christ because he realized he was headed.
For a lost eternity. And I don't mean to imply that there's anything wrong with coming to Christ for that reason.
But he never seemed to get hold of the enjoyment of Christ in his heart. He never seemed to get hold of the preciousness of the love of God that had been so fully displayed at Calvary's cross.
We often speak of the grace of God and the love of God, and sometimes, at least I have in the past, almost seem to equate the two.
But there is a difference. There is a difference even though they are very closely connected and certainly overlap. What is the difference? Well, I would suggest this. There is a similarity in the sense that.
As far as you and I were concerned, both the grace of God and the love of God originated in His heart.
Beautiful.
The grace of God, The grace of God is what we might say the unmerited or undeserved favor of God to you and to me.
And the love of God in that sense is too, as someone has said so perfectly, and I couldn't put it in any better words, he said. God is light.
And we make him a judge by our sins. But God is also love, and none have made him so. That is blessedly true. And the divine love that was extended to you and me and that originated in the heart of God had nothing to do with anything in US.
But when we get to that point, we find there is a difference because.
Let me say it reverently. Do you and I ever show grace to God?
Not really. Do we can't do it, It doesn't fit. Do we ever show God some special favor that he doesn't deserve? You say? Well, no, that thought is totally.
Out of character, with everything to do with God and his creature, and in view of the Word of God.
But when we come to love, there is the opportunity to reciprocate.
Oh, how precious that is. The grace of God, if we could say it, precious although it is, goes only one way.
The love of God originates in the heart of God, yes.
But as it says in first John chapter four, we love Him because He first loved us. Oh, how beautiful to recognize that it was God's love that reached out to you and me when we were nothing but lost, guilty sinners, and that was brought before us in the meeting this morning. I was thankful for the theme that the Lord by His Spirit laid on our hearts this morning because I had the thoughts that I want to try and give out this afternoon on my heart already.
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And what we had before us this morning, I trust only emphasized and corroborated that.
The love of God extended to you and to me. We'll come back to that theme about.
Our love to Christ, our love returned to the Lord in a moment, but let's turn now to John's Gospel, chapter 15.
As I said a moment ago, we're speaking mainly to believers this afternoon.
John's Gospel, chapter 15.
Verse 9.
As the Father hath loved me.
So have I loved you.
Continue ye in my love.
Those of you.
Who read the April issue of The Christian will recognize the source of what I'm going to say.
Because there was an old brother again, long since with the Lord.
Who used to emphasize this verse over and over again in his public ministry? And there was a little excerpt from his ministry in that issue of the Christian he used to say to us.
Memorize this verse and say it over to yourself.
Every day of your life.
Over and over again he used to bring that in. Sometimes some of us that used to listen to us to it used to think well.
That that particular thought really isn't the in the chapter we're taking up right now in the reading meeting. But he'd bring it in anyway. Why? Oh, because it was so precious to his soul. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.
Continue ye in my love.
God doesn't put any special premium on ignorance, and it's a wonderful thing to be intelligent in the things of God.
But it's not the one that knows the most that makes the best Christian.
It's the one that enjoys the love of God in the soul the most, that makes the best Christian. And that is why you and I sometimes see dear believers who know very little. And perhaps if you were to ask them questions about prophecy or about some of the deeper truths of the Church, they would not be able to answer you as intelligently as many here could do. And yet there is a rejoicing and a bubbling over in their hearts. Why?
Oh, because the love of God is being enjoyed in the soul. And sometimes, you know, you and I read this verse, and if you're anything like me, you gloss over it quickly. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Can we ever measure divine love? Can we ever measure the depth of love that the Father has for his beloved Son? Go back all the way into a past eternity.
And you find the Lord Jesus, and we'll talk about one of those verses in a few minutes. Reaches back into a past eternity to talk about the love that the Father had for him.
The Lord Jesus says I have loved you with that same love, and now he says I don't want you to appreciate that love only in respect of what took place at Calvary's cross, although that was the full display of it. I don't want you to think about that love only in terms of your sins being forgiven and being on your way to heaven. I want you to continue in that love.
All I say to your heart and mind, what a wonderful thing that is to be able to do that. What a wonderful thing it is in your life and mine every day of our lives, to think of the fact that the Lord loves us.
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I don't remember the brother, and I don't think anyone here does, but there was a brother. He was.
Based in Canada, although his ministry took him into many parts of North America and ultimately in some cases to other parts of the world such as the West Indies and so on. James B Dunlop and I am told on good authority that on one occasion he was in a private home where they were holding the remembrance of the Lord because there weren't enough believers there to.
Have a meeting room and after the meeting was over while they waited for the noon meal to be prepared.
It was noticed that he was just leaning back in an armchair in the living room with his head back and.
His eyes closed, someone wondering if he was OK because he was an older man at the time, said Brother Dunlop, are you all right? And his response was, Oh yes, he said I'm very much all right. I was just sitting here and letting the Lord love me. Isn't that beautiful?
Maybe I can use a personal illustration in the absence of my wife.
We sometimes spend some longer hours in the car and it so happens in our car that there is a shift lever on the console so that I can reach it and so can she. And it's not unusual. Sometimes for some reason, I end up resting my hand on that shift lever. Not that I'm planning to shift anything, but it's just a convenient place to rest it. And it is not unusual for her to put her left hand over on top of mine. We don't say anything. We don't have to make conversation all the time.
It's just pleasant to ride along there. And I trust mutually have in our souls the sense of one another's love.
Oh, what a wonderful thing that is. And I say to your heart and mine, the Lord wants you and me to enjoy all of that in our lives. But there is something that is very important in this connection. And I just want we said this meeting would be mainly for the heart. I trust it will be, but we can't separate in one sense, ministry for the heart and ministry for the conscience because they go together.
And I would like, if you will, to turn over to 1St John just for one verse. That is very, very important. And there are others that we could refer to which are along the same line, but this one will do for our purposes.
First John, chapter 5.
Five and verse 3.
First John 5 and verse 3.
For this is the love of God.
That we keep His commandments and His commandments are not grievous. I would just make this point to each one of our hearts mind. Perhaps most of all, that if you and I want to enjoy the Lord's love. Excuse me. And what a wonderful experience it is. Let us never forget that love and obedience go together. And if you and I want to enjoy the Lord's love. If we want to have true happiness in our Christian lives.
All obedience is part of it.
Think about that for a moment.
Referring, for example, to the marriage relationship, referring to the relationship between parents and children. If there is, on the part of either spouse, a deliberate and willful doing of that which is known to be distasteful to the other spouse, can there be the enjoyment of one another's love? No, there can't. If there is, we'll say on the part of a child, deliberate and willful doing of that which they know.
Is against what their parents have commanded them to do.
Can there be real enjoyment of that love? No their cat?
Obedience is important and sometimes we fool ourselves because our hearts are so deceitful into thinking, well, the Lord loves me anyway. His love is unconditional. Ah, that is blessedly true. And if you will remember, and you'll pardon my referring to it, but if you will remember, those of you that have read it, that quotation in the Christian, it emphasized that fact by saying that although God.
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'S government may come into our lives and although his ways with us may change.
His love never does. That is blessedly true. But at the same time, my enjoyment of that love will not be the same if there is willful disobedience. And if I try to gloss over the whole situation by saying, well, the Lord loves me anyway and he accepts me the way I am, and he loved me when I was a lost, guilty Sinner. So that it's not so critical if I go out deliberately and disobey the Word of God because he loves me anyway.
Oh, I will find that, as another has so aptly put it.
Yes, God loves me the way I am.
But that's the half truth. He loves me too much to let me stay that way. He wants to see the full enjoyment of himself. And in that connection once again in first John, turn back to chapter 3 because I want to refer to a verse here.
First John three and verse 20.
I love the wording of this verse.
And I'm indebted to a brother who's sitting in the room today for pointing this out not only to me, but to others.
Versus 20 and 21?
For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.
Beloved, if our heart condemneth not, then have we confidence toward God.
Oh, there's a depth, I believe to those verses that I sometimes don't realize. There are times when my heart condemns me. And notice the wording here. This is John's ministry, and his ministry tends to speak more to the heart, and so he does not say.
Beloved, if our conscience condemn us, if I do that which is a deliberate act of disobedience to the Lord, my conscience will condemn me.
And I will not enjoy the Lord's love, but if I go a step further, can my heart condemn me even if I'm not disobeying and no one command? Yes, it can. Because as the depth of a relationship matures and those here, if I can say it, that have been married for any length of time will know what I'm talking about. Or even those that have enjoyed a close friendship with someone for many years, you know very well that after a while you get to know that individual so that you do not need.
A specific command in order to know that you're doing something that they would not like. And I suggest here that the thought perhaps is deeper than mere disobedience to something about which Scripture is very explicit. It's rather has my walk drifted? Has my walk gotten away from the Lord?
Oh, if my heart condemns me, what do I find out? God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things, and I would encourage your heart and mind that if that has happened.
As a dear brother, I think it was Mr. Bellitt made the remark. I enjoyed it so much, He said, if we have gotten away from the Lord, and even if we have seriously failed, let us always remember that in coming back to the Lord we have always to do with love. Love that may act in government, yes. Love that may sometimes act in discipline, yes. But it's always to do with love. But oh, how much better to be in a position where our heart doesn't condemn us. And then what's the result?
Oh, then there's confidence toward God. Confidence toward God.
But then.
We want to talk a little bit about.
Trials and difficulties in our lives.
We said at the beginning of the meeting.
And we'll turn to one more verse before we talk about it. But we said at the beginning of the meeting.
That there are many, and I'm sure there are many here in this room this afternoon.
Were really hurting.
Can be many different kinds of problems, problems in one's personal life. I've talked to a lot of young people and they have unburdened in some cases to the point where they have revealed some of the difficulties and nightmares, at least they seem like nightmares. I look back to some of the things that bothered me as a teenager and I look back from the vantage point of my point in life and I say my, Oh my, whatever did I get all worked up about that for?
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But it was sure was real at the time. It was very real at the time. It was not small stuff.
The world has a saying, don't sweat the small stuff. And it's all small stuff. But it wasn't small stuff at the time, was it? And the world has that saying.
There are hurts out there, assembly problems, and maybe there doesn't seem to be any solution. Difficulties in our work lives where there doesn't seem to be any way out, difficulties in our family life, in our assembly life, health problems, many different things where the Lord, as it were, seems to have allowed something that's almost overwhelming.
We think, and I don't think it hurts to mention a specific name of dear Suzanne Rogers out on the West Coast. There she is in her prime of life, humanly speaking, loving husband, 4 lovely children. And there, unless the Lord works an absolute miracle in the next little while, it looks very certain as if the Lord is going to take her home. And you and I look on and say, why Lord? Why? Why?
Looks like a nightmare of tragedy. And we could multiply that hundreds and perhaps thousands of times if we were to go around the Saints of God. And of course your acquaintance and mine with the Saints of God is very limited. Turn back to John chapter 13.
John's Gospel, chapter 13.
John 13 and verse one. Beautiful verse.
Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world under the Father.
Having loved his own, which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.
Oh how lovely, He loved them unto the end.
Now you can take that expression under the end in more than one way. Some have taken it that it meant that the Lord Jesus was willing to go right to the very end of the pathway to the cross in order to exhibit His love for his own. And I enjoy that thought. But I believe there is also the thought here, and it is in keeping with what takes place as the chapter unfolds, that the Lord Jesus.
Not only was going to go to Calvary's cross in order forever to settle the question of sin, but.
He, as we have often heard the expression, was going to exhibit that love all the way home. He is going to take you and me all the way home.
When these difficulties occur in our lives, and sometimes they seem so overwhelming and sometimes they're things.
That seem very difficult. Let me touch on a sensitive issue. Maybe there are those sitting here, maybe young men, maybe young women even more so, who say I'd love to have my own home.
I'd love to have my own family.
And the time goes on and it doesn't happen.
I'd never been in that situation, but I've talked to those that are very difficult and I mentioned that only as one heartache that can be there on a continual basis, many, many things like that.
I say to your heart and mind, if you're not careful, if I'm not careful, the devil will whisper in our ear.
Does the Lord really love you? And he allows that. Could the Lord really be a loving God? You say that he's your Savior, and you say that he died for you on Calvary's cross, and you say that he has a home in heaven for you. But if he really loved you, would he put you through all this kind of trouble and difficulty when at the moment there seems just no way out with Is that really a loving God?
And I say to my own heart, if we are not careful, He can get a toehold in our hearts. And you see the result of that in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 and the parable of the pounds in Luke 19. And you will remember that in each case the man with one talent or the man with 1 LB did not use what he was given for the Lord.
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In the one case he buried it in the earth, and the other case he wrapped it up in a napkin.
And when he was called to account as to why he had done that, the response was almost the same in each case, he said, as it were, to the Lord and Master. Excuse me?
He said, I knew that you were an austere man, reaping where thou hadst not stolen, and gathering where thou hadst not strode. And therefore I went and hid my talent in the earth and wrapped it up in a napkin.
Oh, he had wrong thoughts of the Master, And if we are not careful, even as believers, we can have wrong thoughts of God, and we can fall back into the natural man's view of God that says.
God is asking of Maine more than I can give. God is a demanding God who wants something from me and all I'm getting from him is trouble and difficulty. And then he's saying give me this, give me that, and how can I do it in all the pickle I'm in?
I can still remember.
Boy.
50 years ago now, being in a brother's home as a teenager, I was in.
My first year of college at the time.
And I don't take any credit for it, but I'm very thankful to the Lord that the Lord gave me the grace to go to the assembly meetings during the week rather than hit the books. And I remember being in this brother's home, a brother whom I knew very well and whom I esteemed and who was old enough to be my father.
And it came time to go to meeting and I said, well, I'm going to meeting. I said how about coming, Let's go.
And I'll never forget his response. He had a difficult time at his work. It wasn't easy. His boss was giving him a rough time, he had stomach ulcers and other problems, and things weren't going that well for him at work.
And his reaction was this Oh, Bill, he said. I'm having a hard enough time earning a living, let alone go to any reading meeting.
Ouch.
As if the Lord was giving him such a rough time at his work that he couldn't find time to go collectively and have the word of God open. Oh, may the Lord preserve us from that. And I say to my own heart, as I say to you, whatever there may be allowed in your life, whatever the Lord may have put into my life, and even if I have brought it on myself by my own unfaithfulness, willfulness, carelessness, let me justify God first and foremost.
Job had to learn that lesson, and it was a hard one for Job to learn because he was a Goodman.
But he was taking all the credit for it, and the Lord had to put him through the most difficult circumstances to bring him down, down, down.
It makes some of us hang our heads.
Because some of us know what that feels like, and maybe we still do. But justify God in everything. That's the pathway to blessing. And first of all, before we talk about you and about me, it honors God. Oh, it honors God when you and I accept everything from Him. And if the world were to look on and see you and me as believers, having everything nice and rosy and smooth, that's what Joe thought was going to happen.
He had it all figured out. Maybe you and I have too. He was a wealthy man. His life was going along smoothly. He had a nice family. Everything was prosperous. People looked up to him. Was he? Was he leading a good life? Indeed he was. Even Satan couldn't pick holes in his character, and Job confesses when he speaks to his three friends later on. He'd said in his heart, I shall die in my nest. Nest.
Yeah, there's a nest all figured out.
And he was all prepared to go through life and die in his nest.
And then the Lord, as it were, blew that nest all the pieces in. Poor Job finds himself under the very worst of circumstances.
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But you know, Job is going to thank the Lord in a coming day for that experience. Oh, how beautiful.
I enjoyed what our brother brought out about Job's daughters this morning because there he gave Job that which I do believe spoke of the finished work of Christ. And Job had more than he had before. But he only got one family again. Why? Well, because the animals, his possessions down here were made for time.
But his children were made for eternity. He's going to have not just.
Three daughters in eternity. He'll have six. He'll have a full family up there. All of the ones that were carried away in the original catastrophe. Wonderful. And I say to your heart and mind, and we won't belabor the point because Don Rule covered it pretty well yesterday afternoon. I just want to make it.
Remember that behind every circumstance is a love that you and I can measure only by what took place at Calvary's cross. And if you and I ever have any doubt about what the Lord's love is or the truth of all that He did for us. If there ever is a dart of Satan that gets into my heart, if there ever is a jab there that makes me think, oh, is the Lord really loving me as much as.
He says he does.
Could I make a suggestion? Go back and read Matthew 27 again. Go back and read Luke 22 and 23. Go back and read Mark 14 and 15, and so on. Go back and read what transpired there, and then you will have no doubt about the love of that Blessed One as we get in Romans 8. He that spared not His own son, but delivered Him up first all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us?
All six.
Couple more things we want to talk about respecting the love of God turn over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5.
There are so many verses to which we could refer, and we can only mention a few of them this afternoon, But in 2nd Corinthians 5.
We have something very, very beautiful here.
These verses are familiar to all of us.
2nd Corinthians 5 and verse 14.
For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves.
But unto him which died for them, and rose again.
What does it mean to constrain someone?
It doesn't mean to force anything, does it?
The word doesn't go that far.
It's rather the urging that is based on love. When the two on the way to Emmaus reached Emmaus and the Lord Jesus, although they did not yet know who he was, made as though he would have gone further. What did they do? It says they constrained him, saying abide with us. Why did they say that? Oh, I believe there were two reasons on the.
Surface, I believe there was the reason that the hospitality in their heart said we will not allow a man simply to go on as darkness is approaching and he has nowhere to go for the night.
But I suggest that there was a more personal reason in their hearts. They wanted more of what they had appreciated all along, that 7 1/2 miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They wanted more.
And they said, oh, let's, let's, let's urge him, let's see if we can get him to come in and we'll hear more of what he has been bringing before.
Turn the tables on that.
The Lord Jesus constrains you and me. He doesn't force the issue because it's love that does it. And when love constrains, it doesn't grab hold of us and force us into anything. It rather takes hold of us and says as it were, I want you. I want you very much.
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The love of Christ constraineth us. It does do that. It doesn't say it should constrain us, or it ought to. It does do that.
Do I feel the tug, the pull of that constraining love?
We talked about our late brother Eric Smith yesterday. Allow me to refer to another incident and this again is going back, I suppose, a good 45 years or so.
When he held a spellbound in an open meeting in Toronto ON speaking on this very verse.
And talking about how.
That constraining love of God had gotten hold of him when he was young, given him the grace to go.
To that land of Bolivia and to spend his time there. Now we say again, it's not for everyone to go to foreign lands. That's not the thought. The thought is simply that if your heart and mind are constrained, there will be a response.
You will remember the account of the woman that anointed the Lord Jesus in Bethany just before He went to the cross.
It was probably Mary of Bethany, but we won't argue that point. It's not pertinent for what we're going to say, but she anointed the Lord Jesus there. And there were those that found fault with what she did, complaining that the ointment was being wasted and that here it was worth so much that it could have been sold and given and the money given to the poor. And you will remember that the Lord Jesus defended her and said let her alone.
The poor always ye have with you, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good, but me ye have not always. And then the Lord said something that I used to puzzle over. He said, For wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this that this woman has done be told for a memorial of her. Why would he say that it wasn't particularly that her act was going to be used as.
A special attraction to unbelievers, to Christ, although it could be, but I believe it was like this the Lord.
Values so much.
The response in your heart and mind.
It's true that the Word of God never occupies you and me with our love to Christ.
It rather brings before us His love to us.
I've told the story before, but it bears repeating. That's how the hymn came to be written. I am so glad that our Father in heaven tells of His love in the book. He hath given wonderful things in the Bible. I see this is the dearest that Jesus loves me. Philip Bliss, who wrote that hymn, was editing a hymn book and he wanted to put in that hymn.
How I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus because he first loved me. Beautiful hymn. And we wouldn't take anything away from it. Well, in those days they had to set type in a very manual way. And he had a space reserved in the hymn book for that hymn. And when he having counted on the permission of the author who was still living at the time to put that him in when he approached the author just kind of as a courtesy to say I'm intending to put your him in my hymn book. Is that OK?
The author flatly refused and said no way, I'm putting out a hymn book two and I don't want to hurt the sales of my hymn book. So you can't use my hymn in your hymn book.
Oh, Philip Bliss was devastated, not only because he couldn't use the hymn, but because the hymns and the things of the Lord were being used in a mercenary way. Anyway, we leave that for the moment. But then Philip Bliss went home and said, what am I going to do now? I can't rearrange the whole hymn book and all the numbers. That's a huge problem. I've got to have a hymn to go in that place.
And as he was lying in bed that night, the Lord seemed to bring before him.
It's not your love to me that is so important. It's my love to you. And so the words of that hymn came to him. I am so glad that our Father in heaven and in the chorus, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me and so on. And we don't want to take away from that. But at the same time, the Word of God does speak about our response to his love. And the Lord values that so much that, as Don said yesterday, it's going to last for all eternity.
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And what a wonderful thing it is when there are hearts that respond to the Lord's love.
Are we in danger of being sidetracked here in these favored lands in North America? I fear we are, and I speak to my own heart, we are in danger of being sidetracked not only from the enjoyment of that love, but of what follows it, the enjoyment that he has.
Of our love to Him, and how much the Lord appreciates it when there is a response in our hearts to His love.
Going back a little bit.
If there's any entertaining in your heart and mind of that bitterness and resentment that so easily wells up, that my circumstances are unfair. Have we ever thought like that? Why did this happen to me? What have I done to deserve this? I don't need this. Why is somebody else's life seemingly so smooth, so nice, so seemingly carefree?
While I am seeming to go through a nightmare of difficulties and problems.
The Lord doesn't tell me or anyone else necessarily why He allows something in your life.
But in going to the Lord, first of all, I can justify God. I can enjoy the sense of His love and what I have said before, and I say it more often to my own heart than to you. But I'll say it again. The Lord will give me enough of His love overflowing in my heart, a sense of His grace that I will not only be able to be an overcomer in the problems and difficulties that I may be experiencing.
But there'll be enough leftover to give something to someone else. And you know, that is something the world doesn't understand. Here is someone going through a nightmare of difficulties and yet he or she still has something to give. You know, when we're in trouble ourselves, naturally we want to receive. And I have seen and heard people who got very angry when nothing happened when they were in trouble. Why doesn't somebody notice? Why doesn't somebody come and help? What is the matter with people?
Why don't they send help?
But when you see somebody going through the most awful difficulties in their lives.
I never knew the dear brother, but I talked to those that did.
And I don't suppose anybody here would remember him either because he has been gone well over 60 years.
Brother Frank Gill.
He lived out on the West Coast, I believe, and he suffered, I understand, from very serious rheumatoid arthritis, which got to the point that he was largely bedridden.
But those that were able to go and visit him, and I remember I talked to my late father-in-law, Albert Hayhoe, who knew him well.
He told of a visit to Brother Frank Gill and there he was with his hands and Anyone that understands rheumatoid arthritis will know the.
Bad deviation and they didn't have a lot of the medication, the anti inflammatories and things that they have today. They didn't have that back 50-60 years ago. So he didn't have a lot of pain relievers. And there he was, they said, trying to turn over the pages of his Bible because he couldn't even grasp them with thumb and forefinger and so on.
And when they sat down there to have a visit, oh, he just overflowed for a full 15 minutes in the enjoyment of the things of Christ, with his face just radiant.
Finally, he said, Oh, brother, brethren, I apologize. I apologize. Here, here. You've come to visit me. You've come all this way to visit me, and here I am holding the floor and doing all the talking.
They said to him, brother, that's all right, you keep right on talking. Who got encouraged the most on that visit? All those that came away said we got encouraged. Now, that is not to say that visiting those in that situation encourages them.
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May we do more of it? But oh, what an example of one who was in the most serious of difficulties, and yet who accepted it all from the Lord.
I hope this isn't saying anything out of line. I think we can get away with it at this point in the game.
His son Walter Gill, whom I'm sure.
Sure, many here in the room remember.
Lived most of his life in Oakland, CA and I had the privilege of knowing Walter reasonably well. Stayed in his home many times.
And he told me once, he said, you know, that rheumatoid arthritis was very hard on my father in more than one way. Not only were there the physical sufferings, but he said my father had a deep seated desire to go out and to serve the Lord and to go in and out among the Lord's people and be a help to his brethren.
And he said the Lord allowed him to get rheumatoid arthritis so that that.
What shall we call it? Deep seated desire never came to fruition. And he said, my dear father, as far as I know, never showed one iota of bitterness or resentment over that. I've never forgotten that. I hope it's all right to tell that story. I I haven't got any family to ask if it's all right. I can't. I don't think Brother Walter would mind my repeating that. He told me that personally.
I say that to show that sometimes the Lord allows you and me to have the dreams. If I could say it even good, If I could say it dreams good thoughts to be unfulfilled.
But he says I have something eternal in mind.
Our time is gone. One more verse.
Well, two more.
Two more John's Gospel, chapter 14.
No, I'm sorry, that verse would do but.
There's a better one in chapter 17, and that's already been referred to in the readings, but we'll read it again. John 17 and verse 24.
Here's the Lord Jesus, praying to the Father, pleading on our behalf with the Father.
Beyond our understanding. And in verse 24 he says, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my.