Address—Robert Boulard
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I'd like to read a few portions of Scripture this afternoon, and before I get to what's really on my heart, I'd like to just read a few verses in Proverbs chapter 3.
We, you know, the word of God has been brought before us as that which is absolutely necessary for us in our Christian life. Absolutely necessary. It's not an option. You know, I spoke last night to my daughter.
One of my daughter's I called home as my habit is to do, and I called and I talked with her and she said.
You know, she said she wanted to know what the conference was about. And I told her a little bit about our Bible readings and some of that which was taken up in the open meeting. And she said, oh, that's so nice, you know. But Dad, she said, get it out of your head. But if you think that all the young people are reading their Bibles, she said, Dad, probably 25% of them maybe. And I said, well, you know, if I was at a conference and I heard those things ministered, I might be more tempted to go to my hotel room and perhaps read the word.
And she said, no, Dad, they're just trying to have a good time. I hope you know that there's a desire of heart, each one of us, to take up the precious word of God because it is that which is given to us from the heart of God to be able to walk through this scene of defilement and sin, wickedness, that we might not fall into the ditch of sin, and that we might have lives that are fruitful for Christ in this world. Oh, what a blessing our God has given us to give us the Word of God. Well, let's read in chapter 3 of Proverbs, make a few comments, and then I'll turn to some of those passages that I have on my heart.
00:05:24
My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments for length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck. Write them upon the table of thine heart. So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him.
And he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord, and depart from evil.
It shall be health to thy naval and marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thy increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Well, you notice that this section of the book of Proverbs, chapter 3 here begins with this little statement, my son. I like that statement, my son. And God sees you, dear young person, this morning, this afternoon.
Not only is a safe Sinner, I hope that there's everyone of us here are saved sinners by the grace and kindness of God, but he sees you as you sit in your seat as a son of God, an heir of God, join heir with Christ, a daughter. He sees you in that, the dignity of that position and a blessing that would bring you from that fallen creation of Adam, the first Adam and bring you to the very family of God. And then you know he's gone to a great expense, a great work as it were.
To give you the all of the instruction for life to walk through this scene and you know, I'll tell you a little story of a man got saved in Ohio. His names Dan Strong, some of you have met him. He was raised in the Roman Catholic system and.
We spoke of the Lord with them for nine years before he got saved, you know, but he came, came to visit me once at the office and he said, Robert, he said my daughter got saved and he had tears in his eyes. He wept. He said, what does she mean she got saved? And she sent me a letter and he showed me the letter. It was a nice letter to her dad. She said I got saved. I accepted Christ as my Savior and she mailed her dad a Bible.
And so he began to read that Bible and, umm, one day he sat in his car after we'd been speaking a little while and he got saved. He took Christ as his Savior. And then, you know, we met for breakfast one day and he, he said, you know, I, we read the word of God together and he said, your Bible isn't like mine.
He said I want one like yours. He said, you know, I was reading this morning before we came together here and he said, I looked on the spine of that Bible and it says paraphrase edition. And he said, oh Dan, you can't have that. You got to have the real thing. So he said, won't you just get me one of your Bibles? 1 Bible just like yours?
Oh, I want to just encourage you, dear young people, read the word of God and read the real thing. Read the, if you like the King James Version, Mr. Darby's version translation is a great translation. It's accurate. But love the word of God. And so he says here, my son, forget not my teaching or my law, but my teaching, but let thine heart keep my commandments. And so the heart needs to be engaged with Christ. We need to have affection for the very instruction that God has given us in the Word.
And you don't want to say this, dear young people, particularly God wants to manage your life.
Let me say that again, God wants to manage your life.
I spent a lot of time in business, the greater part of my business career, managing the affairs of other people, managing the affairs of the company, and guiding and directing the course that the company might take and setting the policy of that company. And so, you know, I would guide the affairs of individuals within the company and God in the family, in his family. Oh, he loves each one. His Son he sent into this world to die on the cross, to bear the judgment for your sins.
That you might have a life that was worth living, that you might know, it says. And I think it's First Timothy Chapter 6.
00:10:06
Mr. Darbys translation he says this Lay hold on what is really life, lay hold on what is really life. And so he's given us the instruction of the word of God, that it might give length of days, and long life and peace shall they add to thee. And so it says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall read it. Mr. Darby's translation make plain knight paths.
And so the Lord doesn't want us to lean upon our own intelligence. And I say that he's gone to a great expense. He went to a great work to provide the word of God. Many men labored, and God by his Spirit inspired this precious word. That you might have instruction from a loving God, that you might not fall into the ditch of sin, that you might not experience the pain and the heartache and the sorrow of what this world goes on with in ignorance of the righteousness and holiness of God.
That you might have a path that would be acceptable to Him and that would you would experience what it is to walk with God in this world. And so he's given us this word and he says, be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil. Well, let's just turn to the first portion in Genesis that I'd like to look at.
Four things that I want to bring out.
In connection with Christian life, some of you have heard me speak of this before in chapter 5 of Genesis.
And verse 21 And Enoch lives 65 and five years, and begot Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years, and begat sons and daughters.
And all the days of Enoch were 360 and five years. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Well, you know, the Spirit of God records this man his he's the 7th from Adam. And you find in the book of Jude, that little epistle that he was a preacher of righteousness and he had a walk with God. And you know, dear young person, perhaps you're saved and you know, in the Lord Jesus, perhaps his Savior.
For a little while, maybe you heard the gospel last night, the gospel of the grace and kindness of God. And maybe you did as our brother earnestly besought, maybe you took Christ to save your last night. You know, as I sat in that restaurant one time with Dan Strong and he just got saved, he said, now, Robert, what do I do? Where do I go from here? I'm 52 years old, I just got saved, what do I do now? And I said, you know, I picked up this book and I said, God has given you Dan.
An instruction book for life and if you read this book, God is going to guide you in what you do and how you go about.
Your life from now on until he comes for us to take us home to be with himself. God is get made every provision that you could be instructed. And so it says here that Enoch walked with God. Not nice. 4 words. God records them. Enoch walk with God. I want to ask you a question dear young people. Could God look down upon you this afternoon, this little meeting, and say so and so?
Walked with me.
Today own it nice to be able to walk with the Lord. Is there someone else that you would rather walk with? Oh, I trust that there isn't. You know, it says in Revelation chapter three, I think it's chapter 3. Yes, chapter 3 and verse 4. This is what the Lord says. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me.
In white, for they are worthy. Oh, you know her dear brother. Read those verses in the 102nd Psalm this morning.
About the Lord Jesus and how He could prophetically say I am alone as a Sparrow upon the housetop. Oh, He was so alone. There was no man that was ever so alone as the Lord Jesus was upon the cross of Calvary and in those dark hours bearing the judgment for my sins and for yours, if you know Him as Savior and have received Him. But what is it that He wants more than anything in this world from you? And that is your companionship. He wants you to walk with Him. He wants your heart's affections.
00:15:00
And so it says in Proverbs 2326, it says, my son, give me thine heart. Give me thine heart. That's what he wants. That's what he desires. Well, you know, there's these four things that I'd like to talk about. They're cornerstones. I like to think of them as cornerstones in the Christian life.
And when you go to build a house, you have to lay generally 4 cornerstones. You take a bulldozer and you clear the lot and you take all the rock and all the brush, all the saplings, and you just bulldoze everything and you clear a place where you're going to build a house.
And, you know, I want to just give that as a little illustration sometimes, you know, we have to clear the brush. We have to clear all those things that are in our lives, all the clutter, so that we might be able to lay some cornerstones in our Christian life. And, you know, young people, I was a young person just like you at one time in my life.
And I couldn't lay these cornerstones in life unless there was a conscious decision to lay those cornerstones. That lot needed to be cleared in my life. Some of you have heard me tell the story. I tell it again.
Connection with my own childhood. When I was 10 years old, we moved to Saint Arise in Quebec and my uncle Bert who lived in the house and he left there and then we moved into the same house that he lived in and he left behind a little television, black and white television. That was 1966. We moved into that house and I began to watch that television, watch the hockey games on television, watch, watch the sports.
And I became really perhaps addicted to that. And in my father's home, before the television arrived, there was.
Bible readings in the evenings. There were times when the some of the Saints came into the house and we could visit.
But after that television came into the house, there was number more room for evening Bible readings and going to the assembly meetings was optional. We could go if we liked to. We could stay if we liked. And 10 years that went on in my my life. And you know, in 1976, I was 19 years old. And by the grace of God, I took a look at where life was going and I thought, this isn't going to end very well.
This is going to be fruitful for God. This isn't going to be a happy life. And by the grace of God, the television was in the basement and I took my Bible and I left that basement. I went and lay down on the sofa and I started to read my Bible and I read it and I read it. And I'm ashamed to say this to you, and I'm going to say it, but I never read my Bible through from the front cover to the back until I was 19 years old. I'm ashamed of it.
I spent more time watching hockey games and all those things that just.
Wasted my time. But dear young people, you know, there was a decision that I had to make in life. I was either going to take the bulldozer and take and take all that brush out all the rock and everything that was hindering me in laying the four cornerstones to a Christian life. And I was going to either have to take the bulldozer and and get rid of it.
And start to live for Christ where it was going to be a wasted life, an unfruitful life for God.
And so by the grace of God, I began to read, and I read it through another time. And you know, it's a wonderful thing. Dear young people, I just encourage you to start to read the Word of God. Just taste it. And a funny thing, a very important thing will happen if you do that. You'll acquire a taste and a thirst for the Word of God that you never had before. Because it's the living Word of God and it gives life and it gives us instruction in the path of faith. That is fail proof, you know the wisdom of this world.
Fails the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the sight of a holy God and you're never going to make progress in your soul except that you take up the word of God and begin to read it. Well, the point is in as I take up this just this little verse of Scripture Enoch walk with God.
After he got Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters, and so here God records that he walked with him 300 years.
There are three sisters here that I know of. There may be some others that are 95 years old, three sisters that are 95 years old. I talked to each one of them today.
One of them got saved when she was 12 years old.
Been walking with the Lord for a while. One got saved and has been saved for 67 years.
00:20:05
Not nice.
And as I speak, I see the smiles upon the faces of those dear sisters. Are they sad that they walk with the Lord that long? Oh, they perhaps wish that they had been saved earlier and walked with Christ earlier. What's a wonderful thing to walk with the Lord? And I say in Revelation, it says that they shall walk with me. And so in the glorious scene above, there's going to be that communion with the Lord Jesus.
That will follow what was even developed in this scene. Well, let's turn to the next one in First Corinthians.
Chapter 11 I'd like to look at.
1St Corinthians 11 and let's just read from verse 23.
For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when He had given thanks, he break it and said, Take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when he had stopped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye is OFT as you drink it in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup.
You do show the Lord's death till he come. Well, perhaps.
You can, by the grace of God, make that decision this afternoon. Dear young person, you're not too young to make the decision. If you know the Lord Jesus as Savior, you're not too young to make the decision to walk with God. Will you make the decision now in your seat to walk with God? It'll be a wonderful beginning. That's only one cornerstone, though. You know, you take that cornerstone when you make a new building. You pour the footing, and then you set the level of the first concrete block, and then you set the level of another, another one.
Then you set the level of the third cornerstone, and then you set the level of the 4th cornerstone, and you take all of your measurements and you set a Plumb line at those corners, and you begin to lay block one day at a time, and soon a house rises heavenward in your life.
Oh, the desire of your parents, your grandparents, and those of your brethren is that you would build every day one more block on that foundation, one more block up rising heavenward, and then the Lord would come to receive us unto himself, and you'd still, perhaps be building.
Well, it says here this other little corner block this do in remembrance of Maine.
Let's do in remembrance of Maine. All the hearts. Affections flow forth from our hearts as we remember the Lord Jesus in his death. And as I think of how the Lord Jesus on that day that he was betrayed, took with his own hands and broke the loaf and took him past that with his own hand not pierced yet took it and passed it to his disciples and requested that they would eat in his presence.
That they would there and that at that time, remember.
What was going to take place, as it were? But then He took the cup, and with His own hand passed it to them, and in His presence they drank that cup, and they in a future day they were going to repeat that solemn feast, as it were, that remembrance. And oh, he wanted them to come into His presence to remember Him.
And not to forget, if there's one thing that this world wants you to forget, it's that the death of the Lord Jesus took place on the cross of Calvary and that you are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, and that you have the privilege of walking through this world as a son of God, an heir of God, join heir with Christ. The world wants you to forget that. And the world wants to forget that Christ was crucified. They don't mind remembering that he was born they'll.
Like to remember that, but all the Lord Jesus knew that we would need to have our hearts affections taken up with him, and we need to weakly remember him, remember the circumstances of his death. Remember that we live in a world that took that blessed man and marched him and paraded him through the city of Jerusalem. And seven times it speaks in John's Gospel of how they led him from one place to another in shame and contempt.
00:25:05
And then outside that city wall, they crucified him. They said we will not have this man to reign over us. And so that blessed man who loved us and gave himself for us, wanted us to remember what it cost him to redeem us unto himself, to set us free to buy us back and set us free to please him, to live for him. I want to ask you, dear young person, have you ever remembered the Lord Jesus in his death? Oh, it's a wonderful privilege, you know, when I was.
A young man.
I realized that the Lord Jesus was coming soon. And one of the things that really affected me was that I might stand before the Lord Jesus at the judgment seat of Christ and that I'm I hadn't remembered the Lord Jesus and death. And if he was to come, I would have to stand there and he would say you didn't Remember Me.
Why didn't you Remember Me? And I would have to say I wouldn't be able to give an answer because I was old enough and my heart was distracted. If I wanted to be honest, I would have had to say my heart was distracted, was taken up with something else, and I just didn't have the heart to set it aside. And to remember the Lord Jesus in death, Well, isn't it wonderful? You know, we can have that privilege of remembering the Lord Jesus in his death. That affection for Christ is warmed week by week.
And I say this, that it's a cornerstone in the Christian life. God not only wanted you to be saved, he wanted you to be there at his table remembering him when he came for his own. You know, it's wonderful. I sometimes think of it and enjoy it in my own soul. And Luke's Gospel, chapter 10, it says there, I'm just going to read it, it says.
Of the Good Samaritan in verse 33.
A certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion on him, and went should say up to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him, it should say, to the inn, and took care of him. And on the moral, when he departed, he took out two pants and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him. And whatsoever thou spend us more, when I come again I will repay thee.
You know, there was a man that was seen in the Luke's gospel traveling up to Jerusalem.
He was going up there and he was going to lay down his life for you and for me, and while he was going up. This picture is given of the man that fell among thieves, her among robbers.
But I want to just point out that this is what the man, what the Samaritan did, this picture of the Lord Jesus himself, He went up to him and bound up his wounds.
Pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beast.
He set him on his own beast. I want to ask you, do you know what carried the Lord Jesus through this world? Do you know what he rode as it were? Do you know what carried the Lord Jesus, the Son of God?
It was obedience to the word of God. It was submission to the will of God.
It was love to his father.
And it was dependence upon his Father, those four things, obedience to the word of God.
Submission to the will of God.
Dependence upon his Father and love to his Father. Those are the four things that carry the Lord Jesus through this scene. And you know that's what will carry us into the assembly, those four things, obedience to the word of God.
Dependence upon him.
Submission to His will and love for Him will carry us into the assembly.
And will be cared for. You know, it says here that the Lord Jesus took care of him.
It was number small thing for the Spirit of God to work a mighty work of God in this area in Pella many years ago. And there was a table spread here where the people of God might be provided for in a temporary dwelling place. That's what it speaks of in the inn here. He brought him to the inn and He was cared for. Your soul is cared for in the assembly, and if you come into the presence of the Lord Jesus on a habitual basis and you remember Him in the circumstances of His death, you're going to be cared for in His presence.
Well, let's look at the third one, the third cornerstone in Genesis.
Again, I think it's chapter 3.
00:30:02
Chapter 2.
Genesis chapter 2.
And verse 18.
But of the verse 18, as the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone.
I will make and help meet for him. Well, you know, young people, this was really spoken of the Lord Jesus. It spoke of how God had seen ahead, as it were, and he'd seen that his Son was going to have a companion eternally in this scene.
It was going to be a good thing for the Lord Jesus to have His bride there in the glory. But you know, it says here it is not good that the man should be alone. And so God was looking upon man that He had created and said this. It is not good that the man should be alone. I want to ask you, dear young people, do you believe God when He says this? There's a tendency today to take up with careers and to put off.
Marriage and so on and to make.
Make a career of it and get get ahead in life and and the woman working outside the home and so on and this word, this clear, clear statement of God himself is not often.
Often remembered, God said it is not good that the man should be alone.
Everyone of us, I believe that are married could say it is not good that the man should be alone. We understand what God meant when he said this. And you know it takes grace to and help from God himself to be able to lay this cornerstone. I don't say that it takes it takes grace to lay all of them. That first cornerstone that might walk with God, the second one that we might remember him in his death.
At his table and then this one, you know it's going to take the wisdom of God.
Going to take purpose of heart.
I tell you personal, my personal experience and perhaps everyone else here that's married could tell a similar experience that's married in the Lord.
But when I was a young man and I had started to read my Bible, I began to understand that it was going to be a critical thing to be married to the right woman. I began to understand, as I read the book of Proverbs, that there were so many pitfalls and that the enemy was so clever in deceiving the heart and in turning what could have been a useful life into a shipwreck, that I felt it so necessary to get down upon my knees and weep before the Lord and cry for wisdom.
And ask them, beseech the Lord to direct my paths and uphold the Lord that I didn't have the wisdom to be able to select a Good Wife, that one that would be suitable as a help meet in this world. And I cried to the Lord for help. You know, I was specific in many of the things that I prayed for. And I'll tell you what I prayed for. I prayed for a woman that would fear the Lord, that was afraid to displease the Lord.
I prayed for a woman that would be given to hospitality. She would desire to have the Saints in the home.
And the home would be open to having God's people come in and to have meals together and so on. I prayed for a woman that would be a companion that would desire to walk in the truth of God all of her life.
All of her life, not just at the beginning, not just a good start, but all through life that she would be a companion that would love the truth and the love to be gathered to the Lords name and want to go on until the end.
I want to ask you, dear young man, this afternoon, have you been praying for a Good Wife if you know the Lord Jesus as Savior? Young people, there is nothing in all of the decisions of life, perhaps naturally speaking, that will most affect the turn out of your life in this scene as the girl that you marry.
But God says it is not good that the man should be alone. He makes full provision and gives instruction in connection with it. And I will just turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 and read a verse of scripture there, a couple of verses, and comment a little.
00:35:07
Let's read verse 14, Second Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 14.
Be not, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God.
And he and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing.
And I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, sayeth the Lord Almighty.
These are plain words, aren't they?
We don't like to hear them sometimes and as young people you might not want to read these things.
But you know, I'll repeat something Brother Gordon Hale used to say if there's a verse of Scripture or passage of Scripture that you don't like.
And that you don't want to read because it bothers your conscience, he said. You get down on your knees and you begin to read that portion of Scripture in the presence of God, and you submit to it. You learn it, you submit to it. Don't set it aside. Every word of God is pure and it's necessary. But it says here, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
God is not going to make an exception for you.
God is not going to make an exception for you, dear friend.
When I was going to college.
Had a classmate.
I spoke to many of my classmates about the Lord. Thankfully, one of these men was brought up in a Christian home, but he wasn't a believer. His name was Dave Rialli.
And one day we spoke of the Lord's things and he felt the conviction of his loss and ruined condition. And it was later at night and we got down on our knees in that classroom and I prayed with him. He said he wanted to be saved. I prayed with him. And then I said, David, now you're going to have to pray and you're going to need to ask the Lord to cleanse you and to make you fit for his holy presence. And you know, we kneel down there for five or 10 minutes and he said, Robert, I just can't.
I can't do it.
I can't do it.
I said, David, what's the problem?
He said I've got a girlfriend.
And I don't know that she would appreciate that I just got saved. And so we walked out of that classroom and he wasn't saved. But you know the grace and kindness of our God.
That man got saved.
A few days later, God has a way of bending the knee and making us bend the knee.
And in grace and kindness, that man called me and he said, Robert, I got saved. I've accepted the Lord Jesus as my Savior.
Then he said something else. He said I called my girlfriend and I said to her, you know, Tina, I just got saved and I don't think it's right for me to continue to go out with you because I just got saved.
And that girl swore at him and did all kinds of things that he told me, some of what she did and said on the phone, and she slammed the phone down and he wept.
But you don't want to tell you this. He was faithful to the word of God. He said he knew that it says be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, and we had spoken about that.
I want to tell you that his girlfriend got saved, she said. If that means so much to this man that he wouldn't go out with me, he wouldn't even keep company with me if I'm not saved, if I don't know the Lord Jesus as Savior, he must have something that I need.
And she got saved.
And they got married, have a nice little family and their teenagers now, but they live for the Lord. And dear young person, God is not going to make an exception for you.
His word is true, God is no respecter of persons, and if you find yourself in an unequal yoke, if you're keeping company with someone that you ought not to be keeping company with.
00:40:03
It's not going to end up the way you thought it would end up. My own sister-in-law, my wife has a sister, her older sister and she married an unbeliever. They had three children and after the three children were perhaps teenagers, her husband left her or another woman. And she had a sorrowful, she had a sorrowful hard life of it because she wouldn't believe what God said. God said it is not good that the man should be alone, but he also said.
Be naughty, unequally yoked, together with unbelievers, all. Won't we just believe the word of God? I just like to encourage you, dear young person, that if you just pray to the Lord and ask for grace, seek grace from Himself. Tell him that you believe His word, that it is not good, that the man should be alone, and just pray and ask the Lord to provide for you. Then he will provide, and He will provide above what you could even ask or think, and you'll have a companion for life.
That loves the Lord and you can do perhaps what I do. I call on the cell phone sometimes and I'm traveling.
And I tell my wife a little bit of what I've been enjoying of the Lord's things, you know, and she said, well, have you thought of this and, or have you read the little booklet on such and such? Oh, I just enjoyed it. And she gives me another little treasure to enjoy. And we enjoy the things of Christ together. Oh, what a privilege it is. You talk to anyone here that's married and that has a happy marriage with a Christian girl and you'll know that they fear the things of God together. And it's a real joy of heart. I just want to encourage you to lay that cornerstone, that foundation in life.
And to seek the grace and help and the wisdom of God to lay it and don't reach out and take something that God didn't give you. You can't get away with stealing from God. Oh, he won't allow a blessing. You won't get something good. And I say he won't bless it. Well, the last cornerstone we want to look at is in First Thessalonians.
I think it's chapter 4.
First Thessalonians, chapter 4.
And verse 11.
And that you study to be quiet and to do your own business.
And to work with your own hands as we commanded you, that you may be walk honestly toward them that are without that you may have lack of nothing.
Well, there's another verse of Scripture. It's in Luke's gospel says occupy till I come, occupy till I come. And here he says to work with your own hands as we commanded you. And I say this, there's going to be a cornerstone laid in your life as to what type of work you take up. And oftentimes your parents will be able to help you and guide you as to that which you are particularly gifted in. And you can talk to them about it and they'll give you wise counsel.
And they'll they'll do they want your life to turn out well, but you know, the Lord Jesus who loves you knows what your abilities are. And it says in the in Romans, it says no man liveth unto himself. No man dies unto himself says this too. It says that.
The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. And so God has given you a natural gift, perhaps to be able to make a living in this world for His glory, for His honor, and for the blessing of yourself and for others. And so he says this, He gives this instruction. Do your own business to work with your own hands as we commanded you, that you may walk honestly toward them that are without, that you may have lack of nothing. Well, you know.
God wants to manage that part of your life too. He does. He's wise. He's perfectly wise and he knows the future. I'll give you a little example. In my own life, when I was a young man, it was, I was just afraid, you know, going to college and taking up a line of things I had seen in Toronto, where I, I was living at the time in my father's house. I'd seen many of the young people go off to university.
And very shortly afterwards they had very little heart for Christ.
You didn't see them at meetings too much anymore.
School took all their time and then they developed associations and friends in the school system and then the heart was gone, as it were, the heart for Christ. And you saw them maybe on the Lords day, but you know it says in Acts chapter 2 and I think of it often even now in verse 42.
00:45:08
Is so that they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers and so learn early in life that those meetings are not optional, That we need to come to the prayer meeting. We need to learn how to pray. We need to be independence upon our God. We need the apostles doctrine and fellowship. We need to be taught the word of God and the apostles doctrine and we need the breaking of bread too. We need that remembrance.
But, you know, I saw those young people, they were going off and making, some of them graduated way before I did. And they were driving very nice vehicles and had very expensive homes, and from every outward appearance were profitable, were prosperous, but they had no heart for Christ. And that frightened me, you know, And so I got down on my knees. I knew that I didn't want to just be doing factory work the rest of my life, although that's an honorable profession.
And so I got down on my knees and I cried to the Lord, and I asked the Lord for help to be able to find some line of work, some line of education perhaps, that I would be able to use my hands and use my head at the same time. Then I got off my knees and.
Drove to the nearest Community College, Humber College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, right across Highway 7.
And I got there and the counselor, the guidance counselor there, we, I interviewed with and he said, well, you know, I think there's one program that I could send you to, to apply for. It's an industrial design, furniture and product design, that sort of thing. And so I went, made an interview appointment with that man, Tim Stanley. And I sat down in his office and the very first words out of his mouth were these he said.
In this program will teach you how to use your head, but will also teach you how to use your hands.
You know God answers prayer. Dear young people, you don't know what the future lies, what lies ahead in the future. You don't know whether they'll be making computers in the future. My dad worked, he worked on the railway and they railway went into.
It just went into decline and pretty soon there wasn't any work for him and he had to change employment and go into another line of things. You can't look into the future, but God can look into the future.
And the Lord Jesus loves you, desire your blessing, He desires you that you would make a living for himself, for his honor and glory, and for your blessing too, and for the blessing of those that would be with you. Well, let's just turn to First Timothy chapter 5, and I'll just read.
Now let's read that chapter 2. I'm sorry, First Timothy, chapter 2 and verse 9.
In like manner also.
That women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame, facedness, and sobriety, not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. And then a little further on in chapter 5 and verse 14, I will therefore.
That the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
Well, you know, I've just been Speaking of that cornerstone. A young man, perhaps as a young man, you're saved.
You've laid that first cornerstone. You've decided to walk with God, and you've laid a second cornerstone. You've decided that you're going to remember the Lord Jesus and his death.
At his table you have a heart for Christ, You're going to express that affection for Christ in a practical way, and you're going to announce to this world every week.
That the Lord Jesus died for you and you appreciate it.
Then you've perhaps you're considering that future step in your independence upon the Lord about laying that third cornerstone in life in connection with a wife. And then you have that exercise in connection with work, how to earn a living to the glory of God. You're going to lay that foundation shortly perhaps. But then the young lady, is there going to be a cornerstone laid to the glory of God? Is there going to be a desire young lady?
00:50:04
Life, are you going to have a desire to walk in godly order and not, as it were, to compete with men in the workplace? But will you have a heart to stay in the home and to guide the home, to rule the home as it were, and to in love and affection, as the children come along to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Will you take that responsibility? And while the world despises it?
And frowns upon those that call themselves housewives.
Would you have the courage to lay that cornerstone in the sight of God? And there Mary Bear children guide the house. Give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. Well, I just give these four cornerstones, these four, these little feeble illustrations. I just would encourage you to pray, to get down on your knees and to pray. Ask Lord for wisdom to lay those cornerstones. And I say.
Pick up the Word of God if you're one of those 75% that perhaps is out to have a good time. This my daughter said. And you haven't picked up the word of God even at this conference. Won't you just go to your room tonight and pray and just read something of the Word of God, Meditate upon something of what's being spoken in these meetings and seek by grace to lay some of those cornerstones and to begin to plow.
To take that field and to prepare it and to get rid of the brush and the stone and the rock, and to make it so that it's fit for a building that would be for the glory of God. Won't you do that? Oh, I just want to encourage you young people, if you lay those blocks, if you lay those foundations, you'll never be sorry. You might be.
Sorry if you don't, there might be those occasions in life that take place that will bring sorrow and remembrance if you don't all I just ask you just encourage you to get into the presence of God and each one of those four cornerstones.
Independence, ask the Lord for grace, help to lay them, and if there are those of us that are older that are going on with something that we ought not to be going on with, that we might by grace.
Exercise the nicest self judgment and give it up and the Lord will bring give us a blessing. Well, let's sing another hymn in closing 282. Someone start that for us please.
When is sweet hour of prayer?